NASA wants to see your pictures of the sky.

The Hill ^ | 09/09/2026 | Alix Martichoux

[BenLurkin]

Starting on Sept. 15, the space agency’s PACE satellite (which stands for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem satellite) will circle the Earth every 98 minutes. While it’s overhead, the satellite will be collecting important environmental data, measuring how clouds and particles in the atmosphere absorb and reflect sunlight.

Here’s where you (and everyone else on land) comes in: Scientists want to compare what they’re seeing in the sky with what you’re seeing on the ground.

The pictures will help researchers to better understand the far-away images they’re capturing from space, said Dr. Andrew Sayer, the PACE atmosphere lead. Because each pixel in the PACE satellite images represent a distance of about 0.75 miles across, ground observations will give more detail and help fill in the gaps.

“We want to be able to identify whether or not each pixel in a satellite image is a cloud or not, because if it’s cloudy we want to determine the properties of that cloud, and if it’s not cloudy we want to determine the properties of the atmosphere and surface underneath the cloud. … So the ground observers will help us to assess that.”

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TOPICS: Weird Stuff
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[E. Pluribus Unum]

Big Brother wants to fine-tune it’s eye-in-the-sky.

[Donbue]

And you had a problem with flock cameras?

[The Louiswu]

There’s an alien spacecraft headed our way and the government wants to know if the average astronomer can image it yet.

[NorthMountain]

each pixel in the PACE satellite images represent a distance of about 0.75 miles across

I'm sure you understand what that means ...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

You seem a bit psycnotic.

[No name given]

Let’s not give them that satisfaction.

[NorthMountain]

You seem a bit ignorant.

And I know how to spell normal English language words.