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There has been a flurry of activity as Congress attempts to complete the thirteen appropriations bills if they are to be ready by the start of FY98 on 1 October. The AMS Newsletter will provide an update when the bills are finalized.
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, STATE APPROPRIATIONS:
The House and Senate subcommittees have each marked up their versions of this bill, but analysis is still incomplete. We will update the newsletter when the final numbers are out.
DEFENSE/NATIONAL SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS:
The full SenateAppropriations Committee marked up its bill 10 July. This bill is $3.2 billion more than the $246.9 billion the administration requested. The committee is adding money for two additional wide-body cargo jets, a national defense missile system, facilities maintenance, a carrier, a destroyer, and breast cancer research. The full Senate considers this bill at the end of July. House appropriators have not completed work on their version of this legislation.
VA, HUD, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS:
The House Appropriations Committee has sent its bill to the floor for consideration at the end of July. It is known that funding levels for the National Science Foundation did not change from the subcommittee's recommendations (see below). The Senate committee will begin its markup at the end of July.
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The full House Appropriations Committee has sent the FY98 VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies bill to the House floor. The bill, which contains funding for NSF, NASA, HUD, VA, EPA, and other independent agencies, recommends FY98 funding for NSF at $3.487 billion, a 6.6%, or $217 million, increase over the FY97 level.
Of the $3.487 billion, $2.538 billion is provided for research and related activities. This is $105.7 million—or 4.3 %—more than the FY97 level and $23 million more than requested. The additional funds provided to the research account are for the following activities. $13 million will augment NSF's participation in the Next Generation Internet project, $4 million for the Gemini telescopes, $1 million for the United States–Mexico Foundation, and $5 million for the orderly phaseout of supercomputer centers not selected in the new Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program.
Report language in the bill calls for NSF to study the feasibility of establishing a national institute on the environment. In the Major Research Equipment account, which supports the construction and acquisition of very large, expensive, unique research facilities, the committee recommended $175 million, $90 million more than requested, but equal to the amount contained in the authorization bill passed by the House.
Within this recommendation, the subcommittee provided the request for the Polar Cap Observatory, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, and the Millimeter Array radio telescope. Together with the $25 million request, the additional funds provided by the committee are to support the modernization of the South Pole Station in the Antarctic. In Education and Human Resources, the committee provided $632.5 million, $7 million more than requested. Of the additional $7 million, $5 million is for minority graduate education and $2 million is to augment the advanced technological education program.
In the Senate, the outlook for NSF is less optimistic. The Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies subcommittee has almost $1 billion less to spend than the House subcommittee. The Senate subcommittee markup is expected in July.
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In a joint decision by NOAA Administrator D. James Baker and Commerce Secretary William Daley, on Wednesday, 25 June, Joe Friday was removed from his position of nine years as director of the National Weather Service (NWS) in a dispute over the agency's budget. In an interview with the Washington Post, Baker said he was frustrated by "conflicting signals" he was getting from Friday over how much money the agency would need to continue the modernization and conduct regular operations.
Friday will become the assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) at NOAA. In a memo to NWS employees, Secretary William Daley announced he is taking steps to:
"The department will invest $4.5 billion in the modernization of the weather service by 1999," Daley said. "We are committed to this program remaining on schedule and seek the best way to take advantage of this investment in the interest of the American people. I believe this is a goal shared by both the administration and the Congress."
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The House Science Committee marked up and reported out by voice vote H.R. 1702, the Commercial Space Act of 1997, with Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. calling on the Clinton administration to come to the negotiating table and quickly resolve the remaining issues in the bill. "We've made several changes in this bipartisan legislation to meet the administration's concerns," said Sensenbrenner. "I am prepared to resolve the administration's two main concerns in exchange for a White House commitment of support for H.R. 1702." The administration has cited two main issues of concern regarding the publication of lists related to international obligations and national security issues, and the removal of language from current law that refers to "international policies."
