From an orbit 22,000 miles above the Americas, the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory will monitor plant health and vegetation stress and probe the natural sources, sinks and exchange processes of key greenhouse gases.
Credits: NASA
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NASA has selected a
first-of-its-kind Earth science mission that will extend our nation’s
lead in measuring key greenhouse gases and vegetation health from space
to advance our understanding of Earth’s natural exchanges of carbon
between the land, atmosphere and ocean.
The primary goals of the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory
(GeoCARB), led by Berrien Moore of the University of Oklahoma in Norman,
are to monitor plant health and vegetation stress throughout the
Americas, and to probe, in unprecedented detail, the natural sources,
sinks and exchange processes that control carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide and methane in the atmosphere.
The investigator-led mission will launch on a commercial
communications satellite to make observations over the Americas from an
orbit of approximately 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) above the
equator. The mission was competitively selected from 15 proposals
submitted to the agency's second Earth Venture - Mission announcement of
opportunity for small orbital investigations of the Earth system.
"The GeoCARB mission breaks new ground for NASA's Earth science and
applications programs," said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth
Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
"GeoCARB will provide important new measurements related to Earth’s
global natural carbon cycle, and will allow monitoring of vegetation
health throughout North, Central and South America."
GeoCARB will measure daily the total concentration of carbon dioxide,
methane and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere with a horizontal ground
resolution of 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 kilometers). GeoCARB also will
measure solar-induced fluorescence, a signal related directly to changes
in vegetation photosynthesis and plant stress.
Total NASA funding for the mission over the next five years will be
$166 million, which includes initial development, launch of the mission
as a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite, and data
analysis.
The University of Oklahoma-led GeoCARB team will build an advanced
payload that will be launched on a commercial communications satellite,
employing otherwise unused launch and spacecraft capacity to advance
science and provide societal benefit. By demonstrating GeoCARB can be
flown as a hosted payload on a commercial satellite, the mission will
strengthen NASA’s partnerships with the commercial satellite industry
and provide a model that can be adopted by NASA’s international partners
to expand these observations to other parts of the world.
Mission partners include the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology
Center in Palo Alto, California; SES Government Solutions Company in
Reston, Virginia; the Colorado State University in Fort Collins; and
NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California.
GeoCARB is the second space-based investigation in the Earth Venture -
Mission series of rapidly developed, cost-constrained projects for
NASA's Earth Science Division. The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), selected in 2012, is the first mission in the series and is scheduled to launch from Florida on
Monday, Dec. 12.
The Earth Venture missions are part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder
(ESSP) program. The Venture Class small, targeted science
investigations complement NASA's larger research missions. A National
Academies 2007 report, Earth Science and Applications from Space Decadal
Survey, recommended NASA undertake these regularly solicited,
quick-turnaround projects.
The Earth Venture program selects new investigations, at regular
intervals, to accommodate new scientific priorities using cutting-edge
instrumentation carried on airborne platforms, small space missions, or
as secondary instruments or hosted payloads on larger platforms. NASA's
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, manages the ESSP program
for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our
understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our
future. The agency develops new ways to observe and study Earth's
interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency
freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around
the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
For information about NASA’s Earth science programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/earth