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Buy
satellite photos of your neighborhood....Recieve
satellite images on your own dish antenna...Display
and analyze them on your PC...Watch
realtime satellite imagery via the web...
Click
for larger version of this spectacular earthlights image
We continue here with more remote sensing links and
info.
The first sections deal with receiving satellite
imagery on your own radio receiving station. You
don't have to own a ham radio license to monitor broadcasts,
just the proper receiver and antenna.
Also, many government weather and research services
now provide their data free over the internet. So you
can track hurricanes, for example, in real time.
Build a sat station
for yourself, school, or space club. Weather satellites
that you can pickup include low orbiting, low resolution
birds to geostationary, high resolution ones.
More remote sensing resources
are given plus a section providing examples of remote
sensing applications.
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HobbySpace
Radio
See our space radio pages for more information on receiving
data from satellites. |
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3D
Landsat Satellite Imaging and Secrets for Obtaining
and Enhancing Free Satellite Pictures with Your Computer
Super site for the space imaging hobbyist created by
Mike Brown
:
" This site provides information on obtaining
free or low cost Landsat, GOES, and Space Shuttle
images. Also included are links to free satellite
image processing software. Tip sheets will show you
how to create 3D perspective views of Landsat images
and how to colorize GOES weather satellite imagery.
"In the past, satellite imaging was the exclusive
domain of professionals working for government or
university organizations. Thanks to advances in desktop
computing and the wide spread availability of the
Internet, satellite imaging can now be enjoyed by
an enthusiast in the comfort of one's home.
"Images from earth resource satellites, weather
satellites, and the Space Shuttle in a variety of
resolutions are all easy to obtain via the Internet.
This site will show you where to obtain such imagery,
and teach you a few techniques for image processing
satellite images." - Mike Brown's Satellite Imagery
website.
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MultiFAX
Capture weather satellite images in real-time with your
satellite receiver and PC. Can obtain images form
NOAA, GOES, and Meteosat weather satellites.
Two MultiFAX demodulators are available for an expansion
slot or externally via the parallel port. Extensive
software package includes satellite tracking, image
capture, image enhancements, etc. MultiFAX also sells
a receiver.
Products
& Software Gallery
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Remote
Imaging Group
This British group
"...caters for everyone interested in remote
imaging from satellites. The group which has a membership
of nearly 2,500 spread across 45 countries, is keen
to assist new members and provide an ongoing service
to our existing membership, which includes both professional
and amateur interests..."
Beginners section provides lots of info on setting
up your own receiving station. Also, info on equipment.
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- Dallas
Remote Imaging Group - weather satellites, imagery,
satellite tracking,amateur rockets
- Monitoring
Times - Unfortunately, the wonderful magazine
Satellite Times, which specialized in information
for the space radio enthusiast, is no longer in print.
However, many of the same types of articles, news,
and ads have been folded into the Monitoring Times,
a sister publication of Grove
Enterprises Inc.
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This graph compares the resolution vs the swath (width
of image area)
for the various remote sensing satellites in operations. |
Astronet:
Weather Satellites
ASTRONET presents this nice page of links to weather
sat web sites. See also the pages on Meteorology,
weather forecasts, climate andWeather
Forecasts . |
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EarthKam
This NASA funded project provides students with control
of a camera on the shuttle in orbit. The goal is to
integrate satellite imaging into the teaching of Earth
Science. Headed by Sally Ride.
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Mississippi
Space Commerce Initiative
A collaboration of NASA Stennis Center and several companies
and universities to develop remote sensing technology
and applications. Several useful pages including links
to RS companies. |
NASM
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
The National Air &
Space Museum supports this center that uses remote
sensing techniques to study both the earth and other planets.
For a tutorials, galleries and othe resources see the
Outreach
section. |
NGDC/WDCA
MGG - Images
Explore the ocean basins with satellite altimeter data
provided by MGG (Marine Geology & Geophysics). |
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Open Source
Remote Sensing Effort
Large but friendly site..
"...dedicated to making remote sensing algorithms,
code, and technology available to all interested parties.
Resources are provided to facilitate communication
and development of open source tools. It is hoped
that this effort will attract participation from companies,
students, professors, and agencies that are involved
in remote sensing efforts."
Lots of resource sections such as Sample
Imagery, and Links.
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Visualization
of Remote Sensing Data (NASA)
These projects attempt to make remote sensing data more
informative and useful to non-experts in particular.
See examples of Images
Movies
QuicktimeVR Projects
BlueMarble
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Sea and Sky
Very beautiful and elaborate site dedicated to the exploration
of the oceans and of space. Sea
Sky
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SeaSpace
A company that provides software to do processing of remote
sensing images to develop their full information potential.
Images
GlossaryofRemoteSensingTerms
Products
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SeaWiFS
Project
The SeaWiFS
instrument resides on the SeaStar
satellite (now known as OrbImage's
Orbview
2). It observes the oceans in multiple colors (6
visible and 2 infrared), which provides important information
such as the concentration of microscopic marine plants,
called phytoplankton,
that form the base of the food chain.
SeaWifs
Living Ocean Teachers Guide Current
SeaWiFS Position SeaWiFS
Flipbook
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SeaWinds
A scatterometer aboard NASA's QuickSat spacecraft provides
images of winds at the ocean surface. See movies of hurricanes
and global wind patterns. News
Daily Wind report.
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Spot Image
The first private commercial remote sensing satellite
company. It provides primarily images from the French
SPOT satellites.
