 |
Remote color imaging of earth.
Alan W. Holmes, Ph.D., CEO SBIG Santa Barbara Instrument Group.
Inc.
Previously Systems Engineer at SBRC (Santa Barbara Research Center) for SeaWiFS and TRMM
satellite instruments.
Also assisted with alignment and calibration of the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
for the Hubble Space Telescope.
SeaWiFS Satellite
Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor
One of Alan's responsibilities was the specification and calibration of the color filters used by the SeaWiFS satellite for remote sensing of earth's oceans. These "true color" images of earth were taken through carefully calibrated filters with no overlap in coverage and relatively narrow (40nm) passbands . When looking through earth's atmosphere a "smooth" overlap of color is virtually impossible and "true color" is obtained by very accurate sampling at discrete wavelengths. The filters used on the SeaWiFS satellite were calibrated to 1% accuracy for each passband. With such accurate data the perturbation of color due to the earth's atmosphere can be virtually eliminated. The results below speak for themselves.
This experience was brought to use in the design of the filter set used in SBIG's CFW8A filter set. Note that there is no overlap between the Green and Red filters and the overlap between the Blue and Green is carefully controlled to accurately render the O-III emission lines at 496 and 500 nm. In our view, this design yields a superior balance for use with our CCD cameras on both continuum objects and emission objects viewed through earth's atmosphere.
Click on the links below to see these SeaWiFS images at quarter, half or full resolution - take a walk in space. All images provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE
|
Northern Canada half size and cropped (See below for full image)
 |
Hurricane Alberto: [Half Size - 262k] [Full Size - 798k]
 |
Northern Canada [Half Size - 441k] [Full Size- 1475k]
SOME CLOSE UPS:
 |
Bahamas Reefs [Full Size - 225k]
 |
Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and the Channel Islands [Full Size - 258k]
 |
US - Large [Quarter Size - 530k] [Half Size - 1730k]
 |
US East Coast and the changing of the colors in Fall [Full Size - 1619k]
 |
Eastern North America [Small Size Cropped - 226k]
[Full Frame Quarter Size - 854k] [Full Frame Half Size - 2576k]
Revised: June 03, 2002 08:51:13 AM.
Copyright © 1998 Santa Barbara Instrument Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please report any problems with this page directly to the Webmaster