Being Green - 16 March 2018
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EARTH OBSERVATION
Since the beginning of the Space Age we have been straining to look out and explore the Universe, even taking a few baby steps to escape the confines of Earth, hop onto the Moon, and send robots further and further into the distant reaches of the Solar System. And what technology and engineering triumphs to boast about!
It seems almost ironic to reflect that the more we look out into space, the more we look back at our own backyard, the planet Earth. Since the earliest days of the space age, high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface were being made. Most of it admittedly for military purposes, as the protagonists of the Cold War squared up and kept tabs on the other side’s activities. And the military stuff of course goes on, and we’re not permitted to know much about it. But the spin-off has been huge, and today the vast discipline of Earth Observation is thriving.
There’s a bit of confusion, as Earth Observation also means any observation about the Earth, which can be from the ground as well. Today the term satellite remote sensing is beginning to take on, meaning space-based Earth Observation.
Since the beginning of the Space Age we have been straining to look out and explore the Universe, even taking a few baby steps to escape the confines of Earth, hop onto the Moon, and send robots further and further into the distant reaches of the Solar System. And what technology and engineering triumphs to boast about!
It seems almost ironic to reflect that the more we look out into space, the more we look back at our own backyard, the planet Earth. Since the earliest days of the space age, high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface were being made. Most of it admittedly for military purposes, as the protagonists of the Cold War squared up and kept tabs on the other side’s activities. And the military stuff of course goes on, and we’re not permitted to know much about it. But the spin-off has been huge, and today the vast discipline of Earth Observation is thriving.
There’s a bit of confusion, as Earth Observation also means any observation about the Earth, which can be from the ground as well. Today the term satellite remote sensing is beginning to take on, meaning space-based Earth Observation.
