The 2007 NRC Decadal Survey report, “Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond,” provides the basis for the future direction of NASA’s space-based Earth observation system. Missions were ranked according to scientific merit, contributions to long-term observational records, societal benefits, affordability, and technological readiness. The four missions recommended for earliest implementation by NASA were classified as “Tier 1” missions. The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) and the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-II) missions will be implemented first, with Launch Readiness Dates (LRD) of 2012 and 2015, respectively. CLARREO and the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) are the remaining Tier 1 missions with a LRD of 2017.

NASA will implement these Decadal Survey missions as directed missions, prioritized roughly by launch queue order as defined by the NRC. Langley Research Center (LaRC) was identified as the lead for CLARREO. Working with the Program Scientist and Program Executives at NASA HQ, and the Earth Systematic Missions Program Office at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the LaRC team defined an integrated Pre-Phase A mission study plan leading to a mission implementation decision by the end of FY09. The goal is to refine the mission definition sufficiently to demonstrate CLARREO’s readiness as the next mission following SMAP and ICESat-II.

Decadal Survey recommendations represent the integration of community input on the future direction of space-based Earth science; therefore, NASA will continue to engage the scientific community to refine mission requirements during the planning for CLARREO.

The baseline CLARREO mission as described in the Decadal Survey can be found at: http://clarreo.larc.nasa.gov/docs-decadal.html

CLARREO is recommended as a joint NASA/NOAA mission. NOAA will contribute the total and spectral solar irradiance measurements and the Earth energy budget climate data records.