Editor: Jim Elliott
Contributors: Alan Weinstein and Ginny Owen
Copy Editor: Anne Siefken
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from Richard M. Jones, The American Institute of Physics
It is less than four weeks to the start of FY99, and not one of the thirteen appropriations bills funding the operations of the federal government has been sent to the president. Congress has a lot of work to do in a very short period of time, taking into account that 1 October is the beginning of the next fiscal year and the November elections are fast approaching.
Both the House and Senate have passed versions of the appropriations bills for Commerce, Justice, State, Defense, Energy and Water Development, Veterans Affairs, HUD, and independent agencies. In spite of very tight spending constraints, these bills have generally been favorable toward research and development. A recently released analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science concludes that "So far, R&D has emerged as a high priority for both the House and Senate" (full details at http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/rdwwwpg.htm). As usual, there are both winners and losers for the various research and development agencies in the eight versions of the bills.
Expect considerable fireworks between Congress and the White House as we move nearer to the start of the fiscal year. Activists in both parties want to use the appropriations bills to legislate and to stake out positions for the November elections. President Clinton has talked about vetoing more than half of the bills because Congress wants to cut programs that are important to him. The VA, HUD bill funding are troubling to NSF and NASA because of language on public housing and the Kyoto global warming treaty. That should be resolved. Of much more concern is the Commerce, Justice, State bill—for the same reason as last year's dispute: the proposed use of sampling in the upcoming census.
These fireworks are not expected to turn into the open warfare that resulted in the closure of the federal government a few years ago. Congressional Republicans are still hurting from that episode, and their leaders are rejecting any strategy calling for a shutdown. House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston (R-LA) recently said, "When the time comes, they'll sit down and talk with us and we'll pass bills that satisfy them."
A short-term solution to any appropriations impasse will be the tried-and-true continuing resolution. This legislation, which is likely to contain at least three, and as many as six appropriations bills, will generally continue spending at the current level. A "CR" will enable members to get out of town to devote their full energy to campaigning.
An interesting issue to watch is whether Congress and the administration will find a way to break the budget caps. On one hand, the federal government has a surplus. On the other hand, budget conservatives still seek to drive down spending, regardless of revenues. Some of the most influential Republicans in the House and Senate are trying to find a way to evade the caps to spend more money on popular programs. Extra money may be the only way to fund some of the programs the White House is most interested in.
The figures in these appropriations bills are still in flux until the president signs them. While the outlook is generally promising for research and development, the adage, "it's not over until its over" remains true.
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Tel Aviv University has agreed to serve as an environmental data collection station in a cooperative program with NASA that will allow the U.S. agency to monitor and interpret climatic conditions and ecological processes throughout the Middle East.
Tel Aviv University is the first of five expected Israeli schools to join the NASA database, according to a report in Space News. The university is expected to be ready for operations by the end of the year.
Tel Aviv University will collect regional data and pass to NASA information on the contrasting climatic conditions around Israel. The effort is part of NASA's Earth Science Program.
Maxim Shoshany, head of the Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory at Bar-Ilan University at Ramat Gan, said Israel is a unique microcosm of differing climatic and topographical conditions. "To get the same picture in the United States," he explained, "you would have to look at half the country. For example, Jerusalem gets an average rainfall of 700 mm, yet just 15 km away, researchers will find just one-tenth of that amount. "We told NASA we could be a living laboratory," he said, regarding effects of global changes. "The idea is if you are in the gradient climate, you can simulate global warming when you move from west to east. If you want to simulate global cooling, you move from east to west."
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin told Space News that the project is one of several the agency is implementing with Israel. He said NASA will launch 30 satellites over the next five years to collect data and place it on the agency's environmental data network.
Bar-Ilan University is expected to join the project later, providing data on land-use and Mediterranean vegetation in Israel's populated central region. Ben Gurion University in Beersheba will monitor information on the Negev desert; Hebrew University in Jerusalem will focus on botanical life, and the Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa, will deal with pattern recognition or the identification of roads, houses, factories and other data from satellite imagery.
Israeli university officials said the project will cost about $500 000. Part of the financing will come from NASA and part from the universities.
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USGS scientists are working cooperatively with scientists from the Russian Federation's lead science agencies on projects that will result in science benefits both in Russia and the United States. While cooperation in seismology dates back into the 1970s, wide-ranging USGS interaction with Russian scientists began in the late 1980s and has increased in the 1990s with greater Russian willingness to share data on energy and mineral resources, maps, and satellite imagery.
