Executive Summary As you’ll read in the pages that follow, 2018 was another full and productive year for technology development at the NASA Earth Science Technology Of- fice (ESTO), with numerous successes advancing new technologies for Earth science as well as the competitive selection of new projects. In fiscal year 2018 (FY18), ESTO continued to build upon its 20-year heritage of technology development and infusion. This year, 40% of ac- tive ESTO technology projects advanced at least one Technology Readiness Level, and of the 804 completed projects in the ESTO portfolio, 33% have already been infused into Earth observing missions, operations, or commer- cial applications. We are particularly proud to report that nearly 110 students, high school through PhD, have been directly involved in ESTO-funded proj- ects this year. See pages 3-6 for more on programmatic metrics. In January 2018, the National Research Council (NRC) released the second decadal survey for Earth science: Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space. As was the case with the 2007 decadal survey, ESTO investments are already well underway to directly sup- port all of the recommended measurements, and future ESTO solicitations will help further advance these goals. (See pages 7-8) Also of note, three technology validation projects were launched on board 6-unit CubeSats to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2018. Follow- ing their deployment from the ISS in July, these demonstration spacecraft are taking their first measurements and sending data to the ground. (See pages 15-16) These successes demonstrate the hard work of our principal investigators and their collaborators. In October 2017, ESTO selected 12 new projects through a competitive solicitation under the Advanced Component Tech- nologies (ACT) program, and in July, four projects were selected under an In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) solicitation. As ESTO celebrates its 20th year, we welcome this new cohort of investigators, and we look forward to the contributions they will usher forward, ensuring a bright future for Earth science. Pamela S. Millar Robert A. Bauer Program Director Deputy Program Director Photo: On May 21st, 2018, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket launched from Wallops Island carrying 7,400 lbs. of NASA cargo to the International Space Station, including three ESTO technology validation CubeSats. To learn more, see page 15. Credit: Aubrey Gemignani, NASA ESTO By The As the technology development function within NASA’s Earth Science Division, ESTO About performs strategic technology planning and manages the development of a range of advanced technologies for future science measurements and operational requirements. Numbers ESTO employs an open, flexible, science-driven strategy that relies on competition and peer review to produce the best, cutting-edge technologies for Earth science ESTO endeavors. Our approach to Technology Development: • Strategy: Engage with the Earth science community to plan 37Projects Added investments through careful analyses of science requirements • Selection: Fund technology development through competitive solicitations and partnership opportunities • Management: Actively manage the progress of funded projects with the aid of subject matter experts Projects Active in FY18 • Infusion: Encourage and facilitate the infusion of mature 136 technologies into science measurements The results speak for themselves: a broad portfolio of well 455Co-Investigators over 800 emerging technologies – 141 of which were active at some point during FY18 – ready to enable or enhance new science measurement capabilities as well as other Projects29 Completed infusion opportunities. Observation Technology Information Unique Co-I Technology Validation Technology 139Organizations Students Involved Carefully developed technologies Validation on airborne and AIST advances the mission 107 can reduce the risk and cost spaceborne platforms is a of Earth science research of new scientific observations critical step in mitigating the by creating and refining with extended capabilities. risk of new technologies. ESTO new information system ESTO’s strategy for observation actively facilitates and pursues technologies. These projects technologies focuses on new opportunities to flight-qualify increase efficiency, reduce risk, measurement approaches that various emerging technologies and enable new observational 60Unique PI reduce the overall volume, mass, – instruments, components, and techniques that would be Organizations and operational complexity in information systems – in relevant impossible without advances in observing systems. environments. information technology. 