glory understanding earth's energy budget

8/7/2019 Glory Understanding Earth's Energy Budget

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Glory.

Understanding Earths Energy Budget.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration..


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Acknowledgments.

Special thanks to the Glory Science eam or making this publication possible.

Writer: Adam Voiland.Designer: Sally J. Bensusen.Editors: Michael Carlowicz, Nicole Miklus, Alan Ward .


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Te Energy Budget...................................................................................... 4.

Introducing Aerosols.................................................................................... 6.

Te Atmosphere.......................................................................................... 8.

Te Sun..................................................................................................... 10.

Glorys Instruments................................................................................... 12.

Te Spacecrat........................................................................................... 14.

Post Launch............................................................................................... 16.

Next Generation Climate Satellites............................................................ 17.

Glorys Science eam................................................................................. 18.

Glossary..................................................................................................... 19.

Table o Contents.

Te Energy Budget.................................................................................... 4

Introducing Aerosols ................................................................................. 6

Te Atmosphere ........................................................................................ 8

Te Sun ................................................................................................... 10

Glorys Instruments ................................................................................. 12

Te Spacecraft ......................................................................................... 14

Post Launch ............................................................................................ 16

Next Generation Climate Satellites.......................................................... 17

Glorys Science eam ............................................................................... 18

Glossary ................................................................................................. 19


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GloryI Understanding Earths Energy Budget4

The Energy Budget.Energy In, Energy Out.

Energy in, energy out: Te balance between thetwo allows lie to thrive on Earth. But thatbalancebetween incoming radiation romthe sun and outgoing radiation reected andemitted by Earthis extraordinarily delicate.

Ramp up the amount o energy trapped in theatmosphere only a small amount, and risingtemperatures could evaporate the oceans andleave a scorching Earth thats reminiscent oVenus. Dial it back just a notch and Earthcould become a reezing world like Mars.

Earth is a long way rom either o theseextremes, but our planets climate is slowlychanging. During the last century, globalaverage temperatures at the surace haveincreased 0.7C (1.3F). And climate modelsestimate that temperatures will increase byanother 1.1C to 6.4C (2.0F to 11.5F)during the twenty-rst century.

Above: About a quarter oincoming solar radiationgets reected back tospace by the atmosphereand a quarter gets ab-sorbed. The rest reachesthe surace, where it is ab-sorbed by land and water.

Such amounts may seem small, yet evenincreases on this scale could have prooundconsequences or humans. Rising sea levels,changing ocean currents, and ercer storms,coupled with altered cloudiness, rainall pat-terns, and changing growing seasons are realpossibilities conronting our home planet asthe climate changes.

With such high stakes, understanding Earthsenergy budgetthe balance o incom-ing and outgoing radiationis o criticalimportance. Indeed, in the last ew decades,scientists have gone to great lengths tounderstand and quantiy what happens tothe solar radiation that constantly loodsEarths atmosphere and helps drive the climatesystem. Using satellites, aircrat, ground-based sensors, and a host o other scientictools, researchers have determined the out-lines o Earths energy budget.

Credit:NASA


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5GloryI Understanding Earths Energy Budget

Scientists estimate that on average eachsquare meter o the atmosphere receives341 watts o radiation rom the sun, lessthan hal o what reaches the top o Venusatmosphere, and about twice as much asMars receives.

Not all o that radiation will aect Earthsclimate. About 23 percent o it reects oclouds and certain types o airborne par-ticlescalled aerosolsand back into space.Another 7 percent o the suns radiation getsreected by the surace. Te rest gets absorbedby atmospheric gases, aerosols, or Earths sur-ace and can aect the climate system.

Teres a catch behind these numbers. Teclimate system is stunningly complex, andscientists are still in the process o reningtheir understanding o the energy budgetto better predict how even the most subtlechanges in energy might aect the climate.

Its well-understood, or example, that green-house gases can heat the lower atmosphereand change the balance between incoming andoutgoing energy. Indeed, an Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)report published in 2007 listed the level oscientic understanding about greenhousegas eects as high.

Yet to predict how climate change will con-tinue to unold, scientists need more inorma-tion about aerosols. Tese particles tend tocool Earth by reecting light and changingthe behavior o clouds. Like greenhouse gases,aerosols can have a strong impact on climate,

but many questions remain about the globaldistribution o the particles, the degree towhich darker aerosols absorb sunlight and heatthe atmosphere, and how the particles aectclouds. Tese uncertainties caused the IPCCto call or more research into aerosols.

