*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 4, Number 10 July 11, 1994 ----------------------------------- "Official" Save-Phillips-Lab Letter ----------------------------------- ====================================================== The following message contains information pertaining to the Geophysics Directorate at Phillips Laboratory. If you wish to write a letter, please also forward a copy to either: Dr. William Swider (Space Physics) PL/GPS or, Dr. David Anderson (Ionosphere/Aeron.) PL/GPIM at 29 Randolph Road Hanscon AFB, MA 01731-3010 ======================================================== Don Smith PL Save Committee PL/GPOB 29 Randolph Road Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-3010 06 July 1994 Dear Colleague: I am writing to you to request your help in a matter affecting national support for the geophysical sciences. We have recently been informed that preliminary decisions have been made at the highest levels of the Air Force (AF) that call for the elimination of 300 civilian positions and the associated support money from the Geophysics Directorate of Phillips Laboratory (PL/GP) beginning in FY1996 (01 October 1995). If this plan becomes reality, it will mean the end of Phillips Laboratory at Hanscom AFB. Prior experience has shown that letters to appropriate government officials from prominent scientists outside the DoD laboratory system can have a significant impact on decisions; hence this letter to you. Would you please consider lending your support to help maintain the existence of our organization and its support for geophysical research? An earlier letter (AGU SPA Section Newsletter, Volume I, Issue 4) has focussed on letters to Members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation. Here we request letters to officials within DoD and the Executive Branch. They are likely to have more impact than letters to the Massachusetts delegation from outside the state. In the current national political and economic climate, downsizing and restructuring of DoD and Department of Energy laboratories are inevitable. The AF has responded to this pressure by eliminating the Geophysics Directorate. The elimination of the Geophysics Directorate would represent a serious loss of scientific and technical capability for the AF and for the US. The attached point paper presents the case for the continued existence of GP and is meant to stimulate your thoughts and provide you with details. If you could spend a few minutes to write and send a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Sheila Widnall, expressing your concern about the future of GP, it could well make a difference. We have enclosed the address of Secretary Widnall along with the addresses of Dr. John Gibbons, the President's Scientific Advisor, Dr. Anita Jones, the director of Defense Research and Engineering, and Brigadier General Richard Paul, the Technology Executive Officer of the Air Force. Please send an information copy of your letter (or another letter) to Dr. Gibbons, Dr. Jones, and BGen Paul; since we are not certain at what level the ultimate decision will be made, these additional letters are important. Timing is critical; in the budget process, the next key document (the Budget Estimate Submission) will be submitted by the AF to DoD in August or September. Thus to influence the fate of the Lab, the letter should be sent in July. It need not be long -- short and incisive letters will probably have the most impact. Thank you in advance for your help in the campaign to save the Geophysics Directorate and the basic and applied research that it has supported over the years. I would greatly appreciate it if you would send me a copy of the letter you send to Secretary Widnall. The letters are compiled in a volume at GP so that strong outside support can be demonstrated at a moment's notice. Please feel free to call if you would like to discuss any of the issues concerning the possible elimination of the Geophysics Directorate. Sincerely yours, Don Smith The Case for the Geophysics Directorate ======================================= The Geophysics Directorate (GP) of Phillips Laboratory (PL) has a long and productive history of vital contributions to the AF and the US in areas of measuring geophysical systems, including the solid earth, atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and solar-terrestrial interactions. A sample of significant accomplishments -- within the past two years -- includes: the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) which revolutionized our knowledge of the earth's radiation belts and is providing a critical series of dosage and flux models for satellite designers; HITRAN 92, the internationally acknowledged spectroscopic data base for atmospheric transmission and background radiance models; the Cryogenic InfraRed Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS) which for the first time obtained high resolution optical images in emission of the earth's atmosphere; and the Parameterized Real-Time Ionospheric Specification Model (PRISM), the world standard model for High- Frequency communication and satellite surveillance. Work continues on analysis of data from the above missions and development and improvement of