MECSAT Shermane Austin Medgar Evers College, CUNY Affiliate: New York State Space Grant Consortium National Space Grant Director’s Meeting March 2, 2007, Washington, DC

About Medgar Evers College  Senior college in the City University of New York – approximately 5,500 students  Student enrollment - primarily African- American and Caribbean-American  Primarily teaching institution  Emphasis on undergraduate research in STEM areas  Partnerships with other CUNY units  Located in heart of Central Brooklyn

NASA Programs at MEC  New York State Space Grant Consortium –Affiliate Director – Shermane Austin –Area: BalloonSAT –Target: undergraduate and high school students  MURED-supported programs: –MUSPIN Areas: Earth Science, Space Science and Technology Areas: Earth Science, Space Science and Technology Target: faculty, undergraduate and K-12 Target: faculty, undergraduate and K-12 –OSS/MUCERPI: New York City Space Science Research Alliance Area: Space Science education & research, CUNY BS in Space Area: Space Science education & research, CUNY BS in Space Science Science Target: faculty, undergraduate Target: faculty, undergraduate –SEMAA and Honorable Major Owens Aerospace Education Lab Areas: Earth Science, Space Science and Robotics Areas: Earth Science, Space Science and Robotics Target: Middle and high school students Target: Middle and high school students

Colorado Workshop Graduates  Attended Student Hardware Workshop in June, 2004  Team partner, Michael Fortney, launched ongoing collaboration with Vermont State Space Grant

MECSAT  BalloonSAT based at Medgar Evers College with launches in upstate New York and Northern Vermont  25 or so launches in the past two years - 13 were ozonesondes  Student payloads: data logger, Geiger counter, CO2 monitor, thermopile array, cameras, etc.

Other launch activities  Occasional travel to observe and learn from other BalloonSAT groups  Great Plains Super Launch - July, 2005 (hopefully again this summer)  Borealis/Montana State University – August, 2005

MECSAT Launch Base  Located in Paradox, NY in the Adirondacks on 400 acres of private property  Used for year- round student and faculty launches and workshops  Base station for ozone profiles

MECSAT – Vermont Launches  Better terrain for landing and recovery  Hosted by Vermont State Space Grant and Milton High School  Student housing provided Vermont Space Grant – often in UVM dorms  Payloads from MEC undergraduate and New York City high school students  Flights also used as CricketSAT platforms developed by Michael Fortney with Vermont high school students

Ozonesonde Launches  Provide students with links to NASA science  Physical variables include: ozone mixing ratio (ppmv), temperature and frost point  Required additional equipment: –ECC 2Z ozonesondes with interface board for Vaisala radiosondes –Calibration and Test Unit  Equipment funding from Aura EPO program  Training provided by John Merrill, University of Rhode Island  Continue to use KTU at URI for lab prep of sondes

Integrating High School Students  Summer Academy for NYC high school students  Surface ozone investigations using GLOBE protocols  Linkages to ozone profiles

IONS06 Participation  Intex Ozonesonde Network Study – PI: Anne Thompson, Penn State U.  Transport and distribution of tropospheric ozone  Part of Aura Data Validation Team  Intensive observation campaign in April and August including validation of OMI and TES instruments during satellite overpasses  MECSAT/Paradox base is one of the IONS stations

“Mapping Ozone”  New York Times video of one of our ozonesonde launches

Curriculum Integration Existing courses: Air and Water Pollution Scientific Computing (for Data Analysis) Remote Sensing Special Topics in Space Science (Physics) – Applications in Earth and Planetary Science Special Topics on the Environment

Additional Partnerships and Workshops  Workshop for University of Houston, Downtown and South Carolina State University faculty and students interested in ozone monitoring programs  CUNY units: CCNY, LAGCC, QBCC, York  Upcoming workshops and launches with faculty and students in MUCERPI and MUSPIN networks  Workshops and launch participation for area high schools

Acknowledgements  New York State Space Grant Consortium  Vermont State Space Grant Consortium  Bill Hiscock, Montana State Space Grant Consortium  John Merrill, University of Rhode Island  NASA AURA E/PO Program  NASA/MUSPIN-CUNY NRTS  NASA/MUCERPI-NYCSSRA  HP Teaching with Technology