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Hydrosphere

Monitoring and predictive understanding of the Earth’s water supply across the land, ocean, and atmosphere

Mission

Hydrosphere improves the observation, understanding, and prediction of the distribution and movement of water in the Earth System. Specifically, NASA Hydrosphere studies water and energy cycles across land, ocean, and the atmosphere through the integration of measurements from satellites, surface networks, and airborne campaigns.

Overview
Research Drivers
Funded Research Opportunities
Research Areas
Research Data
Missions and Campaigns
Public Events
Collaborations
Contacts
Hydrosphere Peer-Reviewed Publications

Hydrosphere News

A map of the continents with lines indicating water flow.

NASA-French SWOT Satellite Provides Global Estimate of River Discharge

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TROPICS figure 2

NASA’s TROPICS Completes Storm-Studying Mission

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A rocket lifts off at night, producing a large plume of bright exhaust and thick clouds of smoke at the base. The rocket ascends vertically from a launch pad surrounded by floodlights, buildings, and tanks against a dark sky

NASA, SpaceX Launch US-European Satellite to Monitor Earth’s Oceans

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21 min read

A Decade of Global Water Cycle Monitoring: NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission

Article6 months ago
4 min read

SWOT Spots Tsunami Wave After Kamchatka Quake

Article6 months ago
12 min read

NASA’s Hurricane Science, Tech, Data Help American Communities

Article8 months ago
3 min read

NASA Tracks Snowmelt to Improve Water Management

Article10 months ago
3 min read

NASA Analysis Shows Unexpected Amount of Sea Level Rise in 2024

Article11 months ago

Overview

NASA Hydrosphere directs research and manages satellite and airborne missions that explore the variability, residence, and transport of oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial water. It supports intradisciplinary studies of the global water and energy cycle, sea-level rise and coastal impacts, air–sea interactions, and the integrated role of the hydrosphere–biosphere in the Earth system. We engage in collaborative efforts across NASA Earth Science and support a wide range of interagency and international initiatives to monitor, understand, and predict Earth’s water. The program also provides scientific support for major NASA satellite missions. Finally, NASA Hydrosphere engages in work that collaborates with other elements across the research Spheres, within NASA Earth Science (Earth Action, Data Systems, and Technology) and beyond (i.e., interagency and cross-agency efforts). 

The Core Science That Drives NASA's Hydrosphere Research 

  • Ocean Physics: Ocean heat and energy budget, ocean circulation, sea level and surface topography, salinity, ocean surface winds 

  • Precipitation Science: Precipitation processes and variability, lightning science, planetary boundary layer impacts on clouds and convection 

  • Terrestrial Hydrology: Water stores and fluxes such as soil moisture, snow, groundwater, streamflow, evapotranspiration, as well as feedbacks between land and atmospheric circulations at diurnal to seasonal timescales and meso- to synoptic spatial scales 

  • Interdisciplinary Hydrosphere Science: Land-atmosphere-ocean interactions, local-regional-global water and energy budgets, water availability and circulation, satellite data assimilation

The mighty Yukon River and nearby lakes appear in red in this image produced using data recorded on June 18, 2023, by the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite as it passed over Alaska.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Funded Research Opportunities

Solicited program elements relevant to Hydrosphere are publicized through the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) on the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website. Past, open, and future solicitations can be searched and viewed on NSPIRES.

Past Hydrosphere Related Solicitations and Selections

Research Areas

  • Ocean Physics

    The ocean plays a fundamental role in the Earth’s system. It shapes our planet’s climate and weather by absorbing, storing, and transporting large quantities of heat, water, and moisture. Ocean Physics enables research that advances our understanding of the ocean’s role in the Earth’s system. Our scientists utilize NASA satellite and sub-orbital data, models, and data science to study ocean dynamics, sea level rise, hydrological cycle, and ocean interactions within the Earth system. 

