This self-paced, interactive tutorial provides learners with an opportunity to learn about remote sensors, and the role remote-sensing instruments play in our understanding of the Earth system. Activities within the tutorial allow learners to... (View More) demonstrate for themselves how atmospheric absorption and the signal-to-noise ratio determine the spectral resolution of a remotely-sensed image. A culminating simulation activity shows learners how engineers must consider design tradeoffs between quality and quantity of data produced. This resource is part of the tutorial series, Satellite Observations in Science Education, and is the second of three modules in the tutorial, Principles in Remote Sensing. (Note: requires Java plug-in) (View Less)

This story, featuring a pigeon named Amelia, takes place in New York City. Amelia's owner, a young girl named Maria, receives a gift from her grandfather-a camera specially designed for strapping on to a pigeon along with copies of old photographs... (View More) taken of New York City landmarks. Suddenly, Amelia's flights around the city take on new relevance; she visits the Bronx Zoo, Central Park and Battery Park to take updated pictures of those same landmarks from her "birds-eye" perspective. Through Amelia's adventures, and with some help from a NASA scientist, Maria learns about the history of aerial images, the use of images to detect changes over time, the significance of color, texture and shape in interpreting those images, and the importance of images taken from today's NASA satellites to our understanding of Earth. (View Less)