Editor: Jim Elliott

Contributors: Alan Weinstein and Ginny Owen

Copy Editor: Anne Siefken

Volume 20, Number 2, February 1999

GOVERNMENT NEWS

• DOE's Office of Science FY2000 Budget Request up 5% to $2835 Million
• DOE'S Biological and Environmental Research FY2000 Budget Proposal
• President Proposes $7.2 Billion Budget for EPA in FY2000
• NASA'S FY2000 Budget Request Totals $13.5 Billion
• NOAA Announces FY2000 Budget
• FY2000 NOAA Budget Breakdown
• President Asks Almost $4 Billion for NSF's FY2000 Budget
• USGS FY2000 Budget Emphasizes Integrated Science, Partnerships
• Frist Reintroduces Federal Research Investment Act in Senate
• OMB Sets April Deadline for Comments on Data Access Provision
• Administration FY2000 Request for S & T
• White House Information Technology Announcement

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

• AGU Issues Position Statement on Climate Change
• January Tornado Number Breaks National Records
• Scientists to Kick off Major Field Experiment on Role of Aerosols in Climate Change
• Study by NOAA Scientists Could Lead to Better Predictions of El Niño
• Scientists Find El Niño-like Climate Fluctuations Became More Common 5000 Years Ago
• NCAR Web Site Reports Economic Costs of Extreme Weather by State
• NOAA Scientists to Fly in High Winds over North Atlantic to Test Satellite Instruments

SATELLITES AND SPACE

• NASA Plans Major Research Efforts with International Space Station
• SOHO Spacecraft Detects Source of High-Speed Solar "Wind"
• UC Boulder Selected for $22.8 Million Sun Radiation Mission
• "Terra" Selected as Name for First Earth Observing System Satellite

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

• CDIAC Updates Carbon Dioxide Emissions Data for Fossil Fuel, Cement

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

• President Clinton Names Dr. Joseph Bordogna as Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation
• Dr. Eugene Rasmusson Elected to National Academy of Engineering
• Alberts Re-elected President of National Academy of Sciences
• Petersen Named Dryden Flight Research Center Director
• Death of Zou Jingmeng in Beijing

GOVERNMENT NEWS

DOE'S OFFICE OF SCIENCE FY2000 BUDGET REQUEST UP 5% TO $2835 MILLION

Science received top billing at Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's FY2000 budget briefing on 1 February. "Science and technology are not merely parts of this department," he said, "they are the foundation on which all the department's work is based. This year's budget theme for DOE is "Science, Security, and Energy: Powering the Twenty-First Century."

Under the FY2000 request, the Office of Science would get $2835.4 million, up 5.1% over FY99 funding. Much of that increase stems from DOE's portion of multiagency Presidential Initiatives in Information Technology (IT2) ($70.0 million for DOE's part, called the Scientific Simulation Initiative) and Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI) ($33.0 million) and Construction Funding for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is within the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) budget. The ramp-up construction funding for the SNS, which is $214.0 million, is up 64.6% over FY99 funding of $130.0 million. This falls within a BES request of $888.1 million, an 11.1% increase. High Energy Physics would receive $697.1 million, up 0.8% over FY99 funding. The request for Nuclear Physics is $342.9 million, up 1.3%. Fusion Energy Sciences funding would stay level at the FY99 funding of $222.6 million. The Computational and Technology Research would go up 26.3% to $198.9 million—a result of the Information Technology Initiative.

The FY2000 budget contains two carbon-related programs, each of which cuts across several agencies. The first is the Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI). That part of the CCTI that is within the Office of Science is a joint activity between the BER and the BES programs. The second program is the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) that spans 11 agencies and is coordinated through the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Although the two programs are synergistic, they are quite different, with USGCRP research focusing on developing a fundamental understanding of the comprehensive climate system and the global and regional adaptations to it, while CCTI focuses on the underpinning fundamental sciences that will enable mitigation of climate change while maintaining a robust national economy.

In FY2000, resources of $12 656 000 are being requested by BER specifically for the CCTI. The research will be a natural extension of the complementary, ongoing work in the DOE Office of Science, which promises to have a major impact on the area of carbon management. Within the BER program, the Life Sciences subprogram ($5.8 million) activities in genomics underpin studies on microorganisms that may form the core of new fuel sources. Core activities within the Environmental Processes subprogram ($6.8 million), particularly in terrestrial carbon cycle and in ocean sciences research, open up the possibility of exploiting nature's own carbon sequestration processes to enhance sequestration.

The Scientific Simulation Initiative in DOE is part of Vice President Gore's IT2 initiative (See White House Information Technology Announcement in this newsletter.) Of the $366 million being proposed by the administration, the DOE share is $70 million. Most of these funds ($52 million) are part of the Computational and Technology Research Program. The BER Budget includes $10 million for IT2. The remaining IT2 funding in DOE is included in BES.

DOE's Scientific Simulation Initiative (SSI) is an integrated effort bringing together computational and communication resources, focused research in scientific disciplines, and research in computer science and other enabling technologies to solve the complex problems that characterize DOE's scientific research needs. The SSI couples research in advanced scientific applications in the programs of the Office of Science with research in computer science and enabling technologies and advanced computing and communications facilities.

BER, which has been for many years the primary supporter of research in global systems in the DOE, will manage the global systems applications research effort of SSI. The goal of this effort is to advance the development, testing and use of fully coupled global system models with sufficient resolution to encompass the complete range of interactions from global to regional spatial scales over time periods of tens to hundreds of years.

DOE'S BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH FY2000 BUDGET PROPOSAL

The BER account covers four areas: Life Sciences, Environmental Processes, Environmental Remediation and Medical Applications and Measurement Science. A breakdown of the budget request for those areas shows:

The Environmental Process Program is focused on understanding the basic chemical, physical, and biological processes of the earth's atmosphere, land, and oceans, and how these processes may be affected by energy production and use, primarily the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. A major part of the research is designed to provide the data that will enable an objective assessment of the potential for, and consequences of, global warming. The program is comprehensive, with an emphasis on understanding the radiation balance from the surface of the earth to the top of the atmosphere (including the role of clouds) and on enhancing the quantitative models necessary to predict possible climate change at the global and regional scales. The components of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program continue to work in an integrated fashion to produce the experimental and modeling results that will be necessary to resolve the greatest uncertainty in climate prediction—the role of clouds and solar radiation. Climate modeling using massively parallel supercomputers will simulate climate change, predict climate, and evaluate model uncertainties due to changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases on decade to century timescales. The Carbon Cycle Program is designed to study the natural carbon cycle and to assess the potential impacts of climate change on terrestrial systems. There are four contributing areas to this research program: Climate and Hydrology, Atmospheric Chemistry and Carbon Cycle, Ecological Processes, and Human Interactions. The National Institute for Global and Environmental Change (NIGEC) is included within these four areas. The Environmental Processes subprogram includes funding for DOE's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program that was codified by congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990 and for part of the Energy Research activities under the Climate Change Technology Initiative.

The breakout of funding for each major area within Environmental Processes is:

Climate and Hydrology funding includes $20 million for Climate Modeling, essentially unchanged from FY99; $10 million for SSI for study of regional variability associated with global change; development, testing, and application of coupled models and computer model research and development; $44 million for the Atmospheric Research Measurement Program to maintain the three ARM sites, redeploy the ARM instruments, and add SHEBA as a second north slope of Alaska station; support about 50 principal investigators working on cloud physics and on solar radiation interactions with water vapor and aerosols, increased interactions with major climate modeling centers, and studies of the effects of islands on solar radiation and cloud interactions.

Within the Atmospheric Climate and Carbon Cycle program, $11 million will be used to provide data requirements for the new air quality standards on tropospheric ozone and particulate matter, including NASTO, air quality modeling, pollution transport studies, and NIGEC; $15 million for studies of major ecosystem topics and land uses to better understand the effects of environmental factors such as climate variation on the net exchange of carbon and biophysical processes controlling this exchange. This area includes funding to operate the Ameriflux Network; $6.8 million to improve understanding of biochemical mechanisms of natural carbon sequestration in terrestrial and ocean systems.

The Ecological Process Program includes $12 million, a modest decrease from FY99, to continue these activities. The Human Interactive Program is increased from $7.5 million in FY99 to $11 million in FY2000, which will allow new activities coupling educational opportunities with research in environmental meteorology and will allow pre-college teachers to participate directly in cutting edge research at DOE Science laboratories. Programs such as Integrated Assessment will be continued in FY2000.

PRESIDENT PROPOSES $7.2 BILLION BUDGET FOR EPA IN FY2000

President Clinton has proposed a $7.2 billion FY2000 budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"This budget continues into the twenty-first century the Clinton Administration's commitment to protect public health and the environment," according to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. "It also is based on a simple truth that the administration has proven repeatedly over the last six years: environmental protection and economic growth can go hand in hand. The president's new budget includes several innovative programs that bring together communities and businesses in creative ways to leverage resources that build healthier communities and healthier local economies."

New initiatives in the president's proposed budget include:

Better America Bonds: EPA will be in the forefront of supporting the administrations initiative to build livable American communities. The administration is proposing $700 million in tax credits over five years that will support $9.5 billion in bond authority for investments in state, local, and tribal governments. These bonds will give local communities maximum flexibility and resources to address their most pressing environmental needs.

