Satellite images to document AT changes

December 07, 2009
Dale Heal, staff writer
Citizen-Times.com

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Satellite images to document AT changes

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ASHEVILLE — Yiqioa Wang has never been a through-hiker on the Appalachian Trail, having studied only parts of the famed 2,175-mile-long path from Georgia to Maine.

Now the University of Rhode Island professor plans to get a better view of the whole trail, using satellites orbiting more than 1,000 miles overhead.

Wang and his research partners have received a $1.15 million, four-year grant from NASA to use satellite data to see what development pressures and climate change may be threatening the scenic trail in the future.

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