Solar variations are also capable o orcing theclimate to warm or cool. Overall, scientistsbelieve the sun has brightened slightly in thelast 100 years, causing a very small degree owarming. Tough they are condent that

solar variations are too small to account or thewarming seen on Earth since the beginning othe industrial era, questions remain about thesuns long-term variability.

Glory, a climate-observing satellite, willextend and improve measurements o bothaerosols and solar variability. In doing so, themission will rene scientists understandingo Earths energy budget and improve ourability to predict how climate change willimpact dierent regions o Earth.

To predict how climate

change will proceed, sci-

entists need more inor-

mation about aerosols,

which tend to cool the

Earth by refecting light

and changing the behav-

ior o clouds.

This graph show the effects of several

Radiative Forcing Components.

Credit:IPCC/GraphadaptedbyLeland

McInnes.

Let: Most aerosols havea cooling eect (in blue)on the climate because othe way the particles scat-ter incoming radiation andchange cloud properties.As a result, aerosols tendto counteract the strongwarming eect o green-house gases (in red) suchas carbon dioxide, meth-ane, and ozone. The sun isthought to be responsibleor some warming, thoughthe proportion is ar lessthan that caused by hu-man activity (the net an-thropogenic component).


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Introducing Aerosols.Perplexing Particles that Can Tip the Balance.

Aerosols are tiny liquid andsolid particles suspended inthe atmosphere. Tese par-ticles play a critical role in theclimate system and are presentnearly everywhere rom theupper reaches o the atmo-sphere to the surace air thathumans breathe. Tey range

in size rom .01 micrometers,about the size o the small-est bacteria, to several tens omicrometers, the diameter ohuman hair.

Te bulk o aerosolsabout 90 percent bymasshave natural origins. Volcanoes, orexample, can inject huge columns o gaseshigh into the atmosphere that can becomesulate particles. Sandstorms whip small pieceso mineral dust into the air. Forest res send

partially burned black carbon and other smokeparticles alot. Te spray rom surace waves in-jects sea salt into marine air. Even certain plantsproduce gases that react with other substancesin the atmosphere to produce aerosols.

Te remaining 10 percent o aerosols areanthropogenic, or human-made. Fossil uelcombustion produces large amounts osulate aerosols. Biomass burning, a com-mon method o clearing land, yields smokethats comprised mainly o organic matter

and black carbon aerosols. Diesel enginesare another especially prolic producer oblack carbon. Deorestation, overgrazing,and excessive irrigation change the soil, otenleading to higher rates o dust aerosols enter-ing the atmosphere.

Most aerosol particles tend to cool Earths

surace. Overall, its thought that aerosols

Photocredit:U.S.

GeologicalSurvey.

Photocredit:CherePetty,

Universityo

fMaryland,

BaltimoreCampus.

Right: Particles o sea salt.

Far right: Particle o volca-nic ash.

The MODIS instrumenton NASAs Aqua satellitecaptured this image o anash plume rom Icelandsvolcano, Eyjajallajkull, onApril 17, 2010.

Top right: Aerosols comein a range o colors, romblack carbon and brownor grey smoke and pol-lution particles, to trans-parent liquid droplets osulate and dissolved sea-salt. Particles that absorblight, which tend to bedarker, typically warm theatmosphere, though theycan cause either warmingor cooling at ground-leveldepending on their bright-ness and other actors.Particles that dont absorb

much light, such as sul-ates, produce net coolingat the surace. Note: Thediversity o aerosol colorsis illustrated here, but withmuch bigger particles.

Photocredit:NASA

.


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have a net cooling impact about hal that

o the warming caused by the build-up o

greenhouse gases. But aerosol particles are

distributed quite dierently, primarily be-

cause rains wash them out o the atmosphere

ater short periods, which causes the particles

to be much patchier and less evenly mixed in

the atmosphere than greenhouse gases.

As a result, in some areas, the competing

eects o greenhouse gases and aerosols dont

balance each other out. o predict the im-

pact o climate change on society, scientists

need to know precisely how much warming

and cooling aerosols produce in dierent

regions o the planet.

In order to do this, researchers requiredetailed knowledge o certain aerosol

propertiestheir size, shape, and chemical

composition. Since existing satellite instru-

ments provide only partial inormation

about aerosol properties, the climate im-

pact o aerosols remains much less certain

in comparison to greenhouse gases.