Key projects in Russia and recent accomplishments include:
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While the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Far East often are thought of as desolate windswept outposts, this area is a heavily traveled region. Each day more than 200 flights transporting some 20 000 people pass overhead en route between the Americas and Far Eastern regions of Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia, according to officials of the U.S. Geological Survey.
In a press release dated 31 August they reported that 93% of all cargo flights between Asia and the United States fly this route. This is the "Great Circle Route" or the shortest distance between these destinations, making the sky over these lands among the busiest air corridors in the world.
However, the region also is densely populated by volcanoes capable of erupting ash clouds hazardous to aviation. "Explosive volcanic eruptions can inject large amounts of very small rock fragments, volcanic ash, and corrosive gases into the atmosphere at cruising altitudes for jet aircraft," explained Thomas Casadevall, acting director of the U.S. Geological Survey and a widely known expert in the field of volcanic ash and aviation safety. On the average, he said, volcanic ash is present in the North Pacific air corridor four days each year and threatens to be present an additional 10 days in any given year.
As a result, Russian volcanologists at the Institute of Volcanic Geology and Chemistry in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the U.S. National Weather Service, USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory monitor volcanic activity, tracks ash clouds, and warn commercial and government aviation groups via the FAA of potential ash cloud hazards in the region. Seismographs have been installed to measure precursory earthquakes on some of the most hazardous volcanoes. Also, techniques to identify ash clouds and define their extent and trajectory have been developed that are especially important over these northern reaches where daylight is brief and cloudy conditions exist during a significant part of the year.
As an example, the USGS reported that in 1989 a single encounter by a commercial jet with ash from Alaska's Redoubt volcano nearly ended the lives of hundreds on board when all four engines lost thrust and were restarted only minutes before ground impact. The incident caused $80 million in damage to the aircraft.
During the past 15 years, more than 80 aircraft worldwide have encountered drifting volcanic ash clouds, and midflight engine stalling has affected seven large commercial airliners, the release reported. "Volcanic ash clouds are not detectable by aircraft radar and can drift for hundreds to thousands of miles from their sources," said Casadevall. "They drift without regard to political boundaries, making international partnerships such as this one we have with Russia crucial to effective monitoring and mitigation of this hazard."
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from Alan Weinstein, Ph.D
The 95th Annual General Meeting of the Challenger Society for Marine Sciences (CSMS) was held on Tuesday, 8 September, as part of the UK Oceanography 98 event that the society held in Southampton, United Kingdom on 7–11 September. At the close of the second day, the event had already attracted 341 scientists.
Members were provided with an update on developments with the new European Federation of Marine Science and Technology Societies (EFMS). The Challenger Society has joined forces with the German organization, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Meeresforschung (DGM) and the French organization, Union des Oceanographers de France (UOF), to develop a federation that will encourage a more unified and interdisciplinary approach to marine science throughout Europe and that will influence government policies more effectively and thereby improve research funding. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring that this federation will tackle issues in a practical way and not just act as yet another political body.
Since the initial discussions, societies from Sweden and Finland have joined and expressions of interest have been received from Italy, Greece, Portugal, Iceland, and Norway. The federation document will be formally signed in Paris later this year.
As well as looking at Marine Science from a European perspective, the CSMS has also developed a strategy which will guide them into the next millennium. The primary purpose of the Challenger Society for Marine Science is to promote interest in marine science through research, education fostering international links and by contributing to public debate. Under the leadership of their new President Professor Emeritus Naylor (officially appointed on Thursday evening at the UK Oceanography dinner), the society is in a strong position to address the key issues effecting the marine science community. If you are interested in becoming a member contact jxj@soc.soton.ac.uk
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The northeastern United States can expect a normal to slightly colder and wetter than average winter this year with hurricane activity expected to pick up due to the effects of La Niña, said climate experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service at the first of a series of La Niña briefings scheduled across the country.
Speaking at a special La Niña briefing in Manhattan on 2 September, Anthony Barnston, a NOAA research meteorologist at the weather service's Climate Prediction Center in Washington, D.C., noted that this year's La Niña will reverse some of the impacts of El Niño, but will not have as great an impact on the global climate as her counterpart.
"While this forecast may not sound severe, it represents a major change from the very mild winter experienced last year in association with the strong El Niño," Barnston said. "What we're looking at with La Niña is a tilt of the odds toward a colder winter in the Northeast with more snow and perhaps bigger storms than usual."
The scientist added: "The farther north you go, the greater the chance of a harsher than normal winter and the farther south you go, the greater the chance of milder than normal weather with less precipitation," the researcher said.
In and around the New York metropolitan area, Barnston pointed out, "the tendency toward greater than normal snowfall is only slight, but even this may come as a shock compared to last winter's relatively balmy weather."
