AN EARTH SCIENCE IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY MISSION: THE EARTH SURFACE MINERAL DUST SOURCE INVESTIGATION (EMIT)

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) has been selected as an Earth Venture mission by NASA in 2018. EMIT will measure surface mineralogy in the arid land dust source regions of the Earth using visible to short wavelength infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectroscopy. These new measurements will be used to initialize advanced Earth System Models (ESM) to reduce uncertainty in the understanding of the impact of mineral dust aerosols on radiative forcing. The EMIT imaging spectrometer is planned to operate on the International Space Station (ISS) beginning in 2021.