Prctica de la Traduccin II

Unidad 2: Tecnologa

Text 1

Electromagnetic fields

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An electromagnetic field is a field which possesses magnetic and electrical properties and
surrounds objects with an electrical charge. The field also interacts with charged objects
within the field. Electromagnetic fields are present on a basic level across the universe, in
varying degrees of strength. The Earth, for example, is surrounded by an electromagnetic
field generated by the movement of electrons inside the Earth, and this field is taken
advantage of every day when people use compasses to orient themselves. The behavior
of such fields is determined by the wavelengths of energy generated, and the frequency of
their oscillations. Long wavelengths oscillate at a low frequency, while short wavelengths
oscillate at a high frequency.
Whenever voltage is present, an electric field forms. In a simple example, when a light is
plugged into a socket but not turned on, a small electric field is generated. When the light
is turned on, causing a flow of current, the movement of electrons creates a magnetic field.
The electric field is still present, so an electromagnetic field is being generated. Changes
in an electric field can generate magnetic activity, while changes in a magnetic field can
generate electrical activity.
A classic example of an electromagnetic field is the field generated around high energy
power lines. Many people have noted that they can feel a hum of energy around power
lines, and studies have shown that the electromagnetic field which surrounds high energy
power lines can actually impact the growth of plants inside the field, illustrating the way in
which an electromagnetic field can act on charged particles inside the field.
Certain types of electromagnetic fields have been linked with health concerns. Several
studies on cancer have shown that some childhood cancers have been linked with
exposure to high energy electromagnetic fields. Even as an electromagnetic field causes
health problems, however, it can also be beneficial. For example, in the medical
community, people use x-rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation, to see the inside of the
body, and lasers, another form of electromagnetic radiation, to perform surgery. (344)

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Text 2

What happens when you are exposed to electromagnetic

fields?

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Exposure to electromagnetic fields is not a new phenomenon. However, during the 20th
century, environmental exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields has been steadily
increasing as growing electricity demand, ever-advancing technologies and changes in
social behaviour have created more and more artificial sources. Everyone is exposed to a
complex mix of weak electric and magnetic fields, both at home and at work, from the
generation and transmission of electricity, domestic appliances and industrial equipment,
to telecommunications and broadcasting.
Tiny electrical currents exist in the human body due to the chemical reactions that occur as
part of the normal bodily functions, even in the absence of external electric fields. For
example, nerves relay signals by transmitting electric impulses. Most biochemical
reactions from digestion to brain activities go along with the rearrangement of charged
particles. Even the heart is electrically active - an activity that your doctor can trace with
the help of an electrocardiogram.
Low-frequency electric fields influence the human body just as they influence any other
material made up of charged particles. When electric fields act on conductive materials,
they influence the distribution of electric charges at their surface. They cause current to
flow through the body to the ground.

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Low-frequency magnetic fields induce circulating currents within the human body. The
strength of these currents depends on the intensity of the outside magnetic field. If
sufficiently large, these currents could cause stimulation of nerves and muscles or affect
other biological processes.
Both electric and magnetic fields induce voltages and currents in the body but even
directly beneath a high voltage transmission line, the induced currents are very small
compared to thresholds for producing shock and other electrical effects.
Heating is the main biological effect of the electromagnetic fields of radiofrequency fields.
In microwave ovens this fact is employed to warm up food. The levels of radiofrequency
fields to which people are normally exposed are very much lower than those needed to
produce significant heating. The heating effect of radiowaves forms the underlying basis
for current guidelines. Scientists are also investigating the possibility that effects below the
threshold level for body heating occur as a result of long-term exposure. To date, no
adverse health effects from low level, long-term exposure to radiofrequency or power
frequency fields have been confirmed, but scientists are actively continuing to research
this area.
Biological effects are measurable responses to a stimulus or to a change in the
environment. These changes are not necessarily harmful to your health. For example,

