General Updates

1. General Updates Claire L. Parkinson Aqua Project Scientist Aqua Science Working Group Meeting Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center Ellicott City, Maryland November 18, 2002

2. Aqua Science Working Group MeetingNovember 18, 2002 • Welcome and general updates ……. Claire Parkinson • Headquarters perspective …………..……. Jack Kaye • AMSR-E validation activities ……..……. Elena Lobl • MODIS validation activities ……. Vince Salomonson • CERES validation activities ………... Bruce Wielicki • AIRS/AMSU/HSB validation activities … Eric Fetzer • AMSU/HSB precipitation measurements over the Arctic …………………………. Dave Staelin • AMSR-E/SSMI water vapor movies ….. Frank Wentz • Update on Aqua mission operations …… Angie Kelly • Workshop on EOS data …………………. Dan Ziskin

3. Checkout Period and Beyond • The May 4 Aqua launch was followed by a highly successful 120-day checkout period of the spacecraft and all the instruments. • On September 1, the checkout period ended and the official transition took place from the Aqua Project, headed by Phil Sabelhaus, to Earth Science Mission Operations and Systems (ESMOS), headed by Paul Ondrus. • The new Aqua Mission Director is Bill Guit; the EOS Mission Operations Manager is Angie Kelly. • All instruments continue to perform well.

4. Image Advisories • Image advisories are images with captions that are being put on the aqua.nasa.gov web site to provide a sampling of what is being obtained from Aqua. • Please send potential advisories to Steve Graham at graham@pop900.gsfc.nasa.gov. Images and text are reviewed by Claire Parkinson and, when available, Ramesh Kakar. • Most recent advisory images: Tropical Cloud Systems from CERES Flooding from Hurricane Isidore, from AMSU-A

5. Status of the Aqua Special Issueof the IEEE Transactions on Geoscienceand Remote Sensing (TGARS) • Total of 32 papers submitted, spring 2002 • 26 papers accepted • 2 papers withdrawn • 3 revised papers back in the hands of the reviewers • 1 paper not yet resubmitted • Paper distribution • 18 from the AIRS/AMSU/HSB Science Team • 6 from the U.S. and Japanese AMSR-E Science Teams • 5 from the MODIS Science Team • 1 general Aqua overview • Guest Editors: Mous Chahine, Chris Kummerow, Claire Parkinson, Vince Salomonson • Scheduled publication date: February 2003 (lots left to be done: copy editing, proofing, layout, etc.)

6. Aqua Special Sessions planned for 2003 • Optical Society of America, February 3-6, Quebec • AIRS special session • Organized by Mitch Goldberg and Jim Yoe • ASPRS, May 5-9, Anchorage • Aqua special session • Chaired by Phil Sabelhaus • Invited Speakers: Phil Sabelhaus, Mike Donnelly, Vince Salomonson, and Mous Chahine • IGARSS, July 21-25, Toulouse • AMSR-E special session • Organized by Elena Lobl • AGU, December 8-12, San Francisco • Aqua special session • Organized by Steve Graham • Chaired by Claire Parkinson

7. Aqua Honored with a Popular Science “Best of What’s New” Award • Aqua is a winner in the Aviation and Space category. • You can place the “Best of What’s New” logo (below) on your web sites. • You can vote for Aqua for a “People’s Choice” award. • Go to http://aqua.nasa.gov • Click on the “Best of What’s New” logo. • Click on “VOTE NOW” right below “Click the button below to vote for Aqua.”

9. AIRS Team Leader Wins Major Award • At the World Space Congress meeting in Houston in October, Mous Chahine was awarded the Nordberg Medal from COSPAR, for “distinguished contribu-tions to the application of space science to the study of the environment.”

10. MODIS Team Leader Wins Major Award • On November 15, Vince Salomonson was awarded the William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Science, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, for his “outstanding, sustained leadership in the NASA Earth Science space and applications program and for his leadership and research in advancing spaceborne technology and remote sensing for the investigation of the Earth from space.”