Space mapping. Space cartography

View from space

The 20th century was the century of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, the first manned flight into space, landing on the Moon and flights to the planets solar system. If Yu. A. Gagarin's flight into space was a world sensation, then today's flights have already become something commonplace, a matter of course. A look at the Earth from space, space photography of the planet’s surface is part of the working moments of astronauts.

Using images from space, you can trace the shape of the continents and oceans, you can see the state of nature, you can tell about the upcoming weather, you can trace ocean currents, emerging vortices, you can directly observe everything that could not be done before.

Thus, today we can already talk about the birth of a new science - space geography. The first human flight into space was the beginning of the formation of knowledge of space geography.

To date, a huge fund of images from space has been accumulated, having different levels of detail and scale, and various video and photographic materials have been accumulated.

Note 1

It must be admitted that these materials are understandable only to specialists and are used to solve narrow specialized problems, in geology, for example, to clarify the structural-geological structure and search for minerals, in education to obtain interpretation skills.

Artificial Earth satellites perform very important tasks; they help determine the distribution of snow cover and water reserves in glaciers. Permafrost is studied using space geography.

With its help, a large amount of material has been collected about the variety of types and forms of relief, especially very large forms, which cannot be reached from the Earth.

Images from space revealed curved arc-shaped stripes in deserts North Africa, stretching for tens of kilometers in the direction of the blowing winds.

A view from space allowed scientists to find out that the entire planet is cut up by clayey faults and among them there are “transparent” faults through a thick layer of loose sediments. Other images provide assistance in identifying minerals. Of course, doing such work while on Earth is very difficult, and sometimes simply impossible.

Meteorological satellites survey a vast area and monitor all phenomena occurring in the atmosphere, which is important when making weather forecasts.

Information about the energy sector of the planet, i.e. How much solar energy different parts of the Earth receive and what the loss of thermal radiation in space is equal to is also provided by satellites. Based on these data, scientists found that the planet is warmer and darker, but previously science had other data.

Space geography is quite successfully used in studying the flora of the Earth. From space, it is possible to determine the boundaries of vegetation zones much more accurately, which means that their changes can also be monitored.

Note 2

Thus, today it has become possible to determine from space all the changes occurring in nature and take appropriate measures already on Earth. Space geography helps scientists monitor the dynamics of natural processes and their frequency, and provides photographs of the same areas at different periods of time.

Space geography and modern sciences

Images of the Earth's surface from space are of great interest for science and the national economy. They provide new information about the planet.

Meteorologists were the first to use images of the Earth from space. Photographs of cloudiness convinced them of the correctness of their hypotheses about physical condition atmosphere, the presence of cells with ascending and descending flows of air masses. Based on satellite images and their use, meteorologists solve the most difficult task of science - compiling 2-3 week weather forecasts.

Space photographs are also successfully and effectively used in geology. They help supplement and clarify geological maps and help develop new methods for searching for minerals. For example, observations from space helped to detect large faults in Kazakhstan and Altai, and this indicates their ore potential. Scientists, having such information, drew up a master plan for search work.

By studying the earth's crust using space photographs, hidden deep faults and huge ring formations were discovered. Scientists continue to study geological structure oceanic shallows and continental shelves.

A view of the Earth from above provides information about the characteristics of regions, allows you to clarify existing information or draw up new geological maps.

Space observations help solve problems agriculture– from the pictures you can follow:

  • moisture reserves in the soil,
  • the condition of the crops,
  • use of pastures.

In arid regions, it is possible to detect groundwater at shallow depths.

With the help of space information, it becomes possible to keep records and assess land, and to determine areas affected by agricultural pests. In forestry, satellite imagery helps to develop a method of forest accounting, this is a problem facing forestry. Photos are not only used to take inventory forest resources, but they even calculate wood reserves.

Space methods are used in the study of the World Ocean; the images clearly show ocean currents and the speed of their movement, the presence sea ​​disturbances in the ocean. Ice maps compiled from images are used in navigation, maps of the ocean surface help in organizing fishing.

