While it may be a groggy Monday morning, after most of the world lost an hour this weekend in the readjustment of our clocks, a new animation from NASA reveals that you may be luckier than their satellites who are on the clock 24 hours a day. While you may know that many of the satellites like Aqua, Aura and CloudSat pass overhead everyday at 1:30pm, no matter where you are, you may not have given their movements much thought or ever fully realized exactly how many satellites are working for the space agency. But in celebration of NASA's newest achievement in having their Dawn satellite reach the dwarf planet Ceres, their giving us a new view of what orbiters do here at home.
Roughly 400 miles overhead, lingering in the low-Earth orbit position, 18 spacecrafts are constantly collecting data about the health and dynamics of our Earth. From information about the oceans to the deserts and the forests, with some satellites even now looking into things as detailed as the moisture in our soil, the space fleet is a vital and important resource for how researchers continue to study Earth on a global scale. And with the ability to circle the planet once every hour and a half, they're able to update NASA as soon as something occurs.
The mesmerizing animation reveals eight orbits, which takes the satellites a total of 12 hours to achieve, but also reveals how widespread their view of the planet is. While each satellite may be equipped with different technology that reveals a different way of viewing the Earth, like in Infrared or through UV rays, many of the satellites work together much like the divisions within the space agency. Rather than relaying information to one another, each satellite moves independently of the others, uninterrupted on their continuous missions, while researchers are able to overlay information that they gather to create a more cohesive view of the planet below.
Researchers with NASA hope that by revealing how our very own satellites work the public may see exactly how vital their newer missions are. Though the Dawn spacecraft is on its own in its reconnaissance mission around Ceres, its new orbit will essentially be the same as those here on Earth.