Armed with graphic analyses of conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, Barnston explained the genesis of El Niño and the opposite climate phenomena, La Niña. "When warmer ocean waters dominate at the equator, you have an El Niño. When these waters are driven back to the western Pacific by colder waters, you have a La Niña," Barnston said. These events, which are monitored by a network of buoys and satellites operated by NOAA, impact the weather throughout the world.
A busier than average hurricane season as predicted during this year's La Niña has gotten off to a slow start due to the fact that La Niña's colder waters have not yet pushed eastward to the coast of South America as far as expected. "We are looking at hurricane activity to accelerate in the latter half of the season," Barnston said, noting that the prediction center cannot say whether or not the storms will make landfall. "You could have a greater than average number of storms passing safely out to sea."
The Climate Prediction Center conducts statistical research and uses computer models to predict future climate trends. "Hurricanes and blizzards will still occur regardless of the impact of El Niños and La Niñas," Barnston concluded. "While our research attempts to get a handle on the frequency and severity of weather events, the bottom line remains: people should be aware of severe weather and be prepared to take steps to protect life and property."
For more information on the Climate Prediction Center and its forecasts, log onto:
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This past August was the warmest August on record globally, with the average global temperature (land and sea) reaching 61.4° F or about 1.3° above the long-term mean of 60.1° . The previous record was 61.1° in August 1997. For the year to date, NOAA officials reported, the average global temperature was 58.5° F, also 1.3° above the long-term mean of 57.2. The long-term mean is based on data from 1880 to 1997.
During August, surface warmth was evident over much of the globe, with cool areas in Europe, Alaska, Siberia, Bangladesh, the South Atlantic, and the Central Pacific. In the Central Pacific, sea surface temperatures were below normal, although ocean temperatures off the northwest South American Coast remained warm. Nationally, January–August was the fifth wettest and the fourth warmest on record. For the year to date, the nation has had 22.77 inches of precipitation. The normal rainfall for the same period is 20.05 inches. The wettest January–August was in 1979 with 23.34 inches of precipitation. The year 1934 was the warmest January–August with a record 56.9°. In 1998, the temperature for the period was 56.2°. The normal for the period is 54.3°.
Regionally, the West had the wettest January–August on record, recording 20.88 inches of precipitation compared with a normal of 10.33 inches. Other regions in the upper 10% of the wettest years on record were the Northeast, East, North Central, Central, and the Northwest. In the Northeast, January–August was the warmest on record with an average temperature of 50.9°. Normal for the region is 47.3° . Other regions in the upper 10% of all years on record were the East North Central, Central, South, and Northwest.
NOAA's outlook for the fall and winter 1998–99 includes periods with enhanced probabilities of below normal precipitation in the Southwest, Central Plains, and the southeastern United States, with above normal precipitation in the Northwest. Conditions are expected to be considerably more variable than the relatively stable and warmer than normal conditions experienced this past winter. This outlook is consistent with La Niña conditions, which are expected to continue developing in the Central Pacific, according to NOAA officials.
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Antarctica may be an important predictor of climatic changes elsewhere on Earth thousands of years in advance, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
Analyzing ice cores drilled from deep within glaciers, researchers found that small temperature increases in ancient Antarctica preceded by at least a millennium substantial warming in Greenland. The study contradicts the hypothesis that Antarctic warmings are responses to events in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Thomas Blunier of the University of Bern in Switzerland. By deciphering these frozen traces of events that occurred more than 20 000 years ago, scientists could gain a better understanding of Earth's climate and possible global warming events today. Blunier's findings "move us closer to the ultimate goal of predicting future climate changes," James W. C. White, a climatologist at the University of Colorado who has drilled and studied ice cores from both polar regions, told the Associated Press.
However, he cautioned that a variety of uncertainties remain. One, he explained, is that findings from the Ice Ages, when global climate was strongly affected by Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, may not be relevant to today's much balmier times. In Blunier's study, researchers from Switzerland, France, Denmark, and Iceland examined slices of ice drilled from a glacier in central Greenland 650 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Then they compared them with samples drilled from two locations in Antarctica. The Blunier team examined levels of methane and found that temperature fluctuations in Antarctica started 1,000–2,500 years earlier than in Greenland. The fluctuations in Antarctica began about 47 000 years ago and lasted for 24 000 years. In Greenland, the temperature swings began roughly 45 000 years ago, persisting for 9,000 years. Researchers said they are not certain why the temperature swings were not more closely related, but suspect the lag is linked to how the oceans slowly absorb and redistribute heat around the globe.
