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All Missions & Projects - Sciences and Exploration Directorate ( 600 )

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photo of ARCADE on balloon gondola

Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE)

ARCADE is a high altitude balloon payload designed to study the early universe. It measured the frequency spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at centimeter wavelengths, to search for signals from the first stars to form after the Big Bang. ARCADE's science goals were to observe the formation of structure from the first stars and galaxies, search for particle physics relics from the Big Bang, and understand the large-scale structure and energetics of our Galaxy. ARCADE flew in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
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ACE CRIS Instrument image

ACE Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS)

The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) will measure the abundances of galactic cosmic ray isotopes.
ACE SIS Instrument image

ACE Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS)

The Solar Isotope Spectrometer provides isotopically resolved measurements of the elements from lithium to zinc over the energy range 10 - 100 MeV/nucleon. The SIS dectector system consists of two identical telescopes composed of stacks of large-area solid-state detectors.
Artist's concept of ACRIMSAT in orbit

Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIMSAT)

The purpose of the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor III (ACRIM III) instrument is to study total solar irradiance, which is the sun's combined energy output at all wavelengths. The ACRIM III instrument package is flying on a spacecraft called ACRIMSAT. The spacecraft was launched on December 20, 1999 as a secondary payload on a Taurus launch vehicle. ACRIM III, third in a series of long-term solar-monitoring tools built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will continue to extend the database first created by ACRIM I, which was launched in 1980 on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft. ACRIM II followed on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in 1991.
NASA logo

Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS)

The ASCENDS mission will make global atmospheric column carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements without a seasonal, latitudinal, or diurnal bias. The mission will also measure ambient air pressure and temperature. The measurements made by ASCENDS will allow the mission to: 1) quantify global spatial distributions of atmospheric CO2 on scales of weather models in the 2010-2020 era; 2) quantify the current global spatial distribution of terrestrial and oceanic sources and sinks of CO2 on 1x1 degree grids at weekly resolution; and 3) provide a scientific basis for future projections of CO2 sources and sinks through data-driven enhancements of Earth system process modeling.
ace 100 image

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) studies energetic particles from the sun as well as sources within and outside our galaxy. ACE observations contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system as well as the astrophysical processes involved. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provided detectors and telescopes for several of ACE's instruments. The mission launched in 1997.
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Artist's concept of ADEOS in orbit

Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS)

The Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), Japanese name MIDORI, was the first international space platform dedicated to Earth environmental research. It was developed and managed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). The TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) instrument, along with NSCAT (a NASA spectrometer designed to study wind speed and direction) were the major US components of the platform. ADEOS launched on August 17, 1996 into a sun-synchronous subrecurrent orbit of an altitude of approximately 830 km by an H-II launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center. After an equipment malfunction, NASDA declared the spacecraft and the two NASA instruments aboard lost on June 30, 1997.
Artist's concept of ADEOS-II in orbit

Advanced Earth Observing Satellite - SeaWinds (ADEOS II)

The ADEOS II mission was an international satellite mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - formerly the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan - with U.S. (NASA) and French Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) participation. Midori-II is the Japanese name for the mission.
Artist's concept of AMSR-E

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E)

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) is a twelve-channel, six-frequency, total power passive-microwave radiometer system. It measures brightness temperatures at 6.925, 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, and 89.0 GHz. Vertically and horizontally polarized measurements are taken at all channels. The Earth-emitted microwave radiation is collected by an offset parabolic reflector 1.6 meters in diameter that scans across the Earth along an imaginary conical surface, maintaining a constant Earth incidence angle of 55° and providing a swath width array of six feedhorns which then carry the radiation to radiometers for measurement. Calibration is accomplished with observations of cosmic background radiation and an on-board warm target. Spatial resolution of the individual measurements varies from 5.4 km at 89.0 GHz to 56 km at 6.9 GHz.
artist's conception of ASCA in space

Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA)

The Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), formerly Astro-D, was Japan's fourth X-ray astronomy mission. ASCA carried four X-ray telescopes and was optimized for X-ray spectroscopy. The spacecraft conducted more than 3,000 observations covering a broad range of astronomical objects. These included supernova remnants, galaxies and galaxy clusters, X-ray binary stars, active galactic nuclei, and variable stars. The satellite was successfully launched in February 1993. After suffering damage on July 14, 2000 during a geomagnetic storm, ASCA reentered the atmosphere on March 2, 2001, after more than 8 years in orbit.
Artist's concept of AIM in orbit

Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)

The AIM satellite mission is designed to explore Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), also called noctilucent clouds, to find out why they form and why they are changing.
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ACE banner image

Aerosol - Cloud - Ecosystems (ACE)

