Watching Earth from Space

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. The threat of satellite images

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 1-21

3. Weather satellites

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 23-44

4. Climate change

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 45-72

5. Commercial surveillance: mapping on a large scale

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 73-109

6. Society and survival

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 111-129

7. Where am I? Where are they?

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 131-144

8. Monitoring nuclear weapons1

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 145-187

9. Military imaging satellites: long-range intelligence

   • Pat Norris

   Pages 189-232

10. Military radio surveillance from space

    • Pat Norris

    Pages 233-260

11. The future

    • Pat Norris

    Pages 261-262

12. Back Matter

    Pages 263-284

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Our planet is constantly monitored by hundreds of space-borne instruments. This book describes the technology of those instruments and the sciences that provide useful information from them. It also discusses the political implications of space-borne monitoring. From the moment satellites were launched into orbit their ability to see what was happening on a global scale was appreciated — and feared. This well researched book strives to answer such diverse questions as: Are satellites really a threat to individual privacy? How bad, really, is climate change and global warming? Why can’t we find Osama bin Laden? Does the world have enough fresh water? The military side of the story is linked to the big security issues that we face, such as terrorism and civil wars. The civilian side of the story involves numerous successful collaborations in weather forecasting, navigation, communications, and other such "peaceful" uses of satellite surveillance. How the world handles the knowledge gained from these Earth watchers will be critical in the years to come, and Norris skillfully leads us through the issues and possible paths we can take.

• Civilian satellites
• Global warming debate
• International satellite launches
• Military satellites
• Monitoring
• Monitoring Earth
• Monitoring global resources
• Satellite imaging issues
• Spy satellites
• satellite
• remote sensing/photogrammetry

• Byfleet, United Kingdom

  Pat Norris

Watching Earth from Space derives from the author’s unique experience of being part of the team that developed Europe’s first and Japan’s latest generations of weather satellites, of using satellite images to monitor the UK potato and sugar beet crops, and helping to define the use of satellites to monitor global change and prevent nuclear war. Pat Norris’s direct access to politicians, civil servants, technologists, and both military and civilian users of space images worldwide has also proved essential to the accuracy of the story told in this book. This book is the natural successor to Pat Norris’s book on the origins of spy satellites: Spies in the Sky (Springer-Praxis, 2008), which told the story of the first military satellites to monitor the Earth.

Policies and ethics