Otago Daily Times: clock ticking on bid to replace important weather satellite

21 July 2026·
Jessa Barder
· 1 min read
blog

The Otago Daily Times reported on Tuwhiri during the programme’s kick-off meeting, under the headline Clock ticking on bid to replace important weather satellite.

Read the article on the ODT website

The headline gets the problem right. NASA’s Aura satellite has been measuring ozone and related gases for more than two decades, and its Microwave Limb Sounder is the only instrument capable of watching the Antarctic stratosphere through the polar winter, when the ozone hole forms. Aura will run out of fuel, and no replacement mission is planned — conventional instruments of that kind cost more than anyone is currently willing to spend.

The meeting the article covers, held at the University of Otago from 19 to 21 July 2026, brought the whole programme team together for the first time and was the occasion on which the name Tuwhiri was presented publicly.

Coverage in the regional paper matters more than its circulation suggests. Much of what Tuwhiri is building will be made and flown in New Zealand, and the case for public investment is easier to make when people can read about it somewhere other than a university press release.

Outreach Programme
Authors
Jessa Barder
Lead, Engagement & Outreach
Leading the community engagement programme, Jessa brings seven years of science engagement experience across a wide variety of subject matter to the team. Currently based in the University of Otago’s Physics Department, she is also the Deputy Director – Community Engagement for Te Whai Ao – Dodd-Walls Centre and supports the department’s engagement activities. Despite the “children’s presenter” energy she often manifests, her particular area of research interest is the impact of relevant, appropriate, and interactive engagement activities on Kiwis over 65.