NASA Oceanography - Science Mission Directorate

NASA Oceanography Missions

From our vantage point above the Earth, we can view Earth as a whole system, observe the results of complex interactions, and begin to understand how our planet is changing.

Senior Reviews for Earth Operating Missions:

Visit the Decadal Surveys page for CLARREO, ICESat-II, DESDynI, SMAP reports.

*Sort missions by clicking Launch Date, A-Z, or PHASE column headers.

Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
19991221 December 20, 1999	ACRIMSAT ACRIMSAT is the latest in a series of long-term solar-monitoring missions, utilizing the proven Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor III (ACRIM III) instrument. This...	Operating
19960817 August 17, 1996	ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) was the first international space platform dedicated to Earth environmental research developed and managed by the National Space...	Past
20020504 09:55:00 GMT-4 May 04, 2002	Aqua Aqua will obtain a set of precise atmosphere and oceans measurements to understand their role in Earth's climate and its variations. Aqua carries six state-of-the-art...	Operating
20100522 20:00:00 USEastern May 22, 2010	Aquarius Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity (SSS). Its instruments will measure changes in SSS equivalent to about a "pinch" (i.e., 1/6 of...	Development
19920324 March 24, 1992	ATLAS ATLAS missions were part of Phase I of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, a large-scale, unified study of planet Earth as a single, dynamic system. Throughout the ATLAS series,...	Past
19661207 December 07, 1966	ATS The Applications Technology Satellite series was a set of 6 NASA spacecraft created to explore & flight test new technologies and techniques for communications,...	Past
20040716 July 15, 2004	Aura The Aura satellite hosts a suite of scientific instruments designed to make the most comprehensive measurements ever undertaken of atmospheric trace gases. Aura's objective...	Operating
20060429 April 28, 2006	CALIPSO The CALIPSO satellite was developed to help scientists answer significant questions and provide new information about the effects of clouds and aerosols (airborne particles)...	Operating
20000715 July 15, 2000	CHAMP CHAMP will generate for the first time simultaneously highly precise gravity and magnetic field measurements over a 5 years period. This will allow us to detect besides the...	Past
	CLARREO The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Mission has been recommended in the NRC Decadal Survey as a key component of the future climate observing...	Under Study
20060429 April 28, 2006	CloudSat CloudSat uses advanced radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure, providing a completely new observational capability from space. CloudSat is one of the...	Operating
19900725 July 25, 1990	CRRES The Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) was launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) for a nominal three-year mission to investigate fields,...	Past
19810803 August 03, 1981	Dynamics Explorer The Dynamics Explorer Plasma Wave Investigator mission's general objective was to investigate the strong interactive processes coupling the hot, tenuous, convecting plasmas...	Past
	DESDynI The Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice mission combines two sensors that, taken together, provide observations important for solid-Earth (surface...	Under Study
20001122 November 21, 2000	Earth Observing-1 (NMP) The NMP EO-1 mission is an advanced land-imaging mission that will demonstrate new instruments and spacecraft systems. EO-1 will validate technologies contributing to the...	Operating
19841005 October 05, 1984	ERBS Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), expected to have a two-year operation life, provided scientific data about the Earth's ozone layer for more than two decades. ERBS...	Past
19660203 February 03, 1966	ESSA The Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) Satellite Program provided cloud-cover photography to the American National Meteorological Center from 1966 –...	Past
19850312 March 12, 1985	Geosat The U.S. Navy GEOdetic SATellite, GEOSAT, was launched on 12 March 1985, into an 800-km, 108-deg inclination orbit, carried an altimeter that was capable of measuring the...	Past
20090616 19:00:00 USEastern June 16, 2009	GLORY Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory designed to achieve two separate mission objectives. One is to collect data on the chemical, microphysical, and optical...	Development
19751016 October 16, 1975	GOES A - C The launch of the prototype Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, SMS-A, in May 1974 inaugurated the series of geosynchronous satellites that has provided systematic,...	Past
19800909 September 09, 1980	GOES D - H GOES-4 advanced meteorologists’ capabilities by continuously profiling vertical temperature and water vapor. This major advancement permitted, for the first time, the...	Past
19940413 April 13, 1994	GOES I - M The GOES I-M satellites are the primary element of U.S. weather monitoring and forecast operations and are a key component of NOAA's National Weather Service operations and...	Operating
20060504 May 04, 2006	GOES N - P GOES - N/O/P is the next series of GOES satellites. The multi-mission GOES series N - P will be a vital contributor to weather, solar, and space operations and science. These...	Operating
20130602 June 01, 2013	GPM GPM Constellation follows the success of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in initiating the measurement of global precipitation, a key climate factor. Its science...	Under Study
20020318 March 17, 2002	GRACE The primary goal of the GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field over its 5-year lifetime. This provides scientists from all over the world...	Operating
20030113 January 12, 2003	ICESat ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as...	Operating
20150101 2015	ICESat II ICESat (Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as...	Under Study
20011208 December 07, 2001	Jason-1 Jason is an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, improve global climate predictions, and monitor events such as El Nino conditions and ocean eddies. The...	Operating
19760504 May 04, 1976	LAGEOS 1&2 LAGEOS, or Laser Geodynamics Satellites, are a series of satellites designed to provide an orbiting benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth. LAGEOS 1 & 2 provide...	Operating
