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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Written by Michael Allen
An international team of astronomers using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), has challenged our understanding of what happens to matter in the direct vicinity of a black hole.
With IXPE, astronomers can study incoming X-rays and measure the polarization, a property of light that describes the direction of its electric field.
The polarization degree is a measurement of how aligned those vibrations are to each other. Scientists can use a black hole’s polarization degree to determine the location of the corona – a region of extremely hot, magnetized plasma that surrounds a black hole – and how it generates X-rays.
This illustration of material swirling around a black hole highlights a particular feature, called the “corona,” that shines brightly in X-ray light. In this depiction, the corona can be seen as a purple haze floating above the underlying accretion disk, and extending slightly inside of its inner edge. The material within the inner accretion disk is incredibly hot and would glow with a blinding blue-white light, but here has been reduced in brightness to make the corona stand out with better contrast. Its purple color is purely illustrative, standing in for the X-ray glow that would not be obvious in visible light. The warp in the disk is a realistic representation of how the black hole’s immense gravity acts like an optical lens, distorting our view of the flat disk that encircles it. NASA/Caltech-IPAC/Robert Hurt In April, astronomers used IXPE to measure a 9.1% polarization degree for black hole IGR J17091-3624, much higher than they expected based on theoretical models.
“The black hole IGR J17091-3624 is an extraordinary source which dims and brightens with the likeness of a heartbeat, and NASA’s IXPE allowed us to measure this unique source in a brand-new way.” said Melissa Ewing, the lead of the study based at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
In X-ray binary systems, an extremely dense object, like a black hole, pulls matter from a nearby source, most often a neighboring star. This matter can begin to swirl around, flattening into a rotating structure known as an accretion disc.
The corona, which lies in the inner region of this accretion disc, can reach extreme temperatures up to 1.8 billion degrees Fahrenheit and radiate very luminous X-rays. These ultra-hot coronas are responsible for some of the brightest X-ray sources in the sky.
Despite how bright the corona is in IGRJ17091-364, at some 28,000 light-years from Earth, it remains far too small and distant for astronomers to capture an image of it.
“Typically, a high polarization degree corresponds with a very edge-on view of the corona. The corona would have to be perfectly shaped and viewed at just the right angle to achieve such a measurement,” said Giorgio Matt, professor at the University of Roma Tre in Italy and a co-author on this paper. “The dimming pattern has yet to be explained by scientists and could hold the keys to understanding this category of black holes.”
The stellar companion of this black hole isn’t bright enough for astronomers to directly estimate the system’s viewing angle, but the unusual changes in brightness observed by IXPE suggest that the edge of the accretion disk was directly facing Earth.
The researchers explored different avenues to explain the high polarization degree.
In one model, astronomers included a “wind” of matter lifted from the accretion disc and launched away from the system, a rarely seen phenomenon. If X-rays from the corona were to meet this matter on their way to IXPE, Compton scattering would occur, leading to these measurements.
Fast Facts
Polarization measurements from IXPE carry information about the orientation and alignment of emitted X-ray light waves. The high the degree of polarization, the more the X-ray waves are traveling in sync. Most polarization in the corona come from a process known as Compton scattering, where light from the accretion disc bounces off the hot plasma of the corona, gaining energy and aligning to vibrate in the same direction. “These winds are one of the most critical missing pieces to understand the growth of all types of black holes,” said Maxime Parra, who led the observation and works on this topic at Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan. “Astronomers could expect future observations to yield even more surprising polarization degree measurements.”
Another model assumed the plasma in the corona could exhibit a very fast outflow. If the plasma were to be streaming outwards at speeds as high as 20% the speed of light, or roughly 124 million miles per hour, relativistic effects could boost the observed polarization.
In both cases, the simulations could recreate the observed polarization without a very specific edge-on view. Researchers will continue to model and test their predictions to better understand the high polarization degree for future research efforts.
More about IXPE
IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.
Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/ixpe
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Last Updated Aug 12, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactCorinne Edmistoncorinne.m.edmiston@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Explore This Section Earth Earth Observer Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam Announcements More Archives Conference Schedules Style Guide 19 min read
A Tapestry of Tales: 10th Anniversary Reflections from NASA’s OCO-2 Mission
When woven together, the tapestry of experiences of staff and scientists provide the complete picture of OCO-2.
Breathe in… Breathe out.
This simple rhythm sets the foundation of life on Earth – and it’s a pattern that a NASA satellite has been watching from space for over a decade.
