AR

INSPIRE
ARCHAEOLOGY FROM SPACE
National Geographic explorers are using data from satellites hundreds of miles
above the Earth along with other remote-sensing technology to improve detection
of ancient hominid remains in Africa.
Explorers-in-Residence Meave and Louise Leakey and National Geographic
Fellow Sarah Parcak employed airborne hyperspectral lidar and multispectral satellite
imagery to survey Kenya’s Turkana Basin. The area is fossil rich but difficult to work in
because of challenges posed by both terrain and geological conditions. This project
leveraged Parcak’s pioneering use of similar archaeological tools in Egypt.
Lidar—which stands for light detection and ranging—uses a pulsed laser to generate
precise, three-dimensional information about the shape and surface characteristics
of the Earth. The team is overlaying the project map generated by lidar with soil
data from satellites to create high-resolution 3-D landscape imaging that will be put
into service in the field on iPads, creating virtual ground-survey guides.
In addition to collecting project data, Parcak and the Leakeys will develop a field
school in Kenya for remote sensing, GIS, and advanced surveying techniques. The
school will take advantage of free online resources such as Google Earth and Esri’s
GIS tools to build capacity among Kenyan anthropologists.
PEERING INTO ANCIENT EGYPT
Two satellite images are combined into a highresolution
picture that shows subtle changes in the
landscape caused by shallowly buried features—
in this case, houses in the town of Tanis.
To the naked
eye, the site is a
muddy mound.
PROTECTING THE OCEAN’S LAST WILD PLACES
“We’re working to contribute to the largest ocean legacy in human history,” says
Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and executive director of
National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project. The exploration, research, and media
initiative aims to permanently protect pristine places in the ocean, covering several
million square kilometers of wild marine habitats by the year 2020. Pristine Seas
expeditions produce key data that help make the case for conservation of the world’s
most remote and unspoiled marine sites. Policy work and media outreach inspire
communities and governments to protect these wild places from the harmful effects
of overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction.
Sala’s team has already contributed to the protection of 400,000 square kilometers
of ocean, an area the size of California. The team conducted nine expeditions to remote
locations between 2009 and 2013. Three of the sites now have status as marine protected
areas—the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument (U.S.), Seamounts Marine
Managed Area (Costa Rica), and Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Park (Chile)—and we have a
verbal commitment for a system of marine parks covering 20 percent of Gabon’s coastal
waters. Five sites are in progress, among them three marine environments explored in
2013: the Desventuradas Islands off the coast of Chile, Franz Josef Land in the Russian
Arctic, and New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The team has an ambitious expedition
schedule in the years ahead to help protect the last wild places in the ocean.
To learn more, visit nationalgeographic.org/pristineseas.
Early small
homes
Temple
The satellite images
reveal hundreds of
homes in the vicinity
of a temple.
Large
homes
Large
homes
Medium and
small homes
Above left: A large lobster makes its home in the Desventuradas Islands. Right top: Explorer-in-
Residence Enric Sala takes a sample of marine life. Right bottom: Fish cluster on a healthy reef
in the Line Islands of Kiribati.
2013 ANNUAL REPORT 11