3.2. NASA SATELLITE TRACKS AND STUDIES
VOLCANIC
ERUPTION”’
The volcano, La Soufriere, on the island of St.Vincent in the Caribbean, is providing scientists with the opportunity, for the first time, to measure and track volcanic emission flows in the stratosphere by satellite on a global scale. Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va, through the use of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment satellite and ground truth experiments, are tracking the material spewed into the stratosphere by La Soufriere which erupted on 13,14 and 17 April 1979, ejecting ash and volcanic gases into the surrounding atmosphere. As much as an inch of dust was deposited on neighboring islands. The volcanic eruption, first detected by the satellite as it passed over the island on 23 April may provide a rare opportunity for scientists to study the long-term global distribution throughout the stratosphere of aerosols from a single point source. Researchers are now checking a band between 6” and 20” North latitude around the Earth measuring the spreading volcanic veil. Other latitudes will be studied as the veil expands towards the poles. NASA scientists are co-ordmating their studies with the scientific community and have alerted a number of researchers throughout the world to put their ground-based balloon-borne instruments into use in an attempt to provide more data on the volcanic layer. Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment, launched on 18 February 1979, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Center, Wallops Island, Va, maps vertical profiles of ozone, aerosols, nitrogen dioxide and molecular extinction in the stratosphere around the globe. This information provides scientists with information to help answer questions about the effects of aerosols and ozone on climate and environmental quality. The aerosol layer acts as a filter, reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s surface and the amount of reflected sunlight that eventually escapes to space. It has a direct effect on the temperature of the Earth’s surface and possibly climate. Aerosols, small solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the surrounding air, are typically less than one-millionth of a meter in diameter. Their sources are both natural and man-made, such as volcanic eruptions, aircraft engine emissions and various chemical and photochemical reactions.
3.3.THAlLAND
TO BUILD LANDSAT
GROUND
STATION”’
Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA Administrator, and His Excellency Klos Viiessurakam, Ambassador of Thailand, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Washington, D.C., this week for the establishment of a Landsat ground station in Bangkok, Thailand. Ambassador Klos signed on behalf of the National (“)NASA News Release No. 79-56. of 8 May 1979. (s)NASA News Release No. 79-64, of 10 May 1979.
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Research Council of Thailand, which will build and operate the new ground station in Bangkok, to receive, process, archive and disseminate Landsat data. The agreement provides that the National Research Council will make the Landsat data it receives available to anyone requesting it. The Council also agrees to help share the cost of operating the Landsat satellites by paying NASA the aunual access fee of $200000 beginning six months after the Bangkok station begins receiving dam. Six Landsat ground stations are already in operation outside the US: Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and Shoe Cove, Newfoundland, Canada; Chiaba, Brazil; Fucino, Italy; Kiruna, Sweden; Tokyo, Japan. A seventh station near Tehran, Iran, began receiving data last fall and interrupted its operations in January. Three other foreign stations are under construction in Argentina, Australia and India, and a number of others are in the planning stages. US ground stations for Landsat are located at Fairbanks, Alaska; Goldstone, Calif.; and at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Landsat data have been used by scientists and local officials in the US and more than 100 other countries for a wide variety of applications ranging from crop inventories to flood assessment and mineral exploration. Thailand was an early participant in the Landsat program and has continued to make successful use of Landsat dam for such projects as monitoring its rice crops and mapping forest cover.
3.4.NASA TO LAWUCH BRlTtSH SATELLITE”
NASA will launch a United Kingdom satellite, called UK-6, aboard a Scout launch vehicle from the Wallops Flight Center, Wallops Island, Va, about 24 May 1979. UK-6 will become Arie16 when it reaches orbit. The satellite will conduct scientific studies in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Information gained from the mission should provide a better understanding of astrophysical phenomena that involve large energy densities and their high-energy products, such as quasars, radio galaxies, supernovae and pulsars. The launch is scheduled for 7p.m. EDT, the beginning of a twohour launch window. The Scout vehicle will place the satellite into an easterly, 625-kilometer (337~mile) circular orbit at an inclination of 55”. The satellite is designed to operate for appro~mately two years. The UK-6 mission will be the 100th launch of a Scout vehicle. Since July lQ60 the smallest of NASA’s launch systems has successfully completed 85 launches for NASA, other government agencies and several European countries. Scout is managed at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. (@NASA News Release No. 79-61, of 14 May 1979.
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