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NASA NTRS2014

Opportunities for Small Satellites in NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program

NASA's Earth Venture class (EV) of missions are competitively selected, Principal Investigator (PI) led, relatively low cost and narrowly focused in scientific scope. Investigations address a full spectrum of earth science objectives, including studies of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, polar ice regions, and solid Earth. EV has three program elements: EV-Suborbital (EVS) are suborbital/airborne investigations; EV-Mission (EVM) element comprises small complete spaceborne missions; and EV-Instrument (EVI) element develops spaceborne instruments for flight as Missions-of-Opportunity (MoO). To ensure the success of EV, frequent opportunities for selecting missions has been established in NASA's Earth Science budget. This paper will describe those opportunities and how the management approach of each element is tailored according to the specific needs of the element.

Peri, Frank↗

NASA NTRS2013

Innovative Approaches to Remote Sensing in NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program

NASA's Earth Venture class (EV) of mission are competitively selected, Principal Investigator (PI) led, relatively low cost and narrowly focused in scientific scope. Investigations address a full spectrum of earth science objectives, including studies of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, polar ice regions, and solid Earth. EV has three program elements: EV-Suborbital (EVS) are suborbital/airborne investigations; EV-Mission (EVM) element comprises small complete spaceborne missions; and EV-Instrument (EVI) element develops spaceborne instruments for flight as missions-of-opportunity (MoO). To ensure the success of EV, the management approach of each element is tailored according to the specific needs of the element.

Peri, Frank↗

NASA NTRS2002

GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

While gravity is much weaker than other basic forces in nature, such as magnetism and electricity, its effects are ubiquitous and dramatic. Gravity controls everything from the motion of the ocean tides to the expansion of the entire Universe. To learn more about the mysteries of gravity, twin satellites named GRACE--short for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment--are being launched to make detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. This experiment could lead to discoveries about gravity and Earth's natural systems, which could have substantial benefits for society and the world's population. The GRACE mission will be the inaugural flight of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP). A component of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), the ESSP missions are intended to address unique, specific highly focused scientific issues and provide measurements required to support Earth science research.

Ward, A.↗

NASA NTRS2004

The HYDROS mission: requirements and baseline system design

The HYDROS mission is under development by NASA as part of its Earth System Science Pathfinder program. HYDROS is designed to provide global maps of the Earth's soil moisture and freeze/thaw state every 2-3 days, for weather and climate prediction, water and carbon cycle studies, natural hazards monitoring, and national security applications.

radar↗

NASA NTRS2008

NASA's Earth Observations of the Global Environment: Our Changing Planet and the View from Space

Observations of the Earth from space over the past 30 years has enabled an increasingly detailed view of our Earth's atmosphere, land, oceans, and cryosphere, and its many alterations over time. With the advent of improvements in technology, together with increased understanding of the physical principles of remote sensing, it is now possible to routinely observe the global distribution of atmospheric constituents, including both cloud and aerosol optical properties, land surface reflectance, sea ice and glaciers, and numerous properties of the world's oceans. This talk will review the current status of recent NASA Earth observing missions, and summarize key findings. These missions include EOS missions such as Landsat 7, QuikScat, Terra, Jason-1, Aqua, ICESat, SORCE, and Aura, as well as Earth probe missions such as TRMM and SeaWiFS. Recent findings from Cloud- Sat and CALIPSO from the Earth System Science Pathfinder program will also be summarized, if time permits. Due to its wide utilization by the Earth science community, both in the US and abroad, special emphasis will be placed on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), developed by NASA and launched onboard the Terra spacecraft in 1999 and the Aqua spacecraft in 2002. As the quintessential instrument of the Earth Observing System, it is widely used for studies of the oceans, land, and atmosphere, and its lengthening time series of Earth observations is finding utilization in many communities for both climate, weather, and applications use.

King, Michael D.↗

NASA NTRS2004

The Hydrosphere State (Hydros) Satellite Mission: An Earth System Pathfinder for Global Mapping of Soil Moisture and Land Freeze/Thaw

