FUTURE MISSIONS: TRIANA Launch: 20??

TRIANA started as a concept to obtain frequent Earth images of clouds and their motions from the Lagrange-1 point at 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth between the Earth and the Sun. The concept has been expanded to include additional science considered highly relevant to understanding the Earth's environment. After an Announcement of Opportunity, the winning science mission was proposed by Dr. Francisco Valero of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and consists of a 10-channel EPIC imaging spectroradiometer and three NIST whole-Earth cavity radiometers. The spacecraft will also carry solar wind and magnetic field experiments from Dr. Keith Ogilvie of GSFC's Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics.

The Triana mission had an extremely short development time, starting in November 1998, with instrument delivery in early 2001, and scheduled shuttle launch during the last quarter of that year (now delayed).

Using 10 wavelength channels from UV to near IR (317 to 870 nm), Triana is designed to obtain daily global images of ozone, aerosols, water vapor, cloud cover, cloud height, and vegetation information. These images will be from sunrise to sunset for every point on the globe at a nadir spatial resolution of about 8 km.

For more information about the TRIANA program, contact Dr.Francisco Valero, Triana Principal Investigator.

For more information about the role of NASA/GSFC's Laboratory for Atmospheres in the TRIANA program, contact Dr. Jay Herman, Triana Project Scientist.