Earth science mission concept design system

Knowledge about the Earth system (i.e., the physical-chemical processes that describe its evolution) is generated from global measurements of geophysical parameters taken at appropriate mission observation scenarios.. Any given instrument transforms the incoming signal into an instrument-dependent output, from which the scientific observable of interest, say a chemical constituent, is eventually retrieved. The ability to simulate high-fidelity incoming geophysical signals, instrument transformations, and retrievals is currently project specific, and this ability is developed after a particular instrument design has been chosen. This seriously limits the process of conceiving the next-generation missions starting from the science questions to be answered, and choosing the appropriate measurement strategy based on the expected accuracy and precision. To enable science-driven mission concept formulation and design validation, the atmospheric scientists at JPL developed a set of parameters for defining the measurement requirements that are verifiable and traceable and a set of metrics for evaluating the mission concepts that are quantifiable and tradable. This paper presents a global atmospheric science mission concept design system that allows scientists to explore a large range of mission concepts integrating the measurement requirement parameters and evaluation metrics.