Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributor:Stephanie Kenitzer
Copy Editor: Anne Siefken
Beginning in 2000, the AMS online Newsletter will be published at the beginning of the month to make the content more timely for our readers. This editorial change also complements the recent change to the Bulletin publication schedule. Due to the shift in publication dates, the AMS will NOT publish a January 2000 Newsletter. The Newsletter will resume in February 2000. We encourage all AMS members to submit news and information by the 20th of each month to the editor, Stephanie Kenitzer at kenitzer@dc.ametsoc.org
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Dr. Robert W. Corell, assistant director for geosciences at the National Science Foundation, will become a Senior Fellow associated with the AMS's Atmospheric Policy Program beginning 3 January 2000.
Corell has served as the assistant director for geosciences at NSF since 1987. In that capacity, he has overseen the management of the Divisions of Atmospheric, Earth, and Ocean sciences, with combined budgets of nearly $500 million. For more than 12 years, he has influenced global change research efforts in this country and around the world. During his tenure at NSF, he chaired the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, which provides interagency coordination and oversight for the U.S. Global Change Research Program. He also has been active in promoting regional cooperation in global change research through international workshops and forums. Corell established and chaired an organization of the international heads of global change funding institutions.
The AMS Policy Program, underway since October 1999, is a unique initiative designed to foster research, education, and discussion about issues and policies related to the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. Dr. Richard Greenfield is the director of the program.
Corell has been a member of the Society since 1990. He currently holds the grade of Fellow of the AMS. Corell earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from Case Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Corell resides in Grasonville, Maryland.
Beginning next year the AMS will sponsor a Congressional Science Fellowship as part of a program administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The AMS decided to sponsor a Congressional Fellow because the demands on Congress to establish sound public policy on scientific issues have never been greater. “A quick reading of any newspaper illustrates that science is a major component of many public policy issues with which Congress must address,” said Ron McPherson, AMS Executive Director. “The effects of these decisions on society and on scientists are far-reaching.”
The AAAS program places highly qualified accomplished scientists, engineers, and other professionals within offices of individual Members of Congress and committees for a one-year assignment. Fellows perform in much the same way as regular staff members. The Fellows bring to the Congress new insights, fresh ideas, extensive knowledge, and education in a variety of disciplines. The Fellows are provided with the opportunity to make a significant public service contribution, and obtain firsthand experience in the legislative and political process.
Through the program, Fellows gain a perspective, which, ideally, should help them understand how the research community can effectively communicate with one another on important national policy issues. The Fellow may have the opportunity to participate in and make significant contributions to public policy within the Congress, including issues like water policy, global warming, energy policy, defense technologies, pollution, communications technologies, and many more.
The AMS Fellow is supported with funds provided jointly by the AMS and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The year 2000 will be the inaugural year for this program. Together, UCAR and the AMS represent an atmospheric science community consisting of over 20 000 researchers and meteorologists in universities, government, and private industry.
Additional information and application details are available on the AMS homepage at http://www.ametsoc.org/ams
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On Friday, 10 December, the fall 1999 offering of the DataStreme course ended with more than 3800 teachers completing the semester-long course. The course kicks off again in spring 2000. A total of 4140 teachers were originally projected to be taught in DataStreme when the program first started. But Ira Geer, AMS’s Education Program director, expects the total will surpass the projected number in the spring 2000, with more to come! Cost savings will allow AMS to continue the course nearly an additional year (school year 2000–2001) beyond the originally funded five-year period. Geer expects to end up training a total of at least 5000 teachers—20% more than the number on which the grant was based. Additional information about DataStreme is available at http://www.ametsoc.org/dstreme/.
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The National Science Foundation’s Division of Science Resources Studies has developed a data brief on R&D spending in the United States. According to the brief, total R&D spending for all sectors projected for 1999 amounted to $247.0 billion.
The average annual R&D spending increases were:
The rate of increase from 1998 to 1999 was 7.2%. The review also has a breakdown on how R&D spending compares to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The R&D share of the 1999 GDP was 2.79%, the highest percentage since 1967. The R&D share was 2.67% in 1998 and 2.61% in 1997. The highest R&D/GDP ratio in American history was 2.87% in 1953.
The review showed that 60.9% of projected R&D funding in 1999 will go for development, 22.9% for applied research, and 16.3% for basic research.
