Space Archaeology

[Elvis Hendrix]

Space Archaeology

Scientists using NASA satellites discovered  underground ruins





Archaeologist Sarah Parcak says she has discovered thousands of ancient sites in Egypt, from pyramids to a detailed street plan of the city of Tanis, an A-to-Z of the region's northern capital – all thanks to images from satellites orbiting 700 kilometers, (or 435 miles), above the Earth. The infrared pictures are capable of tracing structures buried deep in the sand. "It just shows us," she adds, "how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements."

More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infrared images which show up underground buildings due to the differing densities between the rather dense mud-bricks used in Ancient Egypt in building construction and the typically less dense surrounding sands or soils under which mud brick building foundations may often now lay buried. The cameras on the satellites are so powerful they can spot objects of less than a metre in diameter.

The work has been pioneered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham by US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.

She says she was amazed at how much she and her team has found.

The full extent of the street plan of Tanis, once the capital of ancient Egypt, and a site made famous by the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark, has also been revealed ~ and appears to suggest a scale some four times greater than had previously been imagined.
Thanks to satellite facilitated infrared imaging techniques Parcak discovered an ancient network of streets and houses at Tanis, which are completely invisible from the ground.




http://www.sarahparcak.com/index2.php#/multi-text_5/1/

http://blog.ted.com/2014/02/06/if-indiana-jones-had-only-had-a-satellite-the-many-wonders-of-space-archaeology/

Elvis

[zorgon]

You may want to review and consider this thread...

Vindication
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=478.0

After we followed up and were shut down, and never heard back from SETI I put it on the back burner. Perhaps in March I can make a new effort on this as a kick starter to revamping the website

We also have this... and I now have a direct connection to this Russian scientist


Towards Lunar Archaeology
Dr. Alexey V. Arkhipov
Institute of Radio Astronomy, Nat. Acad. Sci. of Ukraine

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Mars_Images_24.html#Towards

And from NASA....

[Somamech]

Kinda makes one wonder THIS "Why would anyone choose the site's in ancient days if we used them today in their current state?"

[Elvis Hendrix]

Yea i remember the Inca City picture. So from 435 miles up they have a 1 metre resolution capability.
the possibilities are mind blowing with regard to luna observation.
There was a bbc documentary on this the other night, thats what drew my interest.
Watching the zoom capacity was amazing. they really can see what you are doing, here on earth and presumably on the moon.
elvis.

[The Matrix Traveller]

I do love this topic, and am sure there is far more buried on both the Moon and the Earth,
than we can ever Imagine.

I look forward to this subject being opened up again, and seeing more on this subject.

I suspect the same applies to Mars and others (Moons) in our Solar System.

Hopefully more of this material will be uncovered !

[Elvis Hendrix]

Remote sensing can be used as a methodological procedure for detecting, acquire inventory and prioritizing surface and shallow-depth archeological information in a rapid, accurate, and quantified manner. Man is a tropical creature who has invaded every environment on earth successfully; now we are ready to explore, and eventually colonize, the delicate environments of Space. Understanding how ancient man successfully managed Earth is important for the success of current and future civilizations.

Remote Sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) have become increasingly important tools for archaeologists, as these systems link information to precisely calibrated physical locations, and integrate information drawn from multiple sources. The usefulness of satellite images and aerial photos for identifying and analyzing archaeological sites was recognized from the early days of aviation and the imagery is now available from an array of aircraft and high resolution satellite borne sensors that provide even greater potential for investigating archaeological sites.




Great Wall of China.


Now more than ever, archeological research is interdisciplinary: botany, forestry, soil science and hydrology — all of which contribute to a more complete understanding of the earth, climate shifts, and how people adapt to large regions.

The spectrum of sunlight reflected by the Earth's surface contains information about the composition of the surface, and it may reveal traces of past human activities, such as agriculture, structures and roads, vegetation, and all kinds of rocks have distinctive temperatures and emit heat at different rates, sensors can "see" things beyond ordinary vision from satellite sensors such as LANDSAT and ASTER satellite due to their multispectral band combinations which can pick differences in land cover and change detection. Differences in soil texture are revealed by fractional temperature variations. So it is possible to identify loose soil that had been prehistoric agricultural fields, or was covering buried remains. More advanced versions of such multi-spectral scanners can detect irrigation ditches filled with sediment because they hold more moisture and thus have a temperature different from other soil. The ground above a buried stone wall, for instance, may be a touch hotter than the surrounding terrain because the stone absorbs more heat. Radar can penetrate darkness, cloud cover, thick jungle canopies, and even the ground.




Quickbird


Satellite Sensor Resolution

GeoEye-1, 0.5m/2.0m

Worldview-2, 0.5m/2.0m

Pleiades-1A, 0.5m/2.0m

Pleiades-1B, 0.5m/2.0m

QuickBird, 0.6m/2.4m

IKONOS, 0.8m/3.2m

SPOT-5, 2.5m/10m

SPOT-6, 1.5m/8.0m

LANDSAT 7 +ETM, 15m/30m

LANDSAT 8, 15m/30m

ASTER, 15m/30m





Angkor Wat, Cambodia


http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/geoeye-1.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/worldview-2.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/pleiades-1.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/pleiades-1b.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/quickbird.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/ikonos.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/spot-5.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/spot-6.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/landsat.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/landsat.html

http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/aster.html

[ArMaP]

Yea i remember the Inca City picture. So from 435 miles up they have a 1 metre resolution capability.
the possibilities are mind blowing with regard to luna observation.

Both LROC (orbiting the Moon) and HiRISE (orbiting Mars) have (usually, as it depends on the altitude) a resolution between 0.50 and 0.25 metres per pixel.