University of Twente Student Theses
Analyse the feasibility of using Earth Observation data to evaluate the optimal location in space for observing Earth as an exoplanet.
Verma, Nimisha (2022) Analyse the feasibility of using Earth Observation data to evaluate the optimal location in space for observing Earth as an exoplanet.
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| Abstract: | Observing Earth as an exoplanet allows us to study the features present on Earth using Polarimetry, which, in turn, allows the scientists to study the features present on different exoplanets. Various studies have focused on studying Earth as an exoplanet using computational models. However, research on using Earth observation datasets for these kinds of studies has not yet been done. The main objective of this study was to understand if Earth observation datasets are feasible to observe Earth as an exoplanet and calculate the optimal location to observe Earth as an exoplanet. This research has observed that using the Earth observation dataset like MODIS, Landsat and Sentinel directly from the platform of Google Earth Engine does not provide a feasible solution. This is mainly due to limitations like partial coverage of Earth, missing metadata or availability of partial information. While it is possible to calculate the missing parameters separately, the limitations faced during the study were the spatial coverage of the image. The study also focused on calculating the optimal location or orbit to observe Earth as an exoplanet. Through literature study, it has been confirmed that different features react differently in different phase angles. Hence, we require a wide range of phase angles to observe different features on Earth. During the study, we focused on the four Lagrange points L1, L2, L4, L5 and the Moon to calculate the phase angle for each orbit. It was observed that the trajectory of the Moon provides us with a high range of phase angles to observe Earth as an exoplanet. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ITC: Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation |
| Subject: | 38 earth sciences, 39 astronomy |
| Programme: | Geo-informatics MSc (60031) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/92917 |
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