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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Earth Perspectives
Say NASA, and many images may come to mind: a white-clad man leaping
awkwardly, joyfully across the surface of the moon; probes gliding into the
depths of the solar system, sending back pictures of distant worlds; two
tenacious robots exploring the red rock surface of Mars, uncovering evidence of a
wet past; the horrifying disintegration of the Challenger and Columbia space
shuttles.
For some, another image comes to mind: a tiny blue and white planet, a fragile
oasis in the black vastness of space. Recalling his thoughts while orbiting the
Moon during the landmark Apollo 8 mission, astronaut Bill Anders said, “We
came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we
discovered the Earth.” (Quoted in The Societal Impact of Space Flight, p.55.)
Venturing into space has taught us about our Sun, solar system, and the universe
beyond, but it has also given us a new perspective on our home planet, Earth. In
2008, as NASA celebrates 50 years of existence as an agency and 40 years since
man first left Earth’s orbit, the Earth Observatory asked a number of Earth
scientists what unique insights space flight has given us about Earth. Some
emphasized revolutionary technology, others mentioned specific discoveries and
observations of important Earth events, while others highlighted the power of
NASA Earth ObservatoryHome Image of the Day Feature Articles News Natural Hazards Global Maps
by Holli Riebeek
November 4, 2008
NASA astronaut photograph AS10-34-
5036.
● by Holli Riebeek
● design by Robert Simmon
● November 24, 2008
●
Search
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
satellite images to make us understand the interconnectedness of people and
places around the globe. A selection of their responses follows.
Piers SellersBiospheric scientist and astronaut
Piers Sellers remembers admiring the intricate details visible from the orbiting
space shuttle. “It was like someone spent forever building a tiny model.” He was
surprised by the thinness of the atmosphere, a delicate mist glued to Earth’s
surface, and delighted in seeing the edges of the clouds curl up towards space,
something that isn’t obvious in two dimensional satellite images.
Apart from letting humanity see Earth differently than ever before, the view from
space has also expanded our understanding of how the planet works, and just in
time to grasp the impact humanity is having on the planet and its climate system,
says Sellers. For the first time, we see our planet as a whole, a system of
intricately connected parts that interact—and can be perturbed—in ways humans
had not previously glimpsed. For example, the view from space was necessary to
understand how much carbon moves through ocean and land plants every year
during photosynthesis, says Sellers. “You need a global view to understand global
processes like the carbon cycle.”
Astronauts and cosmonauts have
taken thousands of photographs of
the Earth, including Mt. Everest (left),
Cuba (center), and clouds over South
America (right). (NASA astronaut
photographs ISS008-E-6146, ISS017-
E-14060, and ISS017-E-13859.)
Global measurements of the carbon
stored by plants (net primary
productivity) during photosynthesis
are an important piece of the climate
change puzzle. Scientists need to
know how much of the carbon dioxide
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Moustafa T ChahineAIRS/Aqua Science Team Leader, Senior Research Scientist
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
We view Earth now as a planet, not unlike Mars or Venus. Prior to the advent of
space exploration, we could only look at the planets from a great distance but
now robotic spacecraft like rovers and landers are enabling us to observe them
up close. For Earth it was quite the opposite. Heretofore, we could only observe
our immediate surroundings like lands, oceans, clouds, mountains, etc. The view
from space allows us to observe the entire Earth as a planet.
Scientifically, NASA initiated the concept of “Earth System Science” to describe
that the Earth’s climate system is an interactive system with many feedbacks
[connections]. What happens in one part affects the rest. NASA went on to
collect individual measurements like sea surface temperature, outgoing
radiation, soil moisture, etc. and integrated measurements from different
sounders and imagers to study the feedbacks among the various individual
measurements.
My favorite image of Earth is the composite view of Earth at night, which shows
the light over the USA East and West Coasts, Europe, Japan and along the Nile
river. It is one of very few space observations that demonstrates “intelligent life
exists on our planet.”
released by burning fossil fuels the
biosphere can absorb and how much
will linger in the atmosphere. (NASA
map by Robert Simmon and Reto
Stöckli, based on MODIS data.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Marc ImhoffProject Scientist for NASA’s Terra satellite
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
We have come to realize how thin and fragile our atmosphere is, how finite our
resources are, and how interconnected we are with everyone else on the planet.
Scientifically, the view from space has enabled us to see how human activities
can interact with natural cycles to cause important changes. For the first time,
we have observed the melting of ice and sea level rise, and how ocean circulation
works.
My favorite view of Earth from space is the global city lights at night. Nothing
shows how much impact we are having as a species on this planet better than
that composite image.
The view of city lights at night is one
of very few space observations that
demonstrates “intelligent life exists
on our planet,” says Moustafa
Chahine. On the other hand, says
Marc Imhoff, “nothing shows how
much impact we are having as a
species on this planet better than that
composite image.”
(NASA image by Robert Simmon,
based on MODIS Blue Marble and
Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program city lights data.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Harrison SchmittApollo Astronaut, Geologist
As a geologist, my perspective of the Earth as a planet in space did not change
with the opportunity to view it on the way to the Moon. But I was impressed by
how well I could observe and forecast weather patterns during those three days,
with the help of a 10X monocular. The Apollo views of the full Earth disk have
stimulated thought on the value of continuous monitoring the full disk from the
Moon as inherently different than the views from Earth orbit.
Lee-Lueng FuSenior Research Scientist, Project Scientist for the TOPEX/Poseidon,
Jason-1, and OSTM/Jason-2 Missions.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
First of all, seeing Earth from space has a psychological impact on human’s
awareness of the planet we are all sharing. It heightens our sense of the global
Apollo astronauts captured a series of
over 700 photographs of the Earth’s
disk on their way to and from the
moon. A crew member of Apollo 10
snapped this shot while he was
100,000 nautical miles (185,000
kilometers) from Earth on May 18,
1969. (Astronaut Photograph AS10-
34-5026.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
impact of both natural processes and human activities.
Scientifically, observing Earth from space has revolutionized our understanding
of Earth as a system. For the first time we are able to see how the world’s
landscape has been changing on a scale not amenable to ground-based
observations. We begin appreciating the ocean’s effects on weather on land
through dramatic events like El Niño. We are seeing the minute change of global
sea level as well as the rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice as a consequence of
global warming. By comparing measurements of topography taken at different
times, we can delineate the slow change of the surface of Earth that results from
the tectonic movement of Earth’s crust. We are even able to detect the minute
change of Earth’s gravity field caused by the melting of ice on Greenland and
Antarctica as well as by the seasonal change of ground water on land.
El Niño and La Niña are characterized
by large-scale changes in equatorial
Pacific Ocean currents. The TOPEX/
Poseidon satellite monitored changes
in sea-surface height during the
record 1997 El Niño and subsequent
1999 La Niña. In October 1997, warm
water piled up off the west coast of
South America, raising sea level
(red), while in March 1999, the cool
waters of La Niña dropped the sea
level below normal (blue). (Maps by
Robert Simmon, based on TOPEX/
Poseidon data from the World Ocean
Circulation Experiment.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Viewing Earth from space enabled the following scientific discoveries, not in
ranked order and surely biased by my own perspective:
● Direct observations of the ozone hole leading to the understanding of its
formation and fluctuations;
● Observations of the fluctuations of sea ice coverage leading to the
understanding of its dynamics and relation to global climate change;
● Direct measurement of the change of global mean sea level, showing sea
level rise during the last decade at a rate twice that during the preceding
100 years;
● First direct measurement of the effects of change in Earth’s hydrosphere
[water systems] and cryosphere [snow and ice] on Earth’s gravity field.
● First direct measurement of the movement of Earth’s crust in relation to
tectonics, and its effects on earthquakes.
● Discovery of the global population of ocean eddies. Like storms in the
atmosphere, ocean eddies are storms in ocean currents. Eddies carry 90
percent of the energy of ocean circulation and play a key role in
transporting heat and nutrients around the world.
Robert BindschadlerChief scientist, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
My favorite image is a rather poor quality image by today’s standards. It made
the cover of Eos (an Earth science journal) because it was the “Ah-Hah!” image
that gave us the very first view of fast moving ice streams in the midst of the
Antarctic ice sheet. We could identify them because their surfaces were rougher
(bumpier) than the much slower flowing ice on either side. Prior to this image we
only knew they were there, but we had no effective means to map their extent.
Seeing this image come up on the screen and knowing I was looking at
something significant that no one had ever seen before remains one of the most
memorable days of my scientific career.
From my particular field of ice sheet dynamics, satellite observations have given
us the ability to see how fast ice sheets move, how the ice funnels into outlet Flowing glaciers of the Antarctic ice
cap. (NASA image courtesy Robert
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
glaciers, and (from the ability to see subtle flow features) tell how the ice flowed
in the millennial past.
Satellite data have revolutionized glaciology. It’s as simple as that. We know
more about what is going on at the remote high latitudes and high altitudes from
the satellite observations of the past 50 years than we would have every known
from hundreds of years of ground observations.
Bindschadler, Goddard Space Flight
Center.)
