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Module 1 - Mission to Planet Earth

A) What is Mission to Planet Earth?

Objectives

  1. Students will understand the goals of Mission to Planet Earth (to study Earth as a system, including interactions between Atmosphere, Ocean and Land)
  2. Students will summarize at least two global issues addressed by Mission to Planet Earth
  3. Students will be introduced to the idea of using different instruments and technologies to observe the Earth

In response to concerns about the earth's environment, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is initiating a program to study the earth as a system. This program is called Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE).

NASA's Mission to Planet Earth will study how the global environment is changing. Using the unique perspective available from space, NASA will observe, monitor and assess large-scale environmental processes, focusing on climate change. MTPE satellite data, complemented by aircraft and data, will allow us to better understand natural environmental changes from human-induced changes. MTPE data, which NASA will distribute to researchers worldwide, is essential to humans making informed decisions about protecting their environment.

Science Themes

The following are the underlying science themes for MTPE:

  1. Environmental processes are global in scale, complex and closely connected.
  2. Each component of the environment -- air, water, land, biota -- is continually changing, and changes in one component affect the other.
  3. Changes can occur naturally or as a result of human activities. These changes occur on such a scale that they require long-term observation and analysis.
  4. These closely connected systems require interdisciplinary research.
  5. MTPE will provide that long-term, interdisciplinary research.

Program Themes

  1. NASA conceived and initiated MTPE because the unique global perspective available from space allows comprehensive, long-term measurements of environmental processes.
  2. NASA's MTPE space-based remote-sensing programs are complemented and verified by aircraft, balloon and ground-based measurements.
  3. NASA's MTPE programs are distributed across the United States through NASA centers, universities and other institutions. MTPE is a cooperative program within the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which involves other federal agencies with different areas of environmental expertise.
  4. NASA's MTPE is an international program, involving other countries in an attempt to solve problems that recognize no national boundaries.
  5. NASA's MTPE focus is information -- providing the data policy makers and nations need to make informed decisions about the global environment.

As part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, JPL is investigating the biological, chemical and physical features of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land surface and crust - and studying aspects of the interfaces between them. To address key global problems such as ozone depletion, climate change, volcanism and tectonism, JPL scientists acquire data from remote-sensing instruments carried by aircraft, balloons and satellites; insights are also gained through laboratory experimentation, field work and theoretical modeling. While research is becoming largely interdisciplinary in nature, JPL is building on strengths in traditional areas of expertise, such as atmospheric chemistry, oceanography, geology and geodynamics.

Teacher's Guide - Table of Contents

Converted to the IBM-PC by Al Wong, sirced03@southport.jpl.nasa.gov

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