IPAC supports NASA's Astrophysics Archives by operating the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). IRSA is the primary archive for NASA's infrared and submillimeter missions, including Spitzer, (NEO)WISE, 2MASS, and IRAS. IRSA also serves data from ESA missions with NASA participation, such as Herschel and Planck. Soon, IRSA will be NASA's archive for data from IRTF and SOFIA. In total, IRSA hosts more than 1 petabyte of data from over 15 projects.

By operating IRSA, IPAC enables research across the full range of NASA's Astrophysics science goals. IRSA's objectives are to ingest data from active infrared missions supported by NASA, to maintain vital archives of irreplaceable infrared data, and to enable cutting-edge research involving archival data. Approximately 10% of refereed journal articles in astrophysics make use of the infrared data curated at IRSA. Increasingly, IRSA is enabling planetary science with infrared data sets and tools.

IRSA staff work closely with IPAC experts from infrared missions such as Spitzer, Herschel, Planck, and (NEO)WISE. This expertise guides the development of visualization software, leads to clarity of documentation, and can be tapped to support IRSA's user questions. IRSA is a leader in the management of large astrophysics data sets. IRSA also benefits from archive technologies that are built for non-NASA or non-infrared projects that IPAC is involved with, such as ZTF and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (formerly known as LSST). Finally, IRSA shares resources (data center, computer support) with other projects within IPAC, reducing the cost of operations.