Bureau of Land Management Contracts Earth Search Sciences
For Hyperspectral Survey Over Montana Coal Deposits
KALISPELL, Mont., July 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Earth Search Sciences,
Inc. (BB:EDIS), a leading commercial provider of
revolutionary hyperspectral technology, today announced that it has been
awarded a contract by the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to
classify hydrocarbon indicators in an area of southeastern Montana using the
company's breakthrough remote sensing instrument in an airborne survey. The
initial contract amount is for approximately $200,000.
Larry Vance, chairman of Earth Search Sciences, explained: "The BLM is
using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing to collect information for use in
the protection of the environment. The application of the data is to correlate
the location of potential coal bed methane deposits with surface material that
has high permeability. The coal extraction process calls for water to be
pumped to the surface where it needs to be spread over an area that has a high
percolation factor. This allows the contaminated water to leach back into the
natural system rather than pooling on the surface and creating a potential
environmental problem. Unfortunately, Montana is known for areas of dense clay
that allows for almost no permeability. The BLM needs to know where the coal
deposits are and where the areas of clay are in relation to one another."
Coal bed methane has great potential for energy uses. It has long been
known that the vast deposits of coal bed methane could someday be used as
additional alternative to oil. With the current situation in the Middle East
and the threat of terrorism to pipelines and wells, a safe and abundant energy
source like the coal bed methane in Montana can become attractive for
development.
Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing technology can be used to map many
important minerals and rock types, certain vegetation species, stressed
vegetation, and many important man-made materials. It can also provide much
information on water quality, another issue of concern for the BLM.
While existing satellite and remote sensing technology provides the
ability to identify objects primarily by shape or spectral response, the
revolutionary hyperspectral imaging, by measuring the degree of spectral
reflectance of solar energy across the spectrum, allows us to identify
materials by their diagnostic reflectance patterns. Earth Search hyperspectral
information products can be used for a variety of resource, environmental, and
security applications. For example, the company has conducted an environmental
survey for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund surveying the Virunga conservation
area in Rwanda using its airborne hyperspectral sensor to find and measure the
distribution of bamboo and nettles necessary to sustain mountain gorilla's
natural habitat. Earth Search has also been surveying parts of Montana in a
vegetation assessment and has frequent assignments throughout the West and
Southwest for mineral and oil exploration |
