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Shuttle-Mir Earth Science Investigations:
Studying Dynamic Earth Environments from the Mir Space Station



Cynthia A. Evans and Kamlesh P. Lulla

Office of Earth Sciences
NASA Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas USA

Lev V. Dessinov, N. F. Glazovskiy,
N. S. Kasimov, and Yu. F. Knizhnikov

Institute of Geography
Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The joint United States - Russian experiment, Visual Observations of Earth, performed on the Mir Space Station between March 1996 and June 1998 returned more than 22,000 photographs of Earth. These photographs document long-term study sites and dynamic events on the Earth's surface. The overall characteristics of the imagery are described.

Citation for the published article

Evans, C. A., K. P. Lulla, L. V. Dessinov, N.F. Glazovskiy, N.S. Kasimov, and Yu. F. Knizhnikov, 2000. Shuttle-Mir Earth science investigations: Studying dynamic Earth environments from the Mir space station, in Dynamic Earth Environments: Remote Sensing Observations from Shuttle-Mir Missions (K. P. Lulla and L. V. Dessinov, eds.), John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 1-14.



Links to Color Images

Figure 1.1 Jerry Linenger in the Mir Spektr module packing 70 mm film (NM23-59-028). Film and data management are especially important on long duration missions.
Figure 1.2 Astronaut Jerry Linenger in Kvant-2 photographing Earth with the Hasselblad 70-mm camera (NM23-55-008).
Figure 1.3 Graph showing numbers of images, by film type, acquired during each Shuttle-Mir mission
Figure 1.4 Dynamic events which were photographed during the Shuttle-Mir missions. (a) Popocatéptl and Mexico City (NASA photograph NM22-727-094). Popocatéptl volcano has been frequently active since 1994. (b) Karymsky volcano (NASA photograph NM23-735-992). Kamchatka produces a dark ash layer on top of the surrounding snow cover. (c) Oil spill in the Caspian Sea, just offshore from Baku (NASA photograph NM21-773-060A). The arrows mark streamers of oil from individual offshore platforms. The area of the spill, which extends to the north and south from this scene, was greater than 300 sq. km. (d) Color-infrared photograph of the Omo River delta building into the north end of Lake Turkana, Kenya (NASA photograph NM22-746-081). Upstream land-use changes and resultant erosion have resulted in a tremendous increase in the size of the delta in the past 20 years. The new lobe along the western edge of the delta did not exist in 1993.