Aqua´s first 10 years: An overview

The Aqua spacecraft was launched in May 2002 with six Earth-observing instruments on board to collect data on a wide variety of Earth system variables. After 10 years of on-orbit operations, Aqua has provided data that have contributed to over 2,000 scientific publications, with new results on the Earth´s energy budget, trace gases and particulate matter in the atmosphere, vegetation on land and in the oceans, and many aspects of the water cycle. Additionally, the Aqua data have been used for practical applications ranging from weather forecasting to deployment of firefighters and routing of aircraft. Although the 6-year design life of the satellite has been successfully completed and exceeded, enough fuel remains on Aqua for approximately another 10 years of operations.