Earth from Space
They describe at least three teleconnections in the film. The movie talks about sandstorms in the Sahara Desert transforming the rainforest across the globe. Also explained are the waterfalls under the sea in Antarctica, leading to a feeding frenzy in the ocean by the equator. Finally, they talked about streaming water off the coast of Africa causing a disastrous weather storm in the United States. This happens because all of the activity in the ocean, sun and atmosphere are bound together.
When an action occurs to one of them, a reaction occurs within another. It’s almost like a butterfly effect that occurs between the three. We can learn and visually see all these different parts of the Earth by using satellites.
Geosphere (Solid Earth)
The Geosphere is made up of mostly rock. Beneath the surface of Earth, forces inside are a crucial source for the basic materials that nurture life. Volcanoes and earthquakes are examples of reactions to disturbances that initially took place under the Earth’s surface.
Although destructive, the natural forces behind these events also provide the materials we and other living organisms need to survive. Through satellites we can see that the Earth’s crust is constantly moving.
Cryosphere (Ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice)
The Cryosphere can be observed from space using satellites. The reason the Cryosphere doesn’t receive much heat from the sun is because the sun strikes these regions at an oblique angle and any heat that does reach the cryosphere is reflected back into space by the sheets of ice covering it.
Atmosphere (Gases, clouds, weather)
As water vapor evaporates from the ocean it works its way up into the atmosphere and eventually creates clouds, who size depends on how much water vapor was evaporated. The heat that water vapors carried before they became clouds is eventually what triggers storms to occur. If there is enough heat influencing the clouds it will cause the clouds to shoot upward and the rotation of the Earth is what makes them spin. If the clouds turn into a vortex, hurricanes are formed.
Biosphere (Life on Earth)
Life on Earth is affected by all the other parts of the Earth including internally and externally. The catastrophic storms that are caused by the atmosphere effect life on Earth more and more every year. Mother Nature is so unpredictable and it is very hard, even with all of earth-observing technologies humans have created, to prepare for Earth’s catastrophic events. It is even harder for other organisms to survive that do not have the same knowledge about technology as humans do. When hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes do occur, it is instincts that ultimately help different species survive.
Hydrosphere (Oceans, lakes, rivers)
The hydrosphere plays a big part in the water cycle. Energy from the sun causes evaporation from all wet surfaces on the earth. Because the earth is two thirds water, the oceans are important for homeostasis on the planet Earth. The water helps the atmosphere function properly and vice versa. Without one there would be no other. The ocean and lakes are also the homes to millions of organisms. Some believe the ocean is even where the first walks of life were formed. Ocean circulation greatly affects climate and weather. One NASA’s newest satellites named Polar Orbiting Suomi, after a meteorologist, is an electronic eye in space that measure the impact of the sun’s energy all around the Earth. This satellite can see much more of the electromagnetic spectrum then the human eye can. One of this satellites’ key instruments in called Cloud and Earth’s Radiant Energy System. It helps detect the ultraviolet and infrared parts of the spectrum that we can’t see. This instrument helps detect anything on Earth that gives off heat.
Aqua is a satellite that uses another earth- observing technology that monitors the interaction between heat and water. Aqua uses infrared to analyze the temperature of water. Using the infrared, Aqua can see how much water vapor is evaporating from the ocean into the atmosphere. TRIM is a satellite equipped with a radar and imager that operate in the micro wave range of the electromagnetic spectrum. These radio waves are higher in energy and shorter in wavelength than others. The instruments on this satellite bounce micro waves off raindrops in the clouds allowing scientist to build a three imensional structure of the internal structure of a hurricane.
The temporal resolution specifies the revisiting frequency of a satellite sensor for a specific location. A low temporal resolution can last greater than 16 days whereas a high temporal resolution will last only up to 3 days. Using satellite remote sensing we can view the earth’s surface as frequently as we would like too. As long as the satellites are working efficiently there should be no problem. The spatial resolution specifies the pixel size of satellite images covering the earth surface.
The level of detail does depend on what the satellites are observing. The different spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions are the limiting factor for the utilization of the data they find. Unfortunately, because of technical constraints, satellite systems can only offer the following relationship between spatial and spectral resolution. Ether a high spatial resolution is associated with a low spectral resolution and vice versa. That means that a system with a high spectral resolution can only offer a medium or low spatial resolution.
Therefore, it is either necessary to find compromises between the different resolutions according to the individual application or to utilize alternative methods of data acquisition. I found the most striking thing in this movie to be, how easily events like hurricanes, volcanoes, and tsunamis could be created. A little bit too much moisture in the atmosphere or a little disturbance in the Earth could eventually lead to a disastrous, possibly life threatening event. This movie made me grateful to live in an area that is not as highly affected by natural disasters and sympathetic towards those that do.
