Summary

Since its July 14, 2022 launch to the space station, the EMIT hyperspectral visible/short-wave infrared sensor has been extremely useful! It is identifying the composition of Earth’s surface and how mineral dust influences global warming. It’s helping to detect methane and carbon dioxide point source emissions to directly address greenhouse gas sources of climate change. EMIT has the potential to revolutionize this field of remote sensing, but if you haven't heard about this sensor, you're not alone! Your challenge is to develop an app that can help raise community awareness of what EMIT is, how it can be used, and what has already been accomplished with its data.

Background

NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) was launched to the space station on July 14, 2022. This hyperspectral visible/short-wave infrared sensor focuses on mineral identification, and its end goal is to improve climate models by properly accounting for the heating and cooling effects of dust storms. The more iron oxides dust sources contain on average, the more they tend to warm the climate. If we can account for the nature of dust sources more accurately, our climate models will provide better information for climate change mitigation and adaptation plans.

EMIT is helping us identify the composition of Earth’s surface and how mineral dust influences global warming now and in the future. EMIT is still acquiring data for its prime mission, but it is also being used to detect methane and carbon dioxide plumes from space to directly address greenhouse gas sources of climate change. There are many other potential applications that EMIT could be used for in the future.

EMIT has the potential to revolutionize this field of remote sensing, but if you haven't heard about this sensor, you're not alone! It's a new sensor in a field of science that is rapidly developing.

Objectives

Your challenge is to develop an app that can help raise community awareness of what EMIT is, how it can be used, and what has already been accomplished with its data. Imaging spectrometers like EMIT produce information-dense datasets that provide a lot of context about what the surface is like in a particular area! Think about how your app could examine and visualize EMIT data in a location of your choosing. You could use EMIT data such as:

Surface Reflectance (L2A) - the spectral fingerprint of Earth’s surface
Surface Mineralogy (L2B) - the spectral abundance of 10 common minerals: Calcite, Chlorite, Dolomite, Goethite, Gypsum, Hematite, Illite and Muscovite, Kaolinite, Montmorillonite, Vermiculite
Greenhouse Gas Observations

More information about these datasets can be found on the EMIT website and the EMIT data portal VISIONS (see Resources). VISIONS is a great place to get information about EMIT’s captured images, detected methane and CO2 plumes, and forecasted coverage areas.

How will your app explain what has already been accomplished using EMIT and what benefits could be reaped in the future? In particular, can your app target and reach out to under-represented communities and those that might be affected by environmental justice issues? We're looking forward to seeing what you can come up with!

Potential Considerations

You may (but are not required to) consider the following:

This challenge encourages diverse interpretations of the objectives! Submissions of all formats, including web applications, websites, videos, and more are encouraged.
- If submitting a web application, you are encouraged to host it on a publicly available hosting platform

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page.

2023 NASA Space Apps Challenge

EMIT for the Future!