NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft known as MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for the third and final time on Sept. 29. The spacecraft will pass less than 142 miles above the planet's rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter Mercury's orbit in 2011. Determining the composition of Mercury's surface is a major goal of the orbital phase of the mission. The spacecraft already has imaged more than 90 percent of the planet's surface. The spacecraft's team will activate instruments during this flyby to view specific features to uncover more information about the planet.  "This flyby will be our last close look at the equatorial regions of Mercury, and it is our final planetary gravity assist, so it is important for the entire encounter to be executed as planned," said Sean Solomon, principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution in Washington. "As enticing as these flybys have been for discovering some of Mercury's secrets, they are the hors d'oeuvres to the mission's main course -- observing Mercury from orbit for an entire year. The spacecraft may observe how the planet interacts with conditions in interplanetary space as a result of activity on the sun. During this encounter, high spectral- and high spatial-resolution measurements will be taken again of Mercury's tenuous atmosphere and tail. "Scans of the planet's comet-like tail will provide important clues regarding the processes that maintain the atmosphere and tail," said Noam Izenberg, the instrument's scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Md. "The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer will give us a snapshot of how the distribution of sodium and calcium vary with solar and planetary conditions. In addition, we will target the north and south polar regions for detailed observations and look for several new atmospheric constituents." As the spacecraft approaches Mercury, cameras will photograph previously unseen terrain. As the spacecraft departs, it will take high-resolution images of the southern hemisphere. Scientists expect the spacecraft's imaging system to take more than 1,500 pictures. Those images will be used to create a mosaic to complement the high resolution, northern-hemisphere mosaic obtained during the second Mercury flyby. The first flyby took the spacecraft over the eastern hemisphere in January 2008, and the second flyby took it over western side in October 2008. "We are going to collect high resolution, color images of scientifically interesting targets that we identified from the second flyby," said Ralph McNutt, a project scientist at APL. "The spectrometer also will make measurements of those targets at the same time." Two spacecraft maneuvers will improve the ability of the spacecraft's Neutron Spectrometer to detect low-energy neutrons sensitive to the abundances of iron and titanium on Mercury's surface. These two elements absorb neutrons and are critical to an understanding of how the planet and its crust formed. A combination of day and night measurements will enable scientists to test the influence that planetary surface temperature has on the neutron population. The data are important for interpreting measurements that will be made after the probe is in orbit around Mercury. An altimeter will make a topographic profile along the instrument ground track of Mercury's surface. The data gathered will provide additional topography of Mercury's surface features for ongoing studies of the form and structure of its craters and large faults. The information also will extend scientists' equatorial view of Mercury's global shape and allow them to confirm the discovery made during the first and second flyby that Mercury's equatorial region is slightly elliptical. The spacecraft has completed nearly three-quarters of its 4.9-billion-mile journey to enter orbit around Mercury. The trip includes more than 15 trips around the sun. In addition to flying by Mercury, the spacecraft flew past Earth in August 2005 and Venus in October 2006 and June 2007. The project is the seventh in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused space missions. The spacecraft was designed and built by APL. The mission also is managed and operated by APL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the mission, visit: › NASA's MESSENGER Mission Page› Information and briefing materials on MESSENGER's third flyby
 Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE ( Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high. "In 2009, cosmic ray intensities have increased 19% beyond anything we've seen in the past 50 years," says Richard Mewaldt of Caltech. "The increase is significant, and it could mean we need to re-think how much radiation shielding astronauts take with them on deep-space missions." The cause of the surge is solar minimum, a deep lull in solar activity that began around 2007 and continues today. Researchers have long known that cosmic rays go up when solar activity goes down. Right now solar activity is as weak as it has been in modern times, setting the stage for what Mewaldt calls "a perfect storm of cosmic rays."  "We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age." Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are subatomic particles--mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei--accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions. Cosmic rays cause "air showers" of secondary particles when they hit Earth's atmosphere; they pose a health hazard to astronauts; and a single cosmic ray can disable a satellite if it hits an unlucky integrated circuit. The sun's magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic particles. The entire solar system from Mercury to Pluto and beyond is surrounded by a bubble of solar magnetism called "the heliosphere." It springs from the sun's inner magnetic dynamo and is inflated to gargantuan proportions by the solar wind. When a cosmic ray tries to enter the solar system, it must fight through the heliosphere's outer layers; and if it makes it inside, there is a thicket of magnetic fields waiting to scatter and deflect the intruder. "At times of low solar activity, this natural shielding is weakened, and more cosmic rays are able to reach the inner solar system," explains Pesnell.  Mewaldt lists three aspects of the current solar minimum that are combining to create the perfect storm: - The sun's magnetic field is weak. "There has been a sharp decline in the sun's interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) down to only 4 nanoTesla (nT) from typical values of 6 to 8 nT," he says. "This record-low IMF undoubtedly contributes to the record-high cosmic ray fluxes."
- The solar wind is flagging. "Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show that solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low," he continues, "so the magnetic bubble that protects the solar system is not being inflated as much as usual." A smaller bubble gives cosmic rays a shorter-shot into the solar system. Once a cosmic ray enters the solar system, it must "swim upstream" against the solar wind. Solar wind speeds have dropped to very low levels in 2008 and 2009, making it easier than usual for a cosmic ray to proceed.
- The current sheet is flattening. Imagine the sun wearing a ballerina's skirt as wide as the entire solar system with an electrical current flowing along the wavy folds. That is the "heliospheric current sheet," a vast transition zone where the polarity of the sun's magnetic field changes from plus (north) to minus (south). The current sheet is important because cosmic rays tend to be guided by its folds. Lately, the current sheet has been flattening itself out, allowing cosmic rays more direct access to the inner solar system.
"If the flattening continues as it has in previous solar minima, we could see cosmic ray fluxes jump all the way to 30% above previous Space Age highs," predicts Mewaldt.
Earth is in no great peril from the extra cosmic rays. The planet's atmosphere and magnetic field combine to form a formidable shield against space radiation, protecting humans on the surface. Indeed, we've weathered storms much worse than this. Hundreds of years ago, cosmic ray fluxes were at least 200% higher than they are now. Researchers know this because when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, they produce an isotope of beryllium, 10Be, which is preserved in polar ice. By examining ice cores, it is possible to estimate cosmic ray fluxes more than a thousand years into the past. Even with the recent surge, cosmic rays today are much weaker than they have been at times in the past millennium.
"The space era has so far experienced a time of relatively low cosmic ray activity," says Mewaldt. "We may now be returning to levels typical of past centuries."
Water, essential to sustaining life on Earth, is that much more highly prized in the unforgiving realm of space travel and habitation. Given a launch cost of $10,000 per pound for space shuttle cargo, however, each gallon of water at 8.33 pounds quickly makes Chanel No. 5 a bargain at $25,000 per gallon. Likewise, ample water reserves for drinking, food preparation, and bathing would take up an inordinate amount of storage space and infrastructure, which is always at a premium on a vessel or station. Water rationing and recycling are an essential part of daily life and operations on the space shuttles and International Space Station. In orbit, where Earth's natural life support system is missing, the International Space Station has to provide abundant power, clean water, and breathable air at the right temperature and humidity for the duration of human habitation and with virtually no waste. The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), under continuing development at the Marshall Space Flight Center, helps astronauts use and reuse their precious supplies of water. Future work will explore air management, thermal control, and fire suppression -- in short, all of the things that will make human habitation in space comfortable and safe.  The ECLSS Water Recycling System (WRS) reclaims wastewaters from humans and lab animals in the form of breath condensate, urine, hygiene and washing, and other wastewater streams. On Earth, biological wastewater is physically filtered by granular soil and purified as microbes in the soil break down urea, converting it to a form that plants can absorb and use to build new tissue. Wastewater also evaporates and returns as fresh rain water -- a natural form of distillation. WRS water purification machines on the ISS mimic these processes, though without microbes or the scale of these processes. A NASA industry partner, Umpqua Research Company, of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, supplier of the bacterial filters used in the life support backpacks worn by space-walking astronauts, helped develop air and water purification technologies for human missions in space. To prevent back-contamination of a drinking water supply by microorganisms, Umpqua developed the microbial check valve, consisting of a flow-through cartridge containing iodinated ion exchange resin. In addition to the microbial contact kill, the resin was found to impart a biocidal residual elemental iodine concentration to the water. Umpqua's valve and resin system was adopted by NASA as the preferred means of disinfecting drinking water aboard U.S. spacecraft, and canisters are now used on space shuttle missions, the ISS, and for ground-based testing of closed life support technology. Iodine was selected by NASA as the disinfectant of choice because of its lower vapor pressure and reduced propensity for formation of disinfection byproducts compared to chlorine or bromine. MRLB International Inc., of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, used Umpqua's water purification technology in the design of the DentaPure waterline purification cartridge ( Spinoff 1998). It was designed to clean and decontaminate water as a link between filter and high-speed dental tools and other instruments, and offers easy installation on all modern dental unit waterlines with weekly replacement cycles. The product, like its NASA forebear, furnished disinfected water and maintained water purity even with "suckback," an effect caused by imperfect anti-retraction valves in dental instruments, which draws blood, saliva, and other materials from a patient's mouth into the waterline. Various models of DentaPure now address a variety of needs, and are used in dental offices and schools across the country. The technology offers remarkable filtration: registered to provide 200 CFU/ml purity (Colony Forming Unit/milliliter, a standard measure of microbial concentration) -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standard is 500 CFU, and untreated lines can harbor in excess of 1,000,000 CFU/ml. Better filtration, greater capacity, and longer service intervals have also led to great savings -- the University of Maryland Dental School estimates it saves $274,000 per year courtesy of DentaPure. The DentaPure system has proven so effective that 40 percent of dental schools nationwide employ it. The investment in water filtration for space missions continues to pay huge dividends to users and society, year after year, in technologies so woven into our lives that we use them without even thinking about them. DentaPure® is a registered trademark of MRLB International Inc. > Read the entire story in Spinoff 2008
Early in the 20th century, a succession of adventurers and scientists pioneered the exploration of Antarctica. A century later, they're still at it, albeit with a different set of tools. This fall, a team of modern explorers will fly over Earth's southern ice-covered regions to study changes to its sea ice, ice sheets, and glaciers as part of NASA's Operation Ice Bridge.