Aerosol emissions uctuate around the

world as economies develop, technologies

evolve, and land use changes. Although

sulate aerosol emissions have declinedduring recent decades in North America

and Europe because o clean air regula-

tions, they are increasing in many other

regions o the world. Biomass burning

remains a major source o aerosols in

South America and Arica. And emissions

o black carbon are increasing rapidly in

parts o Asia.

Although aerosols usually last or just a

short time in the atmospheretypicallyabout a weekthey can travel vast dis-

tances. Particles traveling a mere 5 meters

(16.4 eet) per second can move thousands

o kilometers in a week. Satellites have

shown that Saharan dust plumes requent-

ly cross the Atlantic and reach the Carib-

bean and the Amazon.

In recent decades, NASA has launched

several missions that provide inormation

about aerosols as part o its ongoing Earth

and climate observing eort. Te Glory

mission will start a new sequence o ad-

vanced aerosol studies rom orbit by yingan innovative instrument, called the Aerosol

Polarimetry Sensor (APS), that will sample

rarely measured characteristics o the light

scattered by aerosol particles.

he property o light that APS will mea-

sureits polarization statewill reveal

new details about aerosol characteristics

that should make it easier to distinguish

between dierent aerosol types rom space

and derive more precise distributions oaerosol size, shape, and abundance. Ulti-

mately, data rom Glorys APS instrument,

in conjunction with ongoing aircrat

and satellite measurements and chemical

transport modeling, should provide much

needed clarity about how aerosols impact

Earths climate.

Black carbon, or soot, is gen-erated rom industrial pollu-tion, trafc, outdoor fres, and

household burning o coaland biomass uels.

Photocredit:PeterBuseck,

ArizonaS

tateUniversityt

To predict the impact

o climate change on

society, scientists need

to know precisely how

much warming and

cooling aerosols pro-

duce in dierent regions

o the planet.

Lower let: Still image osoot and sulate particles.

Top let: Dried potassiumaerosol particles imagedby an electron microscope.

Photocredit:CherePetty,UMBC.


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The Atmosphere..Where Aerosols and Climate Meet .

Tough it may seem counterintuitive thatobjects as minute as aerosols inuence theclimate, its become clear in recent decadesthat these airborne particulates have anoutsized impact.

Aerosols can aect climate directly byscattering and absorbing incoming sun-lightor radiation reected by the suraceo Earthas it passes through the atmo-sphere. Te bulk o aerosols, particularlysulates, scatter incoming sunlight, some oit back toward space, thus cooling Earths

surace immediately below. Other aerosols,especially black carbon, absorb some othe incoming radiation and can warm theatmosphere. However, accurate quantita-tive knowledge o direct aerosol eects,and especially the role o human-madeaerosols, remains elusive.

Aerosols can also have indirect eects bychanging how clouds behave. Clouds are acritical component o the climate system;they cool Earths surace by shading about60 percent o the planet at any one time

Right: As shown in these il-lustrations, orest fres emitparticles that both scat-ter and absorb sunlight,whereas non-absorbingparticles (lower let) suchas sulates scatter light inall directions.

Above: This astronaut pho-

tograph, taken by the Ex-pedition 17crew, shows thePiute Fire that was burning inthe southern Sierra NevadaMountains on July 4, 2008..

Credit:NASA.

Photocredit:NASA

.


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and by increasingthe reectivity o theatmosphere. Research-ers have estimated thata 5 percent increasein clouds cooling

impact, or example,could entirely com-pensate or the in-crease in greenhousegases that Earthsatmosphere has ex-perienced during theindustrial era.

Any process that inu-ences where and howclouds develop, how they behave, and how

long they last can impact Earths climate.And aerosols, it turns out, are masterso meddling with clouds. In act, certainaerosols provide tiny seeds that allowwater vapor in the atmosphere to coalescemuch easier than it would otherwise. So, ina sense, clouds owe their very existence toaerosols.

Other things being equal, clouds that occurin areas with high numbers o aerosols in theatmosphere tend to have more numerous

but smallerdroplets than those with lowerconcentrations o the particles. Such droplet-rich clouds are more apt to scatter incomingradiation, which causes them to appearbrighter and more reective. Ultimately, theyhave a stronger cooling inuence.

