EARTH OBSERVATION

- NASA, UNH Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins – From Space

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_UNH...From_Space.html

Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 15, 2006 - Remains of the ancient Maya culture,
mysteriously destroyed at the height of its reign in the ninth century, have
been hidden in the rainforests of Central America for more than 1,000 years.

Now, NASA and University of New Hampshire scientists are using space- and
aircraft-based "remote-sensing" technology to uncover those ruins, using the
chemical signature of the civilization's ancient building materials.


- NASA Satellite Technology Helps Fight Invasive Plant Species

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Sat...nt_Species.html

Anyone who has read the excellent 'Beyond the Limits' by Ranulph Fiennes will have read about them searching for a lost city in the desert, and found it totally by accident by just digging randomly when local authorities began to suspect they were spies - but a NASA researcher made it to the press first, and claimed they'd found it using NASA imagery - which they hadnt

Doug

The satellite maps are somewhat of a nightmare to the archeologists trying to preserve sites in the US southwest. It is fairly easy to pick up ancient trails from the satellite photos - and the pot hunters have followed them everywhere and anywhere.

The guy's last name wasn't Deutsch by any chance, was it?

Maya Ruins

To quote:

"On December 15, 2002, IKONOS captured this image of a bajo in Guatemala. Bajos are lowland areas where rainwater accumulates, and archaeologists suspect that the ancient Maya used these areas for irrigation of their crops. This area also includes remains of Maya structures. In a natural-color (photo-like) image, the changes caused by the ruins would be hard to distinguish from the natural variation in the green forest canopy. The best way to find them is to look at the visible and near-infrared spectra, shown in the false-color image. In this type of image, the forest covering the ruin sites appears yellowish, as opposed to the red color of surrounding forest. The more sparsely vegetated bajos appear blue-green."

Full article and images here:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/...p3?img_id=17188