David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC August 21, 1997
(Phone: 202/358-1730)
Keith Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA
(Phone: 757/824-1579)
RELEASE: 97-175
NASA SUPPORTING MARYLAND IN POCOMOKE RIVER PFIESTERIA RESEARCH
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility,
Wallops Island, VA, is supporting the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources by providing meteorological equipment to assist in the
investigation into fish lesions and a recent fish kill in the
Pocomoke River.
Wallops received the request for a weather station to be
placed at Shelltown, MD, on Aug. 14 from John Griffin, Secretary
of the Department of Natural Resources, to aid in on-site experiments.
The equipment was installed on Aug. 18.
Pete Jensen, Deputy Director of Fisheries Service for the
Department, said the weather equipment provided by NASA is very
important in their research. Researchers are looking into a variety
of factors that may contribute to the outbreak of the toxic Pfiesteria-like
microorganism. One of these factors is weather, he said.
The nearest weather station to the research site at Shelltown
is the Wallops Flight Facility, nearly 12 miles away. The portable
NASA weather station has been located on the bank of the Pocomoke
River, which will give researchers up-to-date, accurate information
in the area.
The NASA weather station consists of instruments providing
wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric
pressure and precipitation. The data from the instruments are
sent to an on-site computer which provides a user-friendly graphic
presentation of the data and is updated every five minutes. In
addition, the data are archived in the computer for retrieval
by the researchers.
The NASA weather station is expected to remain on site until
the Department of Natural Resources completes its research.
-end-