The Hydrosphere State Mission (Hydros) is a pathfinder mission in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP). The objective of the mission is to provide exploratory global measurements of the earth's soil moisture at 10-km resolution with two- to three-days revisit and land-surface freeze/thaw conditions at 3-km resolution with one- to two-days revisit. The mission builds on the heritage of ground-based and airborne passive and active low-frequency microwave measurements that have demonstrated and validated the effectiveness of the measurements and associated algorithms for estimating the amount and phase (frozen or thawed) of surface soil moisture. The mission data will enable advances in weather and climate prediction and in mapping processes that link the water, energy, and carbon cycles. The Hydros instrument is a combined radar and radiometer system operating at 1.26 GHz (with VV, HH, and HV polarizations) and 1.41 GHz (with H, V, and U polarizations), respectively. The radar and the radiometer share the aperture of a 6-m antenna with a look-angle of 39 with respect to nadir. The lightweight deployable mesh antenna is rotated at 14.6 rpm to provide a constant look-angle scan across a swath width of 1000 km. The wide swath provides global coverage that meet the revisit requirements. The radiometer measurements allow retrieval of soil moisture in diverse (nonforested) landscapes with a resolution of 40 km. The radar measurements allow the retrieval of soil moisture at relatively high resolution (3 km). The mission includes combined radar/radiometer data products that will use the synergy of the two sensors to deliver enhanced-quality 10-km resolution soil moisture estimates. In this paper, the science requirements and their traceability to the instrument design are outlined. A review of the underlying measurement physics and key instrument performance parameters are also presented.

Entekhabi, D.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Current and Future ESPO Supported Missions

The Earth Science Project Office (ESPO) at NASA Ames Research Center is a group of success-oriented individuals providing project management for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science Division. We provide planning, implementation, and post-mission support for large, complex, multi-agency, domestic and international field campaigns. ESPO has led over 60 successful field campaigns, dating back to 1987. ESPO supports several of NASA's Earth Science Division’s programs, including Upper Atmosphere Research, Tropospheric Chemistry, Radiation Sciences, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics, Ocean Biology and Biochemistry, Airborne Science, and the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program.

Erin Czech↗

NASA NTRS2003

The CloudSat mission

The CloudSat mission deploys the first spaceborne 94 GHz cloud profiling radar in space. The mission was selected under the NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program with a scheduled launch for the later part of 2004.

CloudSat↗

NASA NTRS2016

NASA's Earth Science Flight Program Meets the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow

NASA's Earth science flight program is a dynamic undertaking that consists of a large fleet of operating satellites, an array of satellite and instrument projects in various stages of development, a robust airborne science program, and a massive data archiving and distribution system. Each element of the flight program is complex and present unique challenges. NASA builds upon its successes and learns from its setbacks to manage this evolving portfolio to meet NASA's Earth science objectives. NASA fleet of 16 operating missions provide a wide range of scientific measurements made from dedicated Earth science satellites and from instruments mounted to the International Space Station. For operational missions, the program must address issues such as an aging satellites operating well beyond their prime mission, constellation flying, and collision avoidance with other spacecraft and orbital debris. Projects in development are divided into two broad categories: systematic missions and pathfinders. The Earth Systematic Missions (ESM) include a broad range of multi-disciplinary Earth-observing research satellite missions aimed at understanding the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced forces and changes. Understanding these forces will help determine how to predict future changes, and how to mitigate or adapt to these changes. The Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program provides frequent, regular, competitively selected Earth science research opportunities that accommodate new and emerging scientific priorities and measurement capabilities. This results in a series of relatively low-cost, small-sized investigations and missions. Principal investigators whose scientific objectives support a variety of studies lead these missions, including studies of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, polar ice regions, or solid Earth. This portfolio of missions and investigations provides opportunity for investment in innovative Earth science that enhances NASA's capability for better understanding the current state of the Earth system. ESM and ESSP projects often involve partnerships with other US agencies and/or international organizations. This adds to the complexity of mission development, but allows for a greater scientific return on NASA's investments. The Earth Science Airborne Science Program provides manned and unmanned aircraft systems that further science and advance the use of satellite data. NASA uses these assets worldwide in campaigns to investigate extreme weather events, observe Earth system processes, obtain data for Earth science modeling activities, and calibrate instruments flying aboard Earth science spacecraft. The Airborne Science Program has six dedicated aircraft and access to many other platforms. The Earth Science Multi-Mission Operations program acquires, preserves, and distributes observational data from operating spacecraft to support Earth Science research focus areas. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), which has been in operations since 1994, primarily accomplishes this. EOSDIS acquires, processes, archives, and distributes Earth Science data and information products. The archiving of NASA Earth Science information happens at eight Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) and four disciplinary data centers located across the United States. The DAACs specialize by topic area, and make their data available to researchers around the world. The DAACs currently house over 9 petabytes of data, growing at a rate of 6.4 terabytes per day. NASA's current Earth Science portfolio is responsive to the National Research Council (NRC) 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey and well as the 2010 NASA Response to President Obama's Climate Plan. As the program evolves into the future it will leverage the lessons learned from the current missions in operations and development, and plan for adjustments to future objectives in response to the anticipated 2017 NRC Decadal Survey.

