Xref: utzoo sci.space:6005 sci.space.shuttle:832 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!ucla-cs!sonia!khayo From: khayo@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: NASA news - Seasat Message-ID: <13979@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Date: 29 Jun 88 06:47:21 GMT Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU Reply-To: khayo@math.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) Lines: 132 Downloaded from NASA SpaceLink BBS, Huntsville, Ala. (205) 895 0028 ==================================================================== 6/23/88: NASA SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY AIDS FUTURE SPACE RESEARCH MISSIONS June 23, 1988 RELEASE: 88-84 NASA's Seasat satellite, launched 10 years ago this week, ushered in a new era of space research focusing on unsolved questions of the world's oceans and weather. Launched on June 26, 1978, on an Atlas-Agena rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Seasat carried a payload of five scientific instruments unlike any package on previous remote-sensing satellites. Seasat tested a payload of advanced sensing instruments and during its 3-1/2-month mission collected oceanographic information comparable to a century's worth of observations from a fleet of ships. Among the experimental instruments Seasat pioneered were a synthetic aperture radar, which provided highly detailed images of ocean and land surfaces; a radar scatterometer to measure near-surface wind speed and direction; a radar altimeter to measure the height of the ocean surface and waves; and a scanning multi-channel microwave radiometer to measure surface temperature, wind speeds and sea ice cover. The satellite also carried a passive visual and infrared radiometer to provide supporting data for the other four experiments. Seasat demonstrated how space sensors could be used in oceanography -- becoming a baseline for a new generation of international missions planned that could provide answers to some of the world's most baffling and threatening weather phenomena. Examples include an unusual water warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean in 1982 and 1983. Called El Nino, this phenomena caused billions of dollars in damage and considerable loss of life. Scientists also are investigating an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which could have severe consequences on plants and animal life. Missions derived from Seasat are expected to help scientists understand both phenomena. These new generation of oceanographic missions are expected to provide important, cost-saving aids for such industries as fishing, shipping and offshore oil production; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the U.S. Navy. TOPEX/Poseidon and the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) are two oceanographic missions scheduled. TOPEX/Poseidon, a joint satellite mission with the French space agency (CNES), is scheduled for a late 1991 launch on an Ariane rocket. It will map the circulation of the world's oceans using a radar altimeter. NSCAT is a second-generation instrument being developed to measure wind speed and direction over the oceans' surfaces. A proposal to fly NSCAT as part of the payload on Japan's planned Advanced Earth Observation Satellite is currently under review. Both TOPEX/Poseidon and NSCAT are intended to support oceanographic studies during the 1990s under the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Tropical Oceans Global Atmospheres Experiment. These programs, sponsored by the World Climate Research Program and scheduled to continue operations for a decade, involve studies at and below the ocean surface in all parts of the world's seas. Other international projects scheduled include the European Space Agency's first remote-sensing satellite, Earth Resources Satellite 1 due for launch in 1990; Japan's Earth Resources Satellite 1 scheduled for a 1992 launch; and Radarsat, a proposed 1994 mission that would be a cooperative venture between Canada and the United States. Seasat's technology has not been limited to satellite oceanography. The Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR), a series of synthetic aperture radar experiments flown on the Shuttle was a direct follow-on of Seasat's synthetic aperture radar. This marked the first time NASA had flown that advanced radar instrument in space. The first and second experiments in the series, SIR-A, which flew on a shuttle mission in 1981, and SIR-B, a shuttle payload in 1984, offered scientists several unexpected discoveries. SIR-A pierced cloud-covered rain forests of Guatemala to reveal previously unknown agricultural canals dug by the ancient Maya. SIR-B penetrated the sands of Egypt to produce a picture of a riverbed buried for many centuries. NASA's Jet Proplusion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. is currently working on SIR-C slated for a 1991 shuttle mission. It will be combined with a German/Italian X-band radar. Also planned is an advanced radar system that will be flown on an Earth Observing System platform as part of NASA's Space Station program in the late 1990s. A radar similar to the first flown on Seasat is scheduled on NASA's Magellan mission to Venus in April 1989. Magellan will use a synthetic aperture radar to pierce Venus' dense cloud cover to provide the most complete, highest-resolution images of the planet's surface ever made. Another planetary mission benefiting from Seasat is the Mars Observer, scheduled for launch in 1992. That spacecraft will orbit the red planet to conduct extensive studies of the Martian surface with instruments including an altimeter derived from Seasat. Seasat was funded by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, Washington, D.C. Gene Giberson was JPL Seasat project manager; James A. Dunne was project scientist. S.W. McCandless, Jr. was Seasat program manager at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. An international symposium celebrating Seasat's launch anniversary will be hosted in London next Tuesday through Thursday (June 28-30) by the British National Space Centre. Gene Giberson, JPL's project manager for Seasat, and Peter Woiceshyn, a JPL scientist who has worked on Seasat continuously since its inception, will be featured speakers. ==================================================================== Eric