Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributors: Virginia Frost and Julie Burba
GOVERNMENT
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As the newsletter went to press, the Omnibus Civilian Science Authorization Act of 1996, now known as H.R. 3322, was headed for the House of Representatives for consideration of the full membership.
The House Science Committee passed the markup vehicle 24 April by a vote of 24–19. The bill includes FY97 authorizations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA).
Total authorization for all agencies under the bill, including the DOE authorization, amounted to $7.3 billion, or $249.6 million less than had been requested by the Clinton administration and $265.6 million less than the current FY96 authorization.
The bill authorizes NSF $3.2 billion, $75 million less than requested and $70.5 million less than the FY96 estimate. For research and related activities, the committee approved a budget of $2.3 billion, $131.7 million below the request and $66.3 million below the FY96 estimate.
In addition to reducing the president's request for research and related activities, the committee reduced the requests for education and human resources, major research equipment, and NSF's salaries and expenses. The reduction in salaries and expenses amounts to a $7 million reduction below the level appropriated for the current year, which––according to NSF officials––"would likely lead to major disruptions in the operation and management of the Foundation."
The bill provides $600 million for education and human resources, down from the $619 million requested and from the $599 million for FY96. It authorizes $80 million for major research equipment, down from the $85 million requested, but up from the $70 million authorized in FY96. The bill authorizes $100 million for academic research facilities modernization, which had been proposed by the administration for elimination in FY97. The committee also had authorized $100 million in FY96.
The committee provided $5.2 million for office relocation, none of which had been requested by the president, and $5 million for the Inspector General's office, the same as had been requested but up from the $4.5 million authorized in FY96.
The bill includes a number of technical provisions, including limiting to six the number of scientific directorates the Foundation may have. NSF currently has seven directorates, according to an NSF spokesman. In addition, the bill includes an amendment offered by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), agreed to by a vote of 23–22, to change the name of the Foundation to the National Science and Engineering Board. The bill also includes a requirement that the Office of Science and Technology Policy undertake a study of the indirect cost issue.
An amendment in the nature of a substitute was offered by Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-CA), which would have restored funding to the levels requested by the president. His amendment was rejected by a party-line vote of 27–21. Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL) also offered an amendment to restore funding to NSF's salaries and expenses and remove the limitation on the number of directorates. The Cramer amendment also lost on a party-line vote.
Under the bill, the committee authorized $487.2 million for EPA science and technology, $91.6 million less than the president requested and $56.2 million less than the FY96 authorization.
Other EPA authorizations include:
| Account | FY96 Auth. | FY97 Req. | FY97 Mark |
| (Dollars in thousands) | |||
| Air Research | $96,300.9 | $88,163.2 | $75,519.9 |
| Water Qual. Res. | $21,243.1 | $26,293.8 | $26,294.0 |
| Drinking Water Res. | $20,652.4 | $26,593.7 | $26,593.7 |
| Pesticide Res. | $13,345.2 | $20,632.0 | $20,362.0 |
| Toxic Substance Res. | $11,053.9 | $12,341.5 | $12,341.5 |
| Haz. Waste Res. | $21,020.2 | $10,343.9 | $12,000.0 |
| Mission and Policy Management | $6,399.3 | $8,184.7 | $6,399.0 |
For the Federal Aviation Administration's Research, Engineering and Development (RE&D) authorization, the committee authorized $185.7 million, $10 million less than had been requested and the same amount that had been authorized in FY96. Of the total FY97 authorization, only $6.4 million was allocated for weather and $3.8 million for environment and energy.
The committee authorized NOAA $1.8 billion, or $315.8 million less than requested by the president, and $158.5 million less than the FY96 estimate. A breakdown of various activities within NOAA include:
| Activity | FY97 Req. | FY97Mark | +or– FY97 Req. |
| (Dollars in thousands) | |||
| Nat'l. Ocean Serv. | $189,506 | $113,665 | $–75,841 |
| Oceanic and Atmos. Res. | $232,548 | $210,562 | $–21,986 |
| Nat'l Weather Serv. | $670,666 | $625,869 | $–44,797 |
| NESDIS | $531,831 | $460,259 | $–71,572 |
| Program Support | $131,168 | $126,151 | $– 5,017 |
| NMFS | $305,640 | $240,000 | $–63,640 |
| Total Opns., Res., and Fac. | $2,061,359 | $1,765,359 | $–294,009 |
| Construction | $ 37,366 | $ 29,570 | $ –7,796 |
| Fleet Modernization | $ 12,000 | $ 0 | $–12,000 |
| Other | $ 3 | $ 0 | |
For NASA, the committee authorized $13.5 billion, or $308.6 million less than requested. Last year, the NASA budget was $14.2 billion.
