Earth Day

Earth Day, April 22, is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess the work still needed to protect the natural gifts of our planet. It affirms that environmental awareness is part of our consciousness and that the idea of protecting the environment has moved into the mainstream.

NASA’s Earth Science Mission seeks to understand Earth’s systems and their responses to natural and anthropogenic (human-made) changes. A fleet of satellites in NASA’s Earth Observing System gives scientists the global, long-term measurements they need to connect the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere (snow/ice), and biosphere (life) as a single system.

NASA works with many other partners from government, industry, academia, and international space agencies on the 17 satellite missions that make up the EOS series. Each of these satellites gathers a unique set of measurements for studying Earth. These measurements are used to improve weather forecasts, understand natural disasters, manage agriculture and forests, and predict how climate will change.