"I have invited Dr. Jack Gibbons, the president's science advisor, to work with the committee to craft an agreement," Sensenbrenner explained. "Now is the time for the administration to speak with one voice on what's really important. My hope is to come to closure . . . this year. I am confident that with the administration's support, we can move this legislation through the House and give a needed boost to the commercial use of space." H.R. 1702 streamlines regulations and provides policy to promote a stable business environment for the commercial space industry. The bill 1) directs NASA to study commercial possibilities for the International Space Station; 2) amends the Commercial Space Launch Act to license commercial space transportation vehicles to reenter the earth's atmosphere and return space payloads to earth; 3) encourages policies to secure the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) as the world's standard; 4) streamlines the licensing process for remote sensing satellites; and 5) requires the government procurement of commercial space transportation services.
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The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 437, the National Sea Grant College Program Reauthorization Act of 1997, a measure that provides funding for conservation research for the Great Lakes, oceans, and coastal area. The bill also includes $2.8 million for zebra mussel research. The bill authorizes funds for the Sea Grant College Program, a part of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). It authorizes Sea Grant programs for three years at $56.3 million for 1998, $56.4 million for 1999, and $57.5 million for 2000. In addition, the legislation provides for merit reviews of grant and contract applications, limits funding for the administrative costs, and prohibits the use of Sea Grant funds for lobbying. It also authorizes up to $2.8 million for competitive grants for university research on the zebra mussel and up to $3 million for oyster disease research.
Zebra mussels were introduced into the Great Lakes accidentally in ship ballast water in the late 1980s and have multiplied throughout the waterways, forcing natural shellfish out of the natural environment and causing numerous disruptions at power and water treatment plants' water intake facilities. The research is designed to help predict the movement of the zebra mussels and prevent their multiplication.
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Strong El Niño conditions are currently developing in the tropical Pacific. With a warm event, wetter, cooler weather is expected for the southern half of the United States from November through March, while the northern part of the country from Washington east to the western Great Lakes should experience warmer than normal temperatures, according to predictions from NOAA.
Scientists at the center said, however, that forecasts for the summer were more uncertain because El Niño impacts during this time normally are not consistent. The current Climate Prediction Center forecast for the summer is for above normal temperatures in the southeast and southwest with cooler than normal conditions from Oklahoma northwestward to Idaho.
El Niño is an abnormal state of the ocean–atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific with important consequences for weather around the globe. Among these consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the United States and in Peru, sometimes resulting in destructive flooding; and drought in northeast Brazil, southeastern Africa, and the west Pacific. "These are the typical weather impacts during a warm phase based on an average of all El Niño events," said Ants Leetmaa, director of the Climate Prediction Center. "This El Niño event is shaping up to be similar to the strong events of 1957, 1972 and 1982–83. During those years, many sections of the southern half of the United States, including California, experienced above normal rainfall from September through the following May."
El Niños usually occur approximately every 2–7 years. Recent El Niño events occurred in 1976–77, 1982–83, 1986–87, 1991–93, and 1994–95. The first half of the 1990s is unusual in that 4 out of 5 years featured weak warm episode conditions in the tropical Pacific. However, a cold episode occurred in 1995–96 and its effects lingered until late 1996.
Observations of conditions in the tropical Pacific are essential for the prediction of short-term climate variations. To provide necessary data, NOAA operates a network of buoys that measure temperature, currents and winds in the equatorial band. These buoys transmit data that are critical to researchers and forecasters around the world in real time. Data from NOAA and NASA satellites also provide valuable insight into changes in sea surface temperatures.
Better prediction of extreme climate episodes like floods and droughts could save the United States billions of dollars in damage costs. Predicting the onset of a warm or cold phase is critical in helping water, energy, and transportation managers, and farmers plan for, avoid, or mitigate potential losses. For example, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service expects the ocean warming of California waters caused by the summer arrival of El Niño to bring bonus fishing for southern California anglers but lean times for other fisheries, including salmon and rockfish, and for certain marine mammals.
NOAA scientists and fisheries managers are still learning about El Niño effects and how to best manage human activities potentially affected by these naturally occurring changes.
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Some 200 scientists from Europe and the United States will join forces this summer to investigate how smog, smoke, and other "atmospheric aerosols" affect climate and the extent to which they may offset the greenhouse effect, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.
