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LIGHT
ON WATER: AQUA SENDS FIRST PICTURES Scientists
and engineers call it "first light"-the first images from a newly activated
spacecraft. This week NASA and its international partners are releasing first
light images from one of the six advanced instruments aboard the recently launched
Aqua satellite. The powerful Aqua Earth observing platform is designed to look
at interrelated geophysical properties of our home planet, with a particular emphasis
on water. While most first light pictures fall into a category known
as engineering images, one of the instruments onboard has already enabled researchers
to create an early scientific product. Using the AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning
Radiometer for the Earth Observing System) instrument, Aqua researchers have created
a striking picture of the world's sea surface temperatures, an important characteristic
in monitoring the status and changing conditions of our planet. The National Space
Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) manages the AMSR-E instrument. NO
MORE CLOUDY DAYS
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clouds have parted. That's the message from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
where this week scientists are releasing so-called "first light" images
from their newly launched Aqua spacecraft. Why no clouds? Data gathered from one
of the advanced Earth observing sensors onboard has delivered an impressive picture
of the entire planet's sea surface temperature. Until now, few space based systems
could resolve ocean temperature through clouds, often forcing experts to undertake
complicated stitching techniques to get global pictures. Sea surface temperature
is an important indicator for many complex geophysical processes. WATER
WORLD
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2 | | NASA
announces a significant milestone on its journey to a new understanding of the
Earth. So-called "first light" images from its newly launched Aqua spacecraft
show dramatic maps of the Earth's sea surface temperature measured to a high degree
of accuracy, collected world wide regardless of cloud cover. Sea surface temperature
is an important indicator for many complex geophysical processes. This is the
first of what the space agency believes will be many important images delivered
from the suite of six advanced scientific instruments flying onboard. The data
for this scene come from an instrument called AMSR-E.
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temperature of the ocean matters. Vast quantities of water act like heat reservoirs
for the planet, and when things heat up, they move. By monitoring the surface
temperature of the oceans, scientists gain a powerful analytic tool to help them
understand what's changing on Earth and why. Circulation patterns, chemistry,
and ocean interaction with the atmosphere are directly related to sea surface
temperature.
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second image shows a "pseudo" color image, generated from microwave
emissions from the surface and atmosphere. The
water cycle propels the Earth's climate. Not only is water vapor the most important
greenhouse gas, but water's circulation through the Earth's many parts also distributes
energy. The water cycle is an extremely complex process, and a better understanding
of its subtleties can provide valuable information to scientists. One of the key
instruments on the Aqua satellite to explore these questions and more is AMSR-E.
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5 | | AMSR-E:
LOOKING AT WATER FROM SPACE
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of the instruments onboard the Aqua spacecraft have enabled scientists to generate
early engineering pictures, but data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer
for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) have already yielded a geophysical product.
The powerful device helmed by a spinning golden disk has facilitated a nearly
global picture of the Earth's sea surface temperatures. This is the first
of what researchers are expecting to be many important capabilities that the instrument
will make possible. By collecting reflected radiation in the microwave range of
the spectrum, scientists will use AMSR-E to study precipitation, near-surface
wind speeds, sea surface temperature, soil moisture, snow cover, and more.
Compared to the other instruments onboard Aqua, AMSR-E is distinctive for
its appearance. Rising like a golden sail above the bow of the vehicle, the instrument
spins 40 times a minute. It will gather data from an 867-mile (1445 km) swath
of the planet as it orbits. SCIENTIFIC
SYNERGY
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assets include a suite of six highly advanced instruments, designed to study the
Earth in terms of its systemic interactions. As the name of the spacecraft suggests,
the principal goals of the mission concern a better understanding of the planet's
water cycle, but Aqua will also provide important tools for researchers studying
other topics, too. The satellite will make measurements of the Earth
many times a day, but it will cross the equator at the same local time, every
orbit. This is because it will orbit the planet on a nearly polar route, passing
over different points on the ground at approximately 1:30 pm and 1:30 am. By maintaining
a consistent time for taking readings, the integrated suite of sensors on Aqua
will facilitate sophisticated measurements of planetary processes that until now
have been challenging to collect and calibrate. Working in concert or independently,
Aqua's scientific hardware will be used to study climate change, vegetation, water
vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice,
snow cover and more. It's a broadly defined mission overall, specifically
composed of both narrowly and widely tailored objectives. The processes targeted
for study directly affect life on Earth; they describe the tangible world: rainfall
that waters crops, snow and ice that reflect heat back into space, and changes
in vegetation that describe how our planet's biosphere may be shifting due to
human induced climate pressures. COLORS
IN THE AFTERNOON
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sun rose on a new scientific era the morning of May 4, 2002. At 2:55 a.m. in the
pre-dawn darkness, the Aqua satellite blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base
in California. Flying at an altitude of 438 miles (705 km), the vehicle carries
six advanced instruments designed to study various Earth processes. As part of
the mission design, these instruments are specifically tailored to work together
as well as separately--in essence embodying the philosophy that if the Earth's
processes function in systemic, interrelated ways, the best way to study the planet
is with sensors that can correlate their findings. In fact, this strategy
goes beyond the bounds of the Aqua platform alone. As only the latest launch in
a series of Earth observing vehicles, Aqua's instrumentation and data collection
efforts are all part of a larger effort to study the Earth in systemic terms.
Satellite designers built Aqua to function on orbit for a minimum of six years.
This high-tech, space-based research observatory is a sibling to another vehicle
called Terra, an Earth science satellite launched in December 1999 and another
satellite called Aura slated for launch later in the decade. AN
ENTERPRISE, AN ADVENTURE
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is just one component of NASA's growing Earth Observing System, an integrated
fleet of satellites and data collection procedures designed to study the Earth
in terms of conjoined, interdependent processes. Space offers a useful
and powerful perspective for gathering information about natural and human-induced
change around the world. It's not feasible to study changes in the oceans, the
atmosphere, or life on Earth in global terms without looking back at the Earth
from space. The Earth Observing System, or EOS, is part of NASA's Earth
Science Enterprise, dedicated to better understanding and protecting our home
planet.ESE continues to develop new technologies and applications aimed at managing
natural hazards, civil planning, natural resource management, and much more. In
the near term, the program has set its sights on a better understanding of global
climate change. But in the long term, this evolving and exciting way of studying
how the living Earth works offers great advances in a number of important fields. Back
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