Dynamic Earth Environments

Book excerpt: The U.S./Russian collaboration that used the Space Shuttle and the Mir Space Station as platforms for acquiring remote sensing information about the Earth between 1996 and 1998 produced significant scientific results on hydrology, land use, and changes in some of the Earth's most dynamic environments. Many of these outstanding images are presented here and compared with photographs taken during earlier missions, allowing detection of changes on the Earth's surface. Studies reported in this fascinating volume include observations of El Niño-related phenomena; fluctuating water levels of the Caspian and Aral Seas; smoke, dust, and aerosols in the atmosphere; urban land use changes; and drought in the southeastern United States and Mexico. This valuable information, and the techniques used to gather it, will form the basis for future remote sensing studies to be conducted from the International Space Station.