Paula Cleggett-Haleim

Headquarters, Washington, D.C. April 22, 1991

(Phone: 202/453-1547)

Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 91-61

LORAL AWARDED ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDER CONTRACT

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena,

Calif., has awarded Loral Infrared & Imaging Systems,
Lexington, Mass., a unit of the Loral Corp., a $145 million
contract to design and build the Atmospheric Infrared
Sounder (AIRS) instrument to be flown on the first of the
Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. Under terms of
the contract, Loral will design, develop and produce the
first atmospheric sounder for delivery to JPL in 1996.

AIRS will be a global thermometer in space and will be

one of the world's premier monitors to study the effects of
increased "greenhouse" gases in the Earth's atmosphere when
the EOS-A series is launched. The EOS-A satellite is
scheduled for flight beginning in 1998.

"The primary goal of the EOS-A satellites is to study

the effects of potential global warming by conducting long-
term research into the key parameters of the Earth's
surface and atmosphere," said Dr. Charles Elachi, director
of JPL's Office of Space Science and Instruments.

"Global changes are very complicated and require long-

term monitoring," he said. "The EOS-A series will help
determine the causes and extent of global climate changes
through a program of long-term observations."

AIRS will be flown on the first EOS-A series of Earth-

observing platforms, which will make global measurements of
the Earth's oceans, land surface and lower and upper
atmospheres from a polar Earth orbit.

- more -

- 2-

The space-borne instrument will measure atmospheric

temperature profiles with an accuracy of 1 degree
Centigrade and provide data on atmospheric water vapor,
cloud cover and sea- and land-surface temperatures. The
AIRS investigation will be led by JPL Chief Scientist Dr.
Moustafa Chahine.

The AIRS sounder will operate continuously for 5

years, providing new and more accurate data about the
Earth's atmosphere, surface and oceans for climate studies
and weather predictions. Among the most important
discoveries to be gleaned from infrared observations are
humidity profiles and the temperature of land, oceans and
the atmosphere.

The sounders are based on Loral's advanced mercury

cadmium telluride focal plane technology. The sounders
measure temperatures by observing 3,600 wavelengths in the
infrared spectrum via spectral dispersion -- such as in a
prism -- across high-density linear sensors. Ground-
processing computer algorithms convert this data into
global profiles of air and surface temperature.

EOS is the centerpiece of NASA's "Mission to Planet

Earth," a global-scale research program that will study the
Earth as an integrated environmental system, focusing on
the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces
and biosphere.

"Mission to Planet Earth" is NASA's contribution to

the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a multi-agency
federal program to observe the Earth, improve understanding
of natural and human-induced global change and develop
better models and predictive capabilities for interpreting
environmental changes.

- end -

TO: MEDIA DISTRIBUTION SERVICES

1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME: APRIL 23, 1991

ORDERED BY: Theresa Houser

NASA Headquarters/PM
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 91-061

PRINT ORDER: 2420

PRINTING: Camera Ready, lst pg on NASA logo, other pages plain

ENCLOSE & MAIL: Release of 2 pages

MAIL DATE: APRIL 24, 1991

EXTRA COPIES: Deliver specified quanities to locations below:

50 copies 275 copies 75 copies

-------------------- ------------------- -----------------
National Press Club NASA Mailroom NASA Newsroom
13th floor newsrack NASA Headquarters NASA Headquarters
National Press Building 600 Independ. Ave, SW 400 Maryland Ave,
SW
529 14th Street, NW Room A16 Room 6043
Washington, DC 20045 Washington, DC 20546 Washington, DC
20546

MEDIA SUMMARY OPTION: Name-by-name media summary - 1 copy

CLIENT COMPUTER LISTS: Run the following:

LS-CA, LS-FA, LS-GA*27E, LS-KA,

TYPE OF RELEASE & PIX: General news X 21:T-23:T

PUT ADDRESSING ON: Self-mailer

MEDIA SELECTION:

END OF ORDER FORM

END OF TRANSMISSION