A quantum leap forward in understanding troposphere-stratosphere interactions and how the atmosphere will respond to our rapidly changing climate.
The proposed STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer) mission would provide the novel ability to resolve small-scale vertical structures of atmospheric composition and temperature from 5 to 70 km altitude, enabling new insights into the processes of troposphere and stratosphere interactions.
The STRIVE satellite mission concept was submitted to NASA's 2023 Earth System Explorers Program to meet the requirements of the Ozone and Trace Gases Targeted Observable.
About STRIVE
The most acute impacts of climate change are felt during extreme events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms, or wildfires. There is an urgent need for better prediction tools to anticipate these events and inform decisions. Solving the puzzle of troposphere-stratosphere interactions is key to answering fundamental questions about the predictability of weather and climate, as well as the future of the ozone layer and its influence on tropospheric ozone.
The upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is a transition region characterized by steep gradients and high temporal variability in atmospheric composition and temperature. Within the UTLS, complex connections exist between chemistry, dynamics, and radiation, driven by fine vertical and horizontal scale processes that occur on short timescales yet have lasting and widespread influence. These processes encompass phenomena such as convection in severe storms, high cloud formation, atmospheric waves, and emissions from large fires and volcanic eruptions, which are not adequately resolved by current satellite instruments due to insufficient vertical resolution and sampling. Accurately representing these complex processes in global Earth system models presents significant challenges, resulting in forecast uncertainties.
The goal of Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer (STRIVE) is to observe the detailed fingerprints of these processes on the composition and temperature of the UTLS, thus constraining their critical influence on weather, climate, the ozone layer, and air quality.
STRIVE would measure infrared radiation emitted and scattered from the atmospheric limb to provide profiles of many atmospheric constituents and temperature with fine vertical resolution and unparalleled horizontal sampling. STRIVE would generate 2-4 orders of magnitude more profiles and greater horizontal coverage than current limb instruments. This unprecedented sampling, together with fine vertical resolution and high precision, would open new frontiers in process-level studies of troposphere-stratosphere coupling and pave the way for Earth system forecasts with increased predictive skills.
