GSFC_20221025_PACE_076157

Technicians prepare to integrate the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter #2 (HARP2) instrument to the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) spacecraft bus at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on October 25th, 2022. HARP2 is one of three instruments on NASA's PACE observatory, it was designed and built by UMBC's Earth and Space Institute. PACE's unprecedented spectral coverage will provide the first-ever global measurements designed to identify phytoplankton community composition. The mission will make global ocean color measurements, using the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), to provide extended data records on ocean ecology and global biogeochemistry along with polarimetry measurements, using the Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone) and the Hyper Angular Research Polarimeter (HARP2) to provide extended data records on clouds and aerosols. The Earth-observing satellite mission, built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, will continue and advance observations of global ocean color, biogeochemistry, and ecology, as well as the carbon cycle, aerosols and clouds.