The STRIVE Earth System Explorer Mission Concept

We will present the Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer (STRIVE) mission concept, which was recently selected for a competitive Phase A Concept Study within NASA's 2023 Earth System Explorers Program. 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.

STRIVE will carry two synergistic 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. STRIVE will provide unique observations necessary to inform and evaluate next-generation global Earth system models in the upper troposphere and stratosphere.