CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -On September 15, 2018, ICESat-2 was launched into orbit. Celebrating two years of elevation data collection over ice, trees, land, and water.

Detailed explanation-2: -The ICESat-2 spacecraft provides power and orbit control for ATLAS, the mission’s height-measuring instrument. The spacecraft also supplies propulsion, navigation, attitude control, thermal control, data storage and handling, ground communication, and more.

Detailed explanation-3: -ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics.

Detailed explanation-4: -ICESat carried a single beam profiling laser altimeter that produced   70 m diameter footprints on the surface of the Earth at   150 m along-track intervals. In contrast, ICESat-2 will operate with three pairs of beams, each pair separated by about 3 km cross-track with a pair spacing of 90 m.