The Mission to Planet Earth authorization was $1.0 billion, $373.7 million less than had been requested and $281 million below the 1996 authorization. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) was authorized $130 million, which was $131.1 million less than had been requested.
Human space flight, which takes in shuttle operations, space station, and Russian/U.S. cooperation among other things, was authorized $5.4 billion, the same amount that had been requested but $93.7 million less than in FY96.
NASA's space science efforts were authorized $2.1 million, which was $310 million higher than requested by the president and $134 million higher than FY96.
Space station was authorized $1.8 million as requested by the president.
The authorization represented a $61.6 million increase over the FY96 authorization. Support of the Russian Mir space station was authorized $38.2 million, as had been requested and which was $9 million higher than FY96. The U.S./Russian cooperation program was authorized $100 million, which also had been requested. No funds had been authorized for that program in FY96.
For aeronautical research and technology, the committee authorized $823.4 million, $34.4 million less than requested and $22.5 million less than the FY 96 authorization.
We will try to present more detail on the FY 97 budget as events progress.
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After months of bickering that twice shut down the government, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a fiscal year 1996 budget, assuring that the government will remain open through 30 September, a bare five months.
The $163 billion budget provides funding for nine cabinet departments and 38 agencies and leaves discretionary spending for this fiscal year about $23 billion less than the previous fiscal year. Funded are the Departments of Commerce, Education, Interior, Justice, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, State, and Veterans Affairs.
The $23 billion cut in discretionary spending eliminates 200 federal programs, half of them in the Departments of Labor and of Health and Human Services.
Among the agencies sustaining budget cuts are the Education Department, which gets $25.2 billion this year, down from $26.8 billion last year; the Labor Department, which gets $8 billion, down from $8.4 billion; and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which gets $19.1 billion, down from $24.7 billion.
The Commerce Department, which some in Congress hoped to abolish, will receive $3.7 billion, down from $4 billion last year.
For NASA, the bill provides for $13.9 billion this year, down from $14.2 billion last year. The bill cuts spending for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to $6.5 billion compared to $7.2 billion last year.
A program to encourage innovative technology that protects the environment was slashed to $10 million this year, down from $72 million last year. A program to curb air pollution that contributes to global warming was cut to $80 million, down from $108 million.
The Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) funding was reduced to $221 million from $341 million. The program provides grants to companies to develop high-risk technologies that seem too risky for venture capital to underwrite.
Under the budget, the Bureau of Mines and the National Biological Service in the Department of Interior are terminated with some of their responsibilities being spun off to the Geological Survey and the Energy Department. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will get $1.6 billion this year, $160 million less than last year.
Interior's Fish and Wildlife program took a $12.5 million cut, ending up with about $60 million. However, Fish and Wildlife funds for listing endangered species took a 39 percent hit, dropping to $4 million.
The budget provides $892 million for all international groups, including the United Nations, up from $873 million last year. For peacekeeping operations, the new budget provides $359 million. The administration had requested $445 million.
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NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has notified headquarters personnel that NASA management plans to develop a plan downsizing the staff from its current level of 1430 to 650–700 positions by October 1997.
The announcement brought immediate reaction from Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), formerly chairperson and now ranking minority member of the committee that holds the purse strings to the NASA budget.
In a press release made following Goldin's announcement, Mikulski complained that the proposed downsizing was "too much, too fast." She also complained that she had not been notified of the planned reduction until after the announcement had been made.
In Washington politics, that is definitely considered a "no, no," and Goldin admitted that he had goofed. Worse than that, he had met with Mikulski for several hours two days before making his announcement and failed to mention his plans.
"It's very simple," Goldin lamented. "I messed up...I am guilty as charged...of poor communications."
While he emphasized that his oversight was not meant to be malicious, he said, "I still believe I did the right thing."
He said heaquarters employees should "assume" that reductions in force will take place next year––after Congress takes up the 1997 budget.
