October 13, 2004:
France Joins GLOBE!

Mr. Yannick d'Escatha, President of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and Mr. Sean O'Keefe, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), sign the GLOBE Agreement.

During remarks at the end of the ceremony, NASA Administrator O'Keefe said, "I am very pleased that NASA and CNES are expanding our collaboration by signing the GLOBE Agreement today. NASA and GLOBE Partners around the world warmly welcome CNES and French schools to this worldwide partnership of students, teachers and scientists."

"CNES is very pleased to start GLOBE activities in connection with the CALIPSO and PARASOL missions," President d'Escatha affirmed in his remarks. "French students will soon be initiating these activities. We are very proud to join this program."

CNES plans to implement GLOBE in association with the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) and PARASOL (Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar) satellite missions.

Dr. Craig Blurton, GLOBE Director, shares congratulations with Mr. O'Keefe and Mr. d'Escatha at the conclusion of the ceremony.

GLOBE collaborations between the French CALIPSO Outreach Team at CNES in Toulouse, France, together with the CALIPSO and CloudSat Outreach Teams at Hampton University (Virginia) and Colorado State University in the United States, have already begun. During the summer of 2004, CNES sponsored two teachers from France to attend a workshop in Colorado where they were trained in GLOBE atmosphere protocols connected to the CALIPSO and CloudSat missions to study aerosols and clouds.

NASA CONNECT (NASA Langley Research Center Office of Education) is also involved in the partnership through their recent television episode, "The A-Train Express", which highlighted students and scientists from the United States and France working with the CALIPSO and CloudSat missions. The episode was produced in March and aired in May, 2004, initiating CALIPSO and CloudSat Educational Outreach activities that include GLOBE data collection.

Middle school students from the College Cantelande, Bordeaux, France.
CNES Scientist, Dr. Marie Doutriaux Boucher, from LOA (Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique) de Lille, demonstrates how to use the Sun Photometer.	Students record their aerosol data measurements in preparation for online data entry.

Large portions of this episode were filmed live in France where GLOBE activities involving atmospheric measurements, specifically aerosols, were introduced in one French school, the College Cantelande, located in Bordeaux, France. Mr. O'Keefe provided the opening remarks for the video.

CALIPSO and CloudSat will be launched together on a Delta II Rocket from Vandenberg Air force Base in California, currently scheduled for April, 2005. Educational activities will begin with French teachers prior to the launch. We welcome our French colleagues into the worldwide GLOBE community of students, teachers and scientists.

For more information see:

CALIPSO and CloudSat Education and Public Outreach programs partner with GLOBE and NASA CONNECT

CALIPSO/CloudSat workshop in Ft. Collins, Colorado: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/5-8/features/F_Bringing_Students_Satellites_Together.html

CALIPSO: http://calipsooutreach.hamptonu.edu

CloudSat: http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu

CNES: http://www.cnes.fr/html/_455_.php

Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule: http://mocc.vandenberg.af.mil/launchsched.asp

Questions/Comments regarding the GLOBE Program

GLOBE is managed by UCAR/CSU with support from NASA, NSF, the US Dept. of State, and other cooperating organizations.

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