home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Space & Astronomy
/
Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso
/
mac
/
TEXT
/
JPLNEWS2
/
1368.PR
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-05-03
|
4KB
|
83 lines
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 22, 1991
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has awarded Loral Infrared &
Imaging Systems a $145 million contract to design and build the
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument to be flown on the
first of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites.
Under terms of the contract, the company, a division of the
Loral Corp. based in Lexington, Mass., will design, develop and
produce the first atmospheric sounder for delivery to JPL in
1996.
AIRS will be a global thermometer in space and will be one
of the world's premier monitors to study the effects of increased
"greenhouse" gases in the Earth's atmosphere when the EOS-A
series is launched. The satellites are tentatively scheduled for
flight beginning in 1998.
The space-borne instrument will measure atmospheric
temperature profiles with an accuracy of 1 degree Centigrade and
provide data on atmospheric water vapor, cloud cover, and sea-
and land-surface temperatures. The AIRS investigation will be
led by JPL Chief Scientist Dr. Moustafa Chahine.
AIRS is one of several instruments targeted for the first of
three satellites in the EOS-A series of Earth-observing
platforms. The satellites will use a polar orbit to make global
measurements of Earth's oceans, land surface, and lower and upper
atmospheres.
1
"The primary goal of the EOS-A satellites is to study the
effects of potential global warming by conducting long-term
research into the key parameters of the Earth's surface and
atmosphere," said Dr. Charles Elachi, director of JPL's Office of
Space Science and Instruments, which will oversee development of
the instrument.
"Global changes are very complicated and require long-term
monitoring," he said. "The EOS-A series will help determine the
causes and extent of global climate changes through a program of
long-term observations."
The AIRS sounder will operate continuously for five years,
providing new and more accurate data about the Earth's
atmosphere, surface and oceans for climate studies and weather
predictions. Among the most important discoveries to be gleaned
from infrared observations are humidity profiles and the
temperature of land, oceans and the atmosphere.
The sounders are based on Loral's advanced mercury cadmium
telluride focal plane technology. The sounders measure
temperatures by observing 3,600 wavelengths in the infrared
spectrum via spectral dispersion -- such as in a prism -- across
high-density linear sensors. Ground-processing computer
algorithms convert this data into global profiles of air and
surface temperature.
EOS is the centerpiece of NASA's "Mission to Planet Earth,"
a global-scale research program that will study the Earth as an
integrated environmental system, focusing on the interactions of
the atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces and biosphere.
"Mission to Planet Earth" is NASA's contribution to the U.S.
Global Change Research Program, a multi-agency federal program to
observe the Earth, improve understanding of natural and human-
induced global change and develop better models and predictive
capabilities for interpreting environmental changes.
The JPL EOS-A satellite instruments are being developed
under the auspices of the Laboratory's Office of Space Science
and Instruments.
The EOS project is managed by the Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., for NASA's Office of Space Science and
Applications. Overall program management is an international
effort involving NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan and
Canada.
#####
#1368
4/22/91 dea