Color, color infrared, and minus-blue films obtained by RB-57 remote sensing aircraft at an altitude of 60,000 feet over Boca Raton and Southeast Florida Earth Resources Test Site were analyzed for nine different types of photographic images of the geographic patterns of the surface. Results of these analyses are briefly described

Latham, J. P.

English

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A3
Section Two: Study D
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENTAL DISTURBANCE*
James P. Latham
In October 1969 and November 1970, a NASA RB57 remote
sensing aircraft at an altitude of 60,000 feet over the
Boca Raton and Southeast Florida Earth Resources Test Site
recorded simultaneously in Color, Color Infrared, and
Minus-blue films nine different types of photographic
images of the geographic patterns on the surface. The
entire area can be overflown in less than four hours.
Focal lengths varying from 40 to 250 millimeters were used
on the nest of six Hasselblad cameras, 6 inch lens were
used on two RC-8 cameras, and a 12 inch lens was used on
the Zeiss mapping camera.
An analysis of the 1 to 60,000 scale color infrared
imagery of the Miami area includes the Turkey Point
shoreline of south Biscayne Bay. It shows cooling canal
which runs southward toward its future warm rendezvous
with the Bay. The synoptic view obtain also displays
land use patterns which include the Homestead Air Force
Base. The urban patterns of southeastern Miami, which
include undeveloped bayfront lands currently proposed
for an ambitious and disputed conversion to residential
and recreational use, can be studied in this imagery.
The strong red tones show the extent of mangrove fringe
areas which many consider vital to the ecology of the
Bay. But this synoptic view also indicates the nearness
of this phenomena to the expanding population of south
Miami. At somewhat smaller scale, one sees the Palm
Beach environment with Peanut Island, the Port, and part
of a proposed state recreation park on Singer Island -
all current focal points of environmental change and
pollution or land use disputes.
In Apollo 9 imagery, the recently re-aligned path
of the Kissimmee River can be seen moving toward Lake
Okeechobee in a now rather business-like manner. At
60,000 feet, the 40 millimeter lens of a Hasselblad
camera demonstrates that the River is indeed now hard
*Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeast
Division, Association of American Geographers, Columbia,
South Caroline, November 23, 1970.
100
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19720016764 2020-03-23T13:05:54+00:00Z
at work, with its increased velocity busily transporting
a flow of natural and culturally-generated sediments into
the Lake. The 80 millimeter lens provides a closer but
less synoptic look. Some recent reports indicate that
algae is being formed in the Lake from the excess amounts
of fertilizer carried into the basin. However, a July
1970 interim report from a U.S. Geological Survey team
assures us that massive eutrophication is not yet
indicated. The view with a 250 millimeter lens should
discourage complacency, as Figure A demonstrates.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Lake, Belle Glade
peacefully nestles amidst its reassuringly prosperous
field patterns, as detected from 15,000 feet with Ektakrome
imagery. It is noticeable that there is some discrepancy
in the reflectance characteristics of the water in the
two borrow pits that are side-by-side at the left center
exit of the transverse canal. In a color infrared view,
the second pit is more obvious and it is clear there is
a considerable disturbance between it and the canal.
At 5,000 feet, a color view reinforces the previous
impression that the second pit's waters do indeed seem
different, and a same altitude but further enlarged
color infrared image, as seen in Figure B, confirms a
growing impression that all is not sweet in the land of
sugar cane. The sewerage treatment plant is to the east,
but more interesting is the unhealthy billious yellow
mass floating on the water, and the reddish hook reaching
into it.
But of course our "ground truth" team is under the
aircraft, and provides firm, flag waving evidence of the
nature of the colorful mass floating at the south end of
the borrow pit. As Figure C demonstrates, radishes,
squash, and other field crop debris look less attractive
in Color infrared.
There is some evidence that this health store
cocktail is finding its way into the nearby canal, and
subsequently may reach the Hillsboro Canal, which enters
the Alantic Ocean via the lovely Boca Raton Inlet.
From 1,000 feet, a low oblique color slide displays
an informative pattern. But a recent experiment with
the new Minus-blue film, does suggest that it's capacity
for penatrating water surfaces may be particularly useful,
and indications are that when used in the vertical axis
a greater water penetration is achieved, as demonstrated
in an image which provides some detail of the first
underwater reef off the north Boca Raton Beach.
101
Figure A.
.Black and White prints from
Color Infrared photographs
discussed in text.
Figure B,
Figure C.
102
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Remote sensing of environmental disturbance

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