Since smaller-sized droplets are also lesslikely to coalesce into raindrops, smallcloud droplets also extend the lietime o

clouds, which increases the globes re-

ectivity and slows the cycling o waterthrough the atmosphereall o whichcauses climate to cool rather than warm.

Another aerosol eect on clouds, calledthe semi-direct eect, occurs when highnumbers o light-absorbing aerosols, suchas black carbon, warm the surroundingatmosphere and cause cloud droplets toevaporate. In contrast to the direct aero-sol eect, this results in net warming byreplacing clouds with a smoky haze and

reducing precipitation.

NASA satellites have revealed much about

aerosols in recent decades, yet many questions

remain about aerosols competing climate

impacts. Measuring aerosols within clouds re-

mains challenging. Dierent types o aerosols

can clump together to orm hybrid particles

that are difcult to study, and changes in

humidity or temperature can cause drastic

changes in how certain aerosols behave and

interact with cloud droplets.

Instruments on previous satellite missions

have made signicant strides in under-

standing how aerosols impact climate, yet

a new instrument aboard Glory will pro-

vide unparalleled views into the complex

nature o these critical particles and their

natural and anthropogenic climate eects.

Let: An artists illustra-tion shows water drop-lets condensing aroundocean salt particles..

Let: An artists illustrationo a black soot particle andwater droplets.

Any process that infu-

ences where and how

clouds develop, how

they behave, and how

long they last can im-

pact Earths climate. And

aerosols, it turns out,

are masters o meddling

with clouds.

Credit:NASA.

Credit:NASA.


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The Sun.The Foundation o Earths Energy Budget.

Every second, 500 million tons o hydrogen

within the suns core use into helium as part

o a massive chain o thermonuclear reactions.

Te process yields the energy equivalent to

billions o exploding hydrogen bombs. Tis

energy eventually makes its way to the suns

surace and radiates outward in the orm o

lightsome o it on a trajectory toward Earth.

Te radiation that eventually reaches the topo Earths atmospherethe suns total solar

irradiance (SI)is the oundation o Earths

energy budget. On average, approximately

341 watts o radiation reach each square me-

ter o atmosphere per second, about a third as

much as a typical house consumes.

Scientists used to describe the amount o in-

coming energy rom the sun as the solar con-

stant. However, satellite measurements made

during the last three decades have revealedthat solar radiation actually uctuates slightly

as the sun progresses through periods o more

and less intense electromagnetic activity in

cycles ranging rom a ew minutes to decades.

During periods o high solar activity, in-

creases in the number o sunspots (cool dark

blotches on the suns surace) and aculae

(hot bright spots adjacent to sunspots) cause

the suns SI to increase slightly. Overall,

SI varies by approximately 0.1 percent

between the most and least active parts o

the 11-year solar cycle.

Can such changes in the sunspot levels and

total solar irradiance aect Earths climate in

a signicant way? Tis question has been the

topic o scientic and public interest over the

last ew decades, particularly as concerns about

Earths changing climate have intensied.

Some research has suggested that even subtleshits in the suns irradiance, on the scale o

Right: Total solar irradiance(TSI) is the dominant drivero Earths climate.

Above: Profle o the atmo-sphere and a setting sunas seen rom the Interna-tional Space Station.

Credit:NASA.

Photocredit:NASA

.


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those seen within one solar cycle, can impactEarths climate. One theory, or example, isthat the amount o ultraviolet radiation thesun emits can impact the ormation o ozone,which unctions as a greenhouse gas.

Scientists who study the links betweensolar activity and climate are condent thatthe small variations in SI cannot explainthe intensity and speed o warming trendsseen on Earth during the last century. Te0.1 percent shit in solar irradiance simplyisnt enough to have a strong inuence, andtheres no convincing evidence that suggestsSI has trended upward enough over the lastcentury to aect climate.

However, its possibleprobable, in actthat

the sun experiences sizable shits in irradi-ance over much longer time scales that couldimpact climate. For example, a 70-year period,rom 1645 to 1715, called the Maunder Mini-mum, which eatured exceptionally low num-bers o sunspots, is thought to be connected toa period o especially low SI that helped driveEuropes Little Ice Age.

Since 1978, satellite instruments have al-lowed solar scientists to make precise mea-surements o SI. But on a geological timescale, these thirty years o solar irradiancemeasurements oer a mere snapshot o thesun. Longer-term, accurate measurements

o the suns total solar irradiance are criticalor identiying broader trends that couldpotentially aect Earths climate.

