REDONDO BEACH, Calif., April 20, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced that Thomas Evert has been awarded NASA's Distinguished Public Service Award for exceptional sustained public service developing world-class space-based climate sensors. The award was presented during the 2009 Agency Honor Awards Ceremony at NASA headquarters.
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The Distinguished Public Service Award is the highest honor bestowed by NASA on an individual who was not a Government employee when the service was performed. It is given only to individuals whose distinguished accomplishments contributed substantially to NASA's mission.
Evert played a major role in the system engineering, design, development, delivery and deployment of all six Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) sensors built by Northrop Grumman for NASA Langley Research Center as well as several other critical instrument missions. CERES measures the Earth's radiation balance, which is a critical part of the climate system and which is directly influenced by changes in greenhouse gases and aerosols, cloud properties, and surface and atmospheric temperature.
"Tom's insightful engineering on CERES has helped produce sensors that are delivering climate data records used by scientists to better understand global climate change," said Dave DiCarlo, sector vice president and general manager, Space Systems Division, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "His work has contributed to an important legacy and points to a long-term future in CERES monitoring capability. We are honored that NASA has recognized Tom's exceptional work."
For more than 25 years, Northrop Grumman has supplied CERES and an earlier generation of similar sensors to accurately measure the reflected solar radiation and emitted thermal radiation over the Earth's surface. Evert, a graduate of California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, was a member of CERES development team starting in the late 1980s and now serves as its chief engineer.
"Tom is the authority on CERES sensors, ranging from piece parts to the fully-calibrated flight instruments," said Ravi Narasimhan, CERES program manager for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "His unwavering commitment to this program over two decades is exemplary, and his high technical standards make this difficult mission possible."
Four CERES sensors are operational on NASA's Terra and Aqua Earth Observing System spacecraft; one unit has completed its mission and another unit will orbit on the NPOESS Preparatory Project. The transition from NASA's important research science missions to operational long term data acquisition will be enabled by the sixth CERES sensor, which will fly on the first NPOESS spacecraft (known as Charlie 1).
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.
