Proceedings of the Fourteenth NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX 14) and the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Propagation Studies Miniworkshop

The NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX), supported by the NASA Propagation Program, is convened annually to discuss studies made on radio wave propagation by investigators from domestic and international organizations. NAPEX XIV was held on May 11, 1990, at the Balcones Research Centers, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. The meeting was organized into two technical sessions: Satellite (ACTS) and the Olympus Spacecraft, while the second focused on the fixed and mobile satellite propagation studies and experiments. Following NAPEX XIV, the ACTS Miniworkshop was held at the Hotel Driskill, Austin, Texas, on May 12, 1990, to review ACTS propagation activities since the First ACTS Propagation Studies Workshop was held in Santa Monica, California, on November 28 and 29, 1989

Remote Earth Sciences data collection using ACTS

Given the focus on global change and the attendant scope of such research, we anticipate significant growth of requirements for investigator interaction, processing system capabilities, and availability of data sets. The increased complexity of global processes requires interdisciplinary teams to address them; the investigators will need to interact on a regular basis; however, it is unlikely that a single institution will house sufficient investigators with the required breadth of skills. The complexity of the computations may also require resources beyond those located within a single institution; this lack of sufficient computational resources leads to a distributed system located at geographically dispersed institutions. Finally the combination of long term data sets like the Pathfinder datasets and the data to be gathered by new generations of satellites such as SeaWiFS and MODIS-N yield extra-ordinarily large amounts of data. All of these factors combine to increase demands on the communications facilities available; the demands are generating requirements for highly flexible, high capacity networks. We have been examining the applicability of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) to address the scientific, computational, and, primarily, communications questions resulting from global change research. As part of this effort three scenarios for oceanographic use of ACTS have been developed; a full discussion of this is contained in Appendix B

Proceedings of the Twentieth NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX 20) and the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Propagation Studies Miniworkshop

The NASA Propagation Experimenters (NAPEX) Meeting is convened each year to discuss studies supported by the NASA Propagation Program. Representatives from the satellite communications (satcom) industry, academia, and government who have an interest in space-ground radio wave propagation are invited to NAPEX meetings for discussions and exchange of information. The reports delivered at these meetings by program managers and investigators present recent activities and future plans. This forum provides an opportunity for peer discussion of work in progress, timely dissemination of propagation results, and close interaction with the satcom industry