Flying Camera Images 1996

383
CIRCULAR OVERHEAD IRRIGATION WATER-WORKS IN THE SALAMIYAH OASIS

(Flying Camera Calendar, January 1996)

Saudi Arabia comprises the largest area of the Arabian Peninsula. The major part of the country's area is composed of deserts and steppes; due to the hot, dry climate in the country's interior, moist and hot climates only occur along the coastal areas.

The As Salamiyah oasis is named after the prophet Salomon; the oasis is situated in the center of Saudi Arabia near the capital city of Riyadh located on the tropic of Cancer.

The highest annual growth rate in the economy, from the mid-1980's to present, is registered for agriculture. The Saudi government strongly supports the development of agricultural programs in an effort to reduce the dependency on foodstuff imports, and also to improve the living conditions of the rural population. During the last few years it has also been possible to provide for the own inland suppy of wheat and vegetables, as well as exportation of surpluses. Because of the extremes in climates, agriculture in Saudi Arabia is almost always linked with artifical irrigation. To a large extent, the traditional irrigation systems are being replaced by ultra modern overhead irrigation plants (round areas in the image). The circular overhead irrigation installations attain dimensions up to one kilometre in diameter. The different phases of extending the installations are clearly visible in the image. The most important cultivated plants are wheat, maize and vegetables. Harvested fields are visible in sandy colors; newly cultivated fields are registered in blackish colors, and fields - which are just before harvest time - are visible in red colors.

On the rims of the Mesozoic-Tertiary scarp landscape, there are large groundwater deposits and strata springs. These deposits provide the water supply for agricultural areas. The geological structure limestone and sandstone layers are interbedded, whereby the harder limestones form the escarpments (white colous in the image, right side), and the weathered sandstones provide the material for the sand-cover and dune fomations (sandy-coloured areas, centre and NW in image). There are no perennial streams, due to the low precipitation rate. There are, however, very destructive episodic "flash floods", which occur in the wadis - Pluvial Ice Age forms - of dry stream-beds. In a period of only a few hours duration, these "rivers" (wadis) have metres-high flooding phases; which also as rapidly run dry. The natural vegetation is steppe, with scant grass cover, dwarf shrubs and thorn-bushes (brownish-green colours in satellite photo).

384
WASTE REPOSITORY STORAGE SITE, WIESBADEN

(Flying Camera Calendar, February 1996)

The waste repository site of the Hessian state capital city of Wiesbaden is located in an old limestone quarry. The repository site is for deposition of household-refuse, for an area of some 350,000 population. Some 400,000 cubic meters are required annually for repository space. The quarry's northwestern part with the remaining extraction area - visible in the lower border of the aerial photograph - and the repository storage section I-II represent the development of waste repository technology in the past thirty years.

Section I (upper border of photograph) was filled up from 1964 to 1983 mainly with excavated building rubble and soil materials, and only a small amount of household refuse. This so-called "non-organized" waste repository site lies directly on top of the base surface of the quarry, and has a total fill-volume of 10.5 m³. After the end of refilling the site, some fifty vertical boreholes were drilled through the fill-layers, in order to determine the generation of gases through biochemical processess in the inner area of the repository. The "gas wells" are visible as bright points within the green-grass areas covering the main part of the site, with only sparse bushwork growing on the body of the repository.

Below Section II (centre of photograph), there is a mineral sealing basis-layer, with base-drainage, so that all of the seepage water is collected and fed into a sewage purification plant. From 1983 up to the interim end of the refilling process in 1992, this section had reached a height of 55 metres and contained a volume of 6 million m³. Building rubble and excavated soil materials are only about the half of the refill materials. Waste gases are extracted from the body of the fill-area, via horizontal gas drains in two levels; the waste gases and the gas amounts of Section I are used for generating electricity and for heating purposes. At present, some 2,300 m³ gas is produced per hour.

