National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) was a program to photograph the entire United States in infrared and black and white photography. The US Geological Survey sponsored this effort.

NASA See National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Centers The ten major NASA Centers are:

• Ames Research Center (ARC): Located at Moffett Field, California. ARC is active in aeronautical research, life sciences, space science, and technology research. The Center houses the world's largest wind tunnel and the world's most powerful supercomputer system.

• The Dryden Flight Research Center: Edwards Air Force Base, California, formerly part of ARC, became a separate entity March 1994. Since the 1940s, this Mojave Desert site has been a testing ground for high-performance aircraft and is one of two prime landing sites for the Space Shuttle.

• Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): Goddard was NASA's first major scientific laboratory devoted entirely to the exploration of space. Located in Greenbelt, Maryland, GSFC's responsibilities include design and construction of new scientific and applications satellites, as well as tracking and communication with existing satellites in orbit. GSFC is the lead center for the Earth Observing System, a key element of Mission to Planet Earth. GSFC also directs operations at the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, which each year launches some 50 scientific missions to sub-orbital altitudes on small sounding rockets.

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): Located in Pasadena, California, JPL is operated under contract to NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Its primary focus is the scientific study of the solar system, including exploration of the planets with automated probes. Most of the lunar and planetary spacecraft of the 1960s and 1970s were developed at JPL. JPL also is the control center for the worldwide Deep Space Network, which tracks all planetary spacecraft.

• Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC): Johnson Space Center, located between Houston and Galveston, Texas, is the lead center for NASA's manned space flight program. JSC has been Mission Control for all piloted space flights since 1965, and now manages the Space Shuttle program. JSC's responsibilities include selecting and training astronauts; designing and testing vehicles and other systems for piloted space flight; and planning and executing space flight missions. The center has a major role in developing the Space Station. In addition, JSC directs operations at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, which conducts Shuttle-related tests. The nearby White Sands Missile Range also serves as a backup-landing site for the Space Shuttle.

• Kennedy Space Center (KSC): Located near Cape Canaveral, Florida, KSC is NASA's primary launch site. The Center handles the preparation, integration, checkout, and launch of space vehicles and their payloads. All piloted space missions since the Mercury program have been launched from here, including Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle flights. KSC is the Shuttle's home port, where orbiters are serviced and outfitted between missions, and then assembled into a complete Shuttle "stack" before launch. The Center also manages the testing and launch of unpiloted space vehicles from an array of launch complexes, and conducts research programs in areas of life sciences related to human spaceflight.

• Langley Research Center (LaRC): Oldest of NASA's field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia, and focuses primarily on aeronautical research. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics, and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency.

• Lewis Research Center (LeRC): Lewis Research Center, located outside Cleveland, Ohio, conducts a varied program of research in aeronautics and space technology. Aeronautical research includes work on advanced materials and structures for aircraft. Space-related research focuses primarily on power and propulsion. Another significant area of research is in energy and power sources for spacecraft, including the Space Station, for which LeRC is developing the largest space power system ever designed.

• George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC): The MSFC, located in Huntsville, Alabama, is responsible for developing spacecraft hardware and systems, and is perhaps best known for its role in building the Saturn rockets that sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo program. It is NASA's primary center for space propulsion systems and plays a key role in the development of payloads to be flown on the shuttle (such as Spacelab). MSFC also manages two other NASA sites: the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the Shuttle's external tanks are manufactured, and the Slidell Computer Complex in Slidell, Louisiana, which provides computer support to Michoud and to NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center.

• John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC): This Center, located on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, is NASA's prime test facility for large liquid propellant rocket engines and propulsion systems. The main mission of the Center is to support testing, on a regular basis, of the Space Shuttle's main propulsion system. SSC is responsible for a variety of research programs in the environmental sciences and the remote sensing of Earth resources, weather, and oceans, and is the lead NASA Center for the commercialization of space remote sensing.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): U.S. Civilian Space Agency created by Congress. Founded in 1958, NASA belongs to the executive branch of the Federal Government. NASA's mission to plan, direct, and conduct aeronautical and space activities is implemented by NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and by nine major centers spread throughout the United States. Dozens of smaller facilities, from tracking antennas to Space Shuttle landing strips to telescopes are located around the world. The agency administers and maintains these facilities; builds and operates launch pads; trains astronauts; designs aircraft and spacecraft; sends satellites into Earth orbit and beyond; and processes, analyzes, and distributes the resulting data and information. See NASA Centers.

NASA shares responsibility for aviation and space activities with other federal agencies, including the Departments of Commerce, Transportation, and Defense. Much of the work on major projects such as the Space Shuttle and the Space Station is done in the private sector by aerospace companies under government contract.

From its inception, NASA has been directed to pursue the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space. NASA's programs of basic and applied research extend from microscopic sub-atomic particles to galactic astronomy. In addition to enhancing scientific knowledge, thousands of the technologies developed for aerospace have resulted in commercial applications. Science offices at NASA Headquarters carry out a wide range of research activities to fulfill NASA's science goals.

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): There are various forms of combining satellite bands to monitor vegetation; a vegetation index is the term used to describe these ratio combinations. The vegetation indices that is used in this project is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is defined by a very simple algebraic formula.

near IR band - red band

NDVI = ______________________.

near IR band + red band

Simply put, vegetation indices are used to isolate vegetation’s presence and condition from other factors.

"Delta" Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (D NDVI): The reason the created image is called D NDVI is that the new image is showing the change in NDVI pixel values between two NDVI images. The Greek letter delta notation is used to show a change in quantity between the two NDVI images. Imagine that in one area in the satellite coverage was forest in an older image and has since been changed into another non-vegetated form of land cover. In the older image the NDVI pixel values will for vegetation range from a low of 0.05 to a high of 0.66. In the more recent image the bright nonvegetated surfaces will have a NDVI value of less than zero. Using a simple algebraic transformational formula the D NDVI can be created. Below is the formula, the C1 represents the older image always and the C2 always represents the newer image.

C1-C2 x 1

1

If the C1 value is 0.54 (remember when the NDVI image was created using MultiSpecÓ the NDVI value needed to be multiplied by 255 for display reasons. If the true NDVI value is needed all that is required is to divide the pixel value by 255) and the C2 value is 0.0, the D NDVI will be 140. This will be displayed as white. The brighter the pixel the greater the change between the two images, old to new.

• C1 pixel value Low - C2 pixel value High = D NDVI pixel value Vegetation gain
• C1 pixel value High - C2 pixel value Low = D NDVI pixel value Vegetation loss
• C1 pixel value Equal - C2 pixel value Equal = D NDVI pixel value Vegetation same

Near infrared Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths from just longer than the visible (about 0.7 micrometers) to about two micrometers. See electromagnetic spectrum.