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Sciences and Exploration Directorate
Operational

Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE)

PACE is NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission. It launched on February 8, 2024, extending and improving NASA's over 20-year record of satellite observations of global ocean biology, aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere), and clouds.

Launch Date

February 2024

Class

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Key Staffs

PACE is NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission. It launched on February 8, 2024, extending and improving NASA's over 20-year record of satellite observations of global ocean biology, aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere), and clouds.

PACE will advance the assessment of ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web. It will also continue systematic records of key atmospheric variables associated with air quality and Earth's climate.

Related Publications

2025. "Evaluation of cloud height, optical thickness, and phase retrievals from the CHROMA algorithm applied to Sentinel-3 OLCI data.", Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 18 (22): 6681-6703 [10.5194/amt-18-6681-2025] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Annual periodicity in ocean color observations across diverse oceanic regions.", Applied Optics, 64 (25): 7376-7395 [10.1364/ao.566299] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Ocean Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the United States Exclusive Economic Zone.", NOAA , [Full Text] [Report]

2025. "Utilizing machine learning for high resolution NO2 total columns from PACE OCI.", Environmental Research Letters, 20 (7): 074052 [10.1088/1748-9326/addfef] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Evaluation of fluorometrically-derived chlorophyll a as a satellite ocean color validation product using statistical metrics.", Optics Express, 33 (5): 10212 [10.1364/oe.549547] [Journal Article/Letter]