Europe launched a slender, winged ion-driven satellite Tuesday to glide through the upper atmosphere for nearly two years measuring Earth’s gravity field with unprecedented precision.

The arrow-shaped 2,319-pound [1,052-kg] satellite blasted off at 1421 GMT (10:21 a.m. EDT) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The 95-foot-tall [29-m-tall] Rockot launcher, a modified SS-19 ballistic missile, roared away from the snowy, forested spaceport on 420,000 pounds [1,868,000 N] of thrust.

The European Space Agency commissioned the GOCE mission to create a highly detailed, exceptionally accurate map of the planet’s geoid, a global model illustrating subtle variations in the gravity field if oceans were motionless. But oceans aren’t stationary. Ocean currents and changing sea levels can have drastic consequences on Earth’s climate. Scientists use the geoid’s reference surface to weigh against measurements of ocean activity. The comparisons allow scientists to more accurately study ocean circulation and sea level changes.

GOCE data will also provide a new understanding of tectonic activity that could lead to better forecasts of earthquakes and volcanoes. Scientists expect changes in Earth’s interior to show up in the satellite’s gravity measurements. GOCE, which stands for the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, is the first of six ESA Earth Explorer satellites built to focus on aspects of processes affecting the planet’s climate.

Source: Spaceflight Now, “Gravity mapper ascends to space atop Rockot booster”