MEIDEX MEDITERRANEAN ISRAELI DUST EXPERIMENT FOR THE FIRST ISRAELI ASTRONAUT FLIGHT

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• MEIDEX MEDITERRANEAN ISRAELI DUST EXPERIMENT FOR
  THE FIRST ISRAELI ASTRONAUT FLIGHT
• An experiment on board the shuttle within the
  Hitchhiker program
• Under an agreement between NASA and ISA (Israeli
  Space Agency)

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• WHY STUDY DUST STORMS?
• Desert dust particles are a major component of
  natural aerosols in the atmosphere
• They may help to cool or warm the atmosphere
  depending on their size and chemical composition
• They affect clouds and precipitation
• They are in the right particle size to affect
  our health being deposited in the lungs
• They affect mechanical systems (e.g. jet engines,
  helicopters etc.)
• They reduce the contrast in remote sensing
  measurements
• They affect biological activity in the Ocean

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Dust storm over the Dead Sea
Desert dust particles
Dust in Sahara view from space
Desert dust in Tel Aviv
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Non-Absorbing Aerosols in the Atmosphere
Major sources and transport routes of the desert
dust
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• The Effects of Dust Particles on Climate
• They affect climate by changing the dolar albedo
  direct effect
• They affect climate by modifying cloud
  characteristics indirect effect
• They affect rainfall amounts and intensities
  (dust sulfate organic matter)

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Other Existing Experiments for Measuring Dust
Aerosols
TOMS - aboard Earth Probe satellite uses UV
wavelengths mostly sensitive to dust at higher
altitudes
MODIS instrument aboard TERRA satellite was
launched in January 2000
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MEIDEX Science Team

• Principal Investigators
• Prof. Zev Levin
• Prof. Joachim Joseph
• Astronauts
• Col. Ilan Ramon
• Lt-Col. Itzhak Mayo
• Team members
• Dr. Adam Devir
• Dr. Eliezer Ganor
• Prof. Peter Israelevich
• Mr. Edmund Klodzh
• Prof. Yuri Mekler
• Mr. Meir Moalem
• Dr. Yoram Noter
• Mr. David Shtivelman
• Mr. Amit Teller
• Dr. Yoav Yair Project Manager

• The team consists of scientists from different
  disciplines
• Remote sensing of the atmosphere
• Radiative transfer
• Aerosol measurements and analysis
• Modeling of atmospheric processes
• Instrumentation for remote sensing and for
  airborne aerosol sampling

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• SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES
• DAYTIME PRIMARY EXPERIMENTS
• Validate TOMS versus MODIS
• Sources, Transport, Sinks and Properties of
  Desert Aerosol over the Mediterranean and
  Atlantic Ocean
• Absolute calibration by ground and airborne
  measurements
• DAYTIME SECONDARY EXPERIMENTS
• Spectral Sea Surface BRDF with emphasis on UV
• Construct Visual Slant Visibility Model
• NIGHT TIME EXPERIMENT (TERTIARY)
• Sprites, Elves and other related phenomena

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The Regions of Interest

• Preferred Seasons
• The best season is Spring (March to May) we
  are scheduled to fly in spring 2001
• The secondary choice is the Fall (September to
  November)

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• STS-107
• Space Lab- 33 Experiments
• Fast Reaction Experiment Enabling Science,
  Technology Applications Research - FREESTAR
• Primary Experiment MEIDEX
• Launch April 4, 2002

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• MEIDEX on FREESTAR_at_STS107
• Xybion IMC- 201 radiometric CCD camera
• CCD Sensor 756Hx581V
• Sensitivity 10-6fc ( 0.1 of typical night sky)
• Spectral range 340-860nm
• 6 bands 0.34, 0.38, 0.44, 0.56, 0.66, 0.86 nm
• Exposure Times 50 nsec - 4 msec in 50 nsec
  steps
• WFOV SEKAI White Light video camera

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• MEIDEX Optical Bench Mount
• Cameras are mounted in a 1-axis gimbaled truss
• Gimbal angular range 22.5 Degrees
• Scan direction Y
• FOV Xybion 16o (68km at the altitude 256km -
  about 100m/pixel nominal resolution)
• FOV SEKAI 60o (270 km at the altitude 256 km)

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OVERALL MEIDEX CONFIGURATION
Upper End Plate w/ Quartz Window
Lens Baffle
Xybion Camera
Gimbal Motor Worm Drive
Worm Gear
SEKAI WFOV Camera
Xybion camera
Lower End Plate
Avionics Mount Plate w/ electronics
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Airborne Measurements
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6
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• Wing mounted optical spectrometers (0.1 to 3 mm,
  and 0.3 to 47 mm)
• Isokinetic sampling of aerosol particles on
  filtered and on EM grids
• Ram collection of large (gt2.5 mm) aerosols
• Two albedometers
• GPS
• Temperature sensors

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1
4
Flight base Crete, or Sardinia, or
Tenerife Radius 500 miles
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FORECAST
Dust Forecast with the TAU_ETA model and TOMS
observations for April 23, 2001
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• SLANT VISIBILITY
• VISIBILITY Ability of Human Eye to see a
  reflecting object
• through a scattering, absorbing and turbulent
  atmosphere.
• Depends on Complex Interaction of Multiple
  Component System
• Contrast Threshold of Human Eye,
• Inherent Spectral Contrast of the Object versus
  its Background,
• Atmospheric Spectral Extinction (x,y,h),
• Atmospheric Turbulence (x,y,h),
• Geometric Slant Path.
• IMPOSSIBLE TO CONSTRUCT RELIABLE MODEL BY
• INFORMATION TRANSFER FROM NON - HUMAN SYSTEMS.
• Our Experiment
• Observation of designated targets along the
  shuttle footprint
• as a function of time on a Yes/No Basis.
• Correlation between KNOWN Optical Properties
• of the Atmosphere and the SUBJECTIVE Detection
• Capability of the Astronauts Eye.

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Observations of Sprites

• Sprite observation by XYBION camera will be
  carried our over South America and the Tropics
  (crucial role of the Astronaut)
• Simultaneous ground observa-tions will be
  carried out by teams from MIT and from Brazil
• Measurements of VLF waves (in particular
  Schumann resonances) from TAU Mitzpe Ramon
  station will be correlated with the space and
  ground observations

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The MEIDEX Data Acquisition Scheme
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OPS ORG DATA FLOW
Plane in Flight
Shuttle
POCC (GSFC)
Airport Crew
JSC(Houston)
FORECAST CENTER (TAU)
Surface Obs. AERONET,(GSFC) Huelga, Spain Ilurin,
Nigeria
Dust Sat Obs TOMS SEAWIFS MODIS (GSFC)
Forecast Data NEPC (NOAA) Airport Authority (BG
Airport) IAF/MET
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Scientific Cooperation

• Dr. Y. Kaufman and Staff, GSFC - DAs, Analysis
• Dr. B. Holben and Staff, GSFC - AERONET
• Dr. E. Hilsenrath and Staff, GSFC -
• Instrument Optical Properties, Calibrations.
• Dr. D. Tanre, U. Lille, France - DAs, CIMELs,
  6s
• Dr. Eric Vermote, UMD, US - Changes in 6s
• Dr. R. Pinker, UMD, US - Calibrations in Nigeria
• Dr. Victoria Cachorro, U.Valladolid - Calibration
  Site
• Prof. P. Alpert, Dr. S. Krichak, Dr. M. Tsidulko,
  H. Shafir, TAU, Dr. B. Ziv, OU - Dust Forecast
• Dr. Colin Price, TAU, Prof. Earle Williams, MIT
  Many Others - Sprites Related Measurements.