LOS ANGELES — An ocean- mapping satellite rocketed into low-Earth orbit Friday on a mission to chart the saltiness of the sea from space.
A Delta 2 rocket carrying the Argentine-built satellite blasted off shortly before 7:30 a.m. under cloudy skies at Vandenberg Air Force on the central California coast.
The rocket and its international payload roared over the Pacific, and ground controllers cheered and clapped after the satellite with a NASA instrument on board was boosted into orbit and unfurled its solar panels about an hour after liftoff.
NASA’s Aquarius instrument will measure the concentration of dissolved salt at the sea surface. The amount of brine in the ocean remains mostly unchanged, but salt levels in the uppermost layer vary around the globe.
NASA will produce monthly maps detailing changes in salt levels over three years. Scientists hope the data will help them better predict future climate change and short-term climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña.
Besides Aquarius, seven other instruments will collect environmental data, including a camera that will make images of volcanic eruptions, wildfires and nighttime light.
The $400 million mission is a cooperation between NASA and Argentina’s space agency, CONAE. Other countries participating in the project include Brazil, Canada, France and Italy.
Over the next month, the satellite’s orbit will be tweaked until it is about 400 miles above Earth. Engineers will check the instruments before science operations can begin.
Aquarius joins a European satellite that has been gathering data on both sea salt and soil moisture since 2009. Aquarius will focus only on the ocean.
