Low/medium density biomass, coastal and ocean carbon: a carbon cycle mission

Date

2004-11-24

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Esper, Jaime et al. “Low/medium density biomass, coastal and ocean carbon: a carbon cycle mission.” Acta Astronautica 56, no. 1–2(24 November 2004): 25-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2004.09.044

Rights

This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

Subjects

Abstract

As part of the Global Carbon Cycle research effort, an agency-wide planning initiative was organized between October 2000 and June 2001 by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at the behest of the Associate Administrator for Earth Science. The goal was to define future research and technology development activities needed for implementing a cohesive scientific observation plan. A timeline for development of missions necessary to acquire the selected new measurements was laid out, and included missions for low–medium density terrestrial biomass/coastal ocean, and global ocean carbon. This paper will begin with the scientific justification and measurement requirements for these specific activities, lightly touch on the options for having separate low Earth orbiting missions, and follow-up in more detail with a combined implementation study centered on a hyperspectral imager at geosynchronous altitudes, highlighting both its merits and challenges.