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aries model

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well victor thanks so much for showing

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us a little bit of nasa's history and

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showing us how important it is and as a

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future as well and you're welcome

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i'm here with dan irwin in the severe

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lab at the national space science and

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technology center and dan tell me

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exactly what severe stands for severe

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stands for regional monitoring and

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visualization system in spanish it's a

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spanish word also that means to serve

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and what we basically do here is we tap

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into the constellation of nasa

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satellites and bring together

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information for environmental management

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disaster response for the seven

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countries of central america what you're

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actually standing in is a development

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and rapid prototyping facility where we

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look at all the different nasa research

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that's occurring bring it together here

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test it out and then what works for say

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oceans or forest

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deforestation

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for harmful algae blooms that are

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occurring in the oceans we look at these

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technologies and then we actually

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transport them and transfer them to an

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operational facility in the country of

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panama so this is a unique facility and

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all of these countries really tap into

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nasa's resources right precisely

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actually it's a two-way street what

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we're doing is providing the eyes in the

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sky where we can monitor what's going on

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daily weekly monthly and annually to see

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what's going on with their forests and

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their environment if there's a disaster

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that occurs we can provide near

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real-time information about that

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disaster and then send it down to these

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central american countries and in

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exchange they're collecting information

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in the field of what's going on and we

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bring those two data sets together and

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we use it for the best environmental

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management system perhaps in the world

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tell me about the future of this

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facility well the again this is a rapid

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prototyping and development facility

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what we have done is created a model and

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it's functioning in central america

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there is a global effort going on called

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geos the global earth observation system

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of systems and that's basically a an

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effort of over 70 countries to create

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this 21st century observation system

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around the globe what servier is in fact

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it's been recognized as a template for

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expansion to other locations around the

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globe such as africa and south america

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and currently we're expanding to to the

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caribbean and um specifically the

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dominican republic well a lot a lot of

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ground to cover there but it's not just

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about weather either it's about

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archaeology you actually have an

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archaeologist on staff here right sure

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in fact the principal investigator of

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severe is tom seaver who's nasa's only

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archaeologist all right i think bill is

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with him now

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we're here in tom seaver's office which

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is right around the corner from the

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severe labs and as you mentioned he is

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the principal investigator for severe

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you've been here from the beginning so

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tell us how severe got started

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it started in 1987 when nasa and the

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national geographic society did an

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archaeological salvage project along the

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use of the center river which is the

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river that borders mexico and guatemala

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what you're showing is now a photo of an

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area that's it's very dramatic you can

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see this this deforested area and then

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where the rain forest seems to pick back

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up again what are we looking at here

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we're looking at a political border from

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space we can see the guatemala forest

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that is still intact and we can see the

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deforested tilled landscape of mexico

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so what happened here is that this

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archaeological project immediately

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changed to an environmental project

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because from space you could see this

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tilled landscape in contrast to the

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perfect forest of of guatemala and this

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caused the presidents of mexico and

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guatemala to end 150 years of tension

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along their border which led to

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the other ministers and presidents of

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central america uniting to work together

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for the preservation and monitoring of

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the region so dan tends to focus on the

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the weather changes in central america

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and how it affects the area you focus on

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what mankind has done to the area not

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just now but also in the ancient world

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tell us a little bit about your mind

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project well this area of guatemala was

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the center of the maya empire which had

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one of the greatest population densities

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in human history equivalent to the most

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densely populated areas of china and

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java today

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around 800 ads something dramatic

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happened and we don't know what there

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have been over a hundred explanation but

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we do know that the maya disappeared

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from this region and from space you're

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able to track though where some of these

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lost cities are now right this area is

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not conducive for traditional

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archaeology where you cut straight lines

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and do transects

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it's dense thick undergrowth and

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overgrowth and what we have found in the

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satellite imagery a vegetation signature

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which is showing us the location the

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position the diameter the circumference

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of all the maya sites beneath this

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pristine tropical forest

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so just from the difference of the

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vegetation that's i guess grown over

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some of the buildings you're able to to

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see where it is right

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uh this is what it looks like today as

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we would see it but this is not what the

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maya would have seen uh in their

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constructions they would have had to

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burn 20 trees just to make a square

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meter of plaza of plaster for their

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buildings and temples and roadways and

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plazas

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this is a lot of deforestation that took

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place they would have seen a tilled

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landscape and would have seen

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agricultural fields one after the other

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and from the city tops they would have

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seen the next city and so forth they

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would not have seen what we think today

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is a pristine environment but over time

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all this vegetation is has grown back

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over

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uh all of those all of those cities

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right and what's fascinating is 1200

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years later we can still see the effects

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of humans in a landscape

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not only can we see the cities but we

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can also see

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the maya roadways that connect the

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cities we can see the water storage

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areas the canals that let us understand

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better how they were practicing

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agriculture to sustain this dense

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population what's amazing about this i

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think is that the maya disappear from

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this region we can look back 1200 years

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and see how

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they went about destroying their

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landscape and changing their climate if

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they had had the ability of severe the

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access to gis technology to satellites

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they could have seen what they were

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doing and prevented the destruction that

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took place here that's some amazing

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research time and thank you so much for

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bill i didn't even know nasa had an

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archaeologist that's right and he'll be

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heading back to central america and

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going to places around the world in the

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future and as far as the wind tunnel is

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concerned they make some amazing

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discoveries and that's been around a

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long time even longer than you

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thank you