Even before Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in Louisiana on Saturday, July 13, it had already dropped a lot of rain on the state. Using satellite data, NASA created a map that shows areas that are likely flooded.
Environment
12 hours ago
2
17
Satellite technology has been a boon for humanity, leading to faster, clearer communications, quicker emergency responses, accurate location information, and global financial transactions. Smart devices are almost always ...
Telecom
Jul 12, 2019
0
0
The latest ESA Partnership Projects mission has launched two tiny supercomputing nanosatellites aboard a Soyuz rocket from Vostochny in Russia.
Space Exploration
Jul 08, 2019
0
0
A study of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem led by University of Liverpool researchers has found that an increase in livestock numbers is threatening the ecology of the region due to a decline in both the number and area of land ...
Ecology
Jul 08, 2019
0
0
Lithuania declared an emergency on Wednesday as a severe drought hit the Baltic EU state, threatening to slash this year's harvest by up to half.
Environment
Jul 03, 2019
0
1
A group of researchers have reported how much peatland there is in the world. Peatlands can store carbon (C) and help regulate the climate. But peatland degradation is releasing carbon into the atmosphere. To conserve peatlands ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 26, 2019
0
1
For decades, scientists studying a key climate phenomenon have been grappling with contradictory data that have threated to undermine confidence in the reliability of climate models overall. A new study, published today in ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 24, 2019
11
0
Harmful algal blooms can cause big problems in coastal areas and lakes across the United States. When toxin-containing aquatic organisms multiply and form a bloom, it can sicken people and pets, contaminate drinking water, ...
Environment
Jun 21, 2019
0
0
Water is so commonplace that we often take it for granted. But too much—or too little of it—makes headlines.
Earth Sciences
Jun 12, 2019
0
26
When the Fluvial Dynamics and Hydrology research group at the University of Cordoba, led by Professor María José Polo, got to the Spanish Sierra Nevada in 2002, there were no weather stations above the height of 1,200 meters, ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 10, 2019
0
6
The Satellite Data System (SDS) is a system of United States military communications satellites. At least three generations have been used: SDS-1 from 1976 to 1987; SDS-2 from 1989 to 1996; SDS-3 from 1998 to the present. SDS satellites have a highly elliptical orbit, going from about 300 kilometers at perigee to roughly 39,000 km at apogee in order to allow communications with polar stations that cannot contact geosynchronous satellites. The high apogee meant that the polar regions were visible for long amounts of time, and only two satellites were required in order to achieve constant communications ability. The SDS satellites were constructed by Hughes Aircraft.
The primary purpose of the SDS satellites is to relay imagery from low-flying reconnaissance satellites to ground stations in the United States.
Each SDS-1 satellite had 12 channels available for ultra-high frequency communication. They were cylindrical in shape, roughly 25 feet (7.6 m) long. 980 watts of electrical power were available from solar panels and batteries. The SDS-1 had a mass of 1385 pounds (630 kilograms) and was launched on Titan-3B rockets. The SDS-1 satellites had similar orbits to the Air Force's Jumpseat ELINT satellites.
The SDS-2 is significantly more massive at 5150 pounds (2335 kg), with three separate communication dishes, including one for a K band downlink. Two dishes are 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter, while the third is 6.6 feet (2 m) in diameter. The solar arrays generate 1238 watts of power. It is believed that the Space Shuttle has been used to launch several satellites, possibly on missions STS-28, STS-38, and STS-53. Other launches have used the Titan-4 rocket.
Quasar is the rumored code name for the communications satellite.
A recent Quasar may have been launched into a high-apogee orbit from Cape Canaveral on August 31, 2004 by an Atlas 2AS rocket.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
