ection 8
One of the fastest growing resources of information today is the Internet. Pick up a
recent newspaper or magazine, turn on your television, and chances are you will read
or hear about this powerful tool. A leading proponent of the Internet, Vice President
Albert Gore recently set a goal for the year 2000 to connect every school and library in
the United States to the “National Information Infrastructure.”
The Internet contains text, images, and software on a broad range of topics. It is a
computer network (commercial, government, research, and educational) which spans
the globe and provides instant access to information and communication. Users can
download text, images, and software for both IBM and Macintosh computers. Users
can also participate in discussion groups and have instant access to experts worldwide.
For those who do not have access to an environmental satellite direct readout system,
the Internet is an alternative source for up-to-date polar and geostationary environmen-
tal satellite images. Images downloaded from the Internet can be used with the envi-
ronmental satellite lesson plans that have been developed as part of the Looking at
Earth From Space series.
This listing of Internet sites where environmental satellite (polar and geostationary)
imagery may be downloaded, also includes brief information describing some com-
mon Internet tools. In this section, resources are identified by their Uniform Resource
Locator or URL. The following code is used:
ftp://host.name.domain/directory/(filename) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Site
http://host.name.domain/directory/(filename) World Wide Web (WWW) Server
telnet://host.name.domain Telnet Site
gopher://host.name.domain Gopher Server
Check with local colleges for availability of no-cost access. Other possible sources are
local libraries and dial-up services.
As you explore the Internet, please keep in mind that this is an ever-changing environ-
ment—some of the sites you use today may be gone tomorrow. The network services
listed in this section have proven dependable. However, you will discover that some of
these references have changed and that many new resources exist.
TH E IN T E R N E T: AN O T H E R
SO U R C E O F IM A G E RY
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