Goldin has spearheaded a major overhaul of the space agency based on his slogan of "better, faster and cheaper," a reference to his concept that space missions can be conducted "better, faster and cheaper."
He recently has been criticized in several circles for a plan announced in January to shift personnel and power away from headquarters to key NASA centers around the country. However, that plan only covered about 200 headquarters employees. This new plan would involve one of every two workers.
That plan reportedly was what prompted former astronaut Bryan O'Connor to resign as head of the shuttle program in February. Since Goldin's most recent announcement, Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space Communications Charles Force has resigned also.
Goldin's excuse for making the announcement without notifying Congress was that he had not learned of the decision until the day after he had met with Mikulski. He explained that NASA employees wanted to be kept informed, and he hoped that the announcement would give them more time to job hunt or to make other plans.
The announcement caught many at NASA headquarters by surprise. As one employee said, "Morale is at an all-time low."
One of the reasons for surprise was that as late as March Goldin told a budget briefing that he would resist further personnel cuts.
Members of the scientific and engineering communities were concerned that if NASA decided to reduce the headquarters scientific staff, there would be no honest brokers to select projects for funding.
During a recent hearing of the House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, former astronaut Tony England, representing the National Research Council, warned that there was some skepticism in the scientific community about the proposed cuts at headquarters. England, who flew on shuttle mission 51-F in 1985 and currently is professor of electrical engineering and earth and space sciences at the University of Michigan, was cochair of the technology panel of the NRC's committee that authored the report, "Managing the Space Sciences."
"A major concern of the board's report was science selection," he explained, "how it should be accomplished and how to ensure equity and the highest quality.
"A key concern is that the process should be structured such that proposals from either outside or inside the agency are not placed at a real or apparent disadvantage.
"The distribution of program management responsibilities from headquarters to the field centers does open the door to some new problems. On the one hand, the separation and integrity of objectives of different elements of NASA's overall program that are maintained in the present headquarters organization could be weakened. On the other hand, conflicts of interest could arise, especially at the (science) institutes, if they, in turn, inherit some of these program management responsibilities."
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Thirteen heads of meteorological services––from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom––have signed an agreement creating EUMETNET as a standing conference supported by a small coordination office. Additional signatures are expected in the coming months. The Coordination Office is seated in France, directed by Claude Pastre of Météo-France.
The objective of EUMETNET is to organize its members into a network to "help them in providing: a) leading expertise on weather, climate, environment and related activities; b) technical support to the corresponding scientific community; and c) high quality basic data and products."
EUMETNET will work through the implementation of cooperative programs in the field of basic meteorological activities such as observing systems, forecasting, data communication and processing, research and development, and training. The leadership of any given program will be entrusted to one member of the network. EUMETNET will include core programs to be undertaken by all members and optional programs to be undertaken by a group of members.
Although initially open only to the thirteen original members, EUMETNET envisages extending as the European economic area expands. Other national meteorological services may be elected to membership upon the unanimous agreement of the Council. They are also willing to extend technical assistance to nonmembers, excluding commercial services, and to work with other entities such as the World Meteorological Organization or nonmember National Meteorological Services.
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Recent years have been the warmest since 1860...despite the cooling effect of the June 1991 Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption, according to a report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"Nightime temperatures over land have generally increased more than daytime temperatures," a summary of the report by Robert Quayle and Thomas Karl of the National Climatic Data Center, NOAA-NESDIS, reported in the March issue of Earth System Monitor.
Regional changes are also evident, the recent warming having been greatest over the midlatitude continents in winter and spring, according to the report.
"Increases in greenhouse gas concentrations since the mid-1700s have apparently warmed the surface of the earth and have likely produced other climate changes," the report indicated. "The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have continued to increase, largely as a result of human activities, use of fossil fuels, land use changes and agricultural practices. Recent data indicate that the growth rates in the concentrations of these gases are comparable to the growth rates of the 1980s."
The IPCC has developed a range of possible future greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations based on several different assumptions for the period 1990 to 2100, the report said. These emissions then can be used to predict the climate.
For the midrange IPCC emission scenario, assuming the "best estimate" values of the variables, models project an increase in global mean surface air temperature relative to 1990 of about 2°C (4°F) by 2100.
The lowest IPCC projected increase is about 1°C (2°F) by 2100, and the highest scenario gives a warming of about 3.5°C (7°F).
