Michael King, EOS Senior Project Scientist
On December 3, Marty Donohoe, EOS PM Project Manager, retired after more than 30 years of government service, nearly all of which was at Goddard Space Flight Center. Marty, a resident expert on passive radiative coolers, provided enormous guidance in the early days of EOS, both in the planning of future EOS instruments, evaluation of the proposed instruments, and later as Manager of the EOS Instruments Project before the observatory was altered and the AM, PM, and Chemistry Projects formed. The PM-1 spacecraft and instruments are now in development and on schedule for launch in December 2000.
NASA has approved an immediate new start for the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) mission and has placed the first delivery order issued under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract for rapid delivery of satellite core-systems to Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, CO. The ID/IQ procurement method provides NASA a faster method for purchase of satellite systems through a "catalog," allowing for shorter turnaround time from mission conception to launch.
The QuikSCAT mission will fill in the ocean vector-wind data gap created by the loss of the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) on the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS). The NSCAT instrument ceased functioning when ADEOS failed on June 30, 1997. The follow-on scatterometer for monitoring ocean winds, called SeaWinds, is scheduled for launch on the Japanese ADEOS-II spacecraft in 2000. QuikSCAT is planned for launch in November 1998, reducing the data gap by about one-half.
NASA has selected two dozen proposals, in two categories, to develop working prototypes of innovative uses and applications of Earth science data and related research. Known as the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIPs), the awards respond to a July 1996 National Research Council recommendation that NASA evaluate alternative implementation of product generation, publication, and user services for the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS).
Two of the three types of ESIPs, Type 2 and Type 3, were reflected in two Cooperative Agreement Notices (CANs) issued by NASA in May 1997 which solicited proposals from all sources, including industry and academia. Type 1 functions are currently performed by the existing Distributed Active Archive Centers.
Type 2 ESIPs are focused on data and information products in support of global change research that are developmental or research-oriented, with emphasis on flexibility and creativity in meeting advanced scientific applications. Type 3 ESIPs will be responsible for extending the benefits of NASA Earth science data and information beyond basic research to a broader user community including private industry, value-added companies, state and local governments, and non-profit organizations (see Earth Science Information Partners for a list of award winners). Successful ESIP 3 organizations are expected to become financially self-sustaining by the end of this pilot project.
The evaluation will be initiated beginning with a limited set of pilot or prototype projects operating in a federated, rather than a centrally managed architecture. The Type 2 and 3 ESIP award winners, together with NASA, will determine the management, system interoperability, and organizational interfaces necessary to establish the Working Prototype Federation.
Dr. Charles F. Kennel, executive vice chancellor at UCLA and former Associate Administrator of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, has been selected to serve as director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). I would like to congratulate him on his new appointment, and welcome the opportunity to work with him again as he once again has an opportunity to play a leadership role in the area of global environmental science, which he came to love while at NASA.