Welcome to the GIFTS-EPO home at the Office of Space Science Education, Space Science & Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. GIFTS stands for Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer, and is the third Earth Observer (EO-3) Mission of NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP).  GIFTS is part of the NASA New Millennium Program (NMP). NMP was created to identify, develop, and space-test breakthrough measurement techniques and technologies that will enable new capabilities or significantly lower costs of existing capabilities for science missions in the 21st century. 

For current information go to SSEC's GIFTS Website

The GIFTS mission, scheduled for launch in 2004, is the first step toward incorporating technological breakthroughs into the next generation of operational weather observing systems.  GIFTS will include advanced technologies in imaging spectrometry, active cooling, fast data processing, pointing and control, radiation protection, and lightweight materials.  Testing and validation of the technological breakthroughs need to be conducted in space. The space demonstration will use GIFTS' new techniques to gather water vapor, temperature, and cloud data. At the same time, measurements will be taken on the ground and from aircraft (for comparison) to confirm the accuracy of GIFTS measurements. 

GIFTS will make revolutionary advances in the weather observations and potentially will improve the weather forecast skills considerably by making high vertical and horizontal measurements of winds, water vapor and temperature in the earth's atmosphere from a geosynchronous altitude (36,000 km above the earth's surface).  The GIFTS Education and Public Outreach Program aims to reach a broad audience of K-12 educators and students. The education programs are being implemented initially at six institutions - NASA/LaRC, SDL/Utah State University, UW-Madison, Fond du Lac Tribal Community College (Cloquet, Minnesota), Norfolk State University (Norfolk, Va), the Norfolk Science Center, Edgewood College (Madison, Wisconsin), and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. In addition, GIFTS will implement, in collaboration with the GLOBE Program, a Special Measurement for Water Vapor using inexpensive LED Sun Photometers with participating schools. 

Here you will find standards based classroom resources relevant to the GIFTS Mission objectives, opportunities for teachers (summer workshops and internships), and other materials.  The Concept Provider is Dr. William L. Smith (NASA/Lanlgey Research Center). The Mission is managed by NASA/Langley Research Center (Mr.Wallace Harrison, Project Manager) and includes Space Dynamics Laboratory (Utah State University), US Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the the Space Science & Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison).