The Focus for the Aqua Project is the multi-disciplinary study of the Earth's Interrelated Processes (atmosphere, oceans, and land surface) and their relationship to earth system changes. The global change research emphasized with the Aqua instrument data sets include: atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, precipitation and radiative balance; terrestrial snow and sea ice; sea surface temperature and ocean productivity; soil moisture; and the improvement of numerical weather prediction.

Vital Statistics
Weight - 6,468 pounds
Power - 4,444 watts orbit average
Size- 260 inches long; 102 inches in diameter
Mission Life Goal - 6 years Orbit
Sun - synchronous, polar
Altitude - 705 km nominal
Inclination - 98.2 0.1 degrees
Ascending node - 1:30 p.m. 15 minutes
Period - 98.8 minutes Instruments

Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)
The AIRS is a high resolution instrument which measures upwelling infrared (IR) radiances at 2378 frequencies ranging from 3.74 and 15.4 micrometers. A limited number of visible wavelength channels are also present. AIRS is being developed by Lockheed Martin Infrared Instrument Systems (LMIRIS) under a contract from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). AIRS, in conjunction with AMSU and HSB, will provide significant improvements in the accuracy of several climate and weather parameters. See AIRS instrument at http://www-airs.jpl.nasa.gov for further details.