"Atmospheric aerosols are tiny particles or droplets, most of them smaller than one micrometer in diameter, that are suspended in the atmosphere," said principal scientist Timothy Bates of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, WA. "The effect of these particles on radiation has been known for many decades, as they are responsible for colorful sunsets, hazes over the landscape and the less romantic smog in large cities. Only recently have scientists suspected these effects might also influence global climate.
"The global distribution of aerosols, their characteristics and the way they interact with solar radiation and clouds are all poorly known, which prevents both precise calculations of the effect of aerosols on climate and accurate predictions of future climate change," Bates said.
Manmade sources of atmospheric aerosols include smoke and fumes from industrial combustion, forest fires, and automobile emissions. Natural sources include mineral dust, which is often transported over large distances, salt particles from sea spray, sulfur and other organic emissions from the ocean and land, and sulfur from volcanoes.
In the Second Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-2), 16 June–25 July, scientists within the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project will equip a ship, and coastal and mountaintop sites in Portugal and on the Canary Islands and Madeira, with the most advanced observational equipment to study manmade aerosols from Europe and natural dust aerosols from the Sahara.
Six research aircraft will perform dedicated flights to make measurements within these aerosol plumes and the surrounding clouds. The area will also be monitored with the NOAA-12, NOAA-14, NOAA/k, Meteosat, and ER-2 satellites.
"The various measurements we make in ACE-2 can be considered parts of a complex puzzle, which scientists from around the world will piece together to explain the role of aerosol, particularly those produced by humankind, in climate change," Bates said.
Aerosol particles primarily reflect sunlight and can also enhance the reflective properties of clouds, both of which result in a cooling of the earth system. Scientists believe that the cooling by aerosols may explain why the observed increase in the global temperature is lower than that calculated by climate models considering the greenhouse effect alone.
ACE-2 is sponsored by the European Commission DGXII Environment and Climate Programme; the National Environmental Research Council and the Meteorological Office, both of the United Kingdom; Metéo France; the U.S. National Science Foundation; and NOAA. Meteorological and logistics support will be provided by the Spanish National Meteorological Institute and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre Ispra.
In an earlier experiment called ACE-1 in late 1995, scientists made similar measurements over the Pacific Ocean south of Australia, which is the least polluted area of the world and where the natural aerosol system could be studied in near-pristine condition.
ACE-3 is planned for the year 2000 and will focus on the region downwind of the rapidly increasing pollution sources in eastern Asia.
For more information about this project, see the ACE-2 Web site: http://rea.ei.jrc.it/~vandinge/ace2/ace2main.html.
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NOAA has begun operating a Gulfstream 4SP, built specifically for use as a high-altitude atmospheric data collection platform to improve hurricane forecasting. The chief mission of the aircraft is to help the National Hurricane Center in Miami to predict paths of storms during the hurricane season that opened 1 June and continues to 30 November, according to NOAA officials. The aircraft will supplement both low- and high-altitude information collected by Lockheed P-3s, they explained. The plane will operate primarily in the upper troposphere between 40 000 and 45 000 feet. The plane's operations are expected to improve landfall and intensity estimates by 20% along coastal areas, according to NOAA officials.
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NOAA's GOES-10 weather satellite has been placed in a safe hold mode following an anomaly where the system controlling the spacecraft solar array lost its ability to keep the array locked on the sun. The satellite was placed in this mode on 27 May. All other systems on the spacecraft, launched on 25 April 1997, are performing well, according to NOAA officials.
A third attitude adjustment, which is an inclination of the spacecraft relative to the earth, was performed successfully on 19 June. Another attitude adjustment was to be made on 10 July. The adjustments reorient the spacecraft to counteract the solar torque imbalances from the solar array's offset to the sun. Because the solar array is not precisely perpendicular to the sun, the solar pressure creates a "pinwheel effect" on the spacecraft.