Colors indicate the speed of flowing
ice in Antarctica’s outlet glaciers. The
glaciers move relative slowly (one or
two meters per year) in the interior
and speed up tremendously as they
approach the sea. This image
includes data from several orbiting
radar instruments. (NASA image
courtesy Eric Rignot, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Harrison Schmitt
Apollo Astronaut, Geologist
As a geologist, my perspective of the Earth as a planet in space did not change
with the opportunity to view it on the way to the Moon. But I was impressed by
how well I could observe and forecast weather patterns during those three days,
with the help of a 10X monocular. The Apollo views of the full Earth disk have
stimulated thought on the value of continuous monitoring the full disk from the
Moon as inherently different than the views from Earth orbit.
Lee-Lueng Fu
Senior Research Scientist, Project Scientist for the TOPEX/Poseidon,
Jason-1, and OSTM/Jason-2 Missions.
Apollo astronauts captured a series of
over 700 photographs of the Earth’s
disk on their way to and from the
moon. A crew member of Apollo 10
snapped this shot while he was
100,000 nautical miles (185,000
kilometers) from Earth on May 18,
1969. (Astronaut Photograph AS10-
34-5026.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
First of all, seeing Earth from space has a psychological impact on human’s
awareness of the planet we are all sharing. It heightens our sense of the global
impact of both natural processes and human activities.
Scientifically, observing Earth from space has revolutionized our understanding
of Earth as a system. For the first time we are able to see how the world’s
landscape has been changing on a scale not amenable to ground-based
observations. We begin appreciating the ocean’s effects on weather on land
through dramatic events like El Niño. We are seeing the minute change of global
sea level as well as the rapidly disappearing Arctic sea ice as a consequence of
global warming. By comparing measurements of topography taken at different
times, we can delineate the slow change of the surface of Earth that results from
the tectonic movement of Earth’s crust. We are even able to detect the minute
change of Earth’s gravity field caused by the melting of ice on Greenland and
Antarctica as well as by the seasonal change of ground water on land.
El Niño and La Niña are characterized
by large-scale changes in equatorial
Pacific Ocean currents. The TOPEX/
Poseidon satellite monitored changes
in sea-surface height during the
record 1997 El Niño and subsequent
1999 La Niña. In October 1997, warm
water piled up off the west coast of
South America, raising sea level
(red), while in March 1999, the cool
waters of La Niña dropped the sea
level below normal (blue). (Maps by
Robert Simmon, based on TOPEX/
Poseidon data from the World Ocean
Circulation Experiment.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Viewing Earth from space enabled the following scientific discoveries, not in
ranked order and surely biased by my own perspective:
● Direct observations of the ozone hole leading to the understanding of its
formation and fluctuations;
● Observations of the fluctuations of sea ice coverage leading to the
understanding of its dynamics and relation to global climate change;
● Direct measurement of the change of global mean sea level, showing sea
level rise during the last decade at a rate twice that during the preceding
100 years;
● First direct measurement of the effects of change in Earth’s hydrosphere http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EarthPerspectives/printall.php (11 of 23)2008.11.26 9:31:13 AM
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
[water systems] and cryosphere [snow and ice] on Earth’s gravity field.
● First direct measurement of the movement of Earth’s crust in relation to
tectonics, and its effects on earthquakes.
● Discovery of the global population of ocean eddies. Like storms in the
atmosphere, ocean eddies are storms in ocean currents. Eddies carry 90
percent of the energy of ocean circulation and play a key role in
transporting heat and nutrients around the world.
Robert Bindschadler
Chief scientist, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
My favorite image is a rather poor quality image by today’s standards. It made
the cover of Eos (an Earth science journal) because it was the “Ah-Hah!” image
that gave us the very first view of fast moving ice streams in the midst of the
Antarctic ice sheet. We could identify them because their surfaces were rougher
(bumpier) than the much slower flowing ice on either side. Prior to this image we
only knew they were there, but we had no effective means to map their extent.
Seeing this image come up on the screen and knowing I was looking at
something significant that no one had ever seen before remains one of the most
memorable days of my scientific career.
From my particular field of ice sheet dynamics, satellite observations have given
us the ability to see how fast ice sheets move, how the ice funnels into outlet
glaciers, and (from the ability to see subtle flow features) tell how the ice flowed
in the millennial past.
Satellite data have revolutionized glaciology. It’s as simple as that. We know
more about what is going on at the remote high latitudes and high altitudes from
the satellite observations of the past 50 years than we would have every known
from hundreds of years of ground observations.
Flowing glaciers of the Antarctic ice
cap. (NASA image courtesy Robert
Bindschadler, Goddard Space Flight
Center.)
