User:Ohms Law Bot/Cleanup/Aquarius (SAC-D instrument)


 * Aquarius (SAC-D instrument)

Aquarius is a NASA instrument aboard the Argentine SAC-D spacecraft. Its mission is to measure global sea surface salinity to better predict future climate conditions. It is scheduled for launch on May 23, 2010.

The science instruments will include a set of three radiometers that are sensitive to salinity (1.413 GHz; L-band) and a scatterometer that corrects for the ocean's surface roughness. The SAC-D spacecraft will be operated by Argentina's Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE).

After its planned launch in 2010 aboard a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, SAC-D will be carried into a 657 km (408 mi) sun-synchronous orbit to begin its 3-year mission.

Aquarius was shipped to Argentina on June 1, 2009, in preparation for launch.

For the joint mission, Argentina is providing the SAC-D spacecraft and additional science instruments, while NASA provides the Aquarius salinity sensor and the rocket launch. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Aquarius Mission development for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise based in Washington, D.C., and NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will manage the mission after launch.