Use MapQuest! to zoom in on Moscow.   Locate the Kremlin on the banks of the Moskva River.  

In the image accessed by clicking the thumbnail at the lower left, the Kremlin grounds are colored red.  Print out a hardcopy of the map.  Using the scaling information in the map, estimate the perimeter of the Kremlin grounds and the width of the Moskva River in meters.

An English language map of Moscow may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the left.  Print out a hardcopy of the map. Using the scaling information in the map, do a second estimate of the perimeter of the Kremlin grounds and the width of the Moskva River in meters.  This map shows the Kremlin walls as the perimeter of a red polygon.  Estimate the perimeter of the walls in meters.  

You now have two sets of estimates. How do you explain any differences?  What would it take to determine which map is more accurately drawn to scale?

Atlas Moscow is a Russian language book (Geocentre-GIS, 1997) containing detailed maps of Moscow.  These maps show every building in the city, a remarkable level of detail.  A portion of one of these maps may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the left.  To obtain the complete map, download the Center of Moscow file, open it using Adobe Acrobat Reader, and print out a hard copy. 

Locate the Kremlin and , the giant department store (pronounced "goom").  The rectangular area between the Kremlin and  is Red Square, the site of Lenin's tomb.  St. Basil's Cathedral, a famous landmark, is located at the end of Red Square.  Find St. Basil's on the map. 

Estimate the dimensions of Red Square, explaining your reasoning thoroughly. 

A portion of a the legend for the Atlas Moscow maps of Moscow may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the top left.  To obtain the complete legend, download the file Map Legend file, open it using Adobe Acrobat Reader, and print out a hard copy. 

Using the legend, locate the Pushkin Museum of Art, a few blocks south west of the Kremlin. 
Trace a walking path from the museum to St. Basil's Cathedral and estimate the length of the walk.

A portion of  the map of Moscow showing the location of Moscow School # 57 may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the left.  To obtain the complete map, download the Moscow School #57 file, open it using Adobe Acrobat Reader, and print out a hard copy. 

Moscow School #57, marked in red in the thumbnail image, is near the Pushkin Museum of Art.  How would you describe the neighborhood of the school?  If you were a student there, where would you want to walk for a field trip?  Trace a walking path from the school to  and estimate the length of the walk.

Download and install the Mosgis Windows95 demonstration software from Kiberso, a Moscow-based geographic information company specializing in geoinformatics, digital map production and high accuracy vehicle navigation. 

The Mosgis map of Moscow may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the left.  This map contains less information than the Atlas Moscow maps because it is really just a graphical interface to a library of aircraft-based aerial photographs of Moscow.  The entire Mosgis collection of images is available on CD-ROM and costs approximately US$40.  The images  included with the Mosgis demonstration software cover only a small portion of the city near Moscow State University. 

An aerial photogrpah of the center of Moscow may be accessed by clicking the thumbnail image at the left.  Compare the photo to the Atlas Moscow map of the center of Moscow.  What can you learn about the Kremlin grounds from the photo that you could not learn from the map?  Open the photo using PaintShopPro or some other imaging tool and zoom in on the Kremlin.  Estimate the size of the smallest details visible in the photograph. 

Click on the thumbnail at the left and locate School #57.  What additional information does the photograph provide about the school and its neighborhood that is not found in the Atlas Moscow map?  Open the photo using PaintShopPro or some other imaging tool and zoom in on the Kremlin.  Estimate the size of the smallest details visible in the photograph. 

Three-band composites are created by using the measured reflected energy in each of three Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) spectral bands to control the amount of blue, green, and red in a color output image. The way in which the seven TM bands are mapped to the three colors in the output image depends on what information is desired to be highlighted in the image. For some applications, it may be desirable that landcover classes be associated with familiar colors, e.g., grass is green. In other cases, contrasting colors are preferred to highlight objects of interest from the background.  The following three examples illustrate commonly used band combinations and describe how different features appear in each. 
Center Latitude 55°45'N       Center Longitude 37°37'E 
Dates of Acquisition: Summer 08/07/86  Winter 12/13/86 

Note: The specific bands used in three-band composites are often identified by giving the band numbers used for red, green, and blue, respectively. Thus, an image using band seven for red, band four for green, and band two for blue would be designated (7,4,2). 