A NASA, NOAA, and Space Systems/Loral team continues to investigate the cause of the solar array problem, and possible reasons for the failure have been narrowed down to less than ten. Hardware testing at the SS/L facility in Palo Alto, CA, is under way to validate the actual cause of the failure, and on-orbit test plans are being developed by the NASA Mission Operations team. The spacecraft is earth-pointing only a few minutes daily. Consequently, on-orbit tests would be executed over several nights with data analysis by Tiger Team members between test events. The spacecraft possibly might be able to support nominal operations with the array rotating in reverse, and the spacecraft inverted from the normal on-orbit orientation. NOAA and NASA have begun studying ground system software modifications required to support inverted operations, both for spacecraft control and data product generation.
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NASA and Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) have set 31 October (1 November in Japan) as the official launch date for the TRMM mission. The first earth science satellite dedicated to studying the properties of tropical and subtropical rainfall, TRMM will carry microwave and visible/infrared sensors and the first spaceborne rain radar. Tropical rainfall comprises more than two-thirds of global rainfall and is the primary distributor of heat through the circulation of the atmosphere. More precise information about this rainfall and its variability is crucial to understanding and predicting global climate change, according to scientists.
"We're very excited about this major opportunity for cooperation with Japan, which is NASA's largest international partner in earth science," said William Townsend, acting associate administrator for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. "The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission has great potential to improve scientific understanding of climate processes related to the heat released by tropical rainfall. In turn, this knowledge improves the global atmospheric circulation computer models that are used to make weather and climate forecasts."
NASDA will provide the precipitation radar on the spacecraft. The launch will be on a Japanese H-II rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The two-hour launch window will open at 5:40 a.m. JST on 1 November. "We hope this United States–Japan joint mission provides important data for predicting global climate change and weather anomalies," said Dr. Kazuyoshi Yoshimura, executive director of NASDA in Tokyo. "We will launch TRMM in November and hereafter, we can launch a rocket in each fall season. This is a good opportunity to expand the cooperation between the United States and Japan, and we expect a further cooperation in various fields, such as earth observation satellites, earth science, and global change research."
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, fabricated the observatory's structure and support systems, integrated and tested the spacecraft, and is providing two science instruments. Two other instruments are being provided by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. Goddard will also operate TRMM via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Both NASA and NASDA will share responsibility for science data processing and distribution to the global change research community.
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On 30 June the ADEOS spacecraft was declared lost by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). This means the loss of ozone and sea surface wind data provided by two science instruments aboard the spacecraft.
"The failure of Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS or Midori) spacecraft with the two NASA instruments aboard is a real blow to NASA's science program," said Mike Mann, deputy associate administrator, NASA's Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise, Washington, DC.
"Fortunately, much of the ozone data provided by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) science instruments aboard ADEOS can be provided by instruments on another spacecraft. However, the sea-surface winds data provided by the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) will be harder to replace and were opening essentially new opportunities for research and operational users worldwide," Mann said.
"The data we have obtained to date are extremely valuable," said Jim Graf, NSCAT project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "If we knew we were limited to just nine months of data, we would have chosen the period we actually got. We obtained coverage over the summer and winter monsoon seasons and what may be the onset of an El Niño. Perhaps the largest loss is the discontinuity of the long-term dataset, which is being used to understand interannual and decadal variations in our climate."
The scatterometer measured wind speed and direction over the world's oceans. The dataset is extremely valuable and versatile and is being used by climate change researchers, operational weather forecasters, and commercial ship routing firms. During its flight, the instrument gathered 42 weeks' worth of data.
Within a very few short months after launch, the value of ADEOS data was seen in U.S. weather forecasting. "NOAA had begun using ocean surface wind products, derived from NSCAT, in weather forecasting," said Helen Wood, director, Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Ocean surface wind measurements are used in numerical weather prediction models and help forecasters more accurately determine the path and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes."
Because this instrument provided measurements that will be needed over the long term, NASA was already developing a second scatterometer instrument to continue this vital data set. That instrument, called "SeaWinds," will be delivered to NASDA for integration on the spacecraft next April and is scheduled for launch in 1999 on ADEOS II.
The launch of a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer sensor aboard ADEOS was helping to extend the unique dataset of global total column ozone measurements begun by a similar instrument carried aboard NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978 and extended until December 1994 with the Meteor-3 TOMS.