Clean Air Partnership Fund: The president's budget includes $200 million for a new Clean Air Partnership Fund—an initiative that is part of the administration's efforts to clean the nation's air and meet the challenge of global warming. The fund will promote innovative technology to help communities reduce harmful air pollution and greenhouse gases. The fund finances the creation of partnerships among local communities, states, and tribes and the private sector and the federal government.

Fighting Childhood Asthma: The president has proposed an additional $17.4 million, for a total of $22.2 million, to reduce children's exposure to toxins in our environment that can exacerbate asthma. An additional $12.3 million, for a total of $40.1 million, focuses on other chronic childhood afflictions, such as cancer and developmental disorders. EPA's investment to protect children from environmental threats totals $62.3 million.

Other Major Environmental Initiatives:

Implementing the Clean Water Action Plan: The budget proposal allocates $651 million to continue restoring America's waters.

Flexibility in Addressing Water Quality Problems: The president's budget includes a proposal that will allow states greater flexibility to address their most pressing water quality problems. The proposal will give states, for the first time, the option to set aside 20% of their FY2000 Clean Water State Revolving Fund allotment for nonpoint source pollution projects, estuary management, and other water quality projects.

Financing Water Quality Infrastructure: The president's budget provides for $1.625 billion for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs that provide financial assistance for the construction of drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities.

The Climate Change Technology Initiative: The president's budget invests approximately $216 million at EPA and $1.8 billion government-wide to help reduce the pollution that causes global warming. The initiative offers tax credits for consumers who purchases fuel efficient cars, homes, appliances, and other energy-efficient products. It also includes increased spending on research to develop new, cleaner technologies in areas like the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles and the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing.

Cleaning Up Water Sites and Redeveloping Contaminated Lands: The president's budget invests $1.5 billion in Superfund to continue cleanup of toxic waste sites. The agency plans to complete cleanup construction at 85 sites for a total of 755 construction completions by the end of 2000, with a target of 925–2002.

Advancing Citizens Right-to-Know and Improving Information: The president proposes approximately $19.5 million, an increase of $13.5 million, in the Chemical-Right-to-Know program to further improve public access and strengthen citizen's right-to-know about pollution in their communities. The president's budget also provides $18 million for Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) to provide citizens with access to real-time information about the health of the air, land, and water in their communities.

Maintaining Sound Science: The president's budget provides $681 million for a continued commitment to developing and applying the best available science for addressing current and future environmental hazards, as well as new approaches toward improving environmental protection. The agency will focus its research efforts on Particulate Matter, Global Change, Mercury, and Coast Research Initiative.

Improving Air Quality and Reducing Urban Air Toxics: The Air Toxics program has been provided almost $18 million in new funding, for a total of approximately $109 million in addition to the Clean Air Partnership Fund. It is geared to reduce risks for poor and minority groups more prevalent in urban areas and will bring increased protection to a larger number of more sensitive populations, such as children and the elderly.

Supporting United States/Mexico Border Environmental Needs: The president's budget provides $100 million, a $50 million increase, for projects along the United States/Mexico border. The agency will provide direct grant assistance to address the environmental and public health problems associated with untreated industrial and municipal sewage on the border.

NASA'S FY2000 BUDGET REQUEST TOTALS $13.5 BILLION

Terming the FY2000 budget request "Good News," NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced on 1 February that his agency's FY2000 budget would total $13.5 billion, a decrease of $86.6 million, or 0.6%, from the FY99 appropriation of $13.665 billion. He told reporters at a news conference at NASA headquarters that although the budget request is lower than the 1999 funding, space science, Earth science, and the International Space Station (ISS) would all receive increases in FY2000. The Science, Aeronautics, and Technology account would drop by 4.1%, or $229.2 million, to $5424.7 million, Goldin reported. Within that account, the budgets for space and Earth sciences would both increase, while Life and Microgravity sciences and aerospace technology would decrease. The International Space Station account would go up 7.7% to $2482.7 million. Launch vehicles and Payload Operations would drop 0.6% to $3155.3 million, while Mission Support would go down 0.7% to $2494.9 million.

NASA's portion of President Clinton's multiagency Information Technology Initiative would total $38 million.

Earth Science

Earth Science would go up 3.2%, or $45.3 million, to $1459.1 million. After several 1999 launches, including EOS AM-1(now known as Terra, see related story) and Landsat-7, launches are planned in 2000 for EOS PM, SeaWinds, and the French Jason-1 Ocean Altimetry mission. The first Earth probes mission will be launched in 2000, with others to follow in 2001 and 2003, Goldin explained.

Space Science

Life and Microgravity Sciences

Within the Earth Sciences Enterprise, the largest element is the Earth Observing System (EOS), a program of multiple spacecraft designed to provide measurements of the key, multidisciplinary parameters needed to understand global climate change. The 1999 launches of EOS AM-1 and Landsat-7 will have instruments on board to make scientific studies of the physical and radiative properties of clouds, air–land and air–sea exchanges of energy, carbon and water, measurements of trace atmospheric gases and volcanology (EOS AM-1), and land-use and land-processing measurements, complementing and improving upon those made by previous Landsat spacecraft in building the largest database of medium resolution land surface images of Earth's continents (Landsat-7).

These missions, plus the EOS PM-1 and Chemistry-1 missions, remain on track for launch in 2000 and 2002, respectively. The EOS program also includes several small spacecraft such as the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon follow-on mission known as Jason-1, QuikScat, ICESat, Solstice, and ACRIM.

The Earth Probes program addresses specific, highly focused Earth science questions that are new and complementary with other parts of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. It also has the flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities in international cooperation or technical innovation, according to Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate administrator for Earth Sciences at NASA. Currently approved Earth Probes include the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-EP, the Earth System Science Pathfinder missions (Vegetation Canopy Lidar and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.)

The Triana mission, scheduled for launch in December 2000, is an EOS spacecraft that will be located at the Sun-Earth L1, providing a near-term, real-time, continuous high-definition color view of the full sunlit disc of the earth. In addition, the mission will carry two major scientific experiments focused on the understanding of clouds and aerosols on Earth' climate and upper-atmosphere ozone concentrations.

The PICASSO-CENA, the third Earth System Science Pathfinder mission, is designed to address the roles of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere and their impacts on Earth temperatures. Together with the EOS PM-1 mission, PICASSO-CENA will allow Earth scientists to study the three- dimensional structure of the atmosphere and its role in the earth's weather and climate. The expansion of the EOS Data Information System (EOSDIS) continues data relationships with Canada, Japan, Russia, Israel, Australia, and several European nations being explored.

The Earth Science Enterprise also is working to train the next generation of Earth scientists, Asrar noted, and to enable K–12 teachers to incorporate remote sensing information into their classrooms. One such means is through the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program, which connects scientific discovery with the education process by linking K–12 students, teachers, and scientists from around the world to make Earth-related measurements and share the resulting data.

NOAA ANNOUNCES FY2000 BUDGET

The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has requested a budget of $2.5 billion for FY2000, a 13% increase of about $290 million over the current appropriation. The increase is slated to extend NOAA's many accomplishments in 1998, from issuing weather and climate forecasts during a strong El Niño season, to managing our nation's ocean and marine resources, which culminated in last year's National Ocean Conference in Monterey, California. It will also support a number of departmental, interagency, and presidential initiatives.

"The extreme weather events caused by last year's El Niño and this year's La Niña put NOAA on prominent display to the public, and we more than met the challenge," said D. James Baker, NOAA administrator under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "NOAA scientists provided a six-month forecast for El Niño, an advance warning that allowed emergency managers, businesses, communities, and individuals to prepare for the strong storms it brought. These forecasts saved countless lives and many billions in property. This budget allows NOAA to build on these achievements and meet the challenges of the coming years."

NOAA's mission of environmental stewardship was also carried out in its strong efforts to protect the nation's natural resources. In 1998, NOAA developed innovative partnerships with the states of Washington, Oregon, and California to protect and recover at-risk Pacific salmon and steelhead species. More than 800 national leaders, members of congress, researchers, and other interested stakeholders attended the National Ocean Conference and were joined by an additional 1000 parties over nationwide satellite downlinks.

The president's budget request also allows NOAA to perform an essential role in a number of departmental, interagency, and presidential initiatives, including the Lands Legacy Initiative, the Year of the Ocean Initiative, the Climate in the Twenty-First Century Initiative, the Clean Water Initiative, the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, and building the capacity of the Nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Compared with the FY2000 base, significant resource changes in the FY2000 budget include:

• $131.1 million to continue the president's commitment to restore the health and wealth of America's fisheries and protect species in danger of extinction;
• $78.1 million to support the Year of the Ocean Initiative, an outgrowth of the National Ocean Conference. This will help to promote new scientific insight into the oceans, sustain fisheries and other marine resources, provide new opportunities for economic growth, and protect fragile coastal communities and ecosystems, such as coral reefs, from damage and environmental degradation. This includes $51.6 million to design and acquire the first of four new fisheries research vessels;
• $42.1 million in support of the administration's Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, to conduct critical activities to reduce and mitigate the direct and indirect costs of natural disasters;
• $32 million of the $105 million Lands Legacy Initiative will promote "smart growth" strategies along America's coast. $15 million is also included in Lands Legacy to strengthen protection at the 12 existing National Marine Sanctuaries, and to enhance America's marine resource protection through planning for future sanctuaries. An additional $14.7 million is devoted to the anticipated doubling of the protected areas covered by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System;
• $28.1 million to enhance significantly NOAA's oceanic and atmospheric research capabilities;
• $22 million for the administration's Clean Water Initiative, focusing on polluted run-off and growing outbreaks of pfiesteria and other harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and other symptoms of degraded coastal ecosystems.

