National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Glory Science

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) maintains the Glory Science Data.

Science Objectives

The Glory mission will respond to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) by continuing and improving upon NASA's research of the forcings influencing climate change in the atmosphere. Measurements produced by this mission and the scientific knowledge such observations will provide are essential to predicting future climate change, and to making sound, scientifically based economic and policy decisions related to environmental change.

The science objectives of the Glory mission include:

1. The determination of the global distribution, microphysical properties, and chemical composition of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and clouds with accuracy and coverage sufficient for a reliable quantification of the aerosol direct and indirect effects on climate
2. The continued measurement of the total solar irradiance to determine the Sun's direct and indirect effect on the Earth's climate.

Scientific Measurements

Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) will provide the retrieval of aerosol particle microphysical properties by inverting multiangle and multispectral radiance and polarization measurements.

Total Solar Irradiance (TIM) will measure the absorption and reflection of this radiation by the Earth's atmosphere, and determine the global average temperature of the Earth.

Cloud Camera data will provide cross track coverage over a finite swath of aerosol load and fine mode fraction over the open ocean.