Section II which will - adjoin Section III in the future - is expected to contain some 5.3 million m³ waste materials up to the year 2005. Building rubble and excavated soil materials will only be deposited in the repository, as stability of the repository permits. The first stage of the base-sealing is now being built. In the completed part of the repository in the West, the installation of the waste materials has begun; the highly compressed layers are 2.5 metres thick. All drainage conduits in this section are enclosed in a 700 metre long tunnel, which can be used by vehicles, and containing the control and disposal functions; this tunnel will be covered by a landfill-layer of up to 60 metres in depth.

On the plateau of Section II, there are provisional containers for composting organic wastes; between the Sections I and II a station has been built for recycling building materials. The building complex at the foot of Section I is composed of the management headquarters, the vehicle and warehouse depots, a receiving station with a short-term depot for special types of refuse, the central gas classification station and the entrance and exit weighing machines.

(Flying Camera Calendar, March 1996)

This is a false-colour radar image of the Virunga volcano chain along the borders to Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda using the radar bands L-bands (24 cm) and C-band (6 cm) and different polarisations. The radar systems illuminate Earth with microwaves, and allow detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community in order to better understand the global environment and how it is changing.

SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, the Deutsche Agentur für Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA); and the Italian space agency; the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), in cooperation with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.v. (DLR) as the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR data. The first SIR-C/X-SAR mission was launched on April 9, 1994 and a second mission was carried out on Sept. 30, 1994.

On October 3, 1994 this radar image was acquired by the SIR-C/X-SAR antennas on board the space shuttle Endeavour. The image covers an area 57 km by 70 km north of the Lake Kivu in Central Africa (black area at lower edge). In this image red is the L-band (horizontally transmitted, vertically received); green is C-band (horizontally transmitted and received); and blue is L-band (horizontally transmitted and received). The colours illustrate the differing radar backscatter mechanisms and thus information content in dependency of the wavelength and polarisation used.

The Virungo volcano chain is located on the Central African trough, one of the major tectonic lineaments. Along this continental fraction, magma intrudes through the Earth's crust to the surface and forms volcanoes. At the left image centre is the Nyamuragira volcano (3,053 mtr) with radiating lava flows. The flows are visible in blue to red colors, depending on the strength of the radar return signals. This is related to the surface roughness and hence the age of the lava flows, which are dating form the 1950s to the late 1980s. These active volcanoes are a hazard to the town of Goma at the lake shore, which has been in the press in the last years due to the large refuge camps nearby. The Nyiragongo volcano (3,465 mtr) can be seen in the centre of the image. Its steep cone can be recognized due the so-called radar shadow left of the crater rim. The crater itself is filled by a lava lake.

Further volcanoes are visible along the right (Eastern) part of the image. The green patch surrounding the most southern of these volcanoes, Mount Karisimbi with 4,500 mtr, is a bamboo forest of special interest. Here, the last 300 mountain gorillas live of a total 600 worldwide. The disappearing natural habitat is not the only threat to the gorillas. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund was also established to preserve this endangered species from poachers. The radar data will be used to produce vegetation maps. The faint pink lines surrounding Mount Karisimbi indicate man's activity in that area, they are the result of agricultural terracing.

(Flying Camera Calendar, April 1996)

Heusden is located approximately 15 kilometres northwest of the town 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands Province of Brabant, situated directly on the Bergsche Maas River. The town of Heusden was first mentioned in the Ninth Century A.D., and since 1290 A.D. was well-known as a flourishing town.

In the 17th Century, Heusden was the farthest South situated fortress; after the town between 1581 and 1590 had served as a bridgehead in Brabantine Territory. Under the direction of the Master Bilder Jacob Kemp, the town built many massive fortifications. In 1630, the fortifications were extended to eight bastions (six of the bastions are visible in the photograph), ravelines and a new ditch-system.

After the withdrawal of the garrison in the year 1821, and the resulting economic breakdowns, the historical city visibly declined in the following century. In addition, at the end of World War II - Autumn 1944 - part of the city centre was destroyed by bombing. The former Heusdener Castle, dating from the Eleventh Century A.D., had already been destroyed in 1680. A lightening bolt struck the gunpower storehouse, and the tower exploded, and the remains of the castle were destroyed by fire. A public Parkgarden has been planted over the ruins (western outskirts, centre of photograph).

