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NASA NTRS2013

Comparison Between NPP-VIIRS Aerosol Data Products and the MODIS AQUA Deep Blue Collection 6 Dataset Over Land

Aerosols are small particles suspended in the atmosphere and have a variety of natural and man-made sources. Knowledge of aerosol optical depth (AOD), which is a measure of the amount of aerosol in the atmosphere, and its change over time, is important for multiple reasons. These include climate change, air quality (pollution) monitoring, monitoring hazards such as dust storms and volcanic ash, monitoring smoke from biomass burning, determining potential energy yields from solar plants, determining visibility at sea, estimating fertilization of oceans and rainforests by transported mineral dust, understanding changes in weather brought upon by the interaction of aerosols and clouds, and more. The Suomi-NPP satellite was launched late in 2011. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard Suomi-NPP is being used, among other things, to determine AOD. This study compares the VIIRS dataset to ground-based measurements of AOD, along with a state-of-the-art satellite AOD dataset (the new version of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Deep Blue algorithm) to assess its reliability. The Suomi-NPP satellite was launched late in 2011, carrying several instruments designed to continue the biogeophysical data records of current and previous satellite sensors. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard Suomi-NPP is being used, among other things, to determine aerosol optical depth (AOD), and related activities since launch have been focused towards validating and understanding this new dataset through comparisons with other satellite and ground-based products. The operational VIIRS AOD product is compared over land with AOD derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) observations using the Deep Blue (DB) algorithm from the forthcoming Collection 6 of MODIS data

Sayer, Andrew M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Discrimination among semi-arid landscape endmembers using the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were acquired during three consecutive seasons of the year (26 Sep. 1989, 22 Mar. 1990, and 7 Aug. 1990) over an area of the High Plains east of Greeley, Colorado. This region contains extensive eolian deposits in the form of stabilized dune complexes (small scale parabolic dunes superimposed on large scale longitudinal and parabolic dunes). Due to the dunes' large scale (2-10 km) and low relief (1-5 m), the scaling relationships that contribute to the evolution of this landscape are nearly impossible to understand without the use of remote sensing. Additionally, climate models indicate that the High Plains could be one of the first areas to experience changes in climate caused by either global warming or cooling. During the past 10,000 years there were at least three periods of extensive sand activity, followed by periods of landscape stability, as shown in the stratigraphic record of this area. Therefore, if the past is an indication of the future, the monitoring of this landscape and its sensitive ecosystem is important for early detection of regional and global climate change.

Yuhas, Roberta H.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Principal Modes of Precipitation Variability from Preliminary Series of IMERG Data

The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, IMERG, is the unified U.S. algorithm that provides merged Microwave Infrared (IR) satellite precipitation product for the U.S. GPM team. Even though IMERG record is still very short, 2014-2016, it is tempting to test if it captures ENSO and NAO signals as compared to the popular, still on-going, TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis, TMPA. El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most significant mode of interannual variability of tropical ocean atmosphere. North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) impact is on monthly scales and is mostly an atmospheric mode in the North Atlantic. There exist well-defined, multivariate, indexes that represent ENSO and NAO conditions and phase.

climate variability↗

DOE OSTI2026

Leaf Wax Hydrogen Isotopes Reflect Storm Track Position Over Western North America

Proxy records of past climates have yielded powerful insights into regional hydroclimate dynamics. Novel insights may be gained by reconstructing spatiotemporal changes in precipitation isotopologues in past climate states that cannot be gleaned from individual site‐level studies. In this paper, we ask whether latitudinal gradients in the stable hydrogen isotopic composition of precipitation, as inferred from sedimentary leaf wax biomarkers, reflect aspects of large‐scale climate conditions in western North America (WNA). Modern coretop samples from offshore WNA show that leaf wax hydrogen isotopes broadly track the hydrogen isotopic composition of rainfall between 20 and 40N, but with an offset corresponding to a relatively constant “apparent fractionation” value. Poleward of 40N, the leaf wax signal may be complicated by fluvial transport of leaf waxes from the continental interior. Leaf wax‐inferred precipitation hydrogen isotopes show a shift to more negative values between 30 and 40N. We use modern observational data to show that this latitudinal range marks a major transition between the subtropical arid zone and the location of the midlatitude storm tracks over the northeast Pacific. Nudged water isotope‐enabled models capture the location of the arid to mesic climate transition with fidelity. This modern data set suggests that reconstructions of the latitudinal gradient of precipitation hydrogen isotopes can constrain the sensitivity of the storm tracks to shifts in climatic boundary conditions in past climate states. This approach can yield novel insights into past, present, and future hydroclimate variability in this arid region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2022

