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Aboard NASA’s many platforms are sophisticated instruments that collect a wide range of data about our planet. Our instruments can track wildfires in real time, detect minute changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, and help agricultural communities optimize their crop cycles. Explore how our data can enhance your Earth science research.

 

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image of lightning data

GLM

Geostationary Lightning Mapper
GLM detects and maps total lightning—in-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground—continuously over the Americas and adjacent ocean regions.
6 datasets
Saharan Air Layer during Hurricane Nadine. The blue to white data in the curtains is attenuated backscatter from CPL. The dropsonde data is showing relative humidity where blue represents dry air and red represents moist air.

Global Hawk Dropsonde

The Global Hawk dropsondes (or dropwindsondes) are in situ instruments designed to be released from aircraft to collect various profile measurements.
chlorophyll data collected by the GOCI instrument above Korea and Japan

GOCI

Geostationary Ocean Color Imager
GOCI flew aboard the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) collecting chlorophyll concentration and other measurements from the Korean Sea.
2 datasets
GRACE Interferometer in orbit

GRACE Interferometer

The ranging interferometer aboard the GRACE platform measures distance variations between remote spacecraft, providing precise estimates of Earth's gravity field.
7 datasets
GRACE-FO LRI instrument in orbit

GRACE-FO LRI

GRACE-FO Laser Ranging Interferometer
The laser ranging interferometer aboard the GRACE-FO platform is the first to measure distance variations between remote spacecraft, providing precise estimates of Earth's gravity field.
13 datasets
HALO instrument

HALO

High Altitude Lidar Observatory
The High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) provides vertical profiles of aerosol and cloud optical properties, atmospheric water vapor, and methane.
9 datasets
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