After nearly four decades in space, NASA's defunct Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) is anticipated to crash back into Earth's atmosphere on Sunday, Jan. 8, according to the space agency's officials.
The ERBS actively investigated how the Earth received and radiated solar energy throughout those 21 years by measuring stratospheric ozone, aerosol concentrations, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor.
Will the 5,400-Pound Satellite be Harmful?
According to the Department of Defense's forecast as of Thursday, Jan. 5, the 5,400-pound satellite would reenter the atmosphere on Sunday at about 6:40 p.m. EST, with a +/- 17-hour uncertainty.
The forecasts will be updated as NASA and the Defense Department keep an eye on the descent.
The majority of the satellite is projected to burn up as it goes through the atmosphere, but some parts should survive the reentry, according to NASA.
It is also worth noting that the potential risks it poses on anyone are significantly low at around 1 in 9,400.
The three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission of NASA included the ERBS spacecraft, which was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984.
It was equipped with three instruments: two for measuring the Earth's radiative energy budget and one for measuring ozone and other stratospheric components.
The Energy Budget
NASA explains that understanding the energy budget, or the balance between the energy from the Sun that Earth collects and radiates, can give more information about weather patterns and is also a key indicator of climate health.
Furthermore, ozone concentrations in the stratosphere are crucial for shielding life on Earth from harmful UV light.
ERBS operated until its retirement in 2005, which is greatly beyond its anticipated two-year service life. Researchers were able to gauge the impacts of human activity on the Earth's radiation balance thanks to its observations.
However, the ERBE mission's legacy lives on as current initiatives such as NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) array of satellite instruments are banking on the success of this defunct satellite.
Measurements of the stratosphere were made by the ERBS's Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II). SAGE II gathered crucial information that demonstrated the ozone layer was thinning globally.
NASA said that the usage of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons has significantly decreased globally as a result of the Montreal Protocol Agreement, which was shaped in part by the data provided.
At present, the International Space Station's SAGE III instrument is gathering information on the ozone layer's condition.
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