Carlowicz M., Friedl L., Ward R. Earth

Washington, DC : National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Earth Science, NASA Headquarters, 2018. — 178 p. — ISBN 9781626830479, ISBN 1626830479.Sixty years ago, with the launch of Explorer 1, NASA made its first observations of Earth from space. Fifty years ago, astronauts left Earth orbit for the first time and looked back at our “blue marble.” All of these years later, as we send spacecraft and point our telescopes past the outer edges of the solar system, as we study our planetary neighbors and our Sun in exquisite detail, there remains much to see and explore at home.
We are still just getting to know Earth through the tools of science. For centuries, painters, poets, philosophers, and photographers have sought to teach us something about our home through their art.
This book stands at an intersection of science and art. From its origins, NASA has studied our planet in novel ways, using ingenious tools to study physical processes at work—from beneath the crust to the edge of the atmosphere. We look at it in macrocosm and microcosm, from the flow of one mountain stream to the flow of jet streams. Most of all, we look at Earth as a system, examining the cycles and processes—the water cycle, the carbon cycle, ocean circulation, the movement of heat—that interact and influence each other in a complex, dynamic dance across seasons and decades.