"The ADEOS spectrometer, along with the TOMS Earth Probe (EP) instruments also observed the unusual loss of Arctic polar ozone reported earlier this year," said Dr. Arlin J. Krueger, principal investigator and instrument scientist for TOMS/ADEOS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
Although it also provided ozone coverage, NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer/Earth Probe instrument had also been providing high ground resolution research data to complement the global data of the spectrometer on ADEOS. As a result, its orbit is different than TOMS/ADEOS. The EP satellite has adequate fuel to raise its present 500 km orbit to an orbit near the 800-km ADEOS orbit, where contiguous earth coverage is possible for monitoring of ozone and volcanic eruption clouds. NASA is considering raising TOMS/EP to a higher orbit.
With this adjustment, much more complete global coverage of total ozone measurements previously provided by TOMS/ADEOS could be received. However, some of the unique smaller-scale aerosols and ozone research being done by TOMS/EP would be lost. The next Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer mission is planned for launch on a Russian Meteor-3M spacecraft in 2000.
The loss of the ADEOS platform has a particularly serious impact on oceanographic research since two instruments, the Ocean Color and Temperature Sensor and the Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectance, both capable of providing routine global estimates of phytoplankton pigment concentrations, were lost. These instruments were providing the first routine global observations of ocean color and were initiating the much-needed, long-term time series of such measurements for global change studies.
Future routine global ocean color information will be provided by SeaWIFS, a commercial mission from which NASA will purchase data, currently scheduled for launch 18 July.
NASA is cooperating with NASDA to identify the cause of the ADEOS failure and recommend a solution for future missions. "The collaboration between NASDA and NASA on this mission has been outstanding and is reflective of the great partnership that exists between Japan and the United States in the area of global change research," Mann said.
"NASDA has performed in an exemplary and open manner in the development of the spacecraft and in dealing with us. However, space operations is a risky business; those of us involved in the business strive to limit the risk but sometimes mishaps do occur," Mann said.
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(Excerpted from the UCAR Quarterly, Volume 22, Summer 1997)
The launch in June 1998 of the AM-1 platform will be the climax of 15 years of planning, rethinking and revising how scientists can best study our changing earth from space. When NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) initiative was first conceived in the early 1980s, EOS was envisioned as encompassing two school-bus-sized space platforms with 12–15 instruments aboard each. The instruments would monitor an enormous number of earth processes, ranging from incoming solar radiation to plankton growth. A data and information system (EOSDIS) would handle trillions of bits of data collected daily, and an interdisciplinary research program would carry out investigations using EOS data and comparing them with existing models and other data.
But almost from its announcement, this megascheme received serious criticism. Sentiment in Congress was turning against big science. In the earth science community, some researchers were concerned that EOS would gobble up all U.S. global monitoring funds that might otherwise be used for earth-based or shorter-term projects while delaying the onset of a comprehensive measurement program until the first launch, then planned for 1996. Finally, the astronomy community also was competing for satellite funding.
In response to the critical reviews, NASA began modifying the program, changing its plan to use large spacecraft to a program of smaller satellites, each carrying a few complementary instruments; other EOS instruments also would be placed on flights of opportunity, both United States and foreign.
Over the years, the program's scientific planners have pinpointed 24 key earth processes that are most critical to monitor; at least one EOS instrument will collect data on each of the 24 processes, with some monitoring more than one process. Several instruments will be flown on more than one platform, also, to create denser networks and increase the number of looks per day. Three series of satellites will collect 15–18 years of data, which will be processed, stored, and made widely available through EOSDIS.
Another driver of the program changes has been extensive budget cuts. The total cost of EOS has been slashed by more than half, from $17 billion in 1990 to $7 billion today. MTPE's FY97 budget is $1.3 billion, of which $571 million is allocated to EOS flights. To counteract the U.S. budget realities, the agency has worked with success to foster international collaborations and cost-sharing to reduce costs. Nineteen countries are now involved in MTPE to the tune of $7.5 billion, an investment roughly equal to that of the United States.