First in 1968, the Heusden municipal government started to re-create the old historical appearance of a fortified city, and began to completely rebuild the walls and ditches, as well as restoring many of the monuments within the city. The magnificent Catherijnkirche (Church of Saint Catherine) dating from the 13th century, had already been restored; among many other treasures in the church, there is a splendid marble tomb, dated 1733. The church tower is 35 m in height, both the tower and the Late Gothic Town Hall must be renovated. The inner harbour which was filled-in in 1904 (left lower corner), has been uncovered; and three typical Dutch stander mills have been reconstructed. The Town of Heusden has now almost been restored to the same condition, as it was in the 17th century.

(Flying Camera Calendar, May 1996)

The Rio Grijalva (left in the satellite image) and the Rio Usumacita in the coastal lowlands of Tabasco, flow into the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern part of the Gulf of Mexico. Geologically and geographically this Region belongs to the Central American land-bridge between North and South America. Due to tropical climate conditions, high temperatures prevail throughout the whole year; with mean average temperatures of 25C, and precipitation rates of approximately 2,000 mm/year, with a high amount of humidity. These factors provide favourable conditions for the tropical rain forest (red in the satellite image); however, creating conditions also for malaria and other tropical diseases.

Together the Rio Grijalva and Rio Usumacita rivers have the highest water-flow of all of Mexico's rivers; providing approximately 30% of the water-flow at a rate of 105 billion cubic metres per year. Both rivers are over 700 kilometres in length, and their headwaters are located near each other in the uplands of Altos Cuchumatanes in Guatemala. The rivers flow in separate streams, until they merge again just before the mouth of the Bay of Campeche.

Numerous river arms and lakes (dark blue) document the shifts in the river's courses during the last 400 years. Today, a part of the Rio Usumacita's abundant water-flow is towards the Rio Grijalva, while the remaining river-waters flow through its own mouth into the sea. Both rivers have deposited sizeable sediment loads in the bottom-land and embankments (blue in the satellite image). The sparse settlement-areas are concentrated along the dammed-up rivers. Cacao has been cultivated along the river embankments from pre-colonial times, and up to the present day - and is visible in the image as yellow, blue and red land-plots. The rivers are traditional important arterial roads; and the lower courses are navigable by ships. Only a few of the roads in this impassable terrain are open for the entire year.

Near the coast a series of beach ridges has been formed, especially on the Rio Grijalva delta. The ridges are oriented in their development along the courses of the respective coasts, visible in the conformation of the Rio Grijalva Delta. The beach-ridge complex has led to an island formation of lagoons, where temporarily flooded-areas lead to swamp formation (medium blue areas). Running inland across the beach-ridge complex, fields and roads present a red, yellow and blue mosaic, which marks among other areas the cultivation of cocos palmtrees and a denser settlement pattern. The only larger village is Frontera, located on the eastern shore of the Rio Grijalva at the upper part of the Delta.

The orange-yellow fields west of Rio Grijalva, indicate the presence of oil and gas deposits; these contribute to the economic importance of the national State of Tabasco.

(Flying Camera Calendar, June 1996)

In the middle of Berlin, on the location of the former royal hunting grounds - the present-day Tiergarten (Zoological Gardens) - which are also referred to as the "Green Lungs of Berlin" and the densely build-up Dorotheenstadt; Friedrich Wilhelm the First had hundreds of trees cut down for a drill parade ground for his "langen Kerls" (the tall guards, who were soldiers of the bodyguard of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia). This deforesting left an ideal tract of land for building a monumental edifice for the German Parliament. No other building has become such a symbol of the vicissitudes in German history, as the Berlin Reichstag. The Reichstag was designed by Paul Wallot in 1882, and the building was completed in 1894.

The artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo chose the Reichstag building in 1971 for a wrapping project. However, the project was first put into effect after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The project "Enshrouded Reichstag" was a subject of an open debate in the German Bundestag in February 1994. This was the first time that an open debate on an art project was carried out and voted for, by the members of the German Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament).

