January 16, 2002 NASA UNVEILS NEW 'NATURAL HAZARDS' WEB SITE NASA unveiled a new Web site today in which it publishes satellite images in near real time over natural hazards around the world. A new addition to NASA's Earth Observatory, [the Natural Hazards section](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/), contains images and information about major environmental events that are potentially hazardous to human populations. Initially, the Earth Observatory team will track five categories of natural hazards: wildfires, severe storms, floods, volcanic eruptions, and major air pollution events (dust storms, smog, and smoke). The images-acquired by NASA Earth Science Enterprise and Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite missions-are freely available to the public as well as news media. "We are pleased to be able to share these spectacular new images with the world in a timely manner," said Michael King, EOS senior project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We are often able to publish these images within a matter of hours after they are acquired by the satellite sensors." "We believe the combination of high quality and moderate to high resolution of the scenes we publish demonstrates the significant technological advancements NASA has made in the design of satellite remote sensors," King continued. "We hope the public finds the images informative as well as useful for educational purposes." Earth scientists around the world use NASA satellite imagery to better understand the causes and effects of natural hazards. The goal in sharing these new images in the Earth Observatory is to help people visualize where and when natural hazards occur, and to possibly help mitigate their effects. There are plans to expand the section's scope to include other types of natural hazards information, such as earthquakes, coastal erosion, and landslides. The Earth Observatory is managed by the EOS Project Science Office, and funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. The Earth Science Enterprise is a long-term research program dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment. Dave Olsen, EOS Webmaster Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Seabrook, MD 20706 Phone: 301-867-2032 - Earth Observatory](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/) - Visible Earth](http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/) - NASA's Earth Observing System Project Science Office](http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/) - GSFC's Web Resource List](http://thelist.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

Temporary BADC file server shutdown on Tuesday 12th December from 5pm ====================================================================== The BADC File server (tornado) will be temporarily shutdown on ** Tuesday 11th December 2001 from 5pm. ** This temporary interruption is necessary for some hardware upgrade. ** Normal service should resume on Wednesday 12th December 2001 ** This shutdown unfortunately implies that the BADC Web site and access to data and services will be temporarily unavailable. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. BADC Support 07/12/01.

Northern Hemisphere Mean Sea Level Pressure data now available ============================================================== This data set holds gridded (5° latitude by 10° longitude grid) Northern Hemisphere (north of 15° N) monthly and daily series of Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) fields. The monthly series data are available for the period 1873 to 1997; the daily series data are available for the period 1881 to 1997 . More information available at [http://www.badc.rl.ac.uk/data/mslp/](/data/mslp/) BADC Team 04/12/2001

Historical Northern Hemisphere Geopotential Height data now available from 1945 =============================================================================== This data set holds gridded (5 degree latitude by 5 degree longitude grid) Northern Hemisphere (north of 15N) daily and monthly series of 500hPa geopotential height fields and also daily and monthly series of 1000-500hPa thickness fields. The historical data is now available for the period 1945 to present. More information available at BADC Team

Dear BADC User, This message is to inform you that the BADC File server (tornado) will be temporarily shutdown from Friday 16th November at 3pm to Sunday 18th November. The BADC file server is expected to be operational again from Monday 19th November. This shutdown unfortunately implies that the BADC Web site and access to data and services will be temporarily unavailable. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. Regards, BADC Support BADC Support 15/11/01.

Message forwarded from Dr. Charles H. Jackman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. ================================================================================ October 25, 2001 UARS Colleagues: We have generally positive news to report. Please send this on to others as I may not have everyone on my UARS distribution list. The latest news regarding the UARS Mission is given below: MEETING AT NASA HEADQUARTERS ON OCTOBER 24TH - We had a meeting yesterday at NASA Headquarters with Mike Luther (Deputy Associate Administrator) and others in Code Y. We discussed the status of the UARS and the many changes that are ongoing in the project as well as this option. Generally we received positive feedback. We have been told to proceed with the "Traceability Mission" option (see below) for the foreseeable future. The total cost of the "Traceability Mission" option including mission and science operations is about $3.7M. For comparison, the cost of the UARS mission and science operations was about $15.4M in FY01. We have received $2M so far that is being applied to the mission operations. UARS "TRACEABILITY MISSION" OPTION - This option will be primarily focussed on providing validation/calibration measurements for upcoming future missions. We hope to provide UARS validation measurements for the following future FY02 missions: TIMED, SAGE III, ENVISAT-1, ADEOS II, EOS Aqua, and SORCE. If we are successful in FY02, it may be possible (with Code Y approval) to continue for an additional time period beyond September 30, 2002, and overlap other missions. UARS INSTRUMENT DATA COLLECTION - Instrument science observations resumed on October 1st after being shutdown from September 24-30. We are now in a "baseline operational mode" wherein we have 15 contacts/day (once per orbit) as compared with 30 contacts/day (twice per orbit) in FY01. This allows the collection of about 20-30% of the possible data. Since the HALOE instrument uses the remaining working part of the tape recorder, practically all of the HALOE observations are being collected. There is enough power to operate HALOE on about 2/3rds of the days. After the launches of new missions, with an appropriate time for outgassing and new instrument checks, the UARS instruments will be operated in an "intense validation/calibrational mode" for two-week observational periods. During these periods, the UARS instruments will have 30 contacts/day so that 50-55% of the data would be collected. UARS CENTRAL DATA HANDLING FACILITY (CDHF) - Unfortunately, we will not be able to fund the UARS CDHF beyond November 30, 2001. The UARS CDHF is in the midst of final reprocessing, data archive, and supporting the effort to move to data distribution through a "new" system called PACOR-A. UARS LONG-TERM DATA ARCHIVE - This issue is currently being addressed. It is hoped that ultimately all the UARS data (including L0/L1/L2) will be moved to the DAAC and be compatible with UNIX machines. To complete this effort will require some funding beyond what has been approved. UARS RETRIEVAL - It was decided at the meeting yesterday that there will not be a Space Shuttle retrieval of the UARS. Thanks for your support. I am convinced that the community efforts over these difficult several months. Sincerely, Charles Jackman UARS Project Scientist

Portable Unified Model Software from the BADC ================================== The Met Office Portable Unified Model (PUM) version 4.5 software is now available from the BADC to registered Portable Unified Model (PUM) data users. Details can be found at http://www.badc.rl.ac.uk/data/pum/ . The code itself is located the software directory of the PUM dataset directory (/badc/ukmo-pum/software). ...

Message forwarded from Dr. Charles H. Jackman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. ================================================================================ July 23, 2001 UARS Colleagues: We have some "Very Sad News" to report. We were informed on Friday, July 20, 2001, that a final decision to shut off UARS instrument operations on September 30, 2001, has been made at NASA Headquarters. Given the positive response that we received at our May meeting with Jack Kaye, Ghassem Assarar, and Mike Luther, we thought that UARS measurements would continue for at least part of FY02. We were encouraged to develop a minimum cost plan for operations through December 31, 2002, and this had been our principle activity up until Friday. We were totally surprized and extremely disappointed by this decision and we don't know if anything can be done to reverse this decision. No final decision has yet been made concerning the disposition of the UARS and it is still possible that a retrieval will occur. Also, there has yet been no final decision concerning the final archiving of the UARS data. It is possible that this message is not reaching everyone with interests in the UARS. Please send it on to anyone who you think might need to be informed about this decision. This is all the information that we and Mike Kurylo (UARS Program Scientist) have at this time. We will inform you if we hear any other information. Sincerely, Charles Jackman and Anne Douglass UARS Project Scientist UARS Deputy Project Scientist

ACSOE data monthly release ========================== Some data archived in the framework of the ACSOE programme have been released to the public domain: * ozone profiles (OZPROF) collected in November and December 1998. Data directory: - [/badc/acsoe/data/ozprof/aberystwyth/98/](/cgi-bin/data_browser/data_browser/badc/acsoe/data/ozprof/aberystwyth/98/)| This concludes the release process of ACSOE data to the public domain. ...