Sep 15 1980
From The Space Library
NASA announced plans to join a university research team in first-time transcontinental laser-radar soundings of the volcanic veil still hanging in the upper atmosphere over the United States from the eruptions of Mt.
St. Helens. Using NASA's SAGE satellite with an aircraft "crammed with the latest in laser and electronic remote-sensing and near-sensing technologies," scientists from LaRC and WFC and from Drexel University, the Universities of Maryland, Arizona, and Alaska, Dartmouth College, Michigan Technological University, and the Oregon Graduate Center would study volcanic aftermath.
This joint effort scheduled for September 17-21 by teams for the SAGE program and the Research on Atmospheric Volcanic Emissions (RAVE) project funded by NASA and operated through the universities would measure quantities of gases ejected by Mt. St. Helens and atmospheric dispersion of aerosols. Launched in 1978, SAGE had used a four-channel solar radiometer to track volcano plumes and take profiles of ozone and aerosols in the stratosphere, site of most of the ozone preventing harmful solar radiation from damaging life on Earth. (NASA Release 80-143; LaRC Release 80-61)
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