The review noted that 60.5% of the funding was supported by industry and 26.7% by the federal government. The full report "R&D as a Percentage of GDP Continues Upward Climb" may be read at the following site: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs.
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NOAA's FY2000 budget of $2.35 million represents about a 5% increase over the FY99 appropriation of $2.22 million, according to Dr. D. James Baker, NOAA administrator.
Baker unveiled the figures at a briefing, held for the first time at the new Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, on 15 December. He said the figures, while not complete because of the .38% government-wide, across-the-board cut was not included and still being worked on, represented a "good" budget although it represented only a "start" on programs that still needed to be addressed. The .38% recission will amount to about $8 million, he said.
The budget, he explained, has grown considerably since NOAA was formed in 1970 and has grown fairly rapidly in the last four years. The final budget represents the biggest difference between House and Senate action ever seen, he noted. The president had requested $2.506 million. The House provided $1.956 million, and the Senate $2.58 million, resulting in a conference agreement for the $2.35 million.
A breakdown by activities shows (in thousands):
| Activity |
FY99 Enacted |
FY2000 Enacted |
Increase/Decrease |
| National Ocean Service |
$254 107 |
$274 838 |
$20 731 |
| National Marine Fisheries Service |
$389 430 |
$421 726 |
$32 296 |
| Ocean and Atmospheric Research |
$287 410 |
$300 502 |
$13 092 |
| National Weather Service |
$560 705 |
$603 870 |
$43 165 |
| National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service |
$109 935 |
$111 085 |
$1150 |
Other funding was provided as follows: program support was provided $62.55 million (a decrease from $69.25 in FY99); facilities was given $11 million (a reduction from $13.27 million the previous year); fleet maintenance realized an increase from $11.6 million in FY99 to $13.24 million in FY2000; procurement, acquisition, and construction increased from $584.67 in FY99 to $596.07 in 2000; and other accounts rose from $31 million in FY99 to $60.2 million in FY2000.
In the OAR account, the atmospheric program was provided $50.7 million for FY2000 (an increase of $4.25 million over FY99); and the oceans and lakes programs received $107 million (an increase of $1 524 000 over FY99). Within the oceans and lakes programs were $59.25 million for the Sea Grant College Program (an increase of $1.75 million); and $13.8 million for the underseas research program (down $750 000 from the $14.55 million in FY99).
In the NWS account, operations and research was provided $525.54 in FY2000 an increase of approximately $27 million FY99. Systems acquisition was given $78.33 in FY2000 a boost of $16.08 million over the previous year.
In NESDIS, satellite observing systems got the same $57.3 million in FY2000 as they got in FY99, and environmental data management systems was given $53.78 million for FY2000, an increase of $1.15 over FY99.
In NMFS, the information, collection and analyses account received $202.58 million (a $13 754 000 increase over FY99); habitat conservation and management received $170.5 million for FY2000 (an increase of $25 021 000 over FY99); and state and industry assistant programs got $22.7 million in FY2000 (down $7 324 000 from FY99).
The NOS account showed funding of $86.75 million for navigation services in FY2000 (an increase of $6 828 000 over FY99); ocean resources conservation and assessment got $85.84 million in FY2000 (an increase of approximately $3 million over the $82.79 million in FY99); and ocean and coastal management was provided $86.7 million (an increase of $9.85 million over FY99).
Crosscut enhancements in FY2000 total $226.4 million, Baker said, including $170.9 million for Ocean 2000, $47.3 million for the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, and $8.2 million for Climate in the twenty-first century.
Baker also announced the theme “Our seas and our skies, years of excellence at NOAA" for NOAA’s 30-year anniversary, being celebrated in 2000.
For more information on NOAA’s budget, see http://www.noaa.gov
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According to the 9 December edition of Oceanspace, science research in universities across the United Kingdom (U.K.) will receive an extra 320 million U.K. pounds. Involving funding for 45 projects in 27 universities, the U.K. government says it is said to be the biggest investment in "university science infrastructure" for 40 years.