19990415 April 15, 1999	Landsat 7 Landsat 7 systematically provides well-calibrated, multispectral, moderate resolution, substantially cloud-free, Sun-lit digital images of the Earth's continental and coastal...	Operating
20110712 July 11, 2011	LDCM LDCM is a joint NASA-United States Geological Survey (USGS) mission to extend the Landsat record of multispectral, 30-meter resolution, seasonal, global coverage of the...	Under Study
19910717 July 17, 1991	ERS The European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) is the most sophisticated Earth observation satellite ever developed in Europe. It weighs well over two tons and, fully...	Past
19830618 June 18, 1983	MOMS The Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner (MOMS) is a scanning system (based on CCD technique) for airborne and predominantly spaceborne geoscientific remote sensing...	Past
19870219 February 19, 1987	MOS Marine Observation Satellite (MOS-1), Japan's first marine observation satellite, was launched in 1987 as a link in a global satellite observation system for more effective...	Past
19640828 August 27, 1964	Nimbus The Nimbus series of missions was the United States’ primary research and development platform for satellite remote-sensing of the Earth. The satellites increased the...	Past
19930328 March 28, 1993	NOAA/POES Since the 1960s, NASA has developed polar-orbiting environmental observation satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA satellites...	Past
20050520 May 20, 2005	NOAA-N NOAA-N broadcasts data directly to thousands of users around the world and continues to provide a polar-orbiting platform to support the environmental monitoring instruments...	Operating
20121231 December 31, 2012	NPOESS The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is a satellite system used to monitor global environmental conditions, and collect and...	Development
20100602 June 02, 2010	NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) NPP is a joint mission to extend key measurements in support of long term monitoring of climate trends and of global biological...	Development
20081216 December 15, 2008	OCO OCO provides space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal human-initiated driver of climate change. This mission uses mature technologies to...	Development
20080620 20:00:00 USEastern June 20, 2008	OSTM OSTM measures sea surface height to an accuracy of < 3.3 cm every ten days. Sea surface topography measured by satellite altimeters has numerous applications important to...	Operating
19990620 June 19, 1999	QuikSCAT QuikSCAT mission is intended to record sea-surface wind speed and direction data under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth's oceans. QuikSCAT was initiated as a...	Operating
19951104 November 04, 1995	Radarsat Canada's Radarsat is a radar satellite featuring variable resolution, and different view angles at a number of preset...	Past
20011210 December 10, 2001	SAGE III The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) was an Earth Observing System (EOS) - joint mission between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration...	Past
19780627 June 27, 1978	Seasat 1 The Ocean Dynamics Satellite (Seasat 1) was designed to provide measurements of sea-surface winds, sea-surface temperatures, wave heights, internal waves, atmospheric liquid...	Past
19970801 August 01, 1997	SeaStar (SeaWiFS) The SeaStar satellite carries the SeaWiFS instrument which is designed to monitor the color of the world's oceans. This mission is part of SMD's Earth Systematic Missions...	Past
20021214 December 14, 2002	SeaWinds (ADEOS II) The SeaWinds scatterometer is a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind velocity (both speed and direction) under all weather and cloud conditions over...	Operating
19940419 April 19, 1994	SIR-C Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR), part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, is studying how our global environment is changing. From the unique vantage point of space, the...	Past
20120101 2012	SMAP The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) will use a combined radiometer and high-resolution radar to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state, providing for...	Under Study
19740517 May 17, 1974	SMS The Synchronous Meterological Satellites were the first operational spacecrafts to sense meteorological conditions from a fixed location. They carried instrumentation for...	Past
20030126 January 25, 2003	SORCE SORCE is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation....	Operating
20000211 February 11, 2000	SRTM The goal of SRTM, a joint project of NASA, NIMA, and the German and Italian space agencies, is to map the world in three dimensions. In its 11-day mission on STS-99 in...	Past
19991219 December 18, 1999	Terra Terra (formerly EOS AM-1) is the flagship satellite of NASA's Earth observing systems. Terra is the first EOS (Earth Observing System) platform and provides global data on...	Operating
19990518 May 18, 1999	TERRIERS TERRIERS was a very small "University-class" Explorer intended to study a number of ionospheric and thermospheric phenomena, and test the utility of long term solar EUV...	Past
19600401 April 01, 1960	TIROS TIROS spacecraft were the beginning of a long series of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites. The objective was to establish a global weather satellite...	Past
19960702 20:00:00 GMT-4 July 02, 1996	TOMS-EP The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, launched in July 1996 onboard an Earth Probe Satellite (TOMS/EP), continues NASA's long-term daily mapping of the global distribution of...	Past
19920810 August 10, 1992	TOPEX/Poseidon TOPEX/Poseidon monitored global ocean circulation, improved global climate predictions, and tracked El Niño conditions and ocean eddies. The mission's most important...	Past
19971128 November 27, 1997	TRMM TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. TRMM is particularly devoted to determining rainfall in the tropics and...	Operating
19910912 September 12, 1991	UARS Launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery on September 15, 1991, UARS orbited the Earth more than 78,000 times, using 10 onboard scientific instruments to collect data on a...	Past

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