Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                          
May 27, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-1547)

Jean W. Clough
Langley Research Center, Langley, Va.
(Phone:  804/864-6122)

RELEASE:  92-74

NASA TO LEAD STUDY ON CLOUDS' EFFECT ON CLIMATE   
      
     Nearly 300 atmospheric researchers will convene to study the 
effect of clouds on global climate in an international 
cooperative experiment, June 1-28.  With NASA as the coordinating 
agency, scientists from over 50 research institutions in the 
United States and seven other countries will employ the combined 
measurements from land, sea, air and space platforms.  The 
project will be based in the Azores and Madeira Islands of the 
eastern Atlantic Ocean.

     The Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) 
will study the puffy, layered clouds of the region to assess 
their physical and radiative characteristics and their effect on 
the atmosphere and ocean.  The analysis will help refine the 
predictive computer models used to anticipate world-wide weather 
patterns.

     The concept of operations is wide-ranging.  Instruments will 
make atmospheric measurements from two islands while five 
instrumented ships will make atmospheric and oceanographic 
measurements.  Buoys will collect oceanographic and surface 
measurements and seven aircraft from three nations will fly 
atmospheric missions.  These measurement efforts will be 
coordinated with the overflights of eight cloud-measuring 
satellites. 

    The experiment, managed by NASA's Langley Research Center, 
Hampton, Va., includes scientists from NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Ames Research Center, Mountain 
View, Calif., and representatives of the Office of Naval 
Research, the National Science Foundation, the Department of 
Energy, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration 
and 12 U.S. universities.  Independent contributions will be made 
by agencies from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, the 
Netherlands and Portugal.

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     ASTEX is a key component of the U.S. national contribution 
to the World Climate Radiation Program of the World 
Meteorological Organization.  The ASTEX project manager is 
Langley's David S. McDougal.  Dr. Bruce Albrecht, Department of 
Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, is the ASTEX lead 
scientist.

                             -end-