ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES USING EARTH ORBITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Orbital remote sensing, and particularly orbital photography, can provide immediately useful data for scientists familiar with applying aerial photographic techniques to environmental problems. Despite the expansion of analytical techniques in the earth sciences, the environmental data base has remained relatively static compared with increased information needs because of the difficulty of effective worldwide surveys and the high cost of timely data collection. Color, color infrared and black and white space photographs obtained incident to the Gemini and Apollo programs provide unique synoptic tools for analyzing modern environments and processes, and data that cannot be duplicated by aerial photographic mosaics. Principal advantages of orbital surveys include repetitious worldwide coverage promising environmental synthesis within the full spectrum of seasonal contrasts, and synoptic observations on a scale generally impossible from aircraft. The general categories of environmental data that can be extracted from orbital photography are summarized. The use of supporting sensor records, increased system resolution, and repetitious photographic coverage will maximize orbital photographic data yield. The full potential of orbital photography has not yet been exploited to define those interdisciplinary problems most realistically addressed from orbital altitudes, and the operational parameters which promise to optimize data yield. © 1969.