In addition to being a freelance space writer, I am a remote sensing specialist who has been involved in a number of space-related projects funded by the US Department of Defense and, more recently, NASA over the last three decades of my professional career. In celebration of Earth Day, I wanted to share some of the best images I have created of our home world. Some of these images are anaglyphic stereo views so have your 3D glasses ready, Gentle Readers.
3D View of a Thunderstorm over the Congo – Apollo 6 (April 4, 1968)
While I was preparing an article on NASA’s unmanned Apollo 6 test flight of the Saturn V a few years back, I came across a series of overlapping images of the Earth taken from the spacecraft while it was in its 173×357-kilometer parking orbit following launch on April 4, 1968 (see “Apollo 6: The Saturn V That Almost Failed”). A Maurer Model 220-G 70 mm camera fitted with a 76 mm lens was mounted on the crew hatch window of the Command Module to take photographs of the Earth passing below to assess the use of landmarks as a navigation aid while coasting in a parking orbit. Among these images were a pair of overlapping views of an afternoon thunderstorm over the Congo. Using software tools I had on hand to support my scientific work on stereo remote sensing, I could not resist processing these images into the 3D view shown below.
Apollo 6 image AS6-2-1017 showing a fuller view of the thunderstorm over the Congo. The right side of this image serves as the left-eye view of the stereo image below. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
This is an anaglyphic 3D image (left eye red, right eye blue) created with modern digital imaging techniques using a pair of images taken by Apollo 6 from its parking orbit. It shows afternoon thunderstorms forming over the Congo in Africa. Click on image to enlarge. (Images courtesy of NASA/JSC, processing by A.J. LePage)
3D View of the Boston Area – Skylab 3 (September 3, 1973)
When I was a young space enthusiast growing up in the 1970s, I longed to see images of my home north of Boston taken from space especially the high quality images snapped by NASA’s astronauts while in Earth orbit. It was not until the launch of NASA’s Skylab into its high inclination orbit in May 1973 that astronauts were able to take such photographs – and it would years to decades later still before I would stumble upon them. Using my work-related software tools, I processed a series of overlapping photographs taken on September 21, 1973 during the Skylab 3 mission using the sextet of film cameras on the S190A Skylab Multispectral Experiment to produce a stereo view of the Boston area (for more details, see “Pictures of Home from Skylab”).
A wide-angle color photo of southeastern New England taken with a Hasselblad camera during the Skylab 3 mission at about 13:52 GMT (11:52 EDT) on September 21, 1973. Click on image to view a full-resolution version. (Image courtesy of NASA/JSC, processing by A.J. LePage)
This is an anaglyphic 3D image (left eye red, right eye blue) created using a pair of overlapping images (SL3-48-305 and 306) taken on September 21, 1973 by the S190A Skylab Multispectral Experiment. This 3D image covers an area of about 92 by 162 kilometers and stretches from the Massachusetts South Shore to southern New Hampshire. Click on image to view a full-resolution version. (Images courtesy of NASA/JSC, processing by A.J. LePage)
3D Views of Mt. Whitney – ARES (October 5, 1996) & ISS (August 13, 2018)
From the mid-1990s until its cancellation in 2004, I was a member of the American science team for a joint American-Russian program called RAMOS (Russian American Observation Satellites). Among the scientific objectives of the project was to acquire stereo data of atmospheric phenomena at wavelengths ranging from the infrared to the ultraviolet to create an improved 3D database for a variety of defense and science-related applications. As a prelude to this mission, the American and Russian partners performed a series of joint observation campaigns to make stereo observations of clouds using existing air and space-based assets. Among these was a campaign to make observations of the region around Mt. Whitney in California on October 5, 1996 using a modified WB-57F flown by NASA and the USAF for the ARES (Airborne Remote Earth Sensing) program and a Russian Resurs-O1 remote sensing satellite. Unfortunately, there were no clouds in the region that day but I was able to use the sequence of video camera context images to make a 3D reconstruction of the mountain itself shown below.
This is an anaglyphic 3D image (left eye red, right eye blue) of the area around Mt. Whitney created using video images taken as the ARES aircraft flew over Mt Whitney on October 5, 1995. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne)
A 3D reconstruction of Mt. Whitney based on a stereo analysis of ARES video images acquired on October 5, 1995. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne)
By coincidence, Mt. Whitney was observed again in a sequence of images taken 23 years later by the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) in support of the CyMISS (Tropical Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the ISS) project for which I was the Principal Investigator at the time. Although the primary target of my observations were the marine cloud layer off the coast of California as well the smoke plumes from the wildfires present on August 13, 2018, I could not help but notice the clouds around Mt. Whitney and created the stereo view shown below (for more details, see “Clouds Over Mt. Whitney – A 23-Year Tale of 3D Remote Sensing”).
