Earth Observing System Satellite Research Articles

Earth Observing System AM1 mission to Earth

In 1998, NASA launches EOS-AMI, the first of a series of the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. EOS will monitor the evolution of the state of the earth for 18 years, starting with the morning observations of EOS-AM1 (10:30 a.m. equatorial crossing time). An integrated view of the earth, as planned by EOS, is needed to study the interchange of energy, moisture, and carbon between the lands, oceans, and atmosphere. The launch of EOS-AM1 and other international satellites marks a new phase of climate and global change research. Both natural and anthropogenic climate change have been studied for more than a century. It is now recognized that processes that vary rapidly in time and space-e.g. aerosol, clouds, land use, and exchanges of energy and moisture-must be considered to adequately explain the temperature record and predict future climate change. Frequent measurements with adequate resolution, as only possible from spacecraft, are key tools in such an effort. The versatile and highly accurate EOS-AM1 data, together with previous satellite records, as well as data from ADEOS, TRMM, SeaWiFS, ATSR, MERIS, ENVISAT, EOS-PM1, Landsat and ground-based networks is expected to revolutionize the way scientists look at climate change. This article introduces the EOS-AM1 mission and the special issue devoted to it. Following a brief historical perspective for an insight into the purpose and objectives of the mission, the authors summarize the characteristics of the five instruments onboard EOS-AM1. Specifically, they concentrate on the innovative elements of these five instruments and provide examples of the science issues that require this type of data.

Better, faster, cheaper

In space research, as with other endeavors, the right answer often depends on the right question. NASA announced in August that it will design the second and third generation Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites closer to their launch dates—in part to make sure that the agency asks the best, and the latest, scientific questions.Closing the gap between satellite design and launch from about 8 to 3 years will allow NASA to incorporate scientific data from earlier missions and use better and more compact instrument technology, says Bill Townsend, acting assistant administrator for the Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE). MTPE includes the EOS program, which studies Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, and ice cover.

Earth observation in transition: An international overview

The evolution of the international earth observation field from 1980–2007 is summarized in this paper, with emphasis on the rapid changes that are taking place in 1997 which will shape the future of the field. The field is evolving from one that contains purely governmental and military standalone systems of high complexity and expense to one that includes an increasing number of commercial systems, focused missions using small satellites, and systems of lower complexity and cost. As of three years ago, seven countries had built and flown free-flying earth observation satellite systems. Projections are for the number of countries owning such systems to approximately double by three years from now. Several commercial high-resolution systems will be launched over the next three years. Commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems became a reality with the launch of Radarsat in 1995. Only a handful of small satellite remote sensing missions have been launched to date, while a large number will be launched over the next few years, including minisats from Brazil, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA. Systems with far greater spectral resolution will also become a reality as hyperspectral instruments are launched, beginning in 1997. Figures which graphically summarize the future directions for the burgeoning earth observation field will be shown in the presentation.

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES): An Earth Observing System Experiment

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is an investigation to examine the role of cloud/radiation feedback in the Earth's climate system. The CERES broadband scanning radiometers are an improved version of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) radiometers. The CERES instruments will fly on several National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites starting in 1998 and extending over at least 15 years. The CERES science investigations will provide data to extend the ERBE climate record of top-of-atmosphere shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative fluxes. CERES will also combine simultaneous cloud property data derived using EOS narrowband imagers to provide a consistent set of cloud/radiation data, including SW and LW radiative fluxes at the surface and at several selected levels within the atmosphere. CERES data are expected to provide top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes with a factor of 2 to 3 less error than the ERBE data. Estimates of radiative fluxes at the surface and especially within the atmosphere will be a much greater challenge but should also show significant improvements over current capabilities.

The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Instrument: Overall Performance and Calibration Requirements

Abstract The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument will monitor the global concentrations of carbon monoxide and methane. It will be flown on the Earth Observing System Satellite AM-I. This paper briefly describes the scientific objectives, performance requirements, and specifications. It primarily focuses on the pre- and postlaunch calibration requirements. The hardware requirements and methodology for calibration are also discussed as well as cross-calibration and validation of MOPITT with an underflying aircraft MOPITT.