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A two-day National Tornado Forum attracted a large group of specialists from government, industry, and academia in Washington on 18–19 August. The forum, sponsored by FEMA, HUD, and NOAA, generated a national dialogue about what steps are needed to promote greater tornado safety and awareness.
Opening remarks were made by James L. Witt, director of FEMA, followed by remarks by William Apgar, advisor to the Secretary, HUD, and John J. Kelly Jr., director of NWS. Witt outlined FEMA's "safe-room concept" in which a room is constructed within a home specifically as protection against tornadoes and severe storms. He also said that FEMA is changing its policy to provide increased funding for storm warnings. Citing NWS as "the best weather service on the planet," Kelly stressed that NWS is detecting more severe weather events and providing more warnings with greater lead times than ever before. "Since the mid-1980s," he explained, "our warning accuracy for tornadoes has improved from less than 40% to nearly 70%. Lead times for tornado warnings have more than doubled in the past 10 years, from less than 5 minutes to nearly 12 minutes this year. False alarms have dropped about 65% to below 50%—an all-time low."
These improvements, he continued, are results of implementing modernized technologies, enhanced scientific capabilities, and restructured operations. He mentioned the deployment of 155 WSR-88D Doppler radars, a new generation of weather satellites, a more locally focused scientific workforce, partnerships with the academic and research communities and state-of-the-art workstations and communications systems.
Improved warnings, he said, are only the first part of an effective life-saving mission. "The job's not really done," he continued, "until the warnings are received by the public, and people take action that saves lives. The perfect warning is reduced to an academic exercise if those in harm's way do not receive it in sufficient time to take action." He stressed the importance of NOAA weather radios, but pointed out there is still room for improvement, saying we are still a long way from achieving what Vice President Gore suggested in 1994 to make NOAA Weather Radios as common in homes as smoke detectors and be available to 95% of the population. To date, he said, 71 transmitters have been added to the network and 31 more installations are projected by the end of the year. "That will increase coverage to about 80% of the population," he explained. "To reach our goal of 95% population coverage, we have to add another 328 transmitters nationwide." To accomplish that goal, he explained, will require assistance from state and local governments, private industry, and volunteer groups to underwrite the costs of the transmitters. "Severe weather hazards are a fact of life in the United States," he stressed. "Our commitment collectively must be to keep hazards from becoming disasters."
Other first-day forum presentations were made by Michael Armstrong, associate director of mitigation, FEMA; Mike Mafi, manager, design review, and evaluation, NCSDCS/Hazard and Building Technology Division; C. Edgar Bryant, vice president, engineering, Champion Enterprises; David R. Williamson, director, office of consumer and regulatory affairs, HUD; John MacDonald, chief, Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Construction Bureau, Florida; J. Willis Wesley, LeSueur/Waseca County Board of Health, Minnesota; David Goins, field supervisor, manufactured housing division, Department of Insurance, North Carolina; Ernie Kiesling, wind engineering research center, Texas Tech University, and Cliff Oliver, chief, program policy and assessment branch, mitigation directorate, FEMA. Also, Elaine Sexton, director, Hall County Emergency Management Agency, Georgia; Deane Sargent, National Foundation of Manufactured Home Owners, Inc., Hillsborough, California, and Jerry Moriarty, Fleetwood Homes, Riverside, California.
The second day featured a number of NOAA representatives, including James Rasmussen, director, Environmental Research Laboratories; Joseph T. Schaefer, director, Storm Prediction Center; Donald W. Burgess, chief, NEXRAD Operations Training Branch, Operational Support Facility, and Joseph H. Golden, senior meteorologist, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Also on the final day, Craig Fugate, Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Elaine Sexton discussed state and local responsibilities and perspectives.
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Beginning 1 September, scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) were scheduled to begin flying a highly instrumented C-130 research aircraft around and over dangerous wildfires that may ignite this season within the United States. To seize wildfire opportunities, the airplane is reserved for four or five flights over a 6-week period out of Jefferson County Airport, northwest of Denver.
"We're most interested in understanding the violent, unpredictable fires that kill firefighters," says Lawrence Radke, NCAR coprincipal investigator for the Wildfire Experiment (WiFE). "We need to be able to predict the course of a dangerous fire to develop the most effective strategy for suppressing it."
WiFE is funded by the National Science Foundation, which also sponsors NCAR and owns the NCAR-operated research aircraft. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center and the U.S. Forest Service's Riverside Fire Research Laboratory will provide additional scientists, observers, and instruments. The Rocky Mountain Area Aviation and Fire Coordination Center will help the scientists decide which fires to observe and will coordinate flights around the fires.
