NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), a new space-based visible-to-short-wavelength infrared (VSWIR) spectrometer developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, FL, on July 14, 2022. The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft successfully autonomously docked to the forward-facing port of the ISS on July 16.
EMIT is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer; it will measure surface mineralogy and mineral dust of the Earth's arid dust source regions. This will help achieve an important science objective to understand the current heating and cooling impacts of mineral dust emitted into the atmosphere and forecast trends of dust sources in the future.
The mission life expectancy is one year. During this time frame, the instrument will quantify the dust source regions that fall between 52 degrees south and north latitude during solar coverage only. More than one billion high-quality mineral composition observations are planned to enable the science objectives.