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listening to music, reading a book, eating an apple or playing tennis will produce a range of
biological effects. Nevertheless, none of these activities is expected to cause health
effects. The body has sophisticated mechanisms to adjust to the many and varied
influences we encounter in our environment. Ongoing change forms a normal part of our
lives. But, of course, the body does not possess adequate compensation mechanisms for
all biological effects. Changes that are irreversible and stress the system for long periods
of time may constitute a health hazard.
An adverse health effect causes detectable impairment of the health of the exposed
individual or of his or her offspring; a biological effect, on the other hand, may or may not
result in an adverse health effect.
It is not disputed that electromagnetic fields above certain levels can trigger biological
effects. Experiments with healthy volunteers indicate that short-term exposure at the levels
present in the environment or in the home do not cause any apparent detrimental effects.
Exposures to higher levels that might be harmful are restricted by national and
international guidelines. The current debate is centred on whether long-term low level
exposure can evoke biological responses and influence people's well being. (623)

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Text 3

The Radar

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The concept of using radio waves to detect objects goes back as far as 1902, but the
practical system people know as radar began in the late 1930s. British inventors, aided by
research from other countries, developed a rudimentary warning system that could detect
objects moving towards the coastline of England. The system used high-frequency radio
waves to detect German planes and calculate their distance. This purpose led to the term,
which is actually an acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging.
The principle behind this technology may sound confusing at first, but a simple experiment
can demonstrate the basics. A person with a very accurate stopwatch and super hearing is
facing the side of a mountain somewhere in the distance. She holds the stopwatch in one
hand and starts timing as she screams as loudly as she can towards the mountain. When
the first echo of her voice can be heard, she stops timing. She has now become a basic
radar unit since she knows how fast sound travels, she can calculate the distance
between herself and the mountain by using the elapsed time on the stopwatch.

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Radar works on many of the same principles demonstrated in this experiment. Instead of
one person screaming, a powerful radio beam is sent out at a specific frequency. When
this burst of radio energy strikes a solid object, at least part of that energy will be reflected
back to the transmitter. This signal may not be very strong, but a sensitive electronic
receiver can amplify it. The transmitter and receiver are usually mounted close together,
much like a person's mouth and ears.

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By calculating the speed of the radio waves and the time it takes for the signal to bounce
off the object and hit the receiver, a radar operator can gauge the distance between
himself and the object. Moving the transmitter to different points allows the operator to
receive multiple returns. All of these individual reflections are combined to estimate the
size of the object or objects being struck. (339)

Prctica de la Traduccin II
Unidad 2: Tecnologa

Text 4

Infrared Waves
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In 1800, William Herschel conducted an experiment measuring the difference in

temperature between the colors in the visible spectrum. He placed thermometers within
each color of the visible spectrum. The results showed an increase in temperature from
blue to red. When he noticed an even warmer temperature measurement just beyond the
red end of the visible spectrum, Herschel had discovered infrared light!
A remote control uses light waves just beyond the visible spectrum of lightinfrared light
wavesto change channels on your TV. This region of the spectrum is divided into near-,
mid-, and far-infrared. The region from 8 to 15 microns (m) is referred to by Earth
scientists as thermal infrared since these wavelengths are best for studying the longwave
thermal energy radiating from our planet.
We can sense some infrared energy as heat. Some objects are so hot they also emit
visible lightsuch as a fire does. Other objects, such as humans, are not as hot and only
emit infrared waves. Our eyes cannot see these infrared waves but instruments that can
sense infrared energysuch as night-vision goggles or infrared camerasallow us to "see"
the infrared waves emitting from warm objects such as humans and animals.
Infrared waves have longer wavelengths than visible light and can pass through dense
regions of gas and dust in space with less scattering and absorption. Thus, infrared energy
can also reveal objects in the universe that cannot be seen in visible light using optical
telescopes. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has three infrared instruments to
help study the origins of the universe and the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets.
To astrophysicists studying the universe, infrared sources such as planets are relatively
cool compared to the energy emitted from hot stars and other celestial objects. Earth
scientists study infrared as the thermal emission (or heat) from our planet. As incident
solar radiation hits Earth, some of this energy is absorbed by the atmosphere and the
surface, thereby warming the planet. This heat is emitted from Earth in the form of infrared
radiation. Instruments onboard Earth observing satellites can sense this emitted infrared
radiation and use the resulting measurements to study changes in land and sea surface
temperatures.
There are other sources of heat on the Earth's surface, such as lava flows and forest fires.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard the
Aqua and Terra satellites uses infrared data to monitor smoke and pinpoint sources of
forest fires. This information can be essential to firefighting efforts when fire
reconnaissance planes are unable to fly through the thick smoke. Infrared data can also
enable scientists to distinguish flaming fires from still-smoldering burn scars.
Why use the infrared to image the Earth? While it is easier to distinguish clouds from land
in the visible range, there is more detail in the clouds in the infrared. This is great for

