Featured in Earth Science
Crucial Carbon Stores and Fluxes in Desert Environments
Understanding carbon stores and fluxes in desert environments is crucial to reach conservation, regeneration, and carbon goals locally and globally. The first workshop will lay the groundwork for achieving a common understanding of science and measurement needs and technical feasibility.


Forging Community Consensus for an Integrated GHG and Winds Program

Quantifying Emissions through Greenhouse Gases and Transport

Managing Soil Organic Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation – Part II
Study Programs

Crucial Carbon Stores and Fluxes in Desert Environments
Understanding carbon stores and fluxes in desert environments is crucial to reach conservation, regeneration, and carbon goals locally and globally. In desert landscapes, carbon is primarily stored as inorganic carbon in the so-called caliche layer and…

Forging Community Consensus for an Integrated GHG and Winds Program
To respond to climate change effectively, we need better information about how planetary ecosystems are responding to changes in the environment through carbon-climate feedbacks. There are several dedicated greenhouse gas missions, current and planned, focussed on…

Managing Soil Organic Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation – Multiscale Quantification Through Remote Sensing, AI and Biogeochemical Models
Mitigating climate change by halting (and then reversing) the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a critical challenge which must be addressed by all sectors of the global economy, including how we manage land.…

Developing a Continuity Framework for Satellite Observations of Climate
Space-based observations of Earth have given us a view of the wonder and complexity of the planet. They also provide society with situational awareness of local-to-global environmental conditions and predictive guidance of near-term weather and related…

Covid-19: Identfiying Unique Opportunities for Earth System Science
The goal of this study is to quickly assemble an interdisciplinary team of scientists, researchers and engineers to begin addressing the following questions: How will the response to the COVID-19 impact on the climate system be…

Real Time Detection and Tracking of Fires that Matter
In this workshop, we build on findings from the Moore Foundation Fire Immediate Response Workshop and do a deep dive to investigate innovation for detecting and tracking costly fires that affect human life, infrastructure, and the…

Sensing Forest Water Dynamics from Space: Towards Predicting the Earth System Response to Droughts
In the last two decades, severe droughts and extreme climate events have caused widespread tree mortality across many forest biomes globally, causing profound effects on the function of ecosystems and their services in terms of water…

Unlocking a New Era in Biodiversity Science: Linking Integrated Space Based and In-Situ Observations
Biodiversity loss is a major threat to ecosystem health and to Earth’s life support systems, with human activities causing rapid and widespread loss and shifts in distribution. These changes will have accelerating consequences for human well-being…

Next-Generation Approach for Detecting Climate-Carbon Feedbacks: Space-Based Integration of OCS, CO2, and SIF
This study follows on the heels of recent breakthroughs in measurement capability, global budget information, and model development. The first global satellite maps for Carbonyl Sulfide (OCS) from TES and MIPAS showed strong similarities with spatial…

Plan B: Engineering a Cooler Earth (Co-sponsored)
Climate change is happening and its full consequences are not fully understood. A prevailing view contends that any warming above about 2 Celsius degrees from preindustrial times will be dangerous, producing serious negative consequences for humans…

Exploring New Multi-Instrument Approaches to Observing Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Carbon Cycle from Space
Our poor understanding of terrestrial ecosystems and their biogeochemical and biogeophysical feedbacks with the Earth System severely limits our ability to make accurate predictions about the future of our home planet. To make the sort of…

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Planetary
Gazing at the Solar System: Capturing the Evolution of Dunes, Faults, Volcanoes and Ice from Space
Gazing from space holds considerable promise of capturing details of features on the surface of the Earth and other solar system bodies. As features change over time, processes such as evolution of earthquake faults, migration of…

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Adaptive Multi-Functional Space Systems for MicroClimate Control
The scope of the study is to adapt the most recent advances in multi-functional reconfigurable and adaptive structures to enable a micro-environment control that enables space exploration in extreme environments (EE). The technical goal is to…

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Satellites to the Seafloor: Autonomous Science to Forge a Breakthrough in Quantifying the Global Ocean Carbon Budget
Understanding the global carbon budget and its changes is crucial to current and future life on Earth. The marine component represents the largest reservoir of the global carbon cycle. In addition to physical processes that govern…
Workshops

Crucial Carbon Stores and Fluxes in Desert Environments
Understanding carbon stores and fluxes in desert environments is crucial to reach conservation, regeneration, and carbon goals locally and globally. The first workshop will lay the groundwork for achieving a common understanding of science and measurement needs and technical feasibility.

Forging Community Consensus for an Integrated GHG and Winds Program
The overall goal of this KISS study on “Forging Community Consensus for an Integrated GHG and Winds Program” is to bring together expertise in wind observations and trace gas observation and attribution.

Managing Soil Organic Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation – Part II
The objectives for workshop #2 will be to address technical challenges and identify opportunities for moving forward on each of four critical components.

Managing Soil Organic Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation
This workshop will develop a credible framework for a comprehensive SOC data analysis, modeling and prediction system that will enable accurate tracking of SOC changes from landscape to regional and national soils.

Developing a Continuity Framework for Satellite Observations of Climate – Part II
This workshop will review current and planned Earth observations and the national and international landscapes associated with their continuity.

Developing a Continuity Framework for Satellite Observations of Climate
This workshop will review current and planned Earth observations and the national and international landscapes associated with their continuity.

Real Time Detection and Tracking of Fires that Matter
This workshop will investigate innovation for detecting and tracking costly fires that affect human life, infrastructure, and the Earth system.

