University of Virginia Library

Aerial Photos To Show
Environmental Changes

From 60,000 feet, the earth
below appears in patterns.
Fragments of polluted rivers and
crowded highways can be viewed
with perspective from this altitude.

Taking advantage of this
viewpoint, scientists from the
department of environmental
sciences at the University and the
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
at Gloucester Point are
participating in a study to record
the present state of the
environment on the Mid-Atlantic
coastal region through photographs
taken from a jet at high altitudes.

"Up to now, there hasn't been
any accurate and complete overall
picture of the Philadelphia - Baltimore - Norfolk - Wilmington,
N.C., coastal area.

With photographs taken from
this altitude, we can trace traffic
patterns on major highways such as
Interstate 95, spot pollution in the
Delaware or James Rivers and
Baltimore harbor and find the
sources, check soil moisture in
farmlands in the Shenandoah
Valley and even identify corn blight
on crops," says H. Grant Goodell,
professor of environmental sciences
at the University and principal
investigator on the project.

To get the pictures, a careful
selection of film - each type
designed to emphasize some aspect
of the landscape - is loaded into
nine cameras in the bottom of a
R B-57, a high altitude
reconnaissance plane. As the jet
crisscrosses the countryside at
speeds of 400 miles per hour, each
camera is automatically triggered to
snap a picture every minute.

During the flights, Mr. Goodell
and his associates ride in a light
plane at a lower altitude and take
additional photographs to help in
making annotated maps.

Graduate students work from
helicopters gathering water samples
from the areas photographed to
check water temperature and color,
salinity and the number of
pentatonic organisms.

At the end of the six days
needed for the jet to cover the
40,000 square mile area, miles of
film and thousands of photographs
are available for the scientists to
study. (Requests already received
from government agencies and
universities for copies of the films
will send the total to more than
400 rolls.)

Mission 144, as the project is
called by its sponsor, the National
Aeronautics and Space

Administration, is a
multidisciplinary effort. Not only
geographers and ecologists are
involved, but city planners from the
University's School of Architecture
and specialists in urban and local
government from the department
of government and foreign affairs.

"We are concerned with both
human and natural damage to the
environment. One of the purposes
of this study is to make available to
city planners and zoners, in a form
they can use, information showing
the effects metropolitan areas have
on the surrounding countryside.

The photographs help planners
keep track of changes in the use of
land - what farmland has been
converted to factory sites and what
urban land is now vacant," said Mr.
Goodell.

The faculty members will work
to identify the way man changes
the environment, the long-range
effects of such changes and ways to
educate local officials to the
dangers of these urban influences.

The project, which is funded by
NASA through the U.S. Geological
Survey, is designed as a continuing
study.

"This first series of flights is
only a beginning. We have another
flight scheduled in April when wave
and water conditions are different.
Ultimately, we hope to establish
the feasibility of monitoring the
quality of the environment from an
orbiting satellite.

"For now, however, the two sets
of photographs will provide a base
from which we will be able to
detect changes occurring in the
environment and perhaps stop the
damage before it becomes too
severe," said Mr. Goodell.