The veiling or enshrouding of objects and persons, has been from the times of the old Egyptians and Greeks a sacral, often mystic function. These functions were used by Christo and Jeanne-Claude for their Berlin project. Christo named the Reichstag a "Power station between East and West, symbolizing the power plant of economic and political weight and might. And this will be of mighty and symbolic importance for the Twenty-first Century."

The Parliament building has ornate details, and was covered two weeks long with silver lengths of material and appeared in a new clarity, as sun and wind took on continually changing forms as a temporary work of art - which places the immortality of art just as much in question, as well as the unalterable conditions of society. Which German had already expected, that during his lifetime this Wall would disappear; this Wall had separated a city, a continent and the whole world into enemy camps.

Although the former Wall Strip still identifiably separates East and West Berlin, the Spree River has always been a link in its natural course for both parts of the city. The future government building will be situated on the river's curve, and the nearby Reichstag will regain its function as the German Parliament.

(Flying Camera Calendar, July 1996)

The Tagus River (Rio Tejo), the longest river of the Iberian Peninsula, flows 1100 kilometers and passes 141 dams before it broadens to form one of the largest and most scenic natural harbors in Europe and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, lies 13 kilometers upstream from the sea on the western bank of the Tagus, where the river is only 2 kilometers wide. The city spreads out over seven hills which belong to the foothills of the Central Cordillera.

Lisbon's hinterland is dominated by the 226 m-high Monsanto (left, centre) with its dark green forest, which stands in stark contrast to the surrounding agricultural areas. Further to the north Tertiary and Cretaceous cuestas are followed by gently undulating landscapes composed of Cretaceous and Jurassic sandstones. Similar strata in compact sequence and resulting from folding are found in the Serra da Arrábida, which forms the southern rim of the Setúbal Peninsula (lower third, centre). The Sado River (Rio Sado) has cut out a small estuary adjacent to the Serra da Arrábida as it flows from the southeast.

Broad stretches of pasture and farmland which continue to be of great economic importance for Portugal extend eastward from the mouth of the Tagus throughout the province of Ribetejo. Cork and holm oak plantations and the dark green of eucalyptus and pine trees (shown here) are characteristic of the infertile lands found to the east and south of this region.

Greater Lisbon, with its more than 2.5 million inhabitants, has, thanks to its mild climate, hill-cradled harbor basin and to its role as a link to West Africa and South America, retained its importance throughout the centuries. Around 1100 B.C. the Phoenicians discovered that the city was an ideal trading station. Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans settled there, and in the 5th century the Visigoths built a wall to encircle the city centred around the castle of St. George. Vestiges of the 8th century Moorish reign are still visible in the Alfama and Mouraria districts. In 1147 the Portuguese King Afonso I recaptured Lisbon from the Moors with the assistance of crusade forces from central and western Europe. Lisbon became the capital of the empire in 1260 and continued to expand during the Portuguese Age of Discovery (1300 - 1500). The Tower of Belém was built a few kilometers downstream from the city centre in the district of Belém, from which Vasco da Gama embarked on his voyage of discovery to India. During the period of Spanish rule over Portugal (1580 - 1640) Lisbon lost much of its political importance.

Following the 1755 earthquake and the catastrophic fire which ensued, the Marquês de Pombal planned the reconstruction and modernisation of the Baixa, the city centre, in an innovative geometrical grid pattern. In the 19th and 20th centuries new industries settled along the banks of the Tagus and suburbs composed of stately villas sprang up on the city outskirts. Lisbon, as Portugal's most important manufacturing centre, has again begun to attract an influx of workers. Many commuters reach the city via the 25th of April Bridge, an elegant steel suspension bridge 2.5 kilometers long and built in 1960 to connect Lisbon with the Setúbal Peninsula.

(Flying Camera Calendar, August 1996)

People generally associate Hong Kong as being a city of ultramodern multistoried buildings, a harbour atmosphere and bustling activity. The oblique aerial photograph, which was taken in September 1974, shows an entirely different - almost surprising side of this metropolis; mostly irregular, small-combed utilized plots of land with a few scattered farmsteads. Different colours and textures in the linear structures of the fields, indicate that the cultivation range and tillage phases at the time the colour aerial photograph was taken, are strongly differentiated.

