NASA Selects Caltech to Operate the Orbiting Carbon Observatories

NASA has selected Caltech to operate the Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions (OCO-2 and OCO-3) beginning this fall. OCO-2, a satellite, and OCO-3, an instrument on the International Space Station (ISS), both identify where carbon is being emitted and where natural sinks such as forests and oceans are absorbing it.

Data from the OCO missions have direct relevance to better understanding agricultural health, providing information about plant productivity and ecosystem health from farmlands to tropical and high-latitude forests. Data from these instruments will continue to be made publicly available.

"The Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions give us a remarkable vantage point from which to observe our planet," says Caltech Provost David Tirrell, the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. "We are pleased that NASA has entrusted Caltech to steward the continued operation of these missions, ensuring that they will provide the data needed to make informed decisions about the natural resources on which we all depend. This collaboration is a powerful model for how government, universities, and industry can work together in new ways to sustain world-class scientific capabilities that deliver lasting public benefit."

The Earth is dynamic—one day an atom of carbon might be floating in the atmosphere as a molecule of carbon dioxide, and the next it might be taken in by a photosynthesizing plant to make sugars or dissolved into sea water as bicarbonate. Monitoring how carbon travels throughout the biosphere and atmosphere is crucial for supporting Earth's diverse ecosystems. For example, in 2020, a team led by Caltech used the data from OCO-2 to monitor impacts of severe flooding on crop growth.

OCO-2 and OCO-3 are crucial for monitoring crop health and ecosystem function at the national and global scales. With their unique ability to measure both CO2 inventories and plant activity, these instruments will aid farmers and scientists alike.

Caltech has had significant engagement with the OCO missions since their inception. Many Caltech researchers were involved with the founding and design of OCO-2 and OCO-3, including Christian Frankenberg, the Chandler Family Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist; Paul Wennberg, the R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering; former assistant professor James Randerson (now of UC Irvine); and the late Yuk Yung.

OCO mission assets will be loaned by NASA to Caltech. Researchers and facilities both on campus and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, will operate the observatories.