PDF version of COSPAR - Space Science Research in Canada Report

More documents

Recommendations

Info

objective of the OSIRIS project, but the quality of the data turned out to be betterthan anyone anticipated.She noted that researchers have paid much attention to what is happening in thestratosphere, the atmospheric region below the mesosphere, but they are nowrealizing that “to fully understand the processes there, we need to look further upand understand the water content.”OSIRIS is also gathering data on polar stratospheric clouds. They are known toaccelerate ozone depletion and play a key role in creating ozone holes over thepoles. Ironically, the ideal conditions for their formation – extremely coldtemperatures in the stratosphere – occur because the greenhouse gases thatcause global warming trap heat closer to the Earth’s surface, resulting instratospheric cooling.Finally, OSIRIS is being used to detect another type of high-altitude clouds: ultrathinor sub-visual cirrus clouds, which are also believed to play an importantclimatic role. This work is being done by graduate student Adam Bourassa, whohas just completed his PhD. He has also been using OSIRIS to study sulphateaerosols, industrial pollutants in the atmosphere that influence cloud formation.Melo said OSIRIS is producing unique three-dimensional maps of aerosolpollution. Measurements of how these pollutants are transported around theglobe can be used as an indirect measure of the movement of air parcels in theupper atmosphere. “We don’t have any direct measurements of the winds in thestratosphere,” she said. “This adds one extra component to the collection ofinformation.”The loss of several other satellites that were studying ozone and otheratmospheric constituents has put OSIRIS in the important but unexpectedposition of bridging a gap in data collection. It is difficult to meld data fromdifferent satellites and instruments but fortunately, there is an overlap of aboutthree and a half years between the OSIRIS data and those from other satellites,which should enable scientists to correlate the information and producecontinuous trend information.62
“When they get the next set of satellites up, hopefully we’ll have another overlapand we can get them to agree as well, so everybody gets bridged,” Llewellynsaid.The OSIRIS instrument built by Routes AstroEngineering, is led by Principle Investigator Dr.Doug Degenstein of the Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies at the University ofSaskatchewan and supported by a science team of Co-I’s. OSIRIS flies on the Odin satellitewhich is a Swedish led mission with co-operations from The Swedish Space Corporation, onbehalf of the SNSB Swedish National Space Board and the space agencies of Canada (CSA),Finland (TEKES), France (CNES) and ESA. The science return from the OSIRIS project has alsobeen generously supported by NSERC (www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ ) and scientists withinEnvironment Canada (www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/).63
Page 6 and 7:
satellite, MOST—and to leverage C
Page 8 and 9:
This is a science-driven strategy f
Page 13: Future planetary missionsCanada is
Page 17 and 18: objects that pose a collision hazar
Page 19 and 20: Earth’s magnetosphere. In Februar
Page 21 and 22: Life And Physical SciencesPerceptua
Page 23 and 24: Bodies in the Space Environment (BI
Page 26 and 27: The astronauts will loop willow ste
Page 28 and 29: Selected Project and Mission Descri
Page 30 and 31: His goal is to study several differ
Page 32 and 33: pressure, involves a device that us
Page 34 and 35: positively-charged protons—stream
Page 36 and 37: elegans, these tiny worms have been
Page 38 and 39: There are two basic kinds of space
Page 40 and 41: of water on Mars is a scientific pr
Page 42 and 43: alteration rind caused by water flo
Page 44 and 45: loss of the telescope. Although the
Page 46 and 47: in 2008 that will also collect data
Page 48 and 49: Dynacon Inc. of Mississauga, Ontari
Page 50 and 51: since the early days of his researc
Page 52 and 53: photographed by the lander cameras
Page 54 and 55: degrees Celsius, they’re probably
Page 56 and 57: service on the way.” Natural Reso
Page 58 and 59: The amount of data generated by the
Page 60 and 61: Because of this, “measuring ozone
show all

PDF version of COSPAR - Space Science Research in Canada Report

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?