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| Coral Reefs |
| Overview |
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Underlying Science Healthy coral reefs sustain local and national economies through fisheries, coastal protection, and tourism. In spite of these benefits, it has been estimated that 58% of coral reefs globally are threatened by human activities. Scientists still lack basic data about the locations, spatial extent and health of reefs. Major efforts are underway in the U.S. and around the world to improve the mapping information on coral reefs. Astronaut photographs are a unique data source for these efforts because data on reefs has been collected for many years, and the images are available in the public domain. Of particular value is the fact that the astronauts actively looked for low-cloud opportunities, and used them to photograph reef areas. Astronaut photographs can be used as primary data for maps of the locations of reef crests and as supplemental data for use with other satellite images, especially when it is important to distinguish small clouds from reef areas. Applications Astronaut photographs are being used as base layers in an international compilation of information on coral reefs and their resources, known as ReefBase. Images have also been included in a prototype reef data distribution system that uses data from the SeaWiFS satellite sensor as a backbone for distribution of reef remote sensing data from a number of different satellites. Investigations comparing the level of detail that can be mapped from an astronaut photograph compared to other satellite data are nearing completion. The Crew Earth Observations payload on the International Space Station will collect targeted images of the Tuamotu Archipelago, American Samoa and the Philippines, to provide additional data for these mapping investigations. References Robinson, J. A., G. C. Feldman, N. Kuring, B. Franz, E. Green, M. Noordeloos, and R. P. Stumpf. 2000. Data fusion in coral reef mapping: working at multiple scales with SeaWiFS and astronaut photography. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Remote Sensing for Marine and Coastal Environments, Vol. 2, pp. 473-483. |
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