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IMAGE OF THE EARTH 
Vera A. Patsaeva 
Nicolas A. Gusev 
NPO "Energiya" 
3-21, Khovanskaya st. 
Moscow 129515, Russia 
ISPRS Commission VII / Working Giroup 5 
ABSTRACT 
This work represents a systematic analysis of the richest illustrative material obtained throughout more 
than thirty year period of Russian manned orbital expeditions. One of the goals of the recent work based 
mainly on photographs taken by space men in prolonged orbital missions is to show the Face of the Earth 
in the second half of XXth century. It is quite possible that soma territories and landscapes in XXIst 
century will be significally changed. Another idea of this work is to create a documentary description of 
landscapes photo-portraits for specialists in different fields of natural sciences. 
Each part of this work consists of a photograph or a set photographs, regional graph allocation of each 
photograph after geographical coordinates, a scheme-map and a thematic interpretation (geological, soil, 
vegetation, ecological etc.). 
The new materials being obtained from orbital spacecrafts give us a comprehensive understanding of our 
environment on the basis of nontraditional information and realize zdditional ideas: 
- The unity of our world over the Universe. Only due to photozraphs from the spaceships we have 
received documentary corroboration of similarity of processes on the Earth and other planets. It enables 
to see first of all the photograph-documents of geological structures, which are developed under common 
laws. 
- The exclusiveness and uniqueness of Earth conditions. The unique conditions of our Planet have 
provided a possibility of appearance, development and existencz of life - biosphere and finally of 
noosphere in its present form. 
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