Satellite Remote Sensing for Earth System Science: NASA's Earth Observing System (Eos)

Environmental concerns of a global nature are influencing the development of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the Earth as a system. In recent years these concerns have become more prominent due to a series of problems involving large geographic regions such as; understanding the effects of the increases in carbon dioxide, understanding the causes and consequences of changes in the ozone layer, and resolving the anthropogenic influence on the acidity of precipitation. Clearly the global scope of these and other problem areas requires both a multidisciplinary, as well as a multinational approach for their solution. In order to address these problems, observational capabilities must be employed ranging from in situ and laboratory measurements to satellite based global remote sensing. An Earth Observing System (Eos) is planned to meet many of these requirements for remote sensing from low Earth orbiting satellites. A number of instruments are under consideration as the payload for the sun-synchronous satellite platforms. The payload is conceptually grouped into three packages to illustrate the synergistic relationships that exist among the instruments.