The vast improvements to earth science thanks to satellite remote sensing can’t be overstated. However, how we actually retrieve that data is not something we talk about everyday. So how do the spectacular images and data from satellite sensors get to us scientists?

 

The same way satellite signals gets to your television, through a signal receiver (e.g. a satellite “dish”). Receiving stations and scientific research institutions maintain receivers to collect scientific data which is transmitted from satellites (usually as radio signals). As a satellite passes over a receiver, the receiver will often track the satellites path across the sky at an optimal geometry to collect the data being transmitted as radio waves. While in practice receiving antennae and dishes are diverse, and how or if they need to track satellites passes depends on what type of satellite data they are designed to receive; the basics are the same for virtually all systems. Need a signal from space? Just point your dish in the right direction!