Monitoring forest land from high altitude and from space

The significant findings are reported for remote sensing of forest lands conducted during the period October 1, 1965 to December 31, 1972. Forest inventory research included the use of aircraft and space imagery for forest and nonforest land classification, and land use classification by automated procedures, multispectral scanning, and computerized mapping. Forest stress studies involved previsual detection of ponderosa pine under stress from insects and disease, bark bettle infestations in the Black Hills, and root disease impacts on forest stands. Standardization and calibration studies were made to develop a field test of an ERTS-matched four-channel spectrometer. Calibration of focal plane shutters and mathematical modeling of film characteristic curves were also studied. Documents published as a result of all forestry studies funded by NASA for the Earth Resources Survey Program from 1965 through 1972 are listed.