SeaHawk is a very little satellite developed to keep an eye on ocean color and seaside environments. NASA researchers helped in the advancement and have since worked to integrate the information with other ocean color datasets.
According to long-time NASA ocean researcher Gene Feldman, the groups main goal was to show that scientifically accurate ocean color information might be gathered from a cubesat. After accomplishing this over the previous year, the SeaHawk team has set brand-new goals. They are presently attempting to demonstrate that they can collect observations of the exact same spot of water on several successive days.
The natural-color images above were gotten on March 3-8, 2022, by the HawkEye sensor aboard the SeaHawk cubesat. Though SeaHawks orbit around the Earth changes every day by a few degrees of longitude, objective operators were able to observe the very same spot of the Australian shoreline for six successive days by slightly tilting the satellite on each new overpass.
There was a time when researchers thought it sufficed, practically revolutionary, to acquire broad pictures of the ocean as soon as every few days. They were starting to see the ocean on a broad scale, sketching out the big patterns and rhythms. But today they want great details, Feldman noted. Where as soon as it was sufficient to state: “the ocean blossoms with phytoplankton around this time of year,” now scientists want to see what is occurring daily, often hourly, as conditions rapidly progress. In the case of poisonous algal blooms in seaside waters or inland lakes, such details is essential to the security of humans and fisheries. Daily measurements can also be useful to scientists working from ships as they study a specific area or perhaps a moving function in the ocean.
Other ocean-observing satellite instruments– such as the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), or the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)– can observe much of the ocean every day. But since they look straight down at the world, the reflection of sunshine off the water (sunglint) can make it challenging to identify color and features. By observing from an angle, SeaHawk has eliminated those light effects.
The small HawkEye imager on SeaHawk likewise observes with substantially higher spatial resolution than MODIS and VIIRS– as much as ten times more detail. And the imager is calibrated to the distinct light homes of the ocean, which tend to be darker than landforms; such distinctions typically lead other imagers to catch seaside land information while making it tough to see much in the water.
HawkEye has actually collected more than 4,000 images given that launch and is presently collecting about 100 new images weekly. That data is being incorporated and archived with other NASA ocean color information sets– likely a first for any cubesat mission. The group accepts imaging demands from members of the science neighborhood, and they continue to stretch the limits of multiple-day repeat imaging.
” Our goal from the beginning was to incorporate this objective into the infrastructure that we have actually constructed over the previous 25 years to support ocean color satellites,” Feldman stated, “and to demonstrate that a cubesat can be treated like a typical, reliable scientific objective. We have actually proven that, and we never ever dreamed this little satellite would still be operating after three years, let alone showing brand-new capabilities that we had never ever pictured throughout development. And because they are smaller sized and more economical, it will be easier to rapidly adapt the 2nd and third generations of CubeSats in a series to take benefit of what we have actually discovered.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, utilizing SeaHawk/HawkEye images thanks to Alan Holmes and Gene Feldman, NASAs Ocean Color Web. Story by Michael Carlowicz, with reporting from Joseph M. Smith, NASA EOSDIS Science Writer.
SeaHawk is a really little satellite designed to keep track of ocean color and seaside ecosystems. According to long-time NASA ocean researcher Gene Feldman, the teams main goal was to show that scientifically precise ocean color information could be gathered from a cubesat. Other ocean-observing satellite instruments– such as the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), or the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)– can observe much of the ocean every day. That information is being integrated and archived with other NASA ocean color information sets– likely a very first for any cubesat objective.” Our objective from the beginning was to incorporate this mission into the facilities that we have developed over the previous 25 years to support ocean color satellites,” Feldman said, “and to show that a cubesat can be dealt with like a normal, credible scientific mission.
March 4– 8, 2022
SeaHawk: The Little Satellite That Could
The SeaHawk satellite is both a throwback to a previous era and a glimpse of the future.
In the early days of the Space Age, scientists and engineers developed and introduced hardware quickly and frequently– a trial-and-error procedure that assisted them experiment with new measurements and styles. Launched in December 2018, SeaHawk was a speculative craft that flew into orbit with a lot to prove.
In a future imagined by some engineers, satellites could be much smaller sized and less costly, with constellations of shoebox-sized spacecraft jointly doing the work when done by fridge- or car-sized spacecraft. Some of them will be integrated in public-private partnerships. The past couple of years have actually brought launches of such CubeSats and SeaHawk becomes part of that new lineage.