In the colour photograph, an agrarian system of land-cultivation in the New Territories is portrayed, which is referred to as "Market Gardening". Various crops are grown - more than sixty different types of vegetables and flowers; other areas are planted as tree nurseries. This type of agrarian land-use became important especially after World War II, as the numerous Chinese immigrants coming to Hong Kong were experienced vegetable farmers. At the same time, the consumer demand for fresh fruits and vegetables was increasing, leading to an increase of arable acreage of over 400%. Another important reason was the rigid closed policy of the People's Republic of China, which lasted into the late Nineteen-Seventies.

"Market Gardening" became the most important economic form of agriculture, which was exclusively oriented towards the local market outlets. This market structure was characterized by a high input of work, capital and business management, and indirectly also led to stable prices for goods in Hong Kong. The major parts of the businesses are the family shops, where the members of the family carried the main burden of work; seasonal help only occasionally supported the family workers. Most of the family businesses have only small land-areas - clearly visible in the colour photograph - with an average area of 4 "dau-chung", which is equal to 0.27 hectares.

Due to the climatic conditions, cultivation of diverse types of agricultural plants could be carried out during almost the entire year. During unfavourable phases, cultivation measures such as irrigation or covering fields with plastic sheets were applied. These measures explain why adjoining fields and plots, on which the cultivated produce are either starting to bloom, or are just in the ripening stage, are clearly visible as differing shades of colour on the photograph. In the meantime, this type of agriculture has been considerably reduced, due to the competition for building areas of the increasingly expanding settlements of the New Towns. Another factor is the import of cheap agricultural products from the People's Republic of China, as well as the reduction of alternative income factors.

(Flying Camera Calendar, September 1996)

The centre of the satellite scene covers the eastern end of the dune-sea of Edeyen of Ubari. The eolian sands lay in a fluvial dredged-out depression, in East-West direction over a 600 km long Erg, overlying Carboniferous sediments. The southeast rim was shaped by a strongly dissected peneplain, probably formed in Upper Cretaceous Messak Sandstone. The best preserved part of the Plateau is visible as a dark brown stony desert (Hamada, lower left in the satellite image), which falls from a high benchland of 160 metres, down to a small, reddish-colored oasis strip of the Wadi Ajal, parallel to the dune desert rim. The rocky plain and benchland landscape, northwest of the Erg Spur, is composed of an uphill succession of beds, from Cambrian-Ordovician to Carboniferous Age.

The Edeyen Sands were deposited in an originally northeast tending drainage old Tertiary basin-zone, in the Syrte Gulf on the northern rim of the tectonic Murzuk-Basin. The numerous, today mainly always dry wadis; which concentrate in the depression on the northwest rim of the Erg (Wadi As-Sciati); have probably contributed with their sediments to sand accumulation; as well as the long Wadi Aberho/Elba (white line in the lower right corner of the scene). The reworking of sands in the dune-sea, certainly occurred in many phases; as can be seen especially in the western part of the image, as the very large dune-ridges are cut across at different angles. The sharp boundary of the Erg, shows that this is an inactive Erg, transformed due to aeolian erosion. The extensive stability of the Erg is proved by the presence of Palaeolithic and Neolithic finds, which both in the Erg and the adjoining rocky areas have been found almost everywhere in the surrounds. These finds also indicate, that the Fezzan has had more humid climatic conditions over long periods in the Pleistocene and Holocene Periods, as those of the present day. The Wadi As-Sciati has been covered many times by sweet-water and brackish-water lakes; today there are only a few blue and white sebhas (salt marshes) remaining, in the area.

The reddish areas identify the present-day oases, with the province's capital city of Sebha in the middle of the southeastern Erg rim. The satellite image was taken in 1976, and presents a historical picture; the development of deep wells for the installation of large-scale irrigation projects had just begun. Of the original more than 800 traditional wells and springs, it can be assumed that today - due to the unavoidable ground-water lowering - many of the wells have dried up, to the benefit of the irrigation of new areas.

