Aqua Program

Aqua is NASA’s active Earth Science water-cycle program, launched on 4 May 2002 as a NASA-centered international Earth Observing System mission. Its six instruments—AIRS, AMSU-A, HSB, AMSR-E, MODIS, and CERES—observe evaporation, water vapor, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea and land ice, snow, radiative energy, and related land and ocean variables. Aqua was developed as a partnership among the United States, Japan, and Brazil and continues collecting high-quality data from four instruments while operating in free drift.