On the night of April 18/19, 1775, Paul Revere rode from Boston to
Lexington, Mass., to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British
were coming. On April 19, there was a skirmish on the Battle Green, with
shots being fired both from the Battle Green and the nearby Buckman
Tavern. After the rout, the British marched on toward Concord. The battle
in Lexington allowed the Concord militia time to organize at the Old North
Bridge, where they were able to turn back the British and prevent them
from capturing and destroying the militia's arms stores.
This image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, acquired in October 2006,
depicts this area of great importance in U.S. history. These two small
Massachusetts towns are now dwarfed by Hanscom Air Force Base between
them.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared
wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters
(about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing
surface of our planet.
ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18,
1999, on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The instrument was built by Japan's
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team
is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the
data products.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides
scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface
mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example
applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring
potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud
morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution
monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils
and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate.
Size: 12 by 18 kilometers (7.4 by 11.1 miles)
Location: 42.5 degrees North latitude, 71.2 degrees West longitude
Orientation: North at top
Image Data: ASTER Bands 3, 2, and 1
Original Data Resolution: ASTER 15 meters (49.2 feet)
Date Acquired: October 21, 2006.