Pink Earth

Alan S. Belward et al., “Who launched what, when and why: Trends in global land-cover observation capacity from civilian earth observation satellites,” ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 17 (May 15, 2015).

“Observing Systems Capability Analysis and Review Tool: List of All Satellites,” World Meteorological Organization, ➝

Holli Riebeek, “Why is that Forest Red and that Cloud Blue? How to Interpret a False-Color Satellite Image,” NASA Earth Observatory, March 4, 2014, ➝

Jim Baumann, “Mineral Exploration from Space,” ESRI, January 2020, ➝

Thai Son Le et al., "Application of Remote Sensing in Detecting and Monitoring Water Stress in Forests," Remote Sensing 15, no. 13 (June 2023): 3360.

“Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Tagged by Source,” NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, June 13, 2023, ➝

For remote sensing’s application in archaeology, see: Dimitri Kaimaris, “Aerial Remote Sensing Archaeology: A Short Review and Applications,” Land 13, no. 997 (July 5, 2024). For remote sensing and the location of mass graves, see: D. Abate et al., “Optimizing search strategies in mass grave location through the combination of digital technologies,” Forensic Science International: Synergy 1 (June 20, 2019).

Mount Taranaki is a volcano at the center of Egmont National Park in New Zealand, a protected forest reserve with a circular shaped area 9.6 kilometer radius measured from the center of the volcano. Lindsey Doermann, “Mount Taranaki’s Ring of Forest,” NASA Earth Observatory, ➝.

“Discovering new penguin colonies from space,” The European Space Agency, ➝.

“Landsat Acquisitions,” USGS, ➝.

All Earth-observing satellites have different acquisition schedules and repeat cycles. For example, Landsat 8 acquires around 740 scenes each day and has a 16-day repeat cycle, amounting to over 10,000 scenes every cycle. “Landsat 8,” USGS, ➝.

Each satellite has a different spatial resolution and scene size. For example, Landsat satellites have a scene dimension of approximately 180x180 kilometers, while Sentinel satellites have a scene dimension of approximately 110x110 kilometers. “What are the band designations for the Landsat satellites?,” USGS, ➝; “Sentinel-2,” Copernicus, ➝.

James Foster, “Skyglow forces dung beetles in the city to abandon the Milky Way as their compass,” The Conversation, July 29, 2011, ➝.

Matthew Henry, “Why does the Arctic warm faster than the rest of the planet?,” Carbon Brief, February 11, 2022, ➝.

Ted Scambos et al., “Monitoring Polar Ice Change in the Twilight Zone,” EOS, February 20, 2024, ➝.

George Leblanc et al., "Spectral Reflectance of Polar Bear and Other Large Arctic Mammal Pelts; Potential Applications to Remote Sensing Surveys," Remote Sensing 8, no. 4 (March 2016): 273.

Thermal infrared sensors on different satellites have different spatial resolutions, typically ranging from 20 to 100 meters per pixel. Both Lansat and Sentinel satellites have thermal infrared bands at 60 meters per pixel.

“What is the Pale Blue Dot?,” NASA, ➝.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (New York: Random House, 1994).

Sagan, Pale Blue Dot.

Remote sensing satellites orbit Earth in different ways. Their paths and the areas they cover depend on many factors, including how they orbit Earth in relation to its rotation and the sensors' swath width. Near polar-orbital satellites travel up and down along the polar regions as Earth rotates. Swath size and scene overlaps depend on how high or low the orbit is and determine their cycle time. “The Worldwide Reference System,” NASA, ➝.

“Polar and Sun-synchronous orbit,” European Space Agency, ➝.

“UN projects world population to peak within this century,” United Nations, July 11, 2024, ➝