Atmospheres 2004 Technical Highlights: Section 3 Our Research and its Place in NASA's
NASA’s overall program, outlined in the Agency’s strategic plan of 2003, has influenced the direction of our research effort in Earth and Space Science in recent years. The new vision for space exploration has resulted in the transformation of NASA’s goals and has produced a reorganization of NASA Headquarters and the NASA Centers during 2004. The former seven strategic enterprises have been transformed into four components or mission offices: Exploration Systems, Space Operations, Science, and Aeronautics Research. Following NASA Headquarters, Goddard Space Flight Center has reorganized and formed one Directorate combining Earth and Space Science into the Sciences and Exploration Directorate. The three Divisions under the new Sciences and Exploration Directorate are Earth–Sun Exploration, Solar System Exploration, and Exploration of the Universe. The Laboratory for Atmospheres is under the Earth–Sun Exploration Division. During 2004, one of our branches—the Atmospheric Experiment Branch, has been our Laboratory’s main contributor to Space Science. Effective at the end of 2004, the Atmospheric Experiment Branch will transition into the Solar System Exploration Division. Our remaining three Branches, Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes, Climate and Radiation, and Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics will continue their strong programs of research in Earth Sciences and in this way, will make significant contributions to the President’s Exploration Initiative. The remainder of this section outlines the connection of our research to NASA’s mission and strategic plans.
3.1 Earth Science and Space Science in the Laboratory for Atmospheres
The Laboratory for Atmospheres has a long history (40+ years) in Earth Science and Space Science missions studying atmospheres of Earth and the planets. The wide array of our work reflects this dual history of atmospheric research:
(1) from the early days of the TIROS and Nimbus satellites with emphasis on ozone, Earth radiation, and weather forecasting; and
(2) from the thermosphere and ionosphere satellites, the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (OGO), the Explorer missions, and Pioneer Venus Orbiter to the recent Galileo mission, and current Cassini mission.
A current focus is on global climate change and one goal is to increase the accuracy and lead-time with which we can predict weather and climate change. The Laboratory for Atmospheres conducts basic and applied research in the cross-disciplinary research areas outlined in Table 1, and Laboratory scientists focus their efforts on satellite mission planning, instrument development, data analysis, and modeling.
Table 1: Science themes and our major research areas.
Major Research Areas
Global Water and Energy Cycle
Weather and Short-term Climate Forecasting
Geodynamics and Solid Earth
Atmospheric Chemistry and Ozone
Atmospheric Hydrologic Cycle
Clouds and Radiation
Climate Variability and Prediction
Global and Regional Climate Modeling
Our work can be classified into four primary activities or products: measurements, data sets, data analysis, and modeling. Table 2 depicts these activities and some of the topics they address.
Table 2: Laboratory for Atmospheres Science Activities.
MODIS cloud and aerosol
TOMS surface UV
TOMS total ozone
TRMM Global precipitation products
TRMM validation products
Aerosol cloud climate interaction
Atmospheric hydrologic cycle
Climate variability and climate change
Clouds and precipitation
Global temperature trends
Ozone and trace gases
Clouds and mesoscale
Weather and climate
Classification in the four major activity areas: measurements, data sets, data analysis, and modeling, is somewhat artificial, in that the activities are strongly interlinked and cut across science priorities and the organizational structure of the Laboratory. The grouping corresponds to the natural processes of carrying out scientific research: ask the scientific question, identify the variable needed to answer it, conceive the best instrument to measure the variable, generate data sets, analyze the data, model the data, and ask the next question.