Remote Sensing
Through
Satellite Technology
REMOTE SENSING
• The study of something without
making actual contact with the object
• Making measurements of the Physical
properties of an object from a remote
distance
• Satellite technology is an example of
remote sensing
• Satellites measure properties of the
Earth and transmits the data to
receiving stations
The Process of Remote Sensing
A. There are interactions with the atmosphere
B. The energy reaches the target, or object on
Earth being studied and interacts with the
target based on the target’s properties.
C. Energy scattered by or emitted from the
target is then collected by the sensor
D. The sun, or the satellite itself, is the energy
source that provides electromagnetic
energy
E. The sensor transmits the electronic
information to a receiving and processing
station. Here, it is processed into an image
F. The processed image is then interpreted to
learn about the target
G. The information is applied so that we better
understand the target, learn something new
about the target, or solve a particular
problem
ELECTROMAGNETIC
SPECTRUM
• Radiation energy that is
emitted in wave form by all
substances
• The basis for all remote
sensing of the earth
Electromagnetic Radiation
Electromagnetic radiation consists of an
electrical field, E and a magnetic field, M.
Both of these fields travel at the speed of
light, c. Different kind of electromagnetic
radiation can be distinguished by
wavelength and frequency.
Wavelength (λ)
Frequency (v)
Wavelength is the length of one wave cycle,
which is the distance between two Frequency is the number of waves
consecutive wave crests that that pass a point in a given
amount of time
Wavelength and frequency
are related by the following
formula:
c=λv
c- speed of light λ-
wavelength v- frequency
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is an
arrangement of all the types of
electromagnetic radiation ordered according
to wavelength
Microwaves
Microwaves have
wavelengths that can
be measured in
centimeters! The
longer microwaves,
those closer to a foot
in length, are the
waves which heat our
food in a microwave
oven.
Infrared (IR) Light
• Infrared light lies between
the visible and microwave
portions of the electromagnetic
spectrum.
• Infrared light has a range of
wavelengths, just like visible
light, that range from red light
to violet.
• "Near infrared" light is closest
in wavelength to visible light
• “Far infrared" is closer to the
microwave region of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
• The longer, far infrared
wavelengths are about the size
of a pin head and the shorter,
near infrared ones are the size
of cells, or are microscopic.
Far Infrared: Thermal
• Far infrared waves are
thermal. We experience this
type of infrared radiation every
day in the form of heat! The
heat that we feel from
sunlight, a fire, a radiator or a
warm sidewalk is infrared. The
temperature-sensitive nerve
endings in our skin can detect
the difference between inside
body temperature and outside
skin temperature.
• Infrared light is sometimes
used to heat food - special
lamps that emit thermal
infrared waves are often used
in fast food restaurants!
Short Infrared
Shorter, near infrared
waves are not hot at
all - in fact you
cannot even feel
them. These shorter
wavelengths are the
ones used by your
TV's remote control.
Visible Light • Visible light is light that our eyes
can see
• Visible light makes up an
extremely small part of the
electromagnetic spectrum
• Range from about 0.4 to 0.7µm
• Blue, red and green are the
primary colors of light. All other
colors can be made by combining
them in various proportions.
here for an interesting activity.
• Each color has a different
wavelength. Red has the longest
wavelength and violet has the
shortest wavelength. When all the
waves are seen together, they
make white light.
Ultraviolet (UV) Light
• Ultraviolet (UV) light has shorter
wavelengths than visible light.
• Though these waves are invisible to the
human eye, some insects, like
bumblebees, can see them!
• Though some ultraviolet waves from the
Sun penetrate Earth's atmosphere, most
of them are blocked from entering by
various gases like Ozone.
• Some days, more ultraviolet waves get
through our atmosphere. Scientists have
developed a UV index to help people
protect themselves from these harmful
ultraviolet waves.
A Infrared and Remote Sensing
To make infrared pictures like the one
above, we can use special cameras and
film that detect differences in
temperature, and then assign a different
brightness or false colors to them. This
provides a picture that our eyes can
interpret.
there is more detail in the clouds in the
infrared. This is great for studying cloud
structure. Since the primary source of
infrared radiation is heat or thermal
radiation, any object which has a
B temperature radiates in the infrared.
Even objects that we think of as being
very cold, such as an ice cube, emit
infrared. When an object is not quite hot
enough to radiate visible light, it will emit
most of its energy in the infrared.
Visible Light and Remote Sensing
Infrared and Remote Sensing
• Measures radiation emitted from the Earth at a
wavelength that can penetrate the atmosphere.
• Allows surface temperatures to be measured
from space.
• Can be used with out light
What Are Satellites?
• Satellites are smaller objects traveling
around larger objects
• Satellites may be man-made or natural, like
the moon
• The two main types of satellites are polar-
orbiting and geostationary
• Satellites are designed for three general
purposes: science, applications, or
communications
Artificial Satellites
Artificial Satellites are human-made space craft that are
built and sent into space by people. These spacecraft
can be crewed, such as the Space Shuttle, or uncrewed,
such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
Communications
Satellite
Hubble Space Telescope
NPOESS Satellite
Polar-Orbiting Satellites
Polar orbiting satellites travel in a circular pattern over the North and the
South Poles, so they can look at large portions of the Earth as it turns
below them. Polar-orbiting satellites are placed into a low-Earth orbit.
They orbit at about 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth. They
travel at about 17,000 miles per hour.
METOP
NPOESS
NPOESS
0530
1330
0930
Local Equatorial Crossing
Time
NPOESS
Geostationary Satellites
Geostationary satellites orbit the Earth at about 22,300
miles above the equator. Seen from Earth, the satellite
appears to be floating over a certain spot on the equator.
They are primarily used for weather and communication.
Scientific Satellites
• Most well-known type of
satellite
• Information from these
satellites clarify the
Earth’s history, present
condition, and what the
future may hold
• Other scientific satellites
look away from the Earth,
studying the sun, stars,
planets and other aspects
of the universe
Application/Weather Satellites
• Application satellites are used to test
and develop ways to improve global
weather forecasting
• These satellites are vital in predicting
where and when tropical storms,
hurricanes, floods, cyclones, tidal
waves and forest fires may strike
• The Television Infrared Observation
Satellite (TIROS), launched in 1960,
was the first of a series of
meteorological satellites to carry
television cameras to photograph the
Earth’s cloud cover for research and
forecasting
• Later satellites, like the series of
Nimbus satellites first launched in
1964, had infrared cameras as well.
These satellites improved upon storm
and hurricane forecasting and played a
major role in the study of ozone
depletion
Communications Satellites
• first commercial satellites
• Aluminum-coated balloons were
the first communications satellites
• The first commercially-launched
satellite was Telestar 1, launched
by AT&T in 1962. It transmitted
photos and phone calls between
America and Europe. This satellite
was capable of 600 phone
Communications satellites were
the channels or one television
channel
• Today, satellites like Intelsat
provide up to 120,000
simultaneous two-way telephone
circuits
Satellite Motion
A satellite is a
projectile. A
projectile is an
object upon which
the only force
acting is gravity.
Satellite Motion
The force of gravity
accelerates the
satellite towards
Earth.
While a satellite does
fall towards the Earth,
it never falls into
Earth. This is
because the Earth is
round (it curves).
Satellite Motion
In order for a satellite
to successfully orbit
the Earth, it must
travel a horizontal
distance of 8000
meters before falling
a vertical distance of
5 meters.
National Polar Orbiting-Operational
Environmental Satellite System
(NPOESS)
• The next generation
environmental satellite system
• Serving civil, military and
scientific community
• Polar orbiting satellites
observing Earth from space
THREE AGENCIES--ONE MISSION
• Combines civilian and military environmental remote
sensing into a single national system
• Combines separate and often duplicative capabilities
• Program managed by the Integrated Program Office (IPO)
METOP
Background
NPOESS NPOESS will provide civilian
NPOESS
leaders and military
commanders timely, accurate,
and reliable environmental data
to protect U.S. lives and
0530 property and ensure the
1330 Nation’s environmental,
0930 economic, national, and
homeland security. NPOESS is
a pathfinder interagency
program with contributions
Local Equatorial Crossing
from DOC, DOD, and NASA.
Time
NPOESS
Civilian Benefits
• Timely, accurate, and cost-
effective public warnings
and forecasts of severe
weather events, reduce the
potential loss of human life
and property and advance
the national economy
• Support of general
aviation, agriculture, and
maritime communities
aimed at increasing U.S.
productivity
• Commitment to support
long-term data continuity
for environmental
monitoring and Global
Change Assessment
Protect Safety of Life and Property
Improve the Accuracy of Severe Weather
Warnings
Increase in hurricane
landfall forecast skill
will save an estimated
$1 million per mile of
coastline that does not JDW
Improved Microwave have to be evacuated.
