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Thermal inertia mapping - A promising new tool for mineral explorationThe Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) is a NASA-sponsored program designed to acquire day visible and day and night thermal IR imagery from a satellite launched on April 26, 1978 into a near polar orbit at 620 km altitude. The data are used to produce temperature difference (12 or 36 hour interval) and apparent thermal inertia (ATI) images or numerical data sets for selected areas within much of North America, Europe, North Africa, and Australia. These data are being applied to rock type discrimination, soil moisture detection, assessment of vegetation states, thermal current monitoring in water bodies, urban heat island analysis and other multidisciplinary studies. Key geological results include (1) groups of dissimilar rock materials and some individual rock types can be separated and sometimes identified by their satellite-determined thermal inertias (dependent on their albedos, densities, and conductivities), (2) large lineaments (including some faults) are often recognized by their thermal signatures (may relate to moisture content and/or reduced bulk density), and (3) visually striking expressions of geomorphic units (types) at a regional scale are especially enhanced in the night IR imagery.
Document ID
19840044963
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Short, N. M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Geophysics Branch, Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1983
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Accession Number
84A27750
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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