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History of Exploration
Throughout history, man has explored the earth
because he wanted to reach his neighbors, because
some of the known routes were too dangerous or
too costly, and because he wanted to see what was
there.
Development of Techniques
A milestone in earth exploration was reached on Grass appears green because it reflects more light in
May 14, 1973, when Skylab was launched into a the green part of the visible spectrum than in other
nearly circular orbit about 435 kilometers above parts of the spectrum.
the earth. Skylab carried instruments into orbit
designed to observe earth, and to verify that de- When white light passes through a prism, the light
tailed information on natural resources over wide is divided into the familiar rainbow of colors rang-
areas of the world's surface could be obtained ing from red to violet. This is the visible spectrum.
using remote sensors. Familiar objects reflect radiation in various ways in
the invisible regions of the frequency spectrum,
such as ultraviolet, infrared, and radio (see Figure
Four of what we call man's five senses are remote 1). Green mature soybeans reflect radiation in the
sensors. From them we get information about an infrared wavelength at a much higher intensity
object without actually touching it. We can see it, than in the familiar visible green wavelength as
hear it if it makes a noise, smell any odor it emits, shown in Figure 2.
and feel the heat it radiates.
Visible
In a similar way we can get information about fea-
tures on earth without actually touching them. A Radio Infrared Ultra- X Rays Gamma
violet Rays
camera makes a picture of a scene by recording the Long TV Qr Micro- Far Near Soft
color and brightness of the light reflected from Wave FM wave Near Far Hard
2
Spectral Signatures-When measuring the inten- Table 1 Numerical Signatures
sities of reflected radiation in a number of wave-
bands in the visible and invisible parts of the spec-
Wavelength, micrometers
trum, certain patterns, called profiles, show up.
These profiles are characteristic of the features Material 0.6 0.75 0.85 0.9 0.95
studied. This means that a certain pattern will Green Mature Soybeans 1 7.8 4 7 2.2
always show up when measuring a certain feature Brown & Green Grass, Mixed 2.8
under identical conditions. These profiles are called
Packed Sandy Road 4.3
spectral signatures.
Silty Clay Loam 2.0
The profiles for different materials are plotted in
Figure 2. These profiles show how these features
can be identified by measuring and recording re-
flected radiation at several wavelengths at the same The spectral signatures of earth features change
time. depending on the quality of the light illuminating
Green Mature Soybeans the scene. A familiar example of this is the way the
Brown and Green Grass, Mixed
Packed Sandy Road
color of the ocean changes from blue to green to
Silty Clay Loam dull gray with changing weather conditions.
3
Atmospheric conditions such as haze, fog, clouds
or pollution, and surface conditions such as slope,
7 shadow, wind movement of crops, and stage of
growth can influence the signature of the features
in a scene.
6
5
Relative
Intensity of
Reflected
Radiation
3
The wavelengths in this table were chosen because However, when signatures are established in one
they show large differences in radiation intensity part of a picture of a scene, they can be used to
for the materials shown. analyze the rest of that picture.
The numerical example of a signature shown in
Figure 2 and Table 1 can be used in a com-
puterized analysis. A series of pictures of a scene
taken at different wavelengths can be scanned by
an electronic instrument that measures the bright-
ness of each feature in the scene in each photo-
graph. The computer, having been programmed to
recognize combinations of intensity values in all of Relative
the wavelengths, lists all the features having the Intensity of
same combinations, or signatures. Reflected
Radiation
Color Enhancement—The human eye can more
easily detect small changes in color than it can
small changes in gray tones. This can be used to
good advantage. Colors that are different from the
natural colors of the scene can be applied to
pictures of the scene to increase the visual contrast.
This is called color enhancement. One enhance-
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
ment method is to assign a different color to each
intensity level in a picture. Then all areas of equal Wavelength, Micrometers
intensity will have the same color on a computer-
developed picture of the scene.
Reflected
Another method of color enhancement is to print Wavebands
the picture obtained in each wavelength on a trans- CO C3 >• O cc —
parency. A different colored light is then projected Colors Apparent in B '_
Colors Apparent
A third method is to assign a different color to in Infrared "
0)
3
_
X —
each spectral signature identified. Then all like- Color Film 00 0 cc
colored areas in the scene can be assumed to be of
the same material and condition. Figure 3 Infrared Color Representation
A fourth method is to use color infrared film. To
make analysis of this type of film easier, the color
sensitivities of the film are shifted so that each
major waveband the film sees appears in a different
However, research has shown that trees growing in
color. Figure 3 repeats part of the plot of reflected
metal-rich soil absorb the metallic elements in that
radiation from soybeans shown in Figure 2. Some
of the visible colors, and infrared, are shown to aid soil. The leaves of those trees reflect sunlight dif-
ferently from the leaves of the same type of tree
in relating color to wavelength. Regular color film
that grows nearby in metal-poor soil. In an actual
shows the colors in the scene as the average human
test, using information from aircraft, trees growing
eye sees them. In color infrared film the sen- in soil rich in copper and molybdenum reflected
sitivities are shifted so that infrared emissions look twice as much yellow, but only half as much blue
red, red looks green, green looks blue, and blue light, as trees growing in ordinary soil. Thus,
does not show up at all. scientists can tell what chemical elements are con-
tained in the soil of a forest by analyzing the
These types of spectral analyses are especially ad- reflection of leaves on the trees.
