POEMMA is made of two  identical telescopes that fly in a formation. One telescope will use an ultra-violet camera to see fluorescence and the other will use an ultra fast camera to see Cherenkov signals. Together they measure light emission from EASs (Extensive Air Showers) from the dark side of the earth. EASs are produced by UHECRs and cosmic neutrinos.

POEMMA has several scientific goals, the main ones are to find out where UHECRs come from and to find the origin of the highest energy particles in the universe. They are also looking to discover neutrino emissions that are above 20PeV which would come from extreme astrophysical transient sources. Another thing they will be working on is to watch and observe meteors in order to add to the understanding of meteors in the solar system.