PACE 500

Mark your calendars! On August 20, 2025, the Earth and Space Institute is hosting PACE 500 on UMBC’s campus.

This event celebrates 500 days of NASA’s Plankton Aerosol Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission in space, taking novel and global Earth sciences data for public benefit.


Event RSVP (all guests!)

You must RSVP to attend PACE 500, so that we have an accurate number for catering. RSVP here!

Also, please self-identify as vegetarian/vegan and any dietary restrictions or allergies on the RVSP.


Parking Instructions and Campus Directions

The event will take place in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB) Room 116 on UMBC’s main campus. Click the following link for the UMBC campus map, and follow the below instructions while looking at the map.

The ILSB is located in grid cell F-6. It is accessible from Commons Drive (F-7, F-8). Visitor parking on UMBC campus is identified with a white P inside a blue circle on the map.

The following lots are free of charge:

  • Stadium Lot (E-9, F-9) is a 5-minute walk to ILSB.
  • ESRA Office Lot (adjacent to building 5523 in I-7) is a 12-minute walk to the ILSB (route here).

The following lots have a parking fee of $2/hr from 1PM-4PM. Pay at a nearby kiosk. You will need your license plate number. The kiosk takes credit card or cash. Parking is free after 4PM:

  • Commons Garage (F-7):
    • Visitors can park on the ground floor only. ILSB is adjacent. This is the closest lot to ILSB.
    • Commons Drive is undergoing repaving. Please arrive early to anticipate possible delays in accessing Commons Garage.
  • Administration Drive Garage (H-6): visitors can park on the top floor only. It is a 5-minute walk to ILSB.
  • Lot 9 (F-4) is a 7-minute walk to ILSB.
  • Lot 7 (D-6) is a 7-minute walk to ILSB.
  • Walker Avenue Garage (F-5)visitors can park on any level. It is a 9-minute walk to ILSB.

Important! Please only park in the above lots. Other parking lots require a student or faculty permit. If you park elsewhere, you may be ticketed or towed. PACE 500 will not reimburse parking violations or fees.


Event Schedule

Refreshments and Poster Session (1:00 – 2:30pm)

If you have a science or engineering poster related to PACE from a recent conference or internal event, please bring it to showcase at PACE 500! We will have dedicated boards and tacking materials to hang your poster in the ILSB lobby. Refreshments will be served at this time.

Lab Tours of the Earth and Space Institute (1:00-2:30pm)

During PACE 500, ESI engineers and scientists will take small groups around the ESI labs where HARP2 was built, and show active testing and calibration on our other remote sensing instruments.

These include the AirHARP2 suite that flew in last year’s NASA PACE-PAX field campaign and a drone-based version of HARP that recently flew in our Bolivia Experiment field campaign, over the Salar de Unuyi salt flat in Bolivia.

Get in touch with Vanderlei Martins / Brent McBride at martins[at]umbc.edu / mcbride1[at]umbc.edu to sign up.

PACE Updates and Presentations (2:30 – 5:00pm)

Representatives from the PACE project, instrument teams, and science contributors are invited to speak on their work in ILSB 116 at this time.

The ILSB 116 contains large flatscreen TVs mounted on each wall, a large wall-to-wall whiteboard, and complete AV system for presentations (which includes clickers, lavalier mic/receiver, and HDMI/USB-C extended display connections).

Please bring your presentation in Powerpoint or PDF format on a thumb drive on the day of PACE 500, and/or a laptop system with compatible HDMI or USB-C ports.

Guinness Brewery (5:00pm onwards)

We will continue PACE 500 festivities at Guinness Brewery, located at 5001 Washington Blvd, Halethorpe, MD 21227. The brewery is a short drive from campus.

Click the following link for directions. Drinking and eating at the brewery is pay-as-you-go, and is not covered by PACE 500.

For more details on the brewery itself, offerings, and prices, visit the Guinness website.