Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science

“NASA announced on Thursday last week that both the University of Washington STRIVE team and the UW-affiliated EDGE team were selected to lead satellite missions to better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters.” The STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer) mission is led by Professor Lyatt Jaeglé from the Department, and the EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) mission is led by Helen Amanda Fricker at the University of California, San Diego. 

“Methane stays in the atmosphere for approximately 10 years before it is removed. Researchers need to know how much methane is removed to gauge what percentage of emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere, but the methane removal process is difficult to measure.