On July 2, 2024, NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) celebrated 10 years since its launch. Built by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL), OCO-2 is now viewed as the gold standard for carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements from space and has quietly become a powerful driver of technological, ecological and even economic progress – including providing unexpected insights into plant health, crop-yield forecasting, drought early warning systems, and forest and rangeland management.
While the mission can point to many scientific achievements – some of which will be highlighted in the pages that follow – these accomplishments have occurred in the context of a larger human story. Scientists from around the world have come together to bring the important data from this satellite to the broader community, making OCO-2 the success that it is today.
This article provides readers an introduction to several transformative characters in this carbon story. The text peers behind the scenes to reveal the circuitous path that scientists and engineers must navigate to take a brilliant scientific concept and turn it into flight hardware that can be launched into space to make beneficial observations. The article depicts milestones that mark the mission’s successes, but also the failures, dead ends, long nights, and discouragements that make up the complexity of any science story.
2003: The First OCO Science Team Meeting
Measuring CO2 from space: Great idea but can it really be done?
When the idea for OCO was first proposed, it wasn’t universally embraced. At the time, more than a few experts scoffed at the idea that CO2 could be measured from space. Unlike nitrogen and oxygen, which are the dominant components of Earth’s atmosphere, CO2 is a trace gas, often no more than a few hundred parts per million. Miniscule, elusive, and nomadic, these measurements, though challenging, are crucial because of the important role CO2 plays in global climate.
In April 2003, a handful of hopeful scientists gathered at the California Institute for Technology (Caltech) for the first OCO Science Team meeting. To mark the occasion, they took a break during the meetings and lined up for a group photo – see Photo 1. Upon returning to work, they took up the arduous task of determining how to measure CO2 from space with a satellite and instrument hardware that simply did not exist.
OCO-2 was developed as part of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program, which supports small, low-cost missions that can still provide tremendous value for high-impact goals. The satellite carries a high-resolution spectrometer that collects data in three, narrow spectral bands. These spectral bands follow a divide and conquer strategy – two measure the clear “fingerprint” that CO2 leaves when it absorbs sunlight, and one takes the same measurement for oxygen (O2). The satellite is able to estimate CO2 concentrations by comparing the CO2 and O2 measurements.
Photo 1. A photo of participants during the original OCO Science Team meeting in 2003 at the California Institute of Technology. Photo credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory OCO-2 2014: A Night at Vandenberg Air Force Base – To Launch or Not to Launch
A Mother and daughter await the midnight launch.
On a warm July evening in 2014, Vivienne Payne [JPL—current OCO-2 Project Scientist] would normally have tucked her four-year-old daughter into bed. But this night was special. They were lined up in a crowd waiting for a bus to take them to Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Space Force Base) in California. The group huddled in the chill night air awaiting the launch of the OCO satellite into the cosmos.
Shortly after midnight, hundreds of guests spread blankets across the gravelly ground to make their wait more comfortable. The air was charged with excitement. The participants waited quietly, murmuring to one another while the soft slosh of the Pacific Ocean offered a steady pendulum counting down to the impending launch. Like most people there that night, Vivienne felt upbeat and excited, but she also understood the gravity of the moment – a lot was riding on this launch.
While Vivienne had not been part of OCO since inception – having joined the project in 2012 – she knew OCO’s story. The first launch in 2009 ended in failure – when a faulty launch vehicle doomed the first OCO to a watery grave just moments after launch. In the aftermath, the OCO community were left in limbo, unsure if the project would survive. All was not lost. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) had successfully launched the Greenhouse-gas Observing satellite (GOSAT or IBUKI, Japanese for “breath”) that same year. This launch gave the OCO team an opportunity to test and refine their methods and algorithms using data from GOSAT.
As the gravel poked through the thick flannel blankets, Vivienne shifted uncomfortably waiting for the interminable countdown to reach its conclusion – and then everything stopped. A technical issue was detected, triggering a command to abort the launch.
Vivienne tried to explain to her disappointed daughter that this was simply how things went with space work. Sometimes you put in 1000 work-years of labor, get up in the middle of the night, and sit on uneven ground just to have everything stopped, unceremoniously.
Fortunately, the problem was quickly resolved, and the launch was rescheduled for the very next night. The participants returned to the staging site – rinse and repeat. This time Vivienne’s daughter was decidedly more sluggish. At 3:00 AM PDT, OCO-2 launched flawlessly into space. Unfortunately, a layer of fog obscured the spectators’ view. While it could not be seen, the resounding boom of the rocket taking off could be heard for miles.
