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37795.jpg=The Earth does NOT look like this to the scientists on the ISS … unless, of course, they view it through spectral imaging equipment! Photo by NASA|79568.jpg=It's not your average camera, is it?! This equipment can see things on Earth and in space that we could never see without its help. Photo by NASA|28820.jpg=That's an oil spill on Earth. It looks a lot like lava because spectral imaging equipment on the ISS detected the radiation coming off of the oil, which was different from the water without any oil. Photo by NASA|33782.jpg=The ISS has a bird's-eye view, in part, because its equipment can see things that we can't — even better than owls can in the dark! Photo by webhealthcloseup
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Industrial Improvements
 
Typically, the expression "having a bird's-eye view" means simply that you have the perspective of looking down on something from above — you know, like a bird. The ISS gets a perspective of the Earth that's even higher than any bird can get! Plus, the ISS has a bird's-eye view for another reason. Birds have incredible vision. Typically, they are able to see a lot more than humans can see. Human's visible light spectrum (what we can see) doesn't include shorter ultraviolet (UV) waves, but birds can see them. And certain species of birds can see in the dark, while others can see great distances in hazy conditions. The ISS has spectral imaging equipment that allows scientists to see even better than the best of all birds combined. In fact, the better-than-bird's-eye view of the ISS has played a valuable role in helping us on Earth deal with disasters like oil spills. The spectral imaging equipment reveals a lot of what we can't see, so we can better predict how an oil spill will spread and better protect life in the water and on the shore.
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There's no question that the low Earth orbit of the ISS gives scientists an incredible vantage point to photograph the Earth. If you were on board, you'd surely want to take a lot of pictures! Would you believe that during the first 10 years or so of orbiting the Earth, all of the scientists on the ISS had taken more than 600,000 images of the Earth's land surface, its oceans, and its atmosphere? That's more than 150 "Earth remote sensing" photographs a day!
Scientists captured some of the incredible images with handheld cameras like we use on Earth. Yet, ever since late 2009, more and more of the images have come from sophisticated remote sensing equipment on the ISS. In particular, the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) has capabilities far beyond those of even the fanciest cameras that we use on Earth. HICO can penetrate water, so it can capture images that reveal conditions of the water, that map the ocean floor, and that capture the conditions of coastal environments, such as the health of aquatic plants and coral reefs.
HICO and the other remote sensing equipment take advantage of the orbital path of the ISS. Typically, remote sensing satellites orbit the Earth around the north and south poles. Their orbits are also "sun-synchronous," so they pass over the same spots on the Earth's surface at approximately the same time each day. That orbit is an advantage when scientists want to observe conditions in the atmosphere at the same time each day and measure changes over time. However, that orbit limits their range and their abilities to capture places in a variety of light.
For the orbits of the ISS, though, every day is different from the one before it and the one after it. Its orbit is more like the spinning of the Earth (called an "inclined equatorial orbit"). Now, imagine the lines of latitude that are parallel to the equator, located at 52° north and south, so they are closer to the poles than the equator. Each orbit of the ISS passes over the Earth somewhere between those two lines of latitude. Nearly all of the landmasses on Earth are between them! Since its orbit is not "sun-synchronous," the ISS can capture amazing images of most of the Earth — all at a variety of different times of day.
HICO is attached to the outside of the ISS. From there it can take images of the ocean that were previously impossible. Have you taken pictures around large bodies of water when the light is really bright because it reflects off of the water? HICO can compensate for different light conditions, weather conditions, coastal conditions, and water conditions to produce images with incredible depth … literally! It records reflected waves of light (including those that are near infrared that we can't see with the naked eye) and coverts them into images that reveal what we could not see. How cool is that?
Sometimes those images can be disturbing, like an oil spill where millions of gallons of oil are released into an ocean. Yet as disturbing as they are, the images are valuable. The remote sensing images help predict the rate and the direction of the spread of the spilled oil. That information helps people on Earth target their clean-up efforts and figure out how best to minimize the damages from the spill.
Nature Girl, I want to see more pictures!
I love Google Earth! I love finding places in different parts of the world and zooming in to see what it looks like. I think it would be so awesome if there was something like that from the space station. Where we could see what it saw. Where we could see more than what a regular camera could see. I guess I'm maybe a little strange. I also like when there are those nature shows that give you the perspective of what an animal sees. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in this and why I want to see more of what they see from up there.
Robbie, Am I being paranoid?
I wonder if they can use that equipment for spying? I know there are spy satellites but like the big description says there are probably advantages to having humans there to observe. Maybe I'm paranoid. We are under constant surveillance and it's not satellites it's all the cameras that are set up in every city. It's just the way it is I guess. I will believe that the International Space Station isn't involved in that in any way!
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