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Vice President Al Gore's 1998 proposal to have a constant view of the
sunlit portion of the Earth available on the internet spurred the creation
of NASA's Triana mission.
NASA reviewed several proposals for the project and chose one drafted by
the
Scripps Institution
of Oceanography at UC-San Diego.
Along with Gore's original ideas, Scripps proposed to monitor several environmental
parameters including ozone and aerosol distributions, cloud cover and heights,
and vegetation.
Most Recent Action
The congressionally-mandated National Research Council (NRC) report
titled On
Scientific Aspects of the Triana Mission was released on March
8, 2000. The panel expressed the opinion that the Triana mission
is based on strong science, and that it is in-line with the mission goals
of several federal agencies, and several other NRC reports. According
to the report, the Scripps Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) will
provide a constant view of the sunlit surface of the Earth from the L1
vantage point, which is located in between the Earth and the sun.
EPIC will also collect several geophysical parameters such as ozone, aerosols,
and clouds. A better record of the spatial and temporal variations
of these parameters will contribute the understanding how they interact
with the earth's atmosphere to affect climate and the amount of UV radiation
that reaches the earth's surface. The Scripps-National Institute
of Standards an Technology Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) will help to characterize
the Earth's radiation budget by collecting albedo data in three ranges
of the spectrum. This data will provide researchers with information
about the amount of radiation absorbed into the atmosphere. The third
instrument used in the Triana mission is the Goddard Space Flight Center
Plasma-Magnetometer Solar Weather Package (Plasma-Mag). This package
is designed to collect data on solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic
field.
The panel acknowledged that the observations that will be made by EPIC
and NISTAR would address interdisciplinary efforts to understand the connection
between radiation dynamics, chemistry, and climate. This theme is
consistent with many recent NRC reports. The Plasma-Mag is also consistent
with the goals suggested in many NRC reports. The panel decided that
Triana would provide extremely valuable space weather data that could compliment
or replace other programs that are currently in place. While they
acknowledge that there are somewhat higher risks involved with Triana because
it is an exploratory mission, it has the potential to make very unique
and valuable contributions to human knowledge. While the panel exhibited
a generally positive attitude about Triana, it did warn that the short
amount of time allowed to test and implement Triana, and the limited funds
it has been awarded, could increase the amount of risk associated with
the mission.
Previous Action During the 106th Congress
In September
of 1999, the Inspector General of NASA released a report stating that
NASA "should reassess (and modify if necessary) its current approach to
the mission." Many members of Congress leaped at the chance to possibly
end the program, and in October 1999, asked the NRC to conduct an evaluation
of the scientific goals of the Triana mission. Furthermore, they
cut funding for the project, which had received around $35 million in the
FY 1999 budget, until the NRC report was completed and had given the mission
a thumbs up. The main opposition to the project came from the House
GOP, who dubbed it Al Gore's "$75 million screen saver," and felt that
its launch was being pushed up to coincide with the 2000 Presidential elections.
Please send any comments or requests for information to the AGI Government Affairs Program.
Contributed by Alison Alcott, AAPG/AGI Geoscience Policy Intern.
Posted May 22, 2000
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