Module 1   Observe…and Explore!


BackgroundBackground


Traditional Inuit hunters travel great distances across the land without ever using a map. Relying on their substantial knowledge of the land, the hunters navigate by observing and memorizing the scenery, like the shapes of the sastrugi (snow formed by prevailing winds) in the winter and the shapes of rocks in the summer. Western science, by contrast, relies on the collection of geographic data and information for navigation. Geographical information systems (GIS), for example, are computer systems that interact with satellites to allow people to collect and analyze thousands of pieces of information—like latitude, longitude, altitude, and topography—to produce maps and to help navigate long trips across the land.


Maps are one of the earliest tools used by humans to record observations and to assist in further observation. Cartography, or mapmaking (in Greek, chartis means map and graphein means write), has been an integral part of the human story even longer than the written word. It is said that mapping represented a significant step forward in the intellectual development of human beings, and it continues to serve as a record of the advancing knowledge of the human race. From cave paintings to ancient maps of Babylon, Greece, and Asia, through the Age of Exploration, and on into the twenty-first century, people have created and used maps as essential tools to help them define, explain, and navigate their way through the world…and beyond.


In cartography, technology has continually changed in order to meet the demands of new generations of mapmakers and map users. The first maps were etched on cave walls and clay tablets; later maps were manually carved in wooden blocks or drawn with brushes on parchment. The Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy created the first world atlas in the second century AD. Ptolemy even plotted latitude and longitude lines on his atlas’s 27 maps, though the farther one got from the known world, centered on the Mediterranean, the more dangerously unreliable they became.


Often referred to as an art, navigation has changed throughout history. In the past, the most important skill for global navigation was the ability to measure latitude and longitude. Originally invented by the Chinese more than 4,000 years ago, the magnetic compass was first used by European navigators around the twelfth century, together with the sextant, which uses the angle of the sun to measure latitude. Today the sextant and, to a large extent, even the compass have been replaced by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and, just within the past few years, geospatial technologies.


While the GPS has been in use since 1978, it was made commercially available in 1993. Today, it’s built into cars, cell phones, notebooks, even little devices you can put on your running shoes to track your exact route when out for a run, or to help locate where in the world your dog is! Tracker, a (stuffed) Polar Husky who serves as a “spokesdog” for GoNorth!, wears one of these as she travels around the world to GoNorth! classrooms. (You can check out Tracker’s Travels in the Explore section at PolarHusky.com.)


Satellites and space probes play a significant part in today’s exploration and scientific investigation. Obviously, they allow us to investigate other planets without actually setting foot on their surface. But more significant to our everyday life are the observations of earth from space, using satellites to gather data and transmit it back to earth where it is organized and manipulated to obtain information.


Satellites use remote sensing instruments to collect data, which is transmitted from the satellite to the ground as radar or microwave signals. Some satellites have active instruments, which send out a signal and record the “echo” when it bounces back up to the satellite, similar to the way a ship uses sonar to map the ocean floor. Other satellites use only passive instruments that do not emit signals, but instead collect radiation emitted or reflected from earth. Satellite images are created from sets of data obtained from the digital equipment housed on the satellites that are orbiting space. The raw data is converted into images with computer software that translates ranges of radiation values into colors we can see.


PolarHusky.com © NOMADS Online Classroom Expeditions GoNorth! Beringia 2011 Curriculum 6


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