One of NASA's high-flying ER-2 aircraft completed its first science flight through Russian airspace today in support of the largest international ozone field experiment to date over the Arctic. The six-hour flight passed southwest of Moscow and was closely coordinated with Russian observers. The single-seat aircraft carried instruments to collect data for NASA's SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment.

Every 11 years, the Sun spawns a flurry of sunspots, solar flares, and other explosive events. At the peak of this cycle, called "solar maximum" or "solar max," they are particularly plentiful. Using a new forecasting technique, David Hathaway of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center predicts "this cycle looks like it's going to be bigger than average, but probably similar to the last two cycles or perhaps slightly smaller."

"All of the on-board instruments are continuing their outgas period," said Kevin Grady, Terra Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The spacecraft is presently flying under the control of the spacecraft controls computer in its normal mission control mode, with the high gain antenna being used for both S- and Ku-band dumps."

New research shows that the accuracy of three-day rainfall forecasts in the tropics can be improved by as much as 100 percent by combining existing forecast models with satellite rainfall data. Researchers at Florida State University have found that by adding rainfall observations collected by NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite and other meteorological satellites to forecast models, they can more than triple the accuracy of rainfall forecasts for the first 12 hours of the forecast. The findings were presented at the annual American Meteorological Society meeting.

After more than 3 weeks of the spacecraft being on-orbit, NASA controllers report Terra Mission operations are going extremely well, with no significant problems at this time.