JPL-Developed Space Instrument Expands Mission To Tackle Climate Challenges

An imaging instrument developed and managed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, initially designed to study how desert dust affects global climate, has been granted a three-year mission extension, building on its success with new applications ranging from tracking Amazon River biodiversity to measuring California snowpack. 

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument, launched to the International Space Station in July 2022, is delivering what mission deputy principal investigator Natalie Mahowald, an Earth system scientist at Cornell University, calls “lab-quality results, everywhere we need to know.” 

JPL leads both hardware and software development for EMIT, which helps agricultural agencies assess winter cover crops and conservation tillage practices. This data could help incentivize farmers to adopt more sustainable farming methods. The instrument’s ability to measure snow albedo and melting rates is particularly crucial for California’s agricultural water supply. 

“Breakthroughs in optics, physics, and chemistry led to where we are today with this incredible instrument, providing data to help address pressing questions on our planet,” said Dana Chadwick, EMIT’s applications lead at National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 

The expansion includes 16 new research projects studying everything from wildflower blooming to snowpack melting. The United States Geological Survey and Department of Agriculture are among the partners using EMIT data, while JPL researchers continue refining the instrument’s greenhouse gas detection capabilities using machine-learning automation. 

The work is already informing NASA’s future Surface Biology and Geology-Visible Shortwave Infrared mission. “Making this work publicly accessible has fundamentally pushed the science of measuring point-source emissions forward,” said Andrew Thorpe, the JPL research technologist heading the EMIT greenhouse gas effort. 

In its original dust-monitoring role, EMIT has revolutionized climate research. Before the JPL-developed instrument, scientists could only make assumptions about dust particle composition in different regions. Now, researchers can precisely measure whether airborne dust particles are darker and iron-filled, which warm the atmosphere, or lighter and clay-rich, which have a cooling effect. 

Local researchers can access EMIT’s data through National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, EMIT’s data portal, and the United States Greenhouse Gas Center. The instrument, created and managed by JPL, which California Institute of Technology operates for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, continues its original mission studying dust’s climate effects while embracing these expanded research opportunities.