vantageous for surveying difficult terrains. Even
areas heavily covered with forests can be investi- Photographic information from Skylab has been
gated for mineral resources. It seems incredible used, in conjunction with data obtained from other"
that a spacecraft speeding through space hundreds sources, to relate soil color to mineral deposits, and
of kilometers above the earth can accurately detect the confirmation of mineral deposits has been
mineral deposits concealed by heavy tree cover. claimed.
Applications
A number of earth resources investigations are
possible by using remotely sensed information. For
example:
Legend:
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O Geology A Ecology
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Sensor Description RECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT
An objective of the Skylab program was to show Figure 6b. These photographs, taken in color,
how feasible it is to study earth resources from black and white, and color infrared, augment the
spacecraft in orbit around earth using cameras, in- photographs taken by the multispectral cameras
frared sensors, and microwave sensors. Six sensors and the other sensors described below.
were used: two were cameras using photographic
film, three recorded information on magnetic tape,
and one used magnetic tape and photographic film.
The rolls of film and tape were brought back to
Earth by the astronauts. Basic features of these
sensors are described in the following paragraphs.
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. nr.,:
if ,«:r
a. Color Visible Light (0.4 to 0.7 Micrometers) d. Color Infrared (0.5 to 0.88 Micrometers)
b. Black & White Photo (Green Waveband-0.5 to 0.6 Micrometers) e. Black & White Photo (Infrared—0.7 to 0.8 Micrometers)
,» TL
c. Black & White Photo (Red Wave Band-0.6 to 0.7 Micrometers) f. Black & White Photo (lnfrared-0.8 to 0.9 Micrometer)
FOLDOUT FRAME 10
this picture in comparison with the scale of the set After studying the photographs, differences can be
in Figure 7 reflects the size of the fields of view seen in the appearance of the fields. Looking at the
and focal lengths of the two cameras. The spectral strip of land enclosed by the small rectangle ex-
waveband in the Figure 8 photograph is the same tending north from the New River (shown in Fig-
as in Figure 7d; therefore the colors of the fields ure 8), notice that a number of fields nearest to the
are very similar. The resolution, or clarity, of the river show up lighter on frames 7a, 7b, 7c, and 7d
image is much better in Figure 8 than can be than the group of fields immediately to the north.
achieved even by magnifying frame 7d to the same The relative brightness is reversed in frames 7e and
size because the earth terrain camera had a larger 7f, the northern group of fields being very much
focal length. brighter.
11
Alfalfa
N Cotton
Bare soil
While preparing this booklet, two incidents oc- details such as roads and ditches—and the color
curred that illustrate some of the potential prac- representation is less than in Figure lOb. This
tical applications of Skylab data. picture is the same size enlargement of the same
area, but it is a combination of the images from
First, while comparing Figures 8 and 9 we dis- three cameras. The black-and-white infrared (0.7 to
covered the shoreline in the photograph did not 0.8 micrometer) and the green and red images are
match the map. By plotting the "new" shoreline superimposed in an example of color enhancement
on the map, we deduced that the level of the lake (see page 4).
had risen from 235 feet below sea level in 1956 to
232 feet in September 1973. The U.S. Geological The value of color in representations of this type is
Survey Office in southern California confirmed the that the eye can detect small color variations much
deduction. Thus, the use of Skylab data to confirm more readily than variations in gray tones, a con-
existing maps or to create new ones has been cept demonstrated in this figure by comparing the
demonstrated in a very practical way. figure to the black-and-white pictures in Figure 7.
L2
Figure 11 is an example of how information ob-
tained from electronic sensors in digital format can
be processed to make a color photograph. The area
shown includes Lake Powell in Utah.
••©O
••too
Direction of Flight
Figure 12a Surface Brightness Temperature Plot Figure 12b High Resolution Photograph
13
Checking the Sea Level- For hundreds of years the By using the same radio altimeter on a pass in a
surface of a body of water was considered to be southeasterly direction from the United States over
flat. Then, careful observations of the surfaces of the Atlantic Ocean, the altitude of the ocean sur-
long, straight canals were used to verify the curva- face was measured and was found to vary in close
ture of the earth. The surface of the oceans was relationship to the variation in the shape of the
assumed to represent the true shape of our planet ocean floor. Figure 14 shows the ocean surface and
and altitudes were measured from sea level. the ocean floor profiles. Figure 15 shows the area
over which the sensor data was recorded.
The tides and the waves in the ocean were recog-
nized as variations from a nominal "mean sea
level".
Sea
Level,
The flights of satellites in orbit around the earth Meters
A.
XX / \
s
Sea Level
Variation;
Meters
80
\ / V f
40
•J Continental
^
North America ~-
1
GULF OF MEXICO -
I MISSISSIPPI c
Continer HI -
South A Tienci
4QE 8UE 120E 160E '
160W 120W 80W 40W 0
BUERTO RICO
Longitude, degrees
• ,••» OMM iTRENCan
Courtesy of National Geographic Society
Figure 13 Sea Level around The World Figure 15 Sky lab Flightpath
i;
Availability of Skylab Data
The last Skylab earth resources pass was flown on 228,000 feet of magnetic tape was returned. Ex-
February 1, 1974. The amount and quality of data tensive data were obtained over North America,
obtained during the three missions exceeded every Central America, South America, the Gulf of
pre-mission expectation. The sensors were operated Mexico, Eastern United States coastal waters, the
singly or in various combinations depending on the Northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the areas
scientific requirements or other factors, such as shown in Figure 4. Considerable data were ob-
bad weather and each instrument's ability to pene- tained over Europe, parts of Africa, Southeast
trate it. The data were recorded on film and mag- Asia, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia. The Skylab
netic tape and returned to the NASA Johnson data, coupled with data from the Earth Resources
Space Center for initial processing. From the three Technology Satellite (ERTS) can be used in school
Skylab missions, a total of approximately 35,000 activities such as: comparing the new data with
frames of 70 millimeter and 5,600 frames of 5-inch local maps to identify changes, making land use
film and approximately 1,320 feet of 16 millimeter surveys, mountain snow cap surveys, studying the
film were returned to earth. Also, a total of relationships of cities and natural features, etc.
Color reproductions are available at about three 6.4 inch $ 2.00 — 1:1,000,000
times the price of black and white. For more in- 12.8 inch $ 5.00 — 1:500,000
formation, contact EROS. 25.6 inch $12.00 1:250,000
15
Bibliography National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
"Skylab Earth Resources Data Catalog." Johnson
Space Center No. 09016, 1974.
Barret, Eric C.: Viewing Weather from Space. National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
Praeger, 1967. "The Spectrum." NASA FACTS, NF-54/1-75.
Beauchamp, Wilbur L.; Mayfield, John C.; and Washington B.C., 1975.
Hurd, Paul D.: Everyday Problems in Science (Unit National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
17). Scott Foreman and Company, 1968. "Why Survey From Space." NASA FACTS
Bisque, Ramon E.; Pratt, Harold; and Thompson, NF-57/1-75. Washington, B.C., 1975.
J o h n F.: E a r t h Science: Patterns in Our National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
Environment (Units 1 & 4). Prentice Hall, Inc., Ecological Surveys from Space. NASA-SP-230,
1975. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
Boyle, Charles P.: Space Among Us. Goodard B.C., 1970.
Flight Center No. X-207-72-27, June 1973. N a t i o n a l Council on Marine Resources and
Clarke, Arthur C.: "Report on Planet Three" Engineering Bevelopment: United States Activities
(More Than Five Senses). Harper and Row, 1972, in Spacecraft Oceanography. Superintendent of
and New American Library, 1973. Bocuments, Washington, B.C., No. P.E. 12.2:SP1,
Earth Science Curriculum Project: Investigating the 1967.
Earth. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973. National Geographic Society, "Remote Sensing:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration: New Eyes to See the World." National Geographic
This Island Earth, NASA SP-250, U.S. Government Magazine. Washington, B.C., January 1969.
Printing Office, Washington, B.C., 1970. National Geographic Society, "Skylab: Its View of
National Aeronautics and Space Administration: E a r t h . " N a t i o n a l Geographic Magazine,
' ' E a r t h Resources W o r k s h o p A c t i v i t y . " Washington, B.C., October 1974.
Washington, D.C., 1974. "The EROS Bata Center." Published by United
National Aeronautics and Space Administration: States Bepartment of Interior Geological Survey.
"ERTS: Activities Related to Earth Resources." EROS Bata Center, Sioux Falls, South Bakota
Washington, D.C., 1974. 57198,1972.
16
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