Keeping an Eye on Volcanic Ash

EarthzineArticles, Disasters, Earth Observation, Original, Sections

Meteosat-9 image of the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption under Eyjafjallajoekull Glacier in Iceland.ESA and EUMETSAT recently organised a workshop in Frascati, Italy (May 2010) for more than 50 experts on volcanic ash from around the world to take stock of what has been learned about ash cloud detection, monitoring and prediction, and identify future opportunities. The workshop was convened following the recent ash clouds from Iceland’s EyjafjÌ_lla volcano that grounded hundreds of flights across Europe causing travel chaos and costing the European airline industry billions of Euros.

Airborne Radar to Study Quake Faults in Haiti

EarthzineArticles, Disasters, Earth Observation, Original, Sections

Cropped satellite image of HispaniolaNASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, aboard a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft, will study geologic processes in Hispaniola following the Haiti earthquake. NASA’s flights will help scientists better assess the geophysical processes associated with earthquakes along large faults and better understand the risks, said Paul Lundgren of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the principal investigator for the Hispaniola overflights.

GEO establishes Haiti supersite

EarthzineArticles, Disasters, Earth Observation, Original, Sections

Image of full GEO logoThe Group on Earth Observations GEO established a supersite in response to the fatal Haiti earthquake from January 12 (http://supersites.unavco.org/haiti.php). Satellite data from different sensors and various derivates are collected and provided on this website including SAR data, topography data, visible and infrared imagery, GPS data, surface deformation and seismic data. This effort has been made possible by the contribution of national space agencies and data providers worldwide such as NASA, ESA, JAXA, DLR, USGS and others.

Sharp Look from Orbit

EarthzineArticles, Disasters, Earth Observation, Original, Sections

Figure 3: Average daily rainfall (shaded and units of millimeters) from June-August (200-2006) composited for days with weak atmospheric forcing (lef). The 5 mm contour is shown in blue and the yellow boxes represent the mean upwind (left box), city (center box), and downwind (right box) regions. Lightning flash anomalies (May to September, 1995‰ÛÒ2003) on days dominated by weak atmospheric forcing (right) in Atlanta, Georgia. Image sources: [4] and [5], respectively.

Image of a C-17 Globemaster III delivering humanitarian aid to Haiti via parachute drops. The earthquake in Haiti, a human tragedy on the ground, has brought requests to remote sensing and geosciences experts from humanitarian relief agencies for help in mapping the disaster. This article, originally published 19 January 2010 by Der Standard, quotes Earthzine Deputy Editor Christoph Aubrecht, who is a remote sensing and geoinformation scientist at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology working on geospatial issues of disaster management. Aubrecht translated and adapted this article for Earthzine.

Earth Observation – The French Connection to GEOSS

bboissinArticles, Earth Observation, Original, Technology

Image of pleiades satelliteWhether for surface imagery, altimetry, studies of aerosols and clouds or recording the Earth’s magnetic field, satellites permit a global view of our Earth and in combination with more precise local in situ measurements offer enormous potential in understanding how the Earth system works from the planet’s core out to the stratosphere, helping us to manage our Earth.