NASA describes Aqua as focusing on the multi-disciplinary study of Earth's interrelated processes – atmosphere, oceans, and land surface – and their relationship to changes in the Earth system. Giving us unprecedented insight into our planet's global water cycle, Aqua is one of the siblings in a family of Earth Observing System satellites dedicated to studying the Earth and our knowledge of global climate change.

The global change research emphasized in Aqua's science instruments include:

• atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, precipitation
• and radiative balance
• terrestrial snow and sea ice
• sea surface temperature and ocean productivity
• soil moisture
• improvement of numerical weather prediction
• monitoring of terrestrial and marine ecosystem dynamics