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The Hub Talks: The STRIVE Earth System Explorer mission: Transforming our view of the upper troposphere and stratosphere

June 25 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CEST

Speaker: Lyatt Jaeglé, University of Washington, USA

Short Bio: Lyatt Jaeglé is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science at the University of Washington. She joined the University of Washington in 2000 after obtaining her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Science from the California Institute of Technology and completing postdoctoral research at Harvard University.

Her research focuses on understanding the chemical composition of the atmosphere and how natural processes and human activities influence air quality, climate, and atmospheric composition from regional to global scales. She combines satellite observations, aircraft measurements, ground-based observations, and atmospheric chemistry models to study regional air quality, long-range transport, stratosphere–troposphere exchange, and aerosol sources from urban to remote environments. Jaeglé has participated in numerous NASA and NSF aircraft field campaigns and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator of STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer), a NASA Earth System Explorer mission, selected for development in 2026.

Abstract: Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer (STRIVE) is a NASA Earth System Explorer mission recently selected for continued development. Following a successful Phase A concept study, STRIVE has entered Phase B, with launch planned in 2030. STRIVE fills a critical need for high vertical resolution profiles of temperature, ozone, trace gases, and aerosols in the upper troposphere and stratosphere with near-global horizontal sampling. The goal of STRIVE is to understand the processes controlling the composition and dynamics of the upper troposphere and stratosphere, thus constraining their critical influence on the predictability of weather, climate, the ozone layer, and air quality.

The mission carries two synergistic limb-viewing instruments: a limb-scanning imaging Dyson spectrometer retrieving profiles of temperature, trace gas concentrations, aerosol extinction, and cloud properties during day and night; and a dual-spectral multi-directional limb profiling radiometer retrieving detailed aerosol properties during day. STRIVE will measure infrared radiation emitted and scattered from the atmospheric limb to provide profiles of temperature, O3, H2O, CH4, N2O, CFCs, CO, NO2, HNO3, ClONO2, N2O5, HCN, cloud top height, polar stratospheric clouds, and aerosol properties with fine vertical resolution (1 km) and unparalleled horizontal sampling (>400,000 profiles each day). STRIVE has the novel ability to resolve small-scale vertical structures of atmospheric composition and temperature, enabling new insights into the processes of troposphere-stratosphere interactions.