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A photographic test flight of the NASA RB-57F was conducted on March 25, 1972, over Houston and West Texas, to determine the suitability of Eastman Kodak type 3400 film as a replacement for type 2402 film in the Hasselblad cameras. An additional purpose was to test GAF film type 2914, a new black and white film similar to 2402, but with higher maximum gamma and greater dynamic range.
A comprehensive land use planning process model is being developed in Meade County, South Dakota, using remote sensing technology. The proper role of remote sensing in the land use planning process is being determined by interaction of remote sensing specialists with local land use planners. The data that were collected by remote sensing techniques are as follows: (1) level I land use data interpreted at a scale of 1:250,000 from false color enlargement prints of ERTS-1 color composite transparencies; (2) detailed land use data interpreted at a scale of 1:24,000 from enlargement color prints of high altitude RB-57 photography; and (3) general soils map interpreted at a scale of 1:250,000 from false color enlargement prints of ERTS-1 color composite transparencies. In addition to use of imagery as an interpretation aid, the utility of using photographs as base maps was demonstrated.
Analysis of ERTS-I imagery to delimit, map, and monitor photomorphic regions of landscape dynamics is illustrated. Satellite observations were made over strip mining areas on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee; agricultural regions in Tennessee, Kentucky, and portions of northern Alabama and Mississippi; urban-suburban growth areas in Knoxville; and flooded areas within the Mississippi River floodplain. Production and analysis of maps of these areas made from ERTS imagery and RB-57 high altitude aircraft imagery are described and compared. The difficulties encountered in analyzing landscape change in or near urban areas are enumerated (small area size, extreme density of settlement, high reflectance characteristics), and the significance of the results of this investigation is noted.
An RB-57F high-altitude aircraft equipped with Wilde RC-8 cameras and an infrared spectrometer was used in the investigations. A storm was overflown over Graham, Texas, on April 29, 1970. In the experiment, the average radiometric temperature was determined to be very near the environmental temperature near the cloud tops. However, hot and cold regions in and near the updrafts and downdrafts were found to be significantly out of equilibrium. It is recommended that caution should be exercised in determining cloud top altitude from equivalent blackbody temperature.
Mineralogical, petrological, and chemical analyses, along with Rb-Sr age and Ar-40/Ar-39 measurements, were carried out with the B-1 sample returned from the Luna 16 mission. The sample, weighing 62 mg, is a fine-grain basalt of ophitic structure. It differs from the Apollo samples in that the pyroxene and plagioclass contents are almost identical, and the ilmenite content (7%) lies between those of the Apollo-11 and Apollo-12 samples. Chemically, it is characterized by a high Sr content and a high K/U ratio.
Sieve fraction analyses of lunar soils reveal the presence of a fine-grained exotic component enriched in K, Rb, Sr, Ba, and in radiogenic Sr in all soils. The probable source of this exotic component is the areas of high-surficial radioactivity observed by orbital gamma ray spectrometry, such as those at Fra Mauro and Archimedes. If the exotic component is fine-grained KREEP, the origin and distribution of KREEP fragments in the soils are identified. It is suggested that the exotic component represents trace element enriched material located at some depth in the Imbrium area which was surficially deposited during Imbrium excavation.
A number of samples obtained during the Apollo 17 mission give direct evidence of lunar processes occurring more than 4 aeons ago. The significance of Rb-Sr data for the history of the involved materials is discussed and mineral isochrons are presented for an Apollo 17 mare basalt. Data on a number of Apollo 17 soils and on some Apollo 15 and 16 whole-rock samples are also presented.
This report consists of an analysis of: ERTS-1 Multispectral Scanner imagery obtained 10 August 1973; Skylab 3 S190A and S190B photography, track 29, taken 21 September 1973; and RB-57 high-altitude aircraft photography acquired 26 September 1973. These data products were acquired on three cloud-free days within a 47-day period. The objectives of this study were: (1) to make quantitative comparisons between high-altitude aircraft photography and satellite imagery, and (2) to demonstrate the extent to which high resolution (S190A and B) space-acquired data can be used for land use/vegetation mapping and management of drainage basins.
A project was undertaken in Meade County, South Dakota to provide (1) a general county-wide resource survey of land use and soils and (2) a detailed survey of land use for the environmentally sensitive area adjacent to the Black Hills. Imagery from LANDSAT-1 was visually interpreted to provide land use information and a general soils map. A detailed land use map for the Black Hills area was interpreted from RB-57 photographs and interpretations of soil characteristics were input into a computer data base and mapped. The detailed land use data were then used in conjunction with soil maps to provide information for the development of zoning ordinance maps and other land use planning in the Black Hills area. The use of photographs as base maps was also demonstrated. In addition, the use of airborne thermography to locate spoilage areas in sugar beet piles and to determine the apparent temperature of rooftops was evaluated.
LANDSAT-1, Skylab, and RB-57 imagery acquired within days of each other of the San Rafael swell enabled geological mapping of individual formations of the southern portion of this broad anticlinal feature in eastern Utah. Mapping at a scale of 1/250,000 on an enhanced and enlarged S-190B image resulted in a geological map showing correlative mappable features that are indicated on the geological map of Utah at the same scale. An enhanced enlargement of an S-190B color image at a scale of 1/19,200 of the Bingham Porphyry Copper deposit allowed comparison of a geological map of the area with the space imagery map as fair for the intrusion boundaries and total lack of quality for mapping the sediments. Hydrothermal alteration is only slightly evident on space imagery at Bingham but in the Tintic mining district and the volcanic piles of the Keg and Thomas ranges, Utah, hydrothermal alteration is readily mapped on color enlargements of S-190B (SL-3, T3-3N Tr-2). A mercury soil-gas analyzer was developed for locating hidden mineralized zones which were suggested from space imagery.
An energy budget approach to evaluating the SKYLAB X/5-detector S-192 data for prediction of soil moisture and evapotranspiration rate was pursued. A test site which included both irrigated and dryland agriculture in Southern Texas was selected for the SL-4 SKYLAB mission. Both vegetated and fallow fields were included. Data for a multistage analysis including ground, NC-130B aircraft, RB-57F aircraft, and SKYLAB altitudes were collected. The ground data included such measurements as gravimetric soil moisture, percent of the ground covered by green vegetation, soil texture, net radiation, soil temperature gradients, surface emittance, soil heat flux, air temperature and humidity gradients, and cultural practices. Ground data were used to characterize energy budgets and to evaluate the utility of an energy budget approach for determining soil moisture differences among twelve specific agricultural fields.
The author has identified the following significant results. S190B imagery was the best single product from which fairly detailed structural and some lithologic mapping could be accomplished in the Big Horn basin, the Owl Creek Mountains, and the northern Big Horn Mountains. The Nye-Bowler lineament could not be extended east of its presently mapped location although a linear (fault or monocline) was noted that may be part of the lineament, but north of postulated extensions. Much more structure was discernible in the Big Horn basin than could be seen on LANDSAT-1 imagery; RB-57 color IR photography, in turn, revealed additional folds and faults. A number of linears, several of which could be identified as faults and one a monocline, cut obliquely the east-west trending Owl Creek uplift. The heavy forest cover of the Black Hills makes direct lithologic delineation impossible. However, drainage and linear overlays revealed differences in pattern between the areas of exposed Precambrian crystalline core and the flanking Paleozoic rocks. S192 data, even precision corrected segments, were not of much use.
The two-dimensional images acquired by satellite-borne instruments are continuous, they supplement surface data, subsurface data, and other geophysical data, and they can cut the amount of field work required for a given task by a whole order of magnitude. Images acquired with instruments mounted on the Apollo and Skylab orbiting spacecraft, and on the RB-57 and U-2 aircraft, are displayed and discussed.
A radiochemical neutron activation method has been developed and applied to determine the content of 20 trace elements (Ag, Au, Bi, Br, Cd, Co, Cs, Cu, Ga, Ge, In, Ir, Ni, Rb, Re, Sb, Te, Tl, and Zn) in 45 terrestrial, 230 lunar, and 70 meteoritic samples. Results obtained for the U.S.G.S. standard basalt BCR-1 indicate that the inherent precision for most elements is 10% or better. The values obtained for the trace elements investigated are compared to those previously reported in the literature. Data for Type I carbonaceous chondrites show their compositions to be far more uniform than previously supposed. The values obtained for several elements represent significant revisions in the accepted cosmic abundances. These new values include: Zn, 1250; Cd, 1.51; and Ir, 0.72 atoms/million Si atoms. Further results have provided insight into the meteoritic material and accretion of the moon, and give evidence of lunar highland vulcanism.
Land cover information from a 10 by 30 km test site in eastern Wisconsin extracted using 70 mm positive LANDSAT transparencies in an additive color viewer at a scale of 1:500,000 was compared with land cover information extracted using LANDSAT 9 x 9 inch positive transparencies at a scale of 1:1,000,000. Color infrared photography (NASA RB-57) at a scale of 1:60,000 provided ground truth for each land cover type. Interpretations were made for four land cover classes: 1) forest-brushland; (2) structures-barren land; (3) surface water; and (4) agricultural-open land. Statistical comparisons showed that neither method for the extraction of this data was clearly superior.
A hierarchical resource analysis was applied to remote sensing data to provide maps at Planning Levels I and III (Anderson et al., U.S. Geological Survey Circular 671) for Meade County, S. Dak. Level I land use and general soil maps were prepared by visual interpretation of imagery from a false color composite of Landsat MSS bands 4, 5, and 7 and single bands (5 and 7). A modified Level III land use map was prepared for the Black Hills area from RB-57 photography enlarged to a scale of 1:24,000. Level III land use data were used together with computer-generated interpretive soil maps to analyze relationships between developed and developing areas and soil criteria.
Radiochemical neutron activation is applied to the analysis of four C3V chondrites and three C3O chondrites for 17 trace elements (U, Re, Ir, Ni, Au, Sb, Ge, Ag, Rb, Cs, Bi, Tl, Br, Se, Te, In, and Cd). It is shown that both classes exhibit a typical chondritic step pattern, reflecting loss of volatiles during chondrule formation. It appears that the H2S/H2 ratio is the key variable to account for the condensation of chalcophile elements as a function of H2S. C3O's seem to have condensed in a region where enough metallic Fe was present to buffer the H2S pressure, whereas C3V's condensed in a more oxidized region where H2S was in excess. Accretion temperatures for both subclasses is determined. Sb and Au show variable depletion, presumably reflecting variable loss during chondrule formation.
Iron, calcium, aluminum, silicon, and sulfur are major elements in the first surface sample of Mars that has been analyzed by the Viking X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Titanium is present in minor quantities. This is consistent with the sample's being a mixture of fine silicate and oxide mineral grains, with a significant proportion of sulfates, possibly hydrated. Ferric oxide is regarded as the red pigmenting agent on the Martian surface, but if it coats silicate grains, the coatings must be very thin or discontinuous. A high abundance of Fe, relatively low abundances of Al, Rb, Sr, and Zr, and a high Ca/K ratio are distinctive features of the spectra. Preliminary determinations indicate the following abundances (as percentages by weight): Fe, 14 plus or minus 2; Ti, less than 1; S, 2 to 5; the Ca/K ratio by weight is greater than 5.