The Earth Observer

May/June 1996, Vol.8, No.3

Opportunities to Participate in NASA Mission to Planet Earth and Earth Observing System Science and Education Programs

--Ghassem Asrar (gasrar@mtpe.hq.nasa.gov), EOS Program Scientist, Office of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

The Office of Mission to Planet Earth at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters issued a research announcement (NRA-95-MTPE-03) soliciting research and education proposals in September of 1995. Five types of proposals were requested by this announcement. The deadline for submission of proposals was December 1995.

The objective of this Announcement was to solicit and select investigations that will complement existing NASA Research and Analysis and the EOS investigations by: 1) selecting a science team for Landsat, which is now part of the MTPE/EOS program; 2) filling gaps in the expertise of existing science teams for NASA Research Facility Instruments/Missions; 3) providing opportunity for new investigations to address scientific issues not covered well by existing EOS Interdisciplinary Science Investigations; 4) establishing a New Investigators Program to support recent Ph.D. graduates pursuing research in support of MTPE objectives; and 5) establishing science education and communication grant supplements to foster effective communication of scientific results.

The overall goal that the selected proposals share with other investigations funded by NASA is to improve our understanding of the Earth as a coupled and integrated system, how it responds to natural and human-induced perturbations, and how this response manifests itself as global changes. NASA received 309 proposals in response to this announcement. Each proposal was evaluated by scientific peers including representatives from government, academia, industry, and the international Earth-observation community. NASA then selected, from the ones viewed as acceptable by peer evaluators, those proposals needed to accomplish its mission objectives.

The selection breakdown includes 14 Landsat Science Team Members/Leader, 2 Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), 5 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), 2 Multifrequency Passive Microwave Radiometer (MPMR), and 2 Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Science Team Member investigations; 31 Earth System Science Interdisciplinary investigations (30 U.S. and 1 foreign); and 21 New Investigator Program investigations. The various teams selected comprise 198 individuals from 60 institutions, universities or laboratories in 19 states (includes the District of Columbia) and 5 other countries.

Landsat is now part of the NASA MTPE/EOS Program, and this announcement solicited proposals for team members and a team leader to conduct basic research, develop new and innovative methods of extracting information content of Landsat observations for global change studies, and guide the development of the follow-on to the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument.

All selected investigators will be official members of the Landsat Science Team. Landsat-7 is currently scheduled for launch in 1998. The selected science team will evaluate the quality of data acquired by land-surface imaging missions sponsored by other U.S. Government agencies and private industry for assessing future alternatives in addressing the Landsat observations continuity requirement. NASA received a total of 41 proposals and the selected Team Leader and Members are listed in Table 1.

A subset of the instruments to be deployed as part of the EOS program are managed as Research Facility Instruments. Members of science teams for the Research Facility Instruments in EOS were selected individually in response to NASA AO No. OSSA-1-88 in 1989. Additional or replacement science team members were solicited for very specific tasks to complement existing investigations, and replace retired or deceased members through this announcement. Research Facility Instruments include the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Multifrequency Passive Microwave Radiometer (MPMR).

In addition, NASA also intends to add two new members to the existing Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Science Team. The selected instrument investigations will guide and support the technical development of these instruments and their future versions as well as develop scientific methods/algorithms for analysis of the resulting data and retrieving the information content. NASA received a total of 55 proposals and the selected Team Members are listed in Table 2.

These were proposals for interdisciplinary research requiring analysis, interpretation, and significant use of data from current and planned NASA Earth science missions. They proposed to carry out a scientific investigation leading to improved understanding of the Earth as a coupled and integrated system. Interdisciplinary research implies addressing scientific questions that pertain to more than one of the traditional Earth science disciplines.

The selected investigations will complement the existing interdisciplinary investigations in using space-based, multispectral remotely sensed and in situ observations to study Earth system processes. The studies will address key areas of uncertainty in the global climate system and/or diagnostic analysis of long-term remotely sensed data sets in conjunction with coupled Earth system models. The scientific knowledge gained from these efforts will be used to assess the consequences of variabilities and changes in the Earth's climate on the regional and global agricultural, industrial, and social infrastructure. NASA received 120 proposals and the selected investigations are listed in Table 3. and continuation of Table 3

As part of this announcement, the Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program established the "New Investigator Program" (NIP) in which scientists and engineers at an early stage of their professional career can receive financial support to establish and develop their research efforts. Although this program is designed primarily for investigators at academic institutions, scientists and engineers with permanent status at other institutions are eligible to propose.

NIP proposals were restricted to recent Ph.D. recipients (graduating on or after January 1 of the year that falls no more than five years before the issue date of this announcement) who propose to contribute to furthering NASA MTPE scientific goals and objectives. These investigations had to be based on analysis, interpretation, and significant use of data from space-based observations. They had to propose to carry out a scientific investigation with data from the existing/planned NASA missions leading to the improved understanding of some aspect of the Earth system and global change. NASA received a total of 67 proposals and the selected investigations are listed in Table 4.