 Starting next month, NASA will fly its DC-8, a 157-foot-long airborne laboratory that can accommodate many instruments. The fall 2009 campaign is one of few excursions to the remote continent made by the DC-8, the largest aircraft in NASA's airborne science fleet. The plane is scheduled to leave NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., on October 12 and fly to Punta Arenas, Chile, where the plane, crew and researchers will be based for through mid-November. For six weeks, the Ice Bridge team will traverse the Southern Ocean for up to 17 flights over West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and coastal areas where sea ice is prevalent. Each round-trip flight lasts about 11 hours, two-thirds of that time devoted to getting to and from Antarctica. Operation Ice Bridge is a six-year campaign of annual flights to each of Earth's polar regions. The first flights in March and April carried researchers over Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. This fall's Antarctic campaign, led by principal investigator Seelye Martin of the University of Washington, will begin the first sustained airborne research effort of its kind over the continent. Data collected by researchers will help scientists bridge the gap between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite ( ICESat) -- which is operating the last of its three lasers -- and ICESat-II, scheduled to launch in 2014. The Ice Bridge flights will help scientists maintain the record of changes to sea ice and ice sheets that have been collected since 2003 by ICESat. The flights will lack the continent-wide coverage that can be achieved by satellite, so researchers carefully select key target locations. But the flights will also turn up new information not possible from orbit, such as the shape of the terrain below the ice. "Space-based instruments like the ICESat lasers are the only way to find out where change is occurring in remote, continent-sized ice sheets like Antarctica," said Tom Wagner, cryosphere program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "But aircraft missions like Ice Bridge allow us to follow up with more detailed studies and make other measurements critical to modeling sea level rise." Lasers and RadarsICESat launched in January 2003 and since then, its sole instrument -- a precise laser altimeter -- has helped scientists map ice sheet elevation, calculate sea ice thickness, and monitor how both have changed. "With ICESat, we have seen significant changes, things we wouldn't otherwise know were taking place," said Jay Zwally of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and ICESat investigator on the mission. For example, shifts in surface elevation have previously revealed the draining and filling of lakes below Antarctica's ice. After ICESat, scientists will rely on an airborne laser called the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), developed at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. ATM pulses laser light in circular scans on the ground, and those pulses reflect back to the aircraft and are converted into elevation maps of the ice surface. By flying ATM over the same swath of ground covered by ICESat, researchers can compare the two data sets and calibrate them so that aircraft can continue the record keeping after the satellite data ends. They can also make more detailed elevation studies over dynamic areas, such as the Crane glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula, which sped up following the collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf in 2002. In addition, University of Kansas scientists will fly the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder, which measures ice sheet thickness. It can also map the varied terrain below the ice, which is important for computer modeling of the future behavior of the ice. The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor, developed at Goddard, will map large areas of sea ice and glacier zones. And a gravimeter, managed by Columbia University, will measure the shape of seawater-filled cavities at the edge of some major fast-moving major glaciers. Finally, a snow radar from University of Kansas will measure the thickness of snow on top of sea ice and glaciers, allowing researchers to differentiate between snow and ice and make more accurate thickness measurements. TargetsThe Antarctic continent may be remote, but it plays a significant role in Earth's climate system. The expanse is home to glaciers and ice sheets that hold frozen about 90 percent of Earth's freshwater -- a large potential contribution to sea level rise should all the ice melt. How and where are Antarctica's ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice changing? Compared to the Arctic, where sea ice has long been on the decline, sea ice in Antarctica is growing in some coastal areas. Snow and ice have been accumulating in some land regions in the east. West Antarctica and the Peninsula, however, have seen more dramatic warming and rapid ice loss. "We don't see the same sea ice changes in Antarctica that we see in the Arctic, and the reason is that the system is more complex," said Thorsten Markus of NASA Goddard, the principal sea ice investigator for the mission. "But the fact that we don't see the same changes in Antarctica that we see in the Arctic doesn’t make it less important to study those changes. It's really important for us to understand the global climate system." With the DC-8 limited to just a few hours over Antarctica on each flight, mission planners have carefully selected targets of current and potential rapid change. One such target is West Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier. "That glacier is one of the great unknowns because its bed -- where the glacier contacts rock -- is below sea level," Martin said. "So if there's a surge or dramatic change, seawater could get under the glacier and we could be looking at very rapid change." Other proposed targets along the Amundsen coast include the Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers and the Getz Ice Shelf. Researchers also intend to study the myriad glaciers and ice shelves on the Peninsula, which has been undergoing dramatic changes. "A remarkable change is happening on the Earth, truly one of the biggest changes in environmental conditions on Earth since the end of the ice age," Wagner said. "It's not an easy thing to observe, let alone predict what might happen next. Studies like this one are key." Links:Operation Ice Bridge http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ice_bridge/index.htmlIceBridge Twitter http://twitter.com/IceBridge
 NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil. The findings were published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Epoxi spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before. The confirmation of elevated water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon's polar regions raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon. Answers to these questions will be studied and debated for years to come. "Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization." From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition. When the M3 science team analyzed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl. "For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials," said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimeters of the moon's surface. The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now. "The data from Cassini's VIMS instrument and M3 closely agree," said Roger Clark, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member of both the VIMS and M3 teams. "We see both water and hydroxyl. While the abundances are not precisely known, as much as 1,000 water molecule parts-per-million could be in the lunar soil. To put that into perspective, if you harvested one ton of the top layer of the moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water." For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them. "With our extended spectral range and views over the north pole, we were able to explore the distribution of both water and hydroxyl as a function of temperature, latitude, composition, and time of day," said Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. Sunshine is Epoxi's deputy principal investigator and a scientist on the M3 team. "Our analysis unequivocally confirms the presence of these molecules on the moon's surface and reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day." NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the M3 instrument, Cassini mission and Epoxi spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Indian Space Research Organization built, launched and operated the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. For additional information and images from the instruments, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmarsFor more information about the Chandrayaan-1 mission, visit: http://isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htmFor more information about the EPOXI mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/epoxiFor more information about the Cassini mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet. Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from approximately half a meter to 2.5 meters (1.5 feet to 8 feet). The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water-ice. The finds indicate water-ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate. "This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science. "We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in the shallow subsurface," said Megan Kennedy of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a co-author of the paper and member of the team operating the orbiter's Context Camera. During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images of Mars that cover a total area greater than California. The camera team examines each image, sometimes finding dark spots that fresh, small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier photos of the same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has found more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly closer to the equator than the ones that revealed ice. An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering that occurred after an image of the same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh impact site prompted a look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2008, confirming a cluster of small craters. "Something unusual jumped out," Byrne said. "We observed bright material at the bottoms of the craters with a very distinct color. It looked a lot like ice." The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a spectrometer instrument on the orbiter to determine its composition. However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-latitude site showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This crater had a larger area of bright material. "We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," said co-author Kim Seelos of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "Everyone thought it was water-ice, but it was important to get the spectrum for confirmation." Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Rich Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "This mission is designed to facilitate coordination and quick response by the science teams. That makes it possible to detect and understand rapidly changing features." The ice exposed by fresh impacts suggests that NASA's Viking Lander 2, digging into mid-latitude Mars in 1976, might have struck ice if it had dug 10 centimeters (4 inches) deeper. The Viking 2 mission, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander, launched in September 1975 and became one of the first two space probes to land successfully on the Martian surface. The Viking 1 and 2 landers characterized the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface. They also conducted on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The Context Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., built. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the effort to build the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer and operates it in coordination with an international team of researchers. To view images of the craters and learn more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, http://www.nasa.gov/mro or http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/
 Since May 2009, the tropical Pacific Ocean has switched from a cool pattern of ocean circulation known as La Niña to her warmer sibling, El Niño. This cyclical warming of the ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific generally occurs every three to seven years, and is linked with changes in the strength of the trade winds. El Niño can affect weather worldwide, including the Atlantic hurricane season, Asian monsoon season and northern hemisphere winter storm season. But while scientists agree that El Niño is back, there's less consensus about its future strength. One of the characteristics that signal a developing El Niño is a change in average sea surface height compared to normal sea level. The NASA/French Space Agency Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites continuously observe these changes in average sea surface height, producing near-global maps of the ocean's surface topography every 10 days. Recent data on sea-level height from the Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites, displayed at http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/ , show that most of the equatorial Pacific is near normal (depicted in the images as green). The exceptions are the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which are exhibiting areas of higher-than-normal sea surface heights (warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures) at 180 and 110 degrees west longitude. The latest image from Jason-2, which can be seen at http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/2009/images/20090917P.jpg, reflects a 10-day data cycle centered around September 17, 2009. It shows a series of warm "bumps" visible along the equator, denoted in the image by a black line. Known as Kelvin waves, these pools of warm water were triggered when the normally westward-blowing trade winds weakened in late July and again in early September, sending them sliding eastward from the western Pacific toward the Americas. The Kelvin waves are 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) high, a few hundred kilometers wide and a few degrees warmer than surrounding waters. Traveling east at about 3 meters per second (6 miles per hour), they are expected to reach the coast of Peru in October. (An animation of the evolution of Pacific Ocean conditions since January 2006 is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/earth/elnino20090928.mov ).
Yet the present condition of this year's El Niño is dwarfed in comparison with the "macho" El Niño of 1997-1998, which brought devastating floods to California and severe drought to Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines. As seen in this September 20, 1997, image from the NASA/French Space Agency Topex/Poseidon satellite (see http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/browse/entp2090.gif ), the size and intensity of the 1997-1998 event were much greater by this time of year. That leads some scientists, such as Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to express uncertainty as to whether this El Niño event will intensify enough to deliver the dramatic impacts seen during that last intense El Niño in 1997-1998. "For the past few months, the trade winds have weakened somewhat, but whether the new Kelvin waves traveling eastward across the Pacific will be adequate to pump this El Niño up enough to reinvigorate it and deliver any real impacts remains uncertain," Patzert says. Patzert notes that it is important to remember that not all El Niños are created equal. "Some El Niños are show stoppers, but most are mild to modest, with minimal to mixed impacts," he says. He notes that since 1998, there have been three mild to moderate El Niño's: in 2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. None of these events delivered the heart-thumping impacts of the monster El Niño of 1997-1998. During the winter of 1997-1998, Southern California was soaked with nearly 79 centimeters (more than 31 inches) of rain (twice Los Angeles' normal annual rainfall amount of about 38.5 centimeters, or 15.14 inches). In addition, there was heavy snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. In comparison, during the past four winters, Los Angeles has averaged only 24.6 centimeters (9.7 inches) of rain (64 percent of normal), and snowpacks have been stingy. In fact, Patzert notes that this El Niño bears many similarities to the 2006-2007 El Niño event. During that winter, much of the American Southwest experienced record-breaking drought, and Los Angeles had its driest winter in recorded history. So what will El Niño 2009-2010 hold in store for the world this coming winter? In spite of the uncertainties, experienced climate forecasters around the world will continue to monitor the Pacific closely for further signs of El Niño development and will give it their best shot. "Unless present El Niño conditions intensify, I believe this El Niño is too weak to have a major influence on many weather patterns," he says. "A macho El Niño like that of 1997-1998 is off the board, but I'm hoping for a relaxation in the tropical trade winds and a surprise strengthening of El Niño that could result in a shift in winter storm patterns over the United States. If the trade winds decrease, the ocean waters will continue to warm and spread eastward, strengthening the El Niño. That scenario could bring atmospheric patterns that will deliver much-needed rainfall to the southwestern United States this winter. If not, the dice seem to be loaded for below-normal snowpacks and another drier-than-normal winter." Still, Patzert remains hopeful. "Don't give up on this El Niño," he added. "He might make a late break and put his spin on this fall and winter's weather systems." To learn more about Jason-1 and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, visit: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov .
 Researchers have used NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) to compose the most comprehensive picture of changing glaciers along the coast of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The new elevation maps show that all latitudes of the Greenland ice sheet are affected by dynamic thinning -- the loss of ice due to accelerated ice flow to the ocean. The maps also show surprising, extensive thinning in Antarctica, affecting the ice sheet far inland. The study, led by Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England, was published September 24 in Nature. ICESat’s precise laser altimetry instrument, launched in 2003, has provided a high-density web of elevation measurements repeated year after year across the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. With the dense coverage, the research team could distinguish which changes were caused by fast-flowing ice and which had other causes, such as melt. The maps confirm that the profound ice sheet thinning of recent years stems from fast-flowing glaciers that empty into the sea. This was particularly the case in West Antarctica, where the Pine Island Glacier was found to be thinning between 2003 and 2007 by as much as 6 meters per year. In Greenland, fast-flowing glaciers were shown to thin by an average of nearly 0.9 meters per year. Related Links› British Antarctic Survey press release› Extensive Dynamic Thinning on the Margins of Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets› NASA ICESat
 Jack Fischer flew F-22 Raptors at Langley Air Force Base but didn't have a clue about what was going on the other side of the fence.
Reid Wiseman flew F-18 Super Hornets at Oceana and had an idea about some of the things done at NASA's Langley Research Center, but had never been to the facility. "My daughter's really interested in NASA," he said. "She loves the Air and Space Center. I'm not sure whether she liked that best or the ride through the (Hampton Roads) tunnel." Wiseman's daughter is three. Fischer, Wiseman and the rest of the Astronaut Candidate Class of '09 -- the first such class in five years -- got an introduction to Langley on Thursday during a tour of the facility, and they were particularly awed while at the Gantry. Once in the class they instantly become part of NASA history and so are aware of those who went before them, beginning on April 9, 1959, when Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Scott Carpenter, Deke Slayton and Gordon Cooper were announced as the first American astronauts. All of them trained at Langley. "I wasn't alive for Apollo, but I know about it," Wiseman said, obviously impressed with the Gantry. "Everybody who's ever stepped on the moon trained here." "I want to be in there," said Fisher after viewing a video of Neil Armstrong and others training on the facility. It's not likely, at least for a long while, but the candidates are young -- Fischer is 35, Wiseman 33 -- so "Who knows?" said Duane Ross, the manager of Astronaut Candidate Selection and Training at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If they're around long enough, they could be part of Constellation." For now, they're part of the astronaut crew that's being taught to work on the International Space Station. That training began with a bonding exercise in which they went through the Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape regimen in northern Maine. From now until May, 2011, they will receive 39 weeks of space station systems training, plus robotics training, extra-vehicular activity training and some flight time for those who aren't pilots. "Oh, and we're going to teach 'em Russian," Ross said. The Russian lessons replace the 54 weeks once allowed for space shuttle training, an unnecessary skill with the shuttle being retired. The new language skills will prepare the astronauts to travel in the Russians' Soyuz to the International Space Station. The nine members of the U.S. contingent in the class were chosen from 3,535 applicants. Like so many other government positions, you could apply through usajobs.gov. "But that's just us," Ross said. "We have two Canadians and three Japanese. That 14 people out of about 10,000." On Thursday, the class was introduced to Langley's work in aeronautics, atmospheric science and flight test hardware, along with the National Transonic Facility, structure and materials and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center. Added to that was another walk down the agency's memory lane, to the Hangar, where the Rendezvous Docking Simulator hangs from the ceiling, a reminder of those who trained in it, and of Buzz Aldrin, who joined Armstrong on the moon during Apollo 11, and who used the facility in research for his doctoral thesis. "That we're able to be a part of all of this is inspiring," said Fischer, an Air Force major who is giving up a pilot's first love -- flying the Raptor -- for "something bigger: being part of helping the entire world." Wiseman, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, agreed. "It's a new challenge," said Wiseman, who learned of his selection to the class while flying close-air support to NATO troops in Afghanistan, and who continued to fly sorties until the Navy could separate him for astronaut duty. "I'm like a kid," he said, laughing. "I wanted to fly, and I've wanted to an astronaut since I was a kid. So I can keep being a kid." A particularly select kid in a new job that could keep him busy for a long time.
New, three-dimensional imaging of Martian north-polar ice layers by a radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is consistent with theoretical models of Martian climate swings during the past few million years. Alignment of the layering patterns with the modeled climate cycles provides insight about how the layers accumulated. These ice-rich, layered deposits cover an area one-third larger than Texas and form a stack up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) thick atop a basal deposit with additional ice. "Contrast in electrical properties between layers is what provides the reflectivity we observe with the radar," said Nathaniel Putzig of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo., a member of the science team for the Shallow Radar instrument on the orbiter. "The pattern of reflectivity tells us about the pattern of material variations within the layers." Earlier radar observations indicated that the Martian north-polar layered deposits are mostly ice. Radar contrasts between different layers in the deposits are interpreted as differences in the concentration of rock material, in the form of dust, mixed with the ice. These deposits on Mars hold about one-third as much water as Earth's Greenland ice sheet. Putzig and nine co-authors report findings from 358 radar observations in a paper accepted for publication by the journal Icarus and currently available online. Their radar results provide a cross-sectional view of the north-polar layered deposits of Mars, showing that high-reflectivity zones, with multiple contrasting layers, alternate with more-homogenous zones of lower reflectivity. Patterns of how these two types of zones alternate can be correlated to models of how changes in Mars' tilt on its axis have produced changes in the planet's climate in the past 4 million years or so, but only if some possibilities for how the layers form are ruled out. "We're not doing the climate modeling here; we are comparing others' modeling results to what we observe with the radar, and using that comparison to constrain the possible explanations for how the layers form," Putzig said. The most recent 300,000 years of Martian history are a period of less dramatic swings in the planet's tilt than during the preceding 600,000 years. Since the top zone of the north-polar layered deposits -- the most recently deposited portion -- is strongly radar-reflective, the researchers propose that such sections of high-contrast layering correspond to periods of relatively small swings in the planet's tilt. They also propose a mechanism for how those contrasting layers would form. The observed pattern does not fit well with an earlier interpretation that the dustier layers in those zones are formed during high-tilt periods when sunshine on the polar region sublimates some of the top layer's ice and concentrates the dust left behind. Rather, it fits an alternative interpretation that the dustier layers are simply deposited during periods when the atmosphere is dustier. The new radar mapping of the extent and depth of five stacked units in the north-polar layered deposits reveals that the geographical center of ice deposition probably shifted by 400 kilometers (250 miles) or more at least once during the past few million years. "The radar has been giving us spectacular results," said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a co-author of the paper. "We have mapped continuous underground layers in three dimensions across a vast area." The Italian Space Agency operates the Shallow Radar instrument, which it provided for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter has been studying Mars with six advanced instruments since 2006. It has returned more data from the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro . JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.
 Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun's surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. Clouds of gas big enough to swallow planets break away and billow into space. It's a flamboyant display of stellar power. So why can't we see any of it? Almost none of the drama of Solar Maximum is visible to the human eye. Look at the sun in the noontime sky and—ho-hum—it's the same old bland ball of light. "The problem is, human eyes are tuned to the wrong wavelength," explains Tom Woods, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "If you want to get a good look at solar activity, you need to look in the EUV."  EUV is short for "extreme ultraviolet," a high-energy form of ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths between 1 and 120 nanometers. EUV photons are much more energetic and dangerous than the ordinary UV rays that cause sunburns. Fortunately for humans, Earth's atmosphere blocks solar EUV; otherwise a day at the beach could be fatal. When the sun is active, solar EUV emissions can rise and fall by factors of hundreds to thousands in just a matter of minutes. These surges heat Earth's upper atmosphere, puffing it up and increasing the air friction, or "drag," on satellites. EUV photons also break apart atoms and molecules, creating a layer of ions in the upper atmosphere that can severely disturb radio signals. To monitor these energetic photons, NASA is going to launch a sensor named "EVE," short for EUV Variability Experiment, onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory this winter. "EVE gives us the highest time resolution and the highest spectral resolution that we've ever had for measuring the sun, and we'll have it 24/7," says Woods, the lead scientist for EVE. "This is a huge improvement over past missions." Although EVE is designed to study solar activity, its first order of business is to study solar inactivity. SDO is going to launch during the deepest solar minimum in almost 100 years. Sunspots, flares and CMEs are at a low ebb. That's okay with Woods. He considers solar minimum just as interesting as solar maximum.  "Solar minimum is a quiet time when we can establish a baseline for evaluating long-term trends," he explains. "All stars are variable at some level, and the sun is no exception. We want to compare the sun's brightness now to its brightness during previous minima and ask: is the sun getting brighter or dimmer?" The answer seems to be dimmer. Measurements by a variety of spacecraft indicate a 12-year lessening of the sun's "irradiance" by about 0.02% at visible wavelengths and 6% at EUV wavelengths. These results, which compare the solar minimum of 2008-09 to the previous minimum of 1996, are still very preliminary. EVE will improve confidence in the trend by pinning down the EUV spectrum with unprecedented accuracy. The sun's variability and its potential for future changes are not fully understood—hence the need for EVE. "The EUV portion of the sun's spectrum is what changes most during a solar cycle," says Woods, "and that is the part of the spectrum we will be observing." Woods gazes out his office window at the Colorado sun. It looks the same as usual. EVE, he knows, will have a different story to tell. Related links:› Solar Dynamics Observatory Home Page › EVE Fact Sheet › Deep Solar Minimum
The huge assembly standing in Northrop Grumman Corporation’s high bay looks a lot like NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, but it’s a full-scale simulator of the space telescope’s key elements.  Engineers are using the simulator, consisting of the telescope’s primary backplane assembly and the sunshield’s integrated validation article, to develop the Webb Telescope’s hardware design. In addition, technicians are using it to gain experience handling large elements in advance of working with the actual hardware that will fly in space. "Having a functioning demonstration article enables us to see how components, which were developed and tested individually, fit together as a whole system," said Martin Mohan, Webb Telescope program manager for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector. "The simulator is an effective risk reduction tool to help us validate design approaches early." John E. Decker, Deputy Associate Director for the Webb Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said, "Simulators are important for the development of any spacecraft, and they are absolutely critical for one with the size and complexity of the Webb Telescope. We have already learned many important lessons from this simulator, and we expect to learn many more." The simulator is a key element in the company’s extensive test and verification program, which relies on incremental verification, testing, and the use of crosschecks throughout the Webb Telescope’s development. The goal is to ensure that the final end-to-end Observatory test is a confirmation of the expected results. Northrop Grumman’s approach emulates its highly successful Chandra X-ray Observatory test and verification program. Northrop has conducted a variety of tests with the simulator, including checking the clearances between sunshield membranes and the telescope to evaluating membrane management hardware and simulating the backplane support structure’s alignment measurements for future testing.  Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the Webb Telescope, leading a design and development team under contract to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is the principal optical subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the JWST program. ATK builds the telescope backplane and ITT develops the complex cryogenic metrology for optical testing. The James Webb Space Telescope is the next-generation premier space observatory, exploring deep space phenomena from distant galaxies to nearby planets and stars. The Webb Telescope will give scientists clues about the formation of the universe and the evolution of our own solar system, from the first light after the Big Bang to the formation of star systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth. It is expected to launch in 2014. The telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Retired NASA Apollo program astronaut James McDivitt was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster City, Calif. on Sept. 19, 2009. McDivitt, who commanded the Gemini IV mission in 1965 and the Apollo 9 mission in 1969, was one of five former test pilots and astronauts honored at the 20th induction ceremonies.  McDivitt was joined at the induction ceremony by retired NASA astronaut Gordon Fullerton, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, NASA Dryden acting deputy director Gwen Young and Ron Smith, vice-mayor of the City of Lancaster, Calif. Cernan was the featured speaker during the ceremony. Following the induction ceremony, McDivitt and the group wielded shovels in front of the Lancaster Performing Arts Center to plant a commemorative moon tree. The sycamore sapling is a second-generation descendant of sycamore trees that were germinated from seeds that were flown on the Apollo 14 moon mission in 1971. This moon tree joins dozens of other trees now growing at state capitols, university campuses, and other select locations across the nation. McDivitt commanded the first American space walk mission during Gemini IV, and later during Apollo 9, he oversaw the first tests of the Lunar Module in orbit around Earth. Joining the Air Force in 1959, he started as a student test pilot. McDivitt quickly climbed through various positions and programs before being selected as an astronaut in 1962. A graduate of the US Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School and member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, he has been honored with many awards highlighting his accomplishments, including two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals, induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame. McDivitt now joins the 93 other honorees in the Aerospace Walk of Honor.  Established in 1990 by the Lancaster City Council, the Aerospace Walk of Honor runs along Lancaster Boulevard through the city where each inductee is memorialized with a granite pillar that recognizes the important contributions of each individual who 'soared above the rest.' Lancaster City is near both Edwards Air Force Base and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center making it a hotbed of aviation activity. Dryden Flight Research Center has been the home of NASA’s high performance aircraft research since it’s founding. › Learn more about Moon Trees› Learn more about the Aerospace Walk of Honor →
NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings were almost completely flat, but new images reveal the heights of some newly discovered bumps in the rings are as high as the Rocky Mountains. NASA released the images Monday. "It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us." On Aug. 11, sunlight hit Saturn's rings exactly edge-on, performing a celestial magic trick that made them all but disappear. The spectacle occurs twice during each orbit Saturn makes around the sun, which takes approximately 10,759 Earth days, or about 29.7 Earth years. Earth experiences a similar equinox phenomenon twice a year; the autumnal equinox will occur Sept. 22, when the sun will shine directly over Earth's equator. For about a week, scientists used the Cassini orbiter to look at puffy parts of Saturn's rings caught in white glare from the low-angle lighting. Scientists have known about vertical clumps sticking out of the rings in a handful of places, but they could not directly measure the height and breadth of the undulations and ridges until Saturn's equinox revealed their shadows. "The biggest surprise was to see so many places of vertical relief above and below the otherwise paper-thin rings," said Linda Spilker, deputy project scientist at JPL. "To understand what we are seeing will take more time, but the images and data will help develop a more complete understanding of how old the rings might be and how they are evolving." The chunks of ice that make up the main rings spread out 140,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) from the center of Saturn, but they had been thought to be only around 10 meters (30 feet) thick in the main rings, known as A, B, C, and D. In the new images, particles seemed to pile up in vertical formations in each of the rings. Rippling corrugations -- previously seen by Cassini to extend approximately 804 kilometers (500 miles) in the innermost D ring -- appear to undulate out to a total of 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) through the neighboring C ring to the B ring. The heights of some of the newly discovered bumps are comparable to the elevations of the Rocky Mountains. One ridge of icy ring particles, whipped up by the gravitational pull of Saturn's moon Daphnis as it travels through the plane of the rings, looms as high as about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). It is the tallest vertical wall seen within the rings. "We thought the plane of the rings was no taller than two stories of a modern-day building and instead we've come across walls more than 2 miles [3 kilometers] high," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Isn't that the most outrageous thing you could imagine? It truly is like something out of science fiction." Scientists also were intrigued by bright streaks in two different rings that appear to be clouds of dust kicked up in collisions between small space debris and ring particles. Understanding the rate and locations of impacts will help build better models of contamination and erosion in the rings and refine estimates of their age. The collision clouds were easier to see under the low-lighting conditions of equinox than under normal lighting conditions. At the same time Cassini was snapping visible-light photographs of Saturn's rings, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer instrument was taking the rings' temperatures. During equinox, the rings cooled to the lowest temperature ever recorded. The A ring dropped down to a frosty 43 Kelvin (382 degrees below zero Fahrenheit). Studying ring temperatures at equinox will help scientists better understand the sizes and other characteristics of the ring particles. The Cassini spacecraft has been observing Saturn, its moons and rings since it entered the planet's orbit in 2004. The spacecraft's instruments have discovered new rings and moons and have improved our understanding of Saturn's ring system. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA and the European and Italian Space Agencies. JPL manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. JPL also designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer team is based at N ASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. To view Cassini images of the equinox and for more information about the mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . NASA Television's Video File also will air the images and interview sound bites. For downlink, scheduling information and streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .
 Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science. Technology is giving us better pictures every day, and one of them is helping a NASA-funded scientist and her team to explain the behavior of a greenhouse gas. Google Earth -- the digital globe on which computer users can fly around the planet and zoom in on key features -- is attracting attention in scientific communities and aiding public communication about carbon dioxide. Recently Google held a contest to present scientific results using KML, a data format used by Google Earth. "I tried to think of a complex data set that would have public relevance," said Tyler Erickson, a geospatial researcher at the Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor. He chose to work with data from NASA-funded researcher Anna Michalak of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who develops complex computer models to trace carbon dioxide back in time to where it enters and leaves the atmosphere. "The datasets have three spatial dimensions and a temporal dimension," Erickson said. "Because the data is constantly changing in time makes it particularly difficult to visualize and analyze." A better understanding of the carbon cycle has implications for energy and environmental policy and carbon management. In June 2009, Michalak described this research at the NASA Earth System Science at 20 symposium in Washington, D.C. A snapshot from Erickson's Google Earth application shows green tracks representing carbon dioxide in the lowest part of the atmosphere close to Earth's surface where vegetation and land processes can impact the carbon cycle. Red tracks indicate particles at higher altitudes that are immune from ground influences. The application is designed to educate the public and even scientists about how carbon dioxide emissions can be traced. A network of 1,000-foot towers across the United States is equipped with instruments by NOAA to measure the carbon dioxide content of parcels of air at single locations. The application is designed to educate the public and even scientists about how carbon dioxide emissions can be traced. A network of 1,000-foot towers across the United States, like the tower above, are equipped with instruments by NOAA to measure the carbon dioxide content of parcels of air at single locations. But where did that gas come from and how did it change along its journey? To find out, scientists rely on a sleuthing technique called " inverse modeling" – measuring gas concentrations at a single geographic point and then using clues from weather and atmospheric models to deduce where it came from. The technique is complex and difficult to explain even to fellow scientists. Michalak related the technique to cream in a cup of coffee. "Say someone gave you a cup of creamy coffee," Michalak said. "How do you know when that cream was added?" Just as cream is not necessarily mixed perfectly, neither is the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If you can see the streaks of cream (carbon dioxide) and understand how the coffee (atmosphere) was stirred (weather), then scientists can use those clues to retrace the time and location that the ingredient was added to the mix. The visual result typically used by scientists is a static two-dimensional map of the location of the gas, as averaged over the course of a month. Most carbon scientists know how to interpret the 2D map, but visualizing the 3D changes for non-specialists has proved elusive. Erickson spent 70 hours programming the Google Earth application that makes it easy to navigate though time and watch gas particles snake their way toward the NOAA observation towers. For his work, Erickson was declared one of Google's winners in March 2009. "Having this visual tool allows us to better explain the scientific process," Michalak said. "It's a much more human way of looking at the science." The next step, Erickson said, is to adapt the application to fit the needs of the research community. Scientists could use the program to better visualize the output of complex atmospheric models and then improve those models so that they better represent reality. "Encouraging more people to deliver data in an interactive format is a good trend," Erickson said. "It should help innovation in research by reducing barriers to sharing data." Related Links:› New Tools for Carbon Detectives: Tracking Carbon Emissions and Sequestration› Download the Google Earth file› YouTube: Research in Atmospheric Carbon for North America – Introduction› YouTube: Research in Atmospheric Carbon for North America – Instructions
Space shuttle Discovery sits atop the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft as it touched down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:05 p.m. EDT. The two-day return flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California began at 9:20 a.m. EDT Sept. 20. After three fueling stops that included an overnight stay in Louisiana, the piggybacked shuttle had to navigate through a line of showers across Louisiana and around Kennedy.
NASA's modified Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle Discovery taxis toward the runway at Edwards Air Force Base shortly before dawn on Sept. 20, 2009, prior to taking off on their two-day ferry flight to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discovery International Space Station landed at Edwards on Sept. 11, after a 14-day mission STS-128 to the International Space Station.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, an unmanned mission to comprehensively map the entire moon, has returned its first data. One of the instruments aboard, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, is making the first global survey of the temperature of the lunar surface. Diviner has obtained enough data already to characterize many aspects of the moon's current thermal environment. So far, the instrument has revealed richly detailed thermal behavior throughout the north and south polar regions that extends to the limit of Diviner's spatial resolution of just a few hundred yards.  "Most notable are the measurements of extremely cold temperatures within the permanently shadowed regions of large polar impact craters in the south polar region," said David Paige, UCLA professor of planetary science and principal investigator of the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment. "Diviner has recorded minimum daytime brightness temperatures in portions of these craters of less than -238 degrees Celcius (-397 degrees Fahrenheit). These super-cold brightness temperatures are, to our knowledge, among the lowest that have been measured anywhere in the solar system, including the surface of Pluto." "After decades of speculation, Diviner has given us the first confirmation that these strange, permanently dark and extremely cold places actually exist on our moon," said science team member Ashwin Vasavada from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Their presence greatly increases the likelihood that water or other compounds are frozen there. Diviner has lived up to its name." The Diviner "commissioning phase" observations provide a snapshot in time of current polar temperatures that will evolve with the lunar seasons. "It is safe to conclude that the temperatures in these super-cold regions are definitely low enough to cold-trap water ice, as well as other more volatile compounds for extended periods," Paige said. "The existence of such cold traps has been predicted theoretically for almost 50 years. Diviner is now providing detailed information regarding their spatial distribution and temperatures." "Getting a look at the first global thermal maps of the lunar surface is a whole new way of seeing the moon," Paige said. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched on June 18, 2009, carrying Diviner and six other instruments. Diviner has been mapping the moon continuously during the commissioning phase. Since the instrument was first activated on July 5, 2009, it has acquired more than 8 billion calibrated radiometric measurements and has mapped almost 50 percent of the surface area of the moon. JPL designed, built and operates the Diviner instrument. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built and manages the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow For more information, visit the Diviner's web site at http://diviner.ucla.edu and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter web site: http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/ .
The Planck mission has captured its first rough images of the sky, demonstrating the observatory is working and ready to measure light from the dawn of time. Planck – a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation – will survey the entire sky to learn more about the history and evolution of our universe. The space telescope started surveying the sky regularly on Aug. 13 from its vantage point far from Earth. Planck is in orbit around the second Lagrange point of our Earth-sun system, a relatively stable spot located 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) away from Earth.
"We are beginning to observe ancient light that has traveled more than 13 billion years to reach us," said Charles Lawrence, the NASA project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's tremendously exciting to see these very first data from Planck. They show that all systems are working well and give a preview of the all-sky images to come."
A new image can be seen online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/firstlight20090917.html . Following launch on May 14, the satellite's subsystems were checked out in parallel with the cool-down of its instruments' detectors. The detectors are looking for temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background, which consists of microwaves from the early universe. The temperature variations are a million times smaller than one degree. To achieve this precision, Planck's detectors have been cooled to extremely low temperatures, some of them very close to the lowest temperature theoretically attainable. Instrument commissioning, optimization and initial calibration were completed by the second week of August. During the "first-light" survey, which took place from Aug. 13 to 27, Planck surveyed the sky continuously. It was carried out to verify the stability of the instruments and the ability to calibrate them over long periods to the exquisite accuracy needed. The survey yielded maps of a strip of the sky, one for each of Planck's nine frequencies. Preliminary analysis indicates that the quality of the data is excellent. Routine operations will now continue for at least 15 months without a break. In this time, Planck will be able to gather data for two full independent all-sky maps. To fully exploit the high sensitivity of Planck, the data will require a great deal of delicate calibrations and careful analysis. The mission promises to contain a treasure trove of data that will keep cosmologists and astrophysicists busy for decades to come. Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA. NASA's Planck Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments. European, Canadian, U.S. and NASA Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck and http://www.esa.int/planck .
 Noreen Thomas’ farm looks like a patchwork quilt. Fields change hue with the season and with the alternating plots of organic wheat, soybeans, corn, alfalfa, flax, or hay. Thomas enjoys this view from hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface -- not just for the beauty, but the utility. She is among a growing group of Midwest farmers who rely on satellite imagery from Landsat to maximize their harvest and minimize damage to their fields. It's become another crucial tool like their tractors and sprinklers. “Our farm is unconventional – we grow food and breed animals using all-natural approaches,” said Thomas of her certified organic farm in Moorhead, Minnesota, where they also grow heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and peas. “So we’re happy to use unconventional methods to solve problems and keep our crops healthy.” For $25 and an hour’s drive to the Grand Forks campus of the University of North Dakota (UND), Noreen and Lee Thomas took a one-day class on how to download and interpret satellite images, like those provided by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 
> View larger image Like Noreen Thomas, hundreds of farmers in the upper Midwest use false-color (left) Landsat images like this one captured over Grand Forks, N.D. August 30, 2005 to evaluate the health of their fields. The image on the right shows the same land area in true color as the natural eye would see.
Downloading the latest images takes mere minutes on the Digital Northern Great Plains system, a free Web-based tool developed by NASA-funded researchers in the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium. Thomas punches in GPS coordinates of the area she’d like to see, and moments later she has a bumper crop of information and images. To the untrained eye, the false-color images appear a hodge-podge of colors without any apparent purpose. But Thomas is now trained to see yellows where crops are infested, shades of red indicating crop health, black where flooding occurs, and brown where unwanted pesticides land on her chemical-free crops. The images help the Thomases root out problems caused by Canadian thistle and other weeds. They help confirm that their crops are growing at least 10 feet from the borders of a neighboring farm – required to maintain organic certification. They can also spot the telltale signs of bottlenecking in the fields -- where flooding is over-saturating crops -- and monitor the impact of hail storms. “We’d have to walk our entire 1,200 hundred-plus acres on a regular basis to see the same things we can see by just downloading satellite images,” said Thomas, who recently began providing her farm’s coordinates to her buyers in Japan. “There’s no more ideal way I know to show how healthy our crops are to someone thousands of miles away.”  Crops are not the only beneficiaries of snapshots from space. Just as remote imagery informs Thomas when it’s best to rotate crops, she can also determine when her cows need a new pasture. When the large herd of cows chews its way through the landscape, satellite images show where the cows may be overgrazing. Though Thomas believes she is the lone satellite ranger in her town, she’s certainly not alone among farmers in general. According to George Seielstad, recently retired director of the UND Center for People and the Environment and founder of the consortium, more than 600 farmers in the region are now devotees of satellite data as an aid to farming. Thomas has also become a resource to her community because of her unique ability to analyze satellite images. “We’ve been called by a couple of townships to pull satellite images to verify flooding so they can apply for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency," she said. "There are any number of ways these pictures have been helping farming communities like ours, and community is what farming is built on.” Related Links:> UMAC’s Digital Northern Great Plains System> Landsat at NASA> Landsat at USGS> UMAC’s Agriculture Public Access Resource Center
 What's about the size of a large refrigerator, weighs a ton and may help pave the way for new and improved metals or glasses here on Earth? It's the Materials Science Research Rack -- a new laboratory on board the International Space Station. This facility will allow researchers to study a variety of materials -- including metals, alloys, semiconductors, ceramics, and glasses to see how the materials form, and learn how to control their properties. The results from experiments conducted in the facility could lead to the development of materials with improved properties on Earth. Materials science research is a multidisciplinary endeavor studying the relationships between the processing conditions and properties of materials. The research rack -- measuring 6 feet high, 3.5 feet wide and 40 inches deep -- will provide a powerful, multi-user materials science laboratory in a microgravity, or near weightless, environment. Researchers can benefit from studying materials in space because they can isolate the fundamental heat and mass transfer processes involved that are frequently masked by gravity on the ground. The research rack will provide hardware to control the thermal, environmental and vacuum conditions of experiments; monitor experiments with video; and supply power and data handling for specific experiment instrumentation. "Materials science is an integral part of our everyday life," said Sandor Lehoczky, project scientist for the rack at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "The goal of materials processing in space is to develop a better understanding of how processing affects materials properties without the complication of gravity causing density effects on the processes. With this knowledge, reliable predictions can be made about the conditions required on Earth to achieve improved materials." The Materials Science Research Rack is an automated facility with two different furnace inserts in which sample cartridges will be processed to temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Initially, 13 sample cartridge assemblies will be processed, each containing mixtures of metal alloys. The cartridges are placed -- one at a time -- inside the furnace insert for processing. Once a cartridge is in place, the experiment can be run by automatic command or conducted via telemetry commands from the ground. Processed samples will be returned to Earth for evaluation and comparison of their properties to samples similarly processed on the ground.  The research rack was launched to the space station aboard space shuttle Discovery on August 28. It was installed in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory Sept. 2. The development of the rack was a cooperative effort between NASA and the European Space Agency. The rack accommodates the European Space Agency’s Materials Science Laboratory -- designed to provide controlled, materials processing conditions and advanced diagnostics. The Materials Science Laboratory has the capability to handle different furnace inserts. Metallurgical research will be conducted in the laboratory to gain a better understanding of industrial metallurgical processes, such as casting, welding and other advanced melting processes. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science
A historic wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has been pressed into service one last time to help test the prototype of a new, more fuel-efficient, quieter aircraft design. Time lapse video of the assembly of the X-48C model prior to testing. (FLV) Boeing Research & Technology, Huntington Beach, Calif., recently partnered with NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to explore and validate the structural, aerodynamic and operational advantages of an advanced concept called the blended wing body or BWB. "We have one version of the 21-foot (6.4 m) wingspan BWB prototype, called the X-48B, being flight tested at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, in Edwards, Calif.," said Dan Vicroy, senior research engineer at NASA Langley. "The other one we just tested in the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel is the X-48C. It's been modified to make it even quieter. We're assessing the aerodynamic effects of those modifications." Those changes include reducing the number of engines from three to two and the installation of vertical fins to shield the engine noise.  Cranfield Aerospace Ltd. in England built both ground-breaking aircraft scale models to Boeing's specifications. Made primarily of advanced lightweight composite materials, the models weigh about 500 pounds (227 kg) each. They are powered by turbojet engines and can fly up to 138 miles per hour (222 kph) and 10,000 feet (3,048 m) in altitude during flight-testing. The Air Force is interested in the plane's potential as a multi-role, long-range, high-capacity military aircraft. The Langley test in July and August 2009 was the second time a BWB model was put through its paces at the huge wind tunnel that was built in 1930 and used to test World War II fighters, the Mercury space capsule, and concepts for a supersonic transport. In 2006, preliminary tests helped engineers determine how the X-48B would perform during remotely piloted flight tests. Blended wing body designs are different from traditional tube-and-wing aircraft in that the tube and wings are blended for lower drag and better lift, and they rely primarily on multiple control surfaces on the wing for stability and control.  "It was actually a big thrill for me to be back at the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel," said Dharmendra Patel, project manager for the X-48C at Boeing Research & Technology. "I think it's a big privilege that we were the last test here, that we get to be part of the history of the tunnel. But it is a little bittersweet that the facility will be closed down." Langley decommissioned the tunnel in 1995, and then leased it to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., for research and student engineering training. That lease was up this summer and the tunnel is scheduled for demolition because of its lack of national strategic importance, limited testing capability, deteriorating condition and the environmental liability associated with the materials used in its construction.
The annual ozone hole has started developing over the South Pole, and it appears that it will be comparable to ozone depletions over the past decade. This composite image from September 10 depicts ozone concentrations in Dobson units, with purple and blues depicting severe deficits of ozone. "We have observed the ozone hole again in 2009, and it appears to be pretty average so far," said ozone researcher Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "However, we won't know for another four weeks how this year's ozone hole will fully develop."
September 16 marks the International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, declared by the United Nations to commemorate the date when the Montreal Protocol was signed to ban use of ozone depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Scientists are tracking the size and depth of the ozone hole with observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura spacecraft, the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment on the European Space Agency's ERS-2 spacecraft, and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NOAA-16 satellite. The depth and area of the ozone hole are governed by the amount of chlorine and bromine in the Antarctic stratosphere. Over the southern winter, polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) form in the extreme cold of the atmosphere, and chlorine gases react on the cloud particles to release chlorine into a form that can easily destroy ozone. When the sun rises in August after months of seasonal polar darkness, the sunlight heats the clouds and catalyzes the chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer. The ozone hole begins to grow in August and reaches its largest area in late September to early October. Recent observations and several studies have shown that the size of the annual ozone hole has stabilized and the level of ozone-depleting substances has decreased by 4 percent since 2001. But since chlorine and bromine compounds have long lifetimes in the atmosphere, a recovery of atmospheric ozone is not likely to be noticeable until 2020 or later. Visit NASA's Ozone Watch page for current imagery and data: http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htmlRelated Links:› Ozone Day 2009› Antarctic Ozone Hole: 1979 to 2008› Climate Change and Atmospheric Circulation Will Make for Uneven Ozone Recovery› New Simulation Shows Consequences of a World Without Earth's Natural Sunscreen› What's Holding Antarctic Sea Ice Back From Melting?› Ozone Hole Multimedia
 Toward the end of September, the sun will turn a spotlight on the asteroid Juno, giving that bulky lump of rock a rare featured cameo in the night sky. Those who get out to a dark, unpolluted sky will be able to spot the asteroid's silvery glint near the planet Uranus with a pair of binoculars. "It can usually be seen by a good amateur telescope, but the guy on the street doesn't usually get a chance to observe it," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "This is going to be as bright as it gets until 2018." Juno, one of the first asteroids discovered, is thought to be the parent of many of the meteorites that rain on Earth. The asteroid is composed mostly of hardy silicate rock, which is tough enough that fragments broken off by collisions can often survive a trip through Earth's atmosphere.  Though pockmarked by bang-ups with other asteroids, Juno is large; in fact, it is the tenth largest asteroid. It measures about 234 kilometers (145 miles) in diameter, or about one-fifteenth the diameter of the moon. The asteroid, which orbits the sun on a track between Mars and Jupiter, will be at its brightest on Sept. 21, when it is zooming around the sun at about 22 kilometers per second (49,000 miles per hour). At that time, its apparent magnitude will be 7.6, which is about two-and- a-half times brighter than normal. The extra brightness will come from its position in a direct line with the sun and its proximity to Earth. (The asteroid will still be about 180 million kilometers [112 million miles] away, so there is no danger it will fall towards Earth.) Skywatchers with telescopes can probably see Juno from now until the end of the year, but it is most visible to binoculars in late September. On or before Sept. 21, look for Juno near midnight a few degrees east of the brighter glow of Uranus and in the constellation Pisces. It will look like a gray dot in the sky, and each night at the end of September, it will appear slightly more southwest of its location the night before. By Sept. 25, it will be closer to the constellation Aquarius and best seen before midnight. For more information: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .
 In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own. "Swift reveals about 20,000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters," said Stefan Immler, a research scientist on the Swift team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Of particular importance is that we have covered the galaxy in three ultraviolet filters. That will let us study M31's star-formation processes in much greater detail than previously possible." M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is more than 220,000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away. On a clear, dark night, the galaxy is faintly visible as a misty patch to the naked eye. Between May 25 and July 26, 2008, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nanometers. The images represent a total exposure time of 24 hours. The task of assembling the resulting 85 gigabytes of images fell to Erin Grand, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland at College Park who worked with Immler as an intern this summer. "After ten weeks of processing that immense amount of data, I'm extremely proud of this new view of M31," she said. Several features are immediately apparent in the new mosaic. The first is the striking difference between the galaxy's central bulge and its spiral arms. "The bulge is smoother and redder because it's full of older and cooler stars," Immler explained. "Very few new stars form here because most of the materials needed to make them have been depleted." Dense clusters of hot, young, blue stars sparkle beyond the central bulge. As in our own galaxy, M31's disk and spiral arms contain most of the gas and dust needed to produce new generations of stars. Star clusters are especially plentiful in an enormous ring about 150,000 light-years across. What triggers the unusually intense star formation in Andromeda's "ring of fire"? Previous studies have shown that tides raised by the many small satellite galaxies in orbit around M31 help boost the interactions within gas clouds that result in new stars. In 1885, an exploding star in M31's central bulge became bright enough to see with the naked eye. This was the first supernova ever recorded in any galaxy beyond our own Milky Way. "We expect an average of about one supernova per century in galaxies like M31," Immler said. "Perhaps we won't have to wait too long for another one." "Swift is surveying nearby galaxies like M31 so astronomers can better understand star- formation conditions and relate them to conditions in the distant galaxies where we see gamma-ray bursts occurring," said Neil Gehrels, the mission's principal investigator at NASA Goddard. Since Swift's November 2005 launch, the satellite has detected more than 400 gamma-ray bursts -- massive, far-off explosions likely associated with the births of black holes. Swift is managed by NASA Goddard. It was built and is being operated in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and General Dynamics of Gilbert, Ariz., in the United States. International collaborators include the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Brera Observatory and the Italian Space Agency in Italy, and additional partners in Germany and Japan. Related Link:> Blueshift podcast: Swift sees Andromeda in a New Light
Technicians clad in protective suits check for any hazardous gases emanating from space shuttle Discovery moments after it rolled to a stop on the main runway at Edwards Air Force Base on Sept. 11. The checks are required before the crews move in for recovery operations.
The longest continuously observed thunderstorm in the solar system has been roiling Saturn's atmosphere since mid-January and is still churning now, according to a presentation by a Cassini team scientist at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany.
A team led by Georg Fischer, a scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences has been using Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument to measure the powerful radio waves emitted by Saturn's lightning storms. The radio waves from these storms help scientists study Saturn's ionosphere, the charged layer that surrounds the planet above the cloud tops.  The most recent storm has evolved around the latitude of 35 degrees south, an area nicknamed "storm alley." The previous record for observed storms also came from Saturn, when a different storm thundered for seven-and-a-half months from the end of Nov. 2007 until mid-July 2008 (pictured). For more information about NASA's Cassini mission please visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
 NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is starting to come together. A major component of the telescope, the Integrated Science Instrument Module structure, recently arrived at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for testing in the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility.
The Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM, is an important component of the Webb telescope. The ISIM includes the structure, four scientific instruments or cameras, electronics, harnesses, and other components.
  The ISIM structure is the "backbone" of the ISIM. It is similar to the chassis of a car. Just as a car chassis provides support for the engine and holds other components, the ISIM Structure supports and holds the four Webb telescope science instruments : the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS). Each of these instruments were created and assembled by different program partners around the world. When fully assembled, the ISIM will be the size of a small room with the structure acting as a skeleton supporting all of the instruments. Ray Lundquist, ISIM Systems Engineer, at NASA Goddard, commented that "The ISIM structure is truly a one-of-a-kind item. There is no second ISIM being made." Before arriving at Goddard, the main ISIM structure – a state of the art, cryogenic-compatible, optical structure was designed by a team of engineers at Goddard, and assembled by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) at its Magna, Utah facility. That's the same facility where the Webb Telescope's Backplane is also being assembled. Now that the structure has arrived at Goddard, it will undergo rigorous qualification testing to demonstrate its ability to survive the launch and extreme cold of space, and to precisely hold the science instruments in the correct position with respect to the telescope. Once the ISIM structure passes its qualification testing, the process of integrating into it all of the other ISIM Subsystems, including the Science Instruments, will begin. Each of the four instruments that will be housed in the ISIM is critical to the Webb telescope's mission. The MIRI instrument will provide information on the formation and evolution of galaxies, the physical processes of star and planet formation, and the sources of life-supporting elements in other solar systems. The NIRCam will detect the first galaxies to form in the early universe, map the morphology and colors of galaxies; detect distant supernovae; map dark matter and study stellar populations in nearby galaxies. NIRSpec's microshutter cells can be opened or closed to view or block a portion of the sky which allows the instrument to do spectroscopy on many objects simultaneously, measuring the distances to galaxies and determining their chemical content. The FGS is a broadband guide camera used for both "guide star" acquisition and fine pointing. The FGS also includes the scientific capability of taking images at individual wavelengths of infrared light to study chemical elements in stars and galaxies. In addition to designing the ISIM structure, NASA Goddard provides other infrastructure subsystems critical for the operation of the instruments, including the ISIM Thermal Control Subsystem; ISIM Control and Data Handling Subsystem; ISIM Remote Services Unit; ISIM Flight Software; ISIM Electronics Compartment, and ISIM Harness Assemblies. The ISIM itself is very complicated and is broken into three distinct areas: The first area involves the cryogenic instrument module. This is a critical area, because it keeps the instrument cool. Otherwise, the Webb telescope's heat would interfere with the science instruments’ infrared cameras. So, the module keeps components as cold as -389 degrees Fahrenheit (39 Kelvin). The MIRI instrument is further cooled by a cryocooler refrigerator to -447 degrees Fahrenheit (7 Kelvin). The second area is the ISIM Electronics Compartment, which provides the mounting surfaces and a thermally-controlled environment for the instrument control electronics. The third area is the ISIM Command and Data Handling subsystem, which includes ISIM flight Software, and the MIRI cryocooler compressor and control electronics. NASA Goddard will be assembling and testing the ISIM and its components over the next several years. The integrated ISIM will then be mounted onto the main Webb telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope is the next-generation premier space observatory, exploring deep space phenomena from distant galaxies to nearby planets and stars. The Webb Telescope will give scientists clues about the formation of the universe and the evolution of our own solar system, from the first light after the Big Bang to the formation of star systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth. It is expected to launch in 2014. The telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Related Links:For more information about each of the instruments on the ISIM, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/instruments.htmlFor more information about the Webb Telescope, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
 In the early 1980s, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., developed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), an innovative combination of two satellite measurements that allowed them to analyze changes in the "greenness" of Earth as viewed from space. Much like measurements from weather satellites allow meteorologists to track and monitor hurricanes, NDVI lets scientists track droughts, crop infestations, and even full-blown crop failures that lead to widespread famine.  Few non-scientists have ever heard of NDVI, yet this vital sign of the planet has important implications for everyone, said Molly Brown, a Goddard scientist who has N-D-V-I emblazoned on her car's license plate. NDVI has been used to study everything from the spread of disease to the archaeological remains of ancient Rome. Perhaps most important, Brown said, is that this remote sensing tool will play a key part in helping us to keep food on the table as future populations swell, the climate changes, and pressures on the agricultural system mount. Shades of GreenIt’s a bit murky as to when, where, and who first developed the equation that scientists use today to calculate NDVI. It first appeared in a 1973 symposium report to NASA from Texas A&M University researchers. The full potential of NDVI didn't become clear until Compton Tucker of NASA -- along with colleagues Brent Holben, Christopher Justice, John Townshend, Sam Goward, and Steve Prince -- developed an image-compositing technique in the 1970s and 1980s that made it possible to assemble cloud-free NDVI maps over large regions. The work culminated with an NDVI map of Africa's vegetation on the cover of Science in 1985. "It was eye-opening," said Forrest Hall, a physicist at Goddard and a veteran NDVI researcher. "With composited NDVI images, suddenly we could see a cloud-free Earth and how all of the different types of vegetation on Earth fit together and how they changed over time." What had Tucker used to create this groundbreaking map of Africa? The satellite instruments measure the infrared and visible light reflected from plant leaves, and Tucker then calculated a normalized ratio of these two “channels." This ratio changes depending on the density of chlorophyll in green leaves of vegetation. Currently the best data for NDVI measurements come from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites; earlier data came from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instruments deployed on NOAA polar orbiting meteorological satellites. Since chlorophyll -- the green pigment that plants use to turn sunlight into carbohydrates and hence energy -- absorbs visible light, healthy plants reflect less red light and therefore have a higher NDVI than those with sparse or unhealthy leaves. On Tucker's maps, the sparsely vegetated areas of the Sahara and the Sahel region have NDVI values near zero. The dense jungles of Central Africa have an NDVI closer to 1, the highest value. "It's a very simple and elegant measurement, just two channels of information," said Assaf Anyamba, a Goddard scientist who uses NDVI to research climate variability and vector-borne diseases. "We now have almost 29 years of NDVI documenting global land-based photosynthesis." Keeping Food on the Table NDVI is a remarkably versatile measurement, but monitoring the global food supply has emerged as one of its particularly important uses. By comparing NDVI from one year to previous years, scientists can see tell-tale signs that crops are healthy and vigorous or suffering from drought, insect infestation, or some other problem. The largest user of NDVI data is the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which monitors agricultural production worldwide with a focus on 15 key crops, including wheat, corn, soy beans, and rice. FAS estimates agricultural production to determine the market rate for commodities, the foundation of the economy in both developed and developing countries. The U.S. Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) uses NDVI as its primary tool for anticipating food shortages and failed harvests. FEWS NET provides near real-time data to 20 African countries -- as well as Guatemala, Haiti, and Afghanistan -- about the risks of famine based on NDVI and complementary environmental data. Satellite data alone cannot cure the world of famine, Brown notes, but systems like FEWS NET can buy critical time for governments and relief organizations to react when droughts, wars, and infestations strike the food supply. NDVI has proven particularly useful in some of the world’s most contentious hotspots. In 2008, the FAS, FEWS NET, and a number of other partners used NDVI to monitor wheat yields in Iraq and Afghanistan through a persistent drought that led to the worst yields in a decade.  Closer to home, NDVI is also used in certain states as a basis for a novel crop insurance program managed by the USDA. And it's used by ranchers in the American Southwest, as part of the "Range View" monitoring network, to locate the best areas for cattle to forage. Solution for a Hungry, Crowded WorldThe United Nations projects Earth’s population will surpass 9 billion people by 2050, up from the current 6.8 billion. Since the 1990s, commodity prices have risen and the amount of cultivated land per person has declined. The result: many poor communities are ending up with less access to locally grown food even as global food supplies are increasing. Already, researchers estimate that 30 percent of the rural populations of developing countries lack reliable access to food because of poverty. Meanwhile, models suggest that climate change could create an El-Niño like effect in the Indian Ocean that causes more droughts in key agricultural areas of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Such findings cause Brown and others to worry that areas already struggling with food shortages may face even graver problems in the future. But she also remains hopeful that scientific and technological tools like NDVI can provide critical information to help us blunt the worst of the problems. Improving early prediction systems may be as important in preventing famine as improving farming techniques and food aid policies for ensuring a sustainable future. Related Links:› Measuring Vegetation (NDVI & EVI)› Global Inventory Modeling & Mapping Studies› Science Magazine Cover› African Land-Cover Classification Using Satellite Data› Precision Farming› Drought Threatens Africa
NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and their partners today celebrate the first anniversary of the air quality initiative within SERVIR that delivers in-situ, satellite-based, and modeled air quality data to forecasters, researchers, broadcasters, and communities throughout Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. A key component of SERVIR is now the Mesoamerica and Caribbean 'Smog Blog,' which provides timely information about air pollution and its sources in the region. This Smog Blog helps the public, governments and health officials monitor air quality and mitigate health impacts. In the past year of the Smog Blog's implementation, daily reports on air quality have been provided by faculty and students at the University of Panama in Panama City, and staff from the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean, known by its Spanish acronym CATHALAC. The Smog Blog is building on capacity in the region. The team of bloggers is beginning to expand to involve specialists from other institutions in the region.  The SERVIR air quality initiative is part of the broader SERVIR effort. SERVIR is a Spanish acronym for the Regional Visualization & Monitoring System. The SERVIR system integrates the satellite resources of the United States and other countries to put Earth observation data and other tools into action across Mesoamerica. SERVIR is supported by NASA and USAID, which is the foreign assistance agency which works to improve the livelihoods of people in developing countries. Satellites launched and maintained by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provide air quality information of use to the region, as well as information about forest fires, floods and other severe events. "We are very pleased with our progress during the past 12 months," said NASA researcher Dan Irwin, project director for SERVIR at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "SERVIR is now routinely providing extremely useful air quality information to users throughout the region. Through NASA's successful partnership with CATHALAC, we are helping deliver information to improve the lives of Central America’s 41 million inhabitants." In addition to the Smog Blog, in-situ data from Panama and forecast data from the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ) also have been integrated recently into SERVIR's air quality component. These tools all help to provide a comprehensive picture of current, historical and future air quality in the region. Through SERVIR, users also can access training materials. Online tutorials are available to teach members of the community to use the satellite data for assessment of air quality. Additionally, help files accessible on the site make complex satellite data easier for users to understand.  "SERVIR's new air quality initiative has been a powerful communication tool serving the entire region," said Emilio Sempris, Director of CATHALAC. "It has improved the everyday lives of our community and aided government agencies as well." Users in the region concur. "As a newcomer to Panama City, I find SERVIR's Smog Blog extremely useful in looking at the City's overall air quality, so that I can plan my daily trips. I can see when events in other countries are affecting the quality of the air I'm breathing here, and I can even check to see if my family back home in Belize is breathing easy," said Marlon Brown, an international student studying architecture at the University of Panama, and an avid reader of the Smog Blog. "We hope, by providing additional avenues to share real-time air quality information, to make an impact in improving the quality of life throughout Mesoamerica and the Caribbean," said Dr. Amy Huff; research scientist for Battelle Memorial Institute, a SERVIR partner based in Columbus, Ohio. "Air quality has had an immense public health impact on this region, and one goal of the SERVIR team is to mitigate health-related issues brought on by poor air quality." The SERVIR air quality initiative is implemented by CATHALAC, NASA, the University of Panama, Battelle and Baron Advanced Meteorological Systems. NASA, USEPA and USAID have funded the initiative. The Smog Blog builds on an endeavor of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. To read the Mesoamerican and Caribbean Smog Blog, visit: http://www.servir.net/aire
To learn more about SERVIR and NASA's work to improve real-time earth observation, visit: http://www.servir.net
and
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html
NASA has released a video illustrating an innovative satellite-based method that maps agricultural water consumption. The new mapping tool, based on Landsat satellite data, received a prestigious Innovations In American Government award from Harvard University’s Ash Institute on September 14. Water specialists Rick Allen, Bill Kramber and Tony Morse use Landsat thermal band data to measure the amount of water evaporating from the soil and transpiring from plants’ leaves – a process called evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiring water absorbs energy, so farm fields consuming more water appear cooler in the thermal band. The Landsat observations provide an objective way for water managers to assess on a field-by-field basis how much water agricultural growers are using. The team’s measurements have even been used to help settle water rights conflicts in court.
In addition to featuring interviews and Landsat imagery, the video demonstrates visually how Landsat captures images in both the visible spectrum and thermal band, and shows a resulting evapotranspiration map created using the mapping tool.
Landsat is a joint program of NASA and the US Geological Survey.
NASA has released a video illustrating an innovative satellite-based method that maps agricultural water consumption. The new mapping tool, based on Landsat satellite data, received a prestigious Innovations In American Government award from Harvard University’s Ash Institute on September 14. Water specialists Rick Allen, Bill Kramber and Tony Morse use Landsat thermal band data to measure the amount of water evaporating from the soil and transpiring from plants’ leaves – a process called evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiring water absorbs energy, so farm fields consuming more water appear cooler in the thermal band. The Landsat observations provide an objective way for water managers to assess on a field-by-field basis how much water agricultural growers are using. The team’s measurements have even been used to help settle water rights conflicts in court.
In addition to featuring interviews and Landsat imagery, the video demonstrates visually how Landsat captures images in both the visible spectrum and thermal band, and shows a resulting evapotranspiration map created using the mapping tool.
Landsat is a joint program of NASA and the US Geological Survey.
Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, announced a new government cloud computing initiative at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., on Sept. 15, 2009. Kundra unveiled the new Apps.gov platform, an online storefront for federal agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based information technology (IT) services and predicted it would significantly lower government costs and increase innovation.
 In late August, the St. Louis Cardinals took NASA Astronaut Sandra Magnus to the ball game to throw out the first pitch. Magnus isn’t part of the Cardinals’ starting line-up, but she is a hometown hero. Magnus’ roots were planted in nearby Belleville, Ill. Her homecoming was part of NASA’s Hometown Heroes campaign, which aims to engage and excite the public about NASA’s space exploration missions, celebrate both the advent of a six-person crew on the nearly complete International Space Station and the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. This was Magnus’ first time back to St. Louis since her four-and-a-half month stay aboard the station as part of the Expedition 18 crew in March. Her first flight was on STS-112 in 2002. Magnus earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s in electrical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. “I’m a little more nervous about this (throwing the first pitch) than flying in space because I haven’t practiced as much… I have to make it to home plate,” Magnus said. And she did make it to home plate to kick-off the sold-out Cardinals game against the Houston Astros, the city where Magnus now lives as part of NASA’s Astronaut Corps at Johnson Space Center. The Cardinals won that night. The self-proclaimed Cardinals fan was also on a mission to inspire the next generation of explorers in her hometown. Magnus spoke to hundreds of students, including the Missouri Boy Scout troops, about her space adventures and her love for math and science. At the St. Louis Science Center, hundreds of students laid on their backs to look up at the planetarium’s ceiling that was illuminated with videos of Magnus’ mission, from launch to landing, and listen to Magnus tell her stories. Afterwards, Magnus answered various questions, signed autographs and connected with students. “It was my first time seeing an astronaut,” said Laci Jo, a six-year-old from Moberly, Mo., whose current ambitions include artist, teacher, and now—astronaut. It was great to see the movie. My favorite part was watching her do back flips (aboard the station).” “She’s always been interested in space,” said Charli Wheeler, Laci Jo’s mother. “But this is a female (astronaut). It shows her what women can do. We live in a small town where there’s still stereotypes that woman can’t do everything.” St. Louis is known for the Gateway Arch, which provided early American pioneers into the West. But Magnus is making sure that’s she’s providing a gateway for the next explorers into a very different frontier – space. “I’m a girl and I do math and science,” Magnus said. “I would encourage all students, boys and girls, to follow whatever dream they may have, and certainly don’t limit yourself. That’s the key – don’t limit yourself. Believe in yourself, and go for it.” For more information about the NASA Hometown Heroes 2009 campaign, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts
 Armadillo Aerospace successfully met the Level 2 requirements for the Centennial Challenges - Lunar Lander Challenge and qualified to win a $1 million dollar first place prize. The flights were conducted Sept. 12 at the Armadillo Aerospace test facility in Caddo Mills, Texas.
To qualify for the Level 2 prize, Armadillo Aerospace's rocket vehicle took off from one concrete pad, ascended horizontally, then landed on a second pad that featured boulders and craters to simulate the lunar surface. After refueling at that pad, the vehicle then repeated the flight back and landed at the original pad. The vehicle completed the round trip, including fueling and refueling operations, in one hour and 47 minutes. That was well within the two and half hour time limit for the challenge. Armadillo Aerospace also met the requirement to remain aloft under rocket power for three minutes during each of the flights.
In this image, technicians Neil Milburn, Russ Blink and Mike Vinther are shown on the launch pad performing a vehicle inspection.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and space shuttle astronauts will participate in live education webcasts on Sept. 8 at 2 p.m. EDT and Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. On Sept. 8, students will hear insights from Bolden, young agency professionals, and STS-128 mission astronauts Jose M. Hernandez and John D. Olivas about the challenges and successes of their exciting NASA careers. On Sept. 10, Bolden will join astronauts from the STS-125 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission to discuss the flight and newly released images from the observatory. Commander Scott Altman, Shuttle Pilot Greg (Ray J) Johnson and Program Scientist Eric Smith will participate. Webcasts are produced free of charge by the NASA Digital Learning Network. NASA uses the network's capabilities to deliver unique content by linking students and educators with agency experts. The program provides interactive educational experiences for students and teachers from kindergarten through college across the country and around the world. To view the webcasts on Sept. 8 and 10, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education/dln For information about NASA's education programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education
NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc., or ATK, have rescheduled the test of the new first-stage solid rocket motor for the Ares I rocket. The static firing of the five-segment solid motor, designated development motor -1, is scheduled for 1 p.m. MDT on Thursday, Sept. 10, at the ATK test facility in Promontory, Utah. The first firing attempt on Aug. 27 was scrubbed because of an anomaly with the ground test controller. The goal of this test is to obtain valuable thrust, roll-control, acoustics and vibration data as engineers continue to design the Ares vehicles. To attend the test, journalists must register with ATK's Trina Patterson at 801-699-0943 by Sept. 8. News media bringing live broadcast trucks must request parking prior to the event. The test will be carried live on the NASA media channel beginning 10 minutes prior to the firing. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
In addition, the NASA Ares Twitter feed will be updated throughout the day. To follow, visit:
http://twitter.com/nasa_ares
After the test, representatives from NASA and ATK will hold a media teleconference at 1:45 p.m. To participate, reporters should e-mail Ashley Edwards at ashley.edwards-1@nasa.gov for dial-in information. For more information about Ares, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ares
Two NASA astronaut commanders have perspectives like no others on Twitter -- the views of twin brothers preparing on opposite sides of the world to command both the space shuttle and the International Space Station. The tweeting twins are astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly. Mark is the commander of space shuttle mission STS-134, set to launch in late 2010. Scott is the commander of station Expedition 26, also set to fly in late 2010. If schedules hold, the two may meet in space during their respective commands. To follow the Kelly twins as they give insights to the world, and to each other, visit their respective Twitter accounts. For Mark: http://twitter.com/shuttlecdrkelly
For Scott:
http://twitter.com/stationcdrkelly
The brothers are natives of West Orange, N.J., and both are Navy captains. NASA selected them as astronauts in 1996. Mark is a veteran of three space shuttle flights. He served as the pilot on missions STS-108 in 2001 and STS-121 in 2006 and commanded STS-124 in 2008. He has logged 38 days in space on his three flights. Scott is a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He served as the pilot on mission STS-103 in 1999 and commanded STS-118 in 2007. He has logged almost 21 days in space and is currently preparing for a six-month stay aboard the station. To follow all NASA astronauts currently on Twitter, visit: http://twitter.com/NASA_astronauts
To find out more about the shuttle, station and all of NASA's programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Back in 2002, NASA created a film using satellite data that took viewers on a tour of Earth’s frozen regions. This year, NASA visualizers are taking viewers on a return trip to see how things have changed over the years. " The Tour of the Cryosphere 2009" combines satellite imagery and state-of-the-art computer animation software to create a fact-filled and visually stunning tour that shows viewers the icy reaches of Antarctica, the glacier-pocked regions along the Andes Mountains, the winter snows of the American West, the drifting expanse of polar sea ice, and the shrinking Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland.  However, viewers who saw the original will notice differences in the new version, also created by the Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The new "Tour of the Cryosphere" video can be seen and downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio's Web site. "What we did was incorporate more recent data and kept all scenes from the original that were dramatic and interesting," said film director and editor Horace Mitchell, who began updating the animation seven months ago, with help from visualizers Alex Kekesi and Cindy Starr. "The biggest change is that the entire film is in high definition.” Another significant difference is evident as soon as the 5-minute animation opens. At the request of Earth scientists, who thought the film could be improved by a more realistic rendering of Antarctica, the team replaced the original imagery provided by Canada’s RADARSAT with the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA). Created from more than 1,000 high-resolution Landsat 7 scenes, the LIMA dataset seamlessly shows the entire continent in unprecedented and realistic detail.  The new version of "A Tour of the Cryosphere" features the world’s highest-resolution map of the icy continent, from the NASA-USGS Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) project. Credit: NASA/USGS› Larger image As the updated film takes viewers northward from Antarctica, the film treats viewers to the precise locations of glaciers scattered along the Andes Mountains in South America. The locations literally pop as the film continues its grand tour toward the planet’s northern climes. After a quick tour of snowfall in the American West and its impact on vegetation in 2002 and 2003, the film moves across Canada and Alaska to show more recent satellite data of annual snow and ice overlaying these regions. From there, viewers travel to Earth's North Pole where they see the monthly average concentration of Arctic sea ice in 2009. To help drive home the point that minimum sea ice levels have declined dramatically since 1979, the SVS team inserted a chart that tracks the levels of minimum ice cover, which typically occurs in September. The animation then moves from Arctic sea ice to Greenland. More recent data now are used to show changes in the Jakobshavn glacier, which receded only slightly from 1942 to 2001. Beginning in 2002, the rate of ice loss jumped dramatically. The film shows the continued rates of recession over the past four years. The animation shows the world in a single "shot" -- uninterrupted by cuts or scene changes, a technique that conveys the interconnectedness of the cryosphere and the reason scientists gather satellite data to monitor changes in the first place. The film gives anyone who watches it a wealth of data collected from satellite observations, showing in detail the impact that recent changes are making on the planet, he said. "We’re trying to tell NASA’s story with Hollywood's tools," Mitchell said. Related Links› NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio› Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA)
Triple-digit temperatures, extremely low relative humidities, dense vegetation that has not burned in decades, and years of extended drought are all contributing to the explosive growth of wildfires throughout Southern California. The Station fire, which began Aug. 26, 2009, in La Canada/Flintridge, not far from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had reportedly burned 105,000 acres (164 square miles) of the Angeles National Forest by mid-day Aug. 31, destroying at least 21 homes and threatening more than 12,000 others. It is one of four major fires burning in Southern California at the present time. This image was acquired mid-morning on Aug. 30 by the backward (northward)-viewing camera of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The image is shown in an approximate perspective view at an angle of 46 degrees off of vertical. The area covered by the image is 245 kilometers (152 miles) wide. Several pyrocumulus clouds, created by the Station Fire, are visible above the smoke plumes rising from the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles in the left-center of the image. Smoke from the Station fire is seen covering the interior valleys along the south side of the San Gabriel Mountains, along with parts of the City of Los Angeles and Orange County, and can be seen drifting for hundreds of kilometers to the east over the Mojave Desert. The accompanying plots are histograms that display the heights of the smoke plumes and wind speeds. In this data set, the plume is injecting smoke more than 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) above sea level. MISR observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. This image was generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 51601. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.
Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500 telescopic observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment ( HiRISE) camera on the orbiter recorded these images from the month of April through early August of this year. The camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, releases several featured images each week and periodically releases much larger sets of new images, such as the batch posted today. The new images are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/sept_09.php . Each full image from HiRISE covers a strip of Martian ground 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, or yard, across.
 The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro . The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
On August 25, 2009 NASA held a ceremonial groundbreaking and dedication event for what is expected to become the highest-performing building in the federal government. The new, environmentally friendly building at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. is being named 'Sustainability Base' in honor of the first humans to walk on the surface of another world from their Tranquility Base Apollo 11 lunar landing site 40 years ago. It will serve as a highly efficient collaborative support facility providing workspace for a wide range of NASA’s aeronautics and space exploration missions.  "This is a great day for NASA and the federal government,” said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames. “This new building represents NASA’s commitment to sustainability and improving the quality of life on the planet. Given the incorporation of the very latest NASA technologies, I like to think of it as the first lunar outpost on Earth.” "When the Apollo astronauts looked back and saw the Earth . . . it was such an astounding image that it served as a touchstone for the whole environmental movement," said Steven Zornetzer, associate director at NASA Ames. “In the spirit of what’s best for our country, we decided to focus on constructing the most energy-efficient building possible. The new building is designed to achieve a platinum rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) new construction standards for environmentally sustainable construction developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington. D.C. The building will feature near zero net energy consumption, use 90 percent less potable water than conventionally built buildings of equivalent size and reduce building maintenance costs. The building will showcase some of NASA’s most advanced intelligent control technologies originally developed to support the nation’s human and robotic space exploration missions. The Silicon Valley office of Swinerton Builders, San Francisco, Calif., was selected in a competitive-bid process to build the new Sustainability Base collaborative support facility. Construction of the $20.6 million building is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011.  To help achieve the building’s sustainability objectives, the company will install approximately 72 geothermal wells featuring ground-source heat pumps, and will provide parking and landscaping with California-native plants. In addition, the company will install sophisticated systems for solar water heating, fire detection and suppression, advanced lighting, security, communications operations and site storm water management. These systems will be designed to anticipate and automatically react to changes in sunlight, temperature, and wind, and use resources to optimize the building's performance. The new facility will feature a structural steel frame, stand two stories tall with two wings, and will have approximately 50,000 square feet of mostly-open collaborative workspace, lunchrooms and a glass-walled atrium. To watch a video about the Sustainability Base to be built at NASA's Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/greenspace/sustainability-base.html
For more information about the Greenspace Initiative at NASA's Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/greenspace
For more information about NASA's Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames
For information about NASA programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
The morning commute may never be the same. NASA officials have signed an agreement with Unimodal Systems, LLC to collaborate on the use of NASA-developed control software and human factors techniques to evaluate acceleration, jerk and vibration of an advanced transportation vehicle system. The control software was originally designed to control robots and other applications. The collaboration will help NASA better understand the software’s usefulness, human performance and safety.  “This collaborative effort is anticipated to help NASA with its aeronautics and space activities, while Unimodal gets to develop the next generation high-speed transportation system,” said Jeffery Smith, deputy chief of the Entrepreneurial Initiatives Division at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “ NASA will receive valuable feedback from our systems software usage.” Per the agreement, Unimodal will contribute its SkyTran vehicle, currently located at NASA Ames Research Park, and its advanced transportation technology; NASA will provide its Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL) and Universal Executive (UE) software to control the vehicle. In the future, SkyTran will use small vehicles running on elevated, magnetically levitated (maglev) guideways, which distinguishes it from other railed systems. The vehicles are lightweight, personal compartments that can transport up to three passengers. Travelers board the pod-like vehicles and type their destinations into a small computer. Using intelligent control system software, SkyTran will run non-stop point-to-point service without interrupting the flow of traffic. These vehicles will eventually travel up to 150 mph and move 14,000 people per hour, both locally and regionally. SkyTran will serve as a feeder system to other transit systems, such as BART and high-speed rail. "SkyTran’s personal rapid transit has generated serious interest with local, regional and state transportation leaders who are considering funding the building of the Unimodal maglev PRT system in the NASA Research Park,” said Michael Marlaire, director of NASA Research Park at Ames. “This construction and new R&D partnership may usher a new ‘green’ technology maglev PRT system into Silicon Valley." “We’re working with NASA and aerospace engineers to ensure aerospace-level standards that exceed the safety records of current transportation systems,” explained Christopher Perkins, chief executive officer of Unimodal Systems, LLC, based in NASA Research Park Both organizations will mutually benefit. NASA will receive feedback on its software’s usefulness in ground-based propulsion systems, while Unimodal will develop a transportation system designed to eliminate traffic congestion, mitigate greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on foreign oil. “For cities across the nation, SkyTran will create greentech jobs and launch a new era of public-private partnerships that will make public transit affordable to install, and profitable to operate," said Perkins. For more information about Unimodal SkyTran, visit: http://www.unimodal.com
For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, and NASA technology infusion activities, visit: http://ipp.nasa.gov
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"This flyby will be our last close look at the equatorial regions of Mercury, and it is our final planetary gravity assist, so it is important for the entire encounter to be executed as planned," said Sean Solomon, principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution in Washington. "As enticing as these flybys have been for discovering some of Mercury's secrets, they are the hors d'oeuvres to the mission's main course -- observing Mercury from orbit for an entire year.
Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.
"We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age."
Mewaldt lists three aspects of the current solar minimum that are combining to create the perfect storm:"If the flattening continues as it has in previous solar minima, we could see cosmic ray fluxes jump all the way to 30% above previous Space Age highs," predicts Mewaldt.
 "Image from video showing new method of mapping water consumption from space")
