NASA has handpicked four proposals for concept studies aimed at delving deeper into Earth science, with a focus on crucial areas such as greenhouse gases, the ozone layer, ocean surface currents, and changes in ice and glaciers worldwide. These initiatives are part of NASA’s new Earth System Explorers Program, which conducts space science missions led by principal investigators, aligning with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s 2017 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space. The program is tailored to facilitate top-notch Earth system science investigations, concentrating on previously identified key objectives, with greenhouse gases taking center stage in this round.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, emphasized the agency’s comprehensive approach to studying our planet. She underscored the importance of data and scientific research in tackling the challenges posed by climate change and its impacts on humanity and the environment.
In the initial stage of a two-step selection process, each proposal will receive $5 million to conduct a one-year mission concept study. Following this period, NASA will pick two proposals for launch, expected in 2030 and 2032, with a total mission cost cap of $310 million each, excluding rocket and space access expenses covered by NASA.
NASA’s wealth of knowledge about Earth’s transformations stems from over six decades of Earth observations. With more than two dozen Earth-observing satellites and instruments in orbit, NASA’s Earth observatory provides a wealth of complementary information on Earth’s oceans, land, ice, and atmosphere.
The four proposals chosen for concept studies are:
1. STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-Resolved Light Explorer): Led by Lyatt Jaegle at the University of Washington in Seattle, this mission aims to provide detailed, near-global measurements of temperature, atmospheric elements, aerosol properties, and vertical profiles of ozone and trace gases, essential for monitoring and understanding the recovery of the ozone layer.
2. ODYSEA (Ocean Dynamics and Surface Exchange with the Atmosphere): Led by Sarah Gille at the University of California in San Diego, this satellite mission seeks to enhance our understanding of air-sea interactions and surface current processes impacting weather, climate, marine ecosystems, and human well-being by simultaneously measuring ocean surface currents and winds.
3. EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer): Led by Helen Amanda Fricker at the University of California in San Diego, this mission aims to observe the three-dimensional structure of terrestrial ecosystems, glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice as they change in response to climate and human activity, building upon measurements from space by ICESat-2 and GEDI.
4. Carbon-I (The Carbon Investigation): Led by Christian Frankenberg at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, this investigation seeks to enable simultaneous, multi-species measurements of critical greenhouse gases and potential quantification of ethane to better understand the carbon cycle and the global methane budget, providing unprecedented spatial resolution and global coverage.