Colors indicate the speed of flowing
ice in Antarctica’s outlet glaciers. The
glaciers move relative slowly (one or
two meters per year) in the interior
and speed up tremendously as they http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EarthPerspectives/printall.php (12 of 23)2008.11.26 9:31:13 AM
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Print this Entire Article
contact us • recommend this page • subscribe to the Earth Observatory
about the Earth Observatory • image use policy • privacy policy & important notices
the Earth Observatory is part of the EOS Project Science Office located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Michael KingEmeritus EOS Senior Project Scientist
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado
Not a person alive in the U.S. has gone without seeing geosynchronous images of
clouds and the Earth from space. These are used in every TV weather forecast
approach the sea. This image
includes data from several orbiting
radar instruments. (NASA image
courtesy Eric Rignot, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.)
webmaster: Goran Halusa • NASA official: Lorraine
Remer
last updated: November
24, 2008
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
throughout the nation and elsewhere in the globe. Highlights are often shown
during hurricane season and during severe storms or blizzards that ground
aircraft or cripple regions of the country.
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
A plethora of satellite imagery document natural (or human-caused) disasters,
such as tsunamis, hurricanes and typhoons, fires, severe floods, blizzards,
droughts, and wars, around the world. The interconnection between sometimes
distance places and individual nations becomes clear through satellite imagery.
Views of calving glaciers, sea ice retreat, and other natural and human-
influenced changes have also started to seep into the public’s consciousness.
Though not initially discovered from space, seasonal and annual fluctuations of
ozone concentration, especially in the important Antarctic ozone hole, have been
monitored and studied extensively with the aid of space-based observations.
The view from space has enabled the observation of:
● Changes in worldwide sea level over space and time, impossible to
observe from ships and island stations;
● Spatial pattern and time evolution of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic;
Hurricane Ike made landfall over
Galveston Island on September 13,
2008. The GOES-12 satellite
monitored the storm from its birth in
the mid-Atlantic until its demise over
the central United States. (NASA
Image courtesy GOES Project Science
Office.)
The Total Ozone Mapping
Spectrometer revealed the size and
depth of the ozone hole that first
formed over Antarctica in the 1980s.
Scientists used the data to
demonstrate the need for a ban on
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
● The interconnection between population growth and land cover change
and deterioration;
● Deforestation and the seasonal distribution of fires worldwide;
● The long-range transport of aerosols (dust) from one continent to
another, which are not associated with local pollution sources but are
often mistakenly attributed to them;
● Day-of-the-week changes in precipitation and atmospheric chemistry
associated with human activity;
● The influence of hurricanes on the underlying sea surface temperatures
as hurricanes pass over (and extract heat from) the ocean.
I like the view of ship tracks in the eastern Atlantic off the Iberian Peninsula. The
phenomenon of ship tracks is a clear signature of how burning fossil fuels
modifies clouds. A cloud modified by the small particles released when fossil
fuels are burned is brighter when viewed from the vantage point of space.
ozone-destroying chemicals, which
went into effect in 1989. (Images and
data courtesy NASA Ozone Hole
Watch.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Steve RunningProfessor/Director, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group
College of Forestry & Conservation, University of Montana
My favorite picture, the one I start my public talks with, is the Earth taken from
the Moon by the Apollo astronauts. The Earth looks so alone and fragile.
Ship tracks off the Atlantic coast of
Europe. (NASA image by Jacques
Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response
Team.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
Until satellites, most terrestrial ecologists could only study their own backyard.
Twenty years ago, more than 90 percent of the papers in the journal Ecology
were on studies from 0.1 hectare plots. Satellites gave us a continental and global
look at the biosphere where we could compare and contrast ecosystems all over
the world and monitor change. Change detection of virtually all the key global
habitability indicators would have been impossible without the repeatability and
consistency of the satellite record. I can sit at my computer and effectively study
any ecosystem on Earth anywhere. That’s pretty cool.
June 17, 1984
Earth from the Apollo 8 Command
Module on December 26, 1968.
(NASA astronaut photograph AS08-
14-2383.)
Satellites make it possible to
regularly collect data over even the
most remote places. These two
Landsat images, acquired in 1984 and
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
July 21, 2005
Claire ParkinsonProject Scientist, Aqua satellite
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Satellites have been magnificent in terms of providing us with a global view of
what’s happening on our planet. This has been tremendously important in
2005, show the growth of
Machadinho D’oeste in the Brazilian
state of Rondonia.The town is at
bottom center, surrounded by cleared
rainforest. (NASA images by Robert
Simmon, based on Landsat data from
the University of Maryland Global
Land Cover Facility.)
