Merge pull request #4853 from itcarroll/curate-nasa-pace

Curate the new topic nasa-pace

Author: kenyonj

topics/nasa-pace/index.md

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+---
+topic: nasa-pace
+display_name: NASA's PACE Mission
+short_description: An Earth-observing satellite mission for Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds, and ocean Ecosystems.
+url: https://pace.gsfc.nasa.gov/
+wikipedia_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton,_Aerosol,_Cloud,_ocean_Ecosystem
+logo: nasa-pace.png
+related: nasa
+---
+
+PACE [launched into Earth orbit][launch] on 2024-02-08 to extend and improve NASA's over 20-year record of global ocean biology (especially the tiny plants and algae that sustain marine food webs), aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air), and clouds.
+
+Two instruments fly on the satellite:
+- The Ocean Color Instrument ([OCI]) is a spectrometer that measures light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
+  Sunlight interacting with substances present in open water, such as the green photosynthetic pigment found in phytoplankton and land plants, gives the ocean its dynamic and informative color.
+- The multi-angle polarimeters [HARP2] and [SPEXone] are radiometers that measures how sunlight oscillates within a geometric plane—known as its polarization&mdash.
+  Measuring polarization states of UV-to-shortwave light at various angles provides new information on the atmosphere and clouds, such as particle size and composition.
+
+[launch]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONpBd6Z6lE
+[OCI]: https://pace.oceansciences.org/oci.htm
+[HARP2]: https://pace.oceansciences.org/harp2.htm
+[SPEXone]: https://pace.oceansciences.org/spexone.htm