# PACE
*missions*

## Specifications
- **operator**: nasa
- **actual launch**: 2024-02-08
- **current status**: operational
- **orbit type**: Sun-synchronous polar orbit; 676.5 km altitude; 98 deg inclination; 13:00 local equatorial crossing time
- **revisit days**: 2
- **tasking supported**: false
- **launch vehicle**: spacex-falcon-9
- **entity type**: mission
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-14
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: nasa
- **attributes**: {"operator":"nasa","actual_launch":"2024-02-08","current_status":"operational","orbit_type":"Sun-synchronous polar orbit; 676.5 km altitude; 98 deg inclination; 13:00 local equatorial crossing time","revisit_days":2,"tasking_supported":false,"launch_vehicle":"spacex-falcon-9"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) is a NASA Earth science satellite launched on 8 February 2024 into a sun-synchronous polar orbit at 676.5 km altitude, 98-degree inclination, with a 13:00 local equatorial crossing time and approximately 2-day global revisit.[^nasa-pace-mission] The mission carries three instruments: the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), a hyperspectral push-broom radiometer covering ultraviolet through shortwave infrared (340-2260 nm) for ocean colour and atmospheric characterisation; SPEXone, a Dutch multi-angle spectropolarimeter developed by SRON for aerosol microphysical property retrieval; and HARP2, a hyper-angular wide-coverage polarimeter developed by UMBC for cloud and aerosol characterisation.[^nasa-pace-oci][^sron-spexone-monitoring][^nasa-earthdata-harp2] PACE is designed to advance understanding of phytoplankton community composition, marine primary productivity, harmful algal bloom dynamics, and fine-mode and coarse-mode aerosol properties including their interaction with clouds.[^nasa-pace-mission] Initial science data were publicly released following commissioning completion in April 2024.[^nasa-oceancolor-pace-v1]

## Compositional position
- PACE --[mission_payloads]--> oci (products)
- PACE --[mission_payloads]--> spexone (products)
- PACE --[mission_payloads]--> harp2 (products)
- PACE --[related-topic]--> marine-primary-production (topics)
- PACE --[related-topic]--> harmful-algal-bloom (topics)
- PACE --[related-topic]--> air-quality (topics)

## Sources
- [nasa-pace-mission] | PACE Mission, NASA | https://pace.oceansciences.org/mission.htm | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [nasa-pace-oci] | Ocean Color Instrument, NASA PACE | https://pace.oceansciences.org/oci.htm | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [sron-spexone-monitoring] | SPEXone Monitoring, SRON | https://www.sron.nl/en/pillars/science/earth/spexone-monitoring/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [nasa-earthdata-harp2] | HARP2, NASA Earthdata | https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/instruments/harp2 | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [nasa-oceancolor-pace-v1] | PACE initial science data release notes, NASA Ocean Color | https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/reprocessing/V1.0/pace-oci/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [wmo-pace] | WMO OSCAR PACE satellite record | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/satellites/view/pace | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/missions/pace
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)