Departments

Laboratory Overview

I. The Mission and Role of the Laboratory II. Laboratory Science Program - Cryospheric Research - Oceanographic Research - Terrestrial Hydrology Research - Observational Technology Development - Terrestrial Biosphere Sciences Research - Long-term Data Records and Global Science Processing

About Us Main

Code 614 Web Site Credits

Laboratory Overview

Click on the links below to view slides that show the major science research topics within the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, Code 614:

I. The Mission and Role of the Laboratory

The Mission of the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory is:
To explore and understand the Earth's hydrosphere and biosphere, and the linkages between the oceans, land, atmosphere and life on Earth.

This mission supports NASA and the nation by conceiving, developing, and implementing cutting-edge observations from space to enable community-wide climate, hydrologic and Biospheric research that addresses issues of importance to society. Our mission defines the multiple roles that the HBSL serves as a federal research and development organization. The Laboratory's water cycle on Earth and Terrestrial Ecosystems foci are closely aligned with NASA's mission to "understand and protect our home planet" and to "improve life here". As a part of our mission, we accept the challenge of the President's vision of exploration as we apply our expertise "to explore the universe and search for life".

The Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory develops pioneering approaches that improve our understanding the Earth's hydrosphere and biosphere using the unique perspective of space. Laboratory research and development activities address the observation and understanding of the Earth's hydrosphere and biosphere: land surface hydrology, the global water cycle, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, the cryosphere, physical oceanography, measurement of precipitation, and atmospheric profiling, plus an extensive observational program. The Laboratory's research and development staff thus provide end-to-end capabilities, with a strong scientific basis, that extend from sensor development, to space mission design, to the collection, calibration, validation, and delivery of data products and numerical models to the scientific community and the nation. The results of these activities are well illustrated by Laboratory leadership in numerous space missions that address global ice (ICESat), ocean circulation (TOPEX /POSEIDON, Aquarius), precipitation (TRMM, GPM), ocean biology (CZCS, SeaWiFS, MODIS, VIIRS) and terrestrial ecology (EO1, Landsat, AVHRR, MODIS, VIIRS). The heritage, present activities and future plans of Laboratory space mission activities (Fig. 1) will be discussed in Section III as a part of the Laboratory's science program.

These space missions have succeeded because of instrumentation concepts, science algorithms and new technologies that have been developed by or with assistance from Laboratory staff. Indeed, many of the key space remote sensing technologies - e.g. microwave and laser altimetry, passive microwave precipitation measurement techniques, ocean color sensing, land cover and disturbance mapping - were developed within the Laboratory. Laboratory leadership and support of validating field exercises provides the climate-quality calibrations for the data sets from these and other instruments. The Laboratory thus enables new space-based measurements; provides data streams that are stable, well-calibrated and research-proven; creates new and innovative data analysis tools including forecast models; facilitates broader use of satellite data by the academic and federal colleagues; and conducts scientific analyses that address national needs for prediction of changes in the Earth's hydrosphere and biosphere under the influence of climate variability and change.

Figure 1. Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory Space Mission Activities.

Click here for a larger version of the image above.

NASA and the nation receive considerable leveraged benefits from the work of the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory. A broad spectrum of community-wide research is based on the technology, data and analysis tools that are produced by the Laboratory. The Laboratory provides Project Scientists or Deputy Project Scientists for several of NASA's key missions: Landsat-7, EO-1, Terra, Aqua, ICESat, NPP, and LDCM. Also enabled are the many applications and inter-agency cooperative agreements that result as other agencies make use of the new capabilities created by the Laboratory. This amplification of Laboratory advances and contributions accelerates progress towards the overall mission objectives.

The Laboratory staff thus provides a unique capability spanning scientific skill, development of new instrumentation, and production of credible, research-quality data products that enables NASA's success in Earth sciences and exploration. Our commitment to the success of the NASA Science Mission Directorate will continue into the future as the needs for NASA Earth science grow and change and we will continue to facilitate the involvement of the larger research and applications communities to expand NASA's contributions and impact on science and exploration. Our employees are proud to be part of the most creative and innovative federal agency. This pride conveys the all-important human aspect of the "one-NASA" view of our agency. As NASA employees, we are deeply vested in ensuring a successful outcome to all our endeavors that support national needs through NASA's mission, from the superior performance of designed instruments, the accuracy of algorithms formulated to produce useful data products to the research community, unequivocal calibration and validation procedures to ensure the highest quality data, and innovative applications developed in partnership with research partners in other federal agencies and in universities domestically and abroad to achieve greater use of satellite data and result in improved prediction of the Earth's climate system. The full engagement of our workforce, from mission design through to data applications, returns dividends in the form of creative ideas for the next generation of satellite missions. This end-to-end expertise of our staff has been one of the unheralded secrets of nearly fifty years of successful Earth science at NASA. The unquestioned loyalty and typical single-career dedication of our workforce provides a human capital asset that enables achievements that would otherwise be impossible.

top

Privacy Policy and Important Notices
NASA Official: Dr. Rosa Kao
Webmaster: Paul Przyborski