Images from the International Space Station trace bird migrations

Those who view Earth from the International Space Station often say that it offers a new appreciation for our planet. The Avian Migration Surface Airspace Project, or AMASS, takes advantage of thousands of images captured by astronauts to give people a sense of the migrations many birds undertake across the planet.

Also called Space for Birds, the project maps the routes taken by seven endangered or threatened bird species, highlighting along these routes changes in habitat caused primarily by human activities. After more than four years, astronauts have now captured images of key places along the migratory paths of the seven species. The Roberta Bondar Foundation sponsors AMASS in collaboration with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The foundation is a research and education effort initiated by Bondar, the first Canadian woman to fly in space.

“We see environmental education as a way to get people to like something,” says Bondar. “If they like something, they will want to protect it.” She traveled to remote areas, taking photos on the ground and in the air of birds and their surroundings, but knew that images from space could help people grasp the bigger picture.

The images are part of the space station’s Crew Earth Observation (CEO) project, which supports a wide variety of research and education projects. AMASS started working with the CEO in 2016, photographing locations along the Whooping Crane’s North American migration path. The collaboration expanded in 2018 and 2019 when CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques flew aboard the space station.

“It has always been one of my passions to look at the Earth from space,” says Saint-Jacques. “Because birds are affected by what we do on the planet, it was a nice way for me to give a theme to my observations of the Earth. Seeing the duration of the migrations from space, imagining birds flying these incredible distances, was a source of wonder.

The following teams continued the work. Taking pictures is a popular activity on the station, says Saint-Jacques, so it took little effort to recruit new crew members.

The seven species for the project, which Bondar selected in consultation with the United Nations Environment Program and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, are the curlew sandpiper, black-tailed godwit, lesser flamingo, piping plover, Sprague’s pipit, red knot rufa species and Whooping crane.

The project plans to host exhibitions and educational events, but during the pandemic, decided to create story cards online. These maps provide information on the biology and threats to the survival of each species, as well as images, videos and maps of land use changes. The first completed story card covers the little flamingo.

Additionally, ASC’s Exploring Earth, an educational project using space photos on an interactive map, incorporates information on bird migration. The map contains photographs of the space, information about each species, and resources for teachers. Users can learn more about a species, its breeding grounds, migration routes and wintering grounds.

Globally, some 1,500 bird species are threatened with extinction, and the disruption of migratory corridors poses a serious threat. Space imagery helps to draw attention to these threats.

“Space imagery shows the position of a habitat within the larger frame of the planet,” says Bondar. “The overlap of emotion and vision focuses people on conservation.”

Taking photos from the space station presents unique challenges, including the speed at which the station moves – five miles per second – and the crew’s busy schedule. “You have these little slices of time in a place and little time to prepare yourself,” says Saint-Jacques. “You can’t wait to see the scene come your way pretty quickly and you only have a few seconds above this spot and a few more seconds looking back as you fly away. Hunting for the right frame is a bit of an art.

Also, all the logistics need to be in place, including target identification and the correct camera lens, taking into account cloud cover and the season.

But the effort is worth it. “The distances that these birds instinctively fly are still a mystery to zoologists,” says Saint-Jacques. “It takes humans immense technology to fly around the world, and birds just do it. I have gained more respect for these animals, to see that the whole world is their environment.”

Bondar notes that almost everyone has a camera these days, even if only on a phone, providing an accessible lens through which to view nature. “Photography can reconnect people to the natural world. From space, we can see entire corridors and migratory patterns that we didn’t even know existed. It’s a sight of the extraordinary feats of these birds.”

For Saint-Jacques, one of the less tangible benefits of space exploration is this new perspective. “The space station is a great testament to the unifying power of space exploration. Very quickly you feel that you are not a citizen of any particular country, but an Earthman. We share this planet with many other species. , and we have a responsibility to be decent roommates. ”

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