This is a color mosaic created from the images taken from the ISS in support of the CyMISS program on August 13, 2018 with state boundaries and coastlines added. Note the smoke from the wildfires in northern California and Oregon. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC)
This is an anaglyphic 3D image (left eye red, right eye blue) created using the red color plane of the images with a stereo angle of about 14 degrees. Centered roughly on Mt. Whitney, it clearly shows the cumulus cloud formations over the mountains visible beneath. Click image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC
Mt. Erebus – MSX/Resurs-O1 (December 23, 1996) & MSTI-3 (March 2, 1997)
Another joint campaign in preparation for the RAMOS program involved observations of Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus (see “RAMOS: The Russian-American Observation Satellites”). Using images taken the UVISI imager on the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization’s (BMDO’s) MSX (Midcourse Space Experiment) satellite and the MSU-E push-broom imager on the Russian Resurs-O1 on December 23, 1996, I was able to create a 3D reconstruction of Mt. Erebus much as I had done a couple of months earlier for Mt. Whitney.
Here is the red Band 1 image of Mt. Erebus acquired on December 23, 1996 by the MSU-E pushbroom imager on the Russian Resurs-O1 remote sensing satellite. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne)
Two views of a 3D reconstruction of Mt. Erebus in Antarctica based on a stereo analysis of visible-band images from Resurs-O1 and MSX acquired on December 23, 1996. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne)
To supplement these observations, additional images of Mt. Erebus were secured by other satellites in the months to come. Among my personal favorites was a false-color mosaic I created using SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) and MWIR (Mid-Wave Infrared) images acquired by the BMDO-sponsored MSTI-3 (Miniature Sensor Technology Integration-3) satellite on March 2, 1997. The way I constructed this false color mosaic, open water appears blue, the bare ground is white and snow-covered areas are various shades of brown. The heat from the volcano’s caldera shows up as a bright point at the summit of Mt. Erebus.
A false-color SWIR-MWIR mosaic of the area around Mt. Erebus constructed using images from MSTI-3 acquired on March 2, 1997. In this view, clouds and the open water are blue, bare ground is white and snow-covered areas are various shades of brown. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne)
3D View of Super Typhoon Atsani – ISS (August 19, 2015)
Following the cancellation of the joint RAMOS program in 2004, members of the project’s American science team (including myself) continued our interest in selected RAMOS experiments which showed promise to solve key meteorological problems. One of those experiments eventually evolved into the CyMISS (Tropical Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the ISS) project for which I was the Principal Investigator starting in 2017. Funded by CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) which manages the ISS US National Laboratory for NASA, the goal of the project (which ran from 2014 to the end of 2019) was to acquire image sequences of intense tropical cyclones (TCs), such as hurricanes, from the ISS using a specially written photography protocol to support the development of an improved remote sensing method to characterize more accurately the strength of these destructive storms using stereoscopy.
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer of ISS Expedition 52 shown taking photographs of Typhoon Noru inside the ISS Cupola during the CyMISS photography session on August 1, 2017. The fixed-mounted Nikon camera pointed out the window to his left was being used to take the photographs in support of CyMISS. (JSC-NASA)
One of the side benefits of our investigations was the creation of some spectacular pseudo-stereo images of intense TCs from around the globe. One of the earliest, fully successful observation runs of the project also turned out to be among the most spectacular. Shown below are some views of the Category 4 Super Typhoon Atsani located in the western part of the North Pacific at about 152.7° E, 18.7° N as seen from the ISS on August 19, 2015 (for more details see “CyMISS Image of the Month: Super Typhoon Atsani in 3D”). First is a video showing a selection of images taken by the crew of the ISS of the storm followed by reconstructed 2D and 3D images.
This synoptic image shows Super Typhoon Atsani as viewed from the ISS on August 19, 2015 at about 01:12 GMT. Covering an area of 2300 by 1200 km, this mosaic was created by remapping the original 360 color photographs taken by the crew of the ISS to approximate an overhead view before stitching them together. Click on the image to view a high resolution version with a scale of 500 meters/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC)
This is a close up anaglyphic 3D view (left eye red, right eye blue) of the eye of Super Typhoon Atsani as it appeared from the ISS at about 1:11:33 GMT on August 19, 2015. It was created by combining a pair of red-filtered images taken a few seconds apart which had been processed to approximate a common overhead view covering an area of 225 by 150 kilometers. Click on the image to view the full size version at a scale of 100 meters/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
View of Solar Eclipse from Orbit – GOES 13 (August 21, 2017)
Like millions of other people across the US, I watched the progress of the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Naturally, I could not resist observing the eclipse from space as well as from my home north of Boston. Below is a video I created from images acquired by the now-retired GOES-13 satellite (then taking up the “GOES-East” position) showing the shadow of the Moon moving across North American (see “GOES Video of Solar Eclipse – August 21, 2017”).
