PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Mary A. Hardin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 1996
JPL INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE OCEAN WINDS ABOARD JAPANESE
SATELLITE
Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) will
carry a JPL instrument designed to measure global ocean surface
winds as part of an international climate change research mission
set to begin with a launch from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan
on Friday, August 16.
The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) instrument aboard ADEOS will
be launched by the fourth Japanese H-2 rocket. The launch window
opens at 6:29 p.m. Pacific time (10:29 a.m. local Japanese time
on August 17.) Destined for a 800-kilometer (497-mile) high
circular orbit above the Earth, ADEOS is due to begin day-to-day
science operations in November.
"ADEOS is the first in a series of major collaborative
efforts between NASA
and the National Space Development Agency of Japan in the area of
Earth remote-sensing," said William Townsend, acting associate
administrator for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. "As
such, it is a superb example of increasing international
cooperation between the United States and other spacefaring
nations of the world in generating a better understanding of our
planet and its complex climate."
Taking advantage of the natural reflection, or
"backscattering," of radar pulses by wind-driven ripples in ocean
waves, NSCAT will make 190,000 measurements per day of the speed
and direction of winds within about 3 centimeters (1.5 inches) of
the ocean surface. These winds directly affect the turbulent
exchanges of heat, moisture and greenhouse gases between the
atmosphere and the ocean. These air-sea exchanges, in turn, help
determine regional weather patterns and shape global climate.
"NASA researchers will use the data to understand the
interface between the Earth's two great fluids: the oceans and
the atmosphere," said Jim Graf, NSCAT project manager at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Understanding and characterizing
this interface is critical to better scientific understanding of
global warming, El Nino phenomenon and other studies of the Earth
as a total system. In addition, seafaring organizations that
transport goods and passengers across the oceans can use the data
from NSCAT to steer their ships more safely and economically."
Covering more than 90 percent of the globe every two days,
NSCAT will provide more than 100 times the amount of ocean wind
information currently available from ship reports, according to
Graf. Because NSCAT is a radar instrument, it is capable of
taking data day and night, regardless of sunlight or weather
conditions.
NSCAT data "will be very valuable to the National Weather
Service," said Susan Zevin, Deputy Director for the weather
service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The ocean surface wind measurements, used in
numerical models, will help local weather forecasters more
accurately predict the path and intensity of hurricanes, winter
storms and other weather systems that form over the oceans.
NASA is also providing the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
(TOMS) instrument that will measure atmospheric ozone content.
Other science instruments on ADEOS provided by agencies in Japan
and France will study ocean chlorophyll production and ocean
temperature, land vegetation distribution, the vertical profile
of atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water
vapor, and the polarization and direction of solar energy
reflected by the Earth.
The ADEOS launch will be carried live on NASA TV beginning
at 6:15 p.m. Pacific time, August 16. NASA Television is
broadcast on Spacenet 2, transponder 5, channel 9, C-band,
located at 69 degrees west longitude, with horizontal
polarization. Frequency will be on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio
on 6.8 megahertz.
NSCAT and TOMS/ADEOS have been developed under NASA's
strategic enterprise called Mission to Planet Earth, a
comprehensive research effort to study
Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as an interrelated
system. JPL developed, built and manages the NSCAT instrument
for NASA.
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