The budget request also provides funding for some anticipated inflationary changes, such as the FY2000 pay raise.

NOAA's FY2000 budget request is available on the Internet at http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/budget2000.

FY2000 NOAA BUDGET BREAKDOWN

NOAA's Budget Request for FY2000 by traditional budget structure shows

Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF):

Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC)

National Weather Service

President Clinton's FY2000 Budget Request for the National Weather Service (NWS) is for $687.5 million, a net increase of $3 million from the FY2000 base level. This includes $617.9 million for Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) and $69.6 million for Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC). The FY2000 base reflects the transfer of $3 million for NEXRAD WFO Maintenance from ORF to NWS Local Warnings and Forecasts to more accurately reflect the role of WFO facilities maintenance in NWS base operations, according to officials. Also included in the FY2000 base is the transfer of $4.6 million for the Central Computer Upgrade from Systems Acquisition (ORF) to the PAC account for the long-term lease of the Class VIII computer as a long-term capital lease.

The FY2000 net increase of $38.8 million in ORF is divided into three major sections: Maintain Warning and Forecast Services, Major Initiatives, and Systems Acquisition. The Budget Request reflects an increase of $19.8 million to fund Adjustments to Base within NWS base operations. Funding primarily will be for support of the FY99 and FY2000 pay raise ($13.8 million) and increases within the GS grade structure, scheduled benefits, and for inflationary increases in nonlabor categories such as maintenance and service contracts ($6.0 million). A total of $4.8 million, an increase of $1.0 million, is requested to continue mitigation efforts per the Secretary's Report Team recommendations on the adequacy of NEXRAD Coverage and Degradation of Weather Services under NWS modernization for Caribou, Maine; Key West, Florida, and to continue current operations at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Williston, North Dakota.

NOAA is requesting an increase of $9.6 million to support a total staffing level of 4412 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs), as recommended by the NOAA Review. The increase supports staffing in conjunction with the delay of AWIPS system deployment, continuing Automated Surface Observation Systems(ASOS) augmentation responsibilities, maintaining the six Regional Headquarters Office structure, and providing the necessary operational staffing levels at the Jackson, Kentucky, and Guam Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs).

NOAA is requesting a $2.2 million increase to initiate the national implementation of AHPS, a component of the president's National Disaster Reduction Initiative. During FY2000, the national implementation of AHPS will begin in the upper midwest (which includes Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, and portions of Iowa, Missouri and North Dakota) and tributaries within the Ohio River Basin (which includes Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania) The system will significantly improve flood forecasting and water management. National implementation of AHPS is expected to save lives and at least $200 million per year in flood losses and an additional $400 million per year in economic benefits to water resource users.

The budget request calls for $4.0 million for WFO Maintenance in ORF, a $1.0 million increase over the FY2000 base. The request includes a transfer of $3.0 million from the NOAA Facilities budget to NWS base operations to more accurately reflect the role of WFO facilities maintenance in NWS base operations.

Within the Local Warnings and Forecasts line item, NOAA requests an increase of $1.5 million to ensure the continuity of observations in support of the nation's climate record and local forecasting. During FY2000, NWS will starts replacing obsolete rain gauge recording devices and minimum/maximum temperature sensors.

NOAA requests $0.6 million to provide commercial aircraft observations (ACARS) for operational use in numerical weather prediction models within the Local Warnings and Forecasts line item.

The Systems Acquisition subactivity provides for the continued operation and maintenance of NEXRAD, ASOS, and AWIPS. NOAA is requesting $39.3 million to operate and maintain the 123 NEXRAD units; $7.6 million for the operation and maintenance of 314 ASOS units, and $38.0 million for the AWIPS program.

Systems Acquisition funded in the PAC account provides funding for activities associated with multiyear procurement of the major systems supporting the NWS—NEXRAD, ASOS, AWIPS. In addition, for FY2000, the Radiosonde Replacement Network will be placed in this account because NOAA will begin major procurement activities in conjunction with replacement of the network. The NEXRAD request under PAC is $9.6 million, an increase of $2.6 million over the FY2000 base. The ASOS PAC request is for $4.2 million, an increase of $0.3 million over base, and the AWIPS PAC request totals $22.6 million.

A total of $11.1 million has been requested for the Central Computer Facility Upgrade, a decrease from the FY2000 base of $3.4 million. The funds will provide for the second of four lease payments on the Class VIII supercomputer, scheduled for delivery during FY99. The decrease of $3.4 million accounts from having made the last lease payment on the Class VII supercomputer in FY99, as well as the first payment on the Class VIII.

With the radiosonde replacement program, NOAA requests an increase of $6.4 million over base to continue the replacement and modernization of the upper air radiosonde network. The total FY2000 investment of $8.4 million includes the transfer of $2.0 million from ORF to PAC to reflect the critical nature of the project, officials said. Currently, they said, the network is technologically obsolete and increasingly difficult to operate and maintain. Over the past five years, repair actions for certain network components have increased by more than 90%.

The disapproval of the NOAA Operations and Research Center building in FY98 left the Washington-based NCEP components and NESDIS in outdated facilities in Camp Springs, and Suitland, Maryland, until at last 2005. A modest stopgap imitative was proposed for FY2000 to rehabilitate these facilities, which house the NWS central computer operations and the NESDIS satellite operations. The FY2000 president's budget includes $3.5 million to help address the facilities' shortcomings.

The request for WFO construction is $13.3 million, representing a $3.8 million increase over the FY2000 base.

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

NOAA has requested $292.6M for OAR for FY2000. In a global sense, this represents a net increase of $10.7 million over the FY99 enacted budget, with reductions in some areas and increases in others. Some of the reductions are Sea Grant, down $6 million; NURP, decreased by $5.5 million; and Marine Environmental Research, reduced $4.5 million.

The OAR budget has been adjusted to account for the transfer of the Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory, with its FY99 budget of $6.8 million, to the National Ocean Service.

Some highlights of program increases:

• "Palace Floats"—NOAA has requested a $4 million increase to implement and operate an array of 1000 profiling autonomous floats in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This system will provide, for the first time, sufficient profile data on temperature, salinity, and currents to be able to generate the oceanographic equivalent of atmospheric "weather maps."
• High performance computing—NOAA has requested a $1.5 million increase for a massively parallel computer at Forecast Systems Laboratory, and $5.7 million for a new supercomputer at the Geophysical Dynamics Laboratory. The FSL computer will be used for observing systems tests, simulations, and evaluations, plus mesoscale modeling research, while the GFDL computer will be used to improve understanding and prediction of atmospheric and oceanic behavior over a broad spectrum of activities, including climate variability.
• Observational continuity—NOAA observatories in Alaska, Hawaii, Samoa, and Antarctica provide observations that are critical to monitoring long-term trends in climate and atmospheric constituents. NOAA has requested an increase of $1.5 million to maintain and upgrade these facilities.
• Climate and global change—A $6.7 million increase has been requested by NOAA for the Climate and Global Change Program. These funds are aimed at improving NOAA's assessment and prediction capabilities, through a competitive grants program.
• U.S. Weather Research Program—A modest increase of $1.5 million has been requested by NOAA to help improve hurricane landfall prediction accuracy, which is one of the goals of the USWRP. The funds will be used for dropsonde deployment from reconnaissance aircraft.
• Space Weather—An increase of $4.3 million has been requested by NOAA to fund GEOSTORMS, a satellite to monitor the solar wind at a distance sufficiently far from the earth to allow real-time alerts of solar storms about to impinge on Earth. Satellite and communications operators, together with electric power utilities will derive substantial benefit from these warnings.

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service

The administration is requesting a total of $593.8 million in FY2000, an increase of about $20 million over FY99 for NESDIS.

Operations, Research & Facilities

Satellite Observing Systems

Environmental Data Management Systems

Procurement, Acquisition & Construction

Polar Orbiting Satellites

Approximately $550 million is for the Satellite Center and $44 million is for the Data and Information Service. From another point of view, $490 million is for Procurement, Acquisition,and Construction of Systems and $100 million is for Operations, Research, and Facilities. Over the last decade the ORF budget of NESDIS has grown very slowly in contrast with the large growth in the Acquisition of Satellites, as can be seen in part from the table, with ORF decreasing by $6 million in the last three years and Acquisitions increasing by $25 million. The increase in the Acquisition budget would have been much larger if the Acquisition contract for the polar convergence satellites had not been delayed in light of the extended life time of the present NOAA and DOD satellites.

It is also interesting to note that the budget for Environmental Data Management Systems is decreased from $53 million in FY99 to $44 million in FY2000. Most of the decrease stems from elimination of the Data Rescue activities ($5.0 million), elimination of the Regional Data Centers ($2.75 million), and a planned decrease in the modernization activities ($4.0 million). On the positive side, $1.5 million is included in the FY2000 request to initiate the modernization of NOAA's Cooperative Reference Network and Rain Gauge Network and $0.9 million is included to "restore base" in the Data Centers.

