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Satellite Imagery Crucial in Disaster Relief Thu Aug 4 2011The use of satellite images to monitor the after effects of natural disasters is seen as a crucial step in aiding long-term recovery efforts. Researchers at the University of Cambridge, partnering with Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd. and ImageCat Inc., have proposed a systematic process to monitor and evaluate disaster-stricken areas through high-resolution images, according to an article...
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NASA's Aqua satellite monitoring tropical storms Mon Aug 1 2011Tropical Storm Muifa appears huge on NASA infrared imagery The width of an image from the AIRS instrument that flies on NASA's Aqua satellite is about 1700 km (1056 miles), and the clouds and thunderstorms associate with Tropical Storm Muifa take up that entire distance in the latest imagery. Tropical Storm Muifa is spinning through the western North Pacific Ocean Friday and has grown in size....
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NASA Measures Wildfire Pollution Pour Over Niagara Falls Mon Aug 1 2011Water isn't the only thing pouring over Niagara Falls. Pollution from fires in Ontario, Canada is also making the one thousand mile trip, while being measured by NASA's Aqua satellite. One instrument that flies aboard two of NASA's satellites has provided two views of the pollution from the fires in Ontario. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS instrument, flies onboard...
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NASA Satellite Tracks Severity of African Drought Mon Aug 1 2011Northeast Africa continues to reel from the effects of the worst drought to strike the region in decades. The arid conditions are contributing to famines that the U.S. Department of State says are affecting more than 11.5 million people, particularly in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. The drought is tied to strong La Nina conditions that prevailed in late 2010 and early 2011. La Nina...
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DLR/ZKI produces Geographic Reference Maps to Support Relief Response to the Famine in East Africa Thu Jul 28 2011To support the aid work of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) to respond to the famine in East Africa -the worst to be seen in the region in more than 60 years- DLR/ZKI produced maps of the Dolo Ado, Ethiopia region showing the refugee camps along the Genale river between Dolo Ado and Bokol Mayo in Ethiopia. These geographic reference maps support the recent...
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NASA AIRS Movies Show Evolution of US 2011 Heat Wave Thu Jul 28 2011The continuing heat wave in the United States in July 2011 has broken temperature records in many locations, killed dozens and seen nearly half of all Americans under heat advisories at its peak. Four movies, created from data from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft for the period from July 16-24, show the movement of a dome of heat across the eastern...
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Namibia's satellite centre to warn of disaster threats Thu Jul 28 2011A new satellite data centre in Namibia will help farmers prepare for droughts, floods, bushfires and pests. The Earth Observation and Satellite Applications Research and Training Centre (EOSA-RTC), was launched this month (6 July) in collaboration with the African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development programme (AMESD). It is located at the Polytechnic of Namibia and comprises...
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Texas Drought Disaster Wed Jul 27 2011By July 2011, Texas and New Mexico had completed the driest six-month period on record. Average rain between January and June was more than eight inches (203 millimeters) below average in Texas and 3.5 inches (89 millimeters) below average in New Mexico. Record warm temperatures also persisted in Texas between April and June. The lack of rain and the warm temperatures added up to exceptional...
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Aura Detects Pollution in the Great Lakes Region Tue Jul 26 2011Fires throughout Ontario are generating pollution that is showing up in data from NASA's Aura Satellite in the Great Lakes region. The fires have also forced thousands of residents to evacuate to other areas in Canada, according to CBC News. About 112 fires have ravaged 81,545 acres so far, said the province's minister of natural resources, Linda Jeffrey. Because of the smoke from wildfires...
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Heavy Snow in Central Chile Tue Jul 26 2011In what the interior minister described as a “white earthquake,” heavy snow blanketed parts of Chile in July 2011. Snow was 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) deep in the city of Lonquimay, CNN reported. Santiago Times reported that some areas received four months’ worth of snowfall in just four days. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite...
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ESA Protests Earth Observation Program’s Removal from Multiyear Budget Proposal Mon Jul 25 2011The European Space Agency (ESA) has sent letters to its member governments asking them to protest a decision by the European Commission to remove Europe’s flagship environmental program from the commission’s proposed multiyear financial envelope, ESA’s director of Earth observation said. The 19-nation ESA also will be taking its case to the European Parliament in an effort to...
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Drought has plunged East Africa into the worst food security crisis Africa has faced in 20 years. Mon Jul 25 2011More than 11.5 million people are currently in need of food aid in Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The number is projected to rise, and this image illustrates why. The image shows plant growth during the growing season for the crop normally harvested in June and July. The image was made with observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-18 POES...
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Horn of Africa drought seen from space Mon Jul 25 2011Drought in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti is pushing tens of thousands of people from their homes as millions face food insecurity in a crisis visible from space. ESA’s SMOS satellite shows that the region’s soil is too dry to grow crops. Somalis, who already face war in their country, have been fleeing to neighbouring countries in search of refuge. In Kenya’s Dadaab...
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European Commission Wants Individual Nations To Fund GMES Fri Jul 22 2011The European Commission, in a surprise move, is proposing that its satellite-based Earth observation program be removed from its seven-year budget starting in 2014 and instead be funded by voluntary contributions from individual European governments. The decision to take the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) effort off the commission’s books just as it begins operations...
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Volcanic eruption in Chile Fri Jul 22 2011The crater of the Chilean volcano Puyehue displays a striking, circular outline in this image from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) TerraSAR-X satellite – so this was not the culprit when a volcano in the southern Andes erupted on 4 June 2011. Instead, as the images from the German radar satellite show for the first time, the new eruption...
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Researchers examine wildfire impacts in Northern Rockies Fri Jul 22 2011Researchers from the University of Idaho and Washington State University received $1.2 million from NASA to study the ecological impacts of extreme wildland fires in the Northern Rockies. "It's essential that research needs to focus on not just working out the size and impact of extreme fires and hurricanes on vegetation, but also how they affect the local and regional social communities...
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Landsat Satellites Track Continued Missouri River Flooding Thu Jul 21 2011Flooding along the Missouri River continues as shown in recent Landsat satellite images of the Nebraska and Iowa border. Heavy rains and snowmelt have caused the river to remain above flood stage for an extended period. A Landsat 5 image of the area from May 5, 2011 shows normal flow. In contrast, a Landsat 7 image from July 17 depicts flood conditions in the same location. A national overview...
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Tsunami airglow signature could lead to early detection system Thu Jul 21 2011Researchers at the University of Illinois have become the first to record an airglow signature in the upper atmosphere produced by a tsunami using a camera system based in Maui, Hawaii. The signature, caused by the March 11 earthquake that devastated Japan, was observed in an airglow layer 250 kilometers above the earth's surface. It preceded the tsunami by one hour, suggesting that the...
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Amazon drought and forest fire prediction system devised Thu Jul 21 2011Researchers have devised a model to anticipate drought and forest fires in the Amazon rainforest.The research, which used precipitation records dating back to 1970 and hotspots tracked by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA satellites, finds a strong correlation between sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic and subsequent drought in the western...
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Univ. of Miami's CSTARS Captures History Thu Jul 21 2011Following 16 years of Earth observations, the European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS-2 satellite was decommissioned and removed from its continuous orbit around the Earth on July 4, 2011. The final image, captured by the University of Miami's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), occurred over the Antilles Islands in the Caribbean. "We've been tracking ERS-2 for...
