MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 1999
NEW TOPEX/POSEIDON CD-ROM OFFERS MULTITUDE OF OCEAN VOYAGES
Armchair adventurers and educators are invited to explore
marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico, investigate the El Nino
phenomenon, or simply discover "what's up" in the world of Earth-
orbiting satellites through a new multimedia CD-ROM, "Visit to an
Ocean Planet," produced by NASA and the French space agency.
Ocean expeditions, interactive games, teacher resources and
classroom activities are featured in an array of educational
learning tools, quizzes and global snapshots of ocean circulation
patterns based on data obtained by the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite,
a joint mission between NASA and France's Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).
More than an hour of digital video, audio, images and text
captions describe everything from the impetus for the mission to
significant science results obtained during the satellite's
three-year primary life span. "Students will be introduced to
cutting-edge concepts in science, mathematics and engineering,"
said Susan Digby, educational outreach representative on the
TOPEX/Poseidon mission at JPL.
This educational tool provides background materials, movies,
images and classroom activities on three main topics: climate,
oceans and life. Targeted primarily for middle-school students,
the material is tailored to meet criteria of the National
Education Standards office, and offers learning modules on three
main topics: climate, oceans and life.
One section enables students to learn about the ocean via
interactive games that allow them to plan excursions to the
nutrient-rich Gulf of Mexico. This gulf region experiences
cyclonic eddies, which attract pods of sperm whales and can
produce a variety of severe weather patterns. Another section
contains a self-guided multimedia tour of the 1997-1998 El Nino,
which was one of the most severe El Nino conditions in recent
history, and provides students interested in oceanography careers
with a chance to follow the studies of a group of contemporary
The CD-ROM also includes an easy-to-use Earth-orbiting
satellite game, which illustrates how TOPEX/Poseidon, along with
other satellites, operates from space.
The CD-ROM can be ordered free of charge at:
Launched in August 1992, the TOPEX/Poseidon mission was
designed to provide information about the changing topography of
the world's oceans which, in turn, helps scientists to understand
the ocean's role in the global climate.
The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Earth
Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology.