Dec 18 1999
From The Space Library
NASA launched its Terra satellite, carrying instruments made in the United States, Japan, and Canada, from Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas HAS rocket. NASA had originally scheduled the mission to launch on 14 December, but a computer had aborted the launch moments before ignition. Terra carried five sophisticated instruments for observing the interactions among Earth's landmasses, atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere. NASA considered the craft the flagship of its Earth Observing System because of its instruments' measurement capabilities and accuracy. The five instruments were 1) the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), designed to capture high-resolution images of Earth in visible, near-infrared, shortwave-infrared, and thermal-infrared areas of the spectrum; 2) the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), a set of two broadband scanning radiometers for measuring Earth's radiation; 3) the Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), an instrument using nine cameras to measure the amount of sunlight scattered in different directions; 4) the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), designed to view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days and to make observations in 36 spectral bands; and 5) the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT), designed to observe the interaction of the lower atmosphere with the land and oceans.
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