The ultimate goal of the research is to understand wildfire behavior well enough to predict the course of a particular fire. The flights will test a unique set of remote-sensing tools to determine their combined effectiveness in observing fires. In addition, NCAR chemists will analyze emissions from the burning biomass.
Wildfires typically burn 5 million acres in the United States annually, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The price tag will mount as urban development continues to encroach on forests nationwide.
According to Radke, large, violent wildfires often generate their own controlling weather. The released heat can spawn deep convection, even thunderstorms, with strong and dangerous winds. So-called fire whirls, cousins of tornadoes, can hurl flaming logs and other burning debris miles away, setting other areas ablaze. Such vortices already occur at all scales in our solar-heated atmosphere, and they intensify locally near fires. The C-130's speed, range, and endurance will improve the researchers' chances of getting to a fire in time to observe it during a dramatic and dangerous phase. The plane will circle the fires at 150 knots or less, cruising between the minimum safe altitude and 10 000 feet.
Among the instruments on board will be NCAR's new Thermacam, a digital, high-resolution infrared imager with a sensing range between -40 and 3600°F. Fires can reach 2200°F; a glowing candle tip, 1300. Built by Inframetrics, Inc., the Thermacam will gaze out of an opening in one of the airplane's windows and straight through smoke. The result will be color video images of hot, swirling air and flames, detailing their motion, size, structure, and temperature. Other instruments aboard the C-130 include a passive microwave imager, an electric field meter, and NASA's fire-imaging spectrometer. The microwave imager targets areas of woody, fire-feeding vegetation by measuring the weight of burnable biomass per square meter. Spotting the blaze's next meal can help observers determine its future path. The instrument may also prove useful in detecting the moisture content of surface vegetation, a key factor in fire intensity and spread.
Coleader of WiFE is NCAR's Terry Clark, whose atmospheric fire models reproduce in computers many of the fine-scale structures frequently observed in wildfires. Clark and Radke are now eager to observe these "fire fingers" in nature and to quantify their structures. Both radiation and the convection that results from fire-atmosphere interactions affect fire spread. To understand those effects, Clark must first see how fire fronts lap at or "finger" unburned fuel. WiFE measurements will be used to validate physically-based models like Clark's, which can then help improve the fire-spread models used by firefighters.
Meanwhile, chemists on board will be measuring emissions above the blaze, some of which will shed light on the chemical reactivity of the fire plume, its combustion efficiency, and the total carbon emitted. Other chemicals of interest emitted by fires are methyl halides, which have properties similar to those of chlorofluorocarbons, the infamous CFCs that attack the ozone layer and also contribute to global warming. Many of the human-produced halides have been banned, but naturally formed ones are still rising into the stratosphere, where they join in the ozone-destruction cycle. WiFE will help clarify how much wildfires contribute to the methyl halide balance in the stratosphere. Says NCAR chemist Elliot Atlas, "We chemists don't get to explore big fires very much. This is a real opportunity for us."
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An emergency signal from U.S. hot air balloonist Steve Fossett's emergency beacon was first detected by the International Cospas-Sarsat system, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Fossett's balloon had fallen into the southern Pacific Ocean during a severe storm while he was attempting to go around the world nonstop.
The Cospas-Sarsat system uses a constellation of satellites in low and geostationary orbits to detect and locate emergency beacons on vessels and aircraft in distress. NOAA represents the United States in this program, provides satellite platforms and ground equipment, and operates the U.S. Mission Control Center.
The signal from Fossett's Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) was first detected by NOAA's GOES-10 satellite at 14:23 Greenwich Mean Time. The signal was processed by a ground station in Canada and relayed to the U.S. Mission Control Center in Suitland, Maryland. Within 4 minutes, the mission control center sent out an alert message to the U.S. Coast Guard, based on the EPIRB registration data. The Coast Guard notified the Solo Spirit Mission Control in St. Louis, Missouri, which, in turn, contacted the Australian search and rescue forces.
The initial detection and subsequent detections from NOAA polar-orbiting satellite passes allowed rescue forces to locate and pick up Fossett. At 16:02 GMT, location information was available on both the EPIRBs carried by the Solo Spirit via NOAA 14, an environmental satellite operated by NOAA. Using the position information relayed by the NOAA satellite, the Australian rescue coordination center tasked aircraft from the Australian Air Force and the French Navy to locate the downed balloon.
As the Newsletter went to distribution, word was received of another COSPAS-SARSAT rescue. This time an emergency signal from a rowing vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean resulted in saving the life of Tori Murden, who was attempting to become the first American and first woman to row across the Atlantic alone and unsupported. Murden's boat, American Pearl, had capsized, and Murden had banged her head several times.
The distress signal from Murden's 406 MHZ emergency beacon was first detected by a COSPAS-SARSAT system satellite at 0432 GMT on 7 September. The signal was processed by a ground station in Canada and relayed to the U.S. Mission Control Center, which alerted the U.S. Rescue Coordination Centers, which contacted the Rescue Coordination Center in Falmouth, England, for assistance.
Falmouth dispatched a patrol aircraft to investigate and broadcast a MAYDAY call on behalf of American Pearl. A nearby vessel, Independent Spirit, a container ship bound for Philadelphia, responded to the call and assisted Murden. The row boat was abandoned after wind and seas prevented recovery.
Murden, from Louisville, Kentucky, set out from Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, on 14 June, heading for the west of France and was last heard from on 5 September.
Since the inception of COSPAS-SARSAT 16 years ago, 8,851 lives have been saved by the system.
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The recent NRC report "Toward a New National Weather Service: Future of the National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network" is now available in its entirety at the following site: http://www.nas.edu/publications/ . Click on reading room, then on Earth Sciences, then Atmospheric Sciences. The report is listed under the Atmospheric Science series. A hard copy can be ordered from the same web page at a discounted price of $12.00.
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NASA researchers have obtained images from Hurricane Bonnie showing a storm cloud rising to 59 000 feet, much higher than Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world at 29 000 feet.
The images were obtained on 22 August by the world's first spaceborne rain radar aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, a joint U.S.–Japanese mission.
"This is the first time that TRMM's precipitation radar has seen a structure of this type in a hurricane approaching the U.S. East Coast," according to Dr. Christian Kummerow, TRMM project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
Many scientists believe that the vast amounts of warm, moist air carried aloft in such a tower, and the subsequent release of latent energy in the form of rain, is the precursor for an intensification of the hurricane. "TRMM has flown over 100 tropical storms since its launch in November 1997," said Kummerow. "This enormously enhances our database of cloud structures within tropical storms during their growth and decay phases. It also greatly improves the more restricted observations we have obtained from aircraft radar and allows for the systematic study of this hurricane behavior which appears to precede the intensification."
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GOES-10, the country's newest geostationary weather satellite, has reached its operating location overlooking the West Coast of the United States and well out into the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on 21 August. GOES-10 was launched on 25 April 1997, from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida. After achieving a geostationary orbit 22 300 miles above the earth, and undergoing on-orbit testing, the satellite was placed into on-orbit storage to replace one of two geostationary operational satellites when needed.
When GOES-9, launched on 23 May 1995, experienced technical problems earlier this year, NOAA decided to replace it with GOES-10, which was called out of storage on 9 July. On 21 July, GOES-10 began its journey from its storage spot of 105° west longitude. Traveling at about 1 degree per day, the satellite reached its destination of 135° west longitude on 21 August.
"The advanced geostationary satellites provide precise and timely weather observations and atmospheric measurement data for the United States," said Gerry Dittberner, NOAA's GOES program manager. "Continuity of geostationary weather data will be virtually guaranteed by having two satellites in operation and with plans to launch another next year."
The design of the GOES satellites allows their sensors to continuously stare at the earth to monitor developing weather events. GOES-8, the first state-of-the-art geostationary environmental satellite, was launched 13 April 1994. It is currently positioned at 75° west longitude, overlooking the east coast of North and South America and well into the Atlantic Ocean.
The satellites are also equipped with instruments designed to provide real time measurements of solar activity, the charged particle environment, and the earth's magnetic field at synchronous orbit. In addition, the satellites can relay distress signals from people, aircraft, or ships to search and rescue ground stations of the search and rescue satellite-aided tracking system. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center administers the GOES contract and manages the design, development, and launch of the spacecraft for NOAA.
NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service operates the GOES series of satellites from its Suitland, Maryland, facility. After the satellites complete on-orbit checkout, NOAA assumes responsibility for command and control, data receipt, and product generation and distribution.
More information on GOES satellites is available on the World Wide Web at:
http://osdacces.nesdis.noaa.gov
GOES imagery is located at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov. Click onto "Satellite Resources."
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NASA has selected five companies to perform space transportation architecture studies to help develop approaches to meet the agency's future human space flight requirements with significant reductions in cost. The studies are expected to provide information to support future policy decisions determining if the Space Shuttle system should be replaced: if so, when; if not, what upgrade strategy is required to continue safe and affordable Space Shuttle flights.
