TWO HU PROFESSORS LAUNCH SATELLITES INTO ORBIT

Hampton, VA - Dr. James M. Russell III and Dr. Patrick McCormick, two Hampton University professors are heading up two separate satellite projects that are scheduled to launch within days of each other on opposite sides of the globe.

Hampton University will host a reception and information session to celebrate the two satellite launches at 11 a.m. on Dec. 4 in the Cyber Lounge in the Hampton University Student Center.

Russell, a co-director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton, is the principal investigator for the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) experiment. SABER is a multi-channel infrared radiometer designed to measure heat emitted by the atmosphere over a broad altitude and spectral range.

The instrument, which is scheduled to be launched on Dec. 7 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, will measure global temperature profiles, key chemicals in the high atmosphere, atmospheric structure, and dynamics like the movement of gases in the atmosphere. SABER will also observe sources of atmospheric cooling such as the "air glow" which occurs when energy is radiated back into space.

SABER will be the first experiment to take extensive measurements in this region of the atmosphere and will provide important information for study of atmospheric change.

McCormick, also a co-director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University, is the principal investigator for the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE III), that will be launched aboard a Russian spacecraft along with eight other experiments and four micro-satellites on Dec.10 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission: to study the Earth's changing atmosphere.