PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

The breeze across the California desert kicks up some dust and sand. As a NASA research plane rolls down the runway and prepares for takeoff, its wings vibrate with the gust of wind. It’s a flight day for one of NASA’s most expansive and complex field campaigns. The goal: to check the data collected from …

Welcome to NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX). We’ve been talking about this validation campaign and now are finally here. “Here” being one of three main locations where PACE-PAX validation efforts are taking place: NASA’s Armstrong Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. PACE-PAX uses the unique vantage point of the …

Stephen Broccardo, research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, is the principal investigator for the Sea-going Sky-Scanning Sun-tracking Atmospheric Research Radiometer (SeaSTAR). The ship-based instrument is one of many in a campaign set out to gather data around the world to check the information that NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean …

Brice Grunert, assistant professor at Cleveland State University in Ohio, is a member of NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) validation science team. The team, called PACE Radiometry and IOPs for Novel Great Lakes Science (PRINGLS) is one of many groups participating in a campaign set out to gather data around the world to …

Joaquim Goes, a professor of remote sensing research at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University Climate School, is a member of the PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) Northern Indian Ocean Validation group. The group is one of many in a campaign set out to gather data around the world to validate the information …

Fernanda Henderikx-Freitas, assistant professor at University of Hawaii, is the lead principal investigator of the PACE validation team called the Hawaii Ocean Time-series program for validation of the PACE Mission in oligotrophic waters (HOT-PACE). The group is one of many in a campaign set out to gather data around the world to check the accuracy …

Dennis Henry is the PACE project photographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. What is your background and what do you do for PACE? I've been at NASA for about four years, but before that I was a freelance photographer, and a long time before that I wanted to be an aerospace …

Inia M. Soto Ramos is an associate researcher and one of PACE's data validation leads at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. What is your favorite atmospheric or ocean related book or movie? I will go with "The Silent World" (1953) by Jacques Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas. It's a book but was later …

Marsha Gosselin is the financial specialist for PACE at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. What do you do for PACE? I'm the financial specialist for PACE. I started on the project in early 2015 and worked on it continually through now. I managed all the budgets from all the engineers including helping …

Anita Arnoldt is the electrical lead for PACE at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. What do you do for PACE? I'm an electrical technician. I did all the harness wiring, routing, and thermal work, all the electrical work. I worked with Amy Huong, and together we did the wiring for both OCI …