Mission to Planet Earth: Role of Clouds and Radiation in Climate

The role of clouds in modifying the earth's radiation balance is well recognized as a key uncertainty in predicting any potential future climate change. This statement is true whether the climate change of interest is caused by changing emissions of greenhouse gases and sulfates, deforestation, ozone depletion, volcanic eruptions, or changes in the solar constant. This paper presents an overview of the role of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite data in understanding the role of clouds in the global climate system. The paper gives a brief summary of the cloud/radiation problem, and discusses the critical observations needed to support further investigations. The planned EOS data products are summarized, including the critical advances over current satellite cloud and radiation budget data. Key advances include simultaneous observation of radiation budget and cloud properties, additional information on cloud particle size and phase, improved detection ...

Space power for an expanded vision

The author suggests that the problem with the space program in the 1990s is that there are few short term benefits that the public can directly relate to and no long term vision that will motivate them. Recent surveys have shown that public would support an expanded space program if they understood the specific short term purpose that provides benefits coupled to a longer term vision. The author discusses a proposed space program that has a 100 Year Vision and a specific beneficial near term purpose. The specific near term purpose is to return to the Moon and develop He for nuclear fusion power on Earth, and then expand into the Solar System and eventually to the nearby stars with the purpose of finding new life as a long term vision. This is how the author sees it unfolding-in three Epochs. Epoch I is proposed as the minimum near term space program. Space Station Freedom in near-Earth orbit being serviced by the Space Shuttle, the National Aerospace Plane and the Single-Stage-To-Orbit Vehicle. Just above Freedom is an Earth Observing System Satellite that, as part of Mission to Planet Earth, will monitor and analyze our planet's ecological systems. There are also a great many scientific, defense and launch systems whose technologies will evolve to play critical roles in future epochs. >

Terrestrial remote sensing science and algorithms planned for EOS/MODIS

Abstract The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will be the primary daily global monitoring sensor on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites, scheduled for launch on the EOS-AM platform in June 1998 and the EOS-PM platform in December 2000. MODIS is a 36 channel radiometer covering 0·415-14·235 μm wavelengths, with spatial resolution from 250 m to 1 km at nadir. MODIS will be the primary EOS sensor for providing data on terrestrial biospheric dynamics and process activity. This paper presents the suite of global land products currently planned for EOSDIS implementation, to be developed by the authors of this paper, the MODIS land team (MODLAND). These include spectral albedo, land cover, spectral vegetation indices, snow and ice cover, surface temperature and fire, and a number of biophysical variables that will allow computation of global carbon cycles, hydrologic balances and biogeochemistry of critical greenhouse gases. Additionally, the regular global coverage of these variables will allow accurate surface change detection, a fundamental determinant of global change.

Future for CIS space industry

The following is the executive summary of Volume 1 of Euroconsult's four volume study, Space Industries and Markets in Russia and Other Countries of the Former Soviet Union . The material reproduced covers space policy and industry in CIS countries, providing a transversal view of CIS space activities and organizations. Generic problems across all fields of applications are analysed; the final focus is on trade with foreign countries. The other volumes cover prospects for satellite communications in the CIS to 2000; prospects for Earth observation satellite systems in Russia and Ukraine to 2000; and prospects for space transportation systems in the CIS to 2000. Information on the whole — some 650 pages — may be obtained from Pauline Byrne at Euroconsult, 71 Boulevard Richard Lenoir, 75011 Paris, France.

Infrared surveillance of crater lakes using satellite data

Abstract Under optimum circumstances, thermal infrared data recorded from satellites can measure water surface temperatures to accuracies of a few tenths of a degree Celsius. Such techniques are applied here to evaluate volcanic crater lake temperatures. At present, band 6 of the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) is the most pertinent sensor in this respect, although its nominal 120 × 120 m “footprint” only permits useful measurements of circular lakes exceeding 340 m in diameter. In addition, the radiative properties of the atmosphere between sensor and target at the instant of observation should be well-characterised in order to make confident measurements of surface temperatures with single-band infrared data. An analysis is presented of three TM band-6 images of the crater lake at Poas volcano, Costa Rica, recorded on February 6, 1986, March 13, 1987, and May 10, 1988. In the February 1986 scene, the band-6-derived water surface temperature is 36°C which is 3°C less than a field measurement made in the same month. Since the satellite measurement was integrated over some 14,400 m 2 of the lake surface, while the field measurement was obtained at a single point below the surface, the former may be more representative of surface heat losses. Subsequent TM data reveal an increasing discrepancy between contemporaneous field and satellite observations, probably because the lake diameter had decreased to 250 m by March 1987, and to less than 200 m by mid-1988, greatly reducing the likelihood of obtaining a pure “lake” pixel. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) which is earmarked for orbit on the first of NASA's Earth Observing System satellite platforms later this decade has five discrete spectral bands in the thermal infrared region and will produce data composed of 90 × 90 m pixels. These specifications could enable the determination of water surface temperatures of > 250 m diameter crater lakes by algorithms that implicitly account for atmospheric effects.

