Apr 27 1987
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(New page: NASA announced that its scientists had joined with scientists from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research and from U.S. and Brazilian universities and institutes to conduct a 45-day st...)
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NASA announced that its scientists had joined with scientists from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research and from U.S. and Brazilian universities and institutes to conduct a 45-day study of tropospheric (part of the atmosphere closest to Earth) chemistry in the atmosphere over the Amazon River Basin tropical rain forest during the wet season. NASA's program of global tropospheric experiments to study the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere and its interaction with land and oceans began in the 1980's. NASA used the Space Shuttle in 1981 and 1984 to measure tropospheric carbon monoxide with a gas filter radiometer. In July and August 1985, NASA's Amazon boundary layer experiment (ABLE) documented the importance of biosphere-atmosphere interactions in determining chemical processes in the troposphere over undisturbed rain forests. The second ABLE experiment, begun in mid-April 1987, was to study how tropical forests affect the gas exchange, chemistry, and budgets of several key gases in the troposphere.
A NASA Electra aircraft, stationed in Manasus, Brazil, in the center of the Amazon River Basin, was expected to measure atmospheric trace gases and aerosols during a series of flights. The results from the experiments aboard the Electra aircraft and from several investigations carried out at ground sites would be evaluated by the team of scientists late in 1987.
NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications in Washington, D.C., was responsible for the tropospheric chemistry program. Langley's Atmospheric Sciences Division, with logistical support from the Bionetics Corporation in Hampton, Virginia, managed the ABLE project.(Nasa Release 87-66)
NASA announced that within hours of its discovery on February 24, 1987, NASA scientists were monitoring the Supernova 1987a with the Earth orbiting international ultraviolet explorer (IUE) and the Solar Max Mission (SMM) spacecraft. Subsequently, as previously announced, NASA began monitoring the supernova with a network of ground antennas. The major supernova science program mounted by NASA and the intense, worldwide scientific interest in the supernova resulted from the fact that the discovery of Supernova 1987a provided scientists the opportunity to study not only the death of the star, but also the resultant rebirth of matter. The explosion, shock waves, and tremendous energies of Supernova 1987a were expected to provide direct evidence of the creation of heavy elements such as silicon and nickel.
This marks the first time a supernova has been so close to the Earth and so bright since the 1604 supernova, when the telescope had not yet been discovered. The advantageous circumstances allowed scientists to study the super-nova in all radiation wavelengths from nearly the moment of its explosion. Scientists expected that the array of instruments and the variety of NASA's methods of monitoring the supernova would not only yield a new under-standing of the chemistry and physics of the comet, but also potentially would provide a better understanding of the creation of matter.
The supernova program was expected to extend at least over the next 2-1/2 years. It would consist of multiple, continuous satellite observations, balloon and sounding rocket missions, aircraft flights, and radio observations. A special computer communications network would allow scientists from NASA, American and foreign universities, and other international scientific organizations to analyze the great amount of data generated by the program.
In addition to the IUE and SMM spacecraft, managed and operated by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a Japanese Ginga (Astro-C) satellite was used to monitor the Supernova 1987a. The IUE satellite provided data from ultraviolet observations and monitored the over-all brightness of the supernova. It also was expected to help define exactly which star in the Large Magellanic Cloud exploded creating the supernova. The SMM satellite, a sun-observing instrument, was used to monitor the expected gamma ray emissions from the supernova. The Japanese Ginga (Astro-C) satellite was used to monitor the supernova for x-ray emissions.
NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), a C-141 jet trans-port stationed in New Zealand, was also used in supernova observations to measure infrared energy. It was expected to be involved in a number of flights through the spring of 1989, using new and increasingly more sophisticated instruments. (NASA Release 87-67)
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