Apr 11, 2007 9:57 pm US/Mountain
NASA, CU Partner To Study Clouds
by Shaun Boyd
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
NASA will soon launch a satellite to study mysterious cloud formations that may be related to climate change. The $110 million mission will be controlled from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The clouds are seen at sunset in the arctic. The wispy clouds hover on the fringe of earth's outer atmosphere. They may be breathtaking in beauty, but the noctilucent clouds may also have a dark side. Some scientists say they are increasing in brightness and frequency and they could be possible indicator of climate change.
CU scientist Cora Randall is part of a team that will do the first-of-its-kind study of the beautiful and bizarre clouds.
"Clouds will occur more frequently if you have colder temperatures," Randall said. "And climate change with the release of greenhouse gases, while it causes a warming in the troposphere, it causes a cooling in the upper atmosphere where the clouds are."
The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite mission, funded by NASA, will be controlled out of CU where two of its three instruments were built.
"Students are involved in every single aspect," Randall said. "All the way from concept, to design of instruments, to operating the instruments, to analyzing the data."
One instrument is the cloud imaging and particle size experiment. Four cameras will give scientists a high-resolution panoramic view of the clouds.
"That's going to tell us where clouds are and how bright they are," Randall said.
The cosmic dust experiment is another CU instrument. It will collect space dust which appears to play a key role in the cloud formation.
"Nobody has imaged the clouds like we will be doing," Randall said.
Ultimately, what they hope to do, is demystify the clouds and determine if they are indeed harbingers of climate change.
NASA plans to launch the AIM satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California April 25. Right now the program is funded for two years.
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