1
00:00:11,052 --> 00:00:14,347
PREFIRE is NASA's Earth science mission
to fly

2
00:00:14,347 --> 00:00:18,226
two CubeSats
or small satellites over the polar region.

3
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:20,145
The science from PREFIRE

4
00:00:20,145 --> 00:00:23,565
is going to help us better understand heat
loss at the poles.

5
00:00:24,190 --> 00:00:26,151
And an Arctic warming.

6
00:00:26,151 --> 00:00:29,154
The Arctic is warming much faster
than the rest of the planet.

7
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,741
And the information we learn from
pre fire will help us better understand

8
00:00:32,741 --> 00:00:37,120
those changes and better predict them
in the future, including how that impacts

9
00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,874
temperature,
sea level rise, ice sheet melt and more.

10
00:00:48,882 --> 00:00:52,302
So the data from PREFIRE is going
to be used to improve climate models.

11
00:00:52,594 --> 00:00:55,597
Climate models are tools
that we use to better understand

12
00:00:55,722 --> 00:01:00,060
how Earth has changed in the past
and to predict changes in the future.

13
00:01:00,268 --> 00:01:03,730
And what PREFIRE is going to do
is give us information about this

14
00:01:03,938 --> 00:01:08,151
heat exchange between the Earth and space,
and we'll be able to use

15
00:01:08,151 --> 00:01:09,736
that to improve those models.

16
00:01:17,744 --> 00:01:20,080
So the sun doesn't heat the Earth evenly.

17
00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,833
There's more heat towards the equatorial
regions than at the polar regions.

18
00:01:23,833 --> 00:01:28,880
And when that heat comes in, weather
and currents move it towards the poles.

19
00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,050
And some of that is
is emitted back into space.

20
00:01:32,300 --> 00:01:35,470
But we've never systematically measured
the loss of heat

21
00:01:35,470 --> 00:01:38,848
from the poles and pre fires
going to give us that information

22
00:01:38,848 --> 00:01:42,310
so that we can better understand
and predict climate change in the future.

23
00:01:51,486 --> 00:01:54,697
So the data from PREFIRE is going
to be used to improve climate models.

24
00:01:54,697 --> 00:01:58,034
Climate models are tools
that we use to both understand changes

25
00:01:58,034 --> 00:02:01,329
in the past
and also predict changes in the future.

26
00:02:01,621 --> 00:02:05,125
And Arctic is warming much faster
than the rest of the planet.

27
00:02:05,125 --> 00:02:08,128
So we really want to understand that
and some of the processes

28
00:02:08,128 --> 00:02:12,132
that are happening in the Arctic
ice melt information, snow

29
00:02:12,132 --> 00:02:16,302
accumulation, changes in clouds
happen on a very short time scale.

30
00:02:16,427 --> 00:02:20,348
And with pre fire we're flying
two CubeSats, an asynchronous orbit.

31
00:02:20,348 --> 00:02:22,725
So we'll get more frequent measurements
from it

32
00:02:22,725 --> 00:02:27,397
and be able to observe some of those fast
time scale processes and use that

33
00:02:27,397 --> 00:02:31,192
to better improve our models and use those
for predictions in the future.

34
00:02:39,742 --> 00:02:42,328
So PREFIRE
is going to join the more than two dozen

35
00:02:42,328 --> 00:02:44,789
satellites and instruments in orbit
that NASA has

36
00:02:44,789 --> 00:02:47,083
that are continually monitoring
our planet.

37
00:02:47,083 --> 00:02:50,753
These satellites and instruments
can tell us things like vegetation

38
00:02:50,753 --> 00:02:54,465
clouds and precipitation, carbon dioxide
and much more.

39
00:02:54,757 --> 00:02:57,510
Since we've been observing the planet
for decades, we can see both

40
00:02:57,510 --> 00:03:01,139
what it looks like today,
but also how it's changed over time.

41
00:03:01,306 --> 00:03:04,934
And we also use that information
to understand how the Earth is connected

42
00:03:04,934 --> 00:03:05,810
as a system.

43
00:03:05,810 --> 00:03:07,979
So we have satellites
that can show us changes

44
00:03:07,979 --> 00:03:10,982
in the mass of ice sheets, others
that measure sea level rise.

45
00:03:10,982 --> 00:03:14,027
And we can use these together
to understand how changes

46
00:03:14,027 --> 00:03:17,030
in the mass of ice sheets affect sea
level rise,

47
00:03:17,197 --> 00:03:20,533
and many more examples
of how the Earth is connected together.