Potential of ASTER for Inferring Paleoclimatic Conditions

抄録

NASA's EOS Earth-orbiting spacecraft is intended to monitor global change, including climatic change, on the decadal time scale, beginning in 1998. The significance of any climate trends observed or inferred from EOS data is best evaluated against a background of longer-term changes in Holocene and late-Pleistocene climate that must be deduced from the geologic record. Information is recorded in the distribution and weathering of landforms that are created or modified during glaciations, pluvial periods, or other climatic episodes. The ASTER multispectral scanner to be flown on EOS will collect high-resolution images that can help establish relative ages and correlate such landforms over vast areas. With this information we can refine our knowledge and test predictions of paleoclimatic conditions.