Farouk El-Baz

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1991

Abstract

In vi view of fthec conicting ideas ons climate change, there is agreement in thes scientific community regarding the need.for gathering additional climatic data, particularly on the arid and: semiarid zones of the Earth. Space technology offers tools 1o obtain uckdata worldwide and in atimely manner. First is the. ability to collect meteorological information by automated stations that retransmission to ground receiving stations. This is particularly applicable in areas with few weather slations, such as the vast deserts, can beam the data to satellites for monitorthe changing environment in these largely inaccessible regions where harsh conditions prevail, The second tool is space photography, of the same area taken at different times are especially useful in- where imagesf from space by manned and unmanned satelites are usable for mapping the surface features of the Earth and its resources. Images s f i lassessing changes tor the environment, whether natural or man-made. Using such tools on a global basis would assure a clearer understanding of the drylands of the Earth and a better means for monitoring their changing environment.

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