For Vivienne, the sonic boom shocked the ears and rumbled through the bodies of the assembled crowd, who erupted in cheers. Having invested a lot of her time in the OCO project during the past two years, she was thrilled to see a successful launch.
As they returned to their hotel, Vivienne’s daughter remained unimpressed. “Mummy, let’s not do that again,” she said as she splayed out on the hotel bed and soon fell fast asleep.
2014: OCO-2 Joins A Larger Earth Observing Story
Leading to surprising new insights about how we see plants – and fires.
When OCO-2 launched in 2014, it joined a tightly coordinated group of Earth-observing satellites known as the Afternoon Constellation (or the “A-Train”) – see Figure 1. Flying in formation, the satellites could combine their observations to unlock more than any one mission could reveal on its own. Around the same time, scientists discovered that OCO-2 could do more than measure CO2 – it could also detect signs of plant health.
Figure 1. As of January 2024, the international Afternoon Constellation (“A-Train”) has two missions remaining: OCO-2 and GCOM-W. While Aqua and Aura continue to collect science data, the satellites have both slowly drifted out of the constellation – and will soon be decommissioned. CALIPSO ended its scientific mission on August 1, 2023. CloudSat radar operations ceased on December 20, 2023. Figure credit: NASA This discovery opened the possibilities for many different people, including Madeleine Festin, a former wildland firefighter in Montana, to work with OCO-2 data through an internship sponsored by the DEVELOP program, under the Earth Action element (formerly known as Applied Sciences) of NASA’s Earth Science Division.
When she was on the ground battling fires, Madeleine faced the harsh reality that fire prediction is notoriously difficult. In the field, she might be surrounded by smoke with just 20 ft (6 m) of visibility and red flames tearing through dry brush. Through her internship, she’s continued to tackle fires – just from a very different vantage point.
OCO-2 can detect the faint glow given off by plants during photosynthesis. This glow, called solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), offers a fast, sensitive indicator of plant health – see Figure 2. While other satellite-based tools, such as soil moisture or vegetation indices often detect stress only after damage has already occurred, SIF values drop the moment photosynthesis slows down – even if the plant still looks green. These data open the door to new applications: monitoring crop performance, identifying flood-damaged areas, and tracking drought before it sparks wildfires. That’s exactly how Madeleine is now using the data.
Madeleine’s team, a collaboration between OCO-2 scientists and the U.S. Forest Service, is working to update fire-risk models – some of which were developed in the 1980s – by incorporating SIF data.
“It’s fulfilling to know that you’re helping people,” Madeleine says. “And it’s nice to see science and firefighting work align.”
What makes the data even more powerful is OCO-2’s synergy with its A-Train counterpart, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’S Aqua platform. MODIS contributes land-cover information that, when paired with OCO-2’s SIF measurements, creates a detailed, global dataset of plant photosynthesis far beyond what either satellite could produce on its own. This example is a perfect synergistic pairing of measurements the A-Train has made possible. This information gives Madeleine and her team a better foundation for improving fire prediction tools.
“When firefighting, I used to hear about all these fire indices and metrics, and never knew what they meant,” Madeleine says. “Now, I’m learning the science behind it. And it’s interesting to think about how to get that information to firefighters on the ground, without overburdening them. What do they really need to know, and how can we deliver it in a way that helps?”
Figure 2. OCO-2 can measure plant health and photosynthesis from space. Puente Hills in eastern Los Angeles County, CA was once one of the largest landfills in the United States. The landfill has since been closed and its surface replanted to resemble a natural hill rising above the surrounding densely populated neighborhoods. These two images show how solar induced fluorescence (SIF), or “plant glow,” measured from OCO-2 and OCO-3 can be used to study urban greenery. The satellite image of the landfill and surrounding area [left] is followed by the SIF data overlay [right]. It is possible to compare the photosynthetic activity in the reclaimed landfill to nearby green spaces, as well as the plant health in the surrounding neighborhoods. Figure credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory OCO-2, OCO-3 2016: Trekking to the Desert to Calibrate OCO-2
A technologist tramps around in the desert for instrument calibration.
Carol Bruegge [OCO-2—Technologist] had been to the Nevada desert so many times that she knew the way by heart. After skirting the Sequoia Forest and stopping for the night just past the Nevada border, she led a caravan of scientists along Highway 6 to mile marker 100, turning right onto a dirt road between two fence posts. Traveling 10 mi (16.5 km) down the road, a cloud of dust raised up from the car tires before the vehicle came to a stop at their destination – a patch of spindly instruments hammered into the barren desert floor. A big plaque marked the spot with the NASA logo and the words, “Satellite Test Site.” Standing under vast blue sky, Carol felt like she’d come home. Over the past few years, Carol had grown accustomed to leading these summer expeditions to Railroad Valley, NV. Often the team from JPL is joined by guests from Japan and other international colleagues representing various satellite missions – see Photo 2.
Photo 2. Group photo at Railroad Valley, NV during a summer field campaign. Carol Bruegge [OCO-2—Technologist, fifth from left] joins JPL members and guests from Japan working on the Greenhouse-gas Observing satellite. The group included [left to right] Hirokazu Yamamoto, Atsushi Yasuda, Hideaki Nakajima, Kei Shiomi, Thomas Pongetti, Bruegge, Dejian Fu, Junko Fukuchi, Makoto Saito, and Rio Kajiura. Photo credit: Tom Pongetti Carol knew that a successful field campaign required that they protect the instruments from the thick corrosive salt on the ground. Then the work could begin. The team hiked through the desert, collecting data that would ensure that OCO-2 could continue to provide high-quality data. As they hiked, the team carried hand-held spectrometers and measured the reflection of sunlight off Earth’s surface – timed precisely to match the moment the satellite passes overhead. By comparing the satellite’s readings with the ground-based measurements, the team can check the accuracy of the satellite readings. Reflection is one ingredient used in calculating the concentration of CO2 in the overlying air.
This remote location in Nevada wasn’t chosen by accident. In this part of the desert, the ground is perfectly flat, free of plants, and surrounded by ground littered with salt. This smooth, bare surface means no bumps and textures could disrupt the signal. For satellite calibration, it doesn’t get better than this.
2018: A Contentious Meeting in Noordwijk, Netherlands Sparks A Revolution
Could OCO-2 data be used to construct a nation-by-nation CO2 budget?
David Crisp [JPL emeritus—original OCO Principal Investigator and former OCO Science Team Leader] was tired. He didn’t know if it was jet lag or a reflection of the 16- to 18-hour workdays that had persisted for weeks. This particular week had started with a 10-hour flight from Los Angeles to the Netherlands. Now, he was standing in front of carbon scientists who had gathered from around the world.
“We need to put together a team that will be brave enough to make a CO2 budget, nation-by-nation,” David said.
His statement was met with thoughtful silence. Neither the data nor the models were ready. The consensus in the room was that the proposed venture may not work. David was magnanimous toward his critics, but he persisted with his idea.
Despite the rocky start, David met with representatives in charge of creating national emission inventories. He could see exasperation on their faces – running ragged, short-staffed, and trying to tally up every single barrel of oil and bushel of coal burned within their country’s boundaries. Even more challenging was tallying other tasks, such as deforestation and agricultural practices. David firmly believed that if OCO-2 could provide independent estimates from space as promised, it would provide the on-the-ground “carbon accountants” a reliable comparison – see Figure 3.
“We might have a satellite that can help,” Dave told them.
Although David has since retired, his perseverance is now bearing fruit. What began as a hypothetical solution is now much closer to reality. OCO-2’s high-precision measurements can now detect CO2 linked not just to countries, but large cities, industrial zones, and even individual power plants – all while researchers continue perfecting efforts to identify contributions from specific city sectors. OCO-2 provides a valuable, independent reference that nations can use to track the progress of their emission inventories. Researchers have created an entire OCO-2-sourced database of CO2 estimates by country, available through the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center.
Figure 3. A map of the net emissions and removals of carbon dioxide (CO2) for 2015–2020 using estimates informed by OCO-2. Green depressions represent countries that remove more CO2 than emitted. Tan or red ridges represent countries with higher CO2 emissions than removed. Figure credit: NASA Science Data Visualization Studio 2019: Another OCO Takes flight – This Time to The International Space Station
Using “spare parts” to get more details about plant health and the carbon cycle.
