South Africa is moving quickly to put itself and Africa among the nations using satellites by demonstrating its growing capacity to design, build and launch the latest generation of small and medium satellites, and to educate and retain a new generation of space engineers.
A month after South Africa succesfully launched it’s second Earth observation satellite, Sumbandila, Earthzine contributor Peter Fairley talks with Dr. Philemon Mjwara, Director General of South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology, about the launch, the benefits South Africa expects to reap from the satellite, and what’s in store for the future of developing countries’ involvement in Earth observation and sustainability.
South Africa is moving quickly to put itself and Africa among the nations using satellites by demonstrating its growing capacity to design, build and launch the latest generation of small and medium satellites, and to educate and retain a new generation of space engineers.
Scientists have uncovered a further apparent increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed.
Much of the Northern Hemisphere experienced cold land surface temperatures in December 2009, but the Arctic was exceptionally warm.
Mountaintop coal mining — in which Appalachian peaks are blasted off and stream valleys buried under tons of rubble — is so destructive that the government should stop giving out new permits to do it, a group of scientists said in a paper released Thursday.
Using algae records from the early Pliocene, scientists are finding that coastal upwelling off the California coast has been sustained even though sea surface temperatures have been several degrees higher than today.
Recent events have suggested that “alarmist” climate scientists have misled the public on global warming with skeptics pointing to declining temperatures since 1998 as “proof” that global warming has stopped… Why 1998?
Acquired January 4, 2010, this true-color image shows snow coating the area around Bo Hai. Beijing and Tianjin leave big gray splotches on the snowy blanket, and smaller cities appear as small gray dots.
The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of some 74 islands sandwiched between the Australian mainland and the outer atolls of the Great Barrier Reef.
