Landsat missions have been funded for nearly 40 years. The images returned by the series of satellites have been useful in mapping urban growth, monitoring carbon in forests and deforestation, monitoring crop acreage, and surveying disaster aftermath. Landsat data has even found previously uncharted land and led