POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS OF PHOTOMETRIC RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH A FLOCK OF DOVE CUBESATS

When Earth observation satellite systems are designed, one typically prefers a sun-synchronous orbit. However, the first generations of cubesats from Planet were deployed out of the International Space Station (ISS) and therefore do not obey such an orbit. Their configuration samples at different local times within the mid-latitudes. Consequently, it is in theory possible to exploit photometric techniques and extract highly detailed topographic information. In this study we demonstrate and explore photometry based on Planet cubesat images for Tyndall glacier at the Southern Patagonian icefield, and Zhadang glacier situated on the Tibetan plateau.

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Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ◽

10.5194/amt-6-2311-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (9) ◽

pp. 2311-2338 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Y. Kasai ◽

H. Sagawa ◽

D. Kreyling ◽

E. Dupuy ◽

P. Baron ◽

...

Keyword(s):

International Space Station ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Space Station ◽

Local Times ◽

International Space ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

Mesospheric Ozone ◽

Synchronous Orbit ◽

Better Than

Abstract. We observed ozone (O3) in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~ 12–96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4 K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O3 line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. The non-sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O3 at various local times. We assessed the quality of the vertical profiles of O3 in the 100–0.001 hPa (~ 16–90 km) region for the SMILES NICT Level 2 product version 2.1.5. The evaluation is based on four components: error analysis; internal comparisons of observations targeting three different instrumental setups for the same O3 625.371 GHz transition; internal comparisons of two different retrieval algorithms; and external comparisons for various local times with ozonesonde, satellite and balloon observations (ENVISAT/MIPAS, SCISAT/ACE-FTS, Odin/OSIRIS, Odin/SMR, Aura/MLS, TELIS). SMILES O3 data have an estimated absolute accuracy of better than 0.3 ppmv (3%) with a vertical resolution of 3–4 km over the 60 to 8 hPa range. The random error for a single measurement is better than the estimated systematic error, being less than 1, 2, and 7%, in the 40–1, 80–0.1, and 100–0.004 hPa pressure regions, respectively. SMILES O3 abundance was 10–20% lower than all other satellite measurements at 8–0.1 hPa due to an error arising from uncertainties of the tangent point information and the gain calibration for the intensity of the spectrum. SMILES O3 from observation frequency Band-B had better accuracy than that from Band-A. A two month period is required to accumulate measurements covering 24 h in local time of O3 profile. However such a dataset can also contain variation due to dynamical, seasonal, and latitudinal effects.

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Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions ◽

10.5194/amtd-6-2643-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 2643-2720 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Y. Kasai ◽

H. Sagawa ◽

D. Kreyling ◽

K. Suzuki ◽

E. Dupuy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

International Space Station ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Space Station ◽

Local Times ◽

International Space ◽

Calibration Problem ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

Synchronous Orbit ◽

Better Than

Abstract. We observed the diurnal variation of ozone (O3) in the vertical region between 250 and 0.0005 hPa (~12–96 km) using the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) between 12 October 2009 and 21 April 2010. The new 4 K superconducting heterodyne receiver technology of SMILES allowed us to obtain a one order of magnitude better signal-to-noise ratio for the O3 line observation compared to past spaceborne microwave instruments. We assessed the quality of the vertical profiles of O3 in the 100–0.001 hP (~16–90 km) region for the SMILES NICT Level 2 product version 2.1.5. The evaluation is based on four components; error analysis; internal comparisons of observations targeting three different instrumental setups for the same O3 625.371 GHz transition; internal comparisons of two different retrieval algorithms; and external comparisons for various local times with ozonesonde, satellite and balloon observations (ENVISAT/MIPAS, SCISAT/ACE-FTS, Odin/OSIRIS, Odin/SMR, Aura/MLS, TELIS). SMILES O3 data have an estimated absolute accuracy of better than 0.3 ppmv (3%) with a vertical resolution of 3–4 km over the 60 to 8 hPa range. The random error for a single measurement is better than the estimated systematic error, being less than 1, 2, and 7%, in the 40–1, 80–0.1, and 100–0.004 hPa pressure region, respectively. SMILES O3 abundance was 10–20% lower than all other satellite measurements at 8–0.1 hPa due to an error arising from uncertainties of the tangent point information and the calibration problem for the intensity of the spectrum. The non sun-synchronous orbit of the ISS allowed us to observe O3 at various local times. A two month period is required to accumulate measurements covering 24 h in local time. However such a dataset can also contain variation due to dynamical, seasonal, and latitudinal effects.

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The processing and use of data from Earth observation satellites

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences ◽

10.1098/rsta.1984.0055 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 312 (1519) ◽

pp. 109-114

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Advanced Technology ◽

System Designer ◽

Satellite Systems ◽

Use Of Data ◽

Observation Systems ◽

Earth Observation Satellite ◽

Institutional Aspects ◽

Earth Observation Satellites

Most systems reliant on advanced technology present a familiar dilemma: the system designer does not know what the customer wants, while the customer does not understand the technology well enough to know what is possible. Although Earth observation satellite systems ought ideally to be designed for all customer needs, this is impossible for several reasons. Not least of these is the difficulty of identifying at the outset all, or even most, of the possible customers. This circumstance makes the creation of Earth observation systems somewhat speculative and imposes particular constraints on the subsystems for processing and use of the data. This paper discusses the technical and institutional aspects of processing and dissemination of data from remote-sensing satellites for the benefit of the user.

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Earth observation videos in schools– enriching a school lesson on geographic zones with footage from the ISS

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9855 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Clemens Kramm ◽

Henryk Hodam ◽

Carsten Jürgens ◽

Claudia Lindner ◽

Annette Ortwein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

International Space Station ◽

Standard Procedure ◽

Space Station ◽

Earth Observation ◽

High Definition ◽

International Space ◽

Effective Manner ◽

Teaching Concept ◽

The Future

&#8222;I want to remind the students that asked me the questions, that you are the future of science, technology and exploration. You have that flame. You teachers are fanning the flame, so it becomes a fire of curiosity and future exploration. We trust your generation to come up with the questions and the answers that we need to be better humans in the future.&#8221; &#8211; Luca Parmitano, Commander of the International Space Station (ISS)Remote sensing and space travels have become a major tool for research and development in terms of scientific problems since the 1970&#8217;s. You don&#8217;t have to be an astronaut or pilot to get in touch with the many achievements, applications and scientific findings. Everyone and especially pupils are using them on a daily basis. Therefore, to deliberate the use of these technologies in school is crucial. The topic of remote sensing and space travels is quite complex and diverse, so many teachers are struggling to integrate them into their lessons. The main goal should be to support teachers by providing useful remote sensing school material and to encourage them to use these in their lessons. However teachers need the right science-based tools to fan &#8220;the flame, so it becomes a fire of curiosity&#8221;. To assist them in an effective manner it is necessary to adapt to their standard procedure of preparing a lesson: a fully developed teaching concept which includes not only the analysis of the topic itself but also the current curricula, the class, the didactics, the method and the material. Thereby it is possible to demonstrate how beneficial and well-grounded such a lesson can be.The presentation addresses the question of how synergies of human space travels can be used to educate pupils and enhance the fascination of earth observation imagery in the light of problem-based learning in everyday school lessons. It will be shown which possibilities the topic of earth observation from space holds ready for teaching the regular curricula and how teachers can appropriately justify the appliance in their lessons. A comprehensive teaching concept example will be discussed, which matches german teaching standards and uses NASA&#8217;s High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) videos from the International Space Station (ISS) to enrich a secondary school geography lesson about the different geographic zones on earth.

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