Why NASA’s New Climate Satellite is Studying Clouds and Phytoplankton
I f you’re trying to spot a phyto plankton , it pays to get exceedingly close. Among the smallest life forms inhabiting both fresh and marine water, phyto plankton can measure as little as one micrometer—or one millionth of a meter. But little things can have a big impact. Blooms of phyto plankton , which are actually a form of microalgae, can spread hundreds of square miles, sometimes doing disastrous damage to fisheries, beaches, drinking water supplies, and entire aquatic ecosystems. To track so sprawling a scourge, you want to stand at a distance—675 km (420 mi.) worth of distance. That’s the altitude at which NASA’s new PACE satellite—short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem— will orbit, after its planned launch on Feb. 6. Formally authorized in 2015, PACE will continue more than two generations’ worth of work NASA began in 1978 when it launched the Nimbus-7 satellite, the first ever spacecraft built to observe phyto plankton in the ocean and study its broade...