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studying cloud structure. For instance, note that darker clouds are warmer, while lighter
clouds are cooler. Southeast of the Galapagos, just west of the coast of South America,
there is a place where you can distinctly see multiple layers of clouds, with the warmer
clouds at lower altitudes, closer to the ocean that's warming them.
We know, from looking at an infrared image of a cat, that many things emit infrared light.
But many things also reflect infrared light, particularly near infrared light. A portion of
radiation that is just beyond the visible spectrum is referred to as near-infrared. Rather
than studying an object's emission of infrared, scientists can study how objects reflect,
transmit, and absorb the Sun's near-infrared radiation to observe health of vegetation and
soil composition. (611)

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Text 5

Satellites at work
Landsat and other satellites, such as France's SPOT (Satellite Positioning and Tracking),
provide data for governments, businesses, scientific institutions, and even the general
public.
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Data from Landsat has been used to study disasters and potential disasters with particular
application to the earth sciences. An example is the area of the tropical rainforest in
Brazil's Amazon River valley, a region of about 1.9 million sq. mi. (five million sq km), in
which deforestation is claiming between 4,250 sq. mi. and 10,000 sq. mi. (11,000-26,000
sq km) a year. This is an extremely serious issue, because the Amazon basin represents
approximately one-third of the total rain-forest area on Earth.
Because of its acute spatial resolution (98 ft., or 30 m, compared with more than 0.6 mi., or
1 km), Landsat is much more effective for this purpose than other satellite systems
operated by NOAA or other organizations. It is also cheaper to obtain images from it than
from SPOT. Over the years, Landsat has provided data on urban sprawl in areas as widely
separated as Las Vegas, Nevada, and Santiago, Chile. It has offered glimpses of disasters
ranging from the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, Washington, in 1980 to some of the most
potent recent examples of destruction caused by humans, including the nuclear disaster at
Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986 and the fires and other effects of the Persian Gulf War of
1990-1991.
Not all the news from Landsat is bad, as a visit to the Landsat 7 Web site in late 2001
revealed. Certainly there were areas of concern, among them, flooding in Mozambique
and runaway development in Denver, Colorado. But images taken over the Aldabra atoll in
the Seychelles showed the world's largest refuge for giant tortoises. And shots taken from
Landsat over Lake Nasser in southern Egypt during the latter part of 2000 showed four
lakes created by excess water from Nasser. As a result, that region of the Sahara had new
lakes for the first time in 6,000 years. (334)

Prctica de la Traduccin II
Unidad 2: Tecnologa

Text 6

What are radio waves?

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Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. They range
from the length of a football to larger than our planet. Heinrich Hertz proved the existence
of radio waves in the late 1880s. He used a spark gap attached to an induction coil and a
separate spark gap on a receiving antenna. When waves created by the sparks of the coil
transmitter were picked up by the receiving antenna, sparks would jump its gap as well.
Hertz showed in his experiments that these signals possessed all the properties of
electromagnetic waves.
You can tune a radio to a specific wavelengthor frequencyand listen to your favorite
music. The radio "receives" these electromagnetic radio waves and converts them to
mechanical vibrations in the speaker to create the sound waves you can hear.
Radio telescopes

