Environmentalists from orbit monitor every tree

A variety of spy satellites have allowed not only to follow the global processes on the planet. Now environmentalists can literally trace the fate of each tree. But the scale and location they need to quickly find problem rayony.Sputniki observer Earth has become the primary tool for ecologists. Registers should be not only natural phenomena such as fires or hurricanes, but also for the changes being made in the face of the planet people. In only one Earth Observing System (EOS), a special program for monitoring the Earth NASA, has served more than 20 satellites, and each of them is slightly different instrumentov.Chut more than a decade ago, when the EOS just started, many have questioned the need for such wide array of "spies" in the near-Earth space. But the years have convinced scientists at the feasibility of this approach. The fact that different satellites have different tasks. Their sensitive devices - spectrometers, radiometers, and various probes are working with different energy bands, from infrared to X-ray, and with different resolution. Therefore, what one sees, the other is unavailable, and vice versa. What is needed permission to scientists, depends on what they want to study: global, regional or local processes. Kalimantan in fokusePrekrasny example of a phenomenon that requires both a detailed and extensive observations - cutting of tropical forests. It is illustrated by his given image. Snapshot, which is located on the left, is made in natural colors with a tool ETM satellite NASA Landsat 7. The original photo has a resolution of 300 meters per pixel and covers an area about 22 km wide. Here you see the difference between plantation forests and untouched part of the Malaysian island of Borneo. Green plantations photo paler than the surrounding forest. Besides plantation divided into rectangular sections of the road. According to this scale can draw conclusions about the overall magnitude of changes in forest cover planety.Bolee detailed images shown on the right, made commercial satellite Ikonos. It has a natural color (it was extended only to sharpen the photo), the resolution of 1 meter per pixel and covers a rectangular area with a long side of 720 m. In the left image the same area is enclosed in a white rectangle. This original image can be discerned even some palm trees. The level of detail allows you to make conclusions, as it uses the land converted from forests to plantations, soon to see recent changes. However, to provide an overall picture, you must either make an expensive and lengthy step by step throughout the filming, or use these tools with a lower resolution. Wood for derevyamiPredstavlennye photos were taken in 2002 (Ikonos) and 2003 (Landsat), respectively. However, it is now, they drew attention to an ecologist at the University of Montana Ranning Steven (Steven W. Running). In his article published on the website NASA, he wrote that it was the satellites have become today an essential tool for both global and local ecology. That orbital tool allows to monitor both the expansion of deserts, deforestation and the Arctic ice, and for levels of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere. Ecologist calls on the international community not to forget about it and pay more attention to the development of space environment on satellites programm.Vmeste Infox.ru also sensitively monitors all the changes on our planet.