the resultant models, e.g., obtaining dynamic physics-based models of the radiation belts. In addition, GP scientists are leaders in several other areas that are critical to current and future AF systems such as space weather prediction, spacecraft charging, satellite drag, satellite survivability, radio scintillation, magnetospheric modeling, scene generation, theater weather support, environmental simulation, and seismic verification of nuclear test ban treaties. Although the Geophysics Directorate is a relatively small facility in comparison with other national laboratories (approximately 240 civilian scientists and engineers, 110 civilian support personnel, 80 military personnel, and 125 associated in-house contractors), the quality of the work force is exceptionally high. The Geophysics Directorate is the acknowledged example of R&D excellence in the Air Force. It has the highest per capita publication rate of any of the AF laboratories, has seven of the eleven AF basic research STAR teams designated by the AF Office of Scientific Research (with only one-tenth of the AF scientific and technical personnel), and has the highest percentage of PhDs in the AF laboratory system. As recently as 1993, the AF's own Scientific Advisory Board described the Geophysics Directorate as "an exceptional Air Force Capability that does not exist elsewhere. The work in the Directorate is clearly relevant to the present and future Air Force, and is of very high technical quality." The SAB decried a then-contemplated 10% (!) reduction at GP: "The loss of 9.9% of the Geophysics Directorate as compared to a loss of 5.6% of the rest of the Air Force Laboratories ... should be a major concern of the Air Force." This cautionary statement from the highest level scientific advisory agency in the AF stands in stark contrast to the proposed elimination of GP. The nature of geophysics requires international cooperation for seismic, atmospheric, ionospheric, magnetospheric, and solar measuremments. The size and complexity of the "geophysical laboratory" requires close cooperation with a broad range of US and international scientists. These contacts, and the leveraging which it implies for the AF, are hard won. Once disassembled, it will be a costly exercise to reestablish the experience and expertise resident in the GP scientific and technical staff. World-class laboratories are not built overnight. In the DoD, the AF is the lead service for managing and exploiting the "high ground" of space. The vital role of space assets in the Gulf War, generally considered to be the template for future conflicts, is unquestioned in military circles. Thus the AF's decision to divest itself of it key corporate asset in space research is particularly baffling. Over 80% of the Geophsyics Directorate's budget directly supports space mission areas. In the most recent DoD R&D guidance to services, the following five areas were stressed: (1) maintaining near perfect knowledge of enemy movements in real-time; (2) having the mobility to engage in regional conflicts; (3) applying the right amount of force to limit collateral damage; (4) controlling the use of space; and (5) countering the threat from weapons of mass destruction. The research carried out and sponsored by GP is crucial to the fourth of these items but it also plays a vital role in items (1) and (5). GP is a major producer of dual-use technologies required for survival of operational systems in space, and space experiments developed and flown by GP address critical technologies required for future space operations. For the above reasons, elimination of GP appears to be a shortsighted and inefficient means of dealing with budgetary pressures. GP addresses clear AF needs and has been doing so in a notable fashion. In the AF is to meet the challenges of the 21st century, it can ill afford to do so without the proven expertise resident at the Geophysics Directorate. To Whom to Write: ================= Honorable Sheila E. Widnall Secretary of the Air Force 1670 Air Force Pentagon Washington, DC 20330-1670 Copies to: Dr. John Gibbons Science Advisor to the President Office of Science and Technology The White House Washington, DC 20500-0001 Dr. Anita Jones DDR&E RM 3E114 The Pentagon Washington, DC 20330-1000 Brigadier General Richard R. Paul HQ AFMC/ST 4375 Chidlaw Road, Suite 6 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-5006 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |To add name to the mailing list, send a message to: guan at igpp.ucla.edu | |For message to whole GEM mailing list, send to: gem at igpp.ucla.edu | |For message to a specific working group, send to: | | gem_field at igpp.ucla.edu (WG1); gem_boundary at igpp.ucla.edu (WG2); | | gem_current at igpp.ucla.edu (WG3); gem_data at igpp.ucla.edu (WG4) | | gem_ggcm at igpp.ucla.edu (WG5) | | gem_chair at igpp.ucla.edu (WG chairs, Odile and W. Lotko) | |GEM Bulletin Board: telnet terra.igpp.ucla.edu; user name: gem or GEM | | contents: GEM Messengers, magnetic indices, IMF data | |Please update your e-mail address. | |CAUTION: Do not send messages to gem at igpp.ucla.edu unless you want | | your message to go to everyone in the GEM mailing list! | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+