Gavin Gets an Answer

NASA reported first results from L1 at the 2015 AGU Fall conference.  The view from a million miles is amazing.  Eli has been following this saga, well from longer than the "pause", and actually since before there was an Eli. Monday was a press conference, Wednesday was a lap of honor for Al Gore and NASA.  Monday (video) and Wednesday last week were fine days in the sun.

This was a blessed mission.  Launch and orbital insertion went perfectly.  DSCOVR (the politically correct name for Triana aka Goresat) ended up on station with enough fuel to last until 2029 and the platform is considerably more stable than spec.  The plan was to have enough fuel to last 5 years.  One problem may be that the earth observing mission was set up for two years.  A usual problem with NASA satellites is that they last forever, or at least a lot longer than originally paid for.  The EPIC camera is operating close to if not at theoretical with a resolution of 35 km at the Earth's surface.  The solar array is putting out 600 W, twice the required 300 W.

EPIC is discovering things about aerosols and clouds that were not envisioned before launch such as tracking ships "contrails".  It will measure ozone profiles down to the surface, cloud height, UV reflectivity and vegatation cover.

The NISTAR radiometer has four channels. At the news conference most of the talk was about the simplest one, the photodiode which measures total reflectivity in the UV/VIS/NIR out to ~1.1 microns (the band gap for silicon detectors).  Not much was said about the other three channels, Band A the total radiation channel out to 100 microns, Band B which monitors the total solar light reflected from the earth (albedo) and Band C which captures the NIR solar reflected out to 4 microns.

Eli left out a considerable detail which bunnies can get from the video.

A while ago, Gavin Schmidt pointed out that to really measure the total emission from the Earth required a second DSCOVR on the other side at L2.  Wouldn't you know it, but somebunny at 35.30 asked that and by the way what is going on with Band A, the total emission channel   This, shall Eli say, resulted in a rather you answer that looking at each other among the panel, until Steve Lorentz picked up the ball.

With regard to a twin satellite, Lorentz who is a contractor, not NASA, and yes, he would be in favor

Well to the second one I would certainly entertain the possibility of trying to fly future missions of this type, but i am not the one who writes the checks for that.

There then ensued a couple of minutes of audio visual follies hunting for the back up slide which had not been shown.  Good news was that the Band A, B and C detectors are working,anddetectors can tell the difference between pointing at the earth and pointing at space.  Noise in Band A and B are well below the design goal of 1.5%.  Have to wait for next year for more

Which brings us to the Wednesday Gorefest. (Video here, but there may be hoops to jump through.  Ah yes, go here first and register, no fees or anything required, then follow the bunny trail)

Al Gore was quite generous in describing the hoops that DSCOVR went through before launch. He  still had his vision fixed on view from a million miles which all the Kool Kidz scoff at and please, this time in HD.

Adam Szabo, project scientist and chief of the heliospheric physics lab at Goddard Space Flight Center went a lot further.  He wants a second satellite at L1 with improved instrumentation including a spectrometer and an order of magnitude better set of radiometers AND a twin at L2.

Stuart (Whole Earth Catalog) Brand also plugged for DSCOVR L2, about the science and the awe that could be done from there.

So, Eli asks, why was the news conference so reticent or were they trying to cut somebunny off?  Only Gavin knows:) but still, no bunny is cutting checks.

The View From Goresat

Al Gore conceived Triana as a satellite that would inspire us to see the Earth as our one world to cherish and protect, but Eli doubts that even he foresaw the latest image from NASA showing the moon crossing the Earth orb.

Pictures from Goresat

Goresat, aka DSCVR has reached the Lagrange point and started sending back pictures of the Earth

Eli has been a fan of Goresat since it was Triana and is happy to see Al Gore's vision realized

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Eli, as the bunnies know, has been a fan of DSCVR, aka Triana for like a seriously long time. He even has a decal sitting on his desk.  A little while ago he noted that the mission was being unmothballed (shoved into the closet by the lamented George Bush) to serve as a space weather observatory to replace a failing mission.  The Rabett had heard in a social gathering, that there was work at Goddard on refurbishing the instruments.  Eli wrote to the responsible parties, and got a go away and don't bother us.

Dr, Rabett:

Thanks for your email regarding the status of DSCOVR. At this time, NOAA is not able to  answer your questions, pending the outcome of the ongoing Congressional budget process. Once those issues have been resolved, we'll be in a better position to discussthe way forward on DSCOVR.

Regards, Michael Simpson
DSCOVR Program Manager

But amazingly, funding for DSCVR appeared in the latest Persidential Budget, so Eli wrote again and received a reply

Dr. Rabett,

The NASA Earth Science Division (ESD) will be providing funds to integrate and test the EPIC and NISTAR instruments so that they will fly in a fully functional mode on DSCOVR.  The data that will be returned from the EPIC instrument will be minimally processed to incorporate basic calibration parameters and then archived.  Any additional processing of the data will be part of a ROSES call from ESD.  Due to limited existing ground system resources, the EPIC data rate will be no greater than the equivalent of one RGB image (3 spectral bands) every 4 hours. The data is planned to be publicly available.  If you have more questions please contact Dr. Richard Eckman, the DSCOVR Program Scientist in the ESD.  I am not aware of any plans for an earth observing spacecraft at L2.

Regards,
Viet Nguyen
-----------------------------------
Q. Viet Nguyen, PhD
Program Executive
Joint Agency Satellite Division

Not totally wonderful news, but not nothing.  The remark about the data being archived means that there is no funding for data analysis, still it will be available.   EPIC is a ten channel imaging spectroradiometer which can measure ozone, aerosols, clouds and land and ocean surface changes.  NISTAR is a three cavity radiometer to measure reflected solar radiation and energy emitted by the Earth.  Details here.  Eli is going out for some carrot juice.  Don't worry.

Scheduled For Release Friday, 5 PM

One of the first lessons you learn in DC is to be prepared to head for the bar at 5 PM on Friday cause that is when all the bad news that makes your head want to explode appears.  A couple of weeks ago Eli reported that DSCOVR (aka Triana, aka Goresat) was being readied for launch, with a new primary space weather mission required by NOAA, but carrying the Earth Observation instrumentation,  Some of the bunnies were a mite cynical

Hank Roberts said... So it's got to be up to politicians -- today's politicians -- to decide if there's funding for a camera at L1, eh, not to mention the Dark Side Climatesat also needed.

Damn.

You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch!”
— Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, People magazine, 8 April 1974.

Anonymous said... The earth observation suite will almost certainly not fly.

NASA can't spend money on the earth observation suite. NOAA most likely won't spend money on the earth observation suite (they have bigger problems right now).

-HAUS.MAUS

Now Eli never answers questions when he can ask people who actually know the answers, so he wrote a brief note to Alexander Marshak who is the Goddard SFC person leading the Earth Observation System part of the DSCOVR program

Greetings,

Could you point me to an INTERNET resource or send me files about the current status of the Earth observation instruments on DSCOVR and plans for their operation.

and received this curious reply

Dear Eli,

Thank you for your interest in the DSCOVR Earth science instruments.  I was instructed by the project that all questions related to the status the Earth observation instruments on DSCOVR should be addressed to Mike Simpson who is the NOAA contact at GSFC.
Regards, A. Marshak

Well, like Eli said, Eli asks, so Eli wrote to Mike Simpson

Greetings,

Could you provide any information about the current status of the Earth observation instruments on DSCOVR and plans for their operation. URLs or informational files would be a great help

and, after a prod, received this reply

Dr, Rabett:

Thanks for your email regarding the status of DSCOVR. At this time, NOAA is not able to  answer your questions, pending the outcome of the ongoing Congressional budget process. Once those issues have been resolved, we'll be in a better position to discussthe way forward on DSCOVR.

Regards, Michael Simpson
DSCOVR Program Manager

The list of copy to's on the Email included

NESDIS OSDactions: The Office of Systems Development (OSD) conducts requirements definition studies; provides overall systems planning; performs conceptual and detailed engineering; arranges the development and manages the acquisition of major system elements (spacecraft, instruments, launch services, and ground systems); and coordinates the integration, installation, and acceptance of NOAA civil operational environmental satellite systems and several of the higher ups in the OSD  and people in NOAA public affairs.

This is a NASA built satellite, but NOAA is the mission lead and responsible for operation.  There appears to be a concern at NOAA about committing to the Earth Observation part of the mission and its costs. 

The Rabett has been known to kick over a few hornet's nests, and this may be one.  It is obviously a decision that NOAA and NASA want to keep in house.   Shall we help them?

But We Are Going to L1

The US Government has responded to a petition to "secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016."

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. 

• We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it. 

• The Administration does not support blowing up planets. 

• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

. . . .Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

Which brings Rabett Run to the point of this post.  Somewhat under the radar, DSCOVR nee Triana aka Goresat has been taken out of mothballs and readied for launch in 2014.  Al Gore's original concept was to place a satellite in a stable position at the Lagrange point L1 to beam back real time pictures of the whole Earth.  While the science basis of the concept was, shall Eli say, lacking, the social implications were strong as was clear to anyone who thought about the effect that the original and newer blue marble images have had on support for the space program, science and most importantly understanding of how the Earth system is complex, beautiful and isolated.  IEHO, opposition to Triana was driven by those who were determined to avoid such an outcome.  Well that and the science lack, however, it was quickly realized that there was important science to be done from a satellite looking at the whole Earth from L1, in particular measurements of the whole disc albedo and total IR emission and TRIANA was reconfigured (e.g. the instrumentation).   Of course, the Bush administration was never going to let DSCOVR be launched.  DeSmog has a continuing series on the politics surrounding the mission cancellation, but although the mission was cancelled, the satellite was mothballed and sat in a warehouse at the Goddard Space Flight Center in "stable suspension".

Which brings Rabett Run to 2011, when it was realized that ACE, the primary satellite that observes space weather (e.g. energetic particles, etc emitted from the sun) was twelve years beyond its due date and likely to fail soon.  While space weather produces spectacular displays in the sky, Earth beings also have come to rely on assets, such as Earth weather satellites, GPS systems and more which are subject to damage and shutdown from space weather.  NOAA and NASA were very concerned.  They realized that while DSCOVR was earth facing, being at L1 it was also sun facing and had in its original configuration appropriate instrumentation.  DSCOVR offered the right mission configuration, and even better it was already built so it could be, in terms of normal process, relatively rapidly launched.

Some administrative ju-jitsu was applied to the mission description

Continue solar wind measurements in support of space weather requirements providing 3-dimensional distribution function of the proton and alpha components of the solar wind; 3-dimensional magnetic field vector and 3-dimensional electron velocity distribution. Secondary objective is to observe the Earth from the unique Earth-Sun L1 perspective. Tertiary objective is to measure the energetic particle environment.

NASA  is refurbishing the Earth observation instruments, NOAA is handling the space weather components.  Quang-Viet Nguyen gave a mission briefing last February.  The instruments NOAA wants to fly are

Primary Mission Instruments required by NOAA (“Threshold Requirement”):
• Faraday Cup to measure the time-resolved 3-dimensional distribution
function of the proton and alpha components of the solar wind plasma
• Fluxgate Magnetometer to measure the 3-dimensional magnetic field vector
of the solar wind

The Earth Observation instrumentation suite

Secondary Mission (“Objective Requirements” – optional ):
• Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC)

- Global Ozone Levels
- Aerosol Index and Aerosol Optical Depth
- Cloud Height over Land and Ocean
- Vegetation Index and Leaf Area Index
- UV Surface Radiation
- Aerosol and Ozone Plume Tracking

• NIST Advanced Radiometer (NISTAR) measures UV, visible, and IR reflected solar irradiance
• Electron Spectrometer (electrostatic analyzer 3 eV to 3 keV range)
• Pulse Height Analyzer (PHA) monitors effect of high energy particles on spacecraft electronics

The potential catch is that

• NASA does not have any appropriations to expend on DSCOVR, hence
direction as to which instruments will fly are at NOAA’s discretion.

 The good news is that the launch contract has been signed with Space X
.

The NW Passage Prize.

Eli has noted that there are not enough entries in his when the NW passage opens contest probably because the prize was only a foam blue bunny to place on your antenna. In order to encourage the laggards he now offers a genuine NASA Triana sticker, never used (sort of like the satellite).

We will follow Alastair

Since I get to choose I will propose this chart which is updated daily: http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/seaice/hires/nh.xml

When there is a clear passage in pink from the Beaufort Sea to the Baffin Bay then we declare the NW Passage open. Otherwise we may have to wait for ESA to produce a report which the Telegraph picks up and then four weeks later appears in Wikipedia.

In case of a tie, carrots at ten paces. Eli only got one of these. Don't complain, enter and it may be yours.

The AGU must hate Roger Pielke Jr.

Roger Pielke Jr. recently pointed to the cancellation of "Triana", the satellite designed to sit out in L2 (one of the Lagrangian points) and observe the whole earth orb. He did it in passing while trying to sideswipe Bob Parks' op-ed in the NY Times. To quote Roger

Park chooses to go after cheap political points rather than engage the real substance of policy issues involving the convoluted and controversial history of Triana.

Park bemoans the termination of Triana and asks ominously, "Why did NASA kill a climate change project?". He suggests a sinister conspiracy within the Bush Administration to "avoid the truth about global warming" and to transfer their "hated" of Al Gore onto the project he first proposed in 1998.

....... (much interesting stuff which you can read on Pielke Jr.'s blog)

While perspectives on Triana are no doubt shaped by its unique origins, the reality is that has never occupied a high priority role in reseach priorities set forth by the climate science community, its costs ballooned and took resources from other earth and space science programs that had gone through community peer review, and it required a space shuttle flight of which there are exceedingly few left.

So what's the point of rehashing this? Well, your innocent ol' cottentail was sitting in the hare loo reading EOS (the house journal of the American Geophysical Union), when he came across an interesting article by Palle, Goode, Montanes-Rodriguez and Koonin: Can Earth's Albedo and Surface Temperatures Increase Together? It is clear that global temperature is increasing, but the trend in the albedo is uncertain. There are contradictory measurements, to quote:

To derive ideal estimates of the Earth's reflectance, it would be necessary to observe reflected radiances at all angles from all points on the Earth, which is technically impossible. Therefore, all measurements from which albedo can be inferred require assumptions and/or modeling. during recent decades, there have been some efforts to measure the Earth's albedo from space; but a long-term data series of the Earth's albedo is difficult to obtain due to the complicated intercalibrations of the different satellite data and the long gaps in the series.

They go on to discuss whether the Earth's albedo has increased in the past decade (maybe) and how this could be reconciled with global warming (possible). Interesting article important problem, and it is very clear that we have a tenuous grasp on the measurement of the albedo, at least to the accuracy needed.

So then, I turn to page two, only to see the headline NASA Terminates Two Earth Observation Missions. One of them, of course is DSCOVR (nee Triana, name changed for various reasons)

And what does the article say about DSCOVR?

The satellite would provide a continuous synoptic view of the Earth and facilitate climate science by measuring energy reflected (albedo) over an entire hemisphere. No other satellites can currintly obtain these measurements, which are needed to determine the effect of albedo on climate, according to DSCOVR principal investigator Francisco Valero of UCSD Scripps.

The AGU must hate Roger Pielke Jr.