David E. Steitz 
Headquarters, Washington, DC               August 7, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1730)

Tim Tyson
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 
(Phone:  256/544-0994)

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, FL
(Phone:  407/867-2468)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N98-51

NASA SCIENTISTS TO HOLD MEDIA BRIEFING 
ON UPCOMING HURRICANE RESEARCH

     NASA researchers and two of the nation's leading hurricane 
scientists will brief the media on upcoming research to look into 
the nature of hurricanes and tropical storms.  The briefing will 
be held at the press site of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, FL, on 
Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 1 p.m. EDT.  With an aim to improve 
hurricane and tropical storm predictions on the ground and to 
better understand the nature of these weather systems, two NASA 
research aircraft will take to the skies -- collecting very high-
altitude information above and in Atlantic storms.

     Briefing participants will be: 

Dr. Ramesh Kakar
Earth Science Program Manager, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 

Ms. Robbie Hood
Lead Mission Scientist, Global Hydrology and Climate Center, 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 

Dr. Ed Zipser
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, Field Campaign Lead, 
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 

Dr. Frank Marks
Field Program Director, Hurricane Research Division, 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Miami, FL

     A tour of the two NASA Dryden Flight Research Center aircraft 
-- a DC-8 and ER-2 -- will be available to media on Aug. 12 at 3 
p.m. EDT at Patrick Air Force Base, FL.  Media wishing to tour the 
planes should report to the main gate of Patrick AFB to be 
escorted to the aircraft hangar.

     Other organizations participating in the hurricane and 
tropical storm study will include:

* NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 
* NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA  
* NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
* NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA  
* NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 
* NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA 
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aircraft 
   Operations Center, MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, FL 
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
* University of Wisconsin, Madison
* Texas A&M University, College Station
* University of Maryland, Baltimore

     The briefing will be carried live on NASA TV with two-way 
question-and-answer capability for media covering the event from 
participating NASA Centers.  NASA Television is broadcast on the 
GE-2 satellite, located on Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West 
longitude, vertical polarization, frequency 3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 
MHz.

                            -end-