science
SSAI’s science support contributes to advance the understanding of the Earth and its environment, the Sun, the solar system, and the universe beyond. Our space and Earth scientific research support encompasses laboratory, ground, balloon, aircraft, and satellite experiment-based research, including remote sensing and applications algorithm development. Specifically, SSAI supports scientific research across all disciplines of Earth science, including atmospheric, land, and hydrospheric phenomena; and space science, from ionospheric physics to high-energy astrophysics.
Multi-Disciplinary, Diverse Science Support 
SSAI scientists were co-authors on a key
NASA
study published in Nature on Arctic ozone loss.
Levels of ozone in the atmosphere above the Arctic
suffered an "unprecedented" loss during the 2010-2011
winter and spring period,
reaching their
lowest levels on record.
Our science support experience includes efforts as diverse as:
- Detailed monitoring of Earth’s ozone layer and characterization of its long-term behavior
- Performing accurate mapping of the concentration and extent of sea ice in polar regions
- Supporting analyses of land surface temperature data, which provided potentially key insights into climate change—in particular that the Greenland surface-temperature variability has been increasing, a condition that may indicate increased ice-sheet instability
- Numerical modeling to examine the sensitivity of ocean-ecosystem models to parameterizations of biological processes and the impact of those parameterizations on both the spatial and temporal variability of the modeled ecosystem
- Employing remotely-sensed ocean observations to quantify plankton bloom concentrations, which are fueled each year by nutrients derived from the decay of the previous year’s plankton
- Modeling atmospheric radiative transfer for cloud remote sensing and climate studies, and using models of cirrus cloud development, structure, and evolution to estimate their impact on global climate
- Using aircraft and spacecraft observations to retrieve cloud cover, optical thickness, drop size and phase, plus atmospheric water vapor content and cirrus cloud parameters
- Developing of methods to use satellite-based radiances to investigate long-term trends in Sea Surface Temperature and other key climate parameters
- Using climate models and data analyses to investigate the inter-relationships of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena and Asian monsoons
Support for World-Class Science Research Efforts
SSAI staff research and publish peer-reviewed journal articles on diverse topics, including cross-platform measurement validation, trend analysis, algorithm performance, characterizations of atmospheric constituents, including clouds and aerosols, quantitative analysis of solar irradiance, detailed predictions of global precipitation and their implication for understanding climate change, and investigation of cosmological phenomena in the early universe.