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This year, five new missions are taking off to investigate

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our home planet. From coast to coast, these missions will take a closer look at everything

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from sea level rise to snowstorms, all based right here in the United States.

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About 200 miles off the coast of San Francisco, the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment, or S-MODE,

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will use measurements from a research vessel and three planes –

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a King Air, a Gulfstream and a Twin Otter, to look at how

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swirling ocean eddies affect the movement of heat between the ocean

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and the atmosphere. Autonomous wave gliders

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and ocean gliders will dive below the surface of the water, to get a full picture

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of the ocean and atmosphere.

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Together, the mission will collect data about temperature, salinity

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and ocean velocity to get a better understanding of how small eddies

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affect the upper ocean.

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Traveling inland to the Midwest, the summer months can bring

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intense thunderstorms.

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Strong winds formed by these storms can overshoot the troposphere and reach

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higher in Earth’s atmosphere, injecting pollutants into the stratosphere,

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which can affect the ozone layer. Using an ER-2 plane flying

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up to 70,000 feet, the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere,

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or DCOTSS, mission will investigate how the pollutants

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reach the stratosphere and how their impact could change in the future.

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Farther south, the Mississippi River Delta is

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sinking as sea levels continue to rise globally.

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The Delta-X mission (no acronyms here)

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will combine measurements from two planes – a King Air and a Gulfstream –

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with measurements taken on the ground and in the water to study

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how and where soil is naturally transported and deposited by water.

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This can help researchers better understand how the coastal regions will be affected by

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rising sea levels.

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On the East Coast of the United States,

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the Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions Over the Western Atlantic Experiment,

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or ACTIVATE, mission will look at how clouds in the marine boundary layer –

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roughly the 2 kilometers above the ocean – affect the water cycle.

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These cloud systems cover large stretches of the ocean

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and are not well-represented in climate models.

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ACTIVATE will use two planes – a Falcon and a King Air – to take measurements

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remotely and in situ, including releasing dropsondes through the clouds.

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Flying the same corridor,

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the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms,

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or IMPACTS, mission will use measurements

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on the ground, scientific balloons and two planes –

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the ER-2 and the P-3 – to measure snowstorms at all altitudes.

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IMPACTS is looking closely

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at the intense bands of snow that form inside clouds to improve forecasting