Archaeologists also did not stand aside, extracting scientifically valuable information from the images. Traces of the past, buried from the eyes of scientists, also help to discover space images; for example, in the Kalmyk Trans-Volga region, thanks to photographs from orbit, numerous ancient settlements located underground were discovered. The photographs show once-paved roads and flowing rivers.

Today, for filming from space, the multispectral space camera MKF-6 is widely used, in the development of which specialists from the USSR and the GDR took part.

The device has 6 cameras and conducts spectrozonal photography in 6 ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. In photographs taken by this device, only those objects that reflect electromagnetic waves a certain length.

Space cartography

Images from space have found application in cartography, and this is completely natural, because they capture the surface of the Earth in great detail, and specialists quite easily transfer these images to a map.

Note 3

Space images are deciphered using identification features, the main of which are the shape of the object, its size and tone.

For example, water bodies– lakes and rivers are depicted in photographs in dark (black) tones, with clear identification of the banks. Forest vegetation has less dark tones of a fine-grained structure, and mountainous terrain stands out with sharp contrasting tones due to the different illumination of the slopes. Roads and settlements have their own decoding signs.

By comparing a map and a photo from space, you can find out additional information about the area - information from the satellite image is more detailed and up-to-date.

Maps are compiled from photographs in the same way as from aerial photographs, using various methods using photogrammetric instruments.

More simple option is to make a map on the scale of a photograph - objects are first copied onto tracing paper, and then transferred from tracing paper to paper. They, however, show only the contours of the area, are not tied to a cartographic grid, and their scale is arbitrary, which is why they are called map diagrams.

Space images are used in cartography to create small-scale maps, and today a variety of thematic maps have already been created.

Map information is gradually becoming outdated because the appearance of the Earth is constantly changing. Images from space make it possible to correct maps and update information, since it is reliable and the latest.

Space photographs are used not only to map the surface of the Earth; they are used to create maps of the Moon and Mars. Despite the fact that the lunar map is more detailed, the map of Mars quite clearly and accurately depicts the Martian surface.

Nov 11, 2015 13:06

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The public cadastral map, displayed with an overlay of satellite photographs (as of 2015), is a nationwide resource containing information about real estate. IN general view this is a huge photograph of the country, assembled from many small photographs taken from space as part of the Esri or Scanex projects. The image is composed taking into account the global coordinate system. The main purpose of the service is to provide open (free) access to cadastral information to an unlimited number of users - ordinary citizens, realtors, lawyers, employees of surveying firms and others. Since the implementation of the project in 2010, the procedure for obtaining cadastral information has been significantly simplified.

Information content of the resource

Cadastral public map from satellite - is the result of the work of many cadastral engineers employed by Rosreestr. With its help, you can find an object on the ground and recognize it:

  • 1 – cadastral number;
  • 2 – address;
  • 3 – area;
  • 4 – cadastral value that will be used for taxation;
  • 5 – form of ownership.

If necessary, you can:

  • 1 – receive and print the plan land plot and the corresponding cadastral quarter;
  • 2 – clarify the category of lands, their boundaries and intended purpose;
  • 3 – determine the location and boundary lines of neighboring objects;
  • 4 – find out the details of the Rosreestr division that stores information about the object of interest;
  • 5 – obtain information about capital construction projects. In addition to the above data, you can find out the number of storeys of the building, including underground, wall material, dates of commissioning and completion of construction, name of the contractor and his Taxpayer Identification Number;
  • 6 – send a request to the State Property Committee, Unified State Register, obtain data about the object online.

Resume

A public cadastral map from a satellite is a unique tool that allows you to get an idea of ​​where the property of interest is located, what its boundaries are, and what objects it is adjacent to. The resource is necessary to determine the location and status of land plots. This is very important when resolving controversial issues: for heirs, notaries and honest citizens defending their rights.

Space photography materials are widely used both in the creation process topographic maps, and when updating them. Practice has shown that when using space methods, it is possible to abandon the traditional step-by-step method of mapping and switch to the technology of updating a map of the required scale, and not the entire scale series, which reduces the work cycle by several years. In addition, due to the large territorial coverage of satellite images and small distortions of contours in mountainous areas, the labor intensity of updating maps is reduced. The space support of the map alleviates the problem of the constant and inevitable aging of its contents with the existing mapping technology.