The objectives of the ACE mission are to study aerosol and cloud types and properties and measure ocean productivity in the surface ocean layers. Data from ACE will improve climate models and air-quality forecasts and will be used in the prediction of climate change.
AERONET equipment

AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET)

The program provides a long-term, continuous and readily accessible public domain database of aerosol optical, mircrophysical and radiative properties for aerosol research and characterization, validation of satellite retrievals, and synergism with other databases. The network imposes standardization of instruments, calibration, processing and distribution.
CPL logo

Airborne Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL)

The Cloud Physics Lidar is an airborne lidar system designed specifically for studying clouds and aerosols using the ER-2 High Altitude Aircraft. Because the ER-2 typically flies at 65,000 feet (20 km), its instruments are above 94% of the earth's atmosphere, thereby allowing ER-2 instruments to function as spaceborne instrument simulators. The Cloud Physics Lidar provides a unique tool for atmospheric profiling and is sufficiently small and low cost to include in multiple instrument missions.
Logo image for Airborne Earth Science Microwave Imaging Radiometer

Airborne Earth Science Microwave Imaging Radiometer (AESMIR)

The Airborne Earth Science Microwave Imaging Radiometer (AESMIR) is a passive microwave airborne imager covering the 6-100 GHz bands that are essential for observing key Earth System elements such as precipitation, snow, soil moisture, ocean winds, sea ice, sea surface temperature, vegetation, etc.
ATTREX logo

Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX)

A multi-year airborne science campaign to study the humidity and chemical composition of air entering the tropical tropopause layer of the atmosphere.
thumbnail of Asynch I/O schematic

Application Controlled Parallel Asynchronous Input/Output (Asynch I/O)

An MPI-based Parallel Asynchronous I/O (PAIO) software package that enables applications to balance compute and I/O resources directly
Image of Aqua Satellite

Aqua

Aqua (Latin for water) is a NASA satellite mission designed to collect information about Earth's water cycle. Aqua's six instruments collect a variety of global data on ocean evaporation, atmospheric water vapor, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice. Additional variables that Aqua measures include radiative energy fluxes; aerosols; vegetation cover on the land; phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans; and air, land, and water temperatures. Aqua was launched on May 4, 2002.
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Artist Concept of Aquarius satellite

Aquarius

Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity which launched on June 10, 2011. Its instruments will measure changes in sea surface salinity equivalent to about a "pinch" (i.e., 1/6 of a teaspoon) of salt in 1 gallon of water. By measuring sea surface salinity over the globe with such unprecedented precision, Aquarius will answer long-standing questions about how our oceans respond to climate change and the water cycle. For example, monthly salinity maps will give clues about changes in freshwater input and output to the ocean associated with precipitation, evaporation, ice melting, and river runoff. Aquarius data will also be used to track the formation and movement of huge water masses that regulate ocean circulation and Earth's climate.
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AMASE logo

Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE)

AMASE has established Svalbard as a test bed for life-detection technology that will be used on future NASA and ESA 'Search for Life' mission to Mars.
ARCTAS aiplanes on Fairbanks runway

Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS)

The Arctic is undergoing significant environmental changes related to global climate change. Now, NASA is extensively studying the role of air pollution in this climate-sensitive region as part of the ARCTAS field campaign, the largest airborne experiment ever to do so.
Logo image for ARRA projects at GMAO

ARRA projects at GMAO

ARRA projects at the GMAO (2010-2011)
artists conceptio of Astro-H in orbit

Astro-H

The Astro-H mission, formerly known as NeXT, is Japan's sixth X-ray astronomy mission. Its scientific objectives are to trace the evolution of the largest structures in the universe; observe the behavior of material in extreme gravitational fields; determine the spin of black holes and the physical conditions within neutron stars; trace shock acceleration structures in clusters of galaxies and supernova remnants; and investigate the physics of astrophysical jets. Goddard Space Flight Center is helping to develop a high resolution Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) for Astro-H. The mission is slated for launch in 2014 from Japan?s Tanegashima Space Center.
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image of meteorite and spectrum

Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory

The Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory is dedicated to the study of organic compounds derived from Stardust and future sample return missions, meteorites, lab simulations of Mars, interstellar, proto-planetary, and cometary ices and grains, and instrument development.
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ATLAS mission logo

ATLAS Series (ATLAS-1)

ATLAS-1, the first of the ATLAS series of Shuttle flights, was an important part of the long-term, coordinated research that made up NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. Two ATLAS-1 instruments, ACR and SUSIM, had direct counterparts aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), while other instruments aboard each mission were closely related. Repeated flights of the ATLAS instruments, which were carefully calibrated before and after each flight, allowed for long-term calibration of UARS instruments. (After a successful mission, UARS reentered Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 24, 2011.)
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  • Last Updated: 05/22/2013