 Throughout history, humans have searched for new ways to view the Earth and better understand its natural processes. Just as the earliest microscopes and telescopes extended our vision into previously unseen worlds, other technologies have had equally profound impacts. In the 1840s, the quest for a new perspective led some scientific explorers to send aloft still-cameras tethered to balloons in order to document an expanse of forest or city. Aerial photography from airplanes became common in the 1920s and ‘30s, capturing images of large swathes of the planet’s surface. By the middle of the twentieth century, breakthroughs in space sciences raised to new levels our ability to view the Earth. The first weather satellites dramatically improved our ability to detect destructive storms and predict their courses. The 1972 launch of Landsat 1 ushered in a new era of multispectral observations that include visible light, near-infrared, mid-infrared, and thermal data. Today these satellites are tracking everything from typhoon destruction in Burma, to pollution plumes in Chesapeake Bay, to the retreat of Alaskan glaciers, to water-consumption patterns in the western United States.
View the full story...
|
Transect
