Using Radar to Track Rainforest Destruction
6/24/97
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Headline: Using Radar to Track Rainforest Destruction
Source: United Press International
Date: 6/24/97
Byline: Michael Smith
Copyright 1997 by United Press International
UPI Science News
TORONTO, June 24 (UPI) -- New types of satellites, using radar instead
of visible light, may do a better job of showing exactly how the Amazon
rain forest is shrinking.
Brazilian space scientist Paulo Serra (``POW-loh SEH-rah'') told
delegates to an international meeting on technology and the developing
world in Toronto the radar technology may give environmentalists more
ammunition in their fight to save the Amazon.
Until recently, Serra says, Brazilian scientists, government
officials and environmentalists have had to rely on images from
satellites such as Landsat, which takes visible light pictures.
But Serra, head of Brazil's space center, said Landsat's cameras
can't penetrate cloud and fog, which often shrouds the rain forest. He
said, ``There are places in the Amazon where you can't get a good image
in a year.''
In contrast, the recently-launched Canadian satellite, Radarsat, can
provide radar images every three days, because radar waves are not
stopped by cloud or fog, Serra told a session of the Global Knowledge 97
conference.
The Global Knowledge conference, organized by the World Bank and the
Canadian government, is intended to explore ways of extending the
information revolution to the poorer regions of the world.
Serra said Radarsat images are helping the Brazilian government to
monitor changes in the forest, variation in crops and flooding near
major rivers. As well, he said, they may help geologists find new
mineral deposits in the central province of Acre (``AH-kree'').
Radarsat can ``see'' details as small as 25 feet (7.6 meters) across,
according to Fred Campbell of the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing,
which was one of the developers of the satellite.
Radarsat also can be used to monitor crops, Arctic ice, oil spills
and even off-shore fishing activity, Campbell said.