NASA has launched a mission in Central America to use three-dimensional imagery to document the isthmus' lands and topography and gauge transformations that may have occurred as a result of phenomena such as climate change.

The Gulfstream III, an 83-foot jet equipped with a high-tech sensor, has been flying over Central America since Jan. 25, measuring three aspects of the area's seven countries. During the flight's six hour missions, the 14-person team has shot imagery of the extent of forests and other types of habitat that could help estimate the populations of wildlife that live within them, monitored land structure and deformations due to volcanic activity and examined archeological sites such as ancient Mayan cities.

Much of this data is “baseline information,” team members said, which means it is the first of its kind and will be used as a foundation for future comparisons.

The images will be downloaded to create 3D maps that university and government researchers can use in future studies. In Costa Rica, Gulfstream III will fly over La Selva Biological Station, near the Caribbean slope region of Sarapiquí; Corcovado National Park, in the Southern Zone; and La Amistad, a park on the border with Costa Rica and Panama. The aircraft will also visit the Golfo de Fonseca – which hosts a mangrove forest that extends from Honduras into El Salvador – and indigenous ruins in Guatemala.

Officials announced on Monday that the data collected during the flights will be available to all agencies in Costa Rica. NASA is already sharing the new information with Costa Rica's National System of Conservation Areas and public universities such as the University of Costa Rica and the National University.

The program uses NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), which is key for studying earthquakes, volcanoes and other changing phenomena, according to the UAVSAR Web site.

The plane flew over Haiti shortly after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the country on Jan. 12 to collect images of the damage. The jet will return to the Caribbean nation on Wednesday to gather more information.

This particular mission ends on Feb. 14. Pilots said they will return in one year to Costa Rica and Central America to take more images of the region's land and further document its changes.