Introduction to Mapping with Remote Sensing Systems

The materials most widely used in cartography are aerospace sounding materials, especially space photography, which, being more economical, approaches aerial photography in detail. These materials are diverse in scale, coverage, resolution and other properties, and have the following important advantages over other sources for mapping:

  • visibility of space images - from global coverage to tens of kilometers with detailed shooting - ensures cost-effective mapping of vast areas;
  • shooting from space of the same territory with different resolutions and generalization allows you to simultaneously create and update maps of different scales, eliminating the need to compile maps of smaller scales from large scale ones, which inevitably lengthens the mapping process;
  • the central projection in which the image is constructed, with a large height of the projection center, is close to orthogonal, which simplifies photogrammetric processing when creating maps;
  • repeated surveys at a given frequency provide dynamic mapping and monitoring of processes and phenomena that rapidly change over time;
  • provides mapping of hard-to-reach areas - deserts, marshes, highlands, polar islands, Antarctica;
  • The expressiveness and clarity of space images led to the emergence of new types of cartographic products - photo maps and satellite maps of biophysical characteristics earth's surface;
  • a comprehensive display of all components of the earth's landscapes in one image contributes to the most correct transmission of the spatial relationships of mapped objects.

As a result of the above, space images have found various applications in cartography in the compilation and prompt updating of topographic maps, the creation of thematic maps and photo maps, and the mapping of poorly studied and inaccessible areas.

Filming is carried out in the ultraviolet, visible and near IR, mid-IR, thermal IR, and radio wave ranges of the spectrum. The images display the optical characteristics of objects - their spectral brightness. In the thermal infrared range, the Earth's own radiation and the temperature characteristics of objects are recorded. Shooting in this range does not depend on lighting and can be performed at night. When shooting in the radio range, the relief and roughness of the surface, its humidity, and sometimes subsurface structures are clearly visible in the images. When shooting in different spectral ranges use various technologies and take pictures different types.

In addition to single plan images, stereopairs, photographic diagrams and photoplans, frontal (vertical) photographs, etc. serve as cartographic sources.

Satellite photographs are distinguished by good geometric properties And high quality images. The resolution of images available to a civilian user is up to 2 m (reconnaissance satellites receive images with a resolution of up to 0.2 m), which is enough to create topographic maps at a scale of 1:50,000 with an accuracy of 10 m in height and 15 m in plan. The disadvantage of this type of shooting is the need to deliver the captured film to Earth for processing.

The bulk of information is provided by scanner images - the result of element-by-element and line-by-line registration of radiation from objects on the earth's surface and transmission of information via radio channels. In general, the quality of scanner images is inferior to photographs, but the efficiency and digital transmission in real time give this method invaluable advantages.

View of the Earth from space. April 12, 1961 citizen Soviet Union Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin for the first time in the world flew around the globe on spaceship"East". It was major victory Soviet science and technology. The whole world was delighted with the unprecedented flight into space.

Human spaceflight has made it possible to get to know our planet even better. From a height of 200 thousand km, the Earth looks like a giant globe with edges clouded due to the presence of the atmosphere with a diameter several times larger than the diameter of the Moon. As it approaches the Earth, the shining ball gradually grows; Continents and islands with lakes and rivers, seas and bays are increasingly distinguished. View native land from space made a vivid impression on the first cosmonaut Yu. Gagarin. He said: “The mountain ranges are clearly visible, large rivers, large forests, patches of islands... The earth delighted with its rich palette of colors.”

Descriptions of the earth's surface made by astronauts, and especially photographic images of it obtained by photographing from satellites, introduced a lot of new things into the understanding of the Earth.

Figure 57 shows a satellite image of the globe. The cloud formations in this image obscure much of the earth's surface, but it is clearly visible in many places. Here we see the African continent, the Red Sea and many other geographical objects.

