Alan Buis
Headquarters, Washington            June 17, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-0373)

RELEASE: 02-113

NASA AWARDS GRANTS TO STUDY THE OCEAN PLANET

     In response to a NASA research announcement, the agency 
today awarded 72 grants to study Earth's oceans and ice that 
will increase our understanding of Earth's climate system and 
improve our ability to model climate change.

The grants, totaling approximately $23 million, will support 
research over a three-year period by numerous government 
organizations and academic institutions. Proposals were 
evaluated on their ability to enhance NASA's ongoing research 
in biological and physical oceanography, ice sheets, sea ice 
and computer modeling.

"NASA is dedicated to better understanding and protecting our 
home planet," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate 
administrator, Office of Earth Science, NASA Headquarters, 
Washington. "These awards are a vital element in our efforts 
to accomplish this goal and will contribute to our knowledge 
of Earth's water cycle, an area of increasing importance in 
the new millennium. In particular, improvements to climate 
modeling capabilities will lead to production of better 
climate forecast products for the nation and our policy and 
decision makers."
 
NASA received 276 proposals in response to its research 
announcement last October. The awards were made following a 
vigorous peer review process involving scientific and 
technical experts from academia, government and industry.

A list of the selected principal investigators, institutions 
and research titles (by state) can be found on the Internet 
at:

http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_y/code_y.cfm

For more information on NASA's Earth Science Enterprise and 
its oceanography and climate modeling research programs, 
please visit:

http://www.earth.nasa.gov

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