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Every Day is Earth Day at NASA

Earth Day, April 22, is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess the work still needed to protect the natural gifts of our planet. It affirms that environmental awareness is part of our consciousness and that the idea of protecting the environment has moved into the mainstream.

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NASA's Earth Science Mission seeks to understand Earth's systems and their responses to natural and anthropogenic (human-made) changes. A fleet of satellites in NASA's Earth Observing System gives scientists the global, long-term measurements they need to connect the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere (snow/ice), and biosphere (life) as a single system.

NASA works with many other partners from government, industry, academia, and international space agencies on the satellite missions that make up the EOS series. Each of these satellites gathers a unique set of measurements for studying Earth. These measurements are used to improve weather forecasts, understand natural disasters, manage agriculture and forests, and predict how climate will change.

Learn how NASA's Earth-observing satellites measure climate, temperature and more, to help us better understand our planet. Download your copy of the activity booklet, Earth Day is Everyday at NASA!

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Download a high-resolution version of NASA's 2009 Earth Day Poster (15 MB)

Please celebrate Earth Day with NASA and learn more about how NASA's Earth Science missions are helping us to better understand our planet.

*Sort missions by clicking the column headers.

DIVISION	NAME	LAUNCH DATE	PHASE
Earth	ACRIMSAT ACRIMSAT is the latest in a series of long-term solar-monitoring missions, utilizing the proven Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor III (ACRIM III) instrument. This mission is part of SMD's Earth Systematic Missions program.	19991220December 20, 1999	3Operating
Earth	Aqua Aqua obtains a set of precise atmosphere and oceans measurements to understand their role in Earth's climate and its variations. Aqua carries six state-of-the-art instruments to observe the Earth's oceans, atmosphere, land, ice and snow covers, and vegetation, providing high ...	20020504May 04, 2002	3Operating
Earth	Aura The Aura satellite hosts a suite of scientific instruments designed to make the most comprehensive measurements ever undertaken of atmospheric trace gases. Aura's objective is to study the chemistry and dynamics of the Earth's atmosphere with emphasis on the upper ...	20040715July 15, 2004	3Operating
Earth	CALIPSO The CALIPSO satellite was developed to help scientists answer significant questions and provide new information about the effects of clouds and aerosols (airborne particles) on changes in the Earth's climate. Understanding these components will provide the international science community with ...	20060428April 28, 2006	3Operating
Earth	CloudSat CloudSat uses advanced radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure, providing a completely new observational capability from space. CloudSat is one of the first satellites to study clouds on a global basis. This mission is part of ...	20060428April 28, 2006	3Operating
Earth	Earth Observing-1 (NMP) The NMP EO-1 mission is an advanced land-imaging mission that will demonstrate new instruments and spacecraft systems. EO-1 will validate technologies contributing to the significant reduction in cost of follow-on Landsat missions. The future of Earth science measurements requires that ...	20001121November 21, 2000	3Operating
Earth	GRACE The primary goal of the GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field over its 5-year lifetime. This provides scientists from all over the world with an efficient and cost-effective way to map the Earth's gravity ...	20020317March 17, 2002	3Operating
Earth	Jason-1 Jason was an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, improve global climate predictions, and monitor events such as El Nino conditions and ocean eddies. The Jason-1 satellite carried a radar altimeter, and it was a follow-on mission to the ...	20011207December 07, 2001	4Past
Earth	Landsat 7 Landsat 7 is a joint NASA/USGS mission that launched in April 1999 to extend the Landsat record of multispectral, medium resolution, seasonal global coverage or Earth's land surfaces. Since May 2003, a failed Scan Line Corrector has resulted in a ...	19990415April 15, 1999	3Operating
Earth	OSTM OSTM measures sea surface height to an accuracy of < 3.3 cm every ten days. Sea surface topography measured by satellite altimeters has numerous applications important to global environmental monitoring including predicting hurricane intensification, improving tide models, mapping deep ocean ...	20080620June 20, 2008	3Operating
Earth	SORCE SORCE is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation. The measurements provided by SORCE specifically address long-term climate change, natural variability and enhanced climate prediction, and atmospheric ozone ...	20030125January 25, 2003	3Operating
Earth	Terra Terra (formerly EOS AM-1) is the flagship satellite of NASA's Earth observing systems. Terra is the first EOS (Earth Observing System) platform and provides global data on the state of the atmosphere, land, and oceans, as well as their interactions ...	19991218December 18, 1999	3Operating
Earth	TRMM TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. TRMM is particularly devoted to determining rainfall in the tropics and subtropics of the Earth. These regions make up about two thirds of the ...	19971127November 27, 1997	3Operating