What and how can you learn from space photographs? Each new orbit of a satellite around the Earth brings a new “track” of photographs, from which scientists obtain a wealth of information about our planet. Images obtained from space are used in solving many scientific and economic problems. They can be used to monitor the formation and movement of clouds, assess the ice situation in the Arctic seas, and predict the weather. They help scientists in searching for minerals, studying the nature of sand movement, solving agricultural and forestry problems and many other tasks.

The interpretation of space images, as well as aerial photographs, is based on deciphering features by which local objects are identified. When taking photos mountainous countries The details of the relief are clearly readable. They stand out with sharp contrasting tones, which are obtained in the photograph as a result of different illumination of the opposite slopes. Settlements and roads can also be identified by their decryption characteristics, then only in original photographs and under high magnification. This cannot be done on printed copies.

Especially more information gives spectrozonal photography. For this purpose, specialists from the GDR and the USSR developed and manufactured in the GDR a special space camera, MKF-6, which allows shooting in six ranges of the electromagnetic oscillation spectrum. The result is a series of photographs, each of which shows only those objects that reflect electromagnetic waves of a certain length. If these photographs are compared, the hidden image in one photograph will be clearly visible in the other. Usually they are in different colors They are superimposed one on top of the other and a color photograph is obtained. In such photographs, color rendition does not correspond to the real colors of natural objects, but is used to increase the contrast between objects. That is why spectrozonal images make it possible to obtain information about the humidity and composition of the soil, the salinity of water, and its pollution; see geological faults, fields sown with various crops, etc.

Linking images to a map. You, of course, have more than once had to look at space images published in magazines and books; atlases. Have you noticed that they are out of touch with reality? In fact, next to the photograph we do not see a general geographical map that would show the photographed territory. In other words, satellite images are not linked to a map. In the best case, the text indicates the area taken or attaches a map compiled from the photographs themselves at the same scale. But this is not enough! Each of you wants to compare the picture with a real map and find out what and how is shown in the picture, how it is shown on the map and what additional information to the map is provided by a photographic image of the earth’s surface from space.

There is a way out: you need to link the photo to the card yourself, and this is not difficult to do. Let's take a satellite image of Lake Issyk-Kul, placed in the school atlas (Fig. 58, a), and compare it with the map, a clipping from which is given below, in Fig. 58, b. The scale of this map is 10,000,000 (1 cm is 100 km). Let's determine the scale of the photograph. To do this, measure the length of the lake on the map and photograph and compare them. The results are 17 and 68 mm, respectively, i.e. the size in the image is 4 times larger than on the card. Therefore, the image scale will be 4 times larger than the map and will be 1:2,500,000 (25 km in 1 cm).

Drawing on a map the area of ​​the area depicted in the image, or, as experts say, linking the image to the map, is carried out in the following order. From the extreme points of the lake, we measure the shortest distances to its sides (a, b, c, d) in the image. They are equal to 8, 12, 64 and 10 mm. Let's reduce them by 4 times and get 2, 3, 16 and 2.5 mm, respectively. We will plot these distances on the map and draw the sides of the image through the deposition points, orienting them in the corresponding directions relative to local items(Tarim River, northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul). Thus, the boundaries of the territory shown in the picture were determined on our map. This makes it possible to compare the image with the map in more detail and obtain additional information about the area. This photo shows in great detail coastline lakes, mountain ranges and ridges, snow-capped mountain ridges, river valleys and even small hollows.

Mapping from satellite images. Photographs taken from space have found particularly widespread use in cartography. And this is understandable! A satellite image captures the face of the Earth accurately and in sufficient detail, and it can be easily transferred to a map.

Mapping from satellite images is carried out in the same way as from aerial photographs. Depending on the accuracy and purpose of the maps, various methods of compiling them using appropriate instruments are used. It is easiest to make a map to the scale of the photograph. It is these cards that are usually placed next to photographs in albums and books. To compile them, it is enough to copy images of local objects from a photograph onto tracing paper, and then transfer them to paper. We will do the same work. Let's put tracing paper on the photo and draw the coastline of Lake Issyk-Kul on it. Reverse side We will draw out the tracing paper with a simple soft pencil. Then we put the tracing paper with the traced side on a sheet of paper, outline the coastline with a sharpened pencil, and on the paper we will get an image of the lake (Fig. 58, c). Such cartographic drawings are called maps. They display only the contour part of the terrain (without relief), have an arbitrary scale and are not tied to a cartographic grid.

In cartography, satellite images are used primarily to create small-scale maps. The advantage of space photography for these purposes is that the scale of the images is similar to the scale of the maps being created, and this eliminates a number of rather labor-intensive processes for compiling maps. In addition, space images seem to have passed the path of primary generalization. For example, the coastline of Lake Issyk-Kul, although it turned out to be quite detailed in the image, at the same time turned out to be somewhat generalized. This occurs as a result of photography being done on a small scale.

Photography of the Moon, Mars and Venus. Photography from space is used not only for mapping the earth's surface. Using space images, maps of the Moon and Mars were compiled.

The map of Mars, compiled from space images, is less detailed compared to the map of the Moon, but still it very clearly and fairly accurately displays the surface of the planet (Fig. 59).

The basis for the map of Mars, as well as for the map of the Moon, was space photographs in which the surface of the planet is depicted with lateral illumination directed at a certain angle. The result is a photo map on which the relief is depicted in a combined way - horizontal lines and natural shadow shading. On such a photo map, not only the general nature of the relief is clearly visible, but also individual irregularities, especially craters, which cannot be depicted as horizontal lines, since the height of the relief section is 1 km.

The map is made on 30 sheets on a scale of 1:5,000,000 (50 km in 1 cm). Two circumpolar sheets are compiled in an azimuthal projection, 16 near-equator sheets are in a cylindrical projection, and the remaining 12 sheets are in a conical projection. If all the sheets are glued together, you will get an almost regular ball, i.e. a globe.

The situation with photographing Venus is much more complicated. It cannot be photographed in the usual way because it is hidden from optical observation by a thick blanket of cloud. Then the idea arose to make her portrait not in light rays, but in radio rays, for which cloudiness is not a hindrance. For these purposes, a sensitive radar has been developed, which can be used to probe the surface of the planet.

To see the landscape of Venus close-up, it was necessary to bring the radar closer to the planet. This is what the automatic interplanetary stations “Venera-15” and “Venera-16” did. They were equipped with radars that send reflected radio signals to the information processing center, and here a special electronic computing device converts them into a radio image.

This device can be compared to a camera lens, which creates a visible image on photographic film from the light flux.

The automatic interplanetary stations “Venera-15” and “Venera-16” glided over the planet, turn after turn, noting the details of its surface. And on Earth, again with the help of a computer, all this was accurately superimposed on a cartographic grid. Simultaneously with the image of the planet's surface, the machine built a profile of heights, along which cartographers showed the relief using contour lines. The study and filming of Venus was continued in 1986 by the interplanetary stations Vega-1 and Vega-2.


Rice. 60. Shooting Venus

Figure 60 shows a fragment of a radar image of the Maxwell Mountain area, transmitted by Venera-16 on January 20, 1984, and below is a profile of the relief along the route indicated in the upper figure by a winding (due to the relief) line.

Man has not yet left his traces on the dusty paths of distant planets. But he found another, more accessible way to study his celestial neighbors, sending automatic interplanetary stations “trained” by him for reconnaissance.

kov with the presentation of measurement results in a clear and convenient for visual analysis form - in the form special cards speakers.

3.4. Aerospace mapping for geographic research

Making maps from photographs. In aerospace thematic mapping performed during geographical research, images are used: 1) to prepare a topographic basis future map and 2) as the source of its content. To solve the first problem, satellite images must be brought to a certain scale and projection. This is achieved by transforming photographs, which are then mounted into photographic plans and photocards.

The contents of the map are obtained from images during the decryption process, using all available methods of information extraction, including computer processing. Obviously, for decoding it is necessary to select images of such scale and resolution that the generality of the image corresponds to the required generalization of the content of the map. Here, relying on the geographic resolution of the images is useful, which helps determine the optimal type of images to solve a specific problem.

