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Alan Buis (818) 354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Patricia Viets (301) 457-5005
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Suitland, Md.

Public Relations Office 81-3-3438-6107, 6108 or 6109
National Space Development Agency of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

News Release: 2003-024                             February 24, 2003

NASA's Newest Seawinds Instrument Breezes into Operation
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One of NASA's newest Earth-observing instruments, the SeaWinds
scatterometer aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2 
(Adeos 2) -- now renamed Midori 2 -- has successfully transmitted its 
first radar data to our home planet, generating its first high-quality 
images.

One of the first images may be found at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03896 .

Climatologists, meteorologists and oceanographers will soon routinely 
use data from SeaWinds on Midori 2 to understand and predict severe 
weather patterns, climate change and global weather abnormalities like 
El Niņo.  The data are expected to improve global and regional weather 
forecasts, ship routing and marine hazard avoidance, measurements of 
sea ice extent and the tracking of icebergs, among other uses.

"Midori 2, its SeaWinds instrument and associated ground processing
systems are functioning very smoothly," said Moshe Pniel, 
scatterometer projects manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, Calif.  "Following initial checkout and calibration, we look 
forward to continuous operations, providing vital data to scientists 
and weather forecasters around the world."

"These first images show remarkable detail over land, ice and oceans,"
said Dr. Michael Freilich, Ocean Vector Winds Science Team Leader, 
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.  "The combination of SeaWinds 
data and measurements from other instruments on Midori 2 with data 
from other international satellites will enable detailed studies of 
ocean circulation, air-sea interaction and climate variation simply 
not possible until now."

The released image, obtained from data collected on January 28 and 29,
depicts Earth's continents in green, polar glacial ice-covered regions 
in blue-red and sea ice in gray.  Color and intensity changes over ice 
and land are related to ice melting, variations in land surface 
roughness and vegetation cover.  Ocean surface wind speeds, measured 
during a 12-hour period on January 28, are shown by colors.  Blues 
correspond to low wind speeds and reds to wind speeds up to 15 meters 
per second (30 knots).  Black arrows denote wind direction.  White 
gaps over the oceans represent unmeasured areas between SeaWinds 
swaths (the instrument measures winds over about 90 percent of the 
oceans each day).

SeaWinds transmits high-frequency microwave pulses to Earth's land
masses, ice cover and ocean surface and measures the strength of the
radar pulses that bounce back to the instrument.  It takes millions of
radar measurements covering about 93 percent of Earth's surface every
day, operating under all weather conditions, day and night.  Over the
oceans, SeaWinds senses ripples caused by the winds, from which
scientists can compute wind speed and direction.  These ocean surface
winds drive Earth's oceans and control the exchange of heat, moisture 
and gases between the atmosphere and the sea.

Launched December 14, 2002, from Japan, the instrument was first
activated on January 10 and transitioned to its normal science mode on
January 28.  A four-day dedicated checkout period was completed on
January 31.  A six-month calibration/validation phase will begin in
April, with regular science operations scheduled to begin this 
October.

SeaWinds on Midori 2 is managed for NASA's Office of Earth Science,
Washington, D.C., by JPL, which developed the instrument and performs
instrument operations and science data processing, archiving and
distribution.  NASA also provides U.S. ground system support.  The
National Space Development Agency of Japan provided the Midori 2
spacecraft, H-IIA launch vehicle, mission operations and the Japanese
ground network.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
provides near-real-time data processing and distribution for SeaWinds
operational data users.  The California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Additional information about SeaWinds is available at:
http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov .

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