Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics’ Relevant Missions and Campaigns

Aqua

Aqua is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission collects about the Earth’s water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice.

COSMIC-2

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2) uses a technique called radio occultation to collect information on the Earth’s atmosphere.

CYGNSS

The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) uses eight micro-satellites to measure wind speeds over Earth’s oceans, increasing the ability of scientists to understand and predict hurricanes with other applications including soil moisture and inland water extent.

GOES R-Series

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) is a collaborative NOAA and NASA program providing continuous imagery and data on atmospheric conditions, solar activity, and space weather.

GPM

Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) uses satellites to measure Earth’s rain and snowfall for the benefit of mankind. Using a network of satellites united by the GPM Core Observatory, GPM provides high quality estimates of Earth’s rain and snowfall every 30 minutes.

NOAA-20

NOAA-20 is the second spacecraft within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) next generation of polar-orbiting satellites in collaboration with NASA.

SMAP

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the surface soil everywhere on Earth.

Suomi-NPP

The NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) is a satellite to study long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions. Suomi-NPP is also used to examine the dynamics of clouds, oceans, vegetation, ice, solid Earth, and the atmosphere.

Terra

Terra explores the connections between Earth’s atmosphere, land, snow and ice, ocean, and energy balance. The goals of TERRA are to better understand Earth’s climate and climate change and to map the impact of human activity and natural disasters on communities and ecosystems.

TROPICS

The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission provides rapid-refresh microwave measurements that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure over the entire storm lifecycle.

WHyMSIE

The Westcoast and Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment (WHymSIE) campaign is the first step forward towards an integrated, intelligent, and affordable PBL observing system. Goals include a coherent picture of essential PBL variables such as temperature, water vapor, and height.

AERONET

The Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) program is a federation of ground-based remote sensing aerosol networks established by NASA and PHOTONS and is greatly expanded by networks and collaborators from national agencies, institutes, universities, individual scientists, and partners.

MPLNET

The NASA Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) is a federated network of Micro-Pulse Lidar (MPL) systems designed to measure aerosol and cloud vertical structure in addition to boundary layer height.

Wallops Precipitation

NASA has extended GPM/PMM ground-validation (GV) activities through the WFF-based network of GPM GV rain gauge, disdrometer and multi-parameter radar measurements geared toward validating NASA precipitation products.

AOS

The Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) will examine links among aerosols, clouds, atmospheric convection, and precipitation. AOS will deliver key data for improved forecasts of weather, air quality, and climate by providing unmatched insight into the vertical structure of our atmosphere.

INCUS

The Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission will include three SmallSats flying in tight coordination to study why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur exactly when and where they form.

PolSIR

Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer (PolSIR) will help better understand Earth’s dynamic atmosphere and its impact on climate by studying ice clouds that form at high altitudes throughout tropical and subtropical regions. Identical pairs of the radiometers will fly aboard two CubeSats.

CALIPSO

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite provided new insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols play in regulating Earth’s weather, climate, and air quality.

CloudSat

CloudSat used advanced radar to examine the inner structure of clouds, helping researchers better understand how severe tropical cyclones as well as climate changes related to clouds occur.

COSMIC-1

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere & Climate (COSMIC) was a constellation of six small satellites that study Earth’s atmosphere. Each satellite had three instruments including a GPS radio occultation receiver, tiny ionospheric photometer, and tri-band beacon.

GOES 1-15

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) program is composed of two geostationary satellites monitoring the east and west coasts of the United States and two satellites in storage orbits in the case of outages.

JASON-1

The Jason-1 Earth satellite, which mapped sea level, wind speed, and wave height for more than 95 percent of Earth’s ice-free ocean, provided new insights into ocean circulation, tracked rising seas, and enabled more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts.

JASON-2/OSTM

The Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) was the third in a US-European series of satellite missions designed to measure sea surface height.

QuickScat

The Quick Scatterometer, or QuikScat, was an Earth satellite that provided valuable data on ocean winds, revolutionizing environmental predictions and weather forecasting.

RainCube

Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube) was a demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. Sponsored by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), RainCube developed a 35.75 GHz radar to operate within a 6U CubeSat.

TRMM

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was a satellite designed to improve our understanding of the distribution and variability of precipitation and water cycle in the current climate. TRMM provided information on rainfall and its associated heat release that helps drive the global atmospheric circulation.

ALOFT

The Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) was a collaboration between NASA and the University of Bergen that flew over tropical thunderstorms around the Gulf of Mexico. The focus was on lightning research and used detectors, gamma-ray scintillators, and microwave sensors.

CPEX

The NASA Convective Processes Experiment (CPEX) aircraft field campaign took place during the early summer of 2017 with follow-on projects in 2021 (CPEX-AW) and 2022 (CPEX-CV). The campaigns collected data that answered questions about convective storm initiation, organization, growth, and dissipation.

GPM Cal/Val

Ground validation observations for statistical validation of GPM products were made in a series of investigator-led field measurement campaigns, known as Extended Observation Periods (EOPs). EOPs last several months and are punctuated by one or more Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs).

GRIP

Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) was a NASA Earth science field experiment to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes.

HS3

The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) was a NASA airborne campaign focused on understanding the physical processes that control hurricane intensity change. HS3 helped to answer questions about the roles of environmental conditions and internal storm structures to storm intensification.

IMPACTS

The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) flew for three 6-week deployments on the ER-2 and P-3 aircraft. IMPACTS addresses three specific objectives critical to understanding snowband formation, organization, and evolution.

NAMMA

The NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign was a research investigation based in the Cape Verde Islands. NASA scientists employed surface observations and aircraft to characterize the evolution and structure of African easterly waves and mesoscale convective systems.