In all cases, the report predicted, the average rate of warming probably would be greater than any seen in the last 10 000 years.
Because of the Montreal Protocol, the report said, growth in the concentrations of CFCs and similar ozone-depleting gases has slowed, and the consequent ozone depletion is expected to decrease substantially by the year 2050.
Anthropogenic aerosols (tiny particles such as those that produce smog) tend to produce a net cooling effect on the surface climate, according to the report. Aerosols in the lower atmosphere...can have continental and hemispheric effects on climate, it pointed out. Locally, the aerosol forcing can be large enough to more than offset the warming due to greenhouse gases. In contrast to the long-lived greenhouse gases, anthropogenic aerosols are very short-lived in the atmosphere; hence their effect changes rapidly with increases or decreases in emissions.
There also have been a few areas of cooling, such as the North Atlantic Ocean, according to the report. There, the precipitation has increased over land in high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, especially during the cold season. Global sea level has risen between 10 and 25 cm (about 5 to 10 inches) over the past 100 years, and much of this rise may be related to the increase in global mean temperature.
Inadequate data exist, according to the report, to determine whether consistent global changes in climate variability or weather extremes have occurred over the 20th century. The mid-1990 to mid-1995 persistent warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which causes droughts and floods in many areas, was unusual in light of the 120-year record of this phenomenon, the report said.
Regional temperature changes, according to the report, could differ substantially from the global mean value. Because of the thermal inertia of the oceans, it continued, only 50%–90% of the eventual equilibrium would continue to increase beyond 2100, even if the concentrations of greenhouse gases were stabilized by that time.
Average sea level is expected to rise as a result of thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glacier and ice sheets. The "best estimate" models project an increase in sea level of about 50 cm (20 inches) from the present to 2100. The lowest projected sea level rise is about 15 cm (6 inches), and the highest is projected at about 95 cm (37 inches) from the present to 2100.
Regional sea level changes may differ from the global mean value owing to land movement and ocean current changes, the report said.
The general warming is expected to lead to more extremely hot days and less extremely cold days, the report noted. Warmer temperatures will lead to a more vigorous hydrological cycle, translating into prospects for more severe droughts and/or floods in some places and less severe activities in other areas.
Several models indicate an increase in precipitation intensity, suggesting more extreme rainfall events. Knowledge is insufficient to indicate whether there will be any changes in the occurrence or geographical influence of severe storms or tropical storms, according to the report.
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A bill to implement the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty won strong approval recently from the National Science Foundation and environmental groups at a House Science Committee hearing.
As a matter of fact, Dr. Neal F. Lane, director of the National Science Foundation, as well as other speakers at the 18 April hearing, agreed that they knew of no environmental group that opposes the legislation, known as House Resolution 3060 or the Antarctic Environmental Protection Act of 1996.
The bill was introduced last 12 March by House Science Committee Chairman Robert S. Walker (R-PA), Congresswoman Constance Morella (R-MD), Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), and 16 cosponsors. The Science Committee has jurisdiction over this matter through its oversight of the National Science Foundation, the federal agency responsible for managing the U.S. Antarctic program.
The Environmental Protocol, signed by the United States at Madrid on 4 October 1991 and given the advice and consent of the Senate on 7 October 1992, designates the Antarctic as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science and establishes a comprehensive environmental regime governing activities undertaken there.
"All that remains for the United States to become a party to the Protocol," explained Chairman Walker," is to enact the necessary implementing legislation."
The Protocol, he said, will activate when all 26 of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties implement it. So far, he explained, 20 of those parties have implemented the Protocol and "the United States' ratification would provide impetus for the remaining five to join as well."
The other five nations are Belgium, Finland, India, Japan, and Russia.
"Antarctic scientific research has made and continues to make invaluable contributions to our understanding of the history of the Earth, the evolution of the universe and global processes," according to NSF Director Lane. "Especially now, in times of heightened environmental awareness, Antarctic research provides crucial understanding and insight into global climate change, ozone depletion and other global issues."
Lane cited several examples of what he described as "exciting research underway."
The NSF, Lane explained, is committed to protecting Antarctica as a natural laboratory, and to that end, has strengthened its environmental management over the past several years. The NSF, he continued, removes virtually all of its waste––"a waste minimization, segregation and recycling effort...without precedent."
