By Bernama,
Tokyo : The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a satellite in 2013 jointly with the European Space Agency, to study the effects of clouds in trying to accurately forecast the progress of global warming, Japanese agency officials said Tuesday.
The launch of EarthCARE is expected to increase the accuracy of global warming predictions, such as average temperature rises at the end of the century, a move that would help craft measures to address climate change, said Kyodo News quoted the Japanese agency, JAXA as saying.
Clouds have been the biggest obstacle for scientists in predicting the warming of the Earth, according to the U. N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Loaded with four sensors, EarthCARE will survey dust and dirt in clouds and the Earth’s atmosphere.
JAXA will develop a cloud-profiling radar, a key component of the vehicle.
JAXA said it wants the satellite to improve numerical weather forecast models by acquiring vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols, as well as the radiances at the top of the atmosphere.
Aerosols control cloud properties, while clouds control the production of precipitation and convection influences stratospheric humidity.