In the Operations, Research, and Facilities Budget Request, funding for the Environmental Observing Services remains essentially unchanged ($53 million) for the third consecutive year, in spite of expanding requirements for provision of data to meet weather needs and new requirements to meet climate-related needs.

Again on the positive side, the Ocean Remote Sensing area will be funded at $4.0 million, as in FY99, and $2.0 million is provided for the Global Disaster Information Network.

For Satellite Acquisition, a total of $487.7 million has been requested to provide funding for the procurement of spacecraft, launches, and ground station upgrades in the current series of polar orbiters and geostationary satellites. It also includes an increase of $30.1 million for NOAA's share of the NPOESS program, aimed at converging the nation's civilian and military polar-orbiting environmental satellites.

The growth in the budget of the NPOESS program has been slower than expected in light of delays in making the acquisition awards. Studies and instrument development are continuing, as well as discussions on the role of NPOESS in long-term climate monitoring.

PRESIDENT ASKS ALMOST $4 BILLION FOR NSF'S FY2000 BUDGET

The National Science Foundation (NSF) outlined a record budget request for FY2000 amounting to nearly $4 billion, over $200 million above FY99. The request includes a major focus on funding for bold, cutting-edge research efforts, both as the lead agency in the administration's Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century (IT2) initiative, and for exploring the role of Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE).

"The President's budget for NSF represents a solid investment in the nation's research and education enterprise. It will assist the nation in efforts to compete effectively in today's global marketplace while also adding to our understanding of the complex world in which we exist," Rita Colwell, NSF director, said. President Clinton is calling for a 6.9% hike in NSF's research and related activities and a 5.8% overall increase for the agency in the proposed new budget that has been sent to congress.

The funding for the major program areas are as follows:

The large 41% increase in Computer and Information Science and Engineering is for IT2. Most major directorates received small increases between 2% and 3%.

Leading the multiagency effort in the administration's IT2 Initiative, NSF will increase investments by $146 million in new research and in much improved high-end computing capabilities. About $110 million is planned for fundamental IT research including: design and development of accessible, reliable, fault-tolerant software systems; human-computer interactions; information management; high-end computing, including advances in modeling and simulation; and other long-term research including socioeconomic and workforce impacts of IT. Another $36 million is planned to enhance the supercomputing infrastructure for the academic research and education communities.

In the new budget, NSF will also invest $50 million for research in biocomplexity as part of a broader emphasis on biocomplexity in the environment, an agency-wide coordinated activity in environmental science, engineering, and education.

At the heart of BE is understanding the complex interdependencies among living organisms and the environments that affect, sustain, and are modified by them. Research will cover three overlapping and highly interactive areas within NSF: Global and Environmental Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Dynamics, and Environment and the Human Dimension. Core research efforts will focus on the idea that research on individual components of environmental systems provides only limited information about their behavior as whole systems.

NSF continues to emphasize educating for the future. Among NSF's educational priorities is an investment in a National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education digital library and related activities. This is a national resource facility to link K–16 schools, academic institutions, students, and faculty to standards-based educational materials and learning tools. NSF will also move forward in its cooperative Education Research Initiative with the Department of Education. NSF will also continue innovative efforts to place undergraduate and graduate students in K–12 classrooms to assist teachers with content, while exposing and preparing the college students to the needs of K–12 education.

NSF will continue support for Arctic research programs, invest in upgrades to polar aircraft, continue substantial support to plant genome research and maintain its strong commitment to EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research). Also, NSF will invest $25 million for a new group of science and technology centers to explore interdisciplinary research problems and to support innovative efforts to integrate research and education.

Geosciences

The FY2000 Budget Request for the Geosciences (GEO) Activity is $485.48 million, an increase of $12.50 million, or 2.6%, over the FY99 current plan of $472.98 million.

Geosciences will support the Biocomplexity in the Environment Initiative through several activities including Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Environment and the Human Dimension, and the study of processes and prediction of the global environment. Geosciences will also provide $7.0 million for support of IT2. The total support in Geosciences for the Global Change Research Program in FY2000 totals $128.5 million. Geosciences supports three Science and Technology Centers: the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate, the Southern California Earthquake Center, and the Center for High Pressure Research. The major user facilities supported by Geosciences include NCAR ($68 million, up 2.7%), Ocean Drilling Program Operations ($32 million, up 2.9%), Academic Research Fleet/Operations ($44 million, up 4.19%), and IRIS ($12.6 million, up 11.5%). Geosciences support for Education and Training is approximately $7.0 million in FY2000. Five million is for undergraduate and K–12 with $1.0 million each for graduate and post-doctorate education.

Atmospheric Sciences

The FY2000 Budget Request for the Atmospheric Sciences (ATM) subactivity is $164 million, an increase of $4.31 million or 2.7% over the FY99 Current Plan of $159.69 million. The FY2000 Budget Request includes $95.85 million for Atmospheric Sciences Research Support, which provides funding for individual and group research projects in physical meteorology, large-scale dynamic meteorology, experimental meteorology, climate dynamics, atmospheric chemistry, aeronomy, magnetospheric physics, and solar-terrestrial relations.

Highlights for FY2000 include:

• Continued support of the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), the national Space Weather Program (NSWP), and disciplinary research and international field programs in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).
• A detailed examination of the earth's carbon cycle will be initiated in FY2000, with emphasis being given to understanding the sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon compounds and the processes that control them.
• Earth system modeling efforts that employ data assimilation techniques that incorporate observed data to model simulations will be expanded to improve predictions of future environmental conditions.

FY2000 support for the National Center for Atmospheric Research totals $68.15 million. In FY2000 NCAR will focus on:

• Global change research, including climate system modeling and the operation of the computation facilities for the Climate Simulation Laboratory;
• the U.S. Weather Research Program and the National Space Weather Program, which aim to achieve a better understanding and improved predictive capability of costly and disruptive storms on Earth and in space;
• continued support and development of observational and computational capabilities.
• In addition, the primary building housing NCAR will continue a three-year, $12.0 million refurbishment. Begun in FY99, FY2000 support for the refurbishment will continue at the FY99 level of $4.0 million.

Ocean Sciences

The FY2000 Budget Request for the Ocean Sciences (OCE) subactivity is $220.28 million, an increase of $5.68 million, or 2.6%, over the FY99 Current Plan of $214.60 million. The FY2000 request includes $125.0 million for Ocean Sciences Research Support, which includes disciplinary programs in physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, marine geology and geophysics, biological oceanography, and ocean technology.

Priorities for FY2000 include:

• Enhanced support for individual investigator research projects;
• Continued support for global change research with an emphasis on field programs in Earth system history and ecosystems research;
• Continued development of capabilities for data assimilation and modeling for ocean circulation and biogeochemical flux studies;
• Full participation in thematic studies of Biocomplexity in the Environment, with emphasis on studies of marine biocomplexity, support for interdisciplinary research into life in extreme environments, for coastal ocean process studies including biological ecosystems, harmful algal blooms, sedimentation processes, and biogeochemical cycles of importance to understanding events and changes in the ocean environment;
• Continued long-term process studies of deep ocean systems using submersibles tethered and autonomous sensing systems, and amplify efforts to develop new technology for ocean and seafloor observation systems;
• Continued support of projects with potential for major advances in understanding fundamental processes of significance to society, in partnerships with national consortia such as the National Oceanographic Partnership Program or with international funding agencies (e.g., European Union).

Support for Oceanographic Centers and Facilities totals $48.49 million and includes ship operations, instrumentation and technical services, oceanographic facilities, and coordination activities required for oceanographic field programs funded by the Ocean Sciences Subactivity and other NSF research programs.

Priorities for FY2000 include:

• Continued support for the academic research fleet;
• Enhanced technical and shared-use instrumentation support for research projects;
• Continued maintenance and ship-improvement programs to provide a modern and efficiently operated academic research fleet;
• Increased support for quality improvement activities in operations and technical services programs.

Support for the Ocean Drilling Program, a multinational program of basic scientific research in the oceans that uses drilling and data from drill holes to improve fundamental understanding of the oceanic portion of the earth's crust, totals $46.79 million.

USGS FY2000 BUDGET EMPHASIZES INTEGRATED SCIENCE, PARTNERSHIPS

The president has proposed a budget of $838.5 million for the Interior Department's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in FY2000. The proposed budget will fund research to provide crucial scientific information for natural resource managers at Interior and other federal, state, and local government agencies, and for disaster management decision makers in government and private sector organizations. The FY2000 budget reflects a $40.6 million net increase over FY99 enacted funding. The increases reflect a commitment to integrating USGS' scientific disciplines—geology, biology, hydrology, and geography—into a more unified approach to research and information gathering and analysis. The USGS is refocusing $15 million in base funding and requesting a $15 million increase to focus science resources on the most urgent research priorities of Interior land management agencies. These increases bring the total USGS funding directed toward Interior science needs to well over $150 million.

"As the science agency for the Interior Department, USGS is working directly with the management of the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and other agencies to address their highest priority research needs," said Dr. Charles Groat, USGS Director. "At the same time, we are taking the first step in the complex process of restructuring our budget to develop common business practices that make us a more partner-friendly organization."