"Nearly 70 percent of the waste removed for disposal is reused or recycled," he explained, "more than twice the average rate in U.S. cities."
That observation was more than confirmed by another witness, Dr. Robert H. Rutford of the University of Texas at Dallas.
"If you had been at McMurdo 20 years ago and went there again today you'd find a remarkable cleanup has taken place," he emphasized.
Other witnesses included Eileen Claussen, assistant secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs; Kathryn S. Fuller, president, World Wildlife Fund, and Beth Marks Clark, director, The Antarctica Project, a nonprofit organization that works exclusively on Antarctic conservation issues.
The implementing legislation sought by the bill, Claussen pointed out, is a priority objective of U.S. Antarctic policy and "enactment of implementing legislation to provide full legislative authority to implement its provisions is the remaining step required for the United States to deposit its instrument of ratification."
The U.S. Antarctic policy has three main objectives, she explained:
"The achievement of these objectives, particularly in light of differences among nations active in Antarctica over the assertion of territorial sovereignty there," she said, "depends on the dynamic international legal framework provided by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. The Treaty provides the indispensable mechanism through which we have and continue to pursue successfully our Antarctic interests. The Protocol...represents further enrichment of this important mechanism."
On behalf of the World Wildlife Fund, Fuller asked for expeditious passage of the legislation, pointing out that enactment has been delayed by "negotiations regarding striking a balance with the management of research programs that will ensure strong protections for the Antarctic environment."
"The southern ocean," she explained, "is virtually unmatched as a font of ocean productivity; its extraordinary phytoplankton and krill support much of the ocean food chain globally and, with the new circumpolar sanctuary chartered under U.S. leadership by the International Whaling Commission, it provides safe harbor to some of the most critically endangered marine mammals. The magnificent blue whale, believed to be the largest creature ever alive, survives in the southern ocean today in relic numbers, dwindled to only several hundred individuals as a result of years of overexploitation."
Pressures on the environment there have increased dramatically over the past 35 years, she said. Not only have countries increased their scientific research efforts, bases, and personnel there, but the number of tourists also continues to grow.
"During the 1994–95 season, approximately 8000 tourists visited Antarctica," she explained. "The preliminary figures for 1995–96 indicate upwards of 9000 visitors."
The increasing tourism poses potential environmental threats, she continued, including ship-based pollution and impact on land fauna and flora from repeated landings at the same sites.
Speaking for The Antarctic Project, Clark also encouraged rapid congressional action on the bill to ensure "that this precious global resource will be protected."
At the conclusion of the hearing, Chairman Walker said he intends to move the bill forward as rapidly as possible.
"It is a good bill," he reflected. "...I look forward to its passage."
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Saying that abuse of natural resources imperils U.S. interests, Secretary of State Warren Christopher has promised the put environmental issues "in the mainstream of American foreign policy."
Speaking at Stanford University on 9 April, Christopher said, "The environment has a profound impact on our national interests in two ways: First, environmental forces transcend borders and oceans to threaten directly the health, prosperity and jobs of American citizens. Second, addressing natural resource issues is frequently critical to achieving political and economic stability and to pursuing our strategic goals around the world."
In providing leadership to promote peace and prosperity, he said, "we must also lead in safeguarding the global environment on which that prosperity and peace ultimately depend."
Since 1946, population growth, economic progress, and technological breakthroughs have combined to fundamentally reshape our world, he explained. "It took more than 10 000 generations to reach a world population of just over two billion. In just my lifetime (he's 70)––a period that may seem like an eternity to many of the students in the audience––the world's population has nearly tripled to more than five-and-a-half billion.
"These changes are putting staggering pressures on global resources. From 1960 to 1990, the world's forests shrank by an amount equivalent to one-half the land area of the United States. Countless species of animals and plants are being wiped out, including many with potential value for agriculture and medicine. Pollution of our air and water endangers our health and our future.
"In carrying out America's foreign policy, we will, of course, use our diplomacy backed by strong military forces to meet traditional and continuing threats to our security, as well as to meet new threats of terrorism, weapons proliferation, drug trafficking and international crime. But we must also contend with the vast new danger posed to our national interests by damage to the environment and resulting global and regional instability."
