February 17, 1995



FY 1995 ITM SR&T Program

Letters announcing the results of the competition for new Fiscal
Year (FY) 1995 awards from the Supporting Research and Technology
Program (SR&T) in Ionospheric, Thermospheric, and Mesospheric (ITM)
Physics were mailed to Principal Investigators on February 1, 1995.
These awards were made on the basis of proposals submitted in
response to NASA Research Announcement NRA-94-OSS-8.  Proposals
describing one hundred and nineteen investigations were reviewed in
the competition for Fiscal Year (FY) 1995 funding from the ITM SR&T
program.  Twenty-seven of these were rated Excellent or
Excellent/Very Good in a peer review of their scientific merit, 54
were rated Very Good or Very Good/Good, and 38 were rated Good or
less.

The assignment of ratings was based on requirements set out in the
NRA and followed carefully the NASA definitions of Excellent, Very
Good, Good, and Poor which were provided to proposers.
Specifically, in order for a proposal to be have been rated Very
Good or Excellent it had to have (1) presented a clear scientific
question to be answered, (2) outlined an appropriate and feasible
method of approaching this question and (3) provided confidence that
if the proposed effort were carried out, then definitive progress in
understanding the phenomenon in question would likely result.  A
proposal was classified as Excellent if and only if, having met
these necessary but not sufficient conditions, it also targeted a
compelling question whose timely solution was important to
advancement of the field.

The total FY 1994 funding requested was $8.3 M and the funding
available for competition was $1.5 M.  The total FY 1995 funding
requested by the proposals rated E or E/VG was $1.9 M.

All 27 of the E and E/VG proposals were considered to be within the
competitive range for this selection.  Twenty-three of these
proposals  were recommended for selection; of these 23 all but 3
were funded at the requested levels.  The four highly rated
proposals that were not recommended for selection were declined
because of high cost and/or because they proposed efforts in areas
already receiving significant funding from the program.

The next opportunity to propose for ITM SR&T funding will be in
response to the 1995 Space Physics Division NRA for the SR&T
program, which will be released this coming spring.
 
New ITM SR&T Awards for FY 1995 are:

Anderson/APL:
Production of nitric oxide in the thermosphere: Comparison of measurements
with models

Coley/UTD:
Adaptive identification and characterization of polar ionization patches

Copeland/SRI:
Collisional processes important in the O2 ultraviolet airglow

Crowley/APL:
A new framework for the study of high latitude lower-thermospheric
structure caused by thermosphere-ionosphere coupling

Fejer/Utah:
Satellite studies of storm time mid- and low-latitude ionospheric
electrodynamics

Forbes/Colorado:
Natural oscillations of the thermosphere-ionosphere system

Goembel/APL:
Coupling between the sun and terrestrial thermospheric winds

Goldberg/GSFC:
Mesospheric response to impacting relativistic electrons

Goldman/Colorado:
Nonlinear wave and particle heating in the auroral ionosphere

Heelis/UTD:
The spatial distribution of plasma and high structures at high latitudes

Herrero/GSFC:
The vertical neutral wind in the lower-latitude thermosphere

Hysell/Clemson:
Analysis of equatorial ionospheric turbulence using DE and San Marco data

Kletzing/UNH:
Kinetic Alfven wave electron acceleration on auroral field lines

Kozyra/Michigan:
Studies of inner magnetospheric processes and their coupling to the
underlying ionosphere and atmosphere

Newell/APL:
Pressure profiles of the magnetosphere as reflected in ionospheric
observations

Otani/Cornell:
Simulations of the Farley-Buneman instability in the E-region ionosphere

Parish/CPI:
Simulations of the effects of planetary wave oscillations on the
thermosphere and ionosphere using a Coupled Thermosphere Ionosphere Model
(CTIM)

Parks/Washington:
An investigation of the source of microburst electron precipitation by
comparison of data to wave-particle interactions mechanisms

Retterer/Phillips Lab:
Spikelets and lower hybrid collapse

Sentman/Alaska:
Analysis of video and ELF/VLF data obtained during the Sprites94 campaign

Seyler/Cornell:
Theory and simulation of lower hybrid waves and associated ion acceleration
in the auroral region

Singh/Alabama:
Three-dimensional numerical simulation of nonlinear lower hybrid wave
propagation

Strickland/CPI:
Thermospheric O/N2 based on DE-1 imaging results

__________________________________________________
The entire ITM SR&T Program for FY 1995 includes:

Ajello/JPL:
High resolution, temperature dependent photoabsorption cross section
measurements of O2 and N2 important to the Earth's atmosphere

Anderson/APL:
Production of nitric oxide in the thermosphere: Comparison of measurements
with models

Baker/APL:
Multi-instrument studies of ionospheric electric fields, currents and
conductivities

Barth/Colorado:
ATMOS nitric oxide data analysis

Codrescu/SEL:
An investigation of the midlatitude structure of geomagnetic storm effects
in the thermosphere-ionosphere

Coley/UTD:
Adaptive identification and characterization of polar ionization patches

