September 29, 1999
NASA Completes Four Decades of Earth Observations
1. The first image from space of cloud patterns on Earth, April 1, 1960.
2. Hurricane Dennis off the east coast of Florida, August 28, 1999.
3. Precipitation on the ground and in two vertical cross sections of a major storm north of Houston, TX, on February 10, 1998, as measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.
4. Ozone levels in the upper atmosphere of the Antarctic region on September 7, 1999, as measured by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) onboard the Earth Probe (EP) satellite.
5. Sections of the states of Washington and Oregon as imaged by Landsat 7 on August 22, 1999.
6. The average afternoon ground temperatures of the Alps and surrounding areas between February 18 and 28, 1998.
7. Two radar satellite images of the same 20-mile by 30-mile area near the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers illustrating the severe flooding (right image) experienced in March 1997 in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and neighboring states.
8. Surface winds over the Pacific Ocean as measured by NASA's space-based Scatterometer on September 21, 1996.
9. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Ross Ice Shelf draining into the Ross Sea. The background image is a mosaic of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery obtained from space.
Click on images for larger views and additional information.
Image Credits: The TIROS program and NASA (image 1). Hal Pierce, Laboratory for Atmospheres, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (image 2). R. Simmon, C. Morales, M. Sutton, NASA, and the TRMM team (image 3). Ozone Processing Team, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (image 4). US Geological Survey (image 5). Dipl.-Phys. P. Tungalagsaikhan, the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR, image 6). RADARSAT data © Canadian Space Agency/Agence Spatiale Canadienne 1996, 1997; received by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing; processed and distributed by RADARSAT International (image 7). NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (image 8). R. Whritner, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (image 9).
Nearly 40 years ago, on April 1, 1960, NASA launched its first experimental weather satellite, the Television Infrared Observation Satellite, or TIROS I. The same day, the 270-pound satellite transmitted the first images of Earth from space (image 1 above), showing enormous cloud patterns that covered large parts of the Earth. Never before had humans seen their planet from this perspective.
From this humble beginning evolved the US Earth observing program. In roughly a dozen years it expanded to include observations and studies of our planet's entire atmosphere, the continents, the oceans, and global change. These space-based, synoptic observations revolutionized our knowledge and understanding of our planet. Here are some of the highlights:
Tracking of the weather in real time globally and locally and predicting local weather, including the occurrence of thunderstorms, tornadoes, flashfloods, and snowstorms.
Understanding hurricanes (image 2) and other major storm systems, and following and predicting their paths to give warnings to communities likely to be affected by them.
Measuring tropical and subtropical rainfall (image 3) and studying how the precipitation affects global climate changes and the development of such phenomena as El Niño and La Niña.
Measuring the ozone concentration in the upper atmosphere and, in particular, tracking changes in the ozone hole above the south polar region (image 4).
Imaging landmasses on continental and regional scales (image 5). Interpreting the images for seasonal changes of vegetation growth, agricultural use of land, deforestation, snow accumulation and melt and the associated effects on freshwater reservoirs, strip mining and strip mine reclamation, and urban growth.
Measuring ground temperatures over large areas (image 6), including remote areas, on a regular (e.g., daily, twice-daily) basis and distributing the data in near real time to scientists, institutes, government agencies, and industry. Such data are of importance to agriculture, forestry, monitoring the moderating influence of vegetation on temperature, and climate studies.
Monitoring natural disasters, such as flooding (image 7), forest fires, insect infestations, volcanic activities, land erosion, and the expansion of deserts.
Measuring the topography of the world's oceans; the speeds and directions of winds across the oceans (image 8); the heights, lengths, and directions of ocean waves; and sea-surface temperatures.
Measuring changes in the extent and thickness of snow and ice coverage of the polar regions (image 9) and monitoring the breaking off of icebergs from the polar ice sheets, their movements, and their melting rate.
Perhaps the most immediate beneficiaries of NASA's space observations have been ordinary, taxpaying citizens who can now obtain accurate daily weather reports, warnings of storms, and reports on other natural disasters. However, the data have also been of immense significance to such diverse groups as geologists, oceanographers, climatologists, biologists, geographers, agronomists, ecologists, oil and mining companies, educators, national security agencies, and governments worldwide.
Observing our planet from space in order to understand the total Earth system and the effects natural causes and humans have on the global environment is one of NASA's top commitments. To emphasize this commitment, in 1998 NASA introduced the Earth Science Strategic Enterprise Plan, which maps out the agency's strategy for observing and studying our home planet. In this effort, NASA is collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS), as well as with international and commercial partners.
More Cool Stuff
- To learn more about NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, go to its homepage. You will find information about Earth science space missions, images, news, teaching material, current research, and more:
- http://www.earth.nasa.gov/
- Since 1995, we have featured the Earth sciences regularly in our Planet Earth section and Observations of the Week:
- Planet Earth:
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/earth/earth_index.shtml
- Selections form our Observations of the Week:
- "Space-Based Radar, Typhoons, and Weather Forecasting" (October 9, 1996):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1996/ootw_961009/ob961009.html
- "El Niño -- The 'Christ Child'" (December 18, 1996):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1996/ootw_961218/ob961218.html
- "What Has Happened to the Ozone Hole?" (January 22, 1997):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1997/ootw_970122/ob970122.html
- "Measuring Global Rainfall" (July 1, 1998):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1998/ootw_980701/ob980701.html
- "Measuring the Earth's Ground Temperature from Space" (August 26, 1998):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1998/ootw_980826/ob980826.html
- "Taking the Pulse of the Planet" (December 30, 1998):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1998/ootw_981230/ob981230.html
- "The Fury of Hurricanes" (May 26, 1999):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1999/ootw_990526/ob990526.html
- "The West Antarctic Ice Sheet" (August 18, 1999):
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1999/ootw_990818/ob990818.html
- For additional Earth sciences Observations of the Week, go to the archive:
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1999/oarch99_index.html
As part of its Learning Technologies Project (LTP), NASA supports a number of educational Web sites that have excellent material on the Earth's atmosphere, continents, and oceans:- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/edu/edudocs/topic_atmos.html
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/edu/edudocs/topic_land.html
- http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/edu/edudocs/topic_water.html