The State Department, he continued, must spearhead a government-wide effort to meet these environmental priorities––globally, regionally, bilaterally, and in partnership with business and nongovernmental organizations. Each of these four dimensions, he explained, is essential to the success of our overall security.
"Our approach to these problems must be global," he said, "because pollution respects no boundaries, and the growing demand for finite resources in any part of the world inevitably puts pressure on the resources in all others.
"Across the United States, Americans suffer the consequences of damage to the environment far beyond our borders. Greenhouse gases released around the globe by power plants, automobiles and burning forests affect our health, our climate, potentially causing many billions of dollars in damage from rising sea levels and changing storm patterns. Dangerous chemicals such as PCBs and DDT that are banned here but still used elsewhere travel long distances through the air and water. Overfishing of the world's oceans has put thousands of Americans out of work. A foreign policy that failed to address such problems would be ignoring the needs of the American people."
The Secretary of State cited numerous actions the United States has taken to intensify global efforts.
"This year," he pointed out, "we will begin negotiating agreements with the potential to make 1997 the most important year for the global environment since Rio (the Rio Summit on Environment and Development four years ago).
"We will seek agreement on further cuts in greenhouse gases to minimize the effects of climate change. We will help lead an international process to address the problems caused by toxic chemicals that can seep into our land and water, poisoning them for generations. We will develop a strategy for the sustainable management of the world's forests––a resource that every great civilization has discovered is 'indispensable for carrying on life,' as the Roman Pliny once wrote. We will work with Congress to ratify the Biodiversity Convention, which holds benefits for American agriculture and business. We will also seek ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty which safeguards our access to ocean resources. We will provide the leadership needed to ensure that this June's Summit in Istanbul effectively confronts the pressing problems associated with the explosive growth of cities in the developing world."
In addition, he continued, "by the end of 1997, the State Department will host a conference on strategies to improve our compliance with international environmental agreements––to ensure that those agreements yield lasting results, not just promises."
Beginning next year, starting on Earth Day 1997, he said, the State Department will issue an annual report on "Global Environmental Challenges." The report, he explained, will be "an essential tool to our environmental diplomacy, bringing together an assessment of global environmental trends, international policy developments and U.S. priorities for the coming year."
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To aid in its negotiations with EUMETSAT on policies surrounding the Polar Satellite Cooperation, NOAA has asked representatives of the private sector doing business with Europe for feedback.
In a memorandum sent 28 March by NOAA's Office of Industrial Meteorology, Office Chief Ed Gross pointed out some of the issues and then asked for opinions and feedback.
The memo read: "Starting about 2001, NOAA will provide afternoon satellite plus most of the instruments for both NOAA and EUMETSAT satellite series. Data from the NOAA satellites in this cooperation (NOAA N and N') would continue to be available for U.S. private sector use on the same terms as it is currently. During the same period, NOAA plans to make DMSP data available on an operational basis to the U.S. weather industry. Likewise, the converged system (NPOESS) following NOAA N' launched into the early morning and afternoon orbits are fully expected to follow the same unrestricted approach to data access for the U.S. private sector.
"EUMETSAT is to provide the morning satellites and the Microwave Humidity Sounder for both satellites. A key issue has been data policy, especially as it relates to commercial use of NOAA instrument data on the EUMETSAT satellites (METOP 1 & 2). We are exploring an approach to the METOP data policy issue that we believe provides U.S. users with needed data while accommodating some of EUMETSAT's concerns."
Key elements of the approach under consideration, the memo read, are as follows.
"The first element of approach under consideration is for NOAA to provide all data from its satellite in accordance with U.S. data policy. Normally unrestricted, but the agreement would refrain from stating that the U.S. Government will maintain full and unrestricted policy. The agreement would require sharing all data only for 'official duty' purposes, this includes all USG and EUMETSAT member government use," but does "not include EUMETSAT member states commercial use." The U.S. could reconsider if EUMETSAT ever put conditions on its data that are burdensome. The U.S. government is already considering a reciprocal approach to data restrictions in other contexts.
The second element of approach under consideration is for EUMETSAT to provide all data in accordance with EUMETSAT data policy, but "EUMETSAT policy makers have indicated their intention to make available without conditions all U.S. AMSU data and EUMETSAT's MHS data (soundings), all LRPT (APT) data––which includes three of the five AVHRR channels, only two channels of AVHRR would have conditions for use in Europe.