Flight Program↗

NASA NTRS2003

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission was selected by NASA's Office of Earth Science as the fifth mission in its Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program. OCO will make the first global, space-based measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize sources and sinks of this important greenhouse gas. These measurements will improve our ability to forecasts CO2-induced climate change. OCO will fly in a 1:15 PM sun-synchronous orbit, sharing its ground track with the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua platform. It will carry high-resolution spectrometers to measure reflected sunlight in the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band at 0.76-microns and the CO2 bands at 1.61 and 2.06 microns to retrieve the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, XCO2. A comprehensive validation and correlative measurement program has been incorporated into this mission to ensure that XCO2 can be retrieved with precisions of 0.3% (1 ppm) on regional scales.

atmospheric chemistry↗

NASA NTRS2003

The HYDROS Mission: Requirements and Baseline System Design

The HYDROS mission is under development by NASA as part of its Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program. HYDROS is designed to provide global maps of the Earth's soil moisture and freezel/thaw state every 2-3 days, for weather and climate prediction, water and carbon cycle studies, natural hazards monitoring, and national security applications. HYDROS uses a unique active and passive L-band microwave system that optimizes measurement accuracy, spatial resolution, and coverage. It provides measurements in nearly all weather conditions, regardless of solar illumination. The designs of the radar and radiometer electronics, antenna feedhorn and reflector, and science data system, are driven by specific mission and science objectives. These objectives impose requirements on the frequencies, polarizations, sampling, spatial resolution, and accuracy of the system. In this paper we describe the HYDROS mission requirements, baseline design, and measurement capabilities.

soil moisture↗

NASA NTRS2001

Earth Remote Sensing: A Column Closure Approach

Entering the new millennium, there is no doubt that scientists expand greatly their scientific knowledge of the Earth system by utilizing unique capabilities from the vantage points of space. These global satellite observations include the NASA/NOAA Pathfinder and other ongoing data analysis projects, the Earth Observing System (EOS) program, the Earth System Science Pathfinders (ESSP) small research satellite missions, multi-agency planning for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (NPOESS), and other international satellite missions. However, using satellite remotely sensed data alone cannot explore fully the physical processes and energetic balance involved in our changing climate. To close the loop, the ground-based remote sensing and airborne in situ measurements are required. This talk provides an overview of the general strategy of Earth remote sensing for a column closure approach and discusses necessary instrumentation.

Tsay, Si-Chee↗

NASA NTRS2013

Management Approach for NASA's Earth Venture-1 (EV-1) Airborne Science Investigations

The Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program Office (PO) is responsible for programmatic management of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Science Mission Directorate's (SMD) Earth Venture (EV) missions. EV is composed of both orbital and suborbital Earth science missions. The first of the Earth Venture missions is EV-1, which are Principal Investigator-led, temporally-sustained, suborbital (airborne) science investigations costcapped at $30M each over five years. Traditional orbital procedures, processes and standards used to manage previous ESSP missions, while effective, are disproportionally comprehensive for suborbital missions. Conversely, existing airborne practices are primarily intended for smaller, temporally shorter investigations, and traditionally managed directly by a program scientist as opposed to a program office such as ESSP. In 2010, ESSP crafted a management approach for the successful implementation of the EV-1 missions within the constructs of current governance models. NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements form the foundation of the approach for EV-1. Additionally, requirements from other existing NASA Procedural Requirements (NPRs), systems engineering guidance and management handbooks were adapted to manage programmatic, technical, schedule, cost elements and risk. As the EV-1 missions are nearly at the end of their successful execution and project lifecycle and the submission deadline of the next mission proposals near, the ESSP PO is taking the lessons learned and updated the programmatic management approach for all future Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS) missions for an even more flexible and streamlined management approach.

