Albert Stevens photograph showing troposphere - stratosphere boundry

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Title	Albert Stevens photograph showing troposphere - stratosphere boundry
Subject	Aerial photography--United States National Geographic Society (U.S.) United States. Army. Air Corps Stratosphere--United States Stevens, A. W. (Albert William), 1886-1949 Anderson, Orvil A
Time Period	1930s
Place	Murdo (South Dakota) Rapid City (South Dakota) Jones County (South Dakota) Pennington County (South Dakota)
Description	Caption on reverse reads: "Copyright National Geographic Society. Photograph made by Major Albert W. Stevens. The only photograph showing the curvature of the earth." This photographic composite shows the area around the Black Hill of South Dakota, as seen miles above the earth's surface. Many lines, labels and places names have been drawn on the photograph. Some of the labels are: The Stratosphere, Top of Troposphere and Base of Stratosphere approximately 37,300 feet above sea level, The Troposphere - (region of dust and clouds), and Ground Horizon. Some of the place names are: Fossil Cycad Nat. Mon., Wind Cave Nat. Park, Jewel Cave Nat. Mon., Devils Tower, Fort Meade, Bear Butte and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Some of the lines drawn are for: Washington, Pennington, Haakon, Bennett and Washabaugh Counties, South Fork of Cheyenne River, White River and many tributaries. Albert Stevens is credited with taking the first photograph showing earth's curvature, which was taken in 1929 during a National Geographic Society air survey of Latin America by photographing Mount Aconcagua, in Argentina, from a distance of 287 miles. This photograph was taken November 11, 1935 from the Explorer II, the second balloon made by the Goodyear - Zeppelin Company, for Stevens, the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Army Air Corps. Pressure tests for the balloons were done at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Stevens made the record ascent with Captain Orvil Anderson, lifting off in Rapid City, S.D. and attaining a height of 72,395 feet. He was the first to photograph the division between the troposphere and the stratosphere and the curvature of the earth from a record altitude (a height which wasn't surpassed until 1956), which was taken from a point 35 miles south of Murdo, facing west. Stevens was the chief of the Army Air Corps photography lab at Wright Field, Ohio and very interested in aerial photography. The photographs of South Dakota and surrounding states taken from high altitude demonstrated the potential for long-range reconnaissance from balloons.
Creator	Ohio Federal Writers' Project; Albert W. Stevens
Date of Original	November 11, 1935
Collection	Ohio Guide Photographs
Source	State Archives Series 1039 AV
Submitting Institution	Ohio Historical Society
Rights	Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
Type	StillImage
File Name	SA1039AV_B09F13_009_1.tif
Image Height	4037
Image Width	5831
File Size	70645372 Bytes
Display File Type	image/jp2
Format	picture
Date created	2010-04-27
Date modified	2011-06-13

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Albert Stevens photograph showing troposphere - stratosphere boundry

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