"EUMETSAT would agree not to place conditions on use of any U.S. instrument data from U.S. instruments on METOP outside Europe. Conditions would not apply to use of data not in 'recognizable form.' European governmental entities using data for commercial purposes would pay the same price for controlled data.
"EUMETSAT would not control the data from U.S. instruments on METOP (no encryption). This means EUMETSAT's ability to enforce conditions is negligible.
"EUMETSAT would not require U.S. enforcement of possible EUMETSAT conditions."
"This approach seems to be as far as EUMETSAT can go."
The memo continued, saying that EUMETSAT yielded to U.S. data denial during crisis or war requirement and the 'no encryption' demand. EUMETSAT also limited conditions to Europe and the METOP dataset on which it would consider putting conditions.
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During its first year in orbit, a NASA lightning monitoring instrument called the Optical Transient Detector has uncovered tantalizing links between space-based lightning measurements and the intensity of severe storms.
Launched into earth orbit on 3 April 1995 by an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus rocket, the orbiting detector has produced the first high-quality images of lightning on a global scale, according to principal investigator Dr. Hugh Christian of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, AL.
"Using the instrument we have determined that, in some cases, there are up to 20 times more lightning flashes within clouds than observed by the ground-based network," Christian said. "this is significant because lightning flash rates offer the intriguing possibility of assisting predictions of tornado formation."
Data from the instrument shows that severe thunderstorms tend to produce lightning within clouds while the storms are building, and then more of a mixture of cloud and ground lightning as the storms dissipate. The quantity of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, which can be detected by the present ground-based network, increases only after the storm has matured. "This case study indicates that space-based observations may provide a more advanced warning of severe weather."
The instrument also has observed that more lightning is produced during the Northern Hemisphere summer than during the Southern Hemisphere summer.
The Optical Transient Detector was built, tested, and delivered in less than a year. The optics and the electronics are a little bigger than a two-pound coffee can and a typewriter, respectively. In spite of its small size, the detector represents a major advance over previous technology, given its ability to detect lightning under bright, daytime conditions as well as at night.
The Optical Transient Detector is a pathfinder for a follow-on lightning detector called the Lightning Imaging Sensor, scheduled for launch in 1997 by a Japanese rocket on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft.
Images and motion sequences of Optical Transient Detector cloud and lightning observations are available via the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/otd.html.
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New results from the ocean-observing TOPEX/Poseidon satellite are challenging a fundamental oceanographic theory about the speed of large-scale ocean waves––a finding that ultimately could revise science textbooks and improve global weather forecasting.
The large-scale ocean waves, with wavelengths of hundreds of miles from one wave crest to the next, are called Rossby waves. These waves carry a "memory" of weather changes that have happened at distant locations over the ocean, according to Dr. Dudley Chelton, a TOPEX/Poseidon science team member at the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.
Using data gathered by the satellite, scientists tracked the waves as they moved through the open ocean and have determined that at midlatitudes the Rossby waves are moving two to three times faster than previously thought, Chelton reports in the April edition of Science magazine.
Rossby waves are a natural result of the earth's rotation and a key feature of large-scale ocean circulation. In animations of altimeter data from TOPEX/Poseidon, the waves appear as alternating positive and negative sea level features traveling throughout much of the world's oceans.
"Every first-year student in physical oceanography learns about Rossby waves," said Dr. Victor Zlotnicki, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "However, observing them away from the Equator has been extraordinarily difficult because they cause changes in sea level of four to eight inches spread over hundreds of miles and move westward so slowly that a wave may take more than 10 years to cross the Pacific at the latitude of Los Angeles, CA, and more than 30 years at the latitude of Portland, OR.
"Thanks to TOPEX/Poseidon, for the first time we can see these waves very clearly, and this research shows that they become more intense to the west of the great mountain chains on the ocean floor, and more fundamentally, that they travel much faster than the accepted theory predicts."
Because Rossby waves can alter currents and their corresponding sea surface temperatures, the waves influence the way the oceans release heat to the atmosphere and thus are able to affect weather patterns, the scientists wrote.
For example, in 1994, oceanographers at the Naval Research Laboratory mapped a Rossby wave that they concluded was a remnant of the 1982–83 El Niño event. They found evidence that the Kuroshio current, located off the coast of Japan, was pushed northward, raising the temperature of the northwest Pacific. Some scientists blamed this shift for contributing to the flooding across the midwestern United States in 1993.