After completing OCO-2, enough spare parts remained to construct a sister mission — OCO-3, which launched in 2019 to continue the work of measuring CO2 in the atmosphere from the International Space Station (ISS). The satellite’s unique orbit gives it a new vantage point. While OCO-2 continues to orbit Earth in a near-polar path, OCO-3 travels aboard the ISS in a lower, shifting orbit that allows it to study different areas of Earth’s surface at different times of day. OCO-3 also features a special scanning mode, called the snapshot area mapping (SAM) that lets scientists zoom in on areas of interest (e.g., cities or volcanoes) to study carbon emissions and vegetation in greater detail. Together, OCO-2 and OCO-3 provide complementary perspectives on Earth’s carbon cycle and plant health at space and time resolutions that have not been possible from space before.
2021: LA During a Pandemic Is a Far Cry from Finland
A data scientist foregoes saunas and berry-picking to make the dream of OCO-2 a reality.
Otto Lamminpää [JPL—Data Scientist] opened the picture his sister had texted him. His family looked back with wide smiles, holding buckets overflowing with scarlet berries and framed by the velvety firs of Finland. It had been almost two years since he’d seen them in person. He’d moved to Los Angeles to work at JPL on the OCO-2 and OCO-3 mission just as the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the planet – see Photo 3.
Photo 3. Otto Lamminpää and Amy Braveman [both from JPL] in Finland. Photo credit: Otto Lamminpää Otto had never gone a week without seeing his family or skipped a berry-hunting party in the forests of his native Finland. With the forced distance, he placed himself in his home forests in his mind. He used this memory to marvel at the capacity of the vast forests to “breathe in” CO2 and convert it into trunks, branches, and roots through photosynthesis. With the COVID-19-imposed travel restrictions, Otto wasn’t sure how long he’d have to wait to go back home.
But whenever that homecoming occurred, Otto knew that a piece of OCO-2 would be waiting for him. North of the Arctic Circle in Sodankylä, a cluster of Earth instruments nestled in a snowy meadow include a field station that is part of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) of Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTS). These stations act as OCO-2 and OCO-3’s “ground crew.” As the satellites orbit Earth, the FTS simultaneously measures direct solar spectra in the near-infrared spectral region, which allows for retrieval of column-averaged CO2 concentrations, as well as other key atmospheric constituents, over the snowy meadow. Back in the lab, Otto, along with other OCO-2 and OCO-3 scientists, compare the data collected at the field station to the satellite data. This feature was detailed in The Earth Observer article, titled “Integrating Carbon from the Ground Up: TCCON Turns Ten,” was published July–August 2014, Volume 26 issue 4, pp. 13–17).
Figure 4. Global map of the ground stations, also known as the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). The red dots mark the active ground observation stations to validate OCO-2 and OCO-3 data. Figure credit: NASA-JPL/OCO-2 The station in Finland is one of about 30 similar TCCON sites scattered across the world, located in a variety of settings, from isolated tropical islands to the Pacific rim of Asia – see Figure 4. The stations in the far north play an especially valuable role since satellites often struggle to accurately measure CO2 over snow-covered ground. Therefore, reliable measurements from the ground stations become crucial to adjust and improve the satellite data.
Validation efforts such as the one described here are crucial to satellite observations. Comparisons between OCO-2 and TCCON show agreement is good, with a less than 1 ppm difference. It’s an impressive level of accuracy for a satellite orbiting more than 435 mi (700 km) away in polar orbit. The “ground truth” data collected at these field sites help to ensure that the satellite is accurately measuring “Earth’s breathing.”
For Otto, not just his family, but OCO-2 and OCO-3 itself was calling him home. As the pandemic began to ease, he returned to Finland to pick berries, jump in the sauna every night, and follow it up with snow angels. The homecoming was also coordinated with a trip past the Arctic Circle to the TCCON field station. The mission was part of him. Wherever he was, OCO-2 and OCO-3 would be there, too.
2023: The Annual Science Team Meeting Continues
Tracking changes in soil moisture during a colorful fall day.
Saswati Das [JPL—Postdoctoral Fellow] had missed the magnificent display of fall colors in deciduous forests of the East Coast of the United States. She’d seen nothing of the sort since moving to Los Angeles in 2022 to work on OCO-2. Before that, she’d been working on her Ph.D. at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), where the surrounding mountain peaks, meadows, and forests burned and sparked with crimson and gold in the autumn – see Photo 4. Now she was in another mountain town, Boulder, CO, to attend the OCO science team meeting. The aspens glittered like golden lanterns as her gang carpooled up the Flatiron Range to the science institute at Table Mesa.