System
News
Applications
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Surrey
Satellite - Earth Observation
SSTL is a spinoff
company from the Univ. of Surrey group that has been
a leader in the development of small satellites. Here
the company shows photos from their low-cost imaging
satellite.
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Tromsø Satellite Station
This site from Northern Norway provides images
from RadarSat and other remote sensing satellites.
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Satellite observations now help to monitor and contain
forest fires
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Satellite Radar
imaging has become an increasingly important remote
sensing tool. While the resolution is not as fine as
for visible light images, radar can penetrate clouds
and works at night as well as it does in the sunlight.
Snowy, icy areas
such as antarctica appear as mostly a white blur in
visible light imagers but show vivid detail in radar
images. See Icy
Continent Mapped from Space with RADARSAT - Goddard
Spaceflight Center.
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NASA/JPL
Imaging Radar
Satellite Radar imaging has become an increasingly important
remote sensing tool. While the resolution is not as
fine as for visible light images, radar can penetrate
clouds and works at night as well as it does in the
sunlight. See the Using
RADAR Data - Science and Applications page for information
on this exciting RS technique.
For image databases, check out the Picture
Gallery and Clickable
Map of the World.
The SIR-C/X-SAR
Images gallery is divided into several categories
such as
Ecology & Agriculture. |
RADARSAT
- CSA
The RADARSAT-1 satellite is owned and operated by the
Canadian Space Agency and it license the distribution
of its images to a private commercial company. However,
NASA launched the satellite and works closely with the
CSA in the analysis of the imagary. |
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GIS is a relatively new field that combines
the many types of remote sensing data with the many
types of conventional ground based information into
one big multi-dimensional database. One can then create
plots and maps illustrating interesting and often unexpected
correlations among the various parameters.
For example, one could use such a database
to relate housing density (obtained from a satellite
image) versus median salary levels (obtained from census
data.) Or versus toxic release sites (from environmental
agencies).
Such analysis is becoming a very popular
tool for many applications ranging from demographics
to city planning to placement of cellular phone towers
to environmental monitoring.
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- ESRI - This GIS
company provides an interesting site with many demos
of GIS techniques. See their DEMOS
page and make maps according to demographic, environmental,
and other types of parameters.
- ArcData
Online - make free maps of your home town.
Maps are not just of roads. You can also map environmental,
flood,census, and other data
- Earthsat
does processing of imagery from a variety
of satellite sources. They offer "value-added"
products such as crop forecasting, geologic analysis,
and other remote sensing services.
- GeoComm -
News, links, articles about GIS, remote sensing, etc.
SpatialNews
- Geography
Network - Geographic resources site that includes
interactive maps that use satellite data.
- TIGER Mapping
Service - US Census - Example of GIS
- Geographic Information Systems - that expands
mapping to include all data available about an area,
e.g. population statistics and remote sensing information,
into multi-dimensional data bases.
- USGS
Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program
- Mapwares
- GIS Software Development and Consulting Services
- Articles:
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| While these are not hobbies,
they provide interesting illustrations of the capabilities
of satellite remote sensing. |
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Animal researchers and environmentalists
have always needed to track creatures in the wild to investigate
their behaviour and range of activities. While hiking
boots and binoculars are still required tools, so now
are satellites when it comes to tracking animals over
long remote distances and over long periods.
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Lost cities, roads, and other ancient constructions
that were invisible from the ground have been found
to "stand out" when seen from the perspective
of space. Furthermore, sensors such as radar can penetrate
jungle foilage or sand and also scan large areas very
effectively.
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Satellite
Remote Sensing and Archaeology
Martin J. F. Fowler offers this very nice site with lots
of information and links about using RS for archeology.
Resources
section (links to software and other tools) and a discussion
area included. |
Remote
Sensing Archaeology Research at NASA
A NASA site dedicated to the use of remote sensing for
archaeology. |
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Archaeology
Remote Sensing - Univ. of Edinburgh
This Scottish archaeology group specializes in using
remote sensing within Scotland and elsewhere.
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The applications of remote sensing in law enforcement,
forensic, and other legalareas are growing. These can
range from spotting ships at sea illegally fishing or
dumping pollutants to settling real estate disputes.
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Visual
Forensics
This company uses d satellite terrain data to create a
computer simulations for courtroom use. For example, they
provided simulations to support the pilot in the case
of the US Marine plane that accidentally cut the cables
to a gondola in Italy, resulting in the deaths of 20 people. |
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Farmers can now combine remote sensing data,
e.g. images that indicate the water content of the soil
and plants, and GPS positioning information (also from
satellites, of course) to tailor their plowing, fertilizing,
planting, irrigation, pest control, etc. down to the square
meter.
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Precision
Farming
Gives the latest developments in this fast growing field
(so to speak!). Provides introductory information as well
as technical data and a product catalog. |
Taking
Aim
The Precision Agriculture Center at the University of
Minnesota describes the techniques of precision farming.
Precision Farming combines GPS and remote sensing data
to tailor planting, irrigation, fertilization, etc. to
particular areas within individual fields. |
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It might seem seem strange
to go to space to predict earthquakes but, in fact, satelllite
sensing may provide vital clues to detecting precursors
to seismic activity. Radar and GPS systems can since movements
of the earth to centimeter accuracy and thus signal slight
shifts of tectonic plates that may occur before quakes.
There are indications that low frequency electromagnetic
radiation may be emitted from ground structures under
stresses that precede a quake. Satellites may have already
detected such radiation and new
projects are underway to test the theories.
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