Program Information

Series: NASA Connect
Program: The Measurement of All Things: Atmospheric Detectives
Segment Number: 2 (Watch entire program)
Duration: 00:02:01
Year Produced: 1999
Description:

NASA Connect Segment that explores how aerosols affect our health and how aerosols in the atmosphere are measured. It explains remote sensing and its two types with examples.

NASA CONNECT™ is a series of Emmy®-award-winning, math-focused programs. Each program supports the national math, science, and technology standards and has three components that include (1) a 30-minute television broadcast; (2) a companion educator's guide; and (3) an online activity that further explores topics presented in the broadcast. These programs establish a connection between the math, science, and technology concepts taught in the classroom to those same concepts used everyday by NASA researchers.

For more information visit: http://connect.larc.nasa.gov/

Transcript

Studying the atmosphere
is a fairly new science.

In the chemistry
and dynamics branch
of NASA Langley
Research Center,
atmospheric scientists
are trying to determine
how many aerosols there are
and where they are
in the atmosphere.

Now, these aerosols
are important
because they affect our health.

Small aerosols
can enter our lungs
as we breathe polluted air.

These aerosols can be deposited
deep in our lungs,
blocking the lungs' ability
to exchange oxygen
and carbon dioxide.

Over time,
this makes it hard to breathe.

Here at NASA Langley,
we measure aerosols
using a technique
called remote sensing.

What is remote sensing?

Remote sensing is collecting
information about an object
without physically
touching the object.

It's learning without touching.

The most familiar kind
of remote sensing
is the use of our eyes
to detect a distant object.

We also learn without touching
when we hear.

For example,
when a car beeps its horn,
we hear it from a distance...

[car honking]

and sense we're in danger.

(man)
Get outta the street!

You know, there are two
types of remote sensing:
active and passive.

An early example
of passive remote sensing
involved the use of a camera.

In 1858, the first
aerial photograph of land
was taken from a balloon
floating over Paris, France.

This is called passive
because the camera
uses only the light from the sun
to record the image on film.

On the other hand,
active remote sensing
uses its own light source.

Put a flash on the camera,
and you've made it active,
because the light from the flash
reflects off the distant object
being photographed.

Using active remote sensing,
you can take pictures
whenever you want,
because you don't have to depend
on the sun to give you light.

Virginia Standards

6th Grade SOLs » Science » 6.1
6th Grade SOLs » Science » 6.3
6th Grade SOLs » Science » 6.6