Embry-Riddle Professor and Student Team
Launch Rockets to Measure Greenhouse Gases
 Daytona Beach, Fla., July 16, 2002 -- Dr. Peter Erdman, associate professor of physical sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a student team recently launched two scientific payloads aboard NASA-funded sounding rockets at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The primary purpose of the research flights was to gather data on the abundance of carbon dioxide, an important "greenhouse gas," at mid-latitudes. Increased concentrations of these gases, which trap thermal radiation from the sun in the Earth's atmosphere, are responsible for global warming.
"Global warming induced by human activity is no longer a matter of debate," says Erdman. "It represents one of the great technical and political challenges to control it, or our world will become vastly different."
The launches were coordinated with NASA's TIMED (thermospheric, ionospheric, and mesospheric energy and dynamics) satellite that is currently in orbit around the Earth. The satellite is carrying an instrument called SABER (sounding of the atmosphere using broadband emission radiometry), which is attempting to measure carbon dioxide densities using remote sensing techniques.These measurements will be compared with those of Erdman and the Embry-Riddle students.
 Each Embry-Riddle launch payload consisted of two major components, Sampler and VIRGO. The Sampler payload used three vacuum canisters, each containing a metal shaft attached to a pump that acted like a compressor on a standard household refrigerator. When the shaft reached a temperature of 15 Kelvin (about -432 degrees Fahrenheit), it became cold enough to freeze most of the air molecules onto the shaft and thus gathered a good sample of the contents of the upper atmosphere.
The secondary payload, VIRGO (vehicle-induced radiation glow observer), was a senior design team project created by Engineering Physics students at Embry-Riddle. The student team, made up of Damon Burke, Laura Campbell, and Carla Guzzardo, was allowed to piggyback its experiment on Erdman's rocket with funding from Embry-Riddle. The goal of the student payload was to measure the interactive "glow" between the rocket skin and the atmosphere to try to determine its origin and behavior.
"The funding and sponsoring of experimental research projects adds value to the Embry-Riddle educational experience," says Burke, a research engineer and graduate student working in Erdman's lab.
The project, a joint effort of Embry-Riddle and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, required nearly two years of research and testing to produce the payloads. During those years, several Embry-Riddle students acquired valuable hands-on experience.
Guzzardo, a recent Engineering Physics graduate, says, "The experience and practical knowledge I gained from working in Dr. Erdman's lab is something you just can't learn in a classroom setting."
For more information, contact Peter Erdman at 386-226-6712 or Damon Burke at 386-226-7718.
Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates 24,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.
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