NASA geology program bibliography

A bibliography of scientific papers, articles, and books based on research supported by the NASA Geology Program is given. The citations cover the period 1980 to 1990. An author index is included

Nasa's Land Remote Sensing Plans for the 1980's

Research since the launch of LANDSAT-1 has been primarily directed to the development of analysis techniques and to the conduct of applications studies designed to address resource information needs in the United States and in many other countries. The current measurement capabilities represented by MSS, TM, and SIR-A and B, coupled with the present level of remote sensing understanding and the state of knowledge in the discipline earth sciences, form the foundation for NASA's Land Processes Program. Science issues to be systematically addressed include: energy balance, hydrologic cycle, biogeochemical cycles, biological productivity, rock cycle, landscape development, geological and botanical associations, and land surface inventory, monitoring, and modeling. A global perspective is required for using remote sensing technology for problem solving or applications context. A successful model for this kind of activity involves joint research with a user entity where the user provides a test site and ground truth and NASA provides the remote sensing techniques to be tested

Exploration for fossil and nuclear fuels from orbital altitudes

Results from the ERTS program pertinent to exploration for oil, gas, and uranium are discussed. A review of achievements in relevant geological studies from ERTS, and a survey of accomplishments oriented towards exploration for energy sources are presented along with an evaluation of the prospects and limitations of the space platform approach to fuel exploration, and an examination of continuing programs designed to prove out the use of ERTS and other space system in exploring for fuel resources

Quarterly literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

The Technology Application Center reviewed abstracted literature sources, and selected document data and data gathering techniques which were performed or obtained remotely from space, aircraft or groundbased stations. All of the documentation was related to remote sensing sensors or the remote sensing of the natural resources. Sensors were primarily those operating within the 10 to the minus 8 power to 1 meter wavelength band. Included are NASA Tech Briefs, ARAC Industrial Applications Reports, U.S. Navy Technical Reports, U.S. Patent reports, and other technical articles and reports

Selected bibliography of remote sensing

Bibliography of remote sensing techniques for analysis and assimilation of geographic dat

Multistage, multiband and sequential imagery to identify and quantify non-forest vegetation resources

Earth Resources photographs from Apollo 6, 7, and 9 and photographs taken during Gemini 4, were used in the research along with high altitude and conventional aerial photography. A unified land use and resource analysis system was devised and used to develop a mapping legend. The natural vegetation, land use, macrorelief, and landforms of northern Maricopa County, Arizona, were analyzed and inventoried. This inventory was interpreted in relation to the critical problem of urban expansion and agricultural production in the study area. The central thrust of the research program has been to develop methods for use of space and small-scale, high-altitude aerial photography to develop information for land use planning and resource allocation decisions

Applying Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) spectral indices for geological mapping and mineral identification on the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau holds clues to understanding the dynamics and mechanisms associated with continental growth. Part of the region is characterized by zones of ophiolitic melange believed to represent the remnants of ancient oceanic crust and underlying upper mantle emplaced during oceanic closures. However, due to the remoteness of the region and the inhospitable terrain many areas have not received detailed investigation. Increased spatial and spectral resolution of satellite sensors have made it possible to map in greater detail the mineralogy and lithology than in the past. Recent work by Yoshiki Ninomiya of the Geological Survey of Japan has pioneered the use of several spectral indices for the mapping of quartzose, carbonate, and silicate rocks using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) thermal infrared (TIR) data. In this study, ASTER TIR indices have been applied to a region in western-central Tibet for the purposes of assessing their effectiveness for differentiating ophiolites and other lithologies. The results agree well with existing geological maps and other published data. The study area was chosen due to its diverse range of rock types, including an ophiolitic melange, associated with the Bangong-Nujiang suture (BNS) that crops out on the northern shores of Lagkor Tso and Dong Tso ("Tso" is Tibetan for lake). The techniques highlighted in this paper could be applied to other geographical regions where similar geological questions need to be resolved. The results of this study aim to show the utility of ASTER TIR imagery for geological mapping in semi-arid and sparsely vegetated areas on the Tibetan Plateau.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Published in the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Information Science, Volume XXXVIII, pp. 464-469. For associated web page, see http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVIII/part8/headline/PS-1%20Interactive%20PresentationWG%20VIII5.htm

Earth resources, a continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 541 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Textural and Rule-based Lithological Classification of Remote Sensing Data, and Geological Mapping in Southwestern Prieska Sub-basin, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa

Although remote sensing has been widely used in geological investigations, the lithological classification of the area interested, based on medium-spatial and spectral resolution satellite data, is often not successful because of the complicated geological situation and other factors like inadequate methodology applied and wrong geological models. The study area of the present thesis is located in southwest of the Prieska sub-basin, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa. This area includes mainly Neoarchean and Proterozoic sedimentary rocks partly uncomfortably covered by uppermost Paleozoic and lower Mesozoic rocks and Tertiary to recent soils and sands. The Precambrian rocks include various formations of volcanic and intrusive rocks, quartzites, shales, platform carbonates and Banded Iron Formations (BIF). The younger rocks and soils include dikes and shales, glacial sedimentary rocks, coarser siliciclastic rocks, calcretes, aeolian and fluvial sands, etc. Prospect activity for mineral deposits necessitates the detailed geological map (1:100000) of the area. In this research, a new rule-based classification system (RBS) was put forward, integrating spectral characteristics, textural features and ancillary data, such as general geological map (1:250000) and elevation data, in order to improve the lithological classification accuracy and the subsequent mapping accuracy in the study area. The proposed technique was mainly based on Landsat TM data and ASTER data with medium resolution. As ancillary data sets, topographic maps and general geological map were also available. Software like ERDAS©, Matlab©, and ArcGIS© supported the procedures of classification and mapping. The newly developed classification technique was performed by three steps. Firstly, the geographic and atmospheric correction was performed on the original TM and ASTER data, following the principal component analysis (PCA) and band ratioing, to enhance the images and to obtain data sets like principal components (PCs) and ratio bands. Traditional maximum-likelihood supervised classification (MLC) was performed individually on enhanced multispectral image and principal components image (PCs-image). For TM data, the classification accuracy based on PCs-image was higher than that based on multispectral image. For ASTER data, the classification accuracy of PCs- image was close to but lower, than that of multispectral image. As one of the encountered Banded Iron Formations, the Griquatown Banded Iron Formation (G-BIF) was recognized well in TM-principal components image (PCs-image). In the second step, textural features of different lithological types based on TM data were analyzed. Grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) based textural features were computed individually from band 5 and the first principal component (PC1) of TM data. Geostatistics-based textural features were computed individually from the 6 TM multispectral bands and 3 principal components (PC1, PC2 and PC3). These two kinds of textural features were individually stacked as extra layers together with the original 6 multispectral bands and the 6 principal components to form several new data sets. Ratio bands were also individually stacked as extra layers with 6 multispectral bands and 6 principal components, to form other new data sets. In the same way new data sets were formed based on ASTER data. Then, all of the new data sets were individually classified using a maximum likelihood supervised classification (MLC), to produce several classified thematic images. The classification accuracy based on the new data sets are higher than that solely based on the spectral characteristics of original TM and ASTER data. It should be noticed that for one specific rock type, the class value in all classified images should correspond to its identified (ID) value in digital geological map. The third step was to perform the rule-based system (RBS) classification. In the first part of the RBS, two classified images were analyzed and compared. The analysis was based on the classification results in the first step, and the elevation data detracted from the topographic map. In comparison, the pixels with high possibility of being classified correctly (consistent pixels) and the pixels with high possibility of being misclassified (inconsistent pixels) were separately marked. In the second part of the RBS, the class values of consistent pixels were kept unchanged, and the class values of inconsistent pixels were replaced by their values in digital geological map (1:250000). Compared to the results solely based on spectral characteristics of TM data (54.3%) and ASTER data (66.41%), the new RBS classification improved the accuracy (83.2%) significantly. Based on the classification results, the detailed lithological map (1:100000) of the study area was edited. Photo-lineaments were interpreted from multi data source (MDS), including enhanced satellite images, slope images, shaded relief images and drainage maps. The interpreted lineaments were compared to those, digitized from general geological map and followed by a simple lineament analysis compared to published literatures. The results show the individual merits of lineament detection from MDS and general geological map. A final lineament map (1:100000) was obtained by integrating all the information. Ground check field work was carried out in 2009, to verify the classification and mapping, and the results were subsequently incorporated into the mapping and the classification procedures. Finally, a GIS-based detailed geological map (1:100000) of the study area was obtained, compiling the newly gained information from the performed classification and lineament analysis, from the field work and from published and available unpublished detailed geological maps. The here developed methods are proposed to be used for generation of new, detailed geological maps or updates of existent general geological maps by implementing the latest satellite images and all available ancillary data sets. Although final ground check field work is irreplaceable by remote sensing, the here presented research demonstrates the great potential and future prospects in lithological classification and geological mapping, for mineral exploration