SeaWiFS Temporary Real-Time Authorization Agreement Application Form



Applicant's Name: 	Greg Stossmeister	
Institution:		University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint 
			Office for Science Support	
Address:		P.O. Box 3000
			Boulder, CO  80307-3000	
			USA
Telephone:		(303)497-8692	
Fax Number:		(303)497-8158	
E-mail Address:  	gstoss@ucar.edu	

Type of Temporary Agreement requested:

An agreement that temporarily enables a non-real time SeaWiFS HRPT station 
to decrypt real-time data and release it to the Authorized Users list.

Time period of temporary agreement:

Dates (month/day/year): 11/24/2004 - 02/01/2005

SeaWiFS HRPT Station to provide data: HCAR

List of Authorized Users to access real-time data. 

1. Greg Stossmeister 

Project Title: Operational Support for RICO Field Campaign 

Investigator(s): Richard Dirks, Jim Moore, Greg Stossmeister 

Funding Agency(s): National Science Foundation 

Description of the Research Project and Justification for Real-time SeaWiFS Data:

The objective of RICO in the broadest sense is to characterize and understand the
properties of trade wind cumulus at all scales, with particlar emphasis on determining
the importance of precipitation.  At the smallest scale, the most fundamental problem -
recognized for over a half century - is explaning the rapid onset of precipitation in
shallow tropical clouds.  At the intermediate scale, processes controlling the mesoscale
structure and coverage of shallow tropical cloud systems are not well understood.  At the
largest scale, our inability to describe the statistical behavior of trade wind cloud fields
confounds our attempts to properly represent the exchange of radiant energy, moist
enthalpy, momentum and trace constituents between the atmosphere and ocean over vast
expanses of the planet.  These scales are inextricably linked and the nature of these
linkages is an important aspect of RICO.

In the field, project forecasters will use SeaWiFS data along with other meteorological
information to prepare project forecasts and briefings.  The SeaWiFS aerosol and ocean
color products are expected to be extremely useful.  Project PIs will use this information
to plan aircraft flight patterns, research vessel tracks, and ground and upper-air
instrument sampling strategies as well as other operations details.

The role of UCAR/JOSS in RICO is to provide operational and logistics support.  Among
our operational responsibilities are the delivery of necessary satellite, surface, and upper-
air data as well as other meteorological and oceanographic data required for operations
planning.  UCAR/JOSS would like to provide the real-time SeaWiFS data for the project
via our ground station (HCAR).  Real-time reception of telemetry would be required
during the set-up and operational phases of the project.  Current plans are for the set-up of
satellite equipment to begin in late November, with the project running through the end 
of January.



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Grace Su ( grace@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9494