The PACE-PAX website will be undergoing a major upgrade beginning Friday, October 11th at 5:00 PM PDT. The new upgraded site will be available no later than Monday, October 21st. Please plan to complete any critical activities before or after this time.

News

Introduction to the PACE Mission for Water Quality Monitoring

NASA Video - Introduction to Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Econtroduction to Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Hyperspectral Observa...

YouTube
The Twin Otter research plane flies past RV Blissfully on sampling station. RV Blissfully’s surface light sensor is seen in the foreground. Photo by Bridget Seegers.

Twenty-one Hours a Day on a 30-Foot Floating Science Lab

Research Vessel (RV) Blissfully is a 30-foot sailboat that is the science lab and home for two sailing scientists, Captain Gordon Ackland and myself, ...

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Algal communities flourish in Lake Erie’s western basin each summer. Scientists are looking to new NASA technology to better track them from space. Instrument: Landsat 9 — OLI-2 Larger image

Orbital Biosignature Survey: Lake Erie Algal Bloom

Astrobiology - Algal blooms have become a common occurrence on Lake Erie, as much a part of summer at the lake as island-hopping, scenic cruises, and...

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The turbid and complex waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta were visible during a spiral maneuver. Photo by Luke Ziemba.

Day-in-the-Life of a PACE-PAX Mission Flight

06:00 Local Time: Go/No-Go Meeting We are in the field supporting PACE-PAX (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment),...

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Image of PACE detaching from its rocket on February 7, 2024. Photo by Kelsey Allen.

Sailing Away for PACE

Hello from sunny Santa Barbara, California, where the ship operations for the PACE-PAX campaign are underway! The PACE satellite went into orbit in Fe...

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Members of the PACE-PAX team – from left to right, Cecile Carlson, Adam Ahern (NOAA), Dennis Hamaker (NPS), Luke Ziemba, and Michael Shook (NASA Langley Research Center) – in front of the Twin Otter aircraft as they prep for the start of the campaign. Credit: Judy Alfter/NASA

NASA Earth Scientists Take Flight, Set Sail to Verify PACE...

NASA - More than 100 scientists will participate in a field campaign involving a research vessel and two aircraft this month to verify the accuracy o...

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Stephen Broccardo: A ‘STAR’ in PACE Data Collection

NASA Blogs - Stephen Broccardo, research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, is the principal investigator f...

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PACE-PAX

The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) is a September, 2024, field campaign to gather data for the validation of the recently launched PACE mission. The operational area is Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions. 84 flight hours are planned for NASA ER-2 operating out of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center and 60 for the CIRPAS Twin Otter flying out of Marina Municipal Airport. A NOAA vessel, the R/V Shearwater, will operate out of Santa Barbara. Flights will be coordinated between the aircraft, with PACE overflights, and with surface based observations including from the R/V Shearwater and other vessels and floats. A secondary objective is validation of observations by the recently launched ESA EarthCARE mission. Data will be made available within six months following the conclusion of the campaign.
 
More details are in our white paper and website.

 

PACE-PAX validation objectives
1. Validate new PACE and EarthCARE products
2. Provide sufficient data to validate narrow swath orbital observations
3. Validate radiometric and polarimetric properties
4. Focus on specific processes or phenomena

 


Mission Scientist: Kirk Knobelspiesse (NASA GSFC)
Deputy Mission Scientist: Brian Cairns (NASA GISS)
Deputy Mission Scientist: Ivona Cetinić (NASA GSFC)
Project Manager: Sommer Nicholas (NASA ARC)
Deputy Project Manager: Judy Alfter (NASA ARC)


PACE Project Scientist: Jeremy Werdell (NASA GSFC)
PACE Deputy Project Scientist: Brian Cairns (NASA GISS)
PACE Deputy Project Scientist: Antonio Mannino (NASA GSFC)
PACE Program Scientist: Laura Lorenzoni (NASA Headquarters)
PACE Deputy Program Scientist: Hal Maring (NASA Headquarters)
PACE Applications Program Lead: Woody Turner (NASA Headquarters)