The companies selected for the 1-year study contracts are Boeing Information, Space and Defense Systems, Seal Beach, California; Kelly Space and Technology, San Bernardino, California; Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colorado; Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Virginia, and Space Access, LLC, Palmdale, California. The study contracts will involve different numbers of tasks and will range in value from $1–2 million each.
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Increases in the ozone-destroying chemical CFC-12 in the upper atmosphere are slowing, according to researchers. Research showed "a continuous and rather constant increase between 1978 and the early 1990s, while a slowing down of the trend was observed after about 1990," the scientists reported.
Fear of ozone depletion led to the 1989 Montreal Protocol in which 165 countries agreed to reduce or eliminate ozone-damaging chemicals. Scientists and government officials met again last December in Kyoto, Japan, and adopted additional plans for restrictions not yet ratified by the United States.
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DOE's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) has added a new section to its "Trends Online" for methane emissions (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/meth/methane.htm). The initial dataset in the section is annual global anthropogenic methane emission estimates for the period 1860–1994. The data were contributed by David Stern, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
CDIAC also announced it has developed a special Web page in honor of Charles David Keeling's historic 40-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov). Keeling's work at Mauna Loa provided the first evidence of rising concentrations of this greenhouse gas.
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from Audrey T. Leath, The American Institute of Physics
In June, the Committee for Economic Development (CED), a group of business and academic leaders, contributed to the science policy dialogue with a report reiterating the importance of federally supported basic research to the nation, and recommendations on how the nation's research enterprise can remain strong into the next millennium.
The 97-page report, entitled "America's Basic Research: Prosperity Through Discovery," provides a series of case studies demonstrating the impact of basic research. It offers the following recommendations:
At a 22 April House Science Committee hearing, CED member George Conrades spoke about the report. He remarked that federally funded basic research can be viewed as "low-cost insurance" for the nation's economy and quality of life. The report can be purchased from the Committee on Economic Development at (212) 688-2063 for $18.00 plus shipping and handling.
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On 31 December, a leap second will be added to the world's clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), corresponding to 6:59:59 p.m Eastern Standard Time. The U.S. Naval Observatory, in conjunction with all timing laboratories around the world, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, will add the 22nd leap second to UTC, the conventional time kept by atomic clocks and the basis for worldwide timekeeping.
Man's oldest clock has been the earth. We know its morning when the sun rises, noon when the sun is overhead, and evening when the Sun sets. The earth's accuracy as a clock is good to about one thousandth of a second per day—good enough for most people. However, the invention of atomic clocks, which operate by measuring the resonant frequency of a given atom, currently cesium, hydrogen, or mercury, greatly increased that accuracy. This has led to the capability of the Naval Observatory of measuring time to accuracies exceeding a billionth of a second per day.
In 1972, by international agreement, it was decided to let atomic clocks run independently of the earth, keep two separate times, and coordinate the two. To keep the difference between Earth time and atomic time within 9 tenths of a second as the two times get out of sync, leap seconds are added to the atomic timescale.
The International Earth Rotation Service (for which the Naval Observatory provides the Rapid Service) is the organization that monitors the difference between the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from 6 months to 2.5 years. This leap second is 18 months since the last one. Leap seconds are added because the earth's rotation is tending to slow down. If the earth were to speed up, a leap second would be removed.
The U.S. Naval Observatory is charged with the responsibility for precise determination and management of time dissemination and, as such, provides the master clock for the department of defense and the entire nation. Modern electronic systems, such as electronic navigation or communication systems, depend increasingly on precise time and time interval (PATTI). Examples are the ground-based LORAN-C navigation system and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS). These systems are all based on the travel time of the electromagnetic signals: an accuracy of 10 nanoseconds (10 one-billionth of a second) corresponding to a positional accuracy of about 10 feet. All these systems are referenced to the Naval Observatory's master clock.
The present master clock, accurate to better than a billionth of a second per day, is based on a system of more than 50 independently operating Cesium atomic clocks and 10 hydrogen maser atomic clocks. These clocks are distributed over 12 environmentally controlled clock vaults. By automatic hourly intercomparison of all clocks, a timescale can be computed which not only is reliable but also extremely stable.
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Dr. Alan Thomas has been named senior advisor for Arctic research, and Louisa Koch has been appointed deputy assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research, according to an announcement by D. James Baker, NOAA administrator. Both appointments were effective 13 September.
Since joining NOAA in 1975, Thomas has served in a number of increasingly important positions in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. In this new position in the Office of Global Programs, he will be responsible for promoting, coordinating, and implementing a unified approach to the management of NOAA's Arctic research programs.
Prior to joining NOAA, Koch worked at OMB, most recently as Commerce Branch chief. Before joining OMB, she worked for the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency and for the Secretary of Defense for Acquisition.
