Aqua is focused on the multi-disciplinary study of Earth's interrelated processes (atmosphere, oceans, and land surface) and their relationship to changes in the Earth system. The global change research efforts emphasized with the Aqua instrument data sets include atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, precipitation and radiative balance; terrestrial snow and sea ice; sea surface temperature and ocean productivity; soil moisture; and the improvement of numerical weather prediction. Aqua is also making critical contributions to the monitoring of terrestrial and marine ecosystem dynamics.