# Aqua Teleconference September 6, 2007

**On the phone:**

*Project science*: Claire Parkinson (telecon chair), Steve Platnick,
Steve Graham

*Instruments*: Vince Salomonson, Jack Xiong, Roy Spencer, Elena Lobl,
Tom Pagano, Denis Elliott, Edward Olsen, Norman Loeb

*ESMO*: Bill Guit, Angie Kelly

*HQ:* Ramesh Kakar, Cheryl Yuhas

## **Mission Ops (Guit, Kelly):** see distributed ppt file for details. 

[Major activities over last month:]{.underline}

-   8/14: Cabletron Replacement meeting (replacing Cabletron switches
    with Cisco, part of ground system upgrades)

-   8/16: MODIS SRCA calibration

-   8/17: predicted close approach (at 1806 UTC).

-   8/21: EPS Power Working Group Meeting

-   Ongoing IT Security/GS meetings - daily and weekly.

######## Planned Activities for Next Month

-   9/11: Solar eclipse #13

-   NASA/DoD interagency working group meetings

[Long-Term Plans]{.underline} (no changes)

-   Single S/C Ops, Dump-N-Go, and Lights Dim ops: no changes. Working
    on quantitative assessment of data capture impacts.

## Spacecraft Anomalies

[]{.mark}

-   No new anomalies.

## Instrument Anomalies

[]{.mark}

-   No new anomalies.

-   AMSR-E motor current/torque update: Current torque threshold at 4.5
    Nm (current \~1.2). QuickSCAT had similar behavior with its antenna
    bearing assembly (see slide 12). Trying to obtain the JPL anomaly
    investigation report.

[Debris Avoidance]{.underline}:

8/17: Didn't implement a maneuver, but post-analysis showed about a 95 m
miss (85 m radial) which is about an order of magnitude less probability
of collision compared with instances in which maneuvers were done for
Terra. The Data Releasability Matrix was signed off by DoD official;
allows us to share conjunction analysis with A-Train international
partners (CNES, CONAE). NASA Procedural Requirements for limiting debris
and having routine conjunction assessment analyses became effective.

[Spacecraft]{.underline}: status = green

[]{.mark}

[Instruments]{.underline}: status = green

[]{.mark}

[Data capture/L0 processing]{.underline}: green. No data losses in
August.

### 

### **Project Science:**

*Parkinson*:

Our new Program Executive is Cheryl Yuhas. Thanks to Cheryl for joining
our telecon. As before, the Program Scientist is Ramesh Kakar. We're
supposed to be working closely with Cheryl and Ramesh over the course of
the upcoming year to prepare for the end-of-Prime-Mission review, and so
I hope they will both be able to join the telecons as frequently as
possible.

HQ response came in early August; our response is due to Mike Freilich
(NASA HQ) tomorrow. I've incorporated comments to the extent possible
from those sent in. Thanks to all. Some items we're responding to
include the concern about Aqua having a continuing level budget. We were
instructed to work with the PS and PE on this item. You'll read in the
letter a summary of the cuts that have already been incurred by the
teams over the years and the reasons why we believe our budget is
appropriate. Tomorrow I'll send Cheryl and Ramesh the more detailed
CERES and MODIS itemization of past cost reductions, after getting the
letter off to Mike Freilich and the Aqua Senior Review Team.

*Platnick*:

The almost-final budget spreadsheet was sent out earlier this morning.
Aqua will be continued at the basic level of funding with inflation
factors as given by HQ. All instrument team numbers look correct and are
consistent with how Tables I, II, and III were filled out for the SR
basic continuation proposal.

However, the Terra MO numbers were inadvertently used in this
spreadsheet instead of Aqua; this mistake is being corrected by Teresa.
Using the Aqua MO budget gives us the equivalent of the Freilich letter
with the exception that our bottom-line numbers are smaller than the
Freilich letter by about \$765K, \$87K, \$89K, and \$92K for FY08-11,
respectively, due to a double-booking of MO IT security upgrades.

CY: Volz replied to Imhoff and gave him a week's extension for the Terra
budget. CP, SP: We don't believe we need an extension.

**Data system/EOSDIS:**

No report.

**CERES (Loeb):**

Instruments nominal.

**MODIS (Salomonson, Xiong):**

Instrument and processing is nominal. Still waiting to hear what
constitutes the MODIS Science Team. Award winners need to know how much
they will receive and when the money will arrive. Have had conversations
with Paula about when will the next MODIS Science Team meeting be, and
will it be in conjunction with the new NPP team?

**AMSR-E (Spencer, Lobl):**

EL: Processing is going well.

RS: Cautiously optimistic regarding the torque issue.

### **AIRS/AMSU (Pagano, Elliott, Olsen):**

DE: Both instruments nominal.

TP: Next STM is Oct 9 at the Greenbelt Marriott. Will have a session for
NPP CrIS sounder activities. Working with Mous and Ramesh on a list of
members for a combined sounder team.

### **HQ (Kakar, Yuhas):**

RK:

EOS recompetition selection update. Letters were mailed on Aug 1 with
the following categories: Accepted, selectable (TBD), not awarded, and
not yet reviewed. All proposals have now been reviewed. There are 28
proposals that are categorized as selectable. We will have to wait until
Sept. 30 to announce the decision for those 28 proposals. Some selected
proposals are at very small amounts, e.g., basically just for travel
funds to attend the team meetings.

For proposals under my program, almost no one is getting the requested
budget. These investigators will need to send in a new budget and short
statement of work. Can I get a list of team members that are in the
worst financial shape? SP: Contracts take so much longer than grants. So
all things being equal, I'd suggest giving the contract awards the
priority (which would include the AMSR-E Team Lead - Roy/Elena).

**Outreach, web site, etc. (Graham):**

Have been requesting information for the response to the EPO panel
report, which will be a component of the overall Aqua Senior Review
response to Freilich.

**Next Telecon:** Thursday, October 4, 2007

Minutes are being placed on the following site:
<http://aqua.nasa.gov/minutes>. Corrections/additions should be sent to
Steve Platnick.