it was fifteen years ago today....anniversary of the launch of SeaWiFS

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genecarlfeldman
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it was fifteen years ago today....anniversary of the launch of SeaWiFS

by genecarlfeldman » Thu Aug 02, 2012 7:37 am America/New_York

To all our Friends in the Ocean Color Community, On August 1, 1997, an Orbital Sciences Corporation's L-1011 aircraft carrying a Pegasus XL rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Shortly afterwards, the rocket was released, the motor ignited and the SeaStar spacecraft carrying the SeaWiFS instrument was launched into orbit to begin its incredible thirteen year long mission to monitor planet Earth. This unique partnership between NASA, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center and GeoEye has resulted in one of the most comprehensive data sets ever collected to help us better understand our planet and in particular, how the ocean's biology responds to environmental change. SeaWiFS far exceeded its projected 5 year life and although it collected its last view of Earth in December 2010, there is no doubt that this data set will continue to provide new discoveries and insights into the workings of this incredible planet that we call home.

To help celebrate this event, below are a few links that I hope you will enjoy. In addition, attached is a poster that was designed by my good friend, Payson Stevens, back in the early 1990's long before SeaWiFS was launched and which I still believe best captures the spirit of this incredible mission.

In a time before blogs, tweets and streaming video, the world's ocean color community was kept informed of the progress on launch day by a page that we updated every few minutes. We have preserved that page and all the links just as they were as a way of commemorating that historic
day:
http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/SeaWiFS ... aunch.html

You can relive the launch of SeaWiFS/SeaStar as it happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEaz-W1h0A4

Watch ten years of our changing planet through the eyes of SeaWiFS:
SeaWiFS Biosphere - North Atlantic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGB-sqrLZ9U

SeaWiFS Biosphere - North Pacific
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQvYvlonu7Y

On behalf of all of us who had the privilege of being involved with this remarkable mission and who continue to carry on doing what we can to better understand the world we live in, our thanks and best regards, gene

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