Images from Space

by Terri Gregory, SSEC Public Information Specialist

July 2000

Rosalyn Pertzborn and Sanjay Limaye of SSEC’s Office of Space Science Education worked with James Kotoski to bring EarthKam to Spring Harbor and Hamilton Middle School students. In EarthKam, students in participating schools take pictures of the earth by requesting time on a digital camera in the Space Shuttle. Students in the program deal with all the earthbound hazards of a space mission, including glitches in the data. According to Rosalyn, “On the first day of the mission, seventh grade students at Spring Harbor and Velma Hamilton Middle Schools observed that the orbital tracks were displaced by a few degrees because the shuttle’s altitude was not as high as originally projected. Although the new flight tracks were not posted on the Web site for the EarthKAM schools until several days later, Mr. Kotoski’s students adjusted all of their image requests accordingly and were the only school in the country to obtain images during the first day of the mission!”

The pictures students collected are posted on the Web and are used in geography, sociology and other classes. The Madison Times’ Heidi Pascual interviewed Sanjay and Rose, who explained that the program was started by Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut.

• EarthKAM 2000

• Data System

…from geostationary orbit

It’s normal to test a new satellite to make sure it functions properly, but GOES-11 gives scientists an unusual opportunity to test at length to see what applications it is best suited for. CIMSS researchers have begun to show comparisons between current and new satellite capabilities at a Science Test Web site. One page compares sounder channels of GOES-8 and GOES-11, showing excellent agreement, even during final engineering checkout. CIMSS scientists so far think they see less striping and noise in images and data from the GOES-11 sounder, the instrument that provides information for satellite products for use in weather forecasting and research. Researcher Tony Schreiner said, “there is certainly less noise in the infrared Sounder data, especially the short wave bands. This ‘cleaner’ data translates into ‘cleaner’ derived products.”

The NOAA science test began on June 30th.

…from Mars

SSEC planetary scientist Sanjay Limaye is well versed in all things Martian. Sanjay was interviewed on Madison’s public television Weekend program, Friday, June 23, explaining the Mars Surveyor images. When interviewer Jerry Hoffman asked about the water, Sanjay replied, “Sure, I’d drink Mars water.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the story on June 23, and Sanjay said, “There could be areas of Mars that are teeming with bacterial life.” Sanjay also appeared on WORT-FM’s science show on Thursday, June 29 and spoke to a Space Place audience on Tuesday, June 27.

CIRRUS

Earth Observer

The Wisconsin Radio Network produced a piece on CIRRUS. The WRN syndicates its stories so this piece could appear all over the state.

NSF director Rita Colwell used an AMRC satellite image of iceberg B-15, broken in half, in a talk at the University of Colorado campus on June 20. Entitled “Polar Connections,” the talk focused on the wide-ranging activities of the NSF Polar Research Program and was part of NSF 50th and UCAR 40th anniversary activities in Boulder.

The New Zealand Antarctic Society’s bulletin, “Antarctic;” and the book, Unity and Diversity of Life, will include a B-15 image. The June 20 “Eco Minute” on WMMM 105.5 FM radio in Madison featured iceberg B-15. The Providence Rhode Island Sunday Journal covered the iceberg story.

On the Net

Data analysis

UW Newsmakers

Chris Velden attended the National Press Club’s forum on hurricane forecasting and preparedness issues. Chris was an observer-participant at the forum, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society and the Weather Channel. The event took place in Washington, DC on June 6–7 and was carried by CSPAN.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation will use Antarctic composite images from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center in a program called “South of No North.”

In Print

SSEC’s Web site is listed in Applications and Investigations in Earth Science, a lab manual by Tarbuck, Lutgens, and Pinzke. The manual is used in earth science high school classes in New York City.

In its July issue, Florida Trend magazine will use an image of Hurricane Floyd provided by the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones group.

SSEC is listed in the International Satellite Directory for 2000. The directory is published in two volumes; the 2000 edition includes a forward by Sir Arthur Clarke.

Watch Wisconsin Trails magazine for the university advertisement promoting weather research. This is the same “rubber boots” ad that appeared in the May/June issue of Midwest Express magazine. The ad may also appear in Milwaukee magazine.

Space PEOPLE

Facilitators in this daring effort were Sanjay Limaye and Rosalyn Pertzborn (SSEC’s Office of Space Science Education), and Jim Lattis and Kay Kriewald (Department of Astronomy’s Space Astronomy Laboratory). Along the way, the young explorers learned quite a bit of science—how to use a telescope, what sunspots are and how they move, crater formation, and planetary characteristics. The workshop was one of several ambitious offerings in UW–Madison’s summer Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, or PEOPLE. Another workshop created its own newspaper, da PEOPLE flava, and covered the space exploration workshop.

Nearly three weeks later, members of two PEOPLE teams show off their worlds.

Wisconsin Week Wire for June 14 mentioned under Milestones the Banner Miller award received by Tropical Cyclones group researchers. Researchers Chris Velden, Tim Olander and Steve Wanzong (now with Technical Computing) received the award (with a NOAA colleague) for significant research on hurricanes. Scott Sandgathe, project manager with the Office of Naval Research, congratulated the team on the award, and thanked them for their work for ONR. “Dollar for dollar,” he said, “I can’t think of a better investment we’ve made recently.”