Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Aura SMAP Suomi NPP Aqua

Recent Imagery

You will be directed to the NASA Visible Earth webpage when you select Images by Mission below, or click on the images at right that are randomly generated to represent four out of all possible topics.

The Earth Observer has a new look! Visit the NEW Earth Observer website.

The Earth Observer: Mar - Apr, 1996

Volume 8, Issue 2

In This Issue

Click title below to view page

SCIENCE TEAM MEETINGS

Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Science Team Meeting ..... 3

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Science Team Meeting ..... 7

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) Science Team Meeting ...... 13

Second Joint Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Science Team Meeting ..... 15

Science Working Group for the AM Platform (SWAMP) Meeting ...... 19

ARTICLES

MODIS Cryospheric Products at the NSIDC DAAC ...... 21

Calibration in the EOS Project - Part 2 ....... 26

Summary Report of the EOS Test Sites Meeting .... 32

Advanced Land lmager Picked for First New Millennium Earth Science Flight .... 40

Tantalizing Discoveries Mark Fast-Track Lightning Detector's First Year of Operation ...... 42

AIRS and Outreach: Bringing Weather Down to Earth .... 43

Interaction of Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation over Brazil (SCAR-B) ..... 46

NSIDC DAAC User Working Group Meeting Report.. .. ... .. 50

ECS Hosts First Meeting of Ad Hoc Working Group for Consumers .... 53

Real Data: Understanding the Process of Data Production ........ 55

Quality Assurance Methodology for EOS Products .... 59

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Kudos ..... 6

NASA Awards Pre-College Grants to Nine Universities ... 58

What's New? ..... 62

EOS Science Calendar ..... 63

Global Change Calendar ..... 63

The Earth Observer Information/Inquiries ..... Back Cover

Editor's Corner

Michael King—EOS Senior Project Scientist

Nearly seven months into the fiscal year, Congress passed and the President signed the budget for FY96 on April 24. The NASA budget for the Office of Mission to Planet Earth was $535.3 M for EOS flights, $241.2 M for EOSDIS, and $248.2 M for science, including both the research and analysis program as well as EOS Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) investigations. This budget represents a $91 M reduction to the Office of Mission to Planet Earth from that requested by President Clinton, and is consistent with that agreed to by the Appropriations Conference Committee of the House and Senate, which voted to decrease the EOS budget by $75 M, eliminate NASA funding of CIESIN ($6 M), and give a blanket reduction to NASA overall (of which $10 M was assigned to Mission to Planet Earth).

President Clinton's budget request for FY97 was submitted to Congress on March 19, and is currently in the process of undergoing hearings and markups by the House and Senate. The budget request for Mission to Planet Earth includes allocations of $585.7 M for EOS flights, $261.l M for EOSDIS, and $277.1 M for science, including $50 M for purchase of MTPE-related data from the commercial sector.

On April 17, NASA resumed work with TRW Space and Electronics Group of Redondo Beach, CA on two "common" spacecraft (PM-1 and Chemistry-I), valued at $398.7 M. This contract was mired in protests, filed by losing bidders Hughes Space and Communications Co. of Los Angeles, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale, CA. The protests were only recently resolved by the General Accounting Office, which reviews all such protests. The contract includes two

Read more...