NASA's new satellites will help us tackle climate change
NASA just picked two new satellites, STRIVE and EDGE, to help us get smarter about climate change.
Announced in early February 2026, these missions will be led by Lyatt Jaegle (University of Washington) and Helen Fricker (UC San Diego).
If all goes well in upcoming confirmation reviews, both are set to launch no earlier than 2030.
STRIVE and EDGE will use different technologies to gather data
STRIVE will pack powerful infrared sensors—about the size of an SUV trunk—to capture over 400,000 daily snapshots of our atmosphere's temperature, ozone, aerosols, and trace gasses.
Meanwhile, EDGE will shoot out 150,000 laser pulses per second to create super-detailed 3D maps of forests and ice.
Think: seeing individual trees or cracks in glaciers from space.
Satellites will help us understand climate change better
STRIVE will help scientists track how the ozone layer is recovering and make weather forecasts more accurate.
EDGE is all about measuring melting ice sheets and changes in ecosystems—helping us spot risks along coastlines before they become disasters.
Both are set to give us way better data for tackling climate change.
STRIVE and EDGE will provide sharper, more detailed data
STRIVE promises sharper atmospheric detail than any previous mission.
EDGE builds on NASA's earlier ICESat-2 tech but takes it up a notch with broader imaging—so we'll see polar regions and forests like never before.
These upgrades mean a big leap forward for understanding our planet's health.