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Clouds And The Earth's Radiant Energy System
Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is an NASA climatological experiment from Earth orbit. The CERES are scientific satellite instruments, part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), designed to measure solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere (TOA) to the Earth's surface. Cloud properties are determined using simultaneous measurements by other EOS instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Results from the CERES and other NASA missions, such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), could enable near-real-time tracking of Earth's energy imbalance (EEI) and better understanding of the role of clouds in global climate change. Scientific goals The CERES experiment has four main objectives: * Continuation of the ERBE record of radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) for climate change analysis. * Doubling the accuracy of estimates of radiative fluxes at TOA and the Eart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was a joint space mission between NASA and JAXA designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. The term refers to both the mission itself and the satellite that the mission used to collect data. TRMM was part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global system. The satellite was launched on 27 November 1997 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima, Japan. TRMM operated for 17 years, including several mission extensions, before being decommissioned on 15 April 2015. TRMM re-entered Earth's atmosphere on 16 June 2015. Background Tropical precipitation is a difficult parameter to measure, due to large spatial and temporal variations. However, understanding tropical precipitation is important for weather and climate prediction, as this precipitation contains three-fourths of the energy that drives atmospheric wind circulation. Prior to TRMM, the distribution of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anisotropy
Anisotropy () is the structural property of non-uniformity in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. An anisotropic object or pattern has properties that differ according to direction of measurement. For example, many materials exhibit very different physical or mechanical properties when measured along different axes, e.g. absorbance, refractive index, conductivity, and tensile strength. An example of anisotropy is light coming through a polarizer. Another is wood, which is easier to split along its grain than across it because of the directional non-uniformity of the grain (the grain is the same in one direction, not all directions). Fields of interest Computer graphics In the field of computer graphics, an anisotropic surface changes in appearance as it rotates about its geometric normal, as is the case with velvet. Anisotropic filtering (AF) is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are far away and viewed at a shallow angle. Older ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aqua (satellite)
Aqua (EOS PM-1) is a NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, evaporation, and Water cycle, cycling of water. It is the second major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) preceded by Terra (satellite), Terra (launched 1999) and followed by Aura (satellite), Aura (launched 2004). The name "Aqua" comes from the Latin word for water. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 4, 2002, aboard a Delta II Launch vehicle, rocket. Aqua operated in a Sun-synchronous orbit as the third in the satellite formation called the "A-train (satellite constellation), A Train" with several other satellites (OCO-2, the Japanese GCOM, GCOM W1, PARASOL, CALIPSO, CloudSat, and Aura (satellite), Aura) for most of its first 20 years; but in January 2022 Aqua left the A-Train (as Cloud Sat, CALIPSO and PARASOL had already done) when, due to its fuel limitations, it transitioned to a free-drift mode, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terra (satellite)
Terra (EOS AM-1) is a multi-national scientific research satellite operated by NASA in a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth. It takes simultaneous measurements of Earth's atmosphere, land, and water to understand how Earth is changing and to identify the consequences for life on Earth. It is the flagship of the Earth Observing System (EOS) and the first satellite of the system which was followed by Aqua (launched in 2002) and Aura (launched in 2004). Terra was launched in 1999. The name "Terra" comes from the Latin word for Earth. A naming contest was held by NASA among U.S. high school students. The winning essay was submitted by Sasha Jones of Brentwood, Missouri. The identifier "AM-1" refers to its orbit, passing over the equator in the morning. Launch The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 18th, 1999, aboard an Atlas IIAS vehicle and began collecting data on February 24th, 2000. It was placed into a near-polar, sun-synchrono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiance
In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiation, and to quantify emission of neutrinos and other particles. The SI unit of radiance is the watt per steradian per square metre (). It is a ''directional'' quantity: the radiance of a surface depends on the direction from which it is being observed. The related quantity spectral radiance is the radiance of a surface per unit frequency or wavelength, depending on whether the spectrum is taken as a function of frequency or of wavelength. Historically, radiance was called "intensity" and spectral radiance was called "specific intensity". Many fields still use this nomenclature. It is especially dominant in heat transfer, astrophysics and astronomy. "Intensity" has many other meanings in physics, with the most common being power per unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azimuth
