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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) is pleased to announce the official release of the highly anticipated 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report. This significant accomplishment was made possible by the contributions of numerous dedicated people across NASA who graciously supported the preparation of the document as authors and reviewers. We also want to extend our gratitude to all the companies, universities, and organizations that provided content for this report.
The 2024 report can be found online at https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa. The report is also available in PDF format as a single document containing all report content as well as individual chapters available on their respective chapter webpages. This 2024 edition reflects updates in several chapters to include: the Formation Flying and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations section within the “Guidance, Navigation, and Control” chapter; the Additive Manufacturing section within the “Structures, Materials, and Mechanisms” chapter; the Free Space Optical Communications section within the “Communications” chapter; and the Hosted Orbital Services section within the “Complete Spacecraft Platforms” chapter.
As in previous editions, the report contains a general overview of current state-of-the-art SmallSat technologies and their development status as discussed in open literature. The report is not intended to be an exhaustive representation of all technologies currently available to the small spacecraft community, nor does the inclusion of technologies in the report serve as an endorsement by NASA. Sources of publicly available date commonly used as sources in the development of the report include manufacturer datasheets, press releases, conference papers, journal papers, public filings with government agencies, and news articles. Readers are highly encouraged to reach out to companies for further information regarding the performance and maturity of described technologies of interest. During the report’s development, companies were encouraged to release test information and flight data when possible so it may be appropriately captured. It should be noted that technology maturity designations may vary with change to payload, mission requirements, reliability considerations, and the associated test/flight environment in which performance was demonstrated.
Suggestions or corrections to the 2024 report toward a subsequent edition, should be submitted to the NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute Agency-SmallSat-Institute@mail.nasa.gov for consideration prior to the publication of the future edition. When submitting suggestions or corrections, please cite appropriate publicly accessible references. Private correspondence is not considered an adequate reference. Efforts are underway for the 2025 report and organizations are invited to submit technologies for consideration for inclusion by August 1, 2025.
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute.
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By NASA
8 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Virtual meetings feeling a little stale? NASA has just unveiled a suite of new Artemis backgrounds to elevate your digital workspace.
From the majesty of the Artemis I launch lighting up the night sky to the iconic image of the Orion spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in view, these virtual backgrounds allow viewers to relive the awe-inspiring moments of Artemis I and glimpse the bright future that lies ahead as the Artemis campaign enables humans to live and work at the Moon’s South Pole region.
Scroll through to download your next virtual background for work, school, or just for fun, and learn about all things Artemis as the agency and its partners cross off milestones leading up to Artemis II and missions beyond.
Artemis I Launch
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test on Nov. 16, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I mission was the first integrated flight test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and ground systems. SLS and Orion launched at 1:47 a.m. EST from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy.
Artemis II Crew
Credit: NASA Meet the astronauts who will fly around the Moon during the Artemis II mission. From left are Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Astronaut Regolith
Credit: NASA An artist’s concept of two suited Artemis crew members working on the lunar surface. The samples collected during future Artemis missions will continue to advance our knowledge of the solar system and help us understand the history and formation of Earth and the Moon, uncovering some of the mysteries that have long eluded scientists.
Exploration Ground Systems
Credit: NASA NASA’s mobile launcher, atop Crawler Transporter-2, is at the entrance to High Bay 3 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Sept. 8, 2018, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the first time that the modified mobile launcher made the trip to the pad and the VAB. The mobile launcher is the structure that is used to assemble, process, and launch the SLS rocket.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA’s SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 4, 2022, as Crawler Transporter-2 departs the pad following rollout at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA After Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, the spacecraft was recovered by personnel on the USS Portland from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists, Space Force weather specialists, and Air Force specialists, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations. Personnel from NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems led the recovery efforts.
Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher as it rolls out to Launch Complex 39B for the first time on March 17, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At left is the Vehicle Assembly Building.
First Woman
Credit: NASA “First Woman” graphic novel virtual background featuring an illustration of the inside of a lunar space station outfitted with research racks and computer displays. To learn more about the graphic novel and interactive experiences, visit: nasa.gov/calliefirst/
Credit: NASA “First Woman” graphic novel virtual background featuring the illustration of the inside of a lunar space station outfitted with research racks and computer displays, along with zero-g indicator suited rubber duckies floating throughout. To learn more about the graphic novel and interactive experiences, visit: nasa.gov/calliefirst/
Credit: NASA This “First Woman” graphic novel virtual background features an illustrated scene from a lunar mission. At a lunar camp, one suited astronaut flashes the peace sign while RT, the robot sidekick, waves in the foreground. To learn more about the graphic novel and interactive experiences, visit: nasa.gov/calliefirst/
Gateway
Credit: NASA The Gateway space station hosts the Orion spacecraft and SpaceX’s deep space logistics spacecraft in a polar orbit around the Moon, supporting scientific discovery on the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission.