Guillory, Anthony R.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Global Observations of Aerosols and Clouds from Combined Lidar and Passive Instruments to Improve Radiation Budget and Climate Studies

Current uncertainties in the effects of clouds and aerosols on the Earth radiation budget limit our understanding of the climate system and the potential for global climate change. Pathfinder Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Spaceborne Observations - Climatologie Etendue des Nuages et des Aerosols (PICASSO-CENA) is a recently approved satellite mission within NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program which will address these uncertainties with a unique suite of active and passive instruments. The Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) demonstrated the potential benefits of space lidar for studies of clouds and aerosols. PICASSO-CENA builds on this experience with a payload consisting of a two-wavelength polarization-sensitive lidar, an oxygen A-band spectrometer (ABS), an imaging infrared radiometer (IIR), and a wide field camera (WFC). Data from these instruments will be used to measure the vertical distributions of aerosols and clouds in the atmosphere, as well as optical and physical properties of aerosols and clouds which influence the Earth radiation budget. PICASSO-CENA will be flown in formation with the PM satellite of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) to provide a comprehensive suite of coincident measurements of atmospheric state, aerosol and cloud optical properties, and radiative fluxes. The mission will address critical uncertainties iin the direct radiative forcing of aerosols and clouds as well as aerosol influences on cloud radiative properties and cloud-climate radiation feedbacks. PICASSO-CENA is planned for a three year mission, with a launch in early 2003. PICASSO-CENA is being developed within the framework of a collaboration between NASA and CNES.

Winker, David M.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Analysis of Space Coherent LIDAR Wind Mission

An evaluation of the performance of a coherent Doppler lidar proposed by a team comprising the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin Space Company, University of Wisconsin and Los Alamos National Laboratory to NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program was performed. The design went through several iterations and only the performance of the final design is summarized here.

Spiers, Gary D.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Pathfinder Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Spaceborne Observations (PICASSO)

This paper will describe the planned 3-year Pathfinder Instruments for Cloud and Aerosol Spaceborne Observations (PICASSO) mission, its instrumentation and implementation. It will use LITE and other data, plus analyses, to show the feasibility of such a mission. PICASSO is being proposed for NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program with launch predicted in 2003.

McCormick, M. Patrick↗

NASA NTRS2004

AQUARIUS: A Passive/Active Microwave Sensor to Monitor Sea Surface Salinity Globally from Space

Salinity is important for understanding ocean dynamics, energy exchange with the atmosphere and the global water cycle. Existing data is limited and much of the ocean has never even been sampled. Sea surface salinity can be measured remotely by satellite and a three year mission for this purpose called AquariudSAC-D has recently been selected by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program. The objective is to map the salinity field globally with a spatial resolution of 100 km and a monthly average accuracy of 0.2 psu. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2008, is a partnership of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Argentine Comision National de Actividades Epaciales (CONAE).

LeVine, David↗

NASA NTRS2005

Global monitoring of Sea Surface Salinity with Aquarius

Aquarius is a microwave remote sensing system designed to obtain global maps of the surface salinity field of the oceans from space. It will be flown on the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, a partnership between the USA (NASA) and Argentina (CONAE) with launch scheduled for late in 2008. The objective of Aquarius is to monitor the seasonal and interannual variation of the large scale features of the surface salinity field in the open ocean. This will provide data to address scientific questions associated with ocean circulation and its impact on climate. For example, salinity is needed to understand the large scale thermohaline circulation, driven by buoyancy, which moves large masses of water and heat around the globe. Of the two variables that determine buoyancy (salinity and temperature), temperature is already being monitored. Salinity is the missing variable needed to understand this circulation. Salinity also has an important role in energy exchange between the ocean and atmosphere, for example in the development of fresh water lenses (buoyant water that forms stable layers and insulates water below from the atmosphere) which alter the air-sea coupling. Aquarius is a combination radiometer and scatterometer (radar) operating at L-band (1.413 GHz for the radiometer and 1.26 GHz for the scatterometer). The primary instrument,for measuring salinity is the radiometer which is able to detect salinity because of the modulation salinity produces on the thermal emission from sea water. This change is detectable at the long wavelength end of the microwave spectrum. The scatterometer will provide a correction for surface roughness (waves) which is one of the greatest unknowns in the retrieval. The sensor will be in a sun-synchronous orbit at about 650 km with equatorial crossings of 6am/6pm. The antenna for these two instruments is a 3 meter offset fed reflector with three feeds arranged in pushbroom fashion looking away from the sun toward the shadow side of the orbit to minimize sunglint. The mission goal is to produce maps of the salinity field globally once each month with an accuracy of 0.2 psu and a spatial resolution of 100 km. This will be adequate to address l&ge scale features of the salinity field of the open ocean. The temporal resolution is sufficient to address seasonal changes and a three year mission is planned to-collect sufficient data to look for interannual variation. Aquarius is being developed by NASA as part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) program. The SAC-D mission is being developed by CONAE and will include the space craft and several additional instruments, including visible and infrared cameras and a microwave radiometer to monitor rain and wind velocity over the oceans, and sea ice.

Lagerloef, G. S. E.↗