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NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) conducts pioneering work in Earth system science, the interdisciplinary view
of Earth that explores the interaction among the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land surface interior, and life itself
that has enabled scientists to measure global and climate changes and to inform decisions by governments,
organizations, and people in the United States and around the world. The ESD makes the data collected and results
generated by its space missions accessible to other agencies and organizations to improve the products and services
they provide, including air quality indices, disaster management, agricultural yield projections, and aviation safety.
Through partnerships with national and international agencies, NASA enables the application of this understanding.
The ESD’s Flight Program provides the spacebased observing systems and supporting ground segment infrastructure
for mission operations and scientific data processing and distribution that support NASA’s Earth system science
research and modeling activities. The Flight Program currently has 15 operating Earth observing space missions,
including the recently launched Landsat-8/Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The ESD has 16 more
missions planned for launch over the next decade. These include first and second tier missions from the 2007 Earth
Science Decadal Survey, Climate Continuity missions to assure availability of key data sets needed for climate
science and applications, and small-sized competitively selected orbital missions and instrument missions of
opportunity utilizing rideshares that are part of the Earth Venture (EV) Program. The recently selected Cyclone
Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) microsatellite constellation and the Tropospheric Emissions:
Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument are examples. In addition, the International Space Station (ISS) is
being increasingly used to host NASA Earth observing science instruments. An overview of plans and current status
will be presented.
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