Satellites and Space

These items are designed for the teacher to use in the classroom or as background reference material. There is also information about programs that provide training and other opportunities for educators.

Taking the "Pulse" of the Planet - To learn more about NOAA's role in Earth Observing Systems, go to the blue text at the bottom of this page.


SATELLITES

• Satellites and Orbits: An Introduction This is an easy-to-use interactive, animated introduction, for students in Grades 8 through 10, to satellites and the forces which determine orbits. Lessons highlight a short satellite history, a non-mathematical review of basic orbital physics, orbital terminology and orbit types with a focus on Earth observation and environmental monitoring. It includes a reading assignment, classroom demonstration, student activity lab, quiz and lesson instructions.
  eic.ipo.noaa.gov/education/index.php

• How Do You Build a Weather Satellite? This pdf file contains a booklet for students explaining what it takes to keep a satellite in space and what kinds of information can be gained from that satellite. (Scroll down the page to the title and click on it.)
  eic.ipo.noaa.gov/education/index.php

• Coloring Pages for Kids This two page pdf file is for very young kids to color on. It shows the NPOESS seal and the hazards that are monitored from space by the satellite. (Scroll down the page to the title and click on it.)
  eic.ipo.noaa.gov/education/index.php

• NOAA-N Information NOAA satellites are launched by NASA and maintained by NOAA after they are in place. Information about the newest NOAA satellite, NOAA-N, is available on this site. NOAA-N will collect information about Earth's atmosphere and environment to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe. NOAA-N is the 15th in a series of polar-orbiting satellites dating back to 1978. NOAA uses two satellites, a morning and afternoon satellite, to ensure every part of the Earth is observed at least twice every 12 hours.
  www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/main/index.html

• NOAA's Satellites - NOAA operates the nation's system of environmental (weather) satellites and manages the processing and distribution of the millions of bits of data and images that these satellites produce daily. The primary customer of satellite information is NOAA's National Weather Service, which uses the data to create forecasts for the public, television, radio, and weather advisory services. There are two types of satellites: the geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) for short-range warning and "now-casting". Click here to go to the main NOAA page on geostationary satellites. Polar-orbiting satellites are used for longer-term forecasting. Click here to learn more about the polar orbiting satellites. Both types of satellites are necessary for providing complete global weather monitoring.
  

• Geostationary Satellites GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. They circle the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed matching the Earth's rotation. This allows them to hover continuously over one position on the surface. Because they stay above a fixed spot on the surface, they provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms, and hurricanes.
  www.oso.noaa.gov/goes/index.htm

• Polar Orbiting Satellites The POES satellite system offers the advantage of daily global coverage, by making nearly polar orbits roughly 14.1 times daily. Since the number of orbits per day is not an integer, the sub orbital tracks do not repeat on a daily basis, although the local solar time of each satellite's passage is essentially unchanged for any latitude. Currently in orbit we have a morning and afternoon satellite, which provide global coverage four times daily. Because of the polar orbiting nature of the POES series satellites, these satellites are able to collect global data on a daily basis for a variety of land, ocean, and atmospheric applications. Data from the POES series supports a broad range of environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, global sea surface temperature measurements, atmospheric soundings of temperature and humidity, ocean dynamics research, volcanic eruption monitoring, forest fire detection, global vegetation analysis, and search and rescue.
  www.oso.noaa.gov/poes/index.htm

  REMOTE SENSING AND SATELLITE IMAGERY

• Basics of Remote Sensing - This is an educational module that describes how to interpret the satellite imagery that is available on the Internet from a variety of sources. The basics begin with a review of the partitioning that radiation undergoes in the atmosphere, such as emission and reflection. A broad array of satellite imagery is available and this site provides links to it.
  orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/arad/fpdt/tutorial/intro.html

• NOAA's Remote Sensing Activities - Remote sensing is the science of remotely acquiring, processing, interpreting and presenting spatial data for objects and environmental processes using signals from a broad range within the electromagnetic spectrum. Remote sensing instruments are able to produce images of the physical properties and characteristics of objects without being in physical contact with them. NOAA's aircraft and satellites are common platforms from which the NOAA's remote sensing observations are made.
  www.noaanews.noaa.gov/magazine/stories/mag13.htm

• EXPLORES! Using Satellite Data - Florida State University implements the NOAA Direct Readout Program from the polar orbiting satellites. To date the university has installed over 230 weather satellite ground stations designed to receive live imagery from NOAA 12, 14, and 15 satellites (as the constellation now stands), and also supports WEFAX in about 1/4 of these schools. This site includes postings of APT, WEFAX and GVAR imagery received at FSU, plus weather satellite interpretation messages. (This is a not a U.S. Government website. NOAA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites).
  www.met.fsu.edu/explores

• Satellite Meteorology Page - This page has been designed to offer high quality links to satellite training materials and tutorials, real-time imagery and animations, as well as GOES status reports.
  www.nws.noaa.gov/er/box/satellite/Sathome.htm

