I came across this paragragh today from a NASA news release: >Simultaneous measurement of cloud heights accurate to within 400 meters (about >1,300 feet) and cloud winds accurate to within 3 meters (about 10 feet) per second >anywhere over the globe is a potential boon for meteorology, Davies said. While Terra is >a research satellite, not an operational satellite, the success of the radiometer's fully >automated multi-angle imaging technique "pioneers the possibility of deploying an >operational satellite to gain wind information within the atmosphere, especially over the >data-sparse areas of the oceans, for improved weather forecasts," he said. Do you catch that? "...research satellite, not an operational satellite..." Would I be correct in assuming that a research satellite is a passive satelllite, just automatically collecting data through its instruments, while an operational satellite is one that not only collects data, but has the "brains" to change its methods? That caught my eye, as at least on SeeSat-L, an operational satellite is considered to be a satellite that actually does something other than take up space (like take images, route internet traffic and telephone calls, provide GPS service, etc.). I consider a non-operational satellite to be a pile of junk in space, putting live satellites at risk. ------------------------------ Jonathan T. Wojack tlj18@juno.com 39.706d N 75.683d W http://www.angelfire.com/stars2/projectorion 4 hours behind UT (-4) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 21 2001 - 14:24:42 PDT