Life after launch: a snapshot of the first six months of NASA’s plankton, aerosol, cloud, ocean ecosystem (PACE) mission
The NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in the early morning of February 8, 2024. Just 63 days later, data from NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite became available to the public. These data will extend and improve upon NASA’s 20+ years of global satellite observation of our living oceans, atmospheric aerosols, and cloud and initiate an advanced set of climate-relevant data records. Ultimately, PACE is the first mission to provide daily, global measurements that will enable prediction of the “boom-bust” cycle of fisheries, the appearance of harmful algae, and other factors that affect commercial and recreational industries. PACE also observes clouds and tiny airborne particles known as aerosols that influence air quality and absorb and reflect sunlight, thus warming and cooling the atmosphere. In the months since launch and initial data release, the PACE Project pursued instrument temporal and system vicarious calibrations, executed cross-instrument comparisons, conducted performance assessments, explored synergies with other missions, and released advanced science data products. In parallel, the PACE Validation Science Team left for the field and the Post-launch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) prepared for its mission. And, most importantly, preliminary science results were realized. Here, we present a snapshot of these activities and their impacts and outcomes, encompassing the first half year of the PACE mission.
Authors
- Gerhard Meister (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2311-1689)
- Brian Cairns (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1980-1022)
- Otto Hasekamp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1494-2539)
- Christopher A. Proctor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0291-6103)
- A. M. Sayer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9149-1789)
- P. Jeremy Werdell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3592-0152)
- Kirk Knobelspiesse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5986-1751)
- Chamara Rajapakshe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7264-9867)
- Lachlan I. W. McKinna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6986-8121)
- James G. Allen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6765-7571)
- Inia Soto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7974-857X)
- Susanne E. Craig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8963-0951)
- Jeroen Rietjens
- Bryan A. Franz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0293-2082)
- Antonio Mannino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0938-7219)
- Amir Ibrahim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3290-056X)
- Skyelar Caplan
- Meng Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5818-1639)
- Ivona Cetinić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1363-3136)
- Emerson Sirk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1023-6629)
- Frederick S. Patt
- J. Vanderlei Martins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2639-1917)
- Carina Poulin
Institutions
- Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Science Systems and Applications (United States) (US)
- Space Research Organisation Netherlands (NL)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
- Morgan State University (US)
- Science Applications International Corporation (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2024-11-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3033830
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Space exploration and regulation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.32