Scientists now have more information to study how human-driven climate change is impacting our planet, thanks to brand new imagery arriving from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite.
The cloud and aerosol mission launched on May 29, 2024 from Vandenberg Space Force Base on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket; just over a month later, its broadband radiometer instrument managed to produce the first image from the mission. This image, the team says, captures Earth's energy balance — referring to how much energy the planet takes in from solar radiation, and how much thermal radiation is then released from Earth back into space.
