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earth from over 200 miles above is an

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inspiring sight but this unique vantage

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point has practical value as well

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since the early 1970s a series of

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satellites looking at our planet has

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been producing highly valuable pictures

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these images colorized and enhanced with

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computers are used to monitor erosion

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urban growth and environmental changes

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and to identify certain types of crops

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and timber resources

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it's called multi-spectral scanning and

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thanks to research scientists like doug

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rickman at nasa's national space

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technology laboratories in basin louis

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mississippi satellite data processing

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techniques are now being applied to

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medical images like this one the goal

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improve disease detection and treatment

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capabilities

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one of the keys to this effort is a

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relatively new body scanning technique

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called magnetic resonance

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this particular mr unit is part of

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washington university's malintra

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institute of radiology in st louis

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missouri

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the patient is carefully positioned by a

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skull technologist then slid into a

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super strong magnet

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no harmful radiation is involved

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the mr generates images that look to the

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untrained eye like x-rays but there's a

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very important difference

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x-rays are most sensitive to bone

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mrs to other tissues in the body like

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the brain

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what brings nasa into the picture is the

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fact that the mr produces these images

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in digital form meaning they can be

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processed by a computer just like the

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picture information transmitted via

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satellite

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research scientists at nstl use their

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unique software package to assemble

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different black and white views produced

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by the scanner into a single composite

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image

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next color is added because we see

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things much better in color than in

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black and white

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color images like this can then be blown

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up and enhanced to bring out particular

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areas of concern to the physician

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much important information present in

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the standard black and white format is

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not clearly visible until these

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processing techniques are applied

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according to associate professor of

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radiology at washington university dr

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michael veneer what's happened with the

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use of the nstl satellite image

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processing technology is that now we're

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studying the examinations in a much more

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detailed way we can often contribute

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very significantly to the management of

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patient by answering questions we simply

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couldn't answer any other way

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the people at washington university are

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now setting up their own image analysis

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system the hope is that in the near

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future this technology will become a

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standard tool in patient evaluations

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we think that for certain selected

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examinations that

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the actual surgical procedure that's

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done on the patient

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or whether the decision whether or not

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to do surgery will be based on the

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results of this type of multispectral

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analysis and that's a remarkable finding

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in technology which has only been

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applied for the last year or so

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nasa's medical imaging effort helping