Earth from Above: Using Color-Coded Satellite Images to Examine the Global Environment

Earth from Above provides an easyintroduction to understanding and interpreting satellite images, usingillustrative examples to instruct on the fantastically informative new globaldata sets..
Earth from Above provides an easy introduction to understanding and interpreting satellite images, using illustrative examples to instruct on the fantastically informative new global data sets. Beginning with two short chapters on visible satellite images and radiation, the book then covers six key Earth-atmosphere variables on such environmentally important topics as the Antarctic ozone hole, El Nino, deforestation, the missing carbon dilemma, and the effects of sea ice, snow cover, and volcanoes on atmospheric temperatures. A final chapter broadens the discussion to consider satellite Earth observations in general.The book is heavily illustrated, including photographs, maps, schematic diagrams, and 50 color-coded satellite images. Each section concludes with a list of questions encouraging the reader to review the text and, in the case of sections with satellite image, to examine the images and find answers from them. Answers to all questions are provided at the back of the book.

Claire L. Parkinson has been a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center since 1978, with a research emphasis on polar sea ice and climate change. She is also Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite mission, aimed at improved understanding of the coupled atmosphere/ocean/land/ice system, has done field work in both polar regions, and has written books on satellite Earth observations and the history of science. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University and has served on committees for NASA, NOAA, and the National Academy of Sciences. She is a Fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and Phi Beta Kappa and received a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2003 and the Goldthwait Polar Medal from Ohio State's Byrd Polar Research Center in 2004.