Glory carries an instrument called the otalIrradiance Monitor (IM) that will helpmaintain and extend the long-term SIrecord. Te instrument will build upon asimilar IM instrument launched in 2003as part o the Solar Radiation and ClimateExperiment (SORCE) mission.

A key actor or global climate models wouldbe lacking i missions such as Glory did notmonitor the suns irradiance. Tese modelsare used to diagnose and predict how climateis changing, and they oer critical inorma-tion to lawmakers about how societies mightreact to the changes.

Let: This collection oimages o the sun showsvariations in sunspot andacula activity during asolar cycle.

Some research has sug-

gested that even subtle

shits in the suns irra-

diance, on the scale o

those seen within one

solar cycle, can impact

Earths climate.

Credit:NASA.


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Glorys Instruments.Measuring Aerosols and Solar Irradiance with Precision .

wo instruments aboard

Glorythe Aerosol Polar-

imetery Sensor (APS) and

the otal Irradiance Monitor

(IM)supply inormation

about critical components o

Earths climate system. Te

APS, a polarimeter mounted

on the underside o theGlory spacecrat and acing

downward, collects inorma-

tion about aerosol properties.

Te IM, which is located

on the opposite side o the

spacecrat, acing toward the

sun, measures the intensity o

incoming solar radiation at

the top o the atmosphere.

Aerosol PolarimetrySensor.

Te design o APS stretches back to the

1970s, when James Hansen, now director o

the NASA Goddard Institute or Space Stud-

ies, conducted studies on the polarization o

light rom Venus. By studying polarization

a measure o the physical orientation o lightwaves as they move and twist through space

Hansen managed to deduce the composition

o the clouds in Venus atmosphere.

Te success o such eorts led engineers to

develop similar instruments or use on Earth.

In 1999, NASA developed an aircrat-based

polarimeter, called the Research Scanning

Polarimeter (RSP), or example, that has

demonstrated the power o this technique

to provide detail about Earths aerosols. Te

Glory APS, which has a nearly identical de-

sign to RSP, will be NASAs rst instrument

capable o applying this method to studying

aerosols globally rom space.

Te APS, built by Raytheon Space and Air-

borne Systems in El Segundo, Cali., measures

Above: Technicians weargarmentsknown as bunnysuitsto protect instru-ments rom dust and othercontaminants. Here, engi-neers prepare Glorys APSor environmental testing.

Photocredit:Raytheon.

Right: Glorys Aerosol Po-larimetry Sensor (APS)tracks aerosols by measur-ing the polarization o lightscattered by the particles. Ph

otocredit:NASA.


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and calibrations o SI instruments have

caused noticeable osets in the data. In

most cases, scientists have had to correct

or such discrepancies by matching up

data between overlapping missions. While

still important, overlapping missions will

become somewhat less crucial than theypreviously were because the Glory IM

has been rigorously calibrated at an inno-

vative ground-based acility at LASP called

the SI Radiometer Facility.

Te IM instrument contains our identi-

cal radiometers capable o monitoring the

sun during the daylight portion o each

orbit. It sits on a gimbaled platorm that

allows mission controllers to aim it toward

the sun independently o the orientation

o the spacecrat. Scientists at LASP will

process the data IM gathers, and post it

on the web or use in climate and solar sci-

ence within days o acquisition.

aerosols rom more than 250 angles using ninedierent spectral channels. Te 69-kilogram(152 pound) instrument views Earths suracein 5.9-kilometer (3.7 mile) bands along a paththat repeats every 16 days. Unpolarized lightthat enters the APS strikes a mirror, passes

through a series o lenses that collect and ocusthe beams, and then gets split by a prism intopolarized planes that nearby detectors canmeasure (see diagram above).

Glory carries secondary instruments calledcloud cameras that will support APS bytracking clouds as they pass through APSsights. Tese cameras will help scientistsremove cloud-contaminated scenes thatcan hamper analysis o the data.

Total Irradiance Monitor.Glorys IM instrument, a type o radiom-eter, has an important objective: maintainand improve a decades-long record o totalsolar irradiance. Tough mistakenly con-sidered constant, the amount o incomingsolar radiation striking the top o Earthsatmosphere actually uctuates slightly as thesun cycles through periods o more and lessintense electromagnetic activity.

