Observing the Earth from Space

[Funkworks]

They forgot to move this thread to this subforum so here's a link:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/observing-the-earth-from-space.173925/
I'll use this new thread to list more satellites and keep the other one as an archive.

 

[Funkworks]

Next:
Jason-3, a satellite to measure the height of the ocean surface, to gain insight into ocean circulation patterns, and how they're evolving regionally and globally.

"Hills and valleys" of the ocean surface (waves I guess) are measured by a radar altimeter with an accuracy of 1.3 inches or 3.3 centimeters, with a goal of achieving 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters. Called the Poseidon-3B Altimeter, it measures the round-trip travel time of microwave pulses bounced off the sea surface. Interestingly: "The two frequencies of the Poseidon's emitted pulses are also used to determine the atmospheric electron content, which can delay the signal's return. These two frequencies also serve to detect the rain events. The strength and shape of the returning signal also provides information on wind speed and the height of ocean waves."

Used by the NOAA, European weather agencies, and marine operators, etc. for scientific research and operational oceanography.

NOAA's sit on Jason-3:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/current-satellite-missions/currently-flying/jason-3
Euro site on Jason-3:
https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/missions/future-missions/jason-3.html?id=601&L=0


Launched on January 17, 2016, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason-3

 

[Funkworks]

Next:
AVIRIS: Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

This mission is for measuring the spectral range from 380 nm to 2510 nm reflected by the Earth, from a Twin Otter, and in the near future, from NASA's high altitude ER-2. So not quite from space this time.



AVIRIS-NG has been deployed for both greenhouse gas research and natural resource exploration.

Raw data is available here but there seems to be somewhat of a learning curve as to how to use it: https://aviris.jpl.nasa.gov/dataportal/

More user-friendly info can be found here:
https://avirisng.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

[Hobie1dog]

science is the most fascinating thing we have on the planet, thanks for the info.

 

[jqavins]

Anyhoo, here's part of what I was looking for:

An instrument (OCO-3) on the ISS that measures the distribution of CO2:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/orbiting-carbon-observatory-3-oco-3

I had a small hand in making this one:
https://ocov2.jpl.nasa.gov/
OCO 2 is a satellite unto itself, rather than an instrument on board the ISS. OCO 1 was lost to a launch vehicle failure. When it was rebuilt there were a few small changes, and I did the changes to the wire harness design, as directed by the systems engineers. The changes were minor

OCO, which stands for Orbital Carbon Observatory, is also the structural formula for carbon dioxide, O═C═O.

 

[Funkworks]

That OCO acronym is pretty clever. I got to visit a few Caltech labs but not JPL. I wasn't much into rocketry at the time, so I'm sort of catching up here. I imagine when information travels from my eyeballs to my fingertips, bits of it stay behind in memory cells so that I get to "learn" some of it for the long run.

Next:
PRISM stands for Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter. It covers a wavelength range from 350 nm to 1050 nm. The same unit also includes a separate radiometer covering two bands at 1240 and 1610 nm in order to provide accurate atmospheric correction of the ocean color measurements.



The complete unit weighs about 40 kg with the electronics and is for being installed in a vacuum chamber to be carried by an aircraft. Three vibration isolators prevent high frequency vibration from transmitting to the optics and detectors mounted in a vacuum vessel. The temperature of the instruments is kept at 25°C through bi-directional thermoelectric coolers. The spectrometer detector is running at a temperature of about 7°C. Shutters for the SWIR radiometer and spectrometer provide dark frame acquisition. An operator’s task is to click on a software “record” or “stop” button at the beginning and end of a flight line. Data is recorded in solid state drives.

The unit can be mounted on a Twin Otter, and in the near future, on NASA's high altitude ER-2 and the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s/National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NSF/NCAR) Gulfstream GV.



Current satellite data provide a broad overview of natural and human-induced events from tsunamis to toxic blooms and oil spills, but do not have the necessary spectral, spatial and temporal, resolution to characterize and understand them.

PRISM covers that gap by flying below cloud altitudes and resolving spatial features as small as 30 cm.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/portable-remote-imaging-spectrometer-prism
https://prism.jpl.nasa.gov/news_info.html