THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140426
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center and officials from the Russian Space Agency announced plans Thursday for a joint program to measure global climate change from space.
An instrument designed at Langley will piggyback a Russian weather satellite into orbit by early August 1998, according to the terms of an agreement spelled out during a news conference at NASA Langley. Russian researchers will also help collect and analyze data sent by the NASA device.
``This is a pivotal point,'' said Raymond Roberts, deputy division director of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth office. ``We have ironclad agreements. We have the full faith and confidence of both governments to make this happen.''
Mission to Planet Earth, begun by NASA in 1991, is an ambitious program to measure the extent and nature of changes occurring in Earth's atmosphere, in its oceans and to its land masses.
A number of NASA satellites, including several developed at Langley, have measured cloud cover, depletion of the Earth's protective ozone layer, atmospheric pollutants and so-called greenhouse gases that may be increasing global temperatures. Thus far, all have flown on American rockets or on the space shuttle.
All have returned information that continues to be evaluated by scientists in this country and abroad.
Cooperative space ventures are necessary because planetary change respects neither border nor political system, said two Russian officials speaking through interpreters at the news conference.
Albert Chernikov, director of Russia's Central Aerological Observatory, cited the problem of stratospheric ozone depletion, which threatens human health and agriculture.
In February and March, ozone levels dropped by up to 20 percent over portions of Siberia, Chernikov asserted. These ``unprecedented anomalies'' have persisted, he said, alarming the Russian scientific community.
``This is not the Antarctic with penguins. This is Russia, a civilized country that is relatively densely populated,'' Chernikov said. ``What's important here is that we're observing phenomena in the Northern Hemisphere.
``This year it's Russia. Next year, it could be the U.S. or Canada. This new (NASA) instrument will allow us to explain the origin of these phenomena.''
For the joint effort, Langley has designed and will oversee construction of a device christened the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III, third in a line of instruments that since the mid-1980s have investigated Earth's atmosphere. SAGE III will measure ozone levels, the amount of atmospheric water vapor, the presence of minute particles called aerosols and the height of cloud tops in the weather-producing part of the atmosphere called the troposphere.
Three versions of SAGE III will be built by a Colorado company, at a combined cost of $45 million. At least one of the three will be launched from the United States.
Despite budget pressures on NASA and on Langley - the Hampton center could relocate or privatize the very space science research addressed in the agreement - NASA's Roberts said the agency has put a priority on this project.
The Russian delegates also conceded economic and political uncertainty. They, too, professed optimism in combined Russian-American space science.
``If we want to be a civilized, cultured country, we must incur certain expenses that are not immediately productive,'' said Yuri Milov, deputy director general of the Russian Space Agency. ``Regardless of the economic difficulty we do have some budget . . . in the area of space. We just can't let this all fall by the wayside.''
The Langley agreement is one of several American-Russian ventures, including an agreement to build an international space station. In mid-March American astronaut Norman Thagard joined the crew on board the Russian space station Mir.
He and two Russian cosmonauts are expected to return to Earth on board a space shuttle when that craft docks with Mir this summer.
Future cooperative projects may include design and launch of a solar probe, robotic explorations of the outer reaches of the solar system and a joint expedition to Mars. ILLUSTRATION: Color image courtesy of NASA
A computer-generated topographic image of Earth's vegetation. Areas
of densest growth appear dark green.
by CNB