Windows on Earth is a museum exhibit,

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

, and exploration tool, developed by TERC, Inc. (an educational non-profit organization, previously called Technical Education Research Centers), and the

Association of Space Explorers The Association of Space Explorers is a non-profit organization with a membership composed of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space (above , as defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. It was founded in 1985, ...

, that enables the public to explore an interactive, virtual view of Earth from space. In addition, the tool has been selected by NASA to help astronauts identify targets for photography from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS). The program simulates the view of Earth as seen from a window aboard the ISS, in high-resolution, photographically accurate colors and 3D animations. The views include cloud cover, day and night cycles, night time lights, and other features that help make the exhibit realistic and interactive.

Earth Visualization Software

Windows on Earth provides the user a view of Earth from an astronaut's viewpoint, with interactive photorealistic views of Earth as if seen from an altitude of 360 km. The program use
GeoFusion's
digital Earth visualization system, which renders accurate views of Earth with terrain, satellite imagery, clouds, and other layers. The system is programmed for user interaction, allowing users to "fly" anywhere they wish to see, and zoom in or out to see details. The system's imagery is derived from

Landsat The Landsat program is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. It is a joint NASA / USGS program. On 23 July 1972, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Lan ...

, and features 3D perspective views. Former astronaut

Jay Apt Jerome "Jay" Apt III, Ph.D. (born April 28, 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American astronaut and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Before he became an astronaut, Apt was a physicist who worked on the Pioneer Venus 1978 space probe project, a ...

assisted with the color-correction of the images, to help get the most realistic colors as seen from space. The program is updated daily to include accurate cloud cover information.

Development and Outreach Partners

Windows on Earth was created by people from the Center for Earth and Space Science Education (CESSE) at TERC, a not-for profit math and science education company located in Cambridge, MA, in partnership with the

GeoFusion's
an
WorldSat International
and with funding from the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, Informal Science Education. Additional partners include the

Challenger Learning Center Challenger Center for Space Science Education is a United States 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1986 by the families of the astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster on ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

Museums

The Windows on Earth museum exhibit can be found in the Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

, Boston's

Museum of Science The Museum of Science (MoS) is a science museum and indoor zoo in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentat ...

, the Montshire Museum of Science in Vermont, the

St. Louis Science Center The Saint Louis Science Center, founded as a planetarium in 1963, is a collection of buildings including a science museum and planetarium in St. Louis, Missouri, on the southeastern corner of Forest Park. With over 750 exhibits in a complex of ...

, and the Connecticut Science Center.

Garriott Mission

Windows on Earth flew on board the

(ISS). On October 12, 2008,

Richard Garriott Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (''né'' Garriott; born July 4, 1961) is an American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut. Although both his parents were American, he maintains dual British and American citizenship by birth. ...

launched aboard

Soyuz TMA-13 Soyuz TMA-13 (russian: Союз ТМА-13, ''Union TMA-13'') was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft was launched by a Soyuz-FG rocket at 07:01 GMT on 12 October 2008. It undocked at 02:55 GMT on 8 April 20 ...

to the ISS as a

Spaceflight participant Spaceflight participant (russian: участник космического полета, translit=uchastnik kosmicheskogo polyota) is the term used by NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, ...

. Garriott remained on board the station for 10 days, conducting educational and scientific programs and experiments. Earth observation was one of his prime tasks on this mission, and he used the Windows on Earth system to help him take pictures of specific targets. After the mission, Richard's photographs, along with ones taken by his astronaut father

Owen Garriott Owen Kay Garriott (November 22, 1930 – April 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut, who spent 60 days aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 during the Skylab 3 mission, and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 on a Spac ...

, who flew on

Skylab 3 Skylab 3 (also SL-3 and SLM-2) was the second crewed mission to the first American space station, Skylab. The mission began on July 28, 1973, with the launch of NASA astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma in the Apollo command ...

(1973) and STS-9 (1983), were made available to the public through Windows on Earth. This provides a unique opportunity for comparing areas of Earth photographed by two generations of space explorers, showing how Earth's surface (and the technology of Earth observation) has changed over 35 years, from 1973 to 2008.

Tool for the ISS

In May 2012,

selected Windows on Earth as the new tool to help astronauts identify targets for photography from the ISS.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Windows on Earth

GeoFusion, Inc.
- Digital Earth visualization system
WorldSat International, Inc.
- Satellite imagery Satellite imagery American science websites Spaceflight