Scraping Unstructured Data to Explore the Relationship between Rainfall Anomalies and Vector-Borne Disease Outbreaks

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue account for 17% of all infectious disease cases and lead to more than 700,000 deaths per year. Tracking and predicting the spread of vector-borne diseases is a vital task that could save hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Oftentimes, the first reports of vector-borne disease outbreaks occur through emails and online reporting systems long before they are officially documented. Tracking and predicting the emergence and spread of vector-borne disease outbreaks requires extracting data from these unstructured sources in combination with historical weather and climate data to understand the underlying background triggers and disease dynamics. In this work, we develop a data extraction pipeline for the online outbreak reporting website ProMED-mail that utilizes a web scraper, transformer neural network summarizer, and named entity recognizer to obtain a dataset of malaria, dengue, zika, and chikungunya outbreaks over the last 30 years. This scraped dataset was further analyzed in association with global rainfall anomalies derived from NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM [Global Precipitation Mission] (IMERG) dataset. This preliminary analysis was to understand the effect of global rainfall patterns on the spread of vector-borne diseases. Analysis of the ProMED-mail and GPM data shows that vector-borne disease outbreaks are clustered towards the tropics and outbreaks are often amplified during the rainy seasons. Our scraped dataset can be a valuable tool in creating comprehensive georeferenced disease records for modeling and predicting future outbreaks.

Web scraping↗

DOE OSTI2024

Non-linear relationships between daily temperature extremes and US agricultural yields uncovered by global gridded meteorological datasets

Global agricultural commodity markets are highly integrated among major producers. Prices are driven by aggregate supply rather than what happens in individual countries in isolation. Furthermore, estimating the effects of weather-induced shocks on production, trade patterns and prices hence requires a globally representative weather data set. Recently, two data sets that provide daily or hourly records, GMFD and ERA5-Land, became available. Starting with the US, a data rich region, we formally test whether these global data sets are as good as more fine-scaled country-specific data in explaining yields and whether they estimate similar response functions. While GMFD and ERA5-Land have lower predictive skill for US corn and soybeans yields than the fine-scaled PRISM data, they still correctly uncover the underlying non-linear temperature relationship. All specifications using daily temperature extremes under any of the weather data sets outperform models that use a quadratic in average temperature. Correctly capturing the effect of daily extremes has a larger effect than the choice of weather data. In a second step, focusing on Sub Saharan Africa, a data sparse region, we confirm that GMFD and ERA5-Land have superior predictive power to CRU, a global weather data set previously employed for modeling climate effects in the region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Vegetation Warming Experiment: Environmental Conditions, Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, 2017

Environmental conditions measured in five warming chambers and paired ambient control plots located on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO), Utqiagvik, Alaska from 22 June - 17 September, 2017. These data were recorded in support of the Zero Power Warming (ZPW) vegetation warming experiment, a series of single season vegetation warming treatments conducted over four years from 2017-2021 (no experiment in 2020). Air temperature and humidity, infrared surface (canopy) temperature, soil temperature, soil moisture, NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), PRI (photochemical reflectance index), solar radiation and chamber venting were recorded in each chamber at 1 minute intervals. Ambient air temperature, humidity, solar radiation and uplooking PRI and NDVI were measured at a centrally located meteorology station. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was calculated and included in the final processed data products. Data has undergone full QA/QC and is presented as 1 minute data, and hourly and daily aggregate data products. This data package includes unprocessed raw data (*.dat files), processed data (*.csv) and metadata including a full description of sensors, calculations and processing (*.csv, *.pdf). See related NGEE-Arctic Vegetation Warming Experiment data packages for leaf-level gas exchange and other leaf trait data; chamber, plot and landscape phenocamera images; thaw depth, and GPS locations of chambers and ambient plots. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Vegetation Warming Experiment: Environmental conditions, Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, 2021