Photo 4. Saswati Das takes a break from her Ph.D studies at nearby Virginia Tech (located in Blacksburg, VA) to enjoy the famous fall colors in the mountains of West Virginia. Photo credit: Saswati Das The research presented that week spanned a variety of topics. OCO-2 was being used to develop early drought forecasts. Because of its ability to detect the SIF “glow” that results from plant photosynthesis, OCO-2 can hint at flash droughts as early as three months before environmental decay unfold. By pairing OCO-2 data from other satellites, such as soil moisture data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, scientists have opened a new window into drought forecasts and how water supply affects plant growth.
Surprises about our planet have also emerged. The tropical rainforests, long nicknamed the “lungs” of our planet, don’t always inhale and store carbon. At times, this region can exhale CO2, such as during the 2015–2016 El Niño. That period saw large tropical forests temporarily transform into net carbon sources – see Figure 5. The driver for this shift varied by region. The Amazon rainforest was driven by drought. Central Africa was driven by unusually high temperatures. Indonesia was driven by widespread fires.
Figure 5. The 2015–2016 El Niño increased the net carbon dioxide released by Earth’s tropical regions into the atmosphere. Figure credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech Data from OCO-2 and OCO-3 have also been used to study emissions from both cities and large power plants. This approach offers a new way to track changing emissions over time – without needing to continuously measure them on the ground. In addition, scientists are combining the satellite data with wind models and urban maps to trace CO2 to its sources (e.g., factories, ships, and roadways), helping to disentangle emissions from overlapping city sectors. These methods have been used to isolate industrial emissions in places, such as Europe, China, as well as over cities, such as Los Angeles, Paris, and Seoul. It has also revealed pandemic-era drops in traffic-related CO2 and increases in CO2 tied to shipping backlogs at the port. Two representatives from the World Bank shared how they used data from OCO-2 to demonstrate that building subway systems in cities can lower emissions. The goal is to eventually use these tools to evaluate local strategies (e.g., bike lanes and public transit) to reduce local carbon footprints.
When massive wildfires blazed through Australian forests and bushland in 2019, researchers used OCO-2 data to study the unfolding crisis. OCO-2 captured the increase in atmospheric CO2, and scientists used this data to refine estimates of how these events contribute to the global carbon budget.
As her mind wandered from the rich research she’d been immersed in for the past hour, Saswati spied Otto Lamminpää across the aisle in the wood-paneled auditorium. She thought back to the forests she loved on the East Coast, and the forests in Finland where Otto had grown up. OCO-2 was telling a story about the role that forests play in absorbing carbon and how this has changed over time.
2025 and Beyond
The Tapestry Continues to Expand…
In many ways, OCO-2 has had a long and unexpected journey. So has Hannah Murphy, another DEVELOP intern who will be starting a Master’s degree at Hunter College in New York in Fall 2025. She’s studied art and worked as a set designer in Los Angeles. She never pictured herself working with satellite data, but then she saw how visual it could be. The glowing, evocative images of Earth from space spoke to her artistic heart.
Now, Hannah works on SIF data as a 2025 NASA DEVELOP intern with the OCO-2 team, developing tools for wildfire risks. This project in particular hits close to home for Hannah, because she lived through the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles in January 2025. Although she remained safe, she knew several people who lost their homes, and the air was unsafe to breathe for weeks.
Just a few short months later, Hannah began studying the data from OCO-2. She is now part of the new generation of researchers that will take the mission’s remote sensing data and pave the way for implementing the findings to benefit society. Hannah understands, on a personal level, how closely our lives are linked to Earth systems that satellites, such as OCO-2 and OCO-3, study from space.
OCO-2 (and OCO-3) are built to study CO2 and plant health, but its impact goes deeper to the connections that tie our atmosphere, ecosystems, and lives together. That work continues to the new generation of scientists – one breath at a time.
Mejs Hasan
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
mejs.hasan@jpl.nasa.gov
Alan Ward
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Global Science & Technology Inc.
alan.b.ward@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 12, 2025 Related Terms
Earth Science View the full article
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By NASA
Left: Gigantic Jet Event from the International Space Station, taken by NASA Astronaut Nichole Ayers. (Credit: Ayers) Right: Sprite event appearing over a lightning strike, seen from space. This photo was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station during Expedition 44. Credit: NASA astronauts on board Expedition 44 Did you see that gorgeous photo NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers took on July 3, 2025? Originally thought to be a sprite, Ayers confirmed catching an even rarer form of a Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) — a gigantic jet.
