The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem Mission: Status, Science, Advances

TLDR

The PACE mission is NASA’s next satellite investment in ocean color, designed to advance understanding of ocean–atmosphere biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, clouds, and aerosols, with launch scheduled for late 2022–early 2023. PACE objectives include extending systematic cloud, aerosol, and ocean biological and biogeochemical data records, improving knowledge of marine carbon cycles, food‑web processes, and ecosystem responses to climate change, as well as managing fisheries, freshwater bodies, air and water quality, and reducing uncertainties in climate and radiative‑forcing models. PACE observations will provide radiative property information of land surfaces, vegetation, and soils using a primary ultraviolet‑to‑shortwave‑infrared spectrometer with 1 km ground‑sample distance, complemented by two multi‑angle polarimeters covering visible to near‑infrared wavelengths.

Abstract

Abstract The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission represents the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) next investment in satellite ocean color and the study of Earth’s ocean–atmosphere system, enabling new insights into oceanographic and atmospheric responses to Earth’s changing climate. PACE objectives include extending systematic cloud, aerosol, and ocean biological and biogeochemical data records, making essential ocean color measurements to further understand marine carbon cycles, food-web processes, and ecosystem responses to a changing climate, and improving knowledge of how aerosols influence ocean ecosystems and, conversely, how ocean ecosystems and photochemical processes affect the atmosphere. PACE objectives also encompass management of fisheries, large freshwater bodies, and air and water quality and reducing uncertainties in climate and radiative forcing models of the Earth system. PACE observations will provide information on radiative properties of land surfaces and characterization of the vegetation and soils that dominate their reflectance. The primary PACE instrument is a spectrometer that spans the ultraviolet to shortwave-infrared wavelengths, with a ground sample distance of 1 km at nadir. This payload is complemented by two multiangle polarimeters with spectral ranges that span the visible to near-infrared region. Scheduled for launch in late 2022 to early 2023, the PACE observatory will enable significant advances in the study of Earth’s biogeochemistry, carbon cycle, clouds, hydrosols, and aerosols in the ocean–atmosphere–land system. Here, we present an overview of the PACE mission, including its developmental history, science objectives, instrument payload, observatory characteristics, and data products.