This restructuring is reflected in the consolidation of appropriated facilities costs into an expanded Facilities line item, and all bureau level administration costs into a new category called Science Support. A new budget activity, Integrated Science, was created as well; this change will help to effectively integrate different scientific disciplines' programs to bring a more unified response to critical and emerging resource management issues and challenges. "While at first glance it may appear that some programs have received a decrease in funding through this budget restructuring," Groat noted, "in most cases, programs simply have had their administrative costs recategorized, leaving the research funding intact." Increases include $8 million to improve the integration and coordination of disaster information between the many sources and users of this information through a disaster information network.

"The USGS provided crucial scientific data for the nation's response to three devastating hurricanes this year—Bonnie, Georges, and Mitch. We continue to do so for coastal erosion affecting communities in the Pacific Northwest and flooding throughout the country," said Dr. Groat. "These experiences have demonstrated time and again the urgent need for data standards and protocols, plus source lists for information and materials providers, to get early information to agencies responding to natural disasters in the United States and abroad. The right scientific information, made available in a timely way, can help relief organizations and local governments save lives and reduce the costs of natural disasters.

"At the same time, Interior is the manager of a natural hazards monitoring infrastructure that is critically important to America. These stream gages, earthquake and volcano monitors, and other natural hazards warning equipment are badly in need of attention," Groat stated. "The president has requested a $5.5 million increase to accelerate the modernization of natural hazard detection sensors and networks, and expand the use of telemetry for real-time warning capabilities."

Other increases include $10 million to expand the National Spatial Data Infrastructure through the Community–Federal Information Partnership. This supports the president's Livable Communities Initiative. The proposal, which includes a $6.7 million community grant component, will help local communities develop the geospatial ability to create and use these data and technologies to make informed land use decisions.

Amphibian research and monitoring has been slated for a $5.6 million increase. "Understanding complex ecological problems, like that of severely declining amphibian populations across our country, requires long-term data," Groat said. The new funding would enable an aggressive monitoring and research program to determine the scope and causes of the amphibian population decline. "Because amphibians are considered good indicators of ecosystem health due to their sensitivity to many kinds of environmental stress, there is an urgent need to evaluate the scope and severity of their decline. USGS has the unique ability to bring an integrated science approach to address this problem," Groat noted.

As the nation's natural science agency, the USGS has 10 000 employees at work in every state, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories, investigating issues of concern to every American. In cooperation with more than 2000 local, state, regional, and national organizations, USGS activities include managing 45 000 water measuring stations crucial to making flood and water-supply forecasts; providing 80 000 different maps of the country; managing front-line earthquake and volcano monitoring networks; and conducting wildlife research at parks and refuges. USGS is a leader in the development of scientific information technologies and applications in support of natural resource management and disaster response.

ADMINISTRATION FY2000 REQUEST FOR S&T

from Richard Jones, American Institute of Physics

The Clinton Administration's FY2000 request for science and technology reflects the budget environment: some accounts are up, others are fairly flat, and some have taken hits. It is a mixed bag for FY2000.

OSTP Director Neal Lane began his briefing 1 February by calling this another "tough year," comments echoed by OMB Associate Director Elgie Holstein. The spending cap had made it a "tremendously difficult year" Holstein said, adding that the budget surplus was not touched in preparing the budget. Both Lane and Holstein spelled out some of the administration's S&T priorities in the FY2000 budget, including research in the following areas: information technology, environment, global change, national security, biomedical, and space. Also mentioned was the proposal to extend the R&D tax credit for another year.

A host of cabinet officers and agency heads each spent a few minutes praising the administration's request and outlining their budgets. Information technology research was a consistent theme in all of the presentations. Lane wrapped up the formal presentations by noting that there was some bad news, with the overall R&D budget down by 1%, owing largely to reductions in defense research spending. Civilian research is now over half the R&D budget, a goal which this administration has long pursued.

The following are some overall calculations about the R&D portion of the request, expressed as the percent changed from 1999 to 2000, taken from the administration's budget documents. As Holstein commented at the briefing, "what you see is a result of the constraints."

FRIST REINTRODUCES FEDERAL RESEARCH INVESTMENT ACT IN SENATE

from Audrey Leath, American Institute of Physics

The Federal Research Investment Act, an authorization bill to double civilian federal R&D funding over 12 years, was introduced in the 106th session of congress by Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) on 22 January. Last year, the bill (formerly S. 2217, now S. 296) passed the senate by unanimous consent in October, but never made it through the House or to the president's desk.

In the last session of congress, the bill was introduced with eight original sponsors. Thanks in part to significant support and urging from the scientific community, the bill had a bipartisan total of 34 sponsors by the time it passed the senate. This time, the bill starts its journey with 20 sponsors: Bill Frist, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Phil Gramm (R-TX), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Conrad Burns (R-MT), John Breaux (D-LA), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Max Cleland (D-GA), Fred Thompson (R-TN), John Kerry (D-MA), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Bob Kerrey (D-NE), Spencer Abraham (R-MI), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Wayne Allard (R-CO), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Chuck Robb (D-VA).

New sponsors this year are Kerrey and Allard. Three of last year's sponsors did not win re-election: Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL), and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC). The other 13 who supported the bill last year but have not signed on yet this year are: Daniel Moynihan (D-NY), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), John Ashcroft (R-MO), Thad Cochran (R- MS), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), John Warner (R-VA), Rick Santorum (R- PA), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Paul Coverdell (R-GA), and Carl Levin (D-MI).

For the bill to become law, the House must pass a similar bill, the two chambers must agree upon a final version, and the president must sign it. There are indications that a companion bill may be introduced in the House, but this has not yet occurred. Even if the bill becomes law, doubling of the R&D budget is not a certainty. As an authorization bill, S. 296 can provide guidance to appropriators, but does not provide any actual dollars.

OMB SETS APRIL DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS ON DATA ACCESS PROVISION

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has set 5 April as the deadline for comments on a controversial provision passed without a hearing in last year's omnibus appropriations bill. At the same time, Congressman George S. Brown Jr. (D-Calif), has introduced legislation in the 106th Congress to prevent the premature release of research results and to protect researchers from harassment. The Brown bill would repeal a provision that requires all data generated under federal research grants to be available for release through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Omnibus Bill provision was never introduced as a separate bill, never had a public hearing, went into the Omnibus Bill without public debate or comment, and yet is being rapidly implemented by the White House, according to Brown.

"This bill seeks to correct another abuse of the congressional process that, unfortunately, has become too commonplace," Brown explained. "Masquerading as an 'open government' provision, this measure slipped into a 4000-page bill in the middle of the night without a single hearing. Since its enactment, we have heard from scientists who have been harassed by tobacco companies, large corporations and law firms, all seeking the researcher's data. The provision makes scientists fair game for lawsuits, threatens academic freedom and the confidentiality of research subjects and is a blatant abuse of the democratic process."

Last December, Brown and 22 of his House colleagues wrote OMB expressing their concern and urging an open and comprehensive review of the Omnibus Provision. The OMB call for comments appeared in the 4 February Federal Register. The OMB notice noted that OMB "recognizes that this proposed revision...raises a number of important issues. Accordingly, OMB encourages interested parties to provide comment at this time..." All comments on the proposed revision must be received by 5 April.

The OMB summary reported: "This notice offers interested parties an opportunity to comment on a proposed revision to OMB Circular A-110, 'Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Nonprofit Organizations.' Pub. L. 105-277 directs OMB to amend Section _____.36 of OMB Circular A-110 to require federal awarding agencies 'to ensure that all data produced under an award will be made available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Act further states that 'if the agency obtaining the data does so solely' in response to a FOIA request, the agency 'may authorize a reasonable user fee equaling the incremental cost of obtaining the data.'"

OMB added the following supplementary information:" Pub. L. 105-277 includes a provision that directs OMB to amend Section____.36 of OMB Circular A-110 'to require federal awarding agencies to ensure that all data produced under an award will be made available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act.' Pub. L. 105-277 further provides that 'if the agency obtaining the data does so solely at the request of a private party, the agency may authorize a reasonable user fee equaling the incremental cost of obtaining the data.' According to congressional floor statements made in support of the provision, its aim is to 'provide the public with access to federally funded research data' that is 'used by the federal government in developing policy and rules.' Congressional Rec. S12134 (9 October 1998) (Statement of Sen. Lott: see id.) (Statement of Sen. Shelby) (the provision 'represents a first step in ensuring that the public has access to all studies used by the federal government to develop federal policy.')

"In describing the foregoing provisions of Pub. L. 105-277, congressional proponents stated that it requires OMB 'to amend OMB Circular A-110 to require federal awarding agencies to ensure that all research results, including underlying research data, funded by the federal government, are available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act.' Id. (Statement of Sen. Lott). The proponents also stated that 'the amended Circular shall apply to all federally funded research data, regardless of the level of funding or whether the award recipient is also using non-federal funds.' Id. (Statement of Sen. Campbell). They also explained that 'the conferees recognize that this language covers research data not currently covered by the Freedom of Information Act. The provision applies to all federally funded research data regardless of whether the awarding agency has the data at the time the request is made' under the FOIA. Id. Under the Supreme Court's decision in Forsham V. Harris, 445 U.S. 169, 179-80 (1980), data that are in the files of a recipient of a federal award, but not in the files of a federal agency, would not otherwise be available under FOIA.