IM is an improvement o a similar instru-ment launched in 2003 as part the SORCEmission. Te Glory IM, designed by theLaboratory or Atmospheric and Space Phys-ics (LASP) at the University o Colorado,should be at least three times more accuratethan previous instruments.

In the past, subtle dierences in the design

Let: A diagram o the in-side o Glorys Total Irradi-ance Monitor (TIM) instru-ment [BAMS, May 2007, American Meteorologi-cal Society. Reprintedwith permission]

Above: Engineers assistwith integration o GlorysTotal Irradiance Monitor(TIM).

Let: A diagram o the in-side o Glorys AerosolPolarimetery Sensor (APS)instrument. [BAMS, May2007, American Meteo-rological Society. Reprint-ed with permission.]

Photocredit:ChrisSmith,

UMBC

.


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placement o the spacecrats battery, in theheart o the core deck acing Earth, protects

it rom temperature swings. Te attitude

control system contains our geared reaction

wheels that keep the APS pointing directly

downwardat nadireven as aspects o the

orbit change.

In some respects, the Glory spacecrat is

average in comparison to other NASA

Earth-observing satellites. It isnt the larg-

est or the heaviest, nor does it carry the

most scientic instruments. At 1.9 meters

(6.2 eet) by 1.4 meters (4.6 eet)Glory

isnt much taller than most people or wider

than an oil barrel. Glory weighed 525

kilograms (1,158 pounds) at launch, about

a tenth the mass o NASAs agship Earth-

observing satellite, erra.

The Spacecraft.A Satellite with an Unusual Pedigree.

An octagonal aluminum

chassisor busserves

as the oundation o the

Glory spacecrat. he

bus is divided into two

sections: a propulsion

deck at the tail end o the

spacecrat and a core deck

nearer to the ront.

Attached to the core deck,

an irregularly-shaped

instrument assembly board

houses the missions two

milk-crate-sized science

instruments, a pair o

cloud tracking cameras, a

communications antenna,

and other supporting com-

ponents. On the crats

exterior, two rotating solar panels (Glorysmeans o generating electricity) protrude

rom the bus like wings.

Stripping away the panels that make up

the bus reveal the guts o the spacecrat.

On the propulsion deck, a large uel tank

is the most prominent eature. Te liquid

propellant insidea clear, pungent sub-

stance called hydrazinegets piped to our

adjacent thrusters, which ground-based

ight operators use to ease the crat intoorbit and make occasional corrections to

keep it on course.

Te core deck is packed with power control

boxes, regulators, and an attitude control

subsystem that determines the crats orien-

tation in respect to Earth. Te strategic

Above: Artists representa-

tion o Glory atop a TaurusXL rocket beore launchrom Vandenberg Air ForceBase in Caliornia.

Right: APS aces down-ward toward Earths sur-ace, whereas TIM looksupward toward the sun.The red arrow shows thedirection o Glorys ight,and the two blue arrowspoint to the two instru-ments [BAMS, May 2007, American Meteoro-logical Society. Reprintedwith permission].

Credit:NASA

.


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But theres one key detail that makes Gloryunusual: the spacecrats bus was originallydesigned or the Vegetation Canopy Lidar(VCL), a mission that NASA canceled in2000 due to a technical glitch in the devel-opment o an instrument.

Converting VCLa spacecrat that wouldhave launched on a larger rocket, own ina dierent orbit, and aced slightly dierentconditions in spaceinto Glory wasnt al-ways easy. Many o the original VCL buscomponents had to be replaced; the rest had

Let: The A-Train, a con-stellation o satellites,carries sensors withcomplementary capabilities,oering unprecedentedopportunities to studymultiple aspects o Earthsclimate system at once.

to be recertied to meet the requirements othe new mission. Many components wentthrough extra rounds o trouble-shooting orunusual environmental testing regimes.

elltale signs o Glorys unique pedigree still

persist. Te spacecrats hydrazine thrustersare signicantly larger, or example, than istypical or a mission o its size. And the solararrays, designed or a dierent orbit, have anunusual orientationmeaning the spacecratappears to y sideways in orbit.

A our-stage, solid uel rocketa aurusXLlaunches Glory into orbit rom Van-denberg Air Force Base in Caliornia. Tespacecrat ies among a series o Earth-observing satellites, dubbed the A-rain,that tracks the same line over Earth. TeA-rain is comprised o a group o U.S.and international satellite missions thathave elected to operate in the same orbitor the purposes o making coordinatedEarth-science measurements.

