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The Growth from Aerial Mapping to Modern Day GPS Satellites

By Tom Snow


Satellites are objects which have been placed into orbit round the globe. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites solely to distinguish them from natural satellites,eg, the moon. The world's first satellite sputnik, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 and now scads of satellites are in orbit. Polar, Sun Synchronous and Geo-Synchronous are the main satellite orbits.

Satellites in Polar Orbit with an elevation of 200km-1,000km have an incline of 90 degrees and take roughly 90 minutes to finish one trip round the globe. These Satellites are utilized for measuring the ozone absorption or temperatures in the atmosphere. The satellites in Sun Synchronous Orbit (altitude 700km-800km) pass by part of the globe at exactly the same time period every twenty-four hours and these satellites reposition their orbit one degree every 24-hour interval. Geosynchronous orbits with altitude roughly 36,000km permit the satellite to watch almost a full hemisphere of the Earth. These satellites are utilized to study huge scale events like hurricanes or storms and similar weather conditions. These satellites are used equally as communication satellites and weather satellites.

There are 4 kinds of resolution when we speak about satellite pics in remote detection: spatial, temporal, spectral and radiometric levels. Spatial resolution is the pixel size of an photo representing the dimensions of surface of the globe. Spatial dimensions of unlike satellites are dissimilar and relies upon the sensor used in the satellites and ALT of the satellites the likes of SPOT 4 with 20m-10m resolution, SPOT 5 with 20m to 2.5m resolution for diverse spectral bands. The latest commercial usage satellite (GeoEye 1) has a spatial resolution 0.41 m (effectively 0.5 m due to US Policy definitions on civilian imagery). Spectral resolution is outlined as the wavelength size (subtle portion of the Electromagnetic Spectrum) and number of intervals the sensor is evaluating, Temporal resolution is the sum of time that passes between the aggregation period for a given surface and radiometric concentration referred as the capability of an imaging process to record many levels of light. Satellite or Google earth pictures, Aerial Photography and GPS are foundational information generators for the formulation of maps the likes of holiday Tour and Guide maps, Treasure maps, Natural resources maps etc.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a atmosphere based satellite navigation system that provides positioning and time information in all weather, anywhere on earth surface. It is maintained by United States Gov't and is freely usable by anyone with a GPS device. The GPS project was developed in 1973 to overcome the constraints of previous navigation schemes, integrating ideas from several forerunners, including several classified engineering design reports from the 1960s. GPS was made by the United States Dept of Defense and was originally run with 24 satellites. It became entirely functional in 1994.

Aerial Mapping is the taking of footage of the ground from a higher position. The term usually refers to pictures in which the camera wasn't supported by a land based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted and pictures might be taken by a lensman, made remotely or activated instantly.

Platforms for aerial photography include fixed wing aircraft, choppers, balloons, rockets, kites, poles, parachutes and vehicle mounted poles. Aerial photography was first practiced by the French photographer and balloonist, Gaspard Felix Tournachon, and known as "Nadar" in 1858 over Paris, France. The first use of a motion picture camera fastened to a heavier-than-air aircraft occurred on April 24, 1909 over Rome in the 3:28 minute silent film short, "Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine". The first limited semi-automatic aerial camera was designed in 1911 by the Russian army applied scientist, Colonel Potte V. F. This aerial camera was employed during World War I. Aerial mapping began to be used on the battle fronts during World War I. In Jan 1918, General Allenby used 5 Australian pilots to photograph a 624 square miles (1,620 km2) area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps on the Turkish front-lines.

One of the most prominent trailblazers of the commercial use of aerial photography was by Sherman Fairchild who started his own aircraft firm, Fairchild Aircraft, to develop and build specialised aircraft for high altitude aerial survey missions. One Fairchild aerial survey aircraft in 1935 carried unit that combined two synchronized cameras. Each photo covers two hundred and twenty five square miles. One of its first gov't contracts was an aerial survey of New Mexico to study soil erosion. A year later, Fairchild introduced a better high altitude camera with 9 lenses in one unit that might take a photo of 600 square miles with each exposure from 30,000 feet. Of course, now, with the arrival of cheap electronic cameras, many folks now take photographs from commercial aircraft and increasingly from general aviation aircraft on personal pleasure flights.




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