PACE Stories

By Air and by Sea: Validating NASA’s PACE Ocean Color Instrument
6 min read
In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with partners at…
Article

NASA’s PACE Mission Reveals a Year of Terrestrial Data on Plant Health
4 min read
A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors. And now, a novel type…
Article

NASA Data Helps Map Tiny Plankton That Feed Giant Right Whales
6 min read
In the waters off New England, one of Earth’s rarest mammals swims slowly, mouth agape. The North Atlantic right whale filters clouds of tiny reddish zooplankton — called Calanus finmarchicus — from the sea. These zooplankton, no bigger than grains…
Article