And those images became available to Rykiel s group in 1998. The question is how to interpret all this data. And that s why we are here on Mount St. Helens. With images of the swath of the Pumice Plane, we are trying to match the image with the landforms and what is growing on the ground. Finally, the wind abates, and the sun begins to burn through the clouds rising on the mountain, a curtain rising on a moonscape turning green with fall moisture.
Waterfalls cascade from the crater above, and snow covers the peak.
My hands are numb with cold. George He presses more keys and places a sample willow leaf in the spectroradiometer, an instrument that measures spectral reflectance. He gets a good reading and saves the data in the computer. Initial results look promising. The technology works, but the data is extremely complex and varied.