NASA

METEOR-3lTOMS PRESS KIT

August 12, 1991

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 PUBLIC AF'ATRS CONTACTS:

Brian Dunbar
Office of Space Science and Applications
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 2OZ453-1547)

Debra J. Rahn
International Relations Division
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 2OZ453-8455)
Dolores Beasley
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-2806)
Yury Kazakov
International Division
Hydromet, Moscow,
(Telex: 411-117 RUMS SU)
(Phone: (7095)252-20-83)

Viacheslav Grigrev
The All-Union Research Institute
of Electromechanics (VNIIEM)
(Phone: (7095) 925-18-64;925-32-11)

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RELEASE: 91-127

SOVIETS TO LAUNCH NASA INSTRUMENT TO STUDY OZONE LEVELS

The first flight of a NASA ozone instrument on a Soviet spacecraft will occur in
August when NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) is flown on a
Meteor-3 meteorological satellite launched aboard a Cyclone rocket also provided
by the Soviet Union.
The Meteor-3A'OMS two-year mission, planned for launch Aug. 15, will make it
possible t o continue monitoring global ozone levels by measuring the total ozone
content in the Earth's atmosphere. Since the first TOMS was launched aboard
NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978, it has provided reliable, high-resolution daily
mapping of global total ozone.
The Meteor-S/TOMSinstrument is identical t o the Nimbus-7 instrument in
terms of optics and performance. By launching in August, Meteor-3/TOMS will be
in place t o obseive the formation of the Antarctic ozone "hole" in September and
October. The ozone "hole" is a large area of intense ozone depletion over the
Antarctic continent that typically occurs between late August and early October
and typically breaks up in mid-November.

On June 15, the spacecraft was shipped t o the launch site a t the Plesetsk
Cosmodrome. TOMS arrived in Plesetsk in early August. NASA is supplying the
TOMS instrument and is providing on-board storage for science data. The
U.S.S.R. State Committee for Hydrometeorology (Hydromet) is providing the
launch and launch vehicle, mission operations and TOMS housekeeping data.
After launch, a Moscow team in the Flight Control Center will control the
commands t o the spacecraft and every two weeks, personnel from the Goddard
Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md., will send via computer the command
sequences for TOMS operations t o the U.S.S.R. Central Aerological Observatory.
Data will be downlinked to receiving stations at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops
Island, Va., and Obninsk, U.S.S.R., with data analysis performed by NASA and
Hydromet. The data will be archived at the National Space Science Data Center,
located at Goddard, and a t the Central Aerological Observatory of Hydromet,
located a t Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region.
The project is taking place under the 1987 U.S./U.S.S.R. agreement on
"Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes," as
amended, May 1988, and according to an implementation agreement signed by
Hydromet and NASA in 1990.
The program management representatives for the mission are Dr. Nikolai
Petrov of Hydromet, Moscow, and George Esenwein of NASA Headquarters,
Washington, D.C. The technical managers are Vladimir Adasko, Director of the
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All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics, for the Meteor
satellite, and Charles Cote, Goddard Space Flight Center, for the TOMS
instrument.
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Meteor3 Physical Characteristics

Main body: 13.8 feet (4.2meters) long; 21.4 feet (6.5meters) with antenna
deployed; 4.6 feet (1.4meters) in diameter.
Solar array: 6.6by 32.8 feet (2by 10 meters)
Weight: 4,884 pounds (2,200kg) at liftoff; which includes 540 pounds (700 kg) of
payload.
Lifetime: Not less than 2 years.
Orbit: Altitude 855 nautical miles (1,200 km);inclination 82.5 degrees; period
109 minutes.

Meteor-3 Mission Timeline

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Mission Tim
Integration of TOMS into Meteor-3 L-15 days
Meteor-3 mate with Launch Vehicle L-2days
Lift of SpacecraftBooster t o Vertical L-1hour
Booster Fuel Load L-35minutes
Launch 5:15 a.m. EDT
(12:15p.m. local time)

Post Launch Seauence Mission Time (mn:sec.l

First and Second Stage Separation L+2:00
Fairing Separation L+3:33
Second and Third Stage Separation L+4:38
First turn-on of Third Stage L+5:20
Turn off of Third Stage L+7:00
Second turn on of Third Stage L+48:58
Turn-off of Third Stage b49:13
Spacecraft Separation L+49:43

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 "he Plesetsk Launch Facility
The Plesetsk Cosmodrome is located in the Northern part of the USSR near
Archangel. Over the last 20 years, the Meteor satellites have been launched from
this complex.

The Cyclone Booster

Meteor-3 will be lofted into orbit by an Cyclone booster, built by the design bureau
YUZHNOYE. The Cyclone is comparable to a U.S. Delta-class booster.
The Cyclone launch vehicle is 129.6 feet (39.3 meters) in length. The first and
second stages are 10 feet (3.3 meters) in diameter; the nose cone is 9 feet (2.7
i;; :iGiiicki-. All stages of the rocket employ liquid rocket motors.
~-i;ki-;>

Meteor-3
Meteor satellites are designed t o conduct operational meteorological
observations, environmental monitoring and scientific investigation. Hydromet is
working on creation of a new generation, space-based meteorological network
using the Meteor spacecraft. Meteor-3A'OMS is one of the stages of this program.
The instruments carried by the Meteor-3 spacecraft are:
T N Camera Clouds
I/R Imager Clouds (nighuday)
Visible Imager Clouds (day)
I/RSounder Temperature (atmosphere)

Total Ozone MappinP SDectrometer

TOMS measures backscattered radiation - solar radiation that has penetrated

t o the lower atmosphere, where it is scattered by air molecules, clouds and the
Earth's surface back through the upper atmosphere t o the satellite sensors. Along
that path, a fraction of the ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by ozone. By comparing
the amount of backscattered radiation with observations of the incident solar
irradiance a t identical wavelengths, the Earth's albedo, or reflectance, can be
calculated. By determining the change in albedo at the selected wavelengths, the
amount of ozone above the surface can be derived.

The TOMS instrument is 26.4 x 13.2 x 19.6 inches (66 x 33 x 49 cm) and weighs
61.6 pounds (28 kg). At the altitude of the Meteor-3 satellite, TOMS' spatial
resolution is 38.4 miles (62 km) directly beneath the instrument.

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 Communications and Data Handling
The observational data from the Meteor-SA'OMS mission will be transmitted
separately to the United States and the Soviet Union. If either the NASA or
Hydromet station misses a satellite pass, the missed data will be provided by the
other nation.
Once on the ground, the data will undergo separate analysis by scientists in
each country. NASA will produce instrument calibration data sets for production
of archival data.
In the United States, TOMS data will be transmitted from the satellite to a
receiving station at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. From
there it will be sent over data lines t o GSFC for processing and analysis.

In the Soviet Union, TOMS data will be received by the a ground station in
Cbniml.;, KtlluzEsky Region, and will be transmitted by radio t o CAO Hydromet,
Dolgoprudny. The CAO will process, analyze, archive and exchange TOMS data
with NASA.

US.-SovietCaoperationin Space
The Meteor-3/TOMS mission continues bilateral cooperation that began in the
early 1960s with agreements on meteorology, communications, magnetic surveys
and life sciences. In 1971, the two nations began exchanging biomedical data.
U.S.-Soviet space cooperation was highlighted by the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
in which spacecraft from the two countries docked and orbited. the Earth together.
Under the current 1987 space agreement, the United States and Soviet Union have
Joint Working Groups in five space science disciplines: space biology and
medicine, solar system exploration, astronomy and astrophysics, solar-terrestrial
physics and Earth sciences.

An amendment to the agreement was concluded May 31,1988, during the

Reagan-Gorbachev Moscow summit. Two items were added t o the annex list of
cooperative opportunities: exchange of flight opportunities for scientific
instruments on each other's spacecraft and exchange of results of independent
national studies of future unmanned solar system exploration missions. The first
exchange of study results took place in November 1988.
During the Bush-Gorbachev summit, July 30-31,1991, an agreement to expand
civil space cooperation was concluded. It was agreed that a U.S. astronaut would
fly on a long-duration Soviet space station Mir mission and a Soviet cosmonaut
would fly on a US.Space Shuttle mission. The presidents also agreed to increase
cooperation in monitoring the global environment from space and to initiate
annual consultations between the governments on civil space issues and
cooperative activities.

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 Other planned flights of scientific instruments on cooperative missions include:
Soviet KONUS Gamma-Rav Burst Instrument: NASA has accepted in
principle a Soviet proposal t o fly a gamma-ray burst instrument, KONUS, on the
U.S. WIND spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 1992.
NASA ParticiDation in Soviet Astrophvsics Mission; NASA and the U.S.S.R.
have agreed in principle to fly a U.S. x-ray All Sky Monitor and an x-ray
polarimeter on the Soviet Spectrum-X-Gamma high-energy astrophysics mission
in 1993/94.

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 Meteor-3ROMS Mission Management
NASA
Headauartere
Richard Truly Administrator
James R. Thompson Deputy Administrator

Samuel W. Keller Associate Deputy Administrator

Dr. L. A. Fisk Associate Administrator,

Space Science and Applications

Alphonso V. Diaz Deputy Associate Administrator,

Space Science and Applications

Dr. Shelby G. Tilford Director,

Earth Science and Applications Division
George F. Esenwein Program Manager, Meteor-3/TOMS

Dr. Robert Watson Program Scientist, Meteor-3mOMS

Jefferson Hofgard Senior Policy Officer,
International Relations

Goddard Space Flipht Center

Dr. John M. Klineberg Director

Dr. Vincent V. Salomonson Director, Earth Sciences

Charles E. Cote Project Manager, Meteor-3l"OMS

Dr. Arlin Krueger Project Scientist, Meteor-3PTOMS

Dr. J a y R. Herman Project Data Scientist, Meteor-3mOMS

John J. Loiacono Project Engineer, Meteor-3/TOMS

Committee for Hydrometeorology Wlydromet)

Yury A. Israel Head

Alexander P. Metalnikov Deputy Head

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Vladimir M. Zaharov
Nikolai N. Petrov
Alexander V. Karpov
Yury E. Kazakov
Deputy Head
Deputy Head of Main Department,
Program Manager, Meteor-3/TOMS
Head of Main Department
Deputy Head, International
Department of USSR Goskomgidromet

Central Aerological Observatory,HYDROMITI', USSR

Albert A. Chernikov Director,

Project Manager, Meteor-3mOMS
Viacheslav Y. Khattatov Deputy Director,
Project Scientist, Meteor-3/TOMS

Vladimir N. Dosov Branch Head,

Project Data Scientist, Meteor-3EOMS

All-Union Research Institute of Electromechanics (VNIIEM)

Vladimir I. Adasko Director; General Design & Engineering

Konstantin I. Makarov
Rashid S. Salikhov
Manager, Meteor Spacecraft,
Program Technical Manager,
Meteor-3/TOMS
Director, Deputy of General Design
Manager
Deputy Director, Deputy of General
Design Manager

Intercosmos, Academy of Sciences,USSR

Vladimir A. Kotelnikov Chairman

Kirill Y. Kondratyev
Alexander I. Tsaryov
Leonid A. Vedeshin
Co-Chairman, Soviet-American
Earth Science Working Group
Deputy Chairman, Soviet-American
Earth Science Working Group
Intercosmos Policy Staff

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Nikolai P. Elansky Head of Laboratory, Institute of Physics
of the Atmosphere

Design Bureau, 'YtJZHNOYE"

Stanislav N. Konyukhov General Designer, Cyclone Booster

Scientific-IndustrialAssociation, Planeta
V. V. Aksenov General Director
Aleksey M. Volkov Deputy of General Director

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