Polar-orbiting environmental satellites, also known as POES, are satellites that orbit around the poles along with possibly other surrounding planets. They have their orbital planes crossing the poles. When the POE Satellites are first launched, they are sent out at high inclination orbits to the earths rotation. The orbital inclination implies that the satellite moves from North to South of the earths axis. The result is that it ends up spending more time either on the day side or night side of the earth. Because of the nature of their orbits, these satellites can view every place on earth and pass a location twice a day. Polar Orbiting Satellites weigh approximately 3000kg and are made up of the main body which encases the camera and its lenses (Stern et al., 46).Then there is the solar panel section which is the satellites main power supplier. Like other satellites, Polar Orbiting satellites have a high level of autonomy and can be accessed and controlled by computers on earth.
The nature of the Polar Orbiting Satellites enables them to cover data that cannot be covered by other satellites. The satellites move in a circular orbit that enables them to pass close to both poles. It also enables the satellites to collect uniform data (Evans et al., 567). It makes it possible for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to control the satellites efficiently. The Polar Orbiting Satellites get their power from the sun. They have solar panels that are mounted on them. These panels can convert 20% of the solar rays arriving into electricity. Because these satellites have to work in between eclipses, they are equipped with a battery that will keep it running during these periods. These satellites are not fully automatic. They have to be maneuvered after some hours. Therefore Polar Orbiting Satellites are launched with some hydrazine fuel which is used to maneuver it. The satellites orbits need to be adjusted because their orbit is constantly affected by the moon gravitational pull.
The main data collection tool for the satellites is their lenses. The high-resolution lenses can zoom in on any location the satellite passes over. On top of this, they are equipped with VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite). This radiometer provides the radiometric measurements of the oceans. It provides information such as temperature and other visual imaging. Oceanography gets the most benefit from these satellites because information such as sea surface is difficult to obtain while on earth mostly because the ocean covers a very large area (Defant, 230). They are also able to reveal features that are located at the bottom of the ocean.
The data collected from oceans are sent to databases such as RDBMS (Rational Database Management System). The information obtained is stored in tables. Each row is identified using a primary key (Thomson et al., 145). There is also NODB (National Oceanographic Database) where the data is stored in the form of data series. The data are stored in the form of metadata tables which are also sampled. The satellites also send information in form images of the infrared scan of the earth that is a representation of the ocean temperatures (Jin et al., 2110). The red zones are the areas that have the highest temperatures, while the white regions are the lowest that is usually the areas covered by ice and glaciers close to the poles. They also provide information on sea level change by showing the change in the sea level along coastlines.
Work Cited
Defant, Albert. Physical of Oceanography. Pergamon press, 2013.
Thomson, Richard E., and William J. Emery. Data analysis methods in physical oceanography. Newnes, 2014.
Stern, David P., and Mauricio Peredo. "Polar Orbiting Satellites." (2014).
Jin, Menglin, and Robert E. Dickinson. "Interpolation of the surface radiative temperature measured from polar orbiting satellites to a diurnal cycle: 1. Without clouds." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 104.D2 (1999): 2105-2116.
Evans, Dain Stedman, and M. Sue Greer. Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite Space Environment Monitor-2: Instrument Description and Archive Data Documentation. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Laboratories, Space Environment Center, 2000.
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