Planet Earth: The View from Space

D. James Baker

Published by Harvard University Press 1990

Planet Earth

The View from Space

D. James Baker

Volume 1 in the series Frontiers of Space

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674188044

Overview
Contents

About this book

Intense heat and drought in the summer of 1988...greenhouse warming...acid rain...the ozone hole...rain forest destruction...Hurricane Hugo: "The Endangered Earth" is making headlines around the world, and we are aware as never before of the fragility of the global environment and our own vulnerability to climate change. Yet, despite the technological advances of the last three decades, our knowledge of how the Earth's systems work and interact remains incomplete at best. To determine environmental policies for the future, we need more information and better global climate models.

In Planet Earth D. James Baker provides a concise, up-to-date overview of the ongoing international research efforts that will improve our ability to predict global climate change. In straightforward terms, Baker describes remote sensing from space. He reviews extant spacebased satellites and their instruments and describes the areas in which operational and research missions are gathering ever-increasing data--on Earth-sun interaction, land vegetation patterns, ocean color, temperature, the atmosphere, the ice sheets of the polar regions, the shape and motion of the Earth's crust, the Earth's gravity field--which fill in gaps in our knowledge even as they raise new questions about critical global processes. In view of these questions and the subsequent need for more accurate global models, the satellite networks being planned for the 1990s will require state-of-the-art instrumentation, a new generation of supercomputers, and a high level of international cooperation if they are to succeed. Baker focuses on the United States initiative, Mission to Planet Earth, a long range attempt to study the planet as a whole using polar-orbiting, geostationary, and special orbit satellites coupled with a network of ground stations. In the concluding chapter, the author looks to the next century and examines the difficult long-term problems-of national security, technology transfer, data dissemination, cost, international coordination--that could undermine the achievement of the global operational system he proposes.

Planet Earth is a timely, well-illustrated introduction to Earth-observing satellite technology for the nonspecialist and specialist alike. It distills complex information that is otherwise available only in the technical literature. For those who follow space research, it will prove an indispensable guide.

Author information

Baker D. James :

D. James Baker heads Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc. in Washington D.C.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
FOREWORD BY HERBERT FRIEDMAN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1 PLANET EARTH AND GLOBAL CHANGE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 HOW REMOTE SENSING WORKS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
3 THE PRESENT CONSTELLATION OF SPACE-BASED SYSTEMS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4 FILLING THE GAPS IN THE 1990s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
5 MISSION TO PLANET EARTH Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
6 PREPARING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
REFERENCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
GLOSSARY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 191
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 44
- Tables: 1
- Other: 4 color illustrations, 22 halftones, 22 line illustrations, 1 table
Keywords: Astronautics in astronomy.; Earth.; SCIENCE / General

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674188044

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1990
ISBN: 9780674188051