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People Using GSTs on the Job | Students Learning GSTs | Career Info | FAQs | Links | ||||||||||||||||
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Global Positioning System (GPS) | Remote Sensing | Geographic Information Systems (GIS) |
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Wendy, a college student, used a GPS to map a farm for a farmland conservation project. | The bright white areas on the right side of this satellite image show the sandy beaches of Hampton Beach, NH, a popular summer hangout. | The power of a GIS lies in its ability to combine many layers of information. A student created this map by using a GIS that combined information about roads, wetlands, surface waters, watersheds and town boundaries. |
Global
Positioning Systems (GPS) use a constellation of satellites and geometry
to calculate locations on the Earth. The location information from a GPS can be stored and used in a GIS (see right) to make a map. |
Remote Sensing refers to pictures or images of the Earth recorded from airplanes or satellites. The images can be very valuable in showing us where things are. Often special sensors used in remote sensing (like infrared cameras) show us features that we can’t see with our eyes. Students use these types of images to study forests. An archeologist can use them to find ancient waterways that are dried up and no longer visible. A marine biologist may use remote sensing to measure plankton blooms in the ocean. Remotely sensed images often become important layers of information in a GIS. |
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are commonly used to combine information from GPS, remote sensing and other sources to create maps. The television networks used GIS maps to display the results of the 2004 Presidential elections. A GIS also can help to answer questions such as:
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See our Links page for a list of web sites with additional information. |