SPACE.com -- Radar Maps Are a Boon to Earthbound Scientists


	Radar Maps Are a Boon to Earthbound Scientists By Todd Halvorson Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief posted: 05:16 pm ET 31 January 2000

By Todd Halvorson

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. In a matter of 20 seconds, one of Japans most beautiful harbor cities was reduced to rubble.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake came without warning at 5:46 a.m. January 17, 1995, killing 4,569 people in Kobe, Japan. Another 14,679 were injured.

Some 67,421 buildings collapsed, 222,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters and more than $100 billion in property damage was tallied in the wake of the worst earthquake ever to hit a Japanese urban area.

The sheer magnitude of destruction still staggers Mamoru Mohri, a Japanese astronaut who will fly on shuttle Endeavours upcoming Earth mapping mission.

And while scientists still cant accurately predict when earthquakes will occur, the data gathered by Mohri and Endeavours other astronauts will help urban planners and city dwellers avoid dangerous fault regions in the future.

"Almost 5,000 people were killed [in the Kobe quake] and the reason was that many houses were built on an earthquake fault," Mohri said in an interview with space,com. "If we can at least warn people about the location of faults, then we can save lives."

A sophisticated radar system to be flown aboard Endeavour is expected to enable earthquake researchers to do just that.

Data collected with it will give scientists the three-dimensional map they need to identify and characterize weak points in the Earths crust and upper mantle -- places where rock layers have ruptured and slipped over the millennia.

Seismologists, as a result, will have a better understanding of the location and size of perilous faults. And since earthquakes are likely to occur around faults, urban planners around the globe will be able to help the worlds growing population steer clear of similar disasters in the 21st century.

"There are many unstable ground areas in the world, and in the future," Mohri said, "we may be able to alert people who live in such areas about imminent dangers."

Seismology is just one of many scientific disciplines that stand to benefit from the near-global topographic map that will be assembled from radar data gathered during Endeavours mission.

Others include:

Cartography

First and foremost, the shuttle radar data will be used to generate the most comprehensive and accurate map ever made of Earths surface. All tolled, up to 80 percent of the Earths landmass or areas that are home to 95 percent of the planets population -- will be mapped during the mission (depending on how much time the crew is allowed to spend gathering data).

Scientists say the resulting global map will be 30 times more precise than the best available today. Even more important, though, is the fact that the map will be produced from a single, uniform set of data.

"The current data set we have for Earth is a patchwork. It was collected at different times by different countries at different scales and different resolutions, and they dont always match up," said Jeffrey Plaut, a planetary geologist who is one of more than three dozen researchers on NASAs mission science team.

"This mission will give us the opportunity to get a seamless snapshot of the Earth," added Thomas Hennig, a program manager with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which is co-sponsoring the mission. "Thats a fantastic difference from the data we have today."

Geology

Radar data from the shuttle flight will give geologists keen insight into the formation of mountain ranges. Theyll also be able to gauge the natural forces that uplift, crumple, polish and re-shape mountains.

"Were basically going to create a topographical map that tells you how high the mountains are and where the valleys are and what all the elevations are in between, and well have a three-dimensional view of nearly the entire Earth," said NASA deputy project scientist Thomas Farr.

"One of the things well be able to do for the first time is compare mountain ranges in different parts of the world where you have tectonic forces uplifting the mountains, and then natural erosion or glaciers eroding them."

Ecology

The best topographical maps available today were cobbled together from photographs taken by high-altitude aircraft or camera-laden satellites in Earth orbit.

Clouds, however, shroud 40 percent of Earth's surface, and in some tropical regions, cloud cover is virtually continuous. Consequently, significant portions of Earth never have been mapped in great detail.

The radar system aboard Endeavour will change that situation considerably.

Able to peer through dense cloud cover to image whats hidden beneath, the sophisticated equipment will give ecologists an unprecedented peek at fragile ecosystems such as tropical rain forests.

Hydrology

Hydrologists will use the shuttle radar data to study the ebb and flow of rivers and streams with an eye toward flood control.

"Fortunately, things like water and rivers and rainfall obey the laws of gravity, and you can take advantage of that characteristic when you measure topography you can predict where water will go," Plaut said.

"You know water is going to flow downhill, and then by measuring topography, youre going to be able to understand under what condition things might become unsafe."

Case in point: Flood-ravaged Venezuela.

Record rains on December 15 and December 16 swamped an 8,900-foot (2,713-meter) mountain separating Caracas from the Caribbean Sea, unleashing an avalanche of water, mud and boulders. The coastal town of Vargas home to Venezuelas main international airport and seaport was deluged, leaving up to 50,000 people dead.

Government officials estimate that it will cost as much as $30 billion to re-build the town, and shuttle radar data could help determine which areas of Vargas are relatively safe. More importantly, though, the data could help officials pinpoint areas where reconstruction should be prohibited.

"Here you had a sudden rainstorm that mobilized a lot of material from the mountains and sent it out into the plains where people live. That is the kind of newsworthy event where you could analyze the cause [of the disaster] using topographic data," said Plaut.

"Youll be able to see which areas are vulnerable, and if you have infrastructure information maps of dams and channels then you can really go into detail in modeling a response," he said. "Youll know how well your city is going to be able to hold up in the face of these kinds of disasters."

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