Environmental processes first, with deeper sensing and orbital material available when you want it.
Textbook Part
Earth Systems and Observation
This part uses the mathematical habits from Part 1 to understand environmental systems: energy, soils, plants, water, and atmosphere. It leads with the most concrete process models and keeps the orbital and GPS geometry as extension material for a second pass.
This Part Moves From Component Processes To A Coupled Earth System
Part 2 is easier to read when the chapters feel like one physical build rather than a pile of environmental topics. The route starts with surface energy, moves through soils and plants, then brings in atmosphere, observation, and finally the coupled land-atmosphere system.
Start
Energy at the surface
Learn radiation, evapotranspiration, and soil heat as the bookkeeping backbone of environmental change.
β
Then
Water and ecosystem response
Track soil moisture, plant function, and seasonal or biogeochemical consequences.
β
Then
Atmosphere and observation
Use wind, vertical structure, and sensing chapters to connect process models to what can actually be measured.
β
Capstone
Coupled feedbacks
Land-atmosphere coupling ties water, energy, vegetation, and heat extremes into one system.
Part 2 works best as a systems ladder: from component fluxes to interacting feedbacks.
Chapter Map
F
Observation Depth
Circular Orbits and Kepler's Third Law
Ground Tracks and Orbital Geometry
Satellite Overpasses and Visibility
How GPS Works
These are second-pass depth chapters once you want more orbital and positioning detail than the main environmental route requires.
This chapter ties the part together by showing how water balance, evaporative cooling, vegetation stress, and atmospheric demand reinforce or damp one another.