Instruments
- ASR DOE (ground-based)Atmospheric System Research is to advance understanding of the interactions among aerosols, clouds, precipitation, radiation, dynamics, and thermodynamics.
- CAR (air-based)The Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) is an airborne multi-wavelength scanning radiometer that can perform several cloud and surface measurement functions.
- MISR (space-based)Multi-angle Imagine SpectroRadiometer's mission is to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight.
- MODIS (space-based)MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites.
- SCA (ground-based)SMART-COMMIT-ACHIEVE, Enriching EOS and Decadal Survey missions, piloting innovative investigations, conducting educational and public outreach activities
- THOR (air-based)THOR's purpose is to measure the thickness and internal structure of highly scattering media such as thick clouds, snow, or sea ice.
Current and Future Space Flight Missions
- ACE Project (future)Tier 2 Decadal Survey mission that focuses on clouds and aerosols as well as ocean ecosystems.
- AQUAA NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission will be collecting about the Earth's water cycle.
- CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) is a 94-GHz nadir-looking radar which measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar.
- CALIPSO Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation studies the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth's weather, climate and air quality.
- DSCOVR (future)DSCOVR, formerly called Triana, is the first Earth-observing satellite in an Lagrange-1 or L1 orbit.
- GEO–CAPE (future) Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events
- ICESAT–II (future)The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) is the 2nd-generation of the orbiting laser altimeter ICESat scheduled for launch in early 2016.
- LDCM Landsat Data Continuity Mission - NASA and USGS are working together to ensure continued collection of Landsat data.
- SORCEThe Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment mission is providing state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation.
- Suomi NPP The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) is a joint mission to extend key measurements in support of long-term monitoring of climate trends and of global biological productivity.
- TERRATerra is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary mission involving partnerships with the aerospace agencies of Canada and Japan.
Models
- CIRCA reference source for GCM-type radiative transfer (RT) code evaluation. Contributes to the improvement of solar and thermal RT parameterizations.
- Climate@HomeCreating a Virtual Supercomputer to Model Climate
- I3RCThe Intercomparison of 3D Radiation Codes (I3RC) is an ongoing project initiated in the late 1990s.
Education & Outreach
- Earth ObservatoryExplore the causes and effects of climatic and environmental change through the use of real satellite data.
- IRC-IAMASThe role of the International Radiation Commission is to promote research into atmospheric radiation as well as application of that research to practical problems.
- PUMASPractical Uses of Math And Science - Educational resource for K-12 teachers.