grahic compiled from NASA
'Visible Earth' images.
Credits: NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water,
clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D
globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS
Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group
Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial
Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights).
Much of
the information contained in this image came from a single
remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying
over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra
satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of
terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. The land
and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface
observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined,
or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might
block the sensor’s view of the surface on any single day. Two different
types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color
data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data. Topographic shading
is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S.
Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center. MODIS observations of polar sea
ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s AVHRR sensor—the Advanced Very
High Resolution Radiometer. The cloud image is a composite of two days
of imagery collected in visible light wavelengths and a third day of
thermal infra-red imagery over the poles. Global city lights, derived
from 9 months of observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program, are superimposed on a darkened land surface map.
Plant list:
A | B | C |
D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N |
O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Bibliography
