Brian Dunbar

Headquarters, Washington, DC February 2, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Ernie Shannon
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-8955)

RELEASE: 95-11

SUCCESSFUL U.S.-RUSSIAN OZONE-MONITORING MISSION

APPEARS OVER

More than three years after it began, the mission of

NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aboard the
Russian Meteor-3 spacecraft appears to be over.

Recent attempts to revive the instrument, which failed

in December, have been unsuccessful. Though monitoring of
the device will continue through April, the instrument team
has said it is unlikely that further efforts will succeed.

Launched from Plesetsk in the then-Soviet Union on

Aug. 15, 1991, the TOMS instrument has already exceeded its
design life of two years, providing important data and
global maps of total ozone levels. TOMS data is used
primarily to determine long-term ozone trends, detect
sulfur dioxide clouds from volcanic eruptions and detect
atmospheric aerosols and dust storms.

ÒEven though it appears we will lose the instrument, I

am quite pleased with TOMS and the Russian spacecraft's
performance during the past 3 years,Ó said Dr. Jay Herman,
TOMS/Meteor-3 principal investigator, of NASAÕs Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. ÒThe instrument has
produced a large quantity of critical atmospheric data
longer than its designed 2-year lifetime.Ó

The TOMS/Meteor-3 instrument is NASAÕs second. The

first, which operated from 1978 through 1993, provided part
of the scientific underpinning for international treaties
banning the manufacture and use of ozone-depleting
chemicals.

No useful data have been received since Dec. 27, 1994,

when spacecraft telemetry indicated a lack of steady
electrical current to the instrument's chopper motor. The
chopper divides, or Òchops,Ó incoming solar energy for
measurements of ultraviolet radiation.
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-2-

The chopper reduces the amount of noise in the observed

radiance data and improves the accuracy of the ozone
determination. Recently, ground controllers in Russia
successfully ÒwarmedÓ the Meteor-3 spacecraft in hopes of
recovering the instrument, but without results.

ÒWe appreciate our Russian colleaguesÕ efforts to help

us try an innovative approach to spacecraft operations,Ó
Herman said. "This kind of cooperative spirit has marked
all phases of the mission, from planning and operations to
data analysis. The result has been a very smooth mission."

U.S. and Russian engineers will continue to monitor

the instrument. A power cycling technique will be tried
again in April, when the spacecraft's orbit will lead it to
warm naturally. Members of the instrument team, however,
believe the chance of reviving TOMS is very small.

NASA plans to fly two more TOMS within 13 months. The

first is scheduled for launch aboard a Pegasus launch
vehicle in May, the second aboard the Japanese Advanced
Earth Observing Satellite in February 1996. The fifth TOMS
instrument will fly aboard a Russian Meteor-3M satellite in
2000.

Even without an operational TOMS in orbit, ozone

studies will continue. A network of ground stations and
satellites, including NASAÕs Upper Atmosphere Research
Satellite and Earth Radiation Budget Satellite and NOAA
weather satellites, are still obtaining local, regional and
some global ozone measurements.

ÒWe will still be able to provide ozone data to

scientists,Ó Jack Kaye of NASA Headquarters, the TOMS
program scientist, "but not with the high quality and
spatial coverage of TOMS. This instrument is unique in its
ability to provide highly accurate daily maps of ozone over
the entire sunlit Earth. The loss of TOMS will
particularly affect our ability to study details of ozone
dynamics at high latitudes in the winter and early spring,
when substantial ozone depletion can occur.Ó

TOMS data are one of the most visible elements of

NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, the Agency's long term,
coordinated research effort to study the Earth's global
environment. It is comprised of ground-based, airborne and
space-based investigations into how the Earth's large
environmental systemsÑair, water, land and lifeÑinteract
and change, and how human activities contribute to those
changes. Mission to Planet Earth data will be made
available to scientists worldwide so that humans ultimately
will be able to make informed decisions about how their
activities will affect the environment.

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-3-

The TOMS instrument is managed by the Goddard Space

Flight Center for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth,
Washington, DC.

- end -

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