    Ocean currents at multiple depths generated from the Estimating Climate and Circulation of the Ocean (ECCO) model. The ECCO model assimilates measurements from multiple NASA ocean observing satellite missions.
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Precipitation Science 

    The NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM) Science Team conducts scientific research including algorithm development, mission implementation, product validation, and data utilization in support of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. Research topics include storm structure and mesoscale dynamics, the global water cycle, and precipitation microphysics. In addition, Precipitation Science supports novel work on lightning research. Instruments have been designed, constructed, and deployed by NASA as ground-based, airborne, and space-based sensors capable of detecting and characterizing lightning. Other non-exhaustive topics comprise refining the global thunderstorm and lightning climatology, determining relationships between the electrical characteristics of storms and precipitation, and refining lightning forecasts for applications such as better predicting lighting-induced wildfires and maturing lightning launch commit criteria in support private and public sector rocket launches. 

    tracing of the satellite tracks that provide data in support of GPM over a world map
    The ten satellites in the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) constellation provide unprecedented information about the rain and snow across the entire Earth. 
    NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio

  • Terrestrial Hydrology 

    NASA Terrestrial Hydrology (TH) is dedicated to advancing the nation's capability to observe, understand, and predict essential terrestrial water resources, including soil moisture, snow, groundwater, streamflow, and evapotranspiration, using NASA satellites and models. TH fosters a comprehensive understanding of the global water cycle's complex interactions by collaborating with other Earth Science Division research studying precipitation, cryospheric science, ecosystems, physical oceanography, and water resources management. TH balances the utilization of data from NASA’s current Earth-observing fleet with proactive preparation for future missions and the pursuit of innovative technologies crucial for enabling future scientific and societal benefits. Investments from TH also contribute to cultivating a skilled science and applications community proficient in using NASA satellite data and developing associated tools. TH addresses the following overarching questions: (1) How can we better observe, understand, and predict the distribution and movement of water on Earth from space? (2) How does human water resources management modify water and energy cycles locally, regionally, and globally, and what are the short- and long-term consequences of these changes to water security? (3) How important are land-atmosphere interactions relative to large scale atmosphere-ocean dynamics in hydrologic extremes prediction? and (4) How can we accurately and consistently estimate water availability across different scales of space and time, and what are the limitations of these methods? 

    A diagram depicting the transport of water from oceans, atmosphere, and land and the corresponding balance of water units as determined from NASA MERRA-2 data.
    A depiction of the global land/ocean water cycle as represented by NASA's Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) with water volumes in units of 1000 cubic km per year. MERRA-2 assimilates more than 6 million observations every six hours and merges the available observations with a global numerical weather prediction model, which provides a quantification of the water cycle.
    NASA/Michael Bosilovich

Hydrosphere Data Access and Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) 

Missions and Campaigns

  • Missions

    NASA Earth Science missions see Earth from space and enable researchers to monitor and understand our home planet. Missions range from instruments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) to Earth-orbiting satellites that span both large and small (i.e., CubeSats) form factors. NASA’s Earth Science missions often have US or other international partnerships and frequently collect data for 10 or more years. 

    Explore Earth Science Missions

  • Campaigns

    Campaigns use instrumented aircrafts, balloons, ships, and surface networks over land and ocean, to better observe and understand our home planet. Campaigns represent coordinated efforts with intensive observation periods over one or more regions that can last anywhere from weeks to years. These measurements help support missions by providing initial tests of instruments before they are launched to space. Campaigns also provide important measurements to calibrate and validate satellite data in addition to collecting observations in support of related scientific endeavors.

    Explore Earth Science Campaigns

Rocket just rising from the launch pad
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
NASA Television

Public Events

Upcoming Meetings and Workshops

Select Recent Meetings and Workshops 

Program Links, Science Teams, and Collaborations

Ocean Physics

Precipitation Science 

Terrestrial Hydrology 

Other Interagency and International Partnerships 

Contacts

Craig R. Ferguson 
Hydrosphere and Enabling Capabilities Program Manager (dual role) 
Terrestrial Hydrology Research and Integrated Earth System Modeling Program Scientist (Scientific Computing Manager) 
Contact | Bio

Jessica Hausman 
Hydrosphere Associate Program Scientist (ASRC Contractor) 
Ocean Physics Research 
Contact | Bio 

Justin Stachnik  
Atmosphere and Hydrosphere Associate Program Scientist (ASRC Contractor) (dual role) 
Atmospheric Dynamics and Precipitation Science Research 
Contact | Bio 

Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer 
Hydrosphere Program Manager 
Ocean Physics Research 
Contact | Bio 

Will McCarty  
Atmosphere and Hydrosphere Program Manager (dual role) 
Atmospheric Dynamics and Precipitation Science Research 
Contact | Bio 

Earth Science Division Embeds

Erin Urquhart 
Earth Action Embed
Contact 

Joel Scott
Earth Science Data Systems Embed
Contact | Bio