Imagery/Sounding Improved early warnings mitigate the
products will improve devastating effects of floods through
prediction of wind disaster planning and response.
speed and direction.
JDW
National Security Benefits
• Shift tactical and strategic
focus from “coping with
weather” to anticipating
and exploiting atmospheric
and space environmental
conditions
• Weather permeates all
aspects of military
operations. NPOESS data
will provide situational
awareness which is critical
to:
• Strategic Planning
Tactical Superiority
Technological Benefits
• Advanced cutting edge End-to-End EDR Latency
sensors increases 100%
accuracy 90%
80%
95% of data delivered within 28 min
• Higher spatial resolution
70%
since polar stellites are
60%
> 77% of data delivered within 15 min
closer to the Earth
50%
Percent of EDR Products Delivered
40%
Average < 10.5 min
30%
• 95% of data delivered 20%
within 28 minutes
Earliest Data Delivered < 2 min
10%
0%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
• And many other benefits
Time from Observation to Delivery (minutes)
How Will the NPOESS Satellites Send Data?
1. Sensors collect raw
data which is
packaged by
computers on board
the satellite
2. Radio waves carry the
raw data stream to the
ground station
Some data will be
available for retrieval at
military field terminals
3. Raw data is
converted into
digital form at the
ground station
Mobile or Laptop
Field Terminal
Ground Station
Civilian and Military Agencies
4. Data is sent through fiber
optic cables to users 5. Data is used to create useful
images
Safety Net: Ground Stations
The circles represent the areas in which data may be transmitted from the satellite to the
ground stations.
The data is stored on satellites until the satellite is over one of the 14 ground stations (safety
net).
NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP)
•NPP, or the NPOESS Preparatory Project, is an instrument
risk reduction mission.
•In 2006, the NPP satellite will be launched.
•The NPP satellite will have the following four sensors
onboard:
VIIRS Vis/IR Imager Radiometer Suite (IPO)
CrIS Cross-track IR Sounder (IPO)
ATMS Advanced Technology Microwave
Sounder (NASA)
OMPS Ozone Mapping and Profile Suite (IPO)
•Scientists will use the NPP satellite as a test satellite. Any
problems that are found with the satellite and sensors or
with the ground stations may be corrected before NPOESS
is launched. Users may also evaluate the information that
they are receiving from the satellite.
•The NPP satellite will take over gathering data for NASA’s
EOS Terra/Aqua/Aura missions
Satellites and their
Sensors 1330 1730 2130
CMIS
VIIRS X X X
CMIS X X X
ATMS CrIS X X
CrIS ATMS X X
VIIRS SESS X
OMPS X
ADCS X X
SARSAT X X X
ERBS X
SS X X X
ALT X
OMPS TSIS X
ERBS
APS X
NPOESS 1330 Configuration
Single Satellite Design with Common Sensor
Locations
NPOESS Instruments
VIIRS
Visible IR Imaging Radiometer Suite
• Imagery
• Sea-surface temperature
• Aerosol optical thickness
• Aerosol particle size
• Surface albedo
• Cloud base height
• Cloud cover/layers
• Cloud Effective particle size
• Cloud top height
• Cloud top pressure
• Cloud top Temperature
• Ice surface temperature
• Land surface temperature
• Ocean color/chlorophyll
• Precipitable water
• Sea ice characterization
• Snow cover/depth
• Surface type
• Active fires
• Suspended Matter
• Vegitative index
• Net heat flux
OMPS
Ozone Mapping And Profiler Suite
• Ozone total column
profile
ATMS
CRIS
Cross Track IR Sounder Advanced Technology
Microwave Sounder
•Atmosphere Vertical Moisture Profile
•Atmosphere Vertical Temperature
Profile
•Pressure (Surface/profile)
Resources
CD ROM Sentinels Against the Storm
NASA Facts Online, NASA Fact Sheets, “Satellites,”
http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/general/satsu
m.htm, 7/13/2004
Fundamentals of Remote Sensing, Natural Resources Canada, 7/13
http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/learn/tutorials/fundam/chapter1/chapte
r1_1_e.html
http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Imagers Project 7/14
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/sats_n_data/sat_to_grnd.html
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/spectrum.html
http://www.fishponds.freeserve.co.uk/emspectrum/microwave.html
http://teach.fcps.net/trt10/PowerPoint.htm
Jeopardy game
http://www.fearofphysics.com/Satellite/satellite.html
physics of satellite
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/vectors/u3l2a.html
Projectile facts
Jill Twetten and Tress Potter