Musical Satellites
By Tony Phillips

If light were sound, then chemicals would play chords.

Water: C major. Cyanide: A minor. Chlorophyll: G diminished 7th. (Please note that the choice of chords here is only for the sake of illustration, and not meant to reflect the actual spectra of these chemicals.)

It's a loose metaphor, but an apt one. Musical chords are combinations of frequencies of sound (notes), while chemicals leave unique combinations of dips in the frequency spectrum of reflected light, like keys pressed on a piano. Spectrographs, machines that recognize chemicals from their "chords of light," are among the most powerful tools of modern chemistry.

Most earth-watching satellites, like the highly successful Landsat series, carry spectrographs onboard. These sensors measure the spectra of light reflected from forests, crops, cities, and lakes, yielding valuable information about our natural environment. Current satellites do this in a fairly limited way; their sensors can "hear" only a few meager notes amid the symphony of information emanating from the planet below.

EO-1 could change that. Short for "Earth Observing 1," EO-1 is an experimental NASA satellite in orbit since 2000. It's testing out a more advanced "spectrometer in the sky"-the Hyperion hyperspectral imager. How good is it? If Landsat were "chopsticks," EO-1 would be Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

The Hyperion sensor looks at 220 frequencies in the spectrum of visible and infrared light (0.4 to 2.5 microns) reflecting off Earth's surface. Landsat, in contrast, measures only 10. Bryant Cramer, who manages the EO-1 project at the Goddard Space Flight Center, puts these numbers in perspective. "If we flew Landsat over the northeastern United States, it could readily identify a hardwood forest. But using hyperspectral techniques, you probably can . . . tell the oak trees from the maple trees."

Future earth-watching satellites may use Hyperion-like instruments to vastly improve the environmental data they provide. EO-1 is paving the way for these future missions by taking on the risk of flight-testing the sensor for the first time.

For farmers, foresters, and many others, this new remote sensing technology will surely be music to the ears.

Read about EO1 at http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov . Budding young astronomers can learn more at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/eo1_1.htm

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.