Make: Maverick Scientist

17 TO BRAZIL FOR NASA

Following the 1993 colloquium “Earth Science on a Shoestring Budget” at the Goddard Space Flight Center, I stayed in touch with Brent Holben, director of AERONET. In 1995, Brent asked if I was available to participate in the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation–Brazil (SCAR-B) field campaign. He explained that SCAR-B was a major collaboration between US and Brazilian scientists during August and September 1995 to study the impact of serious smoke pollution caused by the massive burning of the landscape across Brazil.

The TOMS ozone instrument aboard NASA’s Nimbus-7 satellite had finally failed, and NASA had no portable ozone-monitoring instruments. Brent asked if I would be willing to use a Microtops to measure the ozone layer ...