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Three U.S. agencies—the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of Commerce—will cosponsor an Asia regional conference on emergency management with an emphasis on preparedness and mitigation. The conference will take place on 2–4 April 2000 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The objective of the conference is to match U.S. technology and know-how with emergency management providers in Asia. The conference will serve as a forum for discussion of issues and technologies that promote disaster-resistant communities as well as an opportunity to learn about projects worth millions of dollars in U.S. export opportunities and for one-on-one meetings between U.S. firms and Asian project sponsors. The following 10 countries will be targeted for the conference: South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. Up to 100 U.S. industry leaders are expected to participate.
For further information contact Gisele Lee, ICF Consulting, Phone: 703-934-3255; Fax: 703-934-3243; e-mail: asia-tda@icfconsulting.com; http://www.icfconsulting.com/asia-tda
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) unveiled the top weather, water, and climate events of the twentieth century, listing 15 major events in the United States and another 15 from around the globe. Names of the events were revealed during a press conference in Washington on 13 December. Participating were NOAA Administrator Dr. D. James Baker; Tom Karl, director of NOAA National Climatic Data Center, and John J. Kelly Jr., National Weather Service (NWS) director.
Dozens of NOAA scientists contributed to listing the events based on their atmospheric consequences, their intensity, and their impact economically, according to Kelly.
The U.S. events, not necessarily in order, were: the Galveston hurricane (1900), Dust Bowl (1930s), Super Tornado Outbreak (1974), Hurricane Camille (1969), the Great Midwest Flood (1993), El Niño Episodes (1982–83 and 1997–98), Hurricane Andrew (1992), New England Hurricane (1938), Superstorm (1993), Tri-State Tornado (1925), Oklahoma/Kansas Tornado Outbreak (1999), the Great Okeechobee Hurricane and Flood (1928), the Storm of the Century (1950), Florida Keys Hurricane (1935), and the New England Blizzard (1978).
The global events in no particular order were: Yangtze River Flood, China (1931); North Vietnam Flood (1971); Great Iran Flood (1954); Bangladesh Cyclone (1970); Bangladesh Cyclone (1991); China Typhoons (1912 and 1922); Hurricane Mitch, Honduras and Nicaragua (1998); Typhoon Vera, Japan (1958); Typhoon Thelma, Philippines (1991); Asian Droughts, India (1900, 1907, 1965–67), China (1907, 1928–30, 1936, 1941–42) and Soviet Union (1921–22); Sahel Drought, Africa (1910–14, 1940–44 and 1970–85); Iran Blizzard (1972); Europe Storm Surge (1953); Great Smog of London (1952), and El Niño (1982–83).
"While there were certainly many notable weather events during this past century, this is a listing of those events which stand out in the minds of America's weather and climate specialists," Baker explained. "These events are meteorologically exceptional and also uncommon due to their impact on society. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s, for example, caused an entire migration of people, led to shifts in land usage, and altered the economy of that period."
Kelly said, "When laid out in this compilation, these occurrences form a historical road map of progress in weather, water, and climate forecasting. They are both a reminder of our vulnerability to the atmosphere and a testament to the advances we have made.
"While this century's weather is amazing, so too is the progress NOAA' s National Weather Service has made in understanding and forecasting the relationship between weather, water, and climate,” added Kelly. “Hurricanes that were once a deadly surprise are now methodically forecast and tracked. Snowstorms and blizzards are now forecast days or weeks in advance, and tornadoes are detected an average of 12 minutes before they hit the ground. In addition, we are now able to offer seasonal climate forecasts months before the weather changes."
Additional information on these events is available on NOAA’s homepage at http://www.noaa.gov
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NOAA's hurricane forecasters, who made their first preseasonal prediction in May, proved to be on target. The NOAA team from the agency's Climate Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center, and Hurricane Research Division called for an above-average season of more than 10 tropical storms, six hurricanes, and at least three "major" hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). The season, which ran from 1 June to 30 November, indeed, was above normal with 12 tropical storms, eight of which became hurricanes—five of those major hurricanes.
Officials said, however, the numbers are not as significant as the devastation the storms wrought.
"Hurricanes Floyd and Irene are cruel reminders that hurricanes can produce tragic loss of life and devastating economic disruption from inland flooding beyond a hurricane's damaging wind, storm surge, or tornadoes," said D. James Baker, NOAA administrator. “The tragic loss of life and economic disruption caused by Hurricane Floyd's widespread flooding from eastern North Carolina to New England and the rainfall from Irene reminds us that we cannot lower our guard for the seemingly weak storm."