31Universities 28States 21States PAGE PAGE PAGE CubeSats4 9 13 17 Launched 7Projects Airborne-Tested 1 2 With 804 completed technology investments and a portfolio during FY18 Super Cloud 2018 (October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018) of 136 active projects, Simulation (Principal Investigator: improved weather and climate mod- ESTO drives innovation, enables future Earth science measurements, and Library Wei-Kuo Tao, Goddard Space els. Using Apache Spark, an analytics strengthens NASA’s reputation for developing and advancing leading- Flight Center). Cloud resolv- engine for big data process, and edge technologies. To clarify ESTO’s FY18 achievements, what follows The Super Cloud Library (SCL), a ing models are numerical Apache Hadoop, a utility that links METRICS are the year’s results tied to NASA’s performance metrics for ESTO: big data analysis and visualization simulations of convective computers together in a network tool for cloud-resolving models, clouds or storms that for data intensive computations, the has been infused into the Data Ana- help scientists explore SCL has demonstrated 20x speed lytics and Storage System (DASS) at cloud phenomena and improvements over previous manual Annually advance 25% of currently funded technology the NASA Center for Climate aid in the de- processes. Beyond operational use, GOAL 1 projects at least one Technology Readiness Level (TRL). velopment of the DASS expects to use the new tool as a benchmark to evaluate new 25% approaches. Goal FY18 RESULT 40% of ESTO technology projects funded during FY18 advanced one or more TRLs over An example simulation showing a rain event. the course of the fiscal year. 9 of these projects Updraft is shown in red and rain in blue. advanced more than one TRL. Although the Credit: Wei-Kuo Tao, GSFC percentage of TRL advancements tends to be higher in years with large numbers of completing projects, ESTO has consistently met or exceeded this metric in every fiscal year since inception. The average TRL advancement for all years going back to 1999 is 41%. Percentage of Active Projects that advanced at least 1 TRL during each Fiscal Year. Mature at least three technologies to the Perkovic-Martin, JPL) and the Por- GOAL 2 Earth Venture point where they can be demonstrated in space or 33% Already table Remote Imaging Spectrometer in a relevant operational environment. Infused Suborbital (PRISM: Mouroulis, JPL) to provide an unprecedented view of subme- 45% Path In September 2018, five proposals soscale eddies and fronts and their FY18 RESULT Identified for were selected under the 2017 Earth effects on vertical transport in the The chart to the right shows ESTO’s all-time infusion 22% Awaiting Infusion Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) so- upper ocean. success drawn from 804 completed projects through Infusion licitation, which sought complete, the end of FY18. In this fiscal year, at least 6 ESTO Opportunity suborbital, principal investigator-led • Delta-X: Enabling Deltas to Thrive projects achieved infusion into science measurements, investigations to conduct innovative, in a Century of Rising Seas (Marc Si- airborne campaigns, data systems, or follow-on devel- integrated, hypothesis or science mard, Jet Propulsion Laboratory) will Engineers install the DopplerScatt radar instrument opment activities. Several notable examples follow. question-driven approaches to use state-of-the-art airborne remote on the NASA B200. Credit: Ken Ulbrich, NASA pressing Earth system science is- sensing and in situ instruments to Avalanche technology has also been picked up for potential use in future planetary sues. Four of these include infusions calibrate hydrology, sediment trans- JPL) for spectral measurements of by several other programs for use swath mapping laser altimeters and of ESTO technologies: port and plant productivity models ecosystem, geology, and soil. Photodiode beyond Earth. infrared laser absorption spectrome- around the Mississippi delta flood- The HgCdTe Infrared Avalanche Pho- ters. • The Submesoscale Ocean Dynam- plain in order to understand potential • The Aerosol Cloud Meteorology In- todiode Focal Plane Array (Principal The MARs LIdar (MARLI), a NASA ics and Vertical Transport experiment impacts of sea-level rise. Delta-X will teractions Over the Western Atlantic Investigator: Xiaoli Sun, Goddard planetary instrument technology (S-MODE; Thomas Farrar, Woods utilize the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Experiment (ACTIVATE; Armin So- Space Flight Center) is a new type project currently in development, is Hole Oceanographic Institute) will Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR: rooshian, University of Arizona) will of short-wave infrared to mid-wave making use of the array for poten- study submesoscale ocean dynam- Hensley and Lou, JPL) for land veg- study interactions of aerosol