Terrestrial ecosystems can be described in terms of trait composition, physiological function, and physical structure; all three of these are observable remotely to varying degrees. Yet, no mission is able to singularly capture all three together, thus inhibiting our ability to dynamically measure and describe ecosystems as holistic, integrated, and interconnected entities.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a new platform for global ecology. The variable overpass time offers a key advantage to investigations interested in sampling over the diurnal cycle, critical to understanding ecosystem function. The ISS also offers another key advantage—financial; it is already there with funded astronaut cargo re-supply missions, so the cost of launch and platform do not need to be added onto new science missions, thereby enabling NASA to select more missions at lower costs.
Results/Conclusions
In 2018, NASA began sending a series of independently-selected missions to the ISS focused on terrestrial ecosystems. First, ECOSTRESS produces thermal-based evapotranspiration (ET) data, among other products. OCO-3 measures chlorophyll fluorescence (related to gross primary production, GPP) and atmospheric CO2. HISUI and DESIS measure surface spectral reflectance across 185 bands from hyperspectral imagers. GEDI produces LiDAR-based ecosystem structure (height, leaf area index, biomass). While each mission is independently developed and funded, the respective mission scientists are working together to bridge observations and leverage their unique contemporaneous and synergistic value for global ecology.
This talk will describe these ISS-based terrestrial ecosystem science missions, and discuss synergies that will enable the study of ecosystems as a whole that is larger than the sum of their parts.