Mission operators conduct verication testsor a 30-day period and begin normal datacollection or a period o at least three years.Glory moves in a low-Earth orbit o 705km (438 miles) altitudeabout the distancebetween Boston and Washington, D.C.

Let: An engineering dia-gram illustrates key sec-tions o the Glory space-crat.

Credit:NASA

.

Credit:NASA

.


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similar instrument aboard the SORCE

satellite. Likewise, scientists can validate

APS data by comparing it to inormation

collected by NASAs CALIPSO satellite

and instruments aboard other spacecrat

called MISR and MODIS, as well as data

rom aircrat campaigns and ground-based

aerosol sensors.

Te IM instrument takes our measure-ments daily that should be available about

a week ater acquisition through LASP.

APS data yields nine dierent data prod-

uctssuch as aerosol optical thickness,

a measure o aerosol amount. Data rom

both are reely available to the public.

Glory is designed to y or three years,

at the end o which the mission could be

granted a two-year extension.

Post Launch.

It might seem like the work should wind

down once Glory achieves orbit, but or

some, a successul launch means the work

is just beginning.

Ater launch, a team o ight engineers

eases Glory into position amidst the other

satellites in the A-rain, all o which y

in a similar orbit and within seconds to

minutes o each other. Ater that, engi-neers conrm that Glorys orbit is correct

and that all systems are unctioning well.

Troughout the mission, ight engineers

make periodic thruster burns to correct

Glorys orbit when it drits.

With the checkout complete, both the

APS and IM begin to collect data on

a near-continuous basis. o ensure the

accuracy o the IM data, scientists can

compare it to measurements taken by a

Right: This image showsthe concentration o par-ticles in the atmosphere(aerosol optical thickness)during March 2010. Thedark brown plume extend-ing west rom Arica rep-resents smoke and dustblowing westward over theocean. The dark brownpatches over Asia repre-sent a mix o pollutants,smoke, and dust.

Photocredit:EarthSciencePictureoftheDay/JensHackman.

Above: Aircrat engine ex-haust can produce conden-sation trails called contrails.

Credit:NASA

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Next Generation Climate Satellites.

One o the challenging aspects o studyingEarths climate is the need or continuousand long-term measurements. Withoutthem, its difcult to ully understand howthe many interlocking parts o Earths cli-mate system connect.

Te data Glorys instru-ments provide wont be

analyzed in isolation.Data rom both instru-ments contribute to ongo-ing scientic eorts to un-derstand solar irradianceand aerosols that shouldcontinue or decades.

Prior to Glorys IM,instruments aboard thenumerous satellitesin-cluding NASAs SORCE

and Active CavityRadiometer IrradianceMonitor Satellite (AC-RIMSat)have collectedinormation about thesuns total solar irradi-ance. Ater Glory, addi-tional instruments, likely

quite similar to IM, will continue measur-ing solar variations.

Likewise, Glorys Aerosol Polarimetry Sensoris not the rst that has collected inormationabout aerosols. MODIS and MISR, instru-ments aboard other NASAs satellites, arecurrently making measurements o aerosols.

Ater Glorys APS completes its mission, sat-

ellite measurements o aerosols will continuewith a satellite called the NPOESS Prepara-tory Project (NPP). Following NPP, the nextgeneration o weather and climate satellites,called the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS),will continue to make aerosol measurements.Tese eorts will provide critical answersabout Earths climate as we adapt andrespond to our warming world.

Above: Wildfres releaselarge amounts o black car-bon, brown carbon, sulates,and nitrates, and are anoth-er key source o aerosols.

Let: A series o maturethunderstorms is seenover Brazil, rom theSpace Shuttle. Introducinganthropogenic aerosols toa cloud typically resultsin moreand smallercloud droplets.

Photocredit:NASA

Photocredit:NASA

.Credit:

NOAA

.

Top let: Artists concepto the NPOESS satellite in

Earth orbit.


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Glorys Science Team.

Glory Project Management.

