Douglas Isbell Headquarters, Washington, DC August 13, 1996 (Phone: 202/358-1753) Allen Kenitzer Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (Phone: 301/286-8955) Mary Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (Phone: 818/354-5011) Patricia Viets NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Suitland, MD (Phone: 301/457-5005) Hideo Hasegawa/Hiroyuki Ikenono National Space Development Agency of Japan, Tokyo (Phone: 81-3-5470-4127) RELEASE: 96-057 OCEAN WINDS AND OZONE TO BE MEASURED BY U.S. INSTRUMENTS ABOARD JAPANESE EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) will carry U.S. instruments designed to measure global ocean surface winds and atmospheric ozone content as part of an international climate change research mission set to begin with a launch from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on August 16. The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments aboard ADEOS will be launched by the fourth Japanese H-2 rocket. The planned launch time is 9:29 p.m. EDT (10:29 a.m. Japanese Standard Time on August 17) Destined for a 497-mile high circular polar 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 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, Pasadena, CA. "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. Since NSCAT is a radar instrument, it is capable of taking data day and night, regardless of sunlight or weather conditions. The launch of a TOMS sensor aboard ADEOS will help extend the unique data set of global total column ozone measurements begun by a TOMS carried aboard NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978. "TOMS/ADEOS will continue this global mapping, while the NASA TOMS Earth Probe satellite, launched into a lower orbit in July, will compensate for cloud-covered regions and provide higher-resolution measurements of tropospheric aerosols and pollutants," said Phil Sabelhaus, manager of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Data from both NSCAT and TOMS/ADEOS "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. The ozone data will be used by the National Weather Service to monitor volcanic ash in the atmosphere to improve aviation safety, and to help generate a daily forecast of ultraviolet exposure levels to help reduce peoples' overexposure to the Sun's rays. 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 9:15 p.m. EDT. 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. EDITOR'S NOTE: An image to illustrate this release is available to media representatives by calling the Headquarters Imaging office at 202/358-1900. The photo number is: Color NSCAT 96-HC-526 -end- NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to domo@hq.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type the words "subscribe press-release" (no quotes). The system will reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. A second automatic message will include additional information on the service. NASA releases also are available via CompuServe using the command GO NASA.