HUmming CALIPSO

Even with the satellite still on the ground, lofty work continues at Hampton University.

HAMPTON -- When word went out last October that CALIPSO wouldn't fly any time soon, scientists around the world turned their data-collecting efforts elsewhere.

The satellite, which is designed to measure the atmosphere's aerosols to better determine their effect on climate, weather and air quality, went into a clean room in California to wait for another day.

But science teachers and those at Hampton University who would make them better continued their task of educating children about tiny particles in the air that, when combined, can change the amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth.

"We never stopped," said Barbara Maggi, assistant to Dianne Robinson in the CALIPSO outreach program.

NASA and Hampton University are partners with the French in CALIPSO, which stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation. Its oft-delayed launch is now scheduled for April 21 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Robinson and Maggi work with teachers and students, with museums and science centers and with the general public to get the word out about CALIPSO - a $275 million project, with $75 million of that coming from the French.

It's worth about $2 million to Hampton University, which has done this sort of thing before with NASA but never this extensively.

The program is being run by the NASA Langley Research Center, which provides one of the principal investigators, Dave Winker. The other is Hampton University's Pat McCormick, himself a former NASA Langley scientist.

For McCormick, it's part of a lifelong link with lidar that goes back to his undergraduate days at William and Mary, where he worked with the then-new technology. Lidar works like radar by measuring the return of a laser beam fired at a target.

"I started working with lidar in 1964," he said. "... Once I found a way to calibrate it, I slept with that baby. I wouldn't let it out of my sight."

At Hampton University, McCormick works with Tom Kovacs, who is heading up the CALIPSO validation program. The validation program gathers measurements that correspond to those of the satellite from as many as 400 places around the world.

That has Kovacs dealing with scientists from all over the world.

"Communication is a big issue," said Kovacs. "A lot of these countries speak English, but not a whole lot of English, so you have to be careful of what you say when you send e-mails or talk with them."

Until recently, most communications have concerned delays, including the one in October that was caused by a strike by Boeing technicians at Vandenberg.

"(Delays) have taken a role in the validation because all of these sites are ready to take measurements," he said. "It's hard to tell them when exactly to start taking them. Some of the (scientists) are probably newer and don't understand the delays."

But for Robinson and Maggi, the work never stopped. Their targets have been middle school students in the United States and in France. Last week they were at a conference of science teachers in Los Angeles, talking up CALIPSO.

"If you get kids excited about science in middle school, they're hooked," Maggi said. "Later, there's no chance. It's too late."

Along with the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program, Hampton University's outreach program gets children involved through interaction. Middle school children around the world will take measurements of the atmosphere using a sun photometer, which determines how much of the sun's radiation reaches the Earth after it's been filtered through clouds and aerosols.

"The students will realize that they are getting data with a hand-held instrument in Virginia, just as students in France will be getting data, just as students in Chile will be getting data," said Robinson, a former middle and high school teacher who became a research scientist.

While the scientists are excited about getting the satellite aloft and data coming back down, Robinson and Maggi's enthusiasm has a different source.

"The launch gets teachers excited, and when teachers get excited, the kids get excited," Maggi said.

To her, that's a mission accomplished.

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