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Aquarius was a NASA instrument aboard the Argentine SAC-D spacecraft.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aquarius/SAC-D Instruments )〕 Its mission was to measure global sea surface salinity to better predict future climate conditions. Aquarius was shipped to Argentina on June 1, 2009 to be mounted in the INVAP built SAC-D satellite. It came back to Vandenberg Air Force Base on March 31, 2011. For the joint mission, Argentina provided the SAC-D spacecraft and additional science instruments, while NASA provided the Aquarius salinity sensor and the rocket launch platform. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed the Aquarius Mission development for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise based in Washington, D.C., and NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is managing the mission after launch.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aquarius / SAC-D Satellite Mission )〕 The observatory was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on June 10, 2011. After its launch aboard a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, SAC-D was carried into a 657 km (408 mi) sun-synchronous orbit to begin its 3-year mission.〔 On June 7, 2015, the SAC-D satellite carrying Aquarius suffered a power supply failure, ending the mission.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aquarius end of mission announcement )〕 ==Background and Instrumentation== The spacecraft’s mission is a joint program between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Argentina’s space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE). The Aquarius sensors are flown on the (now inoperative) Satélite de Applicaciones Científicas (SAC)-D spacecraft 657 kilometers (408 miles) above earth in a sun-synchronous, polar orbit that repeats itself once a week. Its instrument resolution was 150 kilometers (93 miles). Aquarius objective was to provide insight into the effect of salt on the Earth’s weather and climate systems by making the first space based observations of variations in salinity and creating global ocean salinity distribution maps. Data from the instrument will be able to show changes in the ocean’s salinity on monthly, yearly and seasonal time scales. Oceanographers use the Practical Salinity Scale (PSS) to measure salinity based on measurements of temperature, pressure and seawater conductivity and create a ratio. The PSS compares the conductivity ratio of a sample of seawater to a standard KCl solution. The oceanic average sea surface salinity is about 35 PSS (or 3.5% salt) and varies globally from 32 to 37 PSS. The Aquarius mission goal is to measure changes in salinity of 0.2 PSS.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aquarius / SAC-D Sea Surface Salinity from Space )〕 Aquarius measured sea surface salinity by using radiometers to detect changes in the oceans microwave thermal emissions frequencies due to salinity. Aquarius’ three radiometers have antenna reflectors 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in diameter that are able to scan a 390 kilometer (242 mile) wide swath of the ocean’s surface collectively. The radiometers on Aquarius are the most accurate ever and were able to sense at a frequency of 1.4 GHz.〔 Raw data records from the Aquarius instrument was transmitted from CONAE to the ground station at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD. The CONAE ground station is located in Córdoba, Argentina, where mission operations are conducted, data is processed and instrument operations are held. The processed data will create salinity related data products that will be archived for use by NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) in Pasadena, CA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aquarius (SAC-D instrument)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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