NERC science has key role in ground-breaking NASA mission

9 June 2004

Logo: NASA

$812m Aura satellite's unprecedented study of Earth's atmosphere.

NERC scientists will play a key role in a new NASA mission to provide the most detailed examination yet of the Earth's atmosphere and ozone layer.

NASA's Aura Earth Observation satellite will ultimately help scientists predict air quality, changes to the ozone layer and climate change on a global scale. The UK Natural Environment Research Council has made a significant contribution to one of the satellite's four instruments - the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) - to study a part of the atmosphere which has been virtually impossible to observe with this detail before.

Colin Hicks, Director General of the British National Space Centre, said today, "This is an important mission which will provide an insight into health hazards caused by deteriorating air quality in towns and cities across the globe. It will enable scientists to get the clearest understanding yet of climate change and an insight into its causes."

"Information derived by HIRDLS will be used to assess the impact of a range of natural and man-made activities, including air travel, volcanic eruptions and the movement and concentration of greenhouse gases on a daily basis."

"Through HIRDLS, the UK is contributing ground-breaking science and engineering to this mission. It is a tribute to our traditional strengths in the field of remote sensing using space satellites."

Dr Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for Earth Science at NASA, told a press conference in the UK, "Aura, the first comprehensive laboratory in space to help us better understand the chemistry and composition of the Earth's atmosphere, is fundamentally a mission to understand and protect the very air we breathe."

"NASA is proud of the international partnerships that have made this mission possible. Aura, with the HIRDLS instrument and others working in tandem to offer us new and compelling data, will also serve as an essential and insightful stepping stone to our exploration of Mars and other worlds beyond."

Aura, which will be launched from Vandenburg Airbase, California, on June 19, will take atmospheric measurements with unprecedented accuracy and coverage, providing extremely high-resolution data for scientists to develop the most accurate climate models for prediction purposes and track any predicted recovery of the ozone layer.

Flying at an altitude of 438 miles (705 km), Aura's instruments are specifically tailored to work together as well as separately to study atmospheric chemistry. Aura's measurements will be combined with other satellite missions to study the interaction of climate and chemistry.

HIRDLS will measure ten key chemicals - including ozone - from the top of the clouds to the mesosphere (as high as 70km). The data, which has never been obtained in depth by satellites before, is vital to scientists who need to understand chemical movements at these altitudes.

John Barnett, the Joint Principal Investigator for HIRDLS, based at the University of Oxford, explained the importance of the study.

"We have been working on HIRDLS with our US colleagues for 15 years now, and it is great to see it being launched. HIRDLS will give us a much better picture of what is happening in the upper atmosphere. Computer models of the atmosphere show features that we are incapable of observing at present. We need to understand in more detail how the atmosphere works and whether these models are right or need changing, because we rely on them for predictions of climate change."

The UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the driving force behind research into climate change and pollution, has funded Britain's £20m contribution towards the development and construction of HIRDLS. The CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory provided project management, carrying out optical design, building the instrument power supplies and UK data archiving.

The University of Oxford led the scientific direction within the UK, undertook system engineering for HIRDLS, provided some of the flight hardware, calibrated the whole instrument and is working on data processing and flight operations. EADS Astrium undertook the thermal design and built the main structure and sun shield, while BAE Systems in Edinburgh supplied the gyroscope units. Reading University developed and manufactured the infra-red filters.

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A full background report on the UK's involvement in HIRDLS and Aura is available.

You can also visit the BNSC website.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. Within the USA, work on HIRDLS is divided between several centres: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; The University of Colorado and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, both in Boulder, which are the prime movers of the project in the US; and Lockheed Martin Corporation in Palo Alto, which is the prime contractor. The US Principal Investigator for HIRDLS is Dr John Gille, of University of Colorado and Boulder.

2. The Aura spacecraft was built by Northrop Grumman Space Technology, of Redondo Beach, California. Aura is being launched by a Boeing Delta II 2-stage launch vehicle. The Aura project is led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

3. BNSC is a partnership of Government Departments and the research councils with an interest in the development or exploitation of space technologies. BNSC is the UK Government body responsible for UK civil space policy, to help gain the best possible scientific, economic and social benefits from putting space to work.

4. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is one of the UK's research councils. It uses a budget of about £300m a year to fund and carry out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment. NERC trains the next generation of independent environmental scientists. It is addressing some of the key questions facing mankind such as global warming, renewable energy and sustainable economic development.

5. CCLRC owns and operates three sites of which the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire is the largest, where the Space Science & Technology Department with its 200 staff is located. This department carries out a range of space research and technology development, with significant involvement in over 40 space missions in recent years.

6. Work within the University of Oxford is carried out by the Department of Physics (sub Department of Atmospheric Oceanic & Planetary Physics), which has a long history of building space instruments for Earth orbit and to go to other planets.

NERC science has key role in ground-breaking NASA mission

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