Depending on the topic, scale and purpose of the map, in addition to the main image, you can also use a set of aerospace images of different scales, providing the study of natural and socio-economic objects at several hierarchical levels. The scale of the main original satellite image (as a rule, images are used high resolution) is usually several times smaller than the scale of the map being compiled, and work during visual interpretation is carried out using images with a large (5-10 times) magnification, which ensures a more complete extraction of information.

The technological scheme for creating a map from aerospace images, determined by the map program, may change depending on specific conditions, but it always involves performing such work as spatial (geographic) referencing of images and preparation of the base; decryption; transferring the decoding results to the base and drawing up the original map.

Cartographic generalization when moving from image to map.

The image of aerospace images is saturated with a significantly greater amount of detail than can be conveyed graphically when drawing up a map from the image. Therefore, the process of generalization is inevitable when moving from an image to a map.

In topographic mapping, where the creation of topographic maps from aerial photographs is a massive production process, generalization rules and selection qualifications when moving from an image to a map are formulated in the corresponding manuals and guidelines. The principles and rules of such generalization are close to those well developed in cartography and are aimed at discarding unimportant details while preserving the most important elements and displaying typical features of the structure of the territory.

A lot of image details are excluded, representing information unnecessary for solving the main decoding task. Objects that served as indicators, but were not themselves objects of study, recede into the background. For example, a geomorphologist, identifying lineaments, does not draw a river with all its bends from a photograph, but identifies straightened sections that emphasize the fault he is deciphering. When deciphering, he omits the grid of fields and the contours of forests, which do not help identify the geological objects that are important to him.

Thus, targeted selection of decipherable elements is the main aspect of generalization during decoding. Another function of generalization is determined by the excessive detail of the image of the deciphered elements in the image, which cannot be conveyed graphically, ensuring the readability of the map. With inevitable simplification, it is important to preserve the natural pattern in the drawing of deciphered contours and not lose it during schematization. This pattern is unique for various landscapes. For example, in tundra landscapes it is important to convey the spotted pattern created by a system of rounded small lakes in thermokarst terrain, and in the eroded areas of the Central Chernozem Region - complex system tree-like dissection of the relief by a gully-beam network, which determines the spatial image of these territories.

The fairly strict selection criteria given in production documents for creating maps should be modified depending on the purposes of the study. For example, in order to convey the phases of development of the frozen-thermokarst relief from young to mature and decrepit (thermokarst lakes - lakes with a border of alas - alas with residual lakes - dry alas), it is important to preserve even a narrow border of alas around the lakes in the second stage, and in the third - even very small lakes, since it is their presence that separates these stages.

Thus, correct generalization is based on a detailed study of the geographical landscape, its typical and characteristic features, on identifying regional features territory, individual features of the design of various objects. It is solved by selecting individual objects until

figures and characteristics, generalization of outlines, exaggeration of the image (deliberate exaggeration of the size of its elements) taking into account the purposes of the study and the regional characteristics of the territory.

Card requirements created from photographs, the requirements are the same as for all maps: it must have a mathematical basis in the form grid or signed grid outputs, scale indication. With the now widespread computer methods of preparing the original map, it is necessary to have a linear scale designation on the map. The design and methods of depicting content extracted from photographs may vary. The results are presented in different shapes- in the form of a thematic photo map, when the image of the photograph is supplemented with the boundaries of deciphered contours or individual objects with digital indices; in the form of a “classified image” - results computer classification and, finally, in the form of a traditional map with the selected contours of objects and their coloring using the high-quality background method. An absolutely necessary element of the map is a legend that meets cartographic rules - constructed in strict compliance with the logic of classification of the depicted phenomena and their hierarchical subordination. This is often forgotten when creating maps on a computer, using legend building software modules that, as a rule, do not meet these professional requirements.

Maps compiled from images are, as a rule, more detailed and better reflect the spatial patterns of distribution of the objects under study, but the completeness and reliability of their content is ensured by the involvement of additional sources, together with which the images are used to

aerospace mapping.

Types of cartographic products created from images.

