Press releases from the NASA centers and from NASA researchers.
Terra Operations Resume After "Safe-Hold" (Status Report #4)
December 29 Terra has resumed normal operations after entering a "safe-hold" on the fourth day of the mission. Due to the unique location of the Sun during the winter solstice, which Terra uses to navigate, a computational error resulted in the "safe-hold." Terra's software will be updated to avoid future solstice-related errors. More
Terra Activation Continues (Status Report #3)
December 23 "Overall the mission is going extremely
well, with the performance of both the team and the
spacecraft superb," said Kevin Grady, Terra project
manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. "All of the activities planned to be
completed by mission day 5 have now been
accomplished, with the exception of the turn-on of one of
the instrument outgas heaters. A number of spacecraft
components have been powered-on over the past three
days, and the performance of these have been excellent." More
Terra Activation Begins (Status Report #2)
December 22 Activation of the Terra spacecraft, which was launched on Saturday, December 18th, is
continuing, with the mission going extremely well. A number of spacecraft components have been powered-on over the past two days, and the performance has been nominal. More
Terra Launch Successful (Status Report #1)
December 18 A new generation of Earth science -- one that studies the Earth's land, oceans, air, ice and life as a total global
system -- began with a picture perfect launch this afternoon of the "Terra" spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force
Base, Calif. Formerly known as "EOS AM-1," the Terra spacecraft lifted off at 1:57 p.m. EST on an Atlas IIAS
rocket. More
New Clues to the Icy Antarctic Continent Revealed
December 13 With new tools and technology, scientists are getting a first
look at strange features and puzzling behaviors on the frozen Antarctic
continent. Icy tributaries feed giant, frozen streams that churn icebergs
into the sea. Rows of long, sinuous snow dunes on the East Antarctic
plateau are blown by fierce, constant winds, but appear to stay frozen in
place for decades. These latest findings by Antarctic researchers were
reported at the Fall American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. More
New Landsat 7 Images Show Volcanoes, Droughts, and Floods
December 13 The images acquired by the new Landsat 7 spacecraft launched
in April have exceeded scientists' expectations. With the satellite's
state-of-the-art instrument and new computer ground systems, researchers
have closely monitored erupting volcanoes in Hawaii, Italy and Latin
America; the severe drought in the mid-Atlantic region; and the
devastating floods in North Carolina. In addition to its observations of
natural disasters, Landsat is offering scientists a detailed look at unique
weather and cloud formation phenomena, and glacial retreats and advances. More
Langley Instrument to Aid in Global Picture of Earth
December 10 The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)
instruments from NASA Langley Research Center, to be launched on the Terra
spacecraft, will be part of an international effort to obtain a
comprehensive look at the Earth system. CERES will study the Earth's
radiation balance, the energy that reaches the Earth from the Sun and the
energy radiated from Earth into space. "We are looking for a whole new
level of accuracy in these radiation energy flows," said Langley's Bruce
Wielicki, one of the lead scientists for the CERES project. More
"Earth Observing 3" to Advance Atmosphere, Weather Research
December 10 NASA will flight-test an instrument using new technologies to
measure elements of Earth's atmosphere and to support space research aimed
at reducing risks from severe weather. This measurement concept has been
selected as the next Earth-observing mission under NASA's New Millennium
Program. The mission, known as "Earth Observing 3," will test advanced
technologies for measuring temperature, water vapor, wind, and chemical
composition. Such sophisticated measurements have the potential for
revolutionary improvements in weather observation and prediction. More
El Niño's Impact on Ocean Biology, Carbon Dioxide Captured
December 9 The 1997-98 El Niño/La Niña had an unprecedented
roller-coaster effect on the oceanic food chain across a vast swath of the
Pacific, plunging chlorophyll levels to the lowest ever recorded in
December 1997 and spawning the largest bloom of microscopic algae ever seen
in the region the following summer. According to new results published in
the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Science, El Niño also dramatically reduced
the amount of carbon dioxide normally released into the atmosphere by the
equatorial Pacific Ocean. More
Humans May Be Contributing to Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice
December 2 For the first time, scientists placed space-based observations
of Arctic sea ice retreats into a much longer-term context and have
examined the likelihood that the sea ice decreases are in part due to
human-caused climate change. The team used computer climate models to
examine whether the decreases observed in the ice cover of the Arctic over
the past few decades are the result primarily of natural climate changes or
might also be influenced by human-induced global warming, says Claire
Parkinson, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author of the
study published in the journal Science. More
Lowest Ozone Levels Ever Observed in the Northern Hemisphere
December 2 A NASA Goddard Space Flight Center spacecraft has observed the
lowest value of ozone ever seen in the Northern Hemisphere since spacecraft
first began ozone measurements in 1978. The measurement was obtained on
Nov. 30 using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard
NASA's Earth Probe satellite. The measurement showed 165 Dobson Units over
the North Sea between Scotland and Norway. "A combination of stratospheric
and tropospheric weather systems can occasionally create these extreme low
ozone events," said Paul Newman of NASA Goddard. "We understand that
dynamics can cause these low ozone events, but we are unsure why this event
set a new record low value." More
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