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Radio telescopes look toward the heavens to view planets, comets, giant clouds of gas
and dust, stars, and galaxies. By studying the radio waves originating from these sources,
astronomers can learn about their composition, structure, and motion. Radio astronomy
has the advantage that sunlight, clouds, and rain do not affect observations.
Since radio waves are longer than optical waves, radio telescopes are made differently
than the telescopes used for visible light. Radio telescopes must be physically larger than
optical telescopes in order to make images of comparable resolution. But they can be
made lighter with millions of small holes cut through the dish since the long radio waves
are too big to "see" them. The Parkes radio telescope, which has a dish 64 meters wide,
cannot yield an image any clearer than a small backyard optical telescope!
A very large telescope
In order to make a clearer, or higher resolution, radio image, radio astronomers often
combine several smaller telescopes, or receiving dishes, into an array. Together, these
dishes can act as one large telescope whose resolution is set by the maximum size of the
area.

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The National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in
New Mexico is one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories. The VLA
consists of 27 antennas arranged in a huge "Y" pattern up to 36 km across (roughly oneand-one-half times the size of Washington, DC).
The techniques used in radio astronomy at long wavelengths can sometimes be applied at
the shorter end of the radio spectrumthe microwave portion. The VLA image below
captured 21-centimeter energy emissions around a black hole in the lower right and
magnetic field lines pulling gas around in the upper left.

Prctica de la Traduccin II
Unidad 2: Tecnologa

The radio sky

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If we were to look at the sky with a radio telescope tuned to 408 MHz, the sky would
appear radically different from what we see in visible light. Instead of seeing point-like
stars, we would see distant pulsars, star-forming regions, and supernova remnants would
dominate the night sky.
Radio telescopes can also detect quasars. The term quasar is short for quasi-stellar radio
source. The name comes from the fact that the first quasars identified emit mostly radio
energy and look much like stars. Quasars are very energetic, with some emitting 1,000
times as much energy as the entire Milky Way. However, most quasars are blocked from
view in visible light by dust in their surrounding galaxies.
Astronomers identified the quasars with the help of radio data from the VLA radio
telescope because many galaxies with quasars appear bright when viewed with radio
telescopes. In the false-color image below, infrared data from the Spitzer space telescope
is colored both blue and green, and radio data from the VLA telescope is shown in red.
The quasar-bearing galaxy stands out in yellow because it emits both infrared and radio
light. (615)

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Text 7

The ALMA Radio Telescope

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In theory, the basic notion of interferometry is quite simple. A signal from the sky is
captured by two or more antennas which are combined in order to analyze the signal and
thus obtain information about its source (whether a star, a planet, or a galaxy). By
combining the radio waves collected by several antennas is possible to construct images.
Such images are comparable to those that would be obtained with an hypothetical giant
telescope or antenna, 14,000 meters in diameter. Since constructing and operating an
antenna that size is technically impossible (at least with current technologies), constructing
several small antennas and using them combining their output is far more feasible.

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Nevertheless, this is not so simple in practice.

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To operate properly, ALMA must have its 66 antennas and electronics working in perfect
synchrony, with a precision of one millionth of a millionth of a second. In addition, the
signals from the different antennas must be combined in a way that the path followed from
each antenna until it is combined at the central computer (the correlator) must be known
with an accuracy equal to the diameter of a human hair (hundredths of a millimeter).

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And as if the above were not challenging enough, there is the problem of reducing the
possible attenuation and perturbation suffered by the signal from the time it touches each
antenna until it is digitalized and transmitted over several kilometers of optic fiber to the
central computer. Even earlier, as soon as the signal penetrates the Earths atmosphere, it
is partially absorbed, deviated and delayed by molecules of CO2, Oxygen and water (even
at 5,000 m of altitude and in the dry conditions encountered at the Atacama Desert).
Seven weather stations, and specially-built Water Vapor Radiometers to measure the
amount of line-of-sight water vapor present in the atmosphere, will be used to correct for
these atmospheric effects. (316)

