Hurricane Laura heads towards Texas and Louisiana in this satellite image from 25 August 2020. Credit: Noaa
Astronomy magazine It tends to concentrate on the observers of the space they scrutinize beyond the earth, in the depths of space. But the vast majority of observational satellites around our blue world fix us.
From time to the climate to the ocean currents to the vegetation, all types of satellites that detect the earth surround our planet, giving a view to the eye for birds of our small blue marble. The United States Geological Survey list 693 satellites for the detection of the Earth in their database (including retired missions). They work alone or in teams, through many different orbits, observing visible wavelengths, radio and infrared and using radar and laser. We cannot cover them all, but here is a sampling that helps us to understand this wonderful world that we call home.
Tyros-1
The first meteorological satellite, tyros-1 (observation satellite with television infrared) laid the foundations for the generations of science to come. With a launch, the field of meteorology – and many others – has changed forever. At the time of launch, scientists were not sure if the weather observations from space would have been useful: Tiros was breaking new lands. Although his images were in black and white, grainy and characteristic for modern standards, Tiros-1 provided for the first time the satellite television views on the formations of the clouds from above, allowing meteorological forecasts, preparation for hurricanes, crops management, defense planning and more. He launched in April 1960 and operated for only 78 days. But he did it wildly and had a rich legacy of successful successors.
In 1962, the Tiros program was collecting the data continuously and a long series of satellites, jointly managed by NASA and the Oceanic and atmospheric national administration (Noaa), continued the mission. The last satellite of the series is Noaa-19, launched in 2009; Together with the Noaa -15 and -18 brothers, it is still in operation today. It is succeeded by the joint polar satellite system, whose first satellite was launched in 2011. The new fleet is occupying the tiros cloak to provide high quality data for meteorologists and climatic sciences.
Earth observation system
Aqua, Aura and Terra are the main space vehicle that constitutes the observation system of the land of NASA, observing the water cycle, air and earth respectively. Aqua and Aura also made part of the afternoon constellation, or A-Train, a group of NASA satellites that flew a few minutes away on their polar orbit, crossing the equator in rapid succession at 13:30 every day. This allowed the fleet to observe the Earth with a huge series of tools from different satellites (the stretch to included six satellites at its peak, currently up to three), providing a wide range of data constantly updated to NASA and its partners.
Dscovr
The splendid images of DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) of our planet make it a shoot-in for this collection. Very father flies in the space of anything else present here, to the L1 Lagrange point, directly between the earth and the sun. There, it has the flavor of the sun wind and warns the earth in the event of a geomagnetic storm. And its terrestrial polychromatic imaging camera, or epic, takes photos of our planet in 10 infrared, visible and ultraviolet bands every two hours. Due to its position between the sun and the earth, it always sees the days of our planet, making it an excellent observer of clouds, vegetation, levels of ozone and aerosol.
Although it does not provide the granularity of meteorological satellites in low earth orbit, its vision of great image allows scientists to study our planet as a whole and observe real -time trends on a global scale. He imagined the earth that photographing and recorded the shadow of the moon that runs on the face of our planet during a solar eclipse. And it provides a constantly updated vision of the “blue marble” of our planet, perhaps reminding us that while there are many planets out there, only one has ever gained the name “mother”.
Ibuki
Ibuki (“breath” in Japanese, also known as greenhouse gas that observes the satellite, or Gosat) was the first satellite designed specifically to study greenhouse emissions from space. The second version, Ibuki 2, was launched in 2018 and is still in operation. Built and managed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the profession will have succeeded this year by Ibuki 3.
Ibuki’s mission was in response to the 1997 Kyoto protocol which ordered nations to reduce their carbon emissions. But the monitoring of these emissions from the ground is patchwork and incomplete. Ibuki and his successors are able to map carbon dioxide and methane on almost the entire surface of the planet every three days, allowing the world to keep track of how and where greenhouse gases increase.
Goes to the east and west
The Suite of the Gestational Operational Environmental Satellite (GOWS) lies in a “parked” orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers) above the Earth’s Equator and rotates with the planet, allowing its satellites to block the eyes on the chosen patch. Goes-R is the latest advanced version of the fleet and includes two satellites, dubbed to the east and west, each in a point near North America, where they keep an eye on the land, the air and the sea inside their domain. Two other satellites extend into the nearby orbit for the backup, exchanging in an orbital place if one of the top steps breaks.
Another joint program NASA/Noaa, VA (in one version or another) was to look at the earth from space since 1965. The first Gos-R satellite launched in 2016 and the suite is NASA and the current best geostation eyes of Noaa for the time and climate that cover the western hemisphere. Their array of tools covers multiband imaging and the mapping of lightning and includes a range of solar radiation and space meteorological sensors and more. This allows them to monitor everything, from time to fires, to predict a serious time such as Tornado and even help in the research and rescue missions by transmitting transponder signals. Whether you have to launch a rescue or plan a picnic, go east and west
Planet
Planet is a private company that manages a fleet of about 200 satellites, providing the resulting data to a wide range of sectors. For insurance, investment banking, transport, silviculture, civil projects, defense, agriculture and more, there are many reasons why having an updated vision of our evolution planet could prove useful and profitable.
In the absence of a space agency, the planet the company does the work of not only images, but also the data of data that accompany them. With this information, farmers may provide for crops, governments and NGOs can trace the use of soil and navigation companies can evaluate the use of the port. The possibilities are infinite.