Copeland/SRI:
Collisional processes important in the O2 ultraviolet airglow

Cosby/SRI:
Products of dissociative recombination in the ionosphere

Crain/Utah:
Mid-latitude potential distribution defined by thermal plasma motions

Craven/Alaska:
Model auroral electron precipitation patterns for coupled
thermosphere-ionosphere simulations

Crowley/APL:
A new framework for the study of high latitude lower-thermospheric
structure caused by thermosphere-ionosphere coupling

Dyer/SRI:
Laboratory studies of mesospheric OH collisional energy transfer

Erlandson/APL:
Correlative studies of ionospheric electron temperatures at high latitudes:
Field-aligned currents and low frequency waves

Fejer/Utah:
Satellite studies of storm time mid- and low-latitude ionospheric
electrodynamics

Fesen/Dartmouth:
Thermosphere/ionosphere coupling

Forbes/Colorado:
Natural oscillations of the thermosphere-ionosphere system

Ganguli, S/SAIC:
Coupling between field-aligned transport and convection in the auroral and
polar cap ionosphere

Ghielmetti/Lockheed:
Variability of mass dependence of auroral acceleration processes with solar
activity

Gilchrist/Michigan:
Development of the space tethered instrument concept for ITM science

Goembel/APL:
Coupling between the sun and terrestrial thermospheric winds

Goldberg/GSFC:
Mesospheric response to impacting relativistic electrons

Goldman/Colorado:
Nonlinear wave and particle heating in the auroral ionosphere

Hairston/UTD:
Characterization of ionospheric flow patterns during times of unusual
aurora activity using DE and DMSP data

Hedin/GSFC:
Empirical modeling of the neutral atmosphere

Heelis/UTD:
The spatial distribution of plasma and high structures at high latitudes

Herrero/GSFC:
The vertical neutral wind in the lower-latitude thermosphere

Hickey/UAH:
Wave driven exothermic heating in the mesoapuse region

Hoffman/GSFC:
Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling in the electrodynamics of substorms

Horwitz/Alabama:
A dual-spacecraft study of ionosphere-plasmasphere relationships

Hysell/Clemson:
Analysis of equatorial ionospheric turbulence using DE and San Marco data

Inan/Stanford:
Lightning induced heating of the lower thermosphere and the mechanism of
upward discharge

Johnson/UTD:
Investigations of the role of gravity waves in the generation of equatorial
bubbles

Kelley/Cornell:
Analysis of sounding rocket data dealing with a filamentation instability

Killeen/Michigan:
Data analysis and theoretical studies of the lower thermosphere

Kletzing/UNH:
Kinetic Alfven wave electron acceleration on auroral field lines

Kozyra/Michigan:
Studies of inner magnetospheric processes and their coupling to the
underlying ionosphere and atmosphere

Lin/Berkeley:
Kinetic analysis of localized Langmuir waves in the auroral zone

Lotko/Dartmouth:
Oblique Alfven dynamics of the plasma sheet-ionosphere interaction

Lynch/New Hampshire:
Localized ionospheric particle acceleration

Lysak/Minnesota:
A three-dimensional, time-dependent model of the interaction of Alfven
waves with the ionosphere

Nelson/Aerodyne:
Laboratory kinetic studies of OH and CO2 relevant to upper atmospheric
radiative balance

Newell/APL:
Pressure profiles of the magnetosphere as reflected in ionospheric
observations

Otani/Cornell:
Simulations of the Farley-Buneman instability in the E-region ionosphere

Parish/CPI:
Simulations of the effects of planetary wave oscillations on the
thermosphere and ionosphere using a Coupled Thermosphere Ionosphere Model
(CTIM)

Parks/Washington:
An investigation of the source of microburst electron precipitation by
comparison of data to wave-particle interactions mechanisms

Peterson/Lockheed:
Local and global studies of ion outflow from the high latitude ionosphere

Reiff/Rice:
Electron loss rates in the inner magnetosphere

Retterer/Phillips Lab:
Spikelets and lower hybrid collapse

Richards/Alabama:
Ionosphere-plasmasphere modeling in support of satellite global imaging

Richmond/NCAR:
Analysis of large-scale magnetosphere-ionosphere electrodynamics coupling

Roble/NCAR:
Global solar-terrestrial electrostatic coupling study

Rowland/NRL:
Ionospheric heating and acceleration by lightning bursts

Sentman/Alaska:
Analysis of video and ELF/VLF data obtained during the Sprites94 campaign

Seyler/Cornell:
Theory and simulation of lower hybrid waves and associated ion acceleration
in the auroral region

Singh/Alabama:
Three-dimensional numerical simulation of nonlinear lower hybrid wave
propagation

Slanger/SRI:
Studies of the excited states of N2

Smith, K/Rice:
Measurement of electron impact cross sections of importance in planetary
atmospheres

Solomon/Colorado:
Thermospheric airglow model validation

Strickland/CPI:
Thermospheric O/N2 based on DE-1 imaging results

Thayer/SRI:
Modeling of the coupled magnetospheric and neutral wind dynamics

Wygant/Minnesota:
A study of high time resolution electric and magnetic fields during the
CRRES releases