Future space-based sounding observations for weather analysis and forecasting

Abstract During this decade, advanced satellite remote sounding technology will be implemented as part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. Included are high spectral resolution, continuous spectral coverage, thermodynamic sounding infrared spectrometers which will provide greatly improved vertical resolution and accuracy. Advanced cloud penetrating microwave radiometers and very high spatial resolution imaging radiometers will accompany the infrared sounder to optimize the product for forecast model initialization. A doppler lidar will fly aboard EOS satellites to provide for the first time global wind data. Characteristics of these new observing systems and their expected impact on the weather analysis/forecast operation are summarized.

NASA Selects first EOS payload

On January 18, NASA selected 11 “instrument investigations” for the first satellite of the Earth Observing System (EOS), which is the centerpiece of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The instruments are AIRS/AMSU‐A/‐B, ASTER, CERES, EOSP, HIRDLS, LIS, MISR, MODIS‐N/‐T, STIKSCAT, and—pending resolution of technical issues—MIMR and MOPITT. In addition, HIRIS has been confirmed for development and tentatively selected for a subsequent flight, while ACRIM has been selected for future flight.The EOS satellite, to be launched aboard a Titan‐IV vehicle from the Western Test Range in 1998, is the first of the three‐satellite EOS‐A series. Each satellite will have a 5‐year design life and will produce a 15‐year‐long global data set. The series' primary goal is to make measurements related to potential global warming and other critical aspects of global change, including the Earth's radiation balance, atmospheric circulation, air‐sea interaction, biological productivity, and land‐surface properties.

Accuracy and Precision Actually Achieved for Large-aperture Integrator Sources for Aircraft and Space Investigations

Large-aperture integrator sources are required to calibrate a number of the satellite instruments which will be used for documenting and understanding global change in the US Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite program. In this paper the salient characteristics of large-aperture sources as used at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center are identified. These characteristics are source spatial uniformity, calibration accuracy and output stability. One use of these sources in maintaining the satellite sensor performance in orbit through vicarious calibrations is reviewed.A transportable hemispherical source is shown to have spatial uniformity of better than 0,3%, have stability of near 1%, and to be capable of being calibrated with an uncertainty near 1,6%. Vicarious calibrations of the AVHRR with a transfer spectrometer on board a NASA ER-2 platform flown at 21 km are shown to be capable of individual calibrations with an uncertainty of 3,5%. Annual trends in the satellite responsivity can be corrected to an uncertainty of 1,5% with this approach.

Remote sensing commercialization and consulting engineering practice

Abstract The commercialization of remote sensing has been initiated during a time of change in consulting engineering practice. As the engineering community constitutes a significant potential market for remote-sensing data and value-added products, current trends in the profession are reviewed against the initial impact of the commercialization of data available from Earth observation satellite systems.

The processing and use of data from Earth observation satellites

Most systems reliant on advanced technology present a familiar dilemma: the system designer does not know what the customer wants, while the customer does not understand the technology well enough to know what is possible. Although Earth observation satellite systems ought ideally to be designed for all customer needs, this is impossible for several reasons. Not least of these is the difficulty of identifying at the outset all, or even most, of the possible customers. This circumstance makes the creation of Earth observation systems somewhat speculative and imposes particular constraints on the subsystems for processing and use of the data. This paper discusses the technical and institutional aspects of processing and dissemination of data from remote-sensing satellites for the benefit of the user.

Japanese Ground System for Receiving the LANDSAT Signals

The LANDSAT 1 and 2 which were launched in July, 1972, and January, 1975, respectively, have made a great contribution for demonstrating the fact that the Earth exploration satellites are very useful in various fields such as the development of the Earth resources, the effective use of lands the monitoring of the atmosphere, and so on.In Japan, the survey on the use of the Earth observation satellites has been initiated in 1970, and the development of Japanese Earth observation satellite system was planned in 1976. In parallel with this development, the construction of the LANDSAT receiving station was also planned with a taget of its operation in 1979.This paper describes, in the beginning, the principal characteristics of the LANDSATs (1, 2, C and D) and image signals transmitted from these satellites, and then presents the constitution and the characteristics of the Japanese ground system under construction. Finally, the problems associated with the system are mentioned about the radio interference to and from the terrestrial Communications system, etc.