• Science Benefiting Society - This site, from the National Geophysical Data Center, provides a broad range of information, including information on natural hazards, solar and cosmic rays, topographic images of all the states, the earth's changing magnetic field, and data and images from the seafloor.
  www.ngdc.noaa.gov/news/ngdcsociety.html

• NOAA National Data Centers Online Store - NOAA's National Data Centers, with climatic, geophysical and oceanographic date, provide information on a wide variety of topics including evaporation, maps and charts, temperatures, water and waves, and precipitation.
  www.nndc.noaa.gov/phase3/productaccm.htm

• Historical Significant Events Imagery - This page contains archive images and movies which span the history of the NOAA satellite program. At this website you will find hundreds of selected satellite images capturing some of the more important weather and environmental events over the last 30 years.
  www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/hsei/hsei.pl?directive=welcome

  THE SUN

• Solar Physics and Terrestrial Effects (Grades 7-12 Curriculum Guide) - This is not a step-by-step guide, rather it is a resource to provide some state-of-the-art applications of physics and to enhance your existing course work. The guide has three parts: a short textbooks, a hands-on activity guide and resource listings.
  www.sec.noaa.gov/Curric_7-12/index.html

• A Glossary of Solar-Terrestrial Terms - An A to Z listing of the terms you need to know when talking about the solar environment.
  www.sec.noaa.gov/info/glossary.html

  THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT

• The Space Environment Center Home Page - We all know that the Sun is overwhelmingly important to life on Earth, but few of us have been given a good description of our star and its variations.
  www.sec.noaa.gov

• Short Topic Papers on Space Environment - Topics: Navigation, Radio Wave Propagation, Aurora, the Relationship between Kp and the Aurora, the Ionosphere, and Solar Maximum
  www.sec.noaa.gov/info/index.html

• A Primer on the Space Environment - It has been realized and appreciated only in the last few decades that solar activity affects people and their activities. This site highlights information about the sun and some of the more important solar features: sunspots, coronal holes, solar prominences, flares, coronal mass ejections (CME=s), the area between the sun and the earth, solar effects at earth, aurora, proton events, and the effects of geomagnetic storms on much of our current technology.
  www.sec.noaa.gov/primer/primer.html

  TAKING THE "PULSE" OF THE PLANET
  Observations are fundamental to describing, understanding and predicting the Earth's climate system. NOAA gathers, analyzes and archives data from the oceans, atmosphere and land surfaces from different parts of the globe.

  NOAA's Global Observing Platforms
  NOAA's mission is to understand and predict the oceans and atmosphere on timescales from minutes to centuries. To accomplish this goal, NOAA has deployed an array of global sensors that work together to provide data needed by scientists. These complementary systems, with information about the global oceans and atmosphere, operate at different altitudes with different instruments and include:
  

  • Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites - NOAA has two GOES satellites that monitor the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean from goestationary orbit 35,800 kilometers (22,300 miles) above the equator. Because they stay above a fixed spot on the surface, they provide constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions like tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms, and hurricanes. To learn more about Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites and to access real time images, click here.

  
  • Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites - NOAA's two operational polar orbiting satellites scan the entire earth once every six hours from altitudes of about 850 kilometers (529 miles). Because of their polar orbiting nature, the POES series satellites are able to collect global data on a daily basis. Data from the POES series supports a broad range of environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, volcanic eruption monitoring, forest fire detection, search and rescue, and many other applications. To see a menu of products from the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites click here.

  
  • Air Platforms - NOAA Aircraft have a rich history of investigating hazardous weather which has led to better prediction of hurricanes, tornadoes, and winter storms. NOAA is also investigating a new generation of unmanned aeronautical vehicles (UAVs) to provide accurate vertical soundings of atmospheric conditions and chemical composition to complement the satellite sensors. To learn more about NOAA aircraft click here.

  
  • Surface and Submarine Platforms - NOAA ships have explored the ocean surface and plumbed its depths. NOAA, along with several other organizations, is now deploying an innovative array of Argo "floats" that descend several thousand meters into the ocean and then rise again to measure temperature, salinity, and ocean current. Several years ago, NOAA deployed the TAO/TRITON array of buoys in the tropical Pacific that helped to predict the El Niño/La Niña cycle. To learn more about the Argo "floats" click here (this is a not a U.S. Government website. NOAA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites) and to learn about the TAO/TRITON array click here.
  

  
  Small Poster - A letter-sized poster in pdf format can be found by clicking here.
  

  Archive of GOES-12 and GOES-10 animation can be accessed by clicking here. You can select the section of the hemisphere by selecting an area from the maps on the page. (This is a not a U.S. Government website. NOAA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites).
  

  Where in the World is Tomorrow Now? - To see where it's already tomorrow, click here.
  

  Educational Atmospheric Science-Related Information can be found here. (This is a not a U.S. Government website. NOAA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites).
  

  A Teacher/Student Designed Website, which was put online several years ago, can be found here.
  

  Satellite Information can be found by clicking here. You'll need to download Flash Player, which is available at the site.

Publication of the NOAA Education Team.
Website Owner: NOAA Office of Education.

Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Questions/Comments? Contact Us

Last Updated: August 31 , 2006 11:30 AM