321H - Biosphere

Overview

We advance Earth system understanding by quantifying interactions within and among terrestrial, aquatic, and urban ecosystems — their biogeochemistry and biodiversity — under natural variability and human influence.

Our Science

We integrate satellite, airborne, and in situ observations with modeling and data assimilation to deliver actionable insights for climate mitigation and adaptation, ecosystem resilience, food and water security, hazard response, and stewardship of natural and built systems. We focus on three core science themes:

1. Global Carbon Cycle & Biogeochemical Coupling
   How are carbon stocks and fluxes changing across land, water, coasts, oceans, and cities, and what processes control their variability and trends?
   How do carbon, water, and nutrient cycles interact across natural and managed systems to regulate ecosystem productivity and greenhouse gas exchange?
2. Biodiversity, Ecosystem Structure, & Resilience
   How do climate extremes, disturbances, and human activities alter ecosystem structure, biodiversity, and resilience?
3. Human–Natural Systems & Infrastructure
   How do infrastructure and management decisions interact with ecosystems to shape climate feedbacks, resources, and risk?

Key Capabilities

• Carbon Flux Monitoring & Attribution: Global and regional estimation of CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes and sources across natural, managed, and urban systems, including top-down approaches and point-source plume detection.
• Aquatic and Terrestrial Biogeochemistry: Global and regional modeling and analysis of land and ocean biogeochemical processes to assess ecosystem productivity, carbon storage, and climate sensitivity.
• Biodiversity Observation & Ecosystem Monitoring: Quantification and monitoring of ecosystem structure, functional diversity, and biodiversity using imaging spectroscopy, lidar, and optical remote sensing, supported by scalable data-processing and analytics tools.
• Integrated Modeling & Data Assimilation: Carbon, hydrology, and ocean modeling frameworks that assimilate multi-platform observations to improve quantification and reduce uncertainty.
• Algorithms, Data Products, & Processing Systems: Development, validation, and stewardship of retrieval algorithms and higher-level data products that support research, missions, and applications.
• Mission, Airborne, & Applications Support: Mission formulation, implementation, and operations support, including targeted airborne campaigns for calibration and validation, and translation of biospheric science into actionable information aligned with NASA’s Earth Science to Action priorities.
• Sensor & Technology Development: Develop and propose new sensors and measurements in support of the scientific community and NASA’s priorities.