Bryan FaaulProject Manager

NASA/GSFCSteve PszcolkaDeputy Project ManagerNASA/GSFC

Kevin MillerDeputy Project Manager (Resources)NASA/GSFC

Tim DuneeFinancial ManagerNASA/GSFC

Hal MaringProgram ScientistNASA Headquarters

Michael MishchenkoProject ScientistNASA/GISS

Judd WeltonDeputy Project ScientistNASA/GSFC

Vickie MoranObservatory Manager

NASA/GSFCMike BrucknerDeputy Observatory ManagerStiner Ghaarian echnologies

Jack EllisSystems Assurance ManagerNASA/GSFC

Joe BolekMission Systems ManagerNASA/GSFC

Steve KramerProcurement ManagerNASA/GSFC

Steve HargroveGround Systems ManagerMEI echnologies, Inc.

Sarah DeWittEducation and Public OutreachNASA/GSFC

Nita JilekProject Support ManagerNASA/GSFC

APS Science Team.

Brian CairnsAPS Instrument ScientistNASA/GISS

Jacek ChowdharyNASA/GISS

Igor GeogdzhayevNASA/GISS

James HansenNASA/GISS

Lorraine RemerNASA/GSFC

Li LiuNASA/GISS

Vanderlei MartinsNASA/UMBC

Andrzej WasilewskiSIGMA

Larry TravisNASA/GISS

TIM Science Team.

Greg KoppIM Instrument Scientist

LASP

Claus FrhlichPhysikalisch-MeteorologischesObservatorium Davos

Judith LeanNaval Research Laboratory

Joe RiceNIS

Rodney ViereckNOAA

Dick WhiteLASP

Engineering.

John SatromSystems EngineerSSI

Rich HollenhorstElectrical Systems EngineerNASA/GSFC

Evan GoldsteinAPS Instrument Systems EngineerSSI

Tamara OConnellTermal Systems Engineer

H Research, Inc.

Jef HeinAPS Instrument ManagerNASA/GSFC

John BosworthIM Instrument Systems EngineerSIGMA

John HughesMission Operations ManagerNASA/GSFC

HSI Honeywell echnology Solutions, Inc. NASA/UMBC NASA University o Maryland Baltimore CountyLASP Laboratory or Atmospheric and Space Physics NIS National Institute o Standards and echnologyNASA/GISS NASA Goddard Institute or Space Studies SIGMA Sigma Space CorporationNASA/GSFC NASA Goddard Space Flight Center SSI Stellar Solutions, Inc.


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Glossary o Terms .

aerosols Small solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere

Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) A scientic instrument aboard Glory that will measure aerosols

black carbon A type o aerosol ormed by partially burned carbon compoundsbiomass burning Te burning o living or dead vegetation

cloud cameras Cameras aboard the Glory satellite that will track clouds and support theAerosol Polarimetry Sensor

cloud droplets A small drop o liquid waterormed by condensation o water vapor aroundan aerosol particlethat is suspended in the atmosphere with other drops toorm a cloud

direct aerosol efect Climate eects related to the act that aerosols scatter and absorb radiation

energy budget Te balance o Earths incoming and outgoing radiation

aculae An irregular, unusually bright patch on the suns surace

greenhouse gases Any o the atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse eect by ab-sorbing inrared radiation produced by solar warming o the Earths surace

indirect aerosol efect Climate eects related to the act that aerosols seed cloud droplets

Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC)

A scientic body established by the United Nations and the World Meteoro-logical Organization that reviews and assesses scientic, technical, and socio-economic work relevant to climate change

particulates Material suspended in the air in the orm o minute solid particles or liquiddroplets, especially when considered as an air pollutant

polarimeter An instrument used to measure the state o polarization o a beam o light

radiometer A device that measures the intensity o radiant energy

Research Scanning Polarimeter An instrument similar to Glorys Aerosol Polarimetry (APS) sensor that hasbeen own on airplanes and will be used to validate data rom APS

semi-direct efect A reduction o cloudiness associated with the act that some aerosols absorbsolar radiation and warm the atmosphere, causing cloud droplets to evaporate

solar cycle Periodic changes in the suns magnetic eld that aect the number o sunspotsand other eatures in 11-year cycles

sulate aerosol A type o aerosol that contains sulate-bearing compounds

sunspots Any o the relatively cool dark spots appearing periodically in groups on thesurace o the sun that are associated with strong magnetic elds

Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) An instrument aboard Glory that will measure the suns total irradiance

total solar irradiance (TSI) Te amount o radiant energy emitted by the sun (over all wavelengths) thatalls on 1 square meter at the top o Earths atmosphere each second


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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

glory understanding earth's energy budget

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