An azimuth (; from ) is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system. Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point of interest is projected perpendicularly onto a reference plane (the horizontal plane); the angle between the projected vector and a reference vector on the reference plane is called the azimuth. When used as a celestial coordinate, the azimuth is the horizontal direction of a star or other astronomical object in the sky. The star is the point of interest, the reference plane is the local area (e.g. a circular area with a 5 km radius at sea level) around an observer on Earth's surface, and the reference vector points to true north. The azimuth is the angle between the north vector and the star's vector on the horizontal plane. Azimuth is usually measured in degrees (°), in the positive range 0° to 360° or in the signed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiometers
A radiometer or roentgenometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux (power) of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, a radiometer is an infrared radiation detector or an ultraviolet detector. Microwave radiometers operate in the microwave wavelengths. While the term ''radiometer'' can refer to any device that measures electromagnetic radiation (e.g. light), the term is often used to refer specifically to a Crookes radiometer ("light-mill"), a device invented in 1873 in which a rotor (having vanes which are dark on one side, and light on the other) in a partial vacuum spins when exposed to light. A common misbelief (one originally held even by Crookes) is that the momentum of the absorbed light on the black faces makes the radiometer operate. If this were true, however, the radiometer would spin away from the non-black faces, since the photons bouncing off those faces impart more momentum than the photons absorbed on the black faces. Photons do exert radiation pressure on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Track
A satellite ground track or satellite ground trace is the path on the surface of a planet directly below a satellite's trajectory. It is also known as a suborbital track or subsatellite track, and is the vertical projection of the satellite's orbit onto the surface of the Earth (or whatever body the satellite is orbiting). A satellite ground track may be thought of as a path along the Earth's surface that traces the movement of an imaginary line between the satellite and the center of the Earth. In other words, the ground track is the set of points at which the satellite will pass directly overhead, or cross the zenith, in the frame of reference of a ground observer.. The ground track of a satellite can take a number of different forms, depending on the values of the orbital elements, parameters that define the size, shape, and orientation of the satellite's orbit, although identification of the always reliant upon the recognition of the physical form that is in motion; This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laboratory For Atmospheric And Space Physics
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth's and other planetary atmospherics processes, space weather, space plasma and dusty plasma physics. LASP has advanced technical capabilities specializing in designing, building, and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments. History Founded after World War II, the first scientific instruments built at LASP were launched into space using captured German V-2 rockets. To this day LASP continues a suborbital rocket program through periodic calibration instrument flights from White Sands Missile Range. It was originally called the Upper Air Laboratory, but changed to its current name in 1965. LASP has historical ties to Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Ball Aerospace Corporation and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiation Budget Instrument
The Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI) is a scanning radiometer capable of measuring Earth's reflected sunlight and emitted thermal radiation. The project was cancelled on January 26, 2018; NASA cited technical, cost, and schedule issues and the impact of anticipated RBI cost growth on other programs. RBI was scheduled to fly on the Joint Polar Satellite System 2 (JPSS-2) mission planned for launch in November 2021; the JPSS-3 mission planned for launch in 2026; and the JPSS-4 mission planned for launch in 2031. The one on JPSS-2 would have been the 14th in the series that started with the Earth radiation budget instruments launched in 1985, and would have extended the unique global climate measurements of the Earth's radiation budget provided by the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) is an NASA climatological experiment from Earth orbit. The CERES are scientific satellite instruments, part of NASA's Earth Observin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NOAA-20
NOAA-20, designated JPSS-1 prior to launch, is the first of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites called the Joint Polar Satellite System. NOAA-20 was launched on 18 November 2017 and joined the Suomi NPP, Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite in the same orbit. NOAA-20 operates about 50 minutes behind Suomi NPP, allowing important overlap in observational coverage. Circling the Earth from pole-to-pole, it crosses the equator about 14 times daily, providing full global coverage twice a day. This gives meteorologists information on "atmospheric temperature and moisture, clouds, sea-surface temperature, ocean color, sea ice cover, volcanic ash, and fire detection" so as to enhance weather forecasting including hurricane tracking, post-hurricane recovery by detailing storm damage and mapping of power outages. The project incorporates five instruments, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
