--Michael King, EOS Senior Project
Scientist
October 27, the U.S. House of Representatives
and Senate approved the Appropriations Conference Committee bill that provides funding to
the Veterans Administration, Department of Housing
and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies (including NASA) for FY 98. The NASA budget
was approved at $13.6 B, of which the Office of Mission
to Planet Earth Budget was $1.417 B. Of this
budget, $679.7 M is for the Earth Observing System
(EOS), $244.7 M for EOSDIS, and $325.3 M for science,
including both the research & analysis program and the
EOS Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) investigations.
The conference report includes earmarks of $20 M of
the MTPE budget for a lightning mapper for
geosynchronous orbit, five consortia for regional use of EOS
data, and funds for satellite imagery for use in urban
planning.
NASA will fly an infrared coherent Doppler laser in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle to see if a space-based sensor can accurately measure global winds within the Earth's atmosphere from just above the surface to a height of about 16 km. Successful measurements in this region of the atmosphere could lead to improved weather forecasting and better understanding of climate-related events. Based on technology tested aboard research aircraft, the Space-Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment (SPARCLE) will detect the frequency shift of a laser pulse as it reflects off dust and aerosol particles moving with the winds. The resulting measurements should give researchers precise information about the speed, direction, and vertical profile of tropospheric winds. Due to launch in 2001 at an estimated cost of $15 M, SPARCLE will be the second Earth-orbiting mission, called EO-2, in NASA's New Millennium Program. If successful, a more robust system based on SPARCLE could be a candidate for launch aboard a free-flying satellite within the following few years. The experiment will be carried to orbit and back in two Space Shuttle Hitchhiker canisters that weigh approximately 320 kg each. Researchers hope to obtain approximately 50 hours of wind data. The co-Principal Investigators are Drs. G. David Emmitt (University of Virginia) and Michael J. Kavaya (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center).
A mission called Earth Orbiting-1 (EO-1), scheduled for launch in May 1999, will demonstrate an Advanced Land Imager system with a multispectral capability that can replace the current measurement approach used by such systems as the Landsat satellites. It also will demonstrate a hyperspectral capability that can break up the radiation reflected by Earth's land surfaces into hundreds of distinct bands, as compared to the half-dozen bands common on today's remote-sensing spacecraft.
Eleven offers have been selected for contract negotiations in the first phase of NASA's planned purchase of Earth science data and related information products that meet both commercial needs and the agency's scientific requirements (see list of successful offerors on page 25). The U.S. Congress approved the plan to initiate the data purchase activity in the fiscal 1997 NASA budget. A Request For Offers was made by NASA in May 1997 to provide unique Earth science data and related information products for purchase. The first phase of this effort will cover a maximum six-month period to be spent analyzing and validating sample data sets. Those proposals selected to continue to Phase II will receive a letter describing the price, quantity of data, and its required characteristics, based on terms and conditions commonly found in the commercial marketplace.
NASA has approved an immediate new start for the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) mission and has placed the first delivery order issued under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contracts for rapid delivery of satellite core-systems to Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, CO. The ID/IQ procurement method provides NASA a faster, better, cheaper method for the purchase of satellite systems through a "catalog," allowing for shorter turnaround time from mission conception to launch.
The mission will fill in the ocean-wind vector data gap created by the loss of the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) on the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) spacecraft. The NSCAT instrument ceased functioning when ADEOS failed on June 30, 1997. The follow-on scatterometer for monitoring ocean winds, called SeaWinds, is scheduled for launch on the Japanese ADEOS-II spacecraft in 2000. QuickSCAT is planned for launch in November 1998, reducing the data gap by about one-half.
An Investigators Working Group (IWG) meeting was held from November 4-6 in Atlanta, Georgia. As in the past couple of years, the primary focus of this meeting was on scientific accomplishments obtained thus far by various EOS investigations. Participation was high, and included (i) a poster session on EOS validation plans in the next couple of years, (ii) science accomplishments in the areas of seasonal-to-interannual climate, atmospheric chemistry, and land cover/land use change, and (iii) integrated assessments of the consequences of global change for the nation, based on assessments of climate variability and change reflected in regional workshops conducted in 6 regions of the U.S. Plans and progress to date on two Earth System Science Pathfinders (ESSP), scheduled for launch at the beginning of the next decade, were also presented.
These included the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL), which will map vegetation canopy heights, and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which will measure the Earth's geoid more accurately for the purpose of improving the accuracy of ocean altimetry. One science result of note was the report that stratospheric cooling, which accompanies tropospheric warming from greenhouse gases, appears to have lowered stratospheric temperatures to a point where polar stratospheric clouds, essential for the destruction of stratospheric ozone, have increased from 5-10% in the late 1970s to a current level of nearly 50%.
Finally, I am happy to report that the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft arrived safely at the Tanegashima Space Center (TnSC), Japan, on August 23. In addition to the Precipitation Radar (PR), TRMM Mcrowave Imager (TMI), and Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS), TRMM carries the first two sensors developed as part of the EOS program: CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) and LIS (Lightning Imaging Sensor). TRMM was successfully launched on November 27, and will fly in a mid-inclination (35Á) precessing orbit at an altitude of 350 km. This international cooperative mission should provide invaluable measurements of precipitation in the tropical, 'heat-engine,' region of the Earth's atmosphere. Heat released in the atmosphere due to tropical precipitation is a major driver of atmospheric circulation.