JPL Visit

Sammy Keane
The ability to visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA is a once in a lifetime opportunity as it has
very strict security monitoring anyone that comes in and out. While there is so much to look at and immerse
yourself in, I was immediately captivated by the “Eyes on the Earth” program. Just at first glance, you see a
large globe-light figure in the middle of the room that is simultaneously controlled by a touch screen projection
that is showing Earth and basically all that inhabits it. Created first by video gamers, this downloadable app
gives information on what each Satellite looks like and its movement in real-time from a global perspective in
an immersive, 3-D environment. To help “Eyes on the Earth” take off and become the mastermind that it is
today, software engineers, 3D artists, information architects, data processors, and many other professions came
together to build this spectacular program. 
The “Eyes on the Earth” program can be used to take pictures of the Earth, notice the temperature of the
Earth, measure the CO2 and Carbon Monoxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, measure the sea level, and finally
see Earth on a map that depicts Gravity in relation to water. In addition to all of that, Eyes on the Earth
“displays the location of all of NASA’s operating Earth-observing missions in real-time and lets you compare
them in size to a scientist or a school bus…. With the “Latest Events” feature, you can explore geo-located
satellite images of recent Earth events, including algal blooms, superstorms, and wildfires”. 
The idea of tracking satellites alone is unimaginable but being able to see what is going on with our earth on
an atmospheric level is almost disorienting. Prior to visiting JPL, I did not even know these information
trackers were happening, let alone the number of satellites orbiting earth right at this very moment. Viewing
the amount of  Carbon monoxide in the atmosphere allows us to view the ongoing fires in the amazon and the
fire that recently happened in Los Angeles, the Palisades fire. Personally, this was the most mindblowing
perspective as it quickly connected space and our society in an almost tangible way. I never knew that the
fires could be tracked from this outer-space perspective, I was naive and just imagined these horrific moments
were either told by word of mouth, social media, or broadcasting. With such advances in technology in the
past years, I can’t even begin to grasp what JPL and NASA are going to come up with soon to continue tracking
these necessary horror moments that are happening on earth. Not only for scientific sake but to raise awareness
for those who are in denial that the Earth is heating up and is in need of immediate population change. 

 https://eyes.nasa.gov/eyes-on-the-earth.html

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