PROJECT SUMMARY: AS STATED IN THE A-CCP STUDY PROPOSAL ACCEPTED FOR EXECUTION BY NASA HEADQUARTERS THE GOAL OF THE A-CCP STUDY IS TO DEFINE OBJECTIVES FOR THE A AND CCP DESIGNATED OBSERVABLE (DO) OBSERVING SYSTEMS THE DESIRED CAPABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THESE OBSERVABLES AND OBSERVING SYSTEMS APPROACHES TO ACHIEVE THEM. THIS STUDY LEVERAGES THE RESULTS FROM STUDIES SUCH AS THE AEROSOL-CLOUDECOSYSTEMS (ACE) STUDY THOSE FROM EXISTING AND PROPOSED EARTH VENTURE CONCEPTS AND ANALYSIS ALREADY CONDUCTED ON DATA FROM PAST FIELD EXPERIMENTS AND RECENT ADVANCES OF MODELING SYSTEMS AND OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS (OSSES). IN RESPONSE TO AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE AS AN EX-OFFICIO MEMBER OF THIS STUDY TEAM THE FOLLOWING PROPOSAL IS SUBMITTED. IN THIS PROPOSAL I DESCRIBE THE WORK THAT I WILL UNDERTAKE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH TO ASSIST THE STUDY TEAM IN ACHIEVING ITS FUNDAMENTAL GOAL OF CHARACTERIZING THE NEXT GENERATION EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM SATELLITES. IN THIS CAPACITY I WILL PROVIDE LEADERSHIP TO THE SCIENCE IMPACTS TEAM AS CO-CHAIR WITH DR. JENS REDDEMANN. MY DUTIES AND THE METHODOLOGICL APPROACH THAT I WILL TAKE DESCRIBED HEREIN WILL INCLUDE PROVIDING GUIDANCE AND PARTICIPATING MATERIALLY IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SIT. THIS SIT WILL ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE THE DEGREE TO WHICH SPECIFIC OBSERVING ARCHITECTURES WILL MEET THE REQUIRED LEVELS OF ACCURACY AND PRECISION FOR THE GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS NEEDED TO ACHIEVE THE SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE A A+CCP AND CCP DESIGNATED OBSERVABLES.