Environmental conditions measured in five warming chambers and paired ambient control plots located on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO), Utqiagvik, Alaska from 19 June - 17 September, 2021. These data were recorded in support of the Zero Power Warming (ZPW) vegetation warming experiment, a series of single season vegetation warming treatments conducted over four years from 2017-2021 (no experiment in 2020). Air temperature and humidity, infrared surface (canopy) temperature, soil temperature, soil moisture, NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), PRI (photochemical reflectance index), solar radiation and chamber venting were recorded in each chamber at 1 minute intervals. Ambient air temperature, humidity, solar radiation and uplooking PRI and NDVI were measured at a centrally located meteorology station. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was calculated and included in the final processed data products. Data has undergone full QA/QC and is presented as 1 minute data, and hourly and daily aggregate data products. This data package includes unprocessed raw data (*.dat files), processed data (*.csv) and metadata including a full description of sensors, calculations and processing (*.csv, *.pdf). See related NGEE-Arctic "Vegetation Warming Experiment" data packages for leaf-level gas exchange and other leaf trait data; chamber, plot and landscape phenocamera images; thaw depth, and GPS locations of chambers and ambient plots. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2000

Northwestern Tharsis Latent Outflow Activity Mars

Previously defined outflow channels, which are indicated by relict landforms similar to those observed on Earth, signify ancient catastrophic flood events on Mars. These conspicuous geomorphic features are some of the most remarkable yet profound discoveries made by geologists to date. These outflow channels, which debouched tremendous volumes of water into topographic lows such as Chryse, Utopia, Elysium, and Hellas Planitiae, may represent the beginning of warmer and wetter climatic periods unlike the present-day cold and dry Mars. In addition to the previously identified outflow channels, observations permitted by the newly acquired Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data have revealed a system of gigantic valleys, referred to as the northwestern slope valleys (NSV), that are located to the northwest of a huge shield volcano, Arsia Mons, western hemisphere of Mars. These features generally correspond spatially to gravity lows similar to the easternmost, circum-Chryse outflow channel systems. Geologic investigations of the Tharsis region suggest that the large valley system pre-dates the construction of Arsia Mons and its extensive associated lava flows of mainly Late Hesperian and Amazonian age and coincides stratigraphically with the early development of the circum-Chryse outflow channel systems that debouch into Chryse Planitia. This newly identified system, the NSV, potentially signifies the largest flood event(s) ever recorded for the solar system. Additional information is contained in original extended abstract.

Dohm, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Electrochemical approaches for chemical and biological analysis on Mars

Obtaining in situ chemical data from planetary bodies such as Mars or Europa can present significant challenges. The one analytical technique that has many of the requisite characteristics to meet such a challenge is electroanalysis. Described here are three electroanalytical devices designed for in situ geochemical and biological analysis on Mars. The Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) was built and flight qualified for the now cancelled NASA Mars 2001 Lander. Part of MECA consisted of four "cells" containing arrays of electrochemical based sensors for measuring the ionic species in soil samples. A next-generation MECA, the Robotic Chemical Analysis Laboratory (RCAL), uses a carousel-type system to allow for greater customization of analytical procedures. A second instrument, proposed as part of the 2007 CryoScout mission, consists of a flow-through inorganic chemical analyzer (MICA). CryoScout is a torpedo-like device designed for subsurface investigation of the stratigraphic climate record embedded in Mars' north polar cap. As the CryoScout melts its way through the ice cap, MICA will collect and analyze the meltwater for a variety of inorganics and chemical parameters. By analyzing the chemistry locked in the layers of dust, salt, and ice, geologists will be able to determine the recent history of climate, water, and atmosphere on Mars and link it to the past. Finally, electroanalysis shows its abilities in the detection of possible microorganism on Mars or elsewhere in the solar system. To identify an unknown microorganism, one that may not even use Earth-type biochemistry, requires a detection scheme which makes minimal assumptions and looks for the most general features. Recent work has demonstrated that the use of an array of electrochemical sensors which monitors the changes in a solution via electrical conductivity, pH, and ion selective electrodes, can be used to detect minute chemical perturbations caused by the growth of bacteria and with the correct methodology provide unamibiguous detection of such life forms.

