국내 최대 기계 및 로봇 연구정보

기술보고서

기술보고서 게시판 내용
타이틀	Earth Observations from Space: Achievements, Challenges, and Realities : Chapter 21
저자	Fleming, James R.
Keyword	AEROSPACE ENVIRONMENTS;; CRYOSPHERES;; DEEP SPACE;; EARTH OBSERVATIONS (FROM SPACE); EARTH SCIENCES;; ICE ENVIRONMENTS;; OCEANS;; PLANETS;; SATELLITE OBSERVATION;; SPACE PROBES;; UNIVERSE
URL	http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20100025894
보고서번호	NASA/SP-2010-4704
발행년도	2010
출처	NTRS (NASA Technical Report Server)
ABSTRACT	Over the past 50 years, it has been very good viewing from space. As unique observing platforms, satellites have fundamentally transformed the practice of Earth science. We have fulfilled an ancient quest for altitude and provided scientists and the general public with a panoptic viewpoint. The launches of Sputnik and Explorer were "Galilean moments," with many other such moments following. Historians argue that ever since 1543, Earth has been systematically and progressively demoted from its ancient status as the center of the universe, yet many would also agree that the Space Age launched a new "Copernican type revolution" in returning our values to an Earth-centric focus, both through Blue Marble inspiration and Brown Marble pollution studies.32 Observing Earth from space over the past 50 years has fundamentally transformed the way people view our home planet. The daily synoptic global view of Earth, uniquely available from satellite observations, has revolutionized Earth studies and ushered in a new dynamic era of multidisciplinary Earth sciences, with an emphasis on dynamics at all accessible spatial and temporal scales, even in remote areas. This new capability plays a critically important role in helping society manage planetary-scale resources and understand environmental challenges. Satellites have contributed in unique ways to scientific understanding of the solid Earth, the oceans, the land, the cryosphere, the atmosphere, and the near-space environment. They have enhanced our ability to predict variations in the Earth system and promise new opportunities to improve Earth science research -and there still is a tremendous amount of knowledge to be gained and discoveries to be made. Satellites and their instrumentation exist in synergy with deep space probes to other planets. They constitute a wonderful context for discovery, but they are also essential monitoring devices. Our world simply could not function as it does without satellites. Recall the 1958 statement by the PSAC that serves as the epigraph to this chapter. While the cost of Earth observations from space over the past five decades is measured in billions of dollars, the value of understanding our home planet is priceless!