This
Planet Earth: The Vision and Majesty of NASA's Remote
Sensing Legacy (Edited version) (Click
here for full version of site)
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on pic to play the Landsat Reporter Package (1:37) Caution:
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Note:
There are numerous images and animations contained on this
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CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE IMAGES.
Sight
yields insight. New observations afford new ideas, and new
ideas allow for new levels of understanding. With its strong
commitment to developing powerful remote sensing technologies,
NASA has led the way in opening stunning vistas for exploration
about our home.
Take
the Landsat program, now late into its third decade. The ability
to see the Earth’s surface in terms that can be visually classified—"thematically
mapped," to use the jargon-- have profoundly changed
millions of people’s lives and helped shape the future of
scientific research about our home planet. Landsat 7 is the
latest in a string of highly successful spacecraft. Based
on the program’s impressive and consistent successes, researchers
have developed daring new ideas for continuing its work into
the twenty-first century.
The powerful Earth observing flagship called Terra is beginning
to pay remarkable dividends to researchers around the world.
With five advanced instruments designed to study the Earth
as a collection of interrelated systems, the future of remote
sensing is already into its dawn.
Last
year an experimental satellite called EO-1 also arrived on
orbit. It’s designed to test next generation Landsat-type
technologies, as well as try out several entirely new notions
in spacecraft design. As you’ll see in the following collection
of images, the efforts of those involved in these programs
can show us the Earth as most of us have never seen it before.
GREAT
ZOOMS FROM SPACE: AMERICAN CITIES
No
doubt about it: these are new. Using data from different spacecraft
and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the
Goddard Space Flight Center present you with the following
collection of American cities in a way you’ve never seen them
before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we
rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible
speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere,
the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique
characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in
virtual space just above the ground.
Enjoy
the ride!
Featured Cities Include:
Image 2
Washington,
DC To zoom
into DC, click here. Caution 5 MB file size
To
zoom out of DC, click here. Caution: 4.5 MB file size
To
pan the DC area, click here. Caution: 14.5 MB file size
Image 3
Atlanta,
GA
To
zoom into Atlanta, click here. Caution: 4.4 MB file size
To
zoom out of Atlanta, click here. Caution 4.6 MB file size
Image 4
Los
Angeles, CA
To zoom into LA, click here. Caution: 4.7 MB file size
To
zoom out of LA, click here. Caution 4.6 MB file size
Image 5
San
Francisco, CA
To zoom into SF,
click here. Caution 5 MB file size
To
zoom out of SF, click here. Caution 5 MB file size
To
pan SF, click here. Caution 25 MB file size
Image 6
Orlando,
FL
To
zoom into Orlando, click here. Caution: 4.6 MB file size
To
zoom out of Orlando, click here. Caution: 4.7 MB file
size
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to top
ZOOMS
FROM SPACE: HOW DID THEY DO THAT?
Image 7
Animation
Caution: 14.1 MB file size
There’s
no Earth observing telescope parked in orbit. There are no
geosynchronous elevators on which a camera can be mounted.
The images that went into each of the remarkable city zooms
come from data collected by a group of Earth imaging satellites.
And while not all of the zoom sequences use precisely the
same series of data sets, most do. Plus, those that include
data from alternative sources employ techniques similar to
the general case described here.
Farthest
away we see the Earth as a globe. This comes from data stitched
together using information from MODIS, an instrument on Terra.
This first picture has a resolution of 8000 meters. As our
virtual camera begins its long fall to ground, we pass through
a different kind of MODIS information; data in the second
layer resolves details as small as 250 meters across. Our
measure of detail has just improved dramatically.
Next
we find our apparent speed increasing as the surface of the
Earth envelops our sense of horizon. The data supporting this
perspective comes from the land imaging workhorse of NASA’s
fleet: Landsat 7. These images resolve features 15 meters
across.
Finally,
as we rush in to the limits of Landsat 7’s data capabilities,
we move to our final slice of visual information. Taken by
a remarkable commercial satellite called Ikonos, features
as small as one meter across come into view. Individual cars,
trees, and baseball diamonds appear like ghostly apparitions
on the ground. In virtual space we’ve traveled far more than
a thousand miles…but in real terms, nothing besides electrons,
photons, and an elite group of computer and spacecraft personnel
have moved to make these images possible.
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Looking
at the Future with Advanced Tools
LANDSAT:
Continuing a Legacy of Earth Observation
Image
8 Animation (1.74
MB file size)
Landsat
7 is the latest in a series of satellites. From an altitude
of 438 miles (730 kilometers), Landsat 7 can see surface features
as small as 15 meters, providing world-wide land resource
information for a diverse range of uses.
The
only scientific instrument onboard the satellite is the Enhanced
Thematic Mapper Plus, a passive sensor that measure reflected
solar radiation (light) from the surface of the Earth. Landsat
7’s ETM+ is a refinement of previous Landsat Thematic Mapper
systems.
Landsat
7 is part of a global research effort NASA calls the Earth
Science Enterprise, which seeks to acquire a long term understanding
of the changes to our planet. The satellite roared into orbit
aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket on April 15, 1999 from Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California. NASA officially called the first
Landsat satellite the Earth Resources Technology Satellite,
or ERTS-1, on July 23, 1972. Since then the program has continued
to pave the way in research and data acquisition techniques
about the surface of our planet.
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TERRA:
FLAGSHIP OF THE EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM
 Image
9 Animation (1.98
MB file size)
On
December 18, 1999 NASA launched Terra, paving the way for
a new era in orbiting Earth science tools. It’s a multi-national
orbiting research platform managed at NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center. By synchronizing a sophisticated suite of sensors
and instruments, Terra will help researchers pursue some of
the grandest and most complex questions about the nature of
our home planet, including cutting edge research into climate
change.
The
satellite can simultaneously study clouds, water vapor, aerosol
particles, trace gases, terrestrial and ocean properties,
and systemic interactions on a planetary scale. In the following
sections we take a closer look the five scientific instruments
that comprise the Terra platform.
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For
full version of This Planet Earth site, click here.
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