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRS2015

Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for the International Space Station (ISS): Mission Description and Science Goals

In recent years, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and their partners have developed and demonstrated space-based lightning observations as an effective remote sensing tool for Earth science research and applications. The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) continues to acquire global observations of total (i.e., intracloud and cloud-to-ground) lightning after 17 years on-orbit. However, TRMM is now low on fuel, so this mission will soon be completed. As a follow on to this mission, a space-qualified LIS built as the flight spare for TRMM has been selected for flight as a science mission on the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS LIS will be flown as a hosted payload on the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) H5 mission, which has a January 2016 baseline launch date aboard a SpaceX launch vehicle for a 2-4 year or longer mission. The LIS measures the amount, rate, and radiant energy of total lightning over the Earth. More specifically, it measures lightning during both day and night, with storm scale resolution (approx. 4 km), millisecond timing, and high, uniform detection efficiency, without any land-ocean bias. Lightning is a direct and most impressive response to intense atmospheric convection. It has been found that lightning measured by LIS can be quantitatively related to thunderstorm and other geophysical processes. Therefore, the ISS LIS lightning observations will continue to provide important gap-filling inputs to pressing Earth system science issues across a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and lightning physics. A unique contribution from the ISS platform will be the availability of real-time lightning data, especially valuable for operational applications over data sparse regions such as the oceans. The ISS platform will also uniquely enable LIS to provide simultaneous and complementary observations with other ISS payloads such as the European Space Agency's Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) that will be exploring the connection between thunderstorms and lightning with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Global LIghtning and Sprites MeasurementS (GLIMS) with its focus on global lightning and sprite connections. Another important function of the ISS LIS will be to provide cross-sensor calibration/validation with a number of other payloads, including the TRMM LIS and the next generation geostationary lightning mappers such as the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) and Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager (MTG LI), as well as with ground-based lightning detection systems. These inter-calibrations will improve the long term climate monitoring record provided by all these systems. Finally, the ISS LIS will extend the time-series climate record of LIS lightning observations and expand the latitudinal coverage of LIS lightning to the climate significant upper middle-latitudes.

Blakeslee, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Evolution of Altimetry Calibration and Future Challenges

Over the past 20 years, altimetry calibration has evolved from an engineering-oriented exercise to a multidisciplinary endeavor driving the state of the art. This evolution has been spurred by the developing promise of altimetry to capture the large-scale, but small-amplitude, changes of the ocean surface containing the expression of climate change. The scope of altimeter calibration/validation programs has expanded commensurately. Early efforts focused on determining a constant range bias and verifying basic compliance of the data products with mission requirements. Contemporary investigations capture, with increasing accuracies, the spatial and temporal characteristics of errors in all elements of the measurement system. Dedicated calibration sites still provide the fundamental service of estimating absolute bias, but also enable long-term monitoring of the sea-surface height and constituent measurements. The use of a network of island and coastal tide gauges has provided the best perspective on the measurement stability, and revealed temporal variations of altimeter measurement system drift. The cross-calibration between successive missions provided fundamentally new information on the performance of altimetry systems. Spatially and temporally correlated errors pose challenges for future missions, underscoring the importance of cross-calibration of new measurements against the established record.

calibration↗

NASA NTRS2026

Scientific Highlights and Status of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, Years 9 through 12

We present the scientific highlights and status from years 9-12 of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, with its Curiosity rover. A thermochemolysis-based sample analysis revealed a variety of organic molecules preserved in clay mineral-rich lake/lake margin deposits of the Glen Torridon region. The stratigraphically higher clay-sulfate mineral transition on Aeolis Mons was found to be associated with a lithological change from lacustrine to dry aeolian depositional environments. Water intermittently returned to the surface after the increase in aridity, including during the deposition of wave ripple strata which indicate a climate capable of sustaining an ice-free lake in the early Hesperian. The overlying Mg sulfate-bearing unit has both poly- and monohydrated Mg sulfates and is also enriched in iron carbonate of a purity consistent with chemical sedimentation and therefore atmospheric sequestration. A channel-incised canyon within Gediz Vallis and distal alluvial deposits recorded numerous fluvial and debris flow events after the deposition, lithification, and erosion of the clay- and sulfate-bearing units. Bright clasts found in Gediz Vallis canyon are composed of native sulfur. The investigation of the modern atmosphere and environment focused on the influence of the crater and mountain topography and captured high-altitude noctilucent and iridescent clouds. Radiation monitoring now spans an 11-year solar cycle. Rover systems and science instruments remain capable of addressing mission scientific objectives. All ten scientific instruments continue to return high-value data despite degradation of the Chemistry and Camera instrument’s high-voltage system, loss of multispectral imaging capability, and loss of active neutron spectroscopy. The mission has mitigated the loss of redundant brakes on two arm joints, additional wheel wear, and highly reduced capability of the redundant flight computer. Efficiency improvements in rover energy utilization and operations staffing have allowed the mission team to maintain a high level of productivity despite declining rover power generation and funding.

Mars↗

DOE OSTI2023

Dataset Repository for Investigating Suicide Risk Using Social and Environmental Determinants of Health

Suicide is frequently modeled as a function of genetics and environment, where the latter refers to factors other than direct biological consequences, such as air quality, financial level, social connectivity, transportation and food access, and homelessness status. According to the World Health Organization, clean air, a stable climate, adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, safe chemical use, radiation protection, healthy and safe workplaces, sound agricultural practices, health-supportive cities and built environments, and a preserved natural environment are all prerequisites for good health. Understanding the relationships between these determinants and mental health outcomes requires standardized data that can be included in healthcare programs and health outcome models. There is a wealth of publicly available data on social and environmental factors provided by various US organizations that can benefit the design of health care systems and public health interventions, as well as improve our comprehension of factors that impact health. Such information would not only help improve the understanding of individual and community risk but also identify new risk factors that have not previously been therapeutically targeted, especially in terms of their impact on mental health. However, curating and standardizing such datasets is challenging because they are often recorded at numerous geographical and temporal resolutions and with varying spatial and temporal granularities. To address this challenge, we launched an endeavor in conjunction with the Veterans Health Administration to collect publicly available socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health statistics in the US. In this manuscript, we describe a social and environmental determinants of health (SEDH) datasets repository, data curation documentation, and a pipeline framework for data generation; This effort started in 2020, when we began constructing a scalable pipeline to automate the download, extraction, preparation, analysis, and production of datasets. These datasets have been made available to the VHA and may be shared upon agreement with collaborating organizations.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2018

GRACE-Assimilated Drought Indicators for the U.S. Drought Monitor

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission detects changes in Earth's gravity field by precisely monitoring the changes in distance between two satellites orbiting the Earth in tandem. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center generate GRACE-assimilated groundwater and soil moisture drought indicators each week, for drought monitor-related studies and applications. The GRACE-assimilated Drought Indicator Version 2.0 data product (GRACE-DA-DM V2.0) is archived at, and distributed by, the NASA GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center). More information about the data and data access is available on the data product landing page at https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets /GRACEDADM_CLSM0125US_7D_2.0/summary. The GRACE-DA-DM V2.0 data product contains three drought indicators: Groundwater Percentile, Root Zone Soil Moisture Percentile, and Surface Soil Moisture Percentile. The drought indicators are of wet or dry conditions, expressed as a percentile, indicating the probability of occurrence within the period of record from 1948 to 2012. These GRACE-assimilated drought indicators, with improved spatial and temporal resolutions, should provide a more comprehensive and objective identification of drought conditions. This presentation describes the basic characteristics of the data and data services at NASA GES DISC and collaborative organizations, and uses a few examples to demonstrate the simple ways to explore the GRACE-assimilated drought indicator data.

hydrology↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Analytic Collaborative Framework for the Earth System Observatory

NASA's Earth System Observatory groundbreaking observations will provide critical measurements to address societal relevant problems in climate change, natural hazard mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes. Central to the ESO vision is the notion of Open-Source Science (OSS), a collaborative culture enabled by technology that promotes the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge aiming to facilitate and accelerate scientific understanding, and the agile development of applications for the benefit of society. The larger vision of an Earth System Digital Twin (ESDT) calls for integrated Earth science frameworks that mirror the Earth by a proxy digital construct that includes km-scale resolution Earth system models and data assimilation systems along with an integrated set of analytic tools to enable the next generation of science discoveries and evidence-based decision making. The goal of this project is to develop an Analytic Collaborative Framework for ESO missions, based on realistic, science-based observing system simulations and the Program of Record (PoR). Tying it all together is a cloud-based cyberinfrastructure that will enable each uniquely designed satellite in the Earth System Observatory to work in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth. In this presentation, we lay the technological groundwork for enabling such a vision. Our approach consists of the 3 main interconnected building blocks: 1. Cloud-optimized representative datasets for ESO missions and the PoR to serve as basis for developing and prototyping an Analytic Collaborative Framework. 2. An Algorithm Workbench for enabling experimentation and exploration of synergistic algorithms not only for instruments within a mission, but also including the PoR and other ESO missions. 3. A series of concrete Open-Source Science demonstrations including use cases that span science discovery and end-user applications with direct societal impact. While our ultimate goal is to include all of the main missions comprising the Earth System Observatory, in our initial 2 years we will focus on AOS and SBG, two missions for which specific synergisms have been identified in a recent workshop. In this presentation we will describe our approach and discuss some illustrative examples of our framework.

Arlindo da SIlva↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Analytic Collaborative Framework for the Earth System Observatory

Arlindo da SIlva↗

NASA NTRS2026

Petermann Glacier on the Brink: Progress, Challenges and Insights

Petermann Glacier, the largest marine-terminating glacier in northern Greenland based on catchment area and ice discharge, plays a key role in regulating ice discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the Arctic Ocean. With an upstream catchment connected to the ice sheet interior via a deep subglacial canyon, its future stability has major implications for sea level rise. In this review, we synthesize recent advances in understanding Petermann’s dynamics across three critical interfaces: the ice–ocean, ice–atmosphere, and ice–bed boundaries. At the surface, observations show that reanalysis products underestimate air temperatures and melt, while regional climate models diverge significantly in their estimates of surface mass balance, underscoring the need for improved in situ data and models. At the ocean boundary, enhanced basal melting driven by both subglacial runoff and Atlantic water intrusions is identified as the dominant driver of recent mass loss of Petermann Glacier, with continued warming posing a serious threat to the stability of the floating tongue. At the bed, new geophysical synthesis reveals complex geology, likely spatial variability in geothermal heat flux, and the influence of the megacanyon on seasonal hydrology and velocity fluctuations. Petermann’s mass balance has been negative in recent decades without corresponding flow acceleration. However, the glacier has undergone significant calving events, and the current rifting that began in September 2025 highlights its vulnerability. This upcoming calving event underscores the timeliness of this review, as it will put Petermann Glacier’s terminus at its most retreated position since records began in 1923. The anticipated retreat of the ice tongue also reduces buttressing and brings the terminus closer to the grounding zone, and modeling studies suggest that calving within 12 km of the grounding zone could potentially trigger dynamic retreat, accelerating ice discharge, and a doubling of flow speeds. We conclude that improved observations, sustained monitoring of oceanographic and atmospheric properties, and high-resolution modeling are critical to constraining projections of Petermann Glacier’s future and its role in the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Dominik Fahrner↗