Öz The first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERST — 1) was launched on July 23, 1972. In the seven months since it was activated, over 34.000 scenes of the earth have been obtained, covering all major land masses and about 75 percent of the world's land area. The purpose of the ERTS program is to provide an assessment of remote sensing from a satellite as a technique for inventorying and monitoring the earth's resources to provide for better management of these sources. '