--Michael King
EOS Senior Project Scientist
In the last few months, the Project Science Office has held elections for chairs of various panels of the EOS Investigators Working Group (IWG). Prof. Eric Wood of Princeton University has been elected chair of the Physical Climate and Hydrology Panel, replacing Prof. Soroosh Sorooshian who has served his maximum two terms of four years as chair. Prof. Daniel Jacob of Harvard University has been elected chair of the Atmospheres Panel, replacing Dr. Rich Zurek who has served in this capacity for the past two and one half years. Finally, Dr. G. David Emmitt, Simpson Weather Associates, Inc., has been elected chair of the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Panel, replacing Dr. David Glover who has served for the past four years. This panel has continued to play a vital role in assessing the progress and status of EOSDIS developments in support of the scientific research community, both in past and current developments with the EOSDIS Core System and in developing plans for federation and PI processing for the future.
The Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR) has approved an immediate new start for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), to be built by two Dutch space companies, Fokker Space and TNO-TPD. This sensor will fly as part of the EOS Chemistry-1 mission in December 2002. The primary purpose of this instrument is to continue the long-term data record of total column ozone and surface UVB radiation started by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in November 1978. (The fifth and final instrument in the TOMS series will be launched on a Russian Meteor spacecraft in 2000.) OMI is a wide field-of-view (~100°) imaging spectrometer that provides superior spectral coverage to TOMS without sacrificing its daily global mapping capability. OMI complements measurements to be obtained by the other instruments on CHEM (HIRDLS and MLS) that provide vertical distributions of ozone in the stratosphere. The addition of OMI to CHEM satisfies the concern raised by a NASA Chemistry Review Panel about a gap in the total ozone record when the anticipated recovery of the ozone layer is expected to occur in the early part of the new millennium.
The Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, and the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder have been selected by NASA's Office of Earth Science to conduct parallel six-month definition studies of a new small satellite to monitor variations in the amount of radiant solar energy that reaches the Earth. Known as the Total Solar Irradiance Mission (TSIM), this mission will follow and complement observations of the Sun's total solar irradiance to be obtained from the Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM), scheduled for launch in October 1999. The TSIM mission is part of a joint small Science Satellite (SciSat) program with the Canadian Space Agency, and is scheduled for launch from a NASA-funded launch vehicle in December 2001. Dr. Judith Lean is the Principal Investigator of the NRL proposal, and Dr. Gary Rottman is the PI of the University of Colorado proposal (see page 19 for further details).
There have been many changes to the make-up of the EOS science community over the last several years. The following table provides the status on the number and types of EOS investigations that are currently components of the EOS program:
| Instrument Science Teams | 19 |
| Interdisciplinary Science Investigations | 71 |
| EOS Validation Investigations | 44 |
| New Investigator Program Investigations | 21 |
| Total number of EOS investigators | 811 |
Mr. William F. Townsend, Deputy Associate Administrator of NASA's Office of Earth Science (formerly Mission to Planet Earth), has been selected to be the Deputy Director of Goddard Space Flight Center. I would like to congratulate him on his new appointment, and welcome the opportunity to continue to work with him in NASA's Earth Science Program.
Dr. Robert D. Price passed away suddenly on March 13 at his home in Harwood, Maryland. An enthusiastic supporter of Earth Science programs and global change initiatives, he will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. He served as my EOSDIS Project Scientist from 1992-1993, at which time he was appointed Director of the Mission to Planet Earth Program Office. He was appointed Associate Director of Goddard for Earth Science in 1995, and served in both capacities until his untimely death. His interpersonal relations with colleagues and friends and his impeccable integrity are among his most lasting memories.