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Text 8

Electromagnetic fields in the environment

Electric trains and trams

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Long-distance trains have one or more engine cars that are separate from the passenger
cars. Thus passenger exposure comes mainly from the electricity supply to the train.
Magnetic fields in the passenger cars of long-distance trains can be several hundred T
near the floor, with lower values (tens of T) elsewhere in the compartment. Electric field
strengths may reach 300 V/m. People living in the vicinity of railway lines may encounter
magnetic fields from the overhead supply which, depending on the country, may be
comparable to the fields produced by high-voltage power lines.
Motors and traction equipment of trains and trams are normally located underneath the
floors of passenger cars. At floor level, magnetic field intensities may amount to tens of T
in regions of the floor just above the motor. The fields fall off quickly with distance from the
floor, and exposure of the upper bodies of passengers is much lower.
TV and radio

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When choosing a radio station on your stereo at home, have you ever wondered what the
familiar abbreviations AM and FM stand for? Radio signals are described as amplitudemodulated (AM) or frequency-modulated (FM) depending on the way in which they carry
information. AM radio signals can be used for broadcasting over very long distances
whereas FM waves cover more localized areas but can give a better sound quality.

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AM radio signals are transmitted via large arrays of antennas, which can be tens of metres
high, on sites which are off-limits to the public. Exposures very close to antennas and feed
cables can be high, but these would affect maintenance workers rather than the general
public.

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TV and FM radio antennas are much smaller than AM radio antennas and are mounted in
arrays at the top of high towers. The towers themselves serve only as supporting
structures. As exposures near the foot of these towers are below guideline limits, public
access to these areas may be possible. Small local TV and radio antennas are sometimes
mounted on the top of buildings; if this is the case it may be necessary to control access to
the roof.

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Mobile phones and their base stations

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Mobile phones allow people to be within reach at all times. These low-power radiowave
devices transmit and receive signals from a network of fixed low power base stations.
Each base station provides coverage to a given area. Depending on the number of calls
being handled, base stations may be from only a few hundred metres apart in major cities
to several kilometres apart in rural areas.

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Mobile phone base stations are usually mounted on the tops of buildings or on towers at
heights of between 15 and 50 metres. The levels of transmissions from any particular base
station are variable and depend on the number of calls and the callers' distance from the
base station. Antennas emit a very narrow beam of radiowaves which spreads out almost
parallel to the ground. Therefore, radiofrequency fields at ground level and in regions
normally accessible to the public are many times below hazard levels. Guidelines would
only be exceeded if a person were to approach to within a metre or two directly in front of
the antennas. Until mobile phones became widely used, members of the public were
mainly exposed to radiofrequency emissions from radio and TV stations. Even today, the
phone towers themselves add little to our total exposure, as signal strengths in places of
public access are normally similar to or lower than those from distant radio and TV
stations. (594)

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Text 9
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Remote Sensing

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We perceive the surrounding world through our five senses. Some senses (touch and
taste) require contact of our sensing organs with the objects. However, we acquire much
information about our surrounding through the senses of sight and hearing which do not
require close contact between the sensing organs and the external objects. In another
word, we are performing Remote Sensing all the time.

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Generally, remote sensing refers to the activities of recording/observing/perceiving

(sensing) objects or events at far away (remote) places. In remote sensing, the sensors
are not in direct contact with the objects or events being observed. The information needs
a physical carrier to travel from the objects/events to the sensors through an intervening
medium. The electromagnetic radiation is normally used as an information carrier in
remote sensing. The output of a remote sensing system is usually an image representing
the scene being observed. A further step of image analysis and interpretation is required in
order to extract useful information from the image. The human visual system is an
example of a remote sensing system in this general sense.
In a more restricted sense, remote sensing usually refers to the technology of acquiring
information about the earth's surface (land and ocean) and atmosphere using sensors
onboard airborne (aircraft, balloons) or spaceborne (satellites, space shuttles) platforms.
In satellite remote sensing of the earth, the sensors are looking through a layer of
atmosphere separating the sensors from the Earth's surface being observed. Hence, it is
essential to understand the effects of atmosphere on the electromagnetic radiation
travelling from the Earth to the sensor through the atmosphere. The atmospheric
constituents cause wavelength dependent absorption and scattering of radiation. These
effects degrade the quality of images. Some of the atmospheric effects can be corrected
before the images are subjected to further analysis and interpretation. (303)