“Nichole Ayers caught a rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station — a gigantic jet,” said Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of the Spritacular project.
Gigantic jets are a powerful type of electrical discharge that extends from the top of a thunderstorm into the upper atmosphere. They are typically observed by chance — often spotted by airline passengers or captured unintentionally by ground-based cameras aimed at other phenomena. Gigantic jets appear when the turbulent conditions at towering thunderstorm tops allow for lightning to escape the thunderstorm, propagating upwards toward space. They create an electrical bridge between the tops of the clouds (~20 km) and the upper atmosphere (~100 km), depositing a significant amount of electrical charge.
Sprites, on the other hand, are one of the most commonly observed types of TLEs — brief, colorful flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms in the mesosphere, around 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. Unlike gigantic jets, which burst upward directly from thundercloud tops, sprites form independently, much higher in the atmosphere, following powerful lightning strikes. They usually appear as a reddish glow with intricate shapes resembling jellyfish, columns, or carrots and can span tens of kilometers across. Sprites may also be accompanied or preceded by other TLEs, such as Halos and ELVEs (Emissions of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources), making them part of a larger and visually spectacular suite of high-altitude electrical activity. The world of Transient Luminous Events is a hidden zoo of atmospheric activity playing out above the storms. Have you captured an image of a jet, sprite, or other type of TLE? Submit your photos to Spritacular.org to help scientists study these fascinating night sky phenomena!
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Last Updated Aug 12, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
An artist’s concept of the Moon (right) and Mars (center) against the starry expanse of space. A sliver of the Earth’s horizon can be seen in the foreground.Credit: NASA NASA is accepting U.S. submissions for the second phase of the agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge, a Moon-focused recycling competition. The challenge aims to develop solutions for recycling common trash materials – like fabrics, plastics, foam, and metals – that could accumulate from activities such as system operations, industrial activities, and building habitats in deep space.
Phase 2 of the LunaRecycle Challenge is divided into two levels: a milestone round and the final round. Submissions for the milestone round are open until January 2026, with finalists from that round announced in February. Up to 20 finalists from the milestone round will compete in the challenge’s in-person prototype demonstrations and final judging, slated for the following August. Cash prizes totaling $2 million are available for successful solutions in both rounds.
“NASA is eager to see how reimagining these materials can be helpful to potential future planetary surface missions,” said Jennifer Edmunson, acting program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “I’m confident focusing on the most critical trash items – and integration of the prototype and digital twin competition tracks – will yield remarkable solutions that could enable a sustainable human presence off-Earth and transform the future of space exploration.”
Estimates indicate a crew of four astronauts could generate more than 2,100 kilograms (4,600 pounds) of single-use waste – including food packaging, plastic films, foam packaging, clothing, and more – within 365 days. Successful solutions in LunaRecycle’s Phase 2 should manage realistic trash volumes while minimizing resource inputs and crew time and operating safely with minimal hazards.
Phase 2 is only open to U.S. individuals and teams. Participants can submit solutions regardless of whether they competed in the earlier Phase 1 competition.
All Phase 2 participants are expected to build a physical prototype. In addition, participants can submit a digital twin of their prototype for additional awards in the milestone and final rounds.
The LunaRecycle Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge, part of the Prizes, Challenges and Crowdsourcing Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. LunaRecycle Phase 1 received record-breaking interest from the global innovator community. The challenge received more than 1,200 registrations – more than any competition in the 20-year history of Centennial Challenges – and a panel of 50 judges evaluated nearly 200 submissions. Seventeen teams were selected as Phase 1 winners, representing five countries and nine U.S. states. Winners were announced via livestream on NASA Marshall’s YouTube channel.
LunaRecycle is managed at NASA Marshall with subject matter experts primarily at the center, as well as NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. NASA, in partnership with The University of Alabama College of Engineering, manages the challenge with coordination from former Centennial Challenge winner AI SpaceFactory and environmental sustainability industry member Veolia.
To learn more about LunaRecycle’s second phase, including registration for upcoming webinars, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/lunarecycle
-end-
Jasmine Hopkins
NASA Headquarters, Washington
321-432-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Taylor Goodwin
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 11, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
NASA Headquarters Ames Research Center Centennial Challenges Kennedy Space Center Marshall Space Flight Center Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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