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
numerous fields of Earth science. For instance, in sea ice studies, it has allowed
us to monitor the full Arctic and Antarctic sea ice covers every one or two days
for almost the entire period since late 1978. This has provided us with detailed
information about the strongly decreasing Arctic sea ice cover and slightly
increasing Antarctic sea ice cover since 1978 that we simply would not have had
without satellite data.
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
The book Our Changing Planet: The View From Space is full of impressive
satellite imagery. Some images are global, revealing fascinating aspects of the
Earth system that would not be apparent without the global or near-global view.
For instance, the global image of lightning flash rate from eight years of satellite
data shows that lightning is overwhelmingly more frequent over land than over
oceans. Other views are impressive for the changes they reveal, such as the
sequence of three images showing the crumbling of the Larsen B ice shelf along
the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002. Still other images are impressive for the level of
detail they present, such as an image of San Francisco showing not just the
buildings (and their shadows) but also roads and parking lots and specks
revealing cars and trucks along the roads and in the parking lots.
Earth’s Story from SpaceUntil recently, humanity has only perceived Earth’s story in small chapters, a
series of short scenes as we have observed the sky, land, water, and life in our
backyard. As we watch our planet from space, the scenes flow together, and
unconnected narrative becomes an epic novel in which all players have a part.
Satellites have mapped the extent of
Arctic Sea since 1979. In the past
decade the area of ice during
September (annual minimum) has
declined from over 6 million square
kilometers to a record low of 4.3
million square kilometers in 2007.
(NASA maps by Jesse Allen and
Robert Simmon, based on data from
the National Snow and Ice Data
Center.)
Thunderstorms that form over land
are more likely to produce lightning
than storms that form over the open
ocean, and 90% of the world’s
lightning flashes occur over land. This
maps shows the frequency of
lightning flashes per square kilometer
per year from April 1995–February
2003. (NASA map by Marit Jentoft-
Nilsen, based on data from the Global
Hydrology Resource Center.)
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http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_scientists/data_products/ourchangingplanet.phphttp://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/archives/index.htmlhttp://nsidc.org/http://nsidc.org/http://lightning.nsstc.nasa.gov/data/http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
We are coming to understand that all parts of our planet are connected, that a
fallen forest or a melting glacier in a faraway place touches the rain that falls
nearby, that the gases that rise into the atmosphere don’t disappear, that the
seemingly small things we do from day to day add up to big changes in the Earth
system.
The Earth Observatory exists to tell both Earth’s story and the stories of people
seeking to understand Earth as we look back from space. It also exists to share
the great beauty of the unique planet on which we live. Only from space can we
appreciate the beauty of a vast phytoplankton bloom coloring the ocean with
fanciful swirls of green and blue, or watch the slow southward creep of orange
down the folds of the entire Appalachian Mountain Range as fall turns to winter.
From space, the symmetry of a powerful hurricane or a plume of pale dust
reaching over the dark ocean is beautiful.
When NASA marked its 50th anniversary on July 29, 2008, it had 21 Earth-
observing satellites in orbit. NASA’s rich history of observing Earth from space
continues. In 2009, two more missions are scheduled to launch. The Orbiting
Carbon Observatory will observe carbon dioxide concentrations in the
atmosphere, and Glory will monitor aerosols like black carbon soot and track
changes in the amount of energy entering the atmosphere from the Sun. NASA is
developing and studying new missions in response to the National Research
Council’s 2007 Decadal Survey for Earth Science—a once-a-decade report that
Fall colors tint the hilltops flanking
the Susquehanna River valley in
central Pennsylvania. Pale, recently
harvested fields line the valley floors
between ridge lines. This natural-
color image was acquired on October
21, 2001, by Landsat-7. (NASA image
by Robert Simmon, based on Landsat
data from the University of Maryland
Global Land Cover Facility.)
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EarthPerspectives/printall.php (22 of 23)2008.11.26 9:31:13 AM
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=5611http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=5912http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=17009"http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=19264http://www.nasa.gov/50th/home/http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/http://www.landcover.org/
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Earth Perspectives : Feature Articles
prioritizes Earth science questions and makes recommendations for the missions
NASA and its partners should undertake in the coming decade to help answer
them. These missions will join those already in orbit to teach us more about
Earth and give us a greater appreciation of its complex beauty.
1. Reference
2. Dick, S.J., Launias, R.D. (2007). The Societal Impact of Space Flight.
Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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the Earth Observatory is part of the EOS Project Science Office located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center webmaster: Goran Halusa • NASA official: Lorraine
Remer
last updated: November
26, 2008
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