Tropical Depression Alberto by Moonlight – ISS (May 30, 2018)
During the course of the CyMISS project, our team also investigated the practicality of nighttime photography of TCs from orbit using moonlight as the source of illumination. One of the more spectacular views was acquired by the crew of ISS on May 30, 2018 during a nighttime overpass of the US to observe Tropical Depression Alberto as it dumped rain on the southern states a day and a half after making landfall (for more details, see “CyMISS Image of the Month: Alberto by Moonlight from the ISS”). First is a short video created from the color image sequence showing the storm (and its many lightning strikes) with the glow of lights from major American cities visible from below followed by a mosaic created from those images.
This mosaic of ISS images from May 30, 2018 covers a swath from the Great Plains of the US, across Tropical Depression Alberto over the southeast to eastern Cuba and Hispaniola. The scene is illuminated by moonlight from above and artificial sources from below. Click on the image to view a high resolution version of this 4,000 by 1,200 km mosaic at a scale of one km/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC)
Here is a lower-resolution map projection of the above mosaic with an overlay of coastlines and state boundaries. Click on image to enlarge. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC)
Powerful Lightning Strike in the Pacific – ISS (July 31, 2018)
For our second successful nighttime observation session, the crew of the ISS acquired a sequence of photographs of Post-Tropical Cyclone Gilma in the central Pacific Ocean on July 31, 2018 (see “CyMISS Image of the Month: ISS View of a Powerful Pacific Lightning Strike”). While examining the individual images from this sequence, I spotted a spectacular lightning strike created by this weakening tropical cyclone that occurred at 11:20:25 GMT. Below is a processed closeup view of this lightning strike.
This is a color closeup of the powerful lightning strike inside the remains of Post-Tropical Storm Gilma over the central Pacific. This image, ISS056-E-100802, was acquired by the crew of the ISS at 11:20:25 GMT on July 31, 2018 and provides a view which is about 150 kilometers wide. Click on the image to see a full resolution version of this image. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
3D View of Typhoon Soulik – ISS (August 21, 2018)
Among the more incredible views obtained during the course of the CyMISS program was of the Category 2 Typhoon Soulik on August 21, 2018. Located at about 30.2° N, 128.0° E in the western Pacific when observed by the crew of the ISS, Soulik sported a huge 50 by 100 kilometer eye containing a lot of cloud structure at a range of altitudes. Given the viewing geometry during this overpass, the image scale of the original ISS photographs was about 60 meters per pixel making this the highest resolution stereo view of a storm eye observed during the CyMISS project (see ”CyMISS Image of the Month: A 3D View of Typhoon Soulik from the ISS”).
This synoptic image shows Typhoon Soulik as viewed from the ISS on August 21, 2018 at about 20:21 GMT. Covering an area of 1,500 by 600 km, this mosaic was created by remapping the original 240 color photographs taken by the crew of the ISS to approximate an overhead view before stitching them together. Click on the image to view a high-resolution version with a scale of 500 meters/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/NASA-JSC)
This is a close-up anaglyphic 3D view (left eye red, right eye blue) of the eye of Typhoon Soulik as it appeared from the ISS at about 22:20:48 GMT on August 21, 2018. It was created by combining a pair of color images taken five seconds apart which had been processed to approximate a common overhead view covering an area of 225 by 150 kilometers. Click on the image to view the full-size version at a scale of 60 meters/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
Sunrise over Hurricane Florence – ISS (September 14, 2018)
The last image I wanted to share here is a view of Hurricane Florence on September 14, 2018 just as it was making landfall in North Carolina. Taken by the crew of the ISS at 11:41:15 GMT (7:41:15 AM EDT) about 50 minutes after local sunrise, this beautiful, hand-processed image was acquired using a handheld Nikon D5 camera to provide supplemental photographs of this historic storm to complement the image sequence taken using our photography protocol (which did not provide a full view of the storm, for more details see “CyMISS Image of the Month: Sunrise over Hurricane Florence”).
Here is a hand-processed, color-corrected version of ISS056-E-162816 looking roughly towards the east across Hurricane Florence only 50 minutes after sunrise over the eye of the storm. Click on the image to view the full resolution version. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
Here is the color corrected version of ISS056-E-162816 remapped to approximate an overhead view covering an area of about 1,000 by 1,000 kilometers. Click on the image to view a high resolution version with a scale of 500 meters/pixel. (A.J. LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
I hope you enjoyed this selection of images and Happy Earth Day!
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Related Reading
For more images from the CyMISS project, see the CyMISS Page.
Wonderful browsing of spectacular imaging.
Could you also post side-by-side stereograms, either for cross-eye viewing on monitors or spread-eye viewing on smartphones? Thanks.