Earth  ID: 4208

NASA Earth Observing Fleet (August 2014)

Visualizations by Greg Shirah Released on September 10, 2014
There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5061
This animation shows the orbits of NASA's fleet of Earth remote sensing observatories as of August 2014.

The satellites include components of the A-Train:
Recently launched missions:the International Space Station
and eleven others:
These satellites measure tropical rainfall, solar irradiance, clouds, sea surface height, ocean salinity, and other aspects of the global environment. Together, they provide a picture of the Earth as a system.

This is an update of entry 3725. This update was created both for an annual presentation at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and for display on the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) hyperwall, a 5 x 3 array of high-definition displays with a total pixel resolution of 9600 x 3240. The version for NASM starts with three flagship missions (Terra, Aqua, and Aura) then fades on the other spacecraft. The hyperwall version shows all of the spacecraft the entire time. The orbits are based on orbital elements with epochs on August 1, 2014. The NASM version is from 00:00:00 GMT to 12:10:26 GMT. The hyperwall version is from 00:00:00 GMT to 07:18:16 GMT.

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This is the standard version with all spacecraft on for the entire animation. This version also includes hyperwall frames.
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NASM version of the fleet starting with Terra, Aqua, and Aura and then adding the rest of the Earth observing fleet
 

Newer Versions

Earth Observing Fleet (January 2023)
Earth Observing Fleet (December 2021)
Earth Observing Fleet (August 2021)

Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Ernie Wright (USRA): Animator
Alison Schuyler Ogden (NASA/GSFC): Producer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4208

Missions:
Aquarius
Aura
CALIPSO
Cloudsat
Landsat
LDCM: Landsat Data Continuity Mission
NPP
Terra

Data Used:
CelesTrak Spacecraft Orbit Ephemeris
Ephemeris
view all stories where this data set is used
Terra and Aqua/MODIS/Blue Marble: Next Generation also referred to as: BMNG
Credit:
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
view all stories where this data set is used
GEOS-5 Atmospheric Model on the Cubed-Sphere also referred to as: GEOS-5 Cubed-Sphere
Model - NASA GMAO
The model is the GEOS-5 atmospheric model on the cubed-sphere, run at 14-km global resolution for 30-days. GEOS-5 is described here http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/systems/geos5/ and the cubed-sphere work is described here http://sivo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cubedsphere_overview.html.
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of these series:
Hyperwall
LDCM

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Landsat
SVS >> Simulation
SVS >> Spacecraft
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Clouds
SVS >> Orbit
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Aquarius
SVS >> Calipso
SVS >> Cloudsat
SVS >> Aura
SVS >> GRACE
SVS >> NPP
SVS >> LDCM
SVS >> Earth >> Satellites >> Earth Observing Fleet
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0