Carr to Provide Scientific and Software Services for TEMPO Instrument

Nov. 15, 2012 - PRLog -- Contact: Lisa Wolff

Email: lwolff@carrastro.com

Phone: 301.220.7361

http://www.carrastro.com

Carr to Provide Scientific and Software Services for TEMPO Instrument

November 13, 2012 - Greenbelt, MD, USA - Carr Astronautics Corporation, a Maryland-based firm specializing in scientific and engineering support services for scientific missions, is pleased to announce the selection of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument proposal by NASA Headquarters. Carr Astronautics is a member of the TEMPO project, headed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and managed by NASA

Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA Dr. James L. Carr, President of Carr Astronautics, is a Co-Principal Investigator on the SAO TEMPO team.TEMPO was competitively awarded by NASA Headquarters on November 8, 2012.

TEMPO was chosen from 14 proposals submitted under NASA's Earth Venture Instrument program. Earth Venture missions, part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder program, are small, targeted science investigations that complement NASA's larger research missions. Once placed in a geostationary orbit, TEMPO will monitor pollution across the entire North American continent. TEMPO will be the first space-based instrument capable of pollution monitoring of this magnitude.  Carr Astronautics’ role on the team includes scientific algorithm development, systems engineering and software development of the Level 1 processing system responsible for transforming raw image data from the spacecraft, into a georectified and georeferenced science product suitable for monitoring pollution. “We are very excited about the TEMPO opportunity.  It fits well with our core competence:  Providing ground data processing systems for science missions,” said Jim Carr.  

The program is expected to begin in early 2013. The instrument, to be completed in 2017, will share a ride on a Geostationary Satellite as a hosted payload.  Orbiting approximately 22,000 miles above the Earth's equator, TEMPO will produce a wealth of data and significantly improve scientists’ ability to monitor and analyze earth’s pollution from space.

Carr Astronautics Corporation was founded in 1992, is privately held and headquartered in Greenbelt, MD, USA.  Carr Astronautics provides aerospace engineering, science modeling and analysis, information systems and operational support to NOAA, NASA, USDA and DoD agencies and various other commercial organizations. Internationally, Carr Astronautics is known for expert weather system development and for Image Navigation and registration (INR) critical to Geostationary Imagery Systems in Europe, Japan and Korea.