1995-16							July 19, 1995

Contact:  Joan Vandiver Frisch
Media Relations Manager
Tel. 303-497-8607, Fax:  303-497-8610
E-mail:  jfrisch@ucar.edu

NCAR AWARDS $5.5 MILLION TO LOCKHEED FOR SATELLITE 
INSTRUMENT FABRICATION

BOULDERÑThe National Center for Atmospheric Research 
(NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, has awarded a $5.5 million 
contract to Lockheed Martin Palo Alto Research 
Laboratories in California to complete the conceptual 
design of an instrument that will measure chemical 
compounds in the stratosphere.  Called HIRDLS, a NASA-
funded program which stands for high-resolution dynamics 
limb sounder, the instrument is being designed by U. S. 
and British scientists at NCAR and Oxford university in 
the United Kingdom.  

According to NCARÕs John Gille, the principal 
investigator for U. S. participation in the project,  the 
instrument is scheduled for flight aboard the third major 
launch of the EOS (Earth Observing System) series of 
satellites in the year 2002.  The HIRDLS instrument will 
measure trace gases in the stratosphere and upper 
troposphere.

Lockheed is now in the conceptual design phase of the 
four U. S. subsystems for the HIRDLS instrument. They are 
the telescope, the detector, the instrument processor and 
the power subsystems.  Lockheed is also responsible for 
the integration and test of the instrument. 

Oxford University in England and three other 
organizations will provide the outer structure, the 
gyroscope for measuring telescope motion, the 
refrigerator system for keeping the infrared detectors 
cool, the sun shield, the optical conceptual design, and 
inflight calibrator of the instrument.  John Barnett is 
the Oxford principal investigator.  Lockheed and Oxford 
scientists will both be responsible for the calibration.  

ÒThis instrument is designed to look at the tropopause, 
the boundary between the region closest to the earth's 
surface and the stratosphere, and make measurements of 
gases on a smaller scale than has been possible before," 
Gille explains.  "For example, longitudinally we were 
able to observe only every 25¡, or about 2,800 kilometers 
(km) at the equator.  With HIRDLS we will increase the 
resolution by a factor of six, to 4¡, or 450 km, and see 
vertical variations on a scale as small as 1 km."

The lifetime of the HIRDLS instrument is from five to six 
years.  HIRDLS is one of the data-gathering experiments 
aboard the EOS chemistry satellite to be launched in the 
year 2002.

The instrument is the size of a large box, approximately 
one meter cubed and weighs about 170 kilograms.  One side 
painted black will radiate heat to outer space.  The 
remainder of the cube is wrapped in multi-layers of 
insulation to maintain cool temperatures necessary for 
operation of the instrument.

NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for 
Atmospheric Research under sponsorship of the National 
Science Foundation.
					-The End-
.