Reuters reports that NASA is using sophisticated equipment to help scientists locate the rare Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in the Eastern Arkansas delta.
NASA used a laser-equipped research aircraft to fly over the Big Woods area of the Mississippi Delta to learn more about the big woodpecker’s potential habitat, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday.
Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland used an instrument that sends pulses of energy to Earth’s surface, where light particles from the lasers bounce off leaves, branches and the ground and reflect back to the instrument.
These signals give scientists a direct measurement of the height of the forest’s leaf-covered treetops, the ground level below and everything in between, NASA said in a statement.