NASA’s Earth Observing System - Studying Our Natural Environment
Most people, when they think of NASA, think of space exploration. And fair enough too. That’s primarily what NASA was set up to do - to study space. And after all, NASA does stand for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
But what many people don’t know, is that NASA also studies earth - from space. Ever since its creation in 1958, NASA has been studying the earth to some degree.
NASA’s Earth Science Program
In 1991, NASA got more serious about its earth studies and launched a program specifically to address this area. The program, which is called Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), includes the Earth Observing System (EOS) - a system for studying the earth comprehensively.
The purpose of ESE is:
To develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards.
The program consists of three main components:
- A series of satellites - These can be used to obtain high resolution imagery photos of the earth.
- An advanced data system - With the ability to support the satellite system.
- And teams of scientists - These teams study the data captured by the satellites and stored in the data system.
The key areas that the program studies include:
- clouds
- water and energy cycles
- oceans
- chemistry of the atmosphere
- land surface
- water and ecosystem processes
- glaciers and polar ice sheets
- the solid Earth
ESE aims to “expand our perspective of the global environment and climate”. In doing so, they hope to find out whether and how Earth can sustain the pressures we’re now placing on it.
For more info, see NASA’s Earth Science page.
Tags: Climate Change, earth, Global Warming, Sustainability
May 10th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
[...] mentioned in my article about NASA’s Earth Observing System, NASA doesn’t only study space. NASA spends a great deal of time and money studying Earth - [...]