![Turquoise Swirls in the Black Sea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Turquoise_Swirls_in_the_Black_Sea.jpg)
NASA Earth Science, formerly called NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) and Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE), is a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
research program "to develop a scientific understanding of the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
system and its response to natural and human-induced changes to enable improved prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards for present and future generations".
Its director was
Michael Freilich (2006–2019).
NASA supports research in the
Earth Sciences
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...
and, as part of its
Earth Observing System
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans ...
(EOS), launches and maintains Earth observing satellites to monitor the state of the climate, atmospheric chemistry, ocean and land ecosystems. It was a NASA scientist, Dr.
James Hansen, who first alerted the world to the dangers of
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
due to
greenhouse gases
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...
emitted by human burning of
fossil fuels. Earth Science research also provides the foundations of understanding for the search for
extraterrestrial life through the
NASA Astrobiology Institute
The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) "to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions." In December 2019 the institute ...
(NAI), in which the focus is often on the extreme conditions for life to survive.
[ ]
References
NASA programs
Earth observation projects
Earth sciences
{{space-stub