Elephant damage to vegetation in Botswana

At the junction of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers, Botswana, increasing elephant populations are having large impacts on local vegetation. Scientists working in the region used spectral analysis of an astronaut photograph digitized from film to identify areas where woodland vegetation had been heavily damaged by the elephants. The technique used the analysis of texture of the red band (or channel) in the image.

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Astronaut photograph STS008-33-993 was taken from the Space Shuttle in September 1983 and was provided by the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. Results and field photograph courtesy of J. A. Robinson and K. P. Lulla (Johnson Space Center), M. D. Nellis (West Virginia University), and C. E. Bussing (Kansas State University). Another astronaut photograph example used in the Robinson et al. paper showed tidal flats in the Ariake Sea, Japan, and was previously posted to Earth Observatory. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA-JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Published August 26, 2001

Collection:

Astronaut Photography