The visual, expressive display of terrain in aerospace imagery creates a natural desire to use aerospace imagery in addition to the map, and sometimes instead of it. This led to the creation of a new type of cartographic product based on many photographs - photo maps, which are aerospace images transformed into a cartographic projection, usually equipped with elements mathematical basis and sometimes having minimal cartographic load. Medium-scale photo maps are created in the cut-up and nomenclature of survey-topographic and general geographic maps. Numerous* photographic maps of individual countries and continents have also been compiled. A set of photographic maps for the entire world, created from PNHRR/NOAA survey photographs, is contained in the Millennium World Atlas (2001).

Topographic maps. Topographical knowledge of the world, even in our time, remains far from complete. Satellite images now represent a real basis for topographic mapping. Sometimes they are the only possible survey materials for hard-to-reach high-mountain, desert, and wetlands, which are not only impassable, but also difficult for aerial survey work.

The creation of topographic maps from satellite images is now focused on the use of digital technologies and computer systems.

Update maps. Repeated aerospace surveys provide good materials for regular updating of topographic maps, which is a necessary type of cartographic work. Previously, the update process took many years because it started with large-scale maps; Now you can simultaneously update maps of the entire scale series.

Thematic maps. The resolution of most modern satellite images in the first tens of meters corresponds to the dimension of most objects on the earth's surface studied by geographers. It takes images obtained from resource mapping satellites, valuable material for thematic mapping. For the territory of our country, cosmophotogeological and cosmophototectonic maps have been created on scales of 1:10 000 000, 1:5 000 000, 1:2 500 000, containing fundamentally new data on the structure of the earth’s crust, mainly on linear discontinuous and ring structures. State geological maps of scales 1:200,000 (2nd edition) and 1:1,000,000 (3rd edition) are compiled using space information. For this purpose, a so-called “factual remote basis” (or cosmophoto basis) is created, which is a set of photo maps of appropriate scales, created from images of different types, counting on the complementarity of the information extracted from them. Thanks to the use of satellite images, it became possible to complete a multi-sheet soil map of the country at a scale of 1:1,000,000 for the northern and eastern regions and to create a soil map of Russia at a scale of 1:2,500,000.

Based on satellite images at the end of the 20th century. a series of maps were created at overview scales under the Integrated Cartographic Inventory program natural resources(KKIPR) for a number of the most important economic regions of Russia: Stavropol, Tver region, Kalmykia, Baikal region, South Yakutia, as well as for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia.

Abroad, with the advent of space images, a new type of mapping of land cover and land use has become widespread. Such cards are mostly

Headquarters 1:250 LLCs are established in many US states. Overview of global mapping of land covers at the beginning of the 90s. XX century carried out according to AVHRR/M2/L4 data and at the turn of the millennium according to Vegetation/SPOT data. Satellite images are also used in other large thematic mapping projects, for example to create a map of Canadian forests. Global maps of the state of the atmosphere, ocean and many others, characterizing the Earth as a system and its changes, are varied in content.

Aerospace images in GIS. Geographic information systems (GIS) have found the widest application in modern scientific research and practical activities. Along with statistical and cartographic information, they use aerospace images. Imagery is particularly valuable for GIS due to a number of its properties.

The integrated display of natural-territorial systems and their economic use determines the use of images in various thematic areas of research and for studying the interrelations of various objects. Deciphering images allows you to create many sections of information, such as geology, relief, soils, vegetation, economy, and settlement.

The efficiency of obtaining information and its “freshness” ensure the use of images for the rapid identification and assessment of changes occurring on the earth’s surface - updating existing GIS layers, maintaining them at the modern level, and updating information.

A clear time reference of the data and the possibility of using photographs taken at different times and different dates make them an indispensable material for studying the dynamics of nature and the economy.

These properties determine two main directions for using aerospace images in creating GIS. Firstly, they represent a source of primary information when creating thematic layers in a GIS database, especially for hard-to-reach and unsurveyed areas. Secondly, it is an independent element of the database, designed to solve such important problems as studying the interrelations of various geographical objects and phenomena, and studying their dynamics.

The inclusion of aerospace information in geographic information systems places its own demands on software and the structure of the system, in connection with which special

type of integrated GIS.