1:45 PM - 2:00 PM
[ACG41-19] NASA's PACE Mission a Year Post-launch: Shedding New Light on the Ocean and Atmosphere Above
Keywords:Ocean color, Hyperspectral, Aerosols, Muti-angle polarimetry, Biogeochemistry
On 8 February of 2024, NASA launched the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission. PACE is a strategic climate continuity activity that will extend key heritage ocean color, cloud, and aerosol data records, and enable new insight into oceanographic and atmospheric responses to Earth's changing climate. The primary instrument, the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), is a global imaging spectrometer. The OCI spans the ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) region in 2.5 nm contiguous steps (5nm FWHM) and includes seven discrete shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands. This leap in technology will enable improved understanding of aquatic ecosystems and biogeochemistry, as well as provide new information on phytoplankton community composition, harmful algal blooms, and near-shore and inland water quality monitoring (e.g., lakes, coral reefs). PACE OCI data will also continue many land, aerosol, and cloud capabilities from MODIS and VIIRS, which in combination with its ocean measurements, will enable improved assessment of aerosol impacts on ocean biology and chemistry. The PACE OCI payload is complemented by two multi-angle polarimeters, the Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary EXploration (SPEXone) and the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter 2 (HARP2). Data collected by SPEXone and HARP2 will significantly improve aerosol and cloud characterizations (e.g., volcanic ash, smoke, dust).
Just 63 days after launch, PACE first light imagery became publicly available. The science data (Version 1) that accompanied this release included provisional Level-1 radiometry from all three instruments, plus provisional heritage Level-2 and -3 ocean color products from OCI. The first full mission reprocessing (Version 2) occurred in early July 2024 and served to incorporate improved calibration knowledge from on-orbit measurements collected by the three PACE instruments, as well as to release several additional atmospheric and terrestrial test product suites. As of early 2025, a second full mission reprocessing (Version 3) is underway that will include additional data quality refinements such as full system vicarious calibration of OCI. All PACE data products are freely available from NASA’s Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC; https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov).
A range of advanced algorithms for ocean, land, and atmosphere are being actively developed by the PACE Science and Applications Team (PACE SAT3) that leverage the unique sensor capabilities of the mission. Datasets required to perform algorithm validation are being actively collected by the PACE Validation Science Team (PVST) and by the recent PACE Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) in September 2024. All data collected by PVST and PACE-PAX are available from the NASA SeaBASS database (https://seabass.gsfc.nasa.gov).
The PACE instrument suite will revolutionize studies of global biogeochemistry, carbon cycles, hydrosols/aerosols, and clouds in the ocean-atmosphere system. At JpGU 2025, we will provide an update to the community on the PACE mission one year post launch including the status distributed science data products, applications, and the field validation activities. We will also discuss innovative PACE science data products and applications currently under development. A highlight will be a series of images captured by PACE showcasing the mission’s unique capabilities.
More detailed information and resources regarding the PACE Mission can be found here: https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov.
Just 63 days after launch, PACE first light imagery became publicly available. The science data (Version 1) that accompanied this release included provisional Level-1 radiometry from all three instruments, plus provisional heritage Level-2 and -3 ocean color products from OCI. The first full mission reprocessing (Version 2) occurred in early July 2024 and served to incorporate improved calibration knowledge from on-orbit measurements collected by the three PACE instruments, as well as to release several additional atmospheric and terrestrial test product suites. As of early 2025, a second full mission reprocessing (Version 3) is underway that will include additional data quality refinements such as full system vicarious calibration of OCI. All PACE data products are freely available from NASA’s Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC; https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov).
A range of advanced algorithms for ocean, land, and atmosphere are being actively developed by the PACE Science and Applications Team (PACE SAT3) that leverage the unique sensor capabilities of the mission. Datasets required to perform algorithm validation are being actively collected by the PACE Validation Science Team (PVST) and by the recent PACE Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) in September 2024. All data collected by PVST and PACE-PAX are available from the NASA SeaBASS database (https://seabass.gsfc.nasa.gov).
The PACE instrument suite will revolutionize studies of global biogeochemistry, carbon cycles, hydrosols/aerosols, and clouds in the ocean-atmosphere system. At JpGU 2025, we will provide an update to the community on the PACE mission one year post launch including the status distributed science data products, applications, and the field validation activities. We will also discuss innovative PACE science data products and applications currently under development. A highlight will be a series of images captured by PACE showcasing the mission’s unique capabilities.
More detailed information and resources regarding the PACE Mission can be found here: https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov.