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The SABER Mission
.. Mission Goals .. Mission
Objectives ..
Scientific Rationale .. The
SABER Team .. Partner Organizations
.:: The
SABER Mission
Understanding current atmospheric processes will enable more accurate
prediction of future changes in order to assess the consequences as well
as suggest corrective solutions for society. The NASA instrument called
SABER will allow researchers to learn more about the upper atmosphere
by helping produce the first comprehensive global measurements of Earth's
upper atmosphere (60 to 100 km range - upper mesosphere & ionosphere).
It is one of four instruments on the TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere,
Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics) spacecraft. SABER will view &
measure the vertical distribution of infrared radiation emitted by various
atmospheric gases (ozone, water vapor, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide) &
provide measurements of the temperature and chemical structure of the
atmospheric limb adding important information to what is known as the
radiation budget.
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.:: Mission
Goals
1) To understand the influence of the Sun and lower atmospheric
weather on Earth's upper atmosphere.
.........Short-term variability caused by the sun from above and the weather
from below.
2) To understand the influence of human activities on Earth's
atmosphere.
.........Long-term variability caused by human activities from below.
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.:: Mission
Objectives
1) To Determine the MLTI Basic Structure:
To determine the temperature, density, and wind structure in the Mesosphere,
Lower thermosphere, and Ionosphere (MLTI) region (60-180 km), including
the seasonal and latitudinal variations;
2) To understand the MLTI Energy Balance:
To determine the relative importance of the various radiative, chemical,
electrodynamical, and dynamical sources and sinks of energy for the thermal
structure of the MLTI region.
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.::
Scientific
Rationale
"The Earth's mesosphere and lower thermosphere are the least
explored region on the Earth's atmosphere. They are influenced by varying
solar extreme ultraviolet, ultraviolet, and X-ray radiation, auroral particles
and fields, and upward propagating waves and tides from the lower atmosphere....
It is known that the global structure of this region of the atmosphere
can be perturbed during stratospheric warmings and solar-terrestrial events
(magnetospheric substorms, solar flares), but the overall structure and
dynamics responses of these effects...are not understood."
.........Space Science in the Twenty-First Century: Imperative for the
Decades 1995-2015, The National Academy of Science, 1988
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.::
The SABER Team
Principal Investigator
James M. Russell III, Hampton University
Associate Principal Investigator
Martin G. Mlynczak, NASA Langley Research Center
Co-Investigators
Raymond G. Roble, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Rolando R. Garcia, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Ellis E. Remsberg, NASA Langley Research Center
Susan Solomon, NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory
Doran J. Baker, Utah Sate University
Patrick J. Espy, Utah Sate University
Manuel Lopez-Puertas, IAA, Spain
Richard H. Picard, Phillips Laboratory
Larry L. Gordley, G & A Technical Software
David E. Siskind, Naval Research Laboratory
James C. Ulwick, Stewart Radiance Laboratory
Project Management
James B. Miller, NASA Langley Research Center
Lorin J. Zollinger, SDL/Utah State University
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.::
Partner Organizations
SABER is a partnership between Hampton
University, G &
A Technical Software, Inc., Utah
State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory, and NASA's
Langley Research Center.
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