Hurricanes Bret, Floyd, and Irene and tropical storms Dennis and Harvey struck the mainland United States, claiming 60 direct deaths and causing $1.7 billion in insured damage and $4 billion in total damages.
Season specifics included: Hurricane Floyd, which looked like a large-size version of Hurricane Andrew (1992), posed a serious threat to Florida as a strong Category 4 storm with 155-mph winds. It turned north and northwestward while weakening to a Category 2 hurricane. Floyd paralleled the coastline, eventually making landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina, on 16 September and producing massive flooding. The current toll of 56 direct deaths would make Floyd the deadliest U.S. hurricane since Agnes in 1972.
Hurricane Irene formed 13 October and passed over Cuba into the Florida keys on 15 October. After crossing the keys, the Category 1 hurricane made landfall on Florida's southern tip near Flamingo. Torrential rains of 10–20 inches fell on densely populated areas in Miami–Dade and Broward Counties, causing urban flooding not seen in the area since Tropical Storm Dennis in 1981. Irene claimed eight direct deaths and damages estimated at $800 million, mostly from crop destruction.
Hurricane Bret in September reached a peak intensity of 150 mph (Category 4). It reached landfall in a sparsely populated area midway between Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas. Hurricane Lenny, a very unusual west-to-east moving low-latitude hurricane, battered portions of the Caribbean around mid-November, reaching Category 4 status on 17 November with winds of 150 mph.
Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.
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Less than 15 years after the Wright brothers' historic flights of December 1903, NOAA's National Weather Service, then the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Weather Bureau, issued the first official aviation forecast—to help deliver the mail. Now, 81 years later, the agency issues thousands of aviation forecasts, advisories, and warnings to make flying safe and efficient.
On 1 December 1918, Weather Bureau forecasters combined ground observations with data collected by instrumented kites and tethered balloons to provide a forecast for the "Aerial Mail Service" route from New York to Chicago. The reporting network for that historic forecast consisted of 18 kite stations; six were operated by the Weather Bureau and the rest by the military.
That modest birth 81 years ago gave rise to a vast array of computer technology, weather satellites, and data collected by en-route airliners to provide forecasts of developing weather phenomena.
Growing from that fledgling, single forecast for a handful of aircraft in 1918, forecasters at the Aviation Weather Center, NWS Weather Forecast Offices, and Center Weather Service Units working in Federal Aviation Administration Air Route Traffic Control Centers issue thousands of forecasts every day. With the improved services, the commercial and general aviation industries are able to save on fuel costs and select routes that avoid hazardous weather.
A map of the daily weather forecasts for 1 December 1918 is available on the Internet at http://www.outlook.noaa.gov/80thanniversary
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is initiating a new global ocean observing system, known as ARGO, to provide real-time, basin-wide measurements of temperature and salinity profiles and estimates of current velocities at depth.
An outline of the program was contained in an article in the September issue of NOAA's Earth System Monitor publication, written by W. Stanley Wilson and Danica R. Starks of the Office of the Deputy Chief Scientist, NOAA.
ARGO is the result of two decades of development and utilization of float technology sponsored by NSF and the Office of Naval Research. The ARGO data will be used with existing satellite and other in situ ocean observations and weather analyses to produce weather maps of the upper ocean, they noted.
The proposed array will consist of 3000 floats to be deployed globally, spaced about 300 km (186 miles) apart. When deployed, each float will sink to a depth of about 2000 m. After drifting with the ocean current at that depth for 10 days, the float will rise to the surface, measuring the temperature and salinity of the layers through which it passes. On the surface, it will radio its data and position to an orbiting satellite before returning to depth and continuing another cycle. The floats will continue cycling throughout their design life of four to five years, the authors wrote.
The satellites will relay the data they receive from the floats to land-based receiving stations. From there, the data will go to a number of scientific teams around the world, which will carry out initial quality control. The data then will be made available for operational forecast centers and scientists in near real time. All data will be openly available, without proprietary restrictions.
The floats will be deployed from a variety of ships, including commercial vessels, and aircraft. "Once fully implemented, ARGO will constitute an oceanic equivalent of the worldwide network of balloon-borne radiosondes," according to the authors.
"Just as the radiosondes contribute to accurate three- to five-day weather forecasts, ARGO will contribute to accurate climate predictions."
