NASA Selects Two Earth System Explorers Missions
Two next-generation satellite missions announced Thursday will help NASA better understand Earth and improve its capabilities to predict environmental events and mitigate disasters.
“NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to study our home planet to provide vital data to disaster response teams and decision makers every day for the benefit of all, while informing future exploration of our solar system,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington. “By understanding Earth’s surface topography, ecosystems and atmosphere, while enabling longer-term weather predictions, these missions will help us better study extreme environments beyond our home planet to ensure the safety of astronauts and spacecraft as we return to the Moon with the Artemis campaign and continue our journey to Mars and beyond. »
These two missions were selected for continued development under NASA’s Earth System Explorers program, which conducts principal investigator-led Earth science missions based on key priorities defined by the scientific community and national needs. The program is designed to enable high-quality scientific investigations of the Earth system to focus on previously identified key targeted observables.
The STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer) mission will provide daily, near-global, high-resolution measurements of temperature, a variety of terrestrial atmospheric elements, and aerosol properties from the upper troposphere to the mesosphere – at a much higher spatial density than any previous mission. It will also measure the vertical profiles of ozone and trace gases necessary to understand the recovery of the ozone layer. The data collected by STRIVE would support longer-term weather forecasting, an important tool for protecting coastal communities, where almost half of the world’s population lives. The mission is led by Lyatt Jaeglé of the University of Washington in Seattle.
The Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) mission will observe the three-dimensional structure of Earth’s ecosystems and the surface topography of glaciers, ice caps and sea ice. The mission will go beyond measurements currently recorded from space by NASA’s ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2) and GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation). Data collected by EDGE will measure conditions affecting land and maritime transportation corridors, terrain and other areas of commercial interest. The mission is led by Helen Amanda Fricker of the University of California, San Diego.
Selected missions will move on to the next phase of development. Each mission will undergo a confirmatory review in 2027, which will assess mission progress and funding availability. If confirmed, the total estimated cost of each mission, excluding launch, will not exceed $355 million with a launch date no earlier than 2030.
For more information about the Earth System Explorers program, visit:
https://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/2023ESE
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Liz Vlock
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