True-color composite images approximate the range of vision for the human eye, and hence these images appear to be close to what we would expect to see in a normal photograph. True-color images tend to be low in contrast and somewhat hazy in appearance. This is because blue light is more susceptible than other bandwidths to scattering by the atmosphere. Broad-based analysis of underwater features and landcover are representative applications for true-color composites. 

Compare the (3,2,1) images for summer and winter.  What features are visible in this composite?  What differences do you notice between the summer and winter images?   How do explain those differences? 

Open the image using PaintShopPro or some other imaging tool and zoom in on the Kremlin.  Estimate the size of the smallest details visible in the photograph.  How does the resolution in this satellite-based image compare to the resolution in the aircraft-based Mosgis image? 

Adding a near infrared (NIR) band and dropping the visible blue band creates a near infrared composite image. Vegetation in the NIR band is highly reflective due to chlorophyll, and an NIR composite vividly shows vegetation in various shades of red.  Water appears dark, almost black, due to the absorption of energy in the visible red and NIR bands. 

Compare the (4,3,2) images for summer and winter.  What features are visible in this composite?  What differences do you notice between the summer and winter images?   How do explain the differences? 

What differences do you notice between the (4,3,2) and (3,2,1) composites?  How do explain the differences? 

A shortwave infrared composite image is one that contains at least one shortwave infrared (SWIR) band. Reflectance in the SWIR region is due primarily to moisture content. SWIR bands are especially suited for camouflage detection, change detection, disturbed soils, soil type, and vegetation stress. 

Compare the (7,4,3) images for summer and winter.  What features are visible in this composite?  What differences do you notice between the summer and winter images?   How do explain the differences? 

What differences do you notice between the (7,4,3), (4,3,2), and (3,2,1) composites?  How do explain the differences?

The southern half of the circular highway (a road that looks like a ring) can easily be identified as well as the roads and railways radiating out from the center of the city.  The white areas within the ring road and outside of it are buildings of the city itself and its suburban towns. Light gray indicates forests, while the dark patches are agricultural areas. The various shades from middle gray to dark gray indicate different stages of harvesting, ploughing and grassland. 

Open the photo using PaintShopPro or some other imaging tool and zoom in on the Kremlin.  Estimate the size of the smallest details visible in the photograph. 

This radar image shows the Star City cosmonaut training center, east of Moscow, Russia. The area shown is approximately 32 kilometers by 49 kilometers (20 miles by 30 miles). North is to the top in this image. Star City contains the living quarters and training facilities for Russian cosmonauts and their families. Moscow's inner loop road is visible at the lower left edge of the image. The Kremlin is just off the left edge, on the banks of the meandering Moskva River. 

The Klyazma River snakes to the southeast from the reservoir in the upper left (shown in bright red), passing just east of Star City and flowing off the lower right edge of the image. The dark blue band of the Vorya River runs north-south in the upper right quadrant, east of Star City.  In general, dark pink areas are agricultural; pink and light blue areas are urban communities; black areas represent lakes and rivers; dark blue areas are cleared forest; and light green areas are forested. The prominent black runways just right of center are Shchelkovo Airfield, about 4 km long. The textured pale blue-green area east and southeast of Shchelkovo Airfield is forest. Just east of the runways is a thin railroad line running southeast; the Star City compound lies just east of the small bend in the rail line. Find Star City on the image. 
 
Compare this image to the photogrqaphs and maps already examined.  Can you find Star City on any of the other maps and/or images?  If you worked at Star City and drove to the Kremlin, approximately how long a trip would you be making?