The administration is proposing to provide one-third of the array over a 3-year period at a cost of $12 million. Because ARGO will require substantial international collaboration, NOAA is soliciting partnerships with Japan, Europe, Canada, Australia, and others.
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NASA, Honeywell Technology Center, and Honeywell Airport Systems have developed new technologies designed to alleviate landing delays at the nation's airports.
Called Airborne Information for Lateral Spacing and Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches, the systems expand on existing communication and navigation technology to allow planes to land safely in bad weather on parallel runways as close as 2500 feet apart.
Currently, the minimum runway separation during low visibility is 4300 feet, which means that some of the nation's airports have to shut down one of their closely spaced runways when weather conditions deteriorate.
Some of the airports where this new technology could improve on-time arrivals are Detroit, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Memphis, officials said. With the new system, they explained, aircraft coming in to land "talk" to each other through Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. Differential Global Positioning System signals provide precise information about each plane's location.
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NOAA's National Weather Service weather and water experts will provide disaster recovery assistance and expert guidance to a number of Central American weather agencies to strengthen their ability to provide early warning for hurricanes, floods, and droughts in the region.
The effort stems from the intense Category 5 Hurricane Mitch, which devastated much of Central America with 180-mph winds, heavy rains, and flash floods. An estimated 10 000 lives were lost. The storm also severely damaged much of the region's weather warning capabilities and forecast services.
John J. Kelly Jr., NWS director, led a NWS team on an eight-day visit with officials in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El Salvador. "Our goal is to foster agreements between these national agencies that define responsibilities and establish the best possible services before, during, and after severe weather events," Kelly explained.
The visit kicks off a two-year program expected to begin in January. Congress provided funding for the project to NOAA through USAID. In addition to NWS, other NOAA elements involved include the National Oceanic Service (NOS), National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR).
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NASA has set 16 December for the launch of the United States–Japanese–Canadian Terra Earth Observing spacecraft. The goals of the mission of the polar-orbiting satellite, which will carry five scientific instruments to provide long-term observations about Earth's global climate, were outlined during a press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington on 23 November.
Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA's associate administrator for Earth sciences, said the satellite will establish a new era in scientific observations of the planet, joining Landsat and QuikSCAT satellites in providing data on all phases of global activity and their interactions. Landsat-7 was launched last April and QuikSCAT in June.
Dr. Yoram Kaufman, Terra project scientist, said "Terra will simultaneously study clouds, water vapor, aerosol particles, trace gases, terrestrial, and oceanic properties, the interaction between them, and their effect on the atmospheric radiation and climate.”
Terra, described as the "flagship of the Earth Observing System," is the first of 10 planned spacecraft scheduled for launch in the next decade. It will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on an Atlas IIAS launch vehicle into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) orbit with a sun-synchronous inclination of 98º and descend across the equator at 10:30 a.m.
The mission, including spacecraft, U.S. instruments, and launch vehicle but not the cost of the ground system or Canadian and Japanese instruments, is expected to cost $1.3 billion. Ground operations for the six-year mission will cost approximately $120 million, officials said.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, built the spacecraft. The five instruments onboard include the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Measurements of Pollution in The Troposphere (MOPITT), and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER).
CERES, provided by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, and built by TRW, Redondo Beach, California, will make measurements of the earth's radiation budget.
MISR was built and is being provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It will measure the variation of surface and cloud properties and particles in the atmosphere with cameras pointed in nine simultaneous different viewing directions. It will monitor monthly, seasonal, and long-term interactions between sunlight and those components of the earth's environment.
MODIS is provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, and was built by Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, Santa Barbara, California. It will measure the atmosphere, land and ocean processes, including surface temperature of both the land and ocean, ocean color, global vegetation, cloud characteristics, temperature, and moisture profiles, and snow cover.
MOPITT is provided by the Canadian Space Agency and was built by COM DEV International of Cambridge, Ontario. It will map carbon monoxide and methane concentrations at altitudes up to 10 miles. MOPITT is an infrared gas correlation radiometer and will produce maps over the entire globe every 4–16 days.
ASTER is provided by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry and was built by NEC, Mitsubishi Electronics Company, and Fujitsu, Ltd. It will measure cloud properties, vegetation index, surface mineralogy, soil properties, surface temperature, and surface topography over selected regions of the earth.
Originally, Terra was known as EOS-AM-1.
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The failure of NASA's $124 million Mars Climate Orbiter in September and the $165 million Mars Polar Lander recently has caused NASA officials to review the agency's approach to interplanetary exploration. The loss of a suite of robots designed to carry out research on the Red Planet has raised questions about NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's "faster, better, and cheaper" approach.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, has said the House will hold hearings on the failures in February. He was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "I am giving them (the Mars team) the benefit of the doubt," that they did their jobs and simply ran into bad odds in a risky undertaking.
That was not the case with the Mars Climate Orbiter, which failed because the spacecraft team failed to make a metric conversion. If the loss of the lander turns out to have been an avoidable human error, Rohrabacher said, there would be "severe repercussions—for Dan Goldin and for NASA," according to the Washington Post.
John Pike, of the Federation of American Scientists, was quoted as saying, "these programs were underfunded and they were understaffed," and he blamed congressional budget cutters and Goldin for allowing the cutbacks to go too far.
Goldin said special panels would be formed to review the causes of the failures but also to rethink the entire strategy for interplanetary exploration. Although he defended his low-budget approach, he echoed others in assessing the concerns. The review panels will consider deficiencies in staff training, the need for better communications and other infrastructure, the need for smarter spacecraft, and NASA's relationship with contractors, among others.
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Systems West, Inc. (SWI), was awarded a contract from the Swedish Defense Forces for an advanced satellite ground station valued at approximately $175 000. The system is an upgrade of the existing low-resolution system at Berga, Sweden.
The system was delivered to Sweden on 24 November 1999 and will be installed at the Swedish Naval base in December 1999. The station will receive real-time weather images from the high-resolution broadcasts from polar-orbiting weather satellites.
The satellite broadcast provides five channels of 1.1-km resolution weather image data plus data streams supporting atmospheric soundings, data relay, and other atmospheric data. Oceanographic and meteorological applications processing software designed and supplied by SWI will provide advanced visualization and improved forecasting efficiency for both naval and other military operations.
The SWI satellite ground station, using proprietary hardware and software, runs on IBM servers and workstations under the Microsoft NT operating system. The networking system provides new advanced levels of flexibility, expandability, and communications internetworking.
Systems West, Inc., is a California-based satellite weather imagery and data systems integrator, staffed by advanced degreed meteorologists, oceanographers, and computer scientists. Additional information is available at http://www.syswest.com
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NASA scientists have joined a collaborative effort with researchers from Europe, Russia, Canada, and Japan in the largest field-measurement campaign to assess ozone amounts and changes in the Arctic upper atmosphere this winter.
The researchers will measure ozone and other atmospheric gases using satellites, airplanes, heavy-lift, and small balloons and ground-based instruments through March 2000. They plan to examine the processes that control ozone amounts during the Arctic winter at mid- to high-latitudes, officials said.
For the first time, measurements of stratospheric composition over the Arctic will be made using a large suite of instruments aboard several European aircraft, as well as on NASA's DC-8 and ER-2 planes. Scientists will take measurements that will be useful in validating data from a SAGE III instrument aboard the Russian Meteor-3 satellite, designed to measure the vertical structure of aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and other trace gases in the Arctic upper troposphere and stratosphere.
Project scientists will be based above the Arctic Circle at the airport in Kiruna, Sweden. “Arena Arctica,” a large hangar especially built for research, will house the aircraft and many of the scientific instruments. Balloons will be launched from Esrange, a balloon and rocket launch facility near Kiruna.
More information can be found at http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solve/index.html and http://www.ozone-sec.ch.cam.ac.uk
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The Antarctic ozone hole has grown to cover an area of 22 million square km, an area twice the size of Mainland China, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
While the hole is as big as it is, according to UNEP officials, scientific evidence indicates we are "on the right path to heal" the problem. Representatives from 172 countries met in Beijing 29 November–3 December to agree on funding for eliminating chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-destroying chemicals.
At the Beijing meeting, member countries of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Delete the Ozone Layer will decide on how best to replenish the Multilateral Fund over the next three years. The fund makes it possible for developing countries to meet their treaty commitments, including the phasing out of CFCs and halons by the year 2010.
The ozone layer over different parts of the world is monitored systematically. Since 1990, the Antarctic hole phenomenon has occurred every year.
According to the Scientific Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is projected to recover to pre-1980 levels in the year 2050. However, this will occur only if the Montreal Protocol is implemented and if all countries completely phase out the consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals, according to UNEP officials.
Since 1986, the total consumption of CFCs has fallen by 84% globally and, in industrialized countries, by 97%, officials reported.
Last year, the peak summertime levels of ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation measured in New Zealand were about 12% more than 10 years ago when measurements began. Ozone losses from 1979 to 1997 were about 5% per decade for the northern midlatitudes in winter and spring, 3% for the northern midlatitudes in summer and fall, and 5% in all seasons in the southern midlatitudes, according to UNEP.
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A cyber survey by Sky and Telescope Magazine to determine readers' choice of the greatest space picture of them all has come up with a winner.
More than 13 000 persons submitted their opinions to the popular astronomy magazine. The online poll asked visitors to choose from 22 astronomical images and pick the five they thought were most inspiring.
Candidates included Hubble Space Telescope pictures, a panorama of the Martian landscape, and other celestial scenes that helped define the twentieth century. The winner was "Earthrise, Apollo 8," the picture of the Earth, taken by astronaut William Anders from lunar orbit on 24 December 1968. It represented "the first image that allowed humankind to view ourselves from an extraterrestrial location and realize our place in the universe," said Leif Robinson, editor-in-chief.
Second place went to the Hubble Space Telescope image, "Pillars of Creation (M16).” Others receiving votes were "Andromeda Galaxy," "Mars Pathfinder Panorama," and "Jupiter with (moons) IO & Europa."
The 10 images with the most votes will appear in a photo essay in the January 2000 issue of the magazine.
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In 1994, NASA started a New Millennium Program designed to identify, develop, and flight-validate key instrument and spacecraft technologies to enable more cost-effective approaches to conducting science missions in the twenty-first century.
The Earth Observing-1 satellite is a result of that program, and NASA plans to launch the spacecraft on a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in the first quarter of 2000.
The spacecraft will carry three remote sensing instruments—the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), the Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer (HIS), and the Linear Imaging Spectrometer Array–Atmospheric Corrector (LEISA) (AC).
The ALI is designed to produce multispectral images directly comparable to those of Landsat-7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus at a fraction of the weight, power, and size. It will feature 10-m ground resolution in the panchromatic band and 30-m ground resolution in its nine other multispectral bands.
HIS is a science-grade hyperspectral-imaging spectrometer similar to one flown on the failed "Lewis" spacecraft in 1997. It will provide Earth observation data leading to improved surface spectral characterization. Its swath width will be 7.6 km.
LEISA AC will be the first space-based test of an instrument designed to improve the accuracy of surface reflectance estimates by accurately measuring atmospheric absorption due to water vapor and aerosols. Instrument measurements of actual, rather than modeled absorption values will allow more precise predictive models to be constructed for remote sensing applications. The AC is a moderate spatial resolution (250 m) imaging spectrometer, using wedge filter technology, with a 185-km search width.
EO-1 also will flight validate six new technologies that are expected to result in more cost effective approaches to conducting Earth science missions in the twenty-first century.
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NOAA has begun a worldwide search for auxiliary remote-sensing instruments that can be added as payload for future GOES satellites, according to Space News.
The 29 November Space News article quoted Gerald Dittberner, program manager for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program, as saying, "We'd be willing to launch the instrument for free and control it, get the data back down, and pass it to the user via the Internet."
But there is a catch to the agency's 19 October invitation in the Commerce Business Daily, according to the article. The agency has no money for construction of auxiliary instruments and would at most "consider sharing" the costs of installing them onto the spacecraft.
Dittberner said this is the first time NOAA has held a competition for auxiliary experimental instruments. "We would accommodate instruments from other space agencies, universities, private companies, even international organizations," he said.
The article said the instruments do not necessarily have to be remote-sensing prototypes but they must have "general applicability" to the agency's future GOES technology. If no paying customers are found, 50 kg of potential flight hardware could go untapped on four new GOES satellites to be built by Hughes Space and Communications Co. in El Segundo, California, the article noted.
NOAA's engineers designed the new GOES satellites with enough power to handle auxiliary instruments. The first of the new satellites, GOES-N, was to carry a lightning mapper instrument as its auxiliary instrument. However, NASA recently decided not to fund that sensor and is seeking a replacement for it, according to the article.
Any auxiliary instrument for GOES-N would have to be delivered by October 2000, Dittberner said. The satellite has a planned launch date of 2002. Because building and testing a new sensor takes so long, an auxiliary sensor for GOES-N probably would already have to have been built.
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A new Department of Defense meteorological satellite launched on 12 December at 12:38 p.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The satellite was launched by the U.S. Air Force and is now being operated by the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This is the first DMSP whose post-launch checkout is being conducted from NOAA's Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, Maryland," said NOAA's John Cunningham, who heads the office responsible for combining the nation's civilian and military polar-orbiting environmental satellite programs. President Clinton directed the merger of these programs, expected to save U.S. taxpayers $1.8 billion, on 5 May 1994.
Previous DMSP post-launch checkouts were conducted from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Last year, as part of the merger designed to promote efficiency and cut down public expense, the Air Force transferred control of its weather satellites to NOAA and closed its sixth Space Operations Squadron at Offutt after nearly 35 years of continuous operations. The Air Force Reserve now operates a backup DMSP command and control facility at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.
NOAA's Suitland facility is now the primary location for providing functions associated with command and control of all U.S. weather satellites, including early orbit checkout following launch operations, satellite state-of-health maintenance, and satellite sensor, and payload management.
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Retired Marine Corps General John R. Dailey, currently associate deputy administrator of NASA, has been named director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. He assumes his new responsibility in January.
Dailey succeeds Donald Engen, who was killed in a glider accident last July.
Before coming to NASA in 1992, Dailey spent 32 years in the Marine Corps, flying 450 combat missions in Vietnam and retiring as assistant commandant.
The Air and Space Museum is the most popular of the Smithsonian's museums, attracting 10 million visitors a year. In addition to being in charge of 260 employees and a budget of $25 million, Dailey also will oversee construction of the museum's new facility at Dulles International Airport, scheduled to open in 2003.
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William Chandler, a research scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has won the World Climate Technology Leadership Award from the Climate Technology Initiative, an organization led by the International Energy Agency headquarters in Paris, France.
Chandler, director of the advanced international studies unit, works in the Washington, D.C., office and is one of only two scientists from around the world to be honored. The award recognizes his founding of a global network of energy efficiency centers in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the People's Republic of China, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the Ukraine.
The energy efficiency centers are nongovernmental, not-for-profit organizations that promote energy efficiency in their respective countries.
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John Cunningham, former program director for a satellite system at the National Reconnaissance Office, has been named director of the tri-agency Environmental Satellite Program, an effort designed to combine military and civilian environmental satellite programs into a single system and save American taxpayers an estimated $1.8 billion.
Currently, four U.S. polar-orbiting satellites are used to collect meteorological, oceanographic, climatic, and space environment data. Two satellites are operated by NOAA and two by the Defense Department's Meteorological Satellite Program. Under the new system, the United States will provide two satellites and the Europeans a third.
As director of the Integrated Program Office in Silver Spring, Maryland, Cunningham will oversee a staff composed of NOAA, Defense Department and NASA personnel. Under the system, NOAA provides support for satellite and ground segment operations and interfaces with national and international civil users of the data. The Defense Department is responsible for systems acquisitions, and NASA develops and inserts new cost-effective technologies.
Cunningham served in the Air Force for 30 years. During his career, he spent 25 years building and operating satellites and space-based remote sensors. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Texas A&M University and a master's degree in astronomical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research was named one of the nation's 26 "Red-Hot Centers of Genius" in the November issue of Esquire magazine. NCAR scientists study climate and climate change, weather, the sun, and atmospheric chemistry. The center's primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.
About NCAR, Esquire writes, "Warmer or cooler? To the extent climate trends can be identified—or even modified—NCAR will influence billions of dollars of investments. Weather is the Next Big Thing in the global marketplace."
Mostly centers of science, technology, and design, the honored institutions are credited with "creating breathtaking changes." They "aren't only about ideas; they're about the reality that applying and spreading innovations is as important as the innovations themselves," says the Esquire article. "In short, these labs, agencies, and institutions are shaping the rest of your life."
The magazine also named the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass as a Center of Genius.
NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of more than 60 universities offering Ph.D. in atmospheric and related sciences.
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