351
“Climate change” and “global warming” have become hot-button issues in today’s world, affecting everything from a country’s energy policies to its economy to its citizens’ choices of homes or vehicles. The study and monitoring of
the types of environmental processes that affect the land, oceans, and atmosphere occur on a global scale, and a continuous flow of constant information
is needed. For instance, monitoring changes in global sea surface temperature
is going to require information captured for the world’s oceans on an ongoing
basis. In order to acquire the large-scale information of the entire planet in
a timely fashion, remote sensing technology can be utilized. After all, satellites are continuously orbiting the planet and collecting data—they provide
the ideal mechanism for monitoring Earth’s environmental conditions and
changes. There are a lot of other remote sensing satellites up in orbit doing
their jobs besides Landsat and the high-resolution satellites discussed in Chapter 11. In fact, there’s an entire set of science observatories orbiting hundreds
of miles over your head dedicated to continuously monitoring things like sea
surface temperature, glaciers, trace gases in the atmosphere, humidity levels,
and Earth’s heat radiation.
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a series of remote sensing satellites
operated and maintained by NASA. Each satellite’s capabilities are dedicated
to an aspect of environmental monitoring or data collection related to Earth’s
surface, oceans, atmosphere, or biosphere. These EOS satellites often have
coarse spatial resolution (for instance, some instruments have a spatial resolution of each pixel representing 1000 meters) but consequently have a much
larger swath width (such as the ability to “see” up to 2300 kilometers in one
swath). Their instruments are also set up to monitor very specific wavelengths
tied to the purpose of that particular sensor. Their revisit times are usually
relatively short (like imaging the whole Earth in a couple of days) to provide
Studying the Environment
from Space
NASA’s Earth Observing System Program, Terra, Aqua, Aura,
and Viewing and Examining EOS Imagery
12
EOS NASA’s Earth
Observing System
mission program.
“Climate change” and “global warming” have become hot-button issues in today’s world, affecting everything from a country’s energy policies to its economy to its citizens’ choices of homes or vehicles. The study and monitoring of
the types of environmental processes that affect the land, oceans, and atmosphere occur on a global scale, and a continuous flow of constant information
is needed. For instance, monitoring changes in global sea surface temperature
is going to require information captured for the world’s oceans on an ongoing
basis. In order to acquire the large-scale information of the entire planet in
a timely fashion, remote sensing technology can be utilized. After all, satellites are continuously orbiting the planet and collecting data—they provide
the ideal mechanism for monitoring Earth’s environmental conditions and
changes. There are a lot of other remote sensing satellites up in orbit doing
their jobs besides Landsat and the high-resolution satellites discussed in Chapter 11. In fact, there’s an entire set of science observatories orbiting hundreds
of miles over your head dedicated to continuously monitoring things like sea
surface temperature, glaciers, trace gases in the atmosphere, humidity levels,
and Earth’s heat radiation.
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a series of remote sensing satellites
operated and maintained by NASA. Each satellite’s capabilities are dedicated
to an aspect of environmental monitoring or data collection related to Earth’s
surface, oceans, atmosphere, or biosphere. These EOS satellites often have
coarse spatial resolution (for instance, some instruments have a spatial resolution of each pixel representing 1000 meters) but consequently have a much
larger swath width (such as the ability to “see” up to 2300 kilometers in one
swath). Their instruments are also set up to monitor very specific wavelengths
tied to the purpose of that particular sensor. Their revisit times are usually
relatively short (like imaging the whole Earth in a couple of days) to provide
Studying the Environment
from Space
NASA’s Earth Observing System Program, Terra, Aqua, Aura,
and Viewing and Examining EOS Imagery
12
EOS NASA’s Earth
Observing System
mission program.