Satellite Books

There are 3 popular books that we know of on the subject of Environmental Satellites.

The Weather Satellite Handbook by Dr. Ralph E. Taggart, WB8DQT. Published by ARRL
this book has many contruction articles for building your own weather satellite system as well
as explaining the theory.

The Satellite Experimenter's Handbook by Martin R. Davidoff, K2UBC, is a guide to
understanding and using Amateur-RadioWeather and TV broadcast Satellites. Also published
by the ARRL. Phone number 203 666 1541.

Exploring the Universe through Satellite Imagery  (Published by Tri-Space, Inc.)  explains the technical aspects of the images and how to interpret what you see. Without this book you would miss out on the many things revealed by satellite images. 

EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE THROUGH SATELLITE IMAGERY
formally called
GUIDE FOR USING SATELLITE IMAGERY TO TEACH SCIENCE AND MATH.

by Dr. E. Ann Berman and contributing editors James Berman, Jim Fletcher and Hank Brandlie

This newly revised and renamed guide which is widely used in high schools, colleges and
universities is the most complete ever published and since we feel everyone should have it, not
just teachers, we are giving it away FREE (upon request at time of order only) with the purchase
of any complete VANGUARD system sold at the regular catalog price (not sale priced systems).
Since the supply of this book is very limited at this time it is no longer available for sale seperately.
You can only get this book with the purchase of a new complete system until further notice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Unit 1: Remote Sensing Mechanics - Image Processing

1.1 What Is a Pixel?
1.2 The Value of Grey Shades
1.3 Intermediate Study: Understanding Histograms
1.4 Advanced Study: Image Enhancement Contrast Stretching
1.5 Summary Discussion

Unit 2: Remote Sensing - The Electromagnetic Radiation

2.1 Waves are Patterns not Matter
2.2 Electromagnetic Spectrum
2..3 Planck's Law - The Brightness of the Sun and Earth
2.4 The TIROS-N AVHRR is a Radiometer
2.5 Reflectance is the Key to Meteor and Band 2 Images
2.6 Temperature is the Key to Bands 3 and 4
2.7 Intermediate Study: Black Body Radiation
2.8 The Atmosphere's Content
2.9 Advanced Study: Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere
2.10 Summary Discussion

Unit 3: The State of the Atmosphere - How Clouds are Formed

3.1 Temperature and Atmospheric Circulation
3.2 Pressure and Atmosphere
3.3 Thermodynamics
3.4 Water Vapor
3.5 How Clouds Form
3.6 Summary Discussion
 

Unit 4: Cloud Types - How Do We Recognize
Them

4.1 Classifying Clouds
4.2 Low Clouds
4.3 Middle Clouds
4.4 High Clouds
4.5 Summary Discussion

Unit 5: Upper Level Air Flow

5.1 Ridges and Troughs
5.2 Waves
5.3 The Jet Stream
5.4 Summary Discussion

Unit 6: Weather Systems

6.1 Fronts
6.2 Severe Storms
6.3 Tropical Storms
6.4 Summary Discussion

Unit 7: Applications of Infrared Images to Oceanography

7.1 Tracking Ocean Currents
7.2 Ocean Fronts and Eddies
7.3 Locating Fish
7.4 Summary and Discussion

Unit 8: Applications of Visible Images to Agriculture

8.1 Timing of Tillage and Field Operations
8.2 Herbicide Selection and Timing of Application
8.3 Timing of Additional Field Operations
8.4 A Winter Wheat Season in the Palouse
8.5 Summary and Discussion

Unit 9: Orbital Principles

9.1 Historical Perspective
9.2 Kepler's Laws
9.3 Newtons Laws
9.4 Satellite Orbital Elements

Unit 10: Orbital Properties

10.1 Overview
10.2 Ground Track
10.3 Revisit Time
10.4 Field of View
10.5 Summary Discussion

Unit 11: Remote Sensing: Instruments

11.1 Instnataneous field of view
11.2 Sensor Scanning
11.3 Off Nadir Pixel Resolution
11.4 Summary Discussion

Appendix A: Glossary
 
 

Image I.1 Visible view of the eastern United States.

Image 1.1 Increasing grey shades improves the information displayed in an images.
Image 1.2 A Soviet Meteor image of the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Image 1.3 The same Meteor image stretched over a range of pixel values from 24 to 64.

