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National Aeronauticsand SpaceAdministration Headquarters Appendix 1 Washington. ~0546-0001 DC Reply 10 AItn of: y ocr , 4 1999 Dr. Bruce AJben; Prcsidcnt National Rcscarcb Council 2101 ConstitutiOl:l Avenue. NW Washington. DC 20418 Dear Dr. Albcrts: The Confcrcncc ]~ort (House RepoIt 106-379) accompanying liR. 2684, the FY 2000 V A- HUD-Indepcndeut Agencies appropriations bill, states: ..The conJrerccs have not terminated the Triana program as the House had proposed. Instead. tJle conferees direct NASA to suspend all work on the development of the Triana us:lngfunds made availablc by this appropriation until the National Acadcmy of Sciences i:NAS) has completed 8.[1 cvaluation of the scientific goals of the Triana mission. The conferees expect the NAS to move expeditiously to complete itS evaluatiol1.. In the event of a favorable report from the NAS, NASA may not launch Triana prior to January I, 2001. The conferees have no ol,jection to NASA's reserving funds made available by this appropriation for potential teITnination costs. The confc~rees recogni%e that. if a favorable report is rendc:fedby the NAS, there will be some ~.dditional cost resu1tingfrom the delay.'. This is to request that the National ResearchCoW1cil(NRC) undc:nakethe evaluation of the scientific goals of Triana, as specified in the Conference ReJX>1t. In Juty 1998, NASA released an oPen. competitive AnnouncemeJ1t Opportunity for a of Triana mission tCIconduct Earth remote sensing investigatio"nsfrclm L I. In October 1998, Dr. francisco Valero of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography1was selected as Principal Investigator to inlptement the Triana mission ba$ed upon the scientific merits ofhis proposal; the supponing t~w includes scientists from 8 universities, industry, intemation&l and government resCtlrchlaboratories. The mission seteCtionalso inctuded enhancementS to proposed instrwr1entation and the addition of a Space Scjence..fur}ded space weather 20
Appendix 1 monitoring instrument suitc. The scieTltific thcmcs addressed by Triana arc: . so1aJ" radiation and climate, including cloud radiative properties~ . ozone, aerosols and ulb'aviolet radiation; . stratospheric dynamics; . vege:tation canopy StIucture; and, . sola]" wind and space weather. The Triana scie:t2.ce team will assurethe technical specifications for the mission will meet these objectives. NASA is Prepal'edto support the NRC review with assistancefrom the Triana science team. Triana is a very imJX1rtant~on for the future direction ofNASA .s Earth Science Enterprise, and an objective and thorough review of the scientific goals of the mission by the NRC will be valuable. Becausethe suspensionof work on Triana while the evaluation is 1mderwaywill1Jtndoubted]y im~ t1x:total cost of the mission, NASA is sccking the completion of tlle evaluation at the earliest JK)ssibledate. Thank you in ~ce for undertaking this challenge. I look fonvard to hearing from you soon. Sin~v- , Ghassem R ASIar - Associate Admitlistrator for EaIth Science 21