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Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space of Palo Alto, CA, has won a $54 million contract for the development and delivery of solar-imaging instruments for future U.S. weather satellites. The solar X-ray imager instruments would be carried aboard upcoming NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-N, -O, -P, and -Q). The instrument will take full-disk images of the sun every minute. The data will be used by NOAA and the U.S. Air Force for solar forecasting and monitoring of special events such as solar flares or geomagnetic storms. The total basic contract of $54 229 000 provides funding for an engineering model and two flight instruments. In addition, there are two priced options, each for one additional instrument. The contract is a hybrid Cost Plus Award Fee/Incentive Fee agreement. The imager acquisition is a partnership between NASA and NOAA.
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A $2.7 million contract for systems engineering and management support services for the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (COSPAS–SARSAT) program has been awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) of Calverton, MD.
The contract is for one base year with four one-year options. Under the contract, CSC will provide support for the international search and rescue system known as COSPAS–SARSAT. The system uses satellites to detect and locate emergency beacons carried by ships, aircraft, or individuals. The system consists of a network of satellites, ground stations, mission control centers and rescue coordination centers. The U.S. Mission Control Center is located in NOAA's Suitland, MD, facility.
The keystones to the COSPAS–SARSAT System are polar-orbiting satellites operated by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, and Russian satellites. These satellites orbit the earth from pole to pole every 100 minutes.
The COSPAS–SARSAT program was originally formed as a joint effort by the United States, Canada, France, and the former Soviet Union. Today, more than 30 countries participate in the program, and more than 6400 lives have been saved worldwide.
"COSPAS" is the acronym for the Russian words "Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov," meaning "Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress."
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NOAA seeks entries for a Bering Sea ecosystem metadatabase. This inventory of physical and biological data will help researchers, managers, students, fishermen, and the general public investigate and understand the complex ecosystem of the Bering Sea. The inventory will be presented in an indexed, annotated catalog (metadatabase) available through various mechanisms, including the World Wide Web (WWW). Those seeking more information or having knowledge of data that would enhance the metadatabase are urged to register through the WWW at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/bering/mdb/, or contact Dr. Bern Megrey, NOAA/AFSC, 7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Seattle, WA 98115, USA, 206 526-4147, bmegrey@afsc.noaa.gov.
When completed, the metadatabase will address a serious deficiency identified in 1996 by the National Research Council. In their report on the Bering Sea ecosystem, the council flagged the lack of such a database as the one major impediment to studying the Bering Sea. Many different types of physical and biological data already have been collected, for example, single-point and gridded time series, repetitive observations from earth orbiting satellites, ocean surveys of physical and biological oceanographic significance, specimen collections, and historical records of animal population changes. Data are available from at least the last century, and in the last two decades the Bering Sea has been the subject of close scrutiny by such major research programs as Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) and Processes and Resources of the Bering Sea Shelf (PROBES). What is needed, and what NOAA Environmental Services Data Information Management has funded through this project, is a single, stand-alone resource that will reference as much historical data as can be located. Benefits will be immediate and ongoing. Recently the Bering Sea's economic and biological significance has provided impetus for the proliferation of a number of active, regional (PICES/GLOBEC CCCC, Bering Sea Impacts Study), national (Bering Sea FOCI, Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity, Bering Sea Ecosystem Study), and international (PICES/GLOBEC, Japanese and Russian programs) research efforts aimed at understanding dynamics of the Bering Sea ecosystem. All of these current programs have field and data collection components associated with them and are in a position to contribute to, and benefit from, the metadatabase.
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Elizabeth Anne Moler has been named deputy secretary of the Energy Department. As the new chief operating officer, she is in the number two position at the agency. Moler had been in line to become secretary of energy, but President Clinton changed his mind. She has served as the top administrator at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in senior committee positions on Capitol Hill.
Kristina Katsaros, 1997 AMS Sverdrup Gold Medal winner, has been named the new director of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, FL. Prior to accepting this position, Katsaros was the director of the Department of Space Oceanography at the Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Centre de Brest, France. She had held that position since 1992. In addition to her position at IFREMER, she also was affiliated with the University of Washington's Department of Atmospheric Sciences as a professor. Katsaros has been affiliated with the University of Washington since 1969, the year she received her Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences. While there she served in a number of faculty positions until 1990, when she opted to reduce her status to part-time professor in order to direct the Department of Space Oceanography at IFREMER.
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