"If our traditional notions about the wave speeds are incorrect," Chelton wrote, "then the waves get from one side of the mid-latitude ocean to the other side twice as fast, which means that the ocean evidently adjusts more rapidly than we previously thought."
This more precise information about how fast the waves are traveling may help forecasters improve their ability to predict the effect of El Niño events on weather patterns years in advance, he explained.
TOPEX/Poseidon, a joint program of NASA and the Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency, uses a radar altimeter to measure precisely sea surface height. Scientists use the satellite to produce global maps of ocean topography, which then can be used to identify Rossby waves.
TOPEX/Poseidon is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, a coordinated, long term research program to study the earth as a global system. The satellite's sea surface height data are essential to a better understanding of the role that oceans play in regulating global climate, one of the least understood areas of climate research.
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Cray Research, Inc. has been awarded the contract to provide a state-of-the-art supercomputer system for numerical weather prediction and global climate modeling at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office.
A CRAY T3E system is scheduled to be installed in the third quarter at the customer's head office facility in Bracknell, Berkshire. Other terms were not disclosed.
According to a UK Meteorological Office news release, the faster and more efficient computer is required to:
In particular, the Hadley Centre will be able to represent the world's ocean currents with greater resolution. These currents (such as the Gulf Stream) can markedly influence the climate, so this will be a useful step in providing more reliable estimates of future man-made climate changes, according to the news release.
The new computer also will enable better use of the wide variety of observations of the atmosphere that are received every day so that more timely and more accurate predictions of the weather can be made.
"Cray Research is proud that our supercomputing system has been selected by the UK Meteorological Office to provide the vital weather forecasting service and to support the global climate change studies at the Hadley Centre, which runs some of the world's most complex global climate simulations related to real-world issues," said Robert H. Ewald, Cray Research president and chief operating officer. "The CRAY T3E system will be used in a demanding production environment combining time-critical operational requirements with long-running research projects."
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On 3 May President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Jerry M. Melillo, presently the codirector of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, as the new associate director for Environment at the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Melillo is internationally recognized for his research on nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and the potential effects of global climate change on the function and structure of land ecosystems. Dr. Melillo will work with the president's science advisor, Dr. John H. Gibbons, on such issues as sustainable development, health, energy and industrial ecology.
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Charles T. Force, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Space Communications, has resigned from NASA. The press release announcing his departure was made 3 May, and his departure was effective 6 May.
Force was named associate administrator in July 1989. He joined NASA in 1965 as director of the Guam tracking station and, except for returning to industry for a couple of years in the early 1980s, has held increasingly important positions at NASA since that time.
Force received several awards and honors for his work. He was instrumental in the development, construction, and the eventual "fully operational" declaration of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). TDRSS replaced a nearly 25-year-old, worldwide, ground-based communications network.
The revolutionary system cut NASA's telecommunications costs in half, yet increased data acquisition and communications contact time with spacecraft six fold.
This past February, TDRSS achieved 100 percent error-free coverage with its satellites and ground station command centers.
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The AMS Washington offices were to move from their current address at 1701 K Street N.W. to 1200 New York Avenue on 4 May. The revised move date will be 18 May. The new address is:
American Meteorological SocietyThe new phone numbers are 202-682-9006 (main line) and 202-682-9298 (fax).
The educational programs' (Project Atmosphere, Maury Project, DataStreme) phone numbers will be 202-682-9337 (main line) and 202-682-9336 (fax).
UCAR's Washington office will have the same address, but the telephone numbers will be 202-682-9331 (main line) and 202-682-9298 (fax).
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The Fourth International Direct Broadcasting Services Symposium for NOAA Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) will be held 10–12 June at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, Annapolis. For additional information, call 301-345-2000, ext. 135.
The Commercial Weather Service Association's (CWSA) Washington Conference will be held in a Capitol Office Building on 14 May from 8:45 a.m. to noon and from 1:45 to 3:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. For additional information, call 202-546-6993.
The AMS 25th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology will be held 20–22 June at the 57 Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, MA. The conference will be preceded by a workshop, "Back to the Future: Old and New Forecasting Techniques". See the AMS Home Page for more details.
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