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John E. Jones Jr., a veteran forecaster and manager, has been named deputy director of NWS and deputy assistant administrator of Weather Services for NOAA.
Jones, who has served as interim deputy since April, was appointed officially on 16 August. He joined NWS 25 years ago and has held a series of different positions with the agency, among which was deputy director of the NWS Eastern Region Headquarters in Bohemia, N.Y., to which he was appointed in 1995. For more than two years, he helped to oversee operations at 22 forecast offices, four Center Weather Service Units, and three River Forecast Centers in 16 states from Maine to South Carolina.
In his new position, he will assist NWS Director John Kelly Jr. with managing the agency, which includes efforts to complete the modernization of its services.
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NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has named Alan Ladwig senior advisor to the administrator, Edward Heffernan associate administrator for legislative affairs, and Lori Garver acting associate administrator for policy and plans. Ladwig and Garver's appointments were effective 28 August, and Heffernan's on 14 August.
Ladwig has served as associate administrator for the Office of Policy and Plans, which oversees coordination of NASA policies and long-range plans, the NASA Strategic Management System, the NASA Advisory Council, and the History Division.
Heffernan has served as acting associate administrator for legislative affairs since September 1997. In addition to his legislative role, he also is White House liaison for NASA and serves as the primary coordinator of activities and management issues involving the offices of the president and vice president and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Garver has served as a senior policy analyst for the Office of Policy and Plans since 1997. In that capacity, she served as focal point for policy issues pertaining to the commercial guidelines section of the National Space Policy and developed a strategy to commercialize and privatize NASA functions.
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Commerce Secretary William M. Daley has appointed four new members and reappointed two members to three-year terms on the National Sea Grant Review Panel.
The new appointees to the 15-member panel are: Peter Bell, adjunct senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., and retired vice president and chief scientist of the Norton Company and St. Gobain Corporation, Worcester, Massachusetts; Michael Fischer, the environment program officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, Calififornia; Frederick Hutchinson, recently retired president of the University of Maine and professor emeritus of the University of Maine, Orono, and Judith Weis, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
Panel members reappointed were: Carlos Fetterolf Jr., retired executive secretary, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Geraldine Knatz, director of planning for the Port of Long Beach, Long Beach, California.
Made up of individuals with diverse backgrounds in marine affairs, the panel advises the secretary, the undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere, and the director of the National Sea Grant College Program on scientific and administrative policy.
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The Coastal America Partnership has named four teams for their efforts to preserve the health of America's coastal and marine environment.
Teams receiving the organization's 1998 Partnership Awards include theCoastal Ecosystem Learning Center Workgroup, Washington, DC; National Wildlife Refuge Restoration, Rhode Island; Cockroach Bay Restoration Team, Florida, and the Quaker Neck Dam Removal, North Carolina.
The awards were made 8 September in ceremonies in Washington by Terry Garcia, assistant secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. Dr. Jerry Schubel, president of the New England Aquarium, and David Pittenger, executive director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, were speakers.
Coastal America works to protect, preserve and restore America's coastal heritage by integrating federal actions with tribal, state and local public and private efforts. Projects include habitat restoration, endangered species protection and pollution mitigation. By establishing a nationwide network of Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers, Coastal America combines the resources of outstanding regional educational centers with those of federal partners.
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Arthur G. Stephenson, president of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies, Houston, Texas, has been named to become the next director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
Stephenson has over 30 years' experience as a manager in spacecraft and high-technology systems. Since 1992, Stephenson has been a senior official with Oceaneering International. Prior to that, he worked for TRW, Redondo Beach, California, for 28 years, and last served there as director of Space Transportation and Servicing Advanced Programs.
At Oceaneering, he is responsible for the company's work for government agencies such as NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the Department of Energy, and led the acquisition of ILC Space Systems Division in 1993. His role at Oceaneering also included overall responsibility for products and services ranging from astronaut tools and equipment to space flight robots; life support equipment; thermal protection systems for launch vehicles such as the Titan, Atlas, and Delta; and special thermally controlled robotic space facilities such as the crystal preparation portion of the X-ray Crystallography Facility for the University of Alabama.
During his 34-year career, Stephenson has worked on a variety of programs related to the activities at Marshall, including the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle in the 1970s and 1980s, the Gamma Ray Observatory, automated rendezvous and docking, and the space welding inspection EVA tool. The Oceaneering services he directs also include International Space Station robotic system engineering support to Boeing, the prime space station contractor, and commercial operation of Marshall's underwater training facility.
Stephenson holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Redlands. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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