Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory designed to achieve two separate mission objectives. One is to collect data on the chemical, microphysical, and optical properties, and spatial and temporal distributions of aerosols. The other is to continue collection of total solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record.

The Glory mission's scientific objectives are met by implementing two separate science instruments, one with the ability to collect polarimetric measurements along the satellite ground track within the solar reflective spectral region (0.4 to 2.4 micrometers) and one with the ability to monitor changes in sunlight incident on the Earth's atmosphere by collecting high accuracy, high precision measurements of total solar irradiance. Glory accomplishes these objectives by deploying two instruments aboard a low earth orbit satellite, the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) and the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). Additionally, a cloud camera system will provide images that allow the APS scans along the spacecraft ground track to be put into spatial context and to facilitate determination of cloud occurrence within the APS instantaneous field of view.

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. As summarized below, 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.

Glory paper published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. (Download PDF, document size 5.2 MB)

Glory chapter in 2006 Earth Science Reference Handbook. (Download PDF, document size 780 KB)

Hansen, J., et al., 2005. Earth's energy imbalance: Confirmation and implications. Science 308, 1431-1435. (Download PDF, document size 245 KB)

Kopp, G., and G. Lawrence, 2005. The Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM): Instrument design. Solar Phys. 230, 91-109. (Download PDF, document size 1 MB)

Mishchenko, M. I., B. Cairns, J. E. Hansen, L. D. Travis, R. Burg, Y. J. Kaufman, V. Martins, and E. P. Shettle, 2004. Monitoring of aerosol forcing of climate from space: analysis of measurement requirements. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 88, 149-161. (Download PDF, document size 400 KB)

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Michael Mishchenko, Project Scientist NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies 2880 Broadway New York, NY 10025 Phone: (212) 678-5590 Fax: (212) 678-5552 E-mail: MMishchenko@giss.nasa.gov	Bryan Fafaul, Project Manager NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 Phone: (301) 286-7726 E-mail: Bryan.A.Fafaul@nasa.gov
Hal Maring, Program Scientist Radiation Sciences Program Sun-Earth System Division NASA Headquarters 300 E ST SW Washington DC 20546-0001 Phone: (202) 358-1679 Fax: (202) 358-2770 E-mail: hal.maring@nasa.gov	Ron Hooker, Program Executive Mission and Systems Management Division NASA Headquarters 300 E ST SW Washington DC 20546-0001 Phone: (202) 358-4508 Fax: (202) 358-2769 E-mail: ron.hooker@nasa.gov