agriculture
The process of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock.atmosphere
The gaseous mass that surrounds the Earth.
continent
A large mass of land surrounded by water.
Earth system science
A way to study the Earth as a whole by tieing the four components together to view Earth as a system. The four components include the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the biosphere.
Electromagnetic spectrum
A range of wavelength energy. The wavelengths include radio wave, microwave, infrared energy, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays.
equator
An imaginary line that surrounds the Earth located halfway between the North and the South Pole.
erosion
The gradual deterioration of land by wind, water, or glaciers.
ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus)
This is the sensor onboard the Landsat-7 satellite. The ETM+ continues the heritage of the Thematic Mapper sensor that was on earlier Landsat platforms.
false-color composite image
A Landsat image that combines three bands of information - typically the near infrared (TM 4 - colored red), the red band (TM 3 - colored green) and the green band (TM 2 - colored blue) - as a color composite image on the computer monitor.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
A GIS organizes data in a structure that focuses on the spatial relationships of the data.
geo-stationary orbit
A path where a satellite travels at the same direction as the Earth. A geo-stationary satellite appears to remain at a fixed location over the Earth's surface.
glacier
A large sheet of ice moving slowly from top of mountains and polar region to the valley.
Land Biomes
Ten natural regions of the earth. Each biomes is unique base on their physical features and the types of plants and animals that live there. There are Tropical Rain Forest, Tropical Grassland. Mediterranean, Temperate Forest, Cool Forest, Cool Grassland, desert, Tundra, Arctic, and High Mountains.
Landsat-7
A remote sensing satellite that will be taking global data with the ETM+ instrument.multispectral bands
A part of the electromagnetic spectrum where remote sensing data are gathered. There are seven bands of data taken with the ETM+ sensor: blue-green visible light, green visible light, red visible light, near infrared energy, middle infrared energy, and thermal infrared energy.natural-color composite image
A Landsat image that combines three bands of information - typically the red (TM 3 - colored red), the green band (TM 2 - colored green) and the blue-green band (TM 1- colored blue) - as a color composite image on the computer monitor.
orbit
A path that a satellite travels around the earth.
polar orbit
A path where a satellite travels from pole to pole. This allows the satellite to pass most of the Earth's surface and gathers information globally.
remote sensing
The process to gather information from a distance.
satellite
An object that orbits around the Earth.
sun-synchronous satellite
A polar-orbiting satellite passes the equator at the same local time.
Thematic Mapper (TM)
A Landsat multispectral scanner that gather information about the Earth's surface. The Thematic Mapper was used in Landsat -4 and -5, and will be used in Landsat-7.
thermal infrared
The wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from 3 to 25 micrometers.
wavelength
The distance between two points (crest) of a series of electromagnetic waves.
visible light
A part of the electromagnetic wavelength visible to the human eyes.Privacy Policy and Important Statements We welcome your questions and comments. Send e-mail to: merry.1@osu.edu