In recent years, Mozambique has suffered severe floods and droughts that have impacted urban and rural communities throughout the country. In the March and April 2019, tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth triggered major floods in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Comoros. The Port of Beira was hard hit, as cyclone Idai destroyed transmission lines and bridges, leaving the port without access to these lifelines for several days. In contrast the powerful El Niño event of 2016 triggered major droughts that affected most of the country.
A recent study has produced a 20-year time series of primary production by marine phytoplankton, one of the largest fluxes of carbon on our planet. Studying phytoplankton primary production is important because it provides useful information about ocean biology, climate, and global carbon cycle. Observing primary production over long-time scales or quantifying its small variations can help the scientific community to determine carbon dioxide concentrations, as well as the effect of climate variability on these processes.
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
English
Participants will learn which pollutants can be measured from space, how satellites make these measurements, the do’s and don’ts in interpreting satellite data, and how to download and create your own visualizations.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this training, attendees will be able to:
List the pollutants that can be observed by NASA satellites
Find and download imagery for NO2 and aerosols/particles
Describe the capabilities and limitations of NASA NO2 and aerosol measurements
The Mongolian National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM) has developed a extreme winter (dzud) risk map for the country using MODIS satellite data, among other resources. The map shows that over 50 per cent of the country are at risk of a severe winter. Following the analysis, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has released funds to limit the impact on vulnerable herders.
This short tutorial is the first video (Part 1) of the “Getting Started with MODIS Version 6 -Vegetation Indices Data” video series.
This video focuses on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Version 6 Vegetation Indices data distributed by NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).
This short tutorial video focuses on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Version 6 Vegetation Indices data distributed by NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).
This video focuses on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Version 6 Vegetation Indices data distributed by NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).
This short tutorial is the 3rd video in the series and will provide the viewer with information about MODIS Vegetation Indices quality information, including how to decode quality bits, tools for working with quality data, and where to find additional information.
As a follow-up activitity to its 2013 Technical Advisory Mission to the Western African country, UN-SPIDER conducted a week-long Institutional Strengthening Mission (ISM) to Ghana. The mission followed an invitation of the Government of Ghana and was hosted by the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO).
To discuss a proposal for NADMO and other government agencies to establish a technical, inter-institutional Earth Observation Team
To identify potential applications of the Airbus Digital Terrain Model
To support NADMO in its application to become an Authorised User of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters
The mission consisted of two parts:
Inter-institutional Seminar
The seminar brought together nearly 50 participants from several government agencies in including NADMO, the Ghana Geological Survey Authority, the Survey Mapping Division, the Police Department, the Land Use Spatial Planning Authority, the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Irrigation Authority, the Water Resources Commission, the Ghana Armed Forces and the National Fire Service as well as the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems of the University of Ghana.
The seminar allowed participants to exchange information on their activities, on joint efforts with NADMO and on the use of remote sensing and geographic information systems in their routine tasks.
Training course
The training course was organized and attended by 25 participants from several government agencies and the University of Ghana. Participants were trained in the use of specific step-by-step procedures to process satellite imagery to map the extent of floods using as an example the recent floods in the White Volta River in the northern region of Ghana. Participants were also trained on the use of another step-by-step procedure to map the comparative impacts of droughts on vegetation in the central region of Ghana. These procedures make use of open satellite imagery and open source software and will enhance the capability of government agencies to generate maps useful to monitor floods and droughts as well as in early warning systems. UN-SPIDER took the opportunity to present to NADMO more than 40 gigabytes of optical and radar, satellite imagery and maps it generated for this mission, covering the entire Republic of Ghana in case of droughts.
Mission Outcome:
A proposal was successfully made to the International Charter Space and Major Disasters for NADMO to become an Authorised User of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters
The establishment of an inter-institutional remote sensing and disaster management team called “The Ghana eaRth obsErvATion Technologies Team (GREAT Team)” which will help in designing and managing an Integrated Decision Support System (IDeSS) for disaster risk management and emergency response
Participants of the four-day training were able to generate their own maps of flood extents which recently occurred on the White Volta River, using radar images from Sentinel-1
Participants generated more than 400 time series maps from MODIS Terra data for drought monitoring using the Standard Vegetation Index (SVI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) methods
Mission Outlook
NADMO to carry out two additional training courses with the support of the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute and the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems of the University of Ghana to strengthen the skills of the team. These two training courses should give team members a better overview of the software tools used in the procedures (SNAP software developed by the European Space Agency and R Studio).
The technical Inter-Institutional Team to start the routine generation of maps of the Vegetation Index or the Standard Vegetation Index to track areas that may be affected by drought and incorporate this procedure into the drought early warning system.
The Technical Inter-Institutional Team to elaborate additional maps of the floods that took place in August and September 2018 and their evolution and discuss how to use this historical information to improve disaster preparedness efforts on the basis of this and other floods.
NADMO to assess the feasibility of working with UN-SPIDER and Airbus in the generation of maps of areas susceptible to landslides and to tidal waves or storm surges.
NADMO to complete the steps regarding the incorporation of NADMO as an Authorised User of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters.
The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) is conducting an institutional Strengthening Mission (ISM) to Ghana from 15 to 19 October. The mission is carried out in cooperation with the Ghana National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and upon the invitation of the Government of Ghana. Thirty participants from more than eight different institutions will participate in activities aimed at strengthening the institutional capacities of the country in using space-based information in disaster management.
A break in the heat wave that hit Europe in the summer of 2018 is giving a reprieve to many people who had been suffering from the heat. However, great damages to the vegetation and harvest remain. In Germany, the Association of Farmers has reported damages from the dry spell of over EUR 1 billion.
Twitter
