5. Project Management

The team coordination is implemented through local meetings of the University of Texas Center for Space Research (CSR) contingent, monthly meetings with the local area affiliates, and regular meetings with the full team. Further communication is conducted through the use of electronic mail, fax, telephone conversations, and personal meetings. Planning sessions between the Team Leader and the designated responsible investigator at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), Inc., take place at EOSDIS investigator working group meetings and at various professional society meetings.

5.1. Investigation Team Management

The goals and responsibilities of the individual investigations are evaluated at the various annual and biannual team meetings. Scientific cohesiveness has been maintained through detailed personal contact and working relationships at the two centers of study. The actual coordination between the CSR and AER investigations during this past year has occurred via teleconference and electronic mail communications.

5.2. Contribution of Team Members

In addition to the principal investigator, the team includes six co-investigators from CSR and three co-investigators from AER. The overall investigation has been organized so that specific areas of research have been discharged by members of the investigation team. The AER group, under the direction of D. Salstein, has major responsibilities for interfacing with the international community in establishing and operating the Sub-Bureau for Atmospheric Angular Momentum at the National Meteorological Center. This is a sub-bureau of the International Earth Rotation Service and has had the function of interfacing with four different international meteorological centers for extracting information related to atmospheric angular momentum computed from meteorological data in combination with numerical models. The primary responsibility of this component of the team has been to provide algorithms and to ensure that the atmospheric angular momentum results computed by these centers are appropriate for the overall investigation, the latter effort led by R. Rosen. In addition, the AER component of the investigation has conducted investigations related to the global momentum of the oceans and response of the ocean sea level to atmospheric pressure, efforts led by R. Ponte. The study of the global hydrologic cycle and its effects on Earth rotation has been conducted under the supervision of C. Wilson, along with J. Famiglietti, while efforts to compute changes in the polar ice sheet balance is supervised by B. Schutz. These two areas are an integral part of attempts to look at changes in mean sea level as an indicator of the greenhouse effect and represents an integral part of the studies of mass transport within the Earth system, which are headed by B. Tapley and C. Shum. A comprehensive list of publications by team members is added to the reference list. The contributions in the area of satellite dynamics and geodesy are the responsibility of C. Shum and R. Eanes.

5.3. Collaborations With Other EOS and Non-EOS Investigations

The primary interdisciplinary team interactions include the EOS investigations on four dimensional atmospheric-ocean-land data assimilation system (R. Rood, PI); global water cycle (E. Barron, PI); and air-sea exchange and ocean circulation (T. Liu, PI).

5.4. Non-EOS Interactions

The investigation is interacting with the following non-EOS programs and entities:

5.5. EOS Instrument Teams Interaction

We have interacted primary with the GLAS and EOS altimeter teams. Concerns on both GLAS and ALT have been quantified and transmitted to the appropriate team members and to the Payload Advisory Panel. The science requirements for EOS ALT-R were identified in a report prepared by the EOS Altimeter Study Group. The study was chaired by the principal investigator. Instrument and orbit requirements have been identified and transmitted to the project office.