# University of Maryland Baltimore County
*research-institute . companies*

Public research university whose Earth and Space Institute designed and built the HARP2 polarimeter contributed to NASA's PACE mission.

## Specifications
- **merge suggestions**: [{"slug":"umbra","name":"Umbra","score":0.6,"matchedOn":"slug","matchedValue":"umbra"},{"slug":"umd","name":"University of Maryland","score":0.5,"matchedOn":"slug","matchedValue":"umd"}]
- **country**: USA
- **website**: https://umbc.edu
- **operator domains**: ["umbc.edu","esi.umbc.edu"]
- **entity type**: company
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-26
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: unclaimed
- **attributes**: {"merge_suggestions":"[{\"slug\":\"umbra\",\"name\":\"Umbra\",\"score\":0.6,\"matchedOn\":\"slug\",\"matchedValue\":\"umbra\"},{\"slug\":\"umd\",\"name\":\"University of Maryland\",\"score\":0.5,\"matchedOn\":\"slug\",\"matchedValue\":\"umd\"}]","kind":"research-institute","country":"USA","website":"https://umbc.edu","operator_domains":"[\"umbc.edu\",\"esi.umbc.edu\"]","description":"Public research university whose Earth and Space Institute designed and built the HARP2 polarimeter contributed to NASA's PACE mission."}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
The University of Maryland Baltimore County is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland, and a space-instrument contributor through its Earth and Space Institute.[^umbc-esi] UMBC designed and built HARP2, a wide-angle imaging polarimeter contributed to the PACE mission.[^nasa-pace-harp2] HARP2 is on orbit on PACE, and public HARP2 data were released in 2024.[^umbc-harp2-first-light] The instrument data support aerosol, cloud, air-quality and climate research through multi-angle polarimetric observations.[^umbc-harp2-first-light][^nasa-pace-harp2] UMBC role is instrument contribution and research capability rather than commercial Earth-observation data operation.[^nasa-pace-harp2][^umbc-esi]

## Sources
- [nasa-pace-harp2] | NASA PACE HARP2 Polarimeter page | https://pace.oceansciences.org/harp2.htm | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-26
- [umbc-harp2-first-light] | First data from UMBC HARP2 instrument on NASA PACE mission goes public | https://umbc.edu/stories/first-light-from-harp2-on-pace/ | tier=operator-press | accessed=2026-06-26
- [umbc-esi] | UMBC Earth and Space Institute official site | https://esi.umbc.edu/ | tier=operator-marketing | accessed=2026-06-26

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