SP-168 EXPLORING SPACE WITH A CAMERA
"One hundred and fifty vidicon camera
images collected by the ESSA III satellite were combined in the
pictures on this page to reveal the cloud cover over the entire Earth
on January 6, 1967," CHARLES L. BRISTOR, Chief, Data Processing and
Analysis Division, at the National Environmental Satellite Center,
tells us. "Each (800 scan line) image signal has been converted into
640 000 separate digital brightness samples. The fastest computer
presently available is used to partially correct each image for
variations in solar illumination and camera-lens vignetting. The
pictures are cropped to reduce overlap and then mapped in full
resolution on northern and southern hemispheric polar stereographic
projections (shown above). An overlapping Mercator mapping of regions
bracketing the areas is below.
"Such routine mapping is creating
montage images for timely use in weather briefing for pilots flying
transoceanic routes and for use in improving weather analyses and
forecasts. It also is providing vital input for further computer
efforts toward the automatic extraction of information."
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