Credit: Northrop Grumman and Thales Alenia Space The Gateway space station’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module, one of two of Gateway’s habitation elements where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for lunar surface missions, successfully completed welding in Turin, Italy. Following a series of tests to ensure its safety, the future home for astronauts will travel to Gilbert, Arizona, for final outfitting ahead of launch to lunar orbit. Gateway will be humanity’s first space station in lunar orbit and is an essential component of the Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for human missions to Mars.
Lunar Surface
Credit: SpaceX Artist’s concept of SpaceX Starship Human Landing System, or HLS, which is slated to transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface during Artemis III and IV.
Credit: Blue Origin Artist’s concept of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK-2 human lunar lander, which is slated to land astronauts on the Moon during Artemis V.
Credit: NASA The “Moon buggy” for NASA’s Artemis missions, the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), is seen here enabling a pair of astronauts to explore more of the Moon’s surface and conduct science research farther away from the landing site. NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to advance capabilities for an LTV.
Credit: JAXA/Toyota An artist’s concept of the pressurized rover — which is being designed, developed, and operated by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) — is seen driving across the lunar terrain. The pressurized rover will serve as a mobile habitat and laboratory for the astronauts to live and work for extended periods of time on the Moon.
Logo
Credit: NASA The NASA “meatball” logo. The round red, white, and blue insignia was designed by employee James Modarelli in 1959, NASA’s second year. The design incorporates references to different aspects of NASA’s missions.
Credit: NASA The NASA meatball logo (left) and Artemis logo side by side.
Moon Phases
Credit: NASA The different phases of the Moon, shown in variations of shadowing, extend across this virtual background.
Orion
Credit: NASA On flight day 5 during Artemis I, the Orion spacecraft took a selfie while approaching the Moon ahead of the outbound powered flyby — a burn of Orion’s main engine that placed the spacecraft into lunar orbit. During this maneuver, Orion came within 81 miles of the lunar surface.
Credit: NASA On flight day 13 during Artemis I, Orion reached its maximum distance from Earth at 268,563 miles away from our home planet, traveling farther than any other spacecraft built for humans.
Credit: NASA This first high-resolution image, taken on the first day of the Artemis I mission, was captured by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays. The spacecraft was 57,000 miles from home and distancing itself from planet Earth as it approached the Moon and distant retrograde orbit.
Silhouettes
Credit: NASA In this virtual background, various scenes from Earth, Moon, and Mars are depicted within the silhouette outlines of three suited astronauts, artistically representing the interconnected nature of human space exploration from low Earth orbit to the Moon and, one day, human missions to Mars.
SLS (Space Launch System)
Credit: Joel Kowsky In this sunrise photo at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA’s SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B as preparations continued for the Artemis I launch.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky In this close-up image, NASA’s SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 12, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA’s SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 7, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Earth, Moon, and Mars
Credit: NASA From left, an artist’s concept of the Moon, Earth, and Mars sharing space. NASA’s long-term goal is to send humans to Mars, and we will use what we learn at the Moon to help us get there. This is the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
Credit: NASA In this artist’s concept, the upper portion of a blended sphere represents the Earth, Moon, and Mars.
Credit: NASA An artist’s concept showing, from left, the Earth, Moon, and Mars in sequence. Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth.
About the Author
Catherine E. Williams
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Last Updated Dec 02, 2024 Related Terms
Humans in Space Artemis Artemis 1 Artemis 2 Artemis 3 Artemis 4 Artemis 5 Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Explore More
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By European Space Agency
With the initial images from each of the instruments aboard ESA’s EarthCARE satellite now in hand, it's time to reveal how these four advanced sensors work in synergy to measure exactly how clouds and aerosols influence the heating and cooling of our atmosphere.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This mosaic from ESA’s Euclid space telescope contains 260 observations in visible and infrared light. It covers 132 square degrees, or more than 500 times the area of the full Moon, and is 208 gigapixels. This is 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will capture during its six-year mission.ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO This section of the Euclid mosaic is zoomed in 36 times, revealing the core of galaxy cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years from Earth. The image, made using both visible and infrared light, shows galaxies of different shapes and sizes, including elliptical, spiral, and dwarf galaxies.ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO This image shows an area of the Euclid mosaic zoomed in 150 times. The combination of visible and infrared light reveals galaxies that are interacting with each other in cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away from Earth. ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO The location and actual size of the newly released Euclid mosaic is highlighted in yellow on a map of the entire sky captured by ESA’s Planck mission and a star map from ESA’s Gaia mission. ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA and the Planck Collaboration. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO With contributions from NASA, the mission will map a third of the sky in order to study a cosmic mystery called dark energy.
