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Keep An Eye On Costa Rica
From Space
The Planetario de la Universidad de Costa
Rica (UCR) is now offering a view of Costa
Rica from space, updated every 30 minutes.
The images are displayed on the website
www.planetario.ucr.ac.cr and is free
for anyone to look in or down on Costa Rica.
The images are take from NASA's
Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellites (GOES) that provide the kind of
continuous monitoring necessary for
intensive data analysis. They circle the
Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means
they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth
at a speed matching the Earth's rotation.
This allows them to hover continuously over
one position on the surface.
The geosynchronous plane is about 35,800 km
(22,300 miles) above the Earth, high enough
to allow the satellites a full-disc view of
the Earth. Because they stay above a fixed
spot on the surface, they provide a constant
vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for
severe weather conditions such as tornadoes,
flash floods, hail storms, and hurricanes.
When these conditions develop the GOES
satellites are able to monitor storm
development and track their movements.
The website is in Spanish. To navigate the
site, click on the lower left corner on "inteactive",
where a new window will pop up.
On the new window click on "Vea Costa Rica
desde el Espacio" where two images will then
appear on the left side of the screen. Click
on either image to see the large image.
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