Sensing Forest Water Dynamics from Space Part II
This workshop aims to explore how planned and potential exploratory microwave observations from space and their synergism with optical, hyperspectral, and/or thermal sensing can be used in sensing forest water dynamics from space.

COVID-19: Identifying Unique Opportunities for Earth System Science
The goal of this workshop is to quickly assemble an interdisciplinary team of scientists, researchers and engineers to begin addressing the questions of COVID-19 impact on the climate system.

Sensing Forest Water Dynamics from Space: Towards Predicting the Earth System Response to Droughts
The focus of this workshop is to greatly increase our current capacity to understand and predict the response of forest ecosystems to droughts and links between water and carbon processes in the earth’s biosphere.

Unlocking a New Era in Biodiversity Science: Linking Integrated Space Based and In-Situ Observations – Part II
This workshop will address how the biodiversity and remote sensing communities can work together to implement a biodiversity monitoring system.

Unlocking a New Era in Biodiversity Science: Linking Integrated Space Based and In-Situ Observations
The focus of this workshop is to advance progress towards the development of a global biodiversity observation system and to explore how the fusion of diverse remote sensing measurements can contribute to monitoring biodiversity change.

Next-Generation Approach for Detecting Climate-Carbon Feedbacks: Space-Based Integration of OCS, CO 2 , and SIF
This workshop will evaluate recent breakthroughs in measurement capability and leverage recent collaborative activities within the OCS and SIF communities.

Exploring New Multi-Instrument Approaches to Observing Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Carbon Cycle from Space
The focus of this study is exploring new multi-instrument approaches to doing ecosystem science from space.

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Adaptive Multi-Functional Space Systems for Micro-Climate Control – Part II
This study will bring mission designers together with experts in these technologies, resulting in a better understanding of where we can best apply these ideas in space science, and leading toward development of the most promising concepts.
Symposia

Mini-Symposium: Earth Observations in Support of Climate and Environmental Security

Mini-Symposium: Leveraging Commercial & Non-Profit Satellite Capabilities for Earth Observation

Mini-Symposium: The U.S. and International Earth Observation from Space Program of Record

California as Seen From Space – Delivering Actionable Science
Short Courses

Quantifying Emissions through Greenhouse Gases and Transport

Understanding and Empowering Soil Management as a Climate Mitigation Option

Forest Water Dynamics and the Earth System Responses to Droughts

Biodiversity Science and Remote Sensing Fundamentals

Next-Generation Approach for Detecting Climate-Carbon Feedbacks

Observing Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Carbon Cycle from Space

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Multifunctional Energy Projecting Systems for Planetary Exploration

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Satellites, Ocean Robots and the Marine Carbon Cycle

The Sleeping Giant: Measuring Ocean Ice Interactions in Antarctica
Includes the following disciplines:
- Astrophysics
- Earth
- Engineering
Airships: A New Horizon for Science
Public Lectures

Webinar: Human Impacts on the Atmosphere as Revealed by COVID-19
Changes in energy use, transportation, and manufacturing during the coronavirus pandemic can be connected to changes in air quality and emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Panelists will discuss how this has created an experiment that can help us understand how human activity changes the environment and guide policies for a transition to a sustainable planet.

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Planetary
Optical Remote Sensing of Earth and Planetary Surfaces
The development of space observation techniques and of user friendly software to process and handle those observations has opened a new era in geology and planetary sciences. The first global imaging systems made it possible to scan wide areas and search for promising sites for field investigations, or to get the contextual information needed to interpret local observations. As the resolution, whether spatial or spectral, and geometric accuracy improved, it became possible to make actual measurements and eventually monitor Earth surface changes. These possibilities offered new ways to investigate the geological processes at play in the landscape evolution on Earth and other planets. New opportunities are emerging, such as staring systems in particular, which will allow investigating processes and surface characteristics that cannot be observed with present systems. Rapid surface motions, such as from seismic waves, are one example.

Includes the following disciplines:
- Astrophysics
- Earth
- Engineering
Airships: A New Horizon for Science
Over the last decade, a few commercial telecommunication ventures as well as several well-funded military programs have attempted to develop autonomous, solar powered, high-altitude light-than-air (LTA) vehicles known as airships, which could maneuver and station-keep for weeks, months, or even years.

Fossil Fuel Treaty Monitoring: Mission Impossible?
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (2009) tackled the challenge of designing and implementing a global agreement for control of greenhouse gas emissions. The meeting floundered, in part, due to a seemingly mundane technical challenge: If treaties to controls on carbon emissions are adopted, how would compliance be monitored?

The MSU Debate, Climate Auditing, and the Freedom of Information Act
Since the late 1960s, scientists have performed experiments in which computer models of the climate system are run with human-caused increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). These experiments consistently showed that increases in atmospheric concentrations of GHGs should lead to pronounced warming, both at the Earth's surface and in the troposphere. The models also predicted that in the tropics, the warming of the troposphere should be larger than the warming of the surface.
Technical Development

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
- Planetary
Student-Led Space Exploration and Science with Small Satellites

Includes the following disciplines:
- Earth
- Engineering
Science-driven Autonomous and Heterogeneous Robotic Networks: A Vision for Future Ocean Observations

PhotoSpec – Comprehensive Ground-Based Studies of Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence – tracking seasonal, diurnal and fine spatial variability

Developing Space-based Strategies to Monitor Megacity GHG Emissions