ESA (the European Space Agency) has released a new, 208-gigapixel mosaic of images taken by Euclid, a mission with NASA contributions that launched in 2023 to study why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Astronomers use the term “dark energy” in reference to the unknown cause of this accelerated expansion.
The new images were released at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan on Oct. 15.
The mosaic contains 260 observations in visible and infrared light made between March 25 and April 8 of this year. In just two weeks, Euclid covered 132 square degrees of the southern sky — more than 500 times the area of the sky covered by a full Moon.
The mosaic accounts for 1% of the wide survey Euclid will conduct over six years. During this survey, the telescope observes the shapes, distances, and motions of billions of galaxies out to a distance of more than 10 billion light-years. By doing this, it will create the largest 3D cosmic map ever made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZCsUfgLRQ Dive into a snippet of the great cosmic atlas being produced by the ESA Euclid mission. This video zooms in on a 208-gigapixel mosaic containing about 14 million galaxies and covering a portion of the southern sky more than 500 times the area of the full Moon as seen from Earth. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration This first piece of the map already contains around 100 million stars and galaxies. Some 14 million of these galaxies could be used by Euclid to study the hidden influence of dark energy on the universe.
“We have already seen beautiful, high-resolution images of individual objects and groups of objects from Euclid. This new image finally gives us a taste of the enormity of the area of sky Euclid will cover, which will enable us to take detailed measurements of billions of galaxies,” said Jason Rhodes, an observational cosmologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who is the U.S. science lead for Euclid and principal investigator for NASA’s Euclid dark energy science team.
Galaxies Galore
Even though this patch of space shows only 1% of Euclid’s total survey area, the spacecraft’s sensitive cameras captured an incredible number of objects in great detail. Enlarging the image by a factor of 600 reveals the intricate structure of a spiral galaxy in galaxy cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away.
This section of the Euclid mosaic is zoomed in 600 times. A single spiral galaxy is visible in great detail within cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away from us. Data from both the visible and infrared light instruments on Euclid are included. ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO “What really strikes me about these new images is the tremendous range in physical scale,” said JPL’s Mike Seiffert, project scientist for the NASA contribution to Euclid. “The images capture detail from clusters of stars near an individual galaxy to some of the largest structures in the universe. We are beginning to see the first hints of what the full Euclid data will look like when it reaches the completion of the prime survey.”
Visble as well are clouds of gas and dust located between the stars in our own galaxy. Sometimes called “galactic cirrus” because they look like cirrus clouds at Earth, these clouds can be observed by Euclid’s visible-light camera because they reflect visible light from the Milky Way.
The mosaic released today is taste of what’s to come from Euclid. The mission plans to release 53 square degrees of the Euclid survey, including a preview of the Euclid Deep Field areas, in March 2025 and to release its first year of cosmology data in 2026.
NASA’s forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman mission will also study dark energy — in ways that are complementary to Euclid. Mission planners will use Euclid’s findings to inform Roman’s dark energy work. Scheduled to launch by May 2027, Roman will study a smaller section of sky than Euclid but will provide higher-resolution images of millions of galaxies and peer deeper into the universe’s past, providing complementary information. In addition, Roman will survey nearby galaxies, find and investigate planets throughout our galaxy, study objects on the outskirts of our solar system, and more.
More About Euclid
Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium — consisting of more than 2,000 scientists from 300 institutes in 15 European countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan — is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the payload module, including the telescope. Euclid is a medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision Programme.
Three NASA-supported science teams contribute to the Euclid mission. In addition to designing and fabricating the sensor-chip electronics for Euclid’s Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument, JPL led the procurement and delivery of the NISP detectors as well. Those detectors, along with the sensor chip electronics, were tested at NASA’s Detector Characterization Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI), at Caltech in Pasadena, California, will archive the science data and support U.S.-based science investigations. JPL is a division of Caltech.
For more information about Euclid go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/euclid/main/index.html
For more information about Roman, go to:
https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov
News Media Contacts
Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
ESA Media Relations
media@esa.int
2024-141
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Last Updated Oct 15, 2024 Related Terms
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8 min read Revealing the Hidden Universe with Full-shell X-ray Optics at NASA MSFC
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By NASA
9 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Atmospheric Aerosols group, from the 2024 Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) West Coast cohort, poses in front of the natural sciences building at UC Irvine, during their final presentations on August 12, 2024. NASA Ames/Milan Loiacono Faculty Advisors: Dr. Andreas Beyersdorf, California State University, San Bernardino & Dr. Ann Marie Carlton, University of California
Graduate Mentor: Madison Landi, University of California, Irvine
Madison Landi, Graduate Mentor
Madison Landi, graduate student mentor for the 2024 SARP Aerosols group, provides an introduction for each of the group members and shares behind-the scenes moments from the internship.
Maya Niyogi
A Comparative Analysis of Tropospheric NO2: Evaluating TEMPO Satellite Data Against Airborne Measurements
Maya Niyogi, Johns Hopkins University
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) plays a major role in atmospheric chemical reactions; the inorganic compound both contributes to tropospheric ozone production and reacts with volatile organic compounds to create health-hazardous particulate matter. The presence of NO2 in the atmosphere is largely due to anthropogenic activity, making NO2 at the forefront of policy decisions and scientific monitoring. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) satellite launched in 2023 with the goal of monitoring pollution across North America. The publicly-accessible data became available for use in May 2024, however parts of the data remain unvalidated and in beta, creating a need for an in situ validation of its data products. Here we analyze TEMPO’s tropospheric NO2 measurements and compare them to aloft NO2 measurements collected during the NASA Student Airborne Research Project (SARP) 2024 airborne campaign. Six of the campaign flights recording NO2 performed a vertical spiral, providing vertical column data that was adjusted to ambient conditions for comparison against the corresponding TEMPO values. Statistical analyses indicate we have reasonable evidence to conclude that TEMPO satellite data and the flight-collected data record similar values. This research fills a critical knowledge gap through the utilization of aloft NO2 measurements to validate NASA’s newly-launched TEMPO satellite. It is expected that future users of TEMPO data can apply these results to better inform project creation and research.
Benjamin Wells
Investigating the Atmospheric Burden of Black Carbon Over the Past Decade in the Los Angeles Basin
Benjamin Wells, San Diego State University
Black Carbon is a primary aerosol emitted directly into the atmosphere as a result of biomass burning and incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. During the pre-industrial revolution, the main source of black carbon was natural sources whereas currently, the main source is anthropogenic activities. When black carbon is released into the atmosphere, it is a dominant absorber of solar radiation and leads to a significant warming effect on Earth’s climate. In addition to its harmful effects associated with climate change, ambient black carbon inhalation is correlated with adverse health effects such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature mortality. In this study, we analyze aloft black carbon measurements in 2016 and 2024 acquired on NASA SARP research flights and compare these concentrations to black carbon measurements taken during the 2010 CalNex field campaign. Both field campaigns flew similar flight paths over the Los Angeles basin allowing us to conduct a critical comparative analysis on vertical and spatial profiles of the atmospheric burden of black carbon over the past 14 years. During the CalNEX study, mass concentrations of black carbon ranged from 0.02 μg/m3 to 0.531 μg/m3, meanwhile 2024 SARP measurements demonstrate concentrations as elevated as 7.83 μg/m3 within the same region. Moreover, similar flight paths conducted during SARP 2024 and 2016 allow for further analysis of aloft black carbon concentrations over a period of time. The results of this study examines and analyzes the changing spatial and temporal characteristics of black carbon throughout the years, leading to an increase of adverse effects on both the climate and public health.
Devin Keith
Tracking Methane and Aerosols in relation to Health Effects in the San Joaquin Valley
Devin Keith, Mount Holyoke College
The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is located in central California and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country for dairy, nuts, and berries, producing more than half of California’s $42 billion output. Due to the SJV’s close proximity to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the East and predominantly Easterly winds, air pollution often accumulates because it is trapped by the geography. Significant chemical constituents of trapped particulate matter are ammonium (NH4), chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO4), nitrate (NO3), black carbon, and organic carbon. The particle size measured in this study is less than 1 micron in diameter, and due to their size, can easily penetrate the respiratory tract leading to adverse health effects such as: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease. We employ airborne data collected during the SARP 2024 mission onboard NASA’s P-3 research plane to observe spatial and temporal trends of NH4, Cl, SO4, NO3, and black carbon. Further, we analyze measurements from SARP 2016 flights and compare the atmospheric burden of pollution in the SJV across time. To investigate observations in the context of the public health impacts, we utilize data collected by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment and find asthma and cardiovascular disease rates are higher in the SJV hotspots identified here. Per capita health impacts are greater than other California regions such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. The SJV exhibits higher rates of poverty than other communities, which may reveal an environmental justice issue that is difficult to explicitly quantify especially where measurements are sparse.
Lily Lyons
Investigating the Effects of Aerosols on Photosynthesis Using Satellite Imaging
Lily Lyons, Brandeis University
Aerosols in the atmosphere can affect the way sunlight travels to the ground by absorbing or scattering light. Sunlight is a critical component in plant photosynthesis, and the way light scatters affects productivity for vegetation and plant growth. When plants absorb sunlight, the chlorophyll in their leaves releases the excess energy as infrared light, which can be measured from space via satellite. To better understand how aerosol loading in the atmosphere affects plant photosynthesis, this study examines locations in Yosemite, Sequoia, Garrett, and Talladega national forests, and compares aerosol optical depth (AOD), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and solar induced fluorescence (SIF) in these areas. Yosemite and Sequoia act as proxies for the old growth sequoia grove ecosystems, and Talladega and Garrett act as proxies for the Appalachian mixed mesophytic forest ecosystem. Our results show that within 2015-2020 during July, SIF and NDVI levels are significantly greater in mixed mesophytic forests than in sequoia groves. Using linear regression plots, we determined the correlation between SIF, NDVI and AOD to be weak in the given locations. Greater SIF in mixed mesophytic forests could suggest that the presence of a prominent and biodiverse understory is positive for the overall primary productivity of an ecosystem. This study is a good starting point for analyzing diverse ecosystems using SIF, NDVI and satellite data as proxies for photosynthesis, and broadening the scope of biomes examined for their SIF. Furthermore, it highlights the need for further investigation of aerosol impact on the trajectory and amount of sunlight that reaches certain plants.
Ryleigh Czajkowski
Validating the Performance of CMAQ in Simulating the Vertical Distribution of Trace Gases
Ryleigh Czajkowski, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Air quality modeling simulates atmospheric processes and air pollutant transport to better understand gas-and particle-phase interactions in the atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model couples meteorological, emission, and chemical transport predictions to simulate air pollution from local to hemispheric scales. CMAQ provides scientists and regulatory agencies with important assistance in air quality management, policy enactment, atmospheric research, and creating public health advisories. Recently, a new update to CMAQ (v5.4) was released, utilizing new chemistry mechanisms and incorporating a new atmospheric chemistry model. This study evaluates the performance of the latest model update by analyzing multiple time series of vertical distributions of formaldehyde (CH2O) and methane (CH4) in the Los Angeles Basin and Central Valley regions of California. It compares data from aloft measurements taken during NASA SARP 2017 flights with model predictions to evaluate accuracy. Our study analyzes CMAQ’s capabilities in capturing the vertical dispersion of CH2O and CH4 in different regions, offering insights into the effectiveness of CMAQ for air quality management and the analysis of trace and greenhouse gas dynamics. Using NASA airborne data, this research utilizes a diversified data set to validate the model, providing a more comprehensive evaluation of its capabilities, and thus providing valuable insight into future developments of CMAQ.
Alison Thieberg
Estimating Aerosol Optical Properties Using Mie Theory and Analyzing Their Impact on Radiative Forcing in California
Alison Thieberg, Emory University
Anthropogenic aerosols, unlike greenhouse gasses, provide a net cooling effect to the Earth’s surface. Particles suspended in the atmosphere have the ability to scatter incoming solar radiation, preventing that radiation from heating up the surface. These aerosols like black carbon, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, and organics are byproducts of both natural and anthropogenic activities. Measuring radiative forcing as a result of these aerosols over time can provide insight on how anthropogenic industries are altering our Earth’s temperature. This study analyzes the changes in radiative forcing from aerosols in central and southern California using data collected from NASA SARP flights from 2016-2024. Aerosol size, composition, and single scattering albedo were used to estimate the aerosol characteristics and to calculate the aerosols’ radiative forcing efficiency. Our results show that aerosols are found to have less of a cooling effect over time when looking at the change in radiative forcing in California from 2016 to 2024. When narrowing in on specific geographic regions, we observe the same trends in the Central Valley with the area becoming warmer as a result of aerosols. However, more southern regions like Los Angeles and the Inland Empire have become cooler from aerosols during this time period. The overall decrease in the cooling effect of California’s aerosols could indicate that the average size of particulates is changing or that the aerosol composition could be shifting to a greater concentration of absorbing aerosols rather than scattering aerosols. This study shows how aerosols influence radiative forcing and their subsequent impacts across regions in California from multiple years.
Click here watch the Terrestrial Ecology Group presentations.
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Last Updated Sep 25, 2024 Related Terms
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