NASA's goal in Earth science is to observe, understand, and model the Earth system to discover how it is changing, to better predict change, and to understand the consequences for life on Earth. The Applied Sciences Program, within the Science Mission Directorate (which replaced both the Office of Earth Science and the Office of Space Science), serves NASA and Society by expanding and accelerating the realization of societal and economic benefits from Earth science, information, and technology research and development.

The Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) project was initiated to improve upon the current renewable energy data set and to create new data sets from new satellite systems. The POWER project targets three user communities: (1) Renewable Energy, (2) Sustainable Buildings, and (3) Agroclimatlogy.