“Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the most important human-made greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Oceans assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: phytoplankton accumulate carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and their chlorophyll colours the ocean’s waters. Satellites use this colour to measure chlorophyll, which helps scientists to calculate how much carbon dioxide is absorbed or emitted.”
Video credit: ESA/CCI Ocean Colour/Climate Monitoring User Group/Planetary Visions
“Creating a major scientific visualization takes considerable time and expertise. A team of scientists and data visualizers work together to building an artful depiction of hard data – whether it be an animation of sea surface temperature, the paths of hurricanes, or life on Planet Earth. Get a closer look at how the “Living Planet” visualization was made from the perspective of its principle scientists, Gene Feldman and Compton Tucker and SVS data visualizer, Alex Kekesi. “
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward
“Explorer 1 showed that the United States was capable of not only launching a satellite but also carrying out scientific research in space. For four months after launch, instruments aboard Explorer 1 measured and sent back data on temperature, micrometeorites and cosmic rays, or high-energy radiation. University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen’s instrument for measuring cosmic rays, a Geiger counter, helped make the first major scientific find of the Space Age: a belt of radiation around Earth that would later be named in Van Allen’s honor.
“Explorer 1 was a beginning. It was the beginning of going beyond our sphere of life out into space,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science. “At first, quite frankly, space looked like a pretty boring place. But the instrument that Van Allen and his team built showed that space is beautiful.”
On the heels of Explorer 1’s success, the nation entered a new era of discovery on Earth and beyond that continues to this day.
In 1960, NASA launched the world’s first weather satellite, the Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS). The United States now has an extensive fleet of weather satellites operated by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that monitors storms and other natural disasters and provides critical data that helps save lives and protect critical infrastructure.
In 1972, NASA designed and launched Earth Resources Technology Satellite 1, later renamed Landsat 1, as the first spacecraft designed to monitor the planet’s land masses. Subsequent Landsat satellites, now operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, have produced over four decades of continuous data about our changing planet that have been applied to such uses as crop health monitoring, freshwater and forest management and infectious disease tracking.
NASA has a long history of using the vantage point of space to advance our understanding of our complex home planet. The Nimbus-1 satellite launched in 1964 was the first of seven such spacecraft that revolutionized Earth science. Nimbus satellites measured snow cover at the North and South poles, estimated the size of volcanic eruptions and the distribution of phytoplankton in the oceans and confirmed the existence of the annual ozone hole in Antarctica. NASA’s current fleet of more than a dozen Earth-observing missions continues to provide new insights about Earth’s interconnected systems.
Looking beyond Earth’s horizon, in 1962 NASA launched Mariner 2, the first satellite to encounter another planet as the spacecraft flew within 21,000 miles of Venus and sent back information on not only the Venusian atmosphere but also the solar wind. The space agency has since dispatched satellites to explore every planet in the solar system, in addition to the Sun and a number of moons, comets and asteroids.
NASA has also long set its gaze out into the cosmos. From 1966 to 1972, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory series of satellites provided the first high-quality ultraviolet observations of stars at the edge of the Milky Way. The space agency has continued its groundbreaking research into the mysteries of the universe with the 2004 launch of the Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, which has imaged the most luminous known galaxies in addition to detecting millions of black holes and dwarf stars.
America’s 60 years of space science has yielded profound insights and practical benefits for the nation and the world. And NASA continues to blaze new trails of discovery.”
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward
“Behind every weather forecast—from your local, five-day prediction to a late-breaking hurricane track update—are the satellites that make them possible. Government agencies depend on observations from weather satellites to inform forecast models that help us prepare for approaching storms and identify areas that need evacuating or emergency first responders.”
Elizabeth Willaman (Willaman Creative): Lead Producer
“Through its Clean Space initiative, ESA is pioneering an eco-friendly approach to space activities. On the ground, that means adopting greener industrial materials, processes and technologies. In space, it means preserving Earth’s orbital environment as a safe zone, free of debris.
In the modern world, the quest to be environmentally friendly has been transforming the competitive landscape, as eco-friendly design turns into a new frontier of innovation. ESA is embracing this trend. Information on the environmental impact of Agency activities is, and will be, increasingly requested by ESA’s industrial, institutional and international partners, under pressure from customers, stakeholders and citizens.
Numerous analyses worldwide have shown the need for space debris removal, to contend with the proliferation of space debris. The only way to preserve key orbits for future use is to shrink the current amount of debris in absolute terms, which will require novel technologies and approaches for the removal of debris and the design of non-debris creating missions.
There is also substantial industrial potential: companies and organisations that take swift action towards meeting emerging regulations will obtain the competitive advantage of being first into the market. By fostering innovation, Clean Space aims to turn environmental challenges into opportunities for European space industry, to ensure a safer and cleaner environment both on Earth and in space.”
“Scientists are closely monitoring positive signs of recovery of the Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer, which is depleted by the use of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for a range of industrial and commercial purposes. Even after the landmark Montreal Protocol banned these substances in the late 1980s, threats to the ozone layer persist. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center including Susan Strahan and Qing Liang (both NASA/USRA) are weighing in to an ongoing debate about the relative impacts of continuing sources of ozone depletion, including short-lived chemicals not banned by the Protocol, the effects of climate change, and banned chemicals that are still being released into the atmosphere. All could potentially delay the recovery of the seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica.”
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