A -- CIRRUS REGIONAL STUDY OF TROPICAL ANVILS AND CIRRUS LAYERS -- FLORIDA AREA CIRRUS EXPERIMENT

Notice Date

April 18, 2001

Contracting Office

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771

ZIP Code

20771

Solicitation Number

NRA-01-OES-02

Response Due

July 6, 2001

Point of Contact

Dr. Donald E Anderson, Radiation Sciences Program Manager, Phone (202) 358-1432, Fax (202) 358-2770, Email danders1@hq.nasa.gov

E-Mail Address

Dr. Donald E Anderson (danders1@hq.nasa.gov)

Description

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to solicit proposals for the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers -- Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE). CRYSTAL-FACE is a focused mission of modeling, observations and integrated analyses designed to investigate tropical cirrus cloud systems and their roles in both regional and global climates. Satellite observations will be utilized in mission planning and to provide coincident data to assist the development of global retrieval of cirrus cloud cover. Specific flight segments will be designed to assist validation of EOS Terra and Aqua investigations. The largest gaps in our understanding of global cirrus effects on climate involve tropical cirrus systems. High-level clouds dominate the cloud radiative forcing signal in the tropics. Tropical cirrus systems usually originate from water transport in deep convective cloud clusters, however a wide range of upper level cloud types may result from such convection. These include thick precipitating anvil clouds directly tied to the convective cells, moderately thick non-precipitating anvils, and the thin cirrus that are a fairly ubiquitous feature of the tropics. In addition, in situ observations of cross tropopause transports, will provide improved understanding of global chemical transport and the impact of the tropics on the global distribution of chemicals and aerosols in the troposphere and stratosphere. The CRYSTAL-FACE mission is scheduled to occur July-August 2002 and will be deployed from Jackonsville Fla. CRYSTAL-FACE will address three questions in the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy ( http://www.earth.nasa.gov/visions/index.html ) which are clearly related to the issues of the formation, properties and radiative impacts of cirrus cloud systems. Specifically: a) (Variability) How are global precipitation, evaporation and cycling of water changing? Improved knowledge and understanding of upper tropospheric clouds and mechanisms that contribute to their evolution are critical to formulation and verification of methods to realistically capture cycling of water in regional and large- scale climate models. b) (Forcing) What trends in atmospheric constituents and solar radiation are driving global climate? The impact of cirrus in the tropics on the global distribution of water vapor, particularly cross tropopause mixing, is a key to understanding global chemical and aerosol transports. c) (Response) What are the effects of clouds and surface hydrologic processes on Earth's Climate? To answer this question, knowledge is required of the global water ice and water vapor fields in the upper troposphere in relationship to the associated global radiative fields and on scales adequate to resolve the dominant physical processes ultimately responsible for their occurrence, e.g., storm and cloud systems. The NRA will be available electronically on the release date, via the Internet at the Research Opportunities home page at http://research.hq.nasa.gov/ under ''Office of Earth Science (Code Y)''. This announcement will be open for the period from May 4, 2001 through July 6, 2001, and proposals may be submitted at any time throughout that period. POC: Dr. Donald E. Anderson Code YS, Radiation Sciences Program Manager Tel. (202) 358-1432 FAX (202) 358-2770 danders1@hq.nasa.gov

Web Link

Click here for the latest information about this notice (http://nais.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin=04#NRA-01-OES-02)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010420/ASOL008.HTM (D-108 SN50J5W8)