Michael R. Helfert

Monitoring tropical environments with Space Shuttle photography

Abstract Orbital photography from the Space Shuttle missions (1981–88) and earlier manned spaceflight programs (1962–1975) allows remote sensing time series to be constructed for observations of environmental change in selected portions of the global tropics. Particular topics and regions include deforestation, soil erosion, supersedimentation in streams, lacustrine, and estuarine environments, and desertification in the Greater Amazon, Tropical Africa and Madagascar, South & Southeast Asia, and the Indo‐Pacific archipelagoes.

The decrease of lake Chad as documented during twenty years of manned space flight

Abstract Space photography has been sucessfully used to extend the space remote sensing data base for environmental monitoring by a decade. In this study of Lake Chad, space photographs were digitized and registered to a topographic base map before water classifications were performed. From 1966 to 1985 we observed over a 21,000 square kilometer decrease in lake surface area.

The NASA space shuttle earth observations office

Abstract The NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Office conducts astronaut training in Earth observations, provides orbital documentation for acquisition of data, and catalogues and analyzes the astronaut handheld photography upon the return of Space Shuttle missions. This paper provides backgrounds on these Junctions and outlines the data constraints, organization, formats, and modes of access within the public domain.

Earth observations during Space Shuttle flight STS-26: Discovery's mission to earth - September 29-October 3, 1988

Summary During the late September‐early October, 1988 flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, astronauts took 1505 photographs of Earth using handheld cameras. The resulting pictures provide an overview, not available from any other source, of dynamic environmental phenomena on five continents. The Discovery photographs show that (a) atmospheric clarity has improved in the Northern Hemisphere, (b) widespread burning of natural vegetation throughout the Southern Hemisphere continues to generate immense smoke palls and extensive sedimentation in rivers and estuaries, and (c) although the drought in Africa was partially relieved by heavy rains in autumn, 1988, Lakes Chad and Nasser are at the lowest levels ever seen from space.

The NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Database for Global Change Science

The NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Database is a valuable source of data for research and reconstruction of Earth’s recent environmental history and thus for assessment of the human impact on global Earth processes. This data source, although having the longest length-of-record of any space-derived global change database, has not been fully exploited by scientists studying global changes. With the inception of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth programme there is a need to integrate these important data into global change studies.

Smoke palls induced by Kuwaiti oilfield fires mapped from space shuttle imagery

Abstract The Kuwaiti oil fires and their associated smoke have led to many speculations and hypotheses by various scientists and the world press. The environmental impact of this phenomenon has yet to be modeled and understood with confidence. Some models predict adverse effects impacting millions of people from Africa to the Indian subcontinent; others predict regional impacts, or do not aggregate to the level of large‐scale and deleterious environmetal consequences. We have initially mapped and delineated the oil fires and attendant smoke palls using Space Shuttle imagery in order to initiate further scientific analyses required to assess this environmental disaster.

Earth observations during space shuttle flight STS‐41: Discovery's mission to planet earth

An overview of space flight STS-41 is presented, including personal observations and comments by the mission astronauts. The crew deployed the Ulysses spacecraft to study the polar regions of the sun and the interplanetary space above the poles. Environmental observations, including those of Lake Turkana, Lake Chad, biomass burning in Madagascar and Argentina, and circular features in Yucatan are described. Observations that include landforms and geology, continental sedimentation, desert landscapes, and river morphology are discussed.

Earth observations during space shuttle flight STS‐35: Columbia's mission to planet earth, December 2–10, 1990

Some of the most significant earth-viewing imagery obtained during Space Shuttle Columbias flight STS-35, December 2-10, 1990, is reviewed with emphasis on observations of the Southern Hemisphere. In particular, attention is given to environmental observations in areas of Madagascar, Brazil, and Persian Gulf; observation of land resources (Namibia, offshore Australia); and observations of ocean islands (Phillipines, Indonesia, and Reunion). Some of the photographs are included.

Earth observations during Space Shuttle flight STS-29 - Discovery's voyage to the earth

The environmental, geologic, meteorologic, and oceanographic phenomena documented by earth photography during the Space Shuttle STS-29 mission are reviewed. A map of the nadir point positions of earth-viewing photographs from the mission is given and color photographs of various regions are presented. The mission photographs include atmospheric dust and smoke over parts of Africa and Asia, Sahelian water sites, center pivot irrigation fields in the Middle East, urban smog over Mexico City, isolated burning in the Bolivian Amazon, and various ocean features and cloud formations.

Earth observations during space shuttle mission STS‐45 mission to planet earth March 24—April 2, 1992

A description is presented of the activities and results of the Space Shuttle mission STS-45, known as the Mission to Planet Earth. Observations of Mount St. Helens, Manila Bay and Mt. Pinatubo, the Great Salt Lake, the Aral Sea, and the Siberian cities of Troitsk and Kuybyshev are examined. The geological features and effects of human activity seen in photographs of these areas are pointed out.