Today's oases-land of Wadi Ajal, - which is only a few kilometers wide; belonged in the past to the core area of the Garamanten, a people described by Herodotus (ca. 420-484 B.C.). The capital city of Garama (today Germa) is located on stepped terraces with more than 45,000 burial mounds, under a medieval city of the ruins - also named Garama. The city is located just outside of the southwest corner of the satellite image. At the foot of the Messak-stage, more than 2,000 km extensions of water-collection tunnels were discovered, which were built for irrigating the oases. It is not clear, whether these tunnels are of the Garama Period, or if they are of Arabian-Medieval Period, such as are known in many other parts of the Sahara.

(Flying Camera Calendar, October 1996)

The Detroit River is one of the most important waterways in North America, and connects the three upper Great Lakes - of the five - via Lake Saint Clair in the North with Lake Erie in the South. The Detroit River is the border between the USA and Canada.

The western shore is 18 km long and is the waterfront of Detroit (from the French "détroit", meaning "lake narrows"), which is the fifth largest city in the USA. In the southern and central part of the image are located the oldest harbours and industrial installations of the best-known automobile metropolis in the world - Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. In the northern part of the image, is the Loop, and the main business quarter. Radial traffic lines extend outward from the center - the Grand Circus Park - comprising an area of 2.5 hectares. The radial lines are long-distance main traffic streets. The main streets are overlaid with an inner-city, diagonal street grids which continue on the far side of the Detroit River, in the Canadian industrial and garden-city of Windsor.

On the Canadian Shore in the rural areas, the dominant quadratic system of streets and field boundaries trend North-South and East-West; this system is typical both for the USA (Land Ordinance, 1785) and large areas of Canada. Divergences in this grid system, partly show the earlier colonial Settlement cores or reflect the division of lots aligned according to the topography.

In the flat-undulating agricultural landscape, formed during the glacial periods, the natural soil quality - combined with the good market connections to the neighboring conurbations - is a favourable production factor. Differing colors in the agricultural plots indicate the diversity of the rural economy; fodder cultivation, grassland, cereals and root crops. White and light areas are harvested fields, however the light areas may also be sealed-over areas or sand deposits.

(Flying Camera Calendar, November 1996)

The natural-region areas between the western Alpine rim, the Caucasus Mountains and the eastern Mediterranean Sea is an extremely diversified zone. The areas are definitely connected to a common link; i.e. the Alpidic mountain chain. This zone originated from the convergence of the African and Eurasian plates during the Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods, following the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. However, this opening process did not take place as a simple frontal collision. The process took place in many complicated evolutionary stages, whereby lateral movements also play an important role. During this evolution, numerous microcontinents and continental chips collided. Many oceans and parts of oceans were "consumed". These crustal parts belong to the great equatorial ocean Tethys, which remains are contained in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The complicated evolution process and the different origins of the mountain-chains are reflected in the unusual spatial patterns. The mountain chains run partly in many "s"-form arcs; such as the Alps-Apennine-Arc or the Carpathian Arc, which has a continuation in the Balkan mountain range and the Pontic mountain on the south of the Black Sea. A second chain runs with the Dinaric Alps and the Hellenic mountains across the Aegean island-bridge, extending to the Taurus mountain in the south of Turkey.

The mountain-building processes are not completely concluded, as the Balkan Peninsula and the Aegean area belong to the regions of the Earth, with the highest amount of earthquake activity. The continuous geodynamic events however, are also reflected in the Italian volcanic areas. This is visible, for example, in the Etna volcanic area on the island of Sicily; in the volcanic-island arc in the Southern Aegean - for example Santorin, and the deep-sea furrows, which border the Peloponnesus Peninsula and Crete.

Despite the relatively low resolution of the satellite image of one kilometer, even small details are clearly visible. The different tectonic structural styles of the folded Jura Mountains and the Western Alps are clearly visible. The water-filled crater lakes of Latium and Umbria in the north of Rome, the furrowed morphology of Moldavia in the east of the Karpathos arc, or the geological structure of Cyprus with the famous Ophiolite Complex of the Trodos Massif in the central part of the island are well-defined.

The NOAA-11-AVHRR mosaic scenes show Southeast Europe in an unusual form of picture processing. Spectral information is combined with altitude information in one picture image, which gives the impression of a relief image with a lateral illumination. The color coding extends from the green of vegetation-covered areas (with striking differences between the fruitful Nile Delta and the surrounding deserts), to the yellow and brown tones of arid regions. The Saltsea of Tüz Gölü in Central Turkey and the city conurbations are shown in red.

(Flying Camera Calendar, December 1996)

The fascination of this color aerial photograph lies indubitably in the fact that a human settlement and living space is centrally located in an almost completely enclosed "island clearing" within an extensive forested area.

The appearance of the landscape in the color aerial photograph is clearly based on the geologic-tectonic basic structure. The thick sandstone platform of the deeper Odenwald is a "miniature" formation of the Erbach-Michelstädter Trough - which runs parallel to the genesis of the Upper Rhinegraben - and collapsed in a northnortheast - southsouthwest direction. The Mümling river flows in small meanders also approximately from south to north, and effected the dredging out of the Pleistocene trough. Due to deposition of loess and Holocene beds within the sterile sandstone cover-layers; fruitful arable land developed, which - due to the 200 to 300 metres depth embedding in the rough, flat upland area - has a climate very favorable for agriculture. It is always surprising how accurately and reliably the early settlers could determine the positive qualities of their chosen locations for living sites.

Within the present-day settlement patterns, the older village cores can be distinguished from Michelstadt in the north of the color photograph by the round curve of the town wall, and Erbach in the south by the castle grounds. Both towns are located on the eastern shore of the Mümling river. The town of Steinbach near Michelstadt, located on the western shore of the Mümling river, is accounted as being one of the older settlements. Approximately two kilometres from the eastern edge of the photograph, the Roman Limes ran along the heights; the wall was the frontier against the German tribes.

Steinbach possesses one of the oldest church relics in the area - the Einhards Basilica, which was completed in 827 A.D. A moated castle was built next to the church in 1300 A.D., and was later rebuilt as the Fürstenau Castle. Michelstadt is well-known for the magnificent half-timbered Town Hall, built in 1484. The administrative center town of the Erbach is famous for the Baroque Castle of the Count of Erbach (1736), and as the town of the Ivory Carvers. The originally isolated three town cores have amalgamated in the 20th century, due to the extension of the settlement areas. A long-distance railroad connection runs through the town from north to South, as well as the B 45 highway and the West-East Nibelungen Highway B 47. Between the railroad and the B 45 highway many industrial firms have been established, due to the favorable transport facilities; the trades and small-scale industries are still situated in the older city districts. Michelstadt-Erbach has a flourishing tourist industry, and carries out numerous central functions for the surrounding agricultural areas.

(WorldSat International Inc., 1994; reproduced as a calendar/poster by Geomatics International, 1995)

Data provided by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

Film and printing with stochastic screening by Herzig Somerville Limited, Toronto, Canada.

Digital image processing by Robert Stacey and Jim Knighton, WorldSat International Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Image processed using PCI EASI/PACE Software.

This remarkable cloud-free view of Earth was produced by mosaicking hundreds of individual satellite images acquired from the NOAA series of weather satellites which orbit the Earth at an altitude of 820 km (520 miles).

Once the base satellite mosaic had been completed, the land areas were enhanced with shaded-relief imagery bringing the Earth's topography to life.

For the ocean areas, WorldSat incorporated ocean floor relief data enhanced with SST (Sea Surface Temperature) data, which reveal major ocean currents across the Earth.

(WorldSat International Inc., 1993)

Digital image processing by Robert Stacey and Jim Knighton

Image processed using PCI EASI/PACE Software

This remarkable day-in-time satellite view of the Great Lakes Basin was produced from 1 km resolution data collected by a weather satellite of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which orbits the poles at an altitude of 830 km (528 miles).

The image featured here is uncorrected for Earth curvature and presented as the satellite views the Earth. On this remarkably cloud-free day, the contrails from two jet aircraft are clearly visible.

Flying Camera Index Page

Map Collection Home Page

Contact: mapref@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: June 27, 2002
URL: