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Groundbreaking Atmospheric Science Experiment Remains Earth-Bound

Posted on: Monday, 13 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Allison Connolly, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Mar. 13--Conceived in 1996, the Calipso satellite is to be a groundbreaking atmospheric science experiment le d by NASA Langley Research Center and Hampton University and partly funded by France. Yet nearly a year after the satellite was supposed to launch, it still sits in a hangar at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Calipso stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. In tandem with another satellite, called CloudSat, a weather radar that is 1,000 times more sensitive than those currently available, the two would be capable of taking the first-ever three-dimensional pictures of cloud particles. Officials hope the $482 million experiment will yield clues to how the atmosphere forms, how climates change and what causes global warming, but it has to get off the ground first. A series of events have kept it Earthbound: * Just before the first launch date in May, the batteries on the Boeing-made Delta II rocket that causes it to self-destruct after propelling the satellites into orbit malfunctioned. * While the batteries were being redesigned, Boeing workers were on strike for three months; the work stoppage scrapped an October launch date. * In December, Vandenberg Air Force Base closed for renovations that lasted two months. * Most recently, a Feb. 19 launch date was scrubbed after bad welds were found in the rockets' main engine. "I don't believe in jinxes, but I do believe in bad luck missions," said Stephen Volz, the CloudSat and Calipso program executive at NASA headquarters. On Friday, Volz and his colleagues were scheduled to meet with officials from Vandenberg and Boeing to discuss the results of four rocket engine tests. Volz hoped to leave the meeting with a promise that the launch will happen on or about April 20. By then, the delay will have cost NASA $23 million, not to mention the loss of invaluable data. Calipso also has missed out on a number of planned international experiments because of the delays. "We're frustrated, along with our partners," said Chip Trepte, a researcher in the atmospheric sciences department at Langley and deputy principal investigator for the Calipso program. "We've been waiting for this launch." Typical weather satellites track clouds and storms as masses moving over the Earth. Calipso and CloudSat would take three-dimensional pictures of those clouds, showing where individual particles called "aerosols" are located vertically. Scientists would actually be able to see how much water and ice a cloud is holding. Aerosols affect how and where clouds form, Trepte said, and could yield large clues about the cause and spread of global warming. Clouds do more than produce rain and snow; they cool the Earth by reflecting the sun and warm it by absorbing heat from its surface. The satellites also will be able to show how pollution affects air quality. People with asthma could be warned when aerosols that cause poor air quality accumulate over a certain location, Trepte said. "Calipso offers an expanded view of the atmosphere, more than any weather satellite does," he said. Calipso will use a laser-based radar with passive infrared and visible imagers to probe the structure and properties of thin clouds and aerosols. CloudSat will use a sensitive cloud-profiling radar to study clouds, their water content and precipitation.

The two are to be launched aboard the same Delta II rocket. Once in orbit, Calipso and CloudSat will join three other Earth Observing System satellites -- NASA's Aqua and Aura satellites and the French-owned Parasol. They will travel 15 seconds apart in a 438-mile orbit, forming a constellation called an A-Train. Calipso was partly funded by the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.* French scientists built much of the hardware and contributed other support worth a total of $75 million. NASA Langley manages the Calipso program. Hampton University will be responsible for providing educational materials about the experiment to teachers and students around the country. CloudSat's laser was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., with help from the Canadian Space Agency. Data from CloudSat will be processed by Colorado State University. NASA originally wanted to launch the satellites last spring. A Dec. 1, 2004, entry in a diary of the Calipso program on Hampton University's W eb site indicates that NASA wanted to launch them as early as May 26, 2005. In the weeks leading up to that date, however, the batteries on the rocket's Flight Termination System failed a qualifying test. If the batteries failed in orbit, the rocket would not self-destruct as planned and could come crashing back to Earth. The launch date continued to slip -- to June 17, July 22, Aug. 22, Sept. 28 and, finally, Oct. 26, according to the Web site. Everyone was confident about a 2005 launch, Volz said. Then, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers that assembles Delta rockets for Boeing went on strike in October. "I was quoted as saying if we can't launch before December, then we should all get new jobs," Volz said last week, laughing. The workers came back in late January, but Vandenberg was backed up after closing for two months for renovations. The base handles all missile testing and satellite launches for the Department of Defense, so NASA experiments must be scheduled well in advance. Because of the delays, the satellites have missed opportunities to participate in three international experiments: nThe Tropical Warm Pool-International Cloud Experiment, based in Darwin, Australia, and conducted between Jan. 21 and Feb. 13 to study the monsoon pattern; nMILAGRO, an experiment that started last week and runs through March 29 and studies the spread of pollution in Mexico City; * The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis experiment tracking dust storms across the Sahara during the dry season, which was in January and February. NASA still hopes to participate in the last part of the African monsoon experiment in the summer and fall, focusing on peak and late monsoon season. Back at Hampton University, professor M. Patrick McCormick has had to shuffle graduate students who had planned on using data from Calipso in their dissertations. "I've lost opportunities with certain students," he said. He and NASA also are worried about funding for the program remaining intact. For fiscal year 2007, President Bush's budget request includes just $2.2 billion for satellite programs. Hampton University is to receive $8 million to validate data from Calipso and develop educational materials for classrooms. "They've kept us alive, but they're squeezing the penny pretty hard," McCormick said. As of last week, officials on all sides appeared optimistic that the structural problems have been remedied. Boeing spokeswoman Paula Shawa said the new batteries for the rocket are ready. She declined to disclose the name of the company's vendors but said the new batteries will be activated seven days before delivery. Officials at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which made the RS-27A rocket engine for Boeing, also is confident that the welding problems have been resolved. "This is an engine that goes back years and years and years and has a great track record," said John Mitchell, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. He said the test results should satisfy NASA. "The launch business, by nature, is conservative," Mitchell said. "We just want to make sure everything is what it should be." Reach Allison Connolly at (757) 446-2318 or allison.connolly@ pilotonline.com.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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