Image 2.1 Illustration of an upper level wave over the western United States.
Image 2.2 Stretched Meteor image of the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Image 2.3 Visible (band 2) image of the northeastern United States on a clear day.
Image 2.4 Meteor visible image showing reflectance characteristics of ice, snow and water.
Image 2.5 Meteor image showing the dendritic pattern of snow.
Image 2.6 Meteor image showing the reflectance of sand and soils.
Image 2.7 TIROS-N band 2 image showing the reflectance of everglades vegetation.
Image 2.8 In thermal infrared images, warm features are black and cold objects are white.
Image 2.9 TIROS-N infrared image of twin hurricanes off the West Coast of Mexico.

Image 3.1 Fog in California's San Joaquin Valley.
Image 3.2 Fog in western Rocky Mt. Valleys.
Image 3.3 Clouds form due to orographic lifting over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Image 3.4 Cloud dissipation on the leeward side of the Sierra Nevadas.
Image 3.5 Lifting attributed to convergence of air as it passes through the Casper Gap.
Image 3.6 GOES infrared image showing the ITCZ and the subtropical high pressure belts.
Image 3.7 Sea breezes.
Image 3.8 Santa Ana winds cause upwelling cold water off the coast. Air is sinking in the
clear areas.

Image 4.1 Visible image of various cumulus and stratus clouds over the northeast.
Image 4.2 Infrared image of cumulus and stratus cloud forms.
Image 4.3 Cloud height relates to temperature on infrared images.
Image 4.4 Infrared view of low level cumuliform and stratiform clouds.
Image 4.5 FengYun infrared view of stratocumulus cloud streaks.
Image 4.6 Open cell cumulus over the Pacific Ocean from NOAA 11.
Image 4.7 Band 2 view of mid level clouds.
Image 4.8 Infrared view of mid level clouds.
Image 4.9 Visible image of cumulonimbus storm clouds.
Image 4.10 Infrared image of cumulonimbus clouds with coldest cloud tops blackened.
Image 4.11 Band 2 image of cirrus and cirrostratus clouds.
Image 4.12 Infrared image of cirrus and cirrostratus clouds.

Image 5.1 Troughline over the Pacific Ocean seen in a band 2 image
Image 5.2 Troughline over the Atlantic Ocean seen in an infrared image.
Image 5.3 Ridgelines are marked by upper level cirrus clouds.
Image 5.4 Zonal Flow over the eastern U.S. marked by cirrus clouds in the jet stream.

Image 5.5 Zonal Flow over the western U.S. marked by the jet stream.
Image 5.6 Jet stream cirrus clouds are grey in a visible image.
Image 5.7 Jet stream cirrus clouds are white in an infrared image.

Image 6.1 A cold front off the east coast of the United States.
Image 6.2 An occluded front.
Image 6.3 An occluded front with rain and snow forecast.
Image 6.4 A rope cloud marks the edge of the frontal system.
Image 6.5 Gust fronts form in advance of thunderstorms.
Image 6.6 Squall lines form in advance of fronts.
Image 6.7 Visible image of storm system.
Image 6.8 Infrared image of storm system.
Image 6.9 Cold front with thunderstorm activity.
Image 6.10 Tropical storm Lili at about 3 p.m. on October 11, 1991.
Image 6.11 Infrared view of tropical storm Lili.
Image 6.12 Tropical storm Lili late afternoon on October 12, 1991.
Image 6.13 By morning of October 13,1991 tropical storm Lili has burned itself out.
Image 6.14 Hurricane Bertha on 31 July, 1991.
Image 6.15 Close up view of hurricane Bertha in the visible band.

Image 7.1 Warm core eddies and cold core rings developing at the Gulf Stream boundary.
Image 7.2 Three warm core eddies along the continental shelf.

Image 8.1 Infrared image of a storm affecting herbicide application.
Image 8.2 The Palouse wheat growing region of eastern Washington.
Image 8.3 Rain after planting starts the crop off right.
Image 8.4 November's first snowfall is disappointing at lower elevations.
Image 8.5 December's frigid air and high winds cause widespread damage.

Email: vanguard@cyberpad.com
Phone & FAX: 718-468-2720
Copyright 1999.
Vanguard Electronic Labs
196-23 Jamaica Ave., Hollis, NY 11423
Last update 3/15/99