2000 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| MAPPING CORAL WITH LANDSAT | G00-097 | 10/24/00 | 00:08:29 | One year, 900 locations, 2800 coral reefs. That's the tally of NASA's Landsat 7 satellite as it continues to deliver cutting edge images and information about the Earth. Data being presented this week at an international conference in Indonesia is the first assessment of the physical condition of major reefs from the new Landsat 7 collection of images. More than 5000 coral reef scenes have been amassed in the first year of Landsat 7's operation. In that collection, many reefs have been seen more than once, offering scientists an opportunity to study seasonal variations as well as other changes in the reefs caused by hurricanes, boat collisions, and climate change.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Spires of Life - These images from the Landsat 7 satellite depict a number of coral reefs like delicate brush strokes of color against an indigo canvas. Landsat 7 "sees" the Earth differently than a camera. By detecting light in discrete ranges of color--or more accurately, electromagnetic bands--the instrument can tailor images to highlight particular features specific to each coral colony. Patches of bright red show places where coral reefs actively populated with living organisms.
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| ITEM (2): Telling the Tale of an Atoll - These elegant whorls of color are atolls, enclosed coral reefs almost always surrounding a lagoon. Generally speaking, atolls are the products of volcanic islands that have eroded away. Coral forms off shore from volcanic islands in tropical latitudes, developing a barrier reef that's separated by a growing lagoon. But over time the surrounding ocean wears away the main body of the island and the coral ring remains. When the island ultimately disappears from view, the remaining lagoon is left with a protective atoll.
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| ITEM (3): Calcium Communities - Coral is the ocean's architectural memorial to the lives of deceased coelenterates. The word "coelenterate" refers to the central body cavity found in the creatures. Located in tropical latitudes, the hard structures we know as coral are really the incremental build-ups of calcium carbonate deposited from the skeletal remains of these tiny colonial animals. By developing a global, searchable database of coral reefs based on state-of-the-art satellite data, researchers could have a powerful new tool for studying this vital and elegant part of the Earth's biosphere.
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| ITEM (4): Diving For Coral From Space - As scientists begin to map the world's coral, they're developing tools that combine the findings of many different instruments into a comprehensive database. This visualization shows how that kind of synthesis might fit together. More specifically, the purpose of this sequence is to demonstrate how different levels of resolution can contribute to a more refined total picture of what lives beneath the surface of the world's coastal oceans. The data sets are collected from the following sources, and listed with their corresponding levels of resolution:
Description:
SeaWiFS (NASA Instrument/U.S. satellite): 1000 meters
MOS (German instrument/Indian Satellite): 500 meters
Space Shuttle Photography: 30-50 meters
Landsat 5 (NASA instrument/U.S, Satellite): 30 meters
AISA aircraft instrument: 5 meters
Benthic Habitats Map: 2-3 meters
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| ITEM (5): Landsat Animation - From an altitude of 438 miles (730 kilometers), Landsat 7 can see the surface features as small as 15 meters, providing world-wide land resource information for a diverse range of uses. The satellite is part of a global research effort, NASA calls the Earth Science Enterprise, which seeks to acquire a long term understanding of the changes to our planet. Landsat 7 is the latest in a series of satellites. It roared into orbit aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket on April 15, 1999 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
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| ITEM (6): SeaWiFS Animation - SeaWiFS is the scientific portion of the OrbView-2 satellite, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 423 miles (705 kilometers). By providing a regular picture of the planet's color, SeaWifs helps researchers learn about the state of the world's interconnected ecosystems. SeaStar blasted into space on August 1, 1997 lifted by an extended Pegasus rocket. SeaWiFS is considered a low cost mission, many orders of magnitude less extensive than earlier Earth observing instruments.
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| ITEM (7): Jewels of the Earth (Reporter Package) - This coral reef off the coast of Florida is similar to reefs found all over the globe. But unless a scientist was able to visit every single one for comparison, it would be difficult to study the planet's sum total. So, to the question; how to get prospective on a subject scattered all around the Earth? The answer: stand back to take it all in. With the Landsat 7 satellite that's just what NASA did. From its vantage of 438 miles above the planet, this latest in a series of Earth observing satellites captured more than 5000 scenes of the world's coral reefs, effectively making a census evaluation of the entire planet's coral health.
In this sampling of Landsat images, red areas show where organisms are actively thriving, while other colors provide additional information. Perhaps most valuable for experts is the ability these images give them to study changes in coral reefs over time. With careful monitoring, government agencies around the world can not only better preserve these jewels of the Earth, but also infer significant clues to important environmental trends.
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Earth Science Gallery