International space station images track bird migrations

Those who see the Earth from the International Space Station often say that it offers a new appreciation for our planet. The Avian Migration Aerial Surface Space project, or AMASS, uses thousands of images captured by astronauts to give people appreciation for the migrations that many birds undertake across the planet.

The project is also called Space for Birds and maps the routes followed by seven endangered or endangered bird species, and points out the routes habitat changes caused mainly by human activities. After more than four years, astronauts have now captured images of important sites along the migratory paths of all seven species. The Roberta Bondar Foundation sponsors AMASS in partnership with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The foundation is a research and education effort started by Bondar, the first Canadian woman to fly into space.

“We view environmental education as a way to get people to love it,” Bondar says. “If they like something, they’ll want to protect it.” She travels to remote areas, taking pictures on the ground and in the air of the birds and their surroundings, but knows that images from space can help people understand the bigger picture.

The images are part of the space station’s Crew Earth Observation (CEO) project, which supports a wide range of research and education projects. AMASS began working with the CEO in 2016, photographing locations along the North American trek of the Whooping Crane. The collaboration expanded in 2018 and 2019 when CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques flew aboard the space station.

“It has always been one of my passions to look at the earth from space,” says Saint-Jacques. “Because birds are influenced by what we do to the planet, it was a beautiful way for me to give my Earth observations a theme. It was awesome to see the extent of migrations from space, to introduce myself. imagine how birds fly these incredible distances. “

Subsequent crew continued the work. Taking photos is a popular activity at the station, says Saint-Jacques, so it took little effort to recruit new crew members.

The seven species for the project, which Bondar selected in consultation with the United Nations Environment Program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are the Curlew Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Lesser Flamingo, Piping Plover, Sprague’s Pipit, Red Knot rufa species, and Hoepkraan.

The project plans to host exhibitions and educational events, but decided to create online story maps during the pandemic. These maps provide information on the biology and threats to survival for each of the species, as well as images, videos, and maps of land use change. The first completed story card covers the Little Flamingo.

In addition, CSAs Exploring Earth, an educational project that uses photos from space on an interactive map, contains information on bird migration. The map contains photos from space, information on each species and resources for teachers. Users can learn about a species, the breeding grounds, migration routes and wintering areas.

Worldwide, about 1,500 bird species are extinct, and the disruption of migratory corridors is a serious threat. Space images help to address these threats.

“Space images show the position of a habitat in the wider range of the planet,” says Bondar. “The overlap of emotion and vision focuses people on conservation.”

Taking photos from the space station presents unique challenges, including the speed at which the station moves – five miles per second – and the busy schedule of the crew. “You have this little bit of time to go over a place and not much time to prepare,” Saint-Jacques says. “You look forward to it as the scene comes to you pretty quickly and only has a few seconds left over the place and a few more as you look back to fly away. Chasing the right frame is a bit of art.”

In addition, all logistics must be in place, including identifying the target and having the right camera lens, while also taking into account the amount of cloud cover and season.

But worth it. “The distance these birds instinctively fly is still mysterious to zoologists,” says Saint-Jacques. “It takes humans enormous technology to fly around the world, and birds just do it. I gained more respect for those animals to see that the whole world is their environment.”

Bondar notes that almost everyone these days has a camera, even if only on a phone, which provides an accessible lens to see nature. “Photography can reconnect people with the natural world. From space we see whole migration corridors and patterns that we did not even know. It is a picture of the extraordinary achievements of these birds.”

For Saint-Jacques, the new perspective is one of the less tangible of the many benefits of space exploration. “The space station is a great testament to the unifying power of space exploration. Very quickly you feel that you are not a citizen of a particular country, but an earthling. We share this planet with many other species, and we have the responsibility to be decent housemates. ‘

---

---