"The proposed revision of Section _______.36 of Circular A-110 implements the requirements of Pub. L. 105-277 by providing that, after publication of research findings used by the federal government in developing policy or rules, the research results and underlying data would be available to the public in accordance with the FOIA. Pursuant to the direction of Pub. L. 105-277, the proposed revision requires federal awarding agencies, in response to a FOIA request, to obtain the requested data from the recipient of the federal award. Since the agency must take steps to obtain the data, the agency is afforded a reasonable time to do so. Once the agency has obtained the data, the agency will then process the FOIA request in accordance with the standard procedural and substantive rules that govern FOIA requests. These standard FOIA rules include the statutory concept of what constitutes a 'record' and the statutory 'exemptions' (found in 5 U.S.C,. 552 (b) from the FOIA's requirement to disclose records.

"Accordingly, after obtaining and reviewing the requested data, the agency will have to determine whether any of the FOIA exemptions, which permit an agency to withhold requested records, would apply to some or all of the data. For example, FOIA Exemption 6. 5 U.S.C. 552 (b) exempts 'personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.' If the federal awarding agency obtained the data solely in response to a FOIA request, the agency may charge the requester a reasonable fee equaling the full incremental costs incurred by the agency, the recipient and applicable subrecipients. This fee is in addition to any fees the agency may assess under the FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552 (a) (4) (A)."

Comments should be addressed to: F. James Charney, Policy Analyst, OMB, Room 6025, New Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20503. If possible, please include a word processing version of comments on a computer disk. Comments also may be submitted by e-mail to: fcharney@omb.eop.gov. Please include the full body of e-mail comments in the text of the message and not as an attachment. Also, please include the name, title, organization, postal address, and e-mail address in the text of the message.

WHITE HOUSE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENT

At the AAAS annual meeting on Sunday, 24 January, Vice President Al Gore announced that the administration's FY2000 budget request includes $366 million for information technology research. Named "Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century" (or "IT2"), this initiative reflects a 28% increase in the government's investment in IT. NSF is the leading agency for IT2. In addition, five agencies, Defense (including DARPA), DOE, NASA, NIH, and NOAA, will be involved with the initiative in FY2000. Roughly 60% of the funding will go to support university-based research, which will also help meet the growing demand for workers with advanced IT skills.

IT will support three activities:

1. Long-term information technology research;
2. Advanced computing for science, engineering, and the nation...this will support applications such as...more accurately predicting hurricanes and tornadoes as well as long-term climate change..."
3. Research on the economic and social implications of the Information Revolution.

NSF's budget includes $146 million for IT2, including $110 million for fundamental IT research and $36 million for enhancing the super computer infrastructure for the academic and education community. The DARPA budget in DOD includes $100 million dollars for IT2 and the DOE budget includes $70 million. Smaller funding levels of about $10 million are included in the NASA, NIH, and NOAA budgets.

The White House pointed out that reasons for this major investment are not difficult to find. Analysts estimate that the information technology industry already constitutes $700 billion of the total U.S. economy, and they say the industry has generated about a third of all U.S. economic growth over the past decade. Yet, prospects for sustained growth are open to question when it's realized that corporate R&D expenditures as a fraction of sales have dropped almost in half over a 7-year period (1989–96). In addition, there has been a detectable shift toward short-term, product-oriented developments in the IT industry as a whole. A recent report by the president's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) called for a strong and sustained investment in fundamental IT research. In doing so, the report emphasized the sharp and growing contrast between reduced support provided for long-term research and the increased importance of IT to the overall U.S. economy.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

AGU ISSUES POSITION STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

On 28 January, the American Geophysical Union released the following position statement on greenhouse gases and climate change:

"Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have substantially increased as a consequence of fossil fuel combustion and other human activities. These elevated concentrations of greenhouse gases are predicted to persist in the atmosphere for times ranging to thousands of years. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases affect the earth–atmosphere energy balance, enhancing the natural greenhouse effect and thereby exerting a warming influence at the Earth's surface.

"Although greenhouse gas concentrations and their climatic influences are projected to increase, the detailed response of the system is uncertain. Principal sources of this uncertainty are the climate system's inherent complexity and natural variability. The increase in global mean surface temperatures over the past 150 years appears to be unusual in the context of the last few centuries, but it is not clearly outside the range of climate variability of the last few thousand years. The geologic record of the more distant past provides evidence of larger climate variations associated with changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. These changes appear to be consistent with present understanding of the radiative properties of carbon dioxide and of the influence of climate on the carbon cycle. There is no known geologic precedent for the transfer of carbon from the earth's crust to atmospheric carbon dioxide, in quantities comparable to the burning of fossil fuels, without simultaneous changes in other parts of the carbon cycle and climate system. This close coupling between atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate suggests that a change in one would in all likelihood be accompanied by a change in the other.

"Present understanding of the earth climate system provides a compelling basis for legitimate public concern over future global- and regional-scale changes resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. These changes are predicted to include increases in global mean surface temperatures, increases in global mean rates of precipitation and evaporation, rising sea levels, and changes in the biosphere. Understanding of the fundamental processes responsible for global climate change has greatly improved over the past decade, and predictive capabilities are advancing. However, there are significant scientific uncertainties, for example, in predictions of local effects of climate change, occurrence of extreme weather events, effects of aerosols, changes in clouds, shifts in the intensity and distribution of precipitation, and changes in oceanic circulation. In view of the complexity of the earth climate system, uncertainty in its description and in the prediction of changes will never be completely eliminated.

"Because of these uncertainties, there is much public debate over the extent to which increased concentrations of greenhouse gases have caused or will cause climate change, and over potential actions to limit and/or respond to climate change. It is important that public debate take into account the extent of scientific knowledge and the uncertainties. Science cannot be the sole source of guidance on how society should respond to climate issues. Nonetheless, scientific understanding based on peer-reviewed research must be central to informed decision making. AGU calls for an enhancement of research to improve the quantification of anthropogenic influences on climate. To this end, international programs of research are essential. AGU encourages scientists worldwide to participate in such programs and in scientific assessments and policy discussions.

"The world may already be committed to some degree of human-caused climate change, and further buildup of greenhouse gas concentrations may be expected to cause further change. Some of these changes may be beneficial and others damaging for different parts of the world. However, the rapidity and uneven geographic distribution of these changes could be very disruptive. AGU recommends the development and evaluation of strategies such as emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, and adaptation to the impacts of climate change. AGU believes that the present level of scientific uncertainty does not justify inaction in the mitigation of human-induced climate change and/or the adaptation to it."

JANUARY TORNADO NUMBER BREAKS NATIONAL RECORDS

A record-breaking 163 tornadoes ripped through nine states in January, according to preliminary National Weather Service counts, three times as many as the previous monthly record of 52 set in 1975. One-hundred forty-one of the tornadoes struck Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee, and more tornadoes occurred on 21 January—a total of 87—than on any other January day on record, according to Joe Schaefer, director of the NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. "Frankly," he said, "we consider this to be a significant number of tornadoes for a March day—the height of tornado season. These numbers in January are unprecedented."

The tornadoes occurred because of an unusual weather pattern, according to Harold Brooks, meteorologist at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory, also at Norman. "The storms were caused by a southerly flow of wind coming from the Gulf of Mexico, which brought in moisture at low levels in the atmosphere combined with a strong upper air pressure wave, which causes wind at about 30 000 feet," he explained. "We usually don't see this tornado-producing combination until March or April."

The first tornadoes of 1999 occurred on the first day of the year in Texas and Louisiana. The next day, more tornadoes hit Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina, with a total of 18 in two days. Two additional tornadoes six days later struck Louisiana and Mississippi. On 17 January, deadly tornadoes touched down in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, killing 10 people and injuring another 100. The latest outbreak included 104 tornadoes spotted during a 3-day period, with most of those occurring on 21 January in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. During the next two days, 17 additional twisters struck Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The first tornado death of the year occurred 40 minutes after midnight on 2 January, and the total number of deaths rose to 18 by the end of the month.

The local forecast office at Little Rock, Arkansas, serves the area hit by more than 65 twisters since 1 January. A new Tornado Detection Algorithm (TDA) at the National Severe Storms Laboratory and installed in all local forecast offices in November helped increase warning times, which varied from 20 minutes to 5 hours during the Arkansas outbreak. Local forecasters use the TDA, a computer program that helps interpret Doppler radar data, in combination with other products and storm spotter reports to determine what is happening and alert the public.

SCIENTISTS TO KICK OFF MAJOR FIELD EXPERIMENT ON ROLE OF AEROSOLS IN CLIMATE CHANGE

Pollutants known as aerosols play a role in cooling the planet and mitigating the effects of global warming. Scientists from around the world are now trying to find out how; the intensive field phase of an experiment sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is beginning in February.

The $25-million Indian Ocean Experiment, or INDOEX, will be coordinated by the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate (C4) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). "C4", an NSF Science and Technology Center, is based at the University of California at San Diego. Paul J. Crutzen, director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and a 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and V. Ramanathan, director of C4 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, will serve as INDOEX cochief scientists.

Aerosol cooling is one of the largest remaining sources of uncertainty in predicting future climate. Data collected during INDOEX will provide scientists with crucial information needed to develop more accurate global climate prediction models. "INDOEX scientists will document the chemical and physical properties of natural and human-produced atmospheric aerosols and use these observations to study and model the complex interactions among atmospheric aerosols, clouds and climate," says Jay Fein, program director in NSF's division of atmospheric sciences, which funds INDOEX. "The project is addressing one of the key remaining issues regarding potential climate change. This knowledge is essential to improve climate forecasts."

Aerosols are tiny particles of about a micron (one millionth of a meter) or so in diameter that scatter sunlight back to space and, thus, cause a regional cooling effect. The particles also can have an indirect cooling effect on climate by acting as seeds for cloud condensation and, thus, increasing the reflectivity, or albedo, of clouds. The effect of sulfate aerosols is equivalent to that of trillions of tiny mirrors floating in the sky, reflecting sunlight back to space. Concentrated predominantly over the industrial areas of the northern hemisphere, sulfates contribute to acid rain and haziness. In addition to sulfates, aerosols also include pollutants such as soot, organic carbon, and mineral dust, and are produced both naturally and by human activities.

"This is one of the first comprehensive experiments aimed at understanding the magnitude of the cooling effect of sulfates and other aerosols on climate," says Ramanathan. "We hope to learn the extent to which aerosol cooling has offset global warming due to human-produced greenhouse gases, and how that may change with increased regulation of aerosol emissions in the United States and Europe."

The scientists chose the Indian Ocean region as the site for INDOEX because the Indian subcontinent and surrounding nations are rich sources for many kinds of aerosols, including those produced from industrial and auto emissions, biomass burning and soil dust. With Asia's population rising at a dramatic rate, the amount of sulfur dioxide released is expected to increase.

The Republic of Maldives will serve as headquarters for the intensive field investigation. Scientists will use ships, aircraft and land stations to collect data from the sea surface through the lower stratosphere on aerosol composition, reactive atmospheric gases, solar radiation fluxes, winds and water vapor distribution.

STUDY BY NOAA SCIENTISTS COULD LEAD TO BETTER PREDICTIONS OF EL NIÑO

A new study by a government scientist of the El Niño of 1997–98 sheds new light on "the climate event of the century" that should lead to better predictions of future El Niños and improved forecasts of their likely impact. Fortunately, from the rapid onset of the El Niño in early 1997 to its sudden demise in May 1998, satellites and a network of buoys moored near the equator measured the surface and subsurface conditions in the tropical Pacific that characterized the event.

Writing in the 12 February issue of Science, Michael J. McPhaden of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, concludes that the ocean was preconditioned for the onset of an El Niño in 1995 and 1996 by a buildup of excess heat in the western Pacific. The onset of the El Niño was triggered, McPhaden reports, by powerful weather systems migrating into the western Pacific from the Indian Ocean beginning in late 1996. "Because of the foresight of NOAA and other groups responsible for the El Niño–Southern Oscillation measurement network, scientists had the most comprehensive view ever of the physical mechanisms underlying the development of an El Niño," McPhaden said. "Before the 1997–98 El Niño began, there was considerable spread in the model forecasts about what might actually happen in the tropical Pacific. Once the El Niño was underway, scientists were able to improve their model predictions by using these measurements of highly anomalous conditions provided by the ENSO network," he said. "The study also suggests that ocean conditions that naturally fluctuate from one decade to another, as well as global warming trends that occur on even longer timescales, may have influenced the 1997–98 El Niño. Exactly how El Niño may interact with these longer-term climate variations is not clear, and more research is needed to answer these questions," McPhaden added.

In early 1997, a weakening and reversal of the trade winds in the western and central equatorial Pacific led to the rapid development of unusually warm sea surface waters east of the international date line. A pool of warm surface waters in the western Pacific then migrated eastward with the collapse of the easterly trade winds, while a strip, or "tongue," of cold surface waters, which normally indicates upwelling of colder subsurface waters along the equator between the coast of South America and the international date line, failed to develop in the Northern Hemisphere's summer and fall 1997. The El Niño developed so rapidly that from June to December 1997 a new record high for sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific was set every month, based on measurements dating back to the middle of the last century. At the height of the El Niño in December 1997, unusually warm, 28°–29°C, water filled the equatorial basin, with surface waters in the cold tongue region that were more than 4°C warmer than normal, the highest on record in the eastern equatorial Pacific.

In early 1998, sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific rose to over 29°C, as the anomalously warm waters added to the usual seasonal warming that occurs at this time of year. It was not until the trade winds abruptly returned to near normal strength in the eastern Pacific in mid-May 1998 that the cold subsurface waters were drawn upwards. When that happened, sea surface temperatures in the equatorial cold tongue plummeted an unprecedented 8°C during one 30-day period from May to June, marking an end to the El Niño.

SCIENTISTS FIND EL NIÑO-LIKE CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS BECAME MORE COMMON 5000 YEARS AGO

For the first time, a team of government and university scientists has found a high-resolution, 15 000-year record of rain-induced erosion in sediment layers of an Ecuadorian lake that indicates El Niño-like climate fluctuations became more common about 5000 years ago. Writing in Science, the researchers found that a core sample of layers of sediment deposited during severe storms in Lake Pallacacocha in southwestern Ecuador closely correlates with El Niños that are known to have occurred over the past 200 years.

"The full sediment record indicates that 15 000 years ago severe El Niño-like storms occurred at least about every 15 years, and that they have since occurred with progressively increasing frequency. Over the past 5000 years, storms from El Niño-like climate fluctuations have occurred about every 2 to 8 and one-half years, possibly due to enhanced trade winds," said the study's lead author, Donald T. Rodbell of Union College, Schenectady, New York. The authors point out that there are proxy records of prehistoric El Niños in a variety of natural archives, including corals, ice cores, tree rings, flood deposits, beach ridges, archeological middens, and soils. But high-resolution records in corals and ice cores are limited to the past 2000 years, while longer records are not continuous.

Sea surface temperatures near this part of Ecuador are among the first to warm in the region during the onset of an El Niño, when rainfall greatly increases. Since extreme El Niño-driven storms are known to deposit organic and inorganic debris in coastal basins, the scientists analyzed a 9.2-m long core of sedimentary rock obtained in June 1993 from Lake Pallacacocha, which is about 75 km from the Pacific Ocean. These layers of sediment, known as clastic laminae, are made up of fragments of vegetation that were washed into the lake from the surrounding landscape during torrential rain storms.

The sediment record from 1800 to 1976 A.D. reveals a close match between the layers of clastic laminae and moderate to severe El Niño. Of the 17 El Niños that occurred in this time period, 11 correlate within two years of major layers of clastic laminae, and one is within three years. The other five severe El Niños during this period occurred within two years of relatively minor layers of clastic sediment. The eight severe El Niños of the past 100 years correlate precisely with clastic laminae in the core.

In addition to Rodbell, authors of the Science paper are J. H. Newman, Department of Geology, Union College, Schenectady, New York; G. O. Seltzer, Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York; D. M. Anderson, National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado; M. B. Abbot, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts; and D. B. Enfield, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA, Miami, Florida.

NCAR WEB SITE REPORTS ECONOMIC COSTS OF EXTREME WEATHER BY STATES

State-by-state costs of extreme weather are now available on a new Web site launched by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. The site provides quick access to data on the cost of damages from hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes in the United States and its territories. Known as the Extreme Weather Sourcebook, it reports decades of information in constant 1997 dollars, simplifying comparison among extreme-weather impacts and among states and regions. "We created the site to spur investigation, because we're all affected by weather and climate," said Roger Pielke Jr., who led the NCAR team that built the site. The sourcebook also is intended to be a user-friendly tool for journalists on deadline.

Users of the sourcebook will find the states and territories ranked in order of economic losses from hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and all three events combined. A dollar figure for the annual cost in each category for each state also is presented. Links take the reader to graphs with more detailed information on cost per year for each state and each hazard. For those who want to dig deeper, there is a link to Pielke's Societal Aspects of Weather pages. The site allows relative comparisons of where a region or state stands in the national picture, Pielke explained. "This is qualitative information that should be used be used in a qualitative way," he said, warning that historical costs should not be used to predict what future damages might be. "We're making no predictive claims. The future could be very different."

The data for hurricane impacts cover 1925–95, based on a study by Pielke and Christopher Landsea of NOAA; for tornadoes, 1960–94 based on a database maintained by the Storm Prediction Center; and for floods, 1983–96, base on data from the Corps of Engineers.

The sourcebook Web site can be found on http://www.dir.ucar.edu/esig/HP_roger/sourcebook. Pielke's Societal Aspects of Weather can be found on http://www.dir.ucar.edu/esig/socasp.

NOAA SCIENTISTS TO FLY IN HIGH WINDS OVER NORTH ATLANTIC TO TEST SATELLITE INSTRUMENTS

A team of scientists will conduct experiments aboard a "hurricane hunter" aircraft flying out of St. John's, Newfoundland, in February, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. The goal of the experiments is to improve measurements of ocean surface wind speed and direction taken by satellite sensors that will be used by NOAA. "The satellite instruments, known as scatterometers, provide wind speed data that are used in marine forecasts and numerical weather prediction models," said principal investigator Paul Chang, from NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.

The team will spend 67 hours, in 7-hour missions, aboard a WP-3D aircraft in high winds over the North Atlantic and the Labrador Sea. Several instruments will be installed onboard the aircraft, including a Ku-band scatterometer, C-band scatterometer, and a Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer. The instrumentation is designed to measure the roughness of the ocean surface in order to determine surface wind speed. In addition, GPS dropsondes will be deployed during the flights, supplying additional verification data.

The data will be used to validate scatterometers aboard the European Remote Sensing Satellite, ERS2, and the one that is part of NASA's QuickScat mission scheduled for launch this spring. The flights are part of NOAA's contributions to the overall validation programs of ERS-2 and QuickScat. The experiment is called SHOWS, for Scatterometer High Ocean Wind Speed.

Team members are: James Carswell, University of Massachusetts; Melvyn Shapiro and Nicholas Bond, NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; and Dave Parrish, NOAA's Aeronomy Lab. The aircraft will be piloted and navigated by officers of the NOAA Corps.

SATELLITES AND SPACE

NASA PLANS MAJOR RESEARCH EFFORTS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

NASA's FY2000 budget request includes $394.4 million for research, much of which is planned for the International Space Station (ISS), an interactive laboratory in space being built to advance fundamental scientific knowledge, foster scientific discoveries, and accelerate the rate at which it develops beneficial applications derived from long-term, space-based research. Much of the research will have applications to life on Earth.

As NASA moves into the Space Station era, there will be a major transition from the current limited, short-term, on-orbit experimentation program to the long-term research efforts made possible by the Space Station, officials reported. The core of the ISS research program will be its eight major research facilities: Gravitational Biology Facility, Centrifuge Facility, Human Research Facility, Materials Science Research Facility, Biotechnology Facility, Fluids and Combustion Facility, Window Observational Research Facility, and Low Temperature Microgravity Physics Facility. In addition to the eight major facilities, NASA will develop common-use laboratory support equipment, as well as racks and pellets for the ISS.

During the early phases of the ISS assembly, research will focus on environmental monitoring of the growing Space Station. The capability to conduct onboard research will begin with delivery and outfitting of the Human Research Facility in 2000. Flight 5A.1 will be launched in the second quarter of FY2000, continuing the outfitting of the U.S. laboratory with six additional lab system racks and one Human Research Facility payload rack. Flight 6A will be launched in the following quarter and includes two stowage and two payload racks.

The ISS is configured to maximize the value of human intervention in the experimental process. Crewmembers will work on experiments with a community of investigators on the ground. Ground-based investigators will manipulate orbiting experiments through the technologies of telescience, expanding the boundaries of human work in space research. The station will provide the facility and tools needed to perform unique, long-duration, space-based research in cell and developmental biology, plant biology, human physiology, biotechnology, fluid physics, combustion science, materials science, and fundamental physics.

The station also provides a unique platform for making observations of the earth's surface and atmosphere, the sun and other astronomical objects, as well as the space environment and its effects on new spacecraft technologies.

SOHO SPACECRAFT DETECTS SOURCE OF HIGH-SPEED SOLAR "WIND"

Solving a long-standing solar mystery, scientists have discovered the source of fountains of electrified gas that flow from the Sun like water gushing through cracks in a dam. Called the high-speed solar wind, this gas flows out at 2 million miles per hour from the edges of honeycomb-shaped patterns of magnetic fields at the surface of the sun.

American and European scientists detected the source using the NASA/European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. The nature and origin of the solar wind is one of the main mysteries SOHO was designed to solve. "The search for the source of the solar wind has been like the hunt for the source of the Nile," said Dr. Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, lead author of the paper, published in the 5 February issue of Science magazine. "For 30 years, scientists have observed high-speed solar wind coming from regions in the solar atmosphere with open magnetic-field lines, called coronal holes. However, only recently, with the observations from SOHO, have we been able to measure the detailed structure of this source region inside coronal holes."

Scientists have long thought that the solar wind flows from coronal holes. What is new is the discovery that these flows are concentrated in specific patches at the edges of the honeycomb-shaped magnetic fields. Just below the surface of the sun there are large convection cells, and each cell has a magnetic field associated with it. "If one thinks of these cells as paving stones in a patio, then the solar wind is breaking through like grass around the edges, concentrated in the corners where the paving stones meet," said Dr. Helen Mason, of the University of Cambridge, England, coauthor of the paper. "However, at speeds starting at 20 000 mph at the surface and accelerating to over 2 million mph, the solar wind 'grows' much faster than grass."

The research will lead to better understanding of the high-speed solar wind, a stream of electrified gas that affects the earth's space environment. The solar wind comes in two varieties: high speed and low speed. The low-speed solar wind moves at roughly 1 million miles per hour, while the high-speed wind is even faster, up to 2 million miles per hour. As it flows past Earth, the solar wind can cause dramatic changes in the shape and structure of the earth's magnetic field, variations in which can affect satellites and disrupt communications and power systems on Earth.

The Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) spectrometer instrument on SOHO detected the solar wind by observing the ultraviolet spectrum (a separation of light into its component colors, or wavelengths) over a large area of the solar north polar region. By analyzing light this way, astronomers learn a great deal about the object emitting the light, such as its temperature, chemical composition, and motion. The hot gas in the solar-wind source region emits light at certain ultraviolet wavelengths. When the hot gas in the solar wind flows toward Earth, the wavelengths of the ultraviolet light emitted become shorter, a phenomenon called Doppler shift. This is similar to the way an ambulance siren appears to change tone as it speeds by. When the ambulance moves toward us, its sound is compressed to a shorter wavelength, resulting in a higher tone. As it moves away, its sound is stretched to a longer wavelength, resulting in a lower tone. Motion toward Earth, away from the solar surface, was detected as a shortening of the wavelength, and identified as the beginning of the solar wind.

"The identification of the detailed structure of the source region of the fast solar wind is an important step in solving the solar wind acceleration problem. We can now focus our attention on the plasma (hot electrified gas) conditions and the dynamical processes seen in the corners of the magnetic field structures," said Dr. Klaus Wilhelm of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Aeronomie in Lindau, Germany, also coauthor of the Science paper.

SOHO operates at a special vantage point about 1 million miles out in space between the sun and earth. SOHO, launched in 1995, is a project of international collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, and is operated from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

UC BOULDER SELECTED FOR $22.8 MILLION SUN RADIATION MISSION

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been selected by NASA to conduct a $22.8 million satellite mission to measure the effects of the sun's radiation on Earth and its atmosphere. The mission is part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) program, a cadre of orbiting platforms and satellites designed to study Earth. Known as the Total Solar Irradiance Mission, or TSIM, the CU—Boulder project is being directed by Senior Research Scientist Gary Rottman of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). "TSIM will cover the full range of solar radiation that affects earth," Rottman explained.

Solar radiation is the dominant energy input into the earth's ecosystem, and even small changes in the sun's output can produce significant changes in Earth's climate and environment, he said. LASP will build two state-of-the-art solar instruments for the TSIM mission to measure both total solar radiation and radiation separated by wavelength, or energy, Rottman said. Mission operations for TSIM will take place at LASP's Space Technology Building in CU's Research Park, where researchers now are controlling the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer satellite, launched in 1998.

"TERRA" SELECTED AS NAME FOR FIRST EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM SATELLITE

NASA has chosen "Terra" as the name for the first in a series of Earth Observing Satellites that will enable scientists to study with unprecedented clarity, global climatic, and environmental changes going into the new millennium. "Terra, in honor of our planet's mythical Mother Earth, is set for launch on 15 July. Formerly, the spacecraft was known as EOS AM-1.

NASA's Associate Administrator for Earth Sciences Ghassem Asrar announced the new name after reviewing the top 10 finalist essays from a contest jointly sponsored by NASA and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Sasha Jones, a senior at Brentwood High School in St. Louis, Missouri, submitted the winning name and essay. As part of the grand prize, the 17-year-old student and her parents will receive a trip to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to view the launch. Additionally, Sasha's school will receive a computer and software that will enable students and teachers there to access Terra satellite imagery on the World Wide Web. The international contest drew more than 1100 entries from all 50 states and more than a dozen other countries.

Terra will serve as the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), a series of satellites designed to observe the earth from space and to conduct research into the ways our planet's lands, oceans, air, ice, and life interact as a whole climate system.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

CDIAC UPDATES CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS DATA FOR FOSSIL-FUEL, CEMENT

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) at DOE's Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory has updated the data base on carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and cement production, quantifying those emissions through 1996, with global total emissions and some national estimates beginning in 1751.

The global total emissions rose from three million metric tons in 1751 to 6518 million metric tons in 1996, the data showed. The United States accounted for 22% of the 1996 global total, according to CDIAC. The database was prepared by CDIAC's Gregg Marland, Tom Boden and Antoinette Brenkert; Bob Andres, of the University of Alaska—Fairbanks, and Cathy Johnson, of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

The data are available on the World Wide Web at http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/ndps/ndp030.html.

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES DR. JOSEPH BORDOGNA AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The president announced his intent to nominate Dr. Joseph Bordogna as Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dr. Joseph Bordogna, of Pennsylvania, has served as acting deputy director and chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation since 1996. For the four years prior to this service, Dr. Bordogna was the assistant director for Engineering at the National Science Foundation. From 1964 to 1991, Dr. Bordogna served at the University of Pennsylvania in a variety of teaching and research positions and as a professor of engineering. From 1976 to 1990, Dr. Bordogna was director of The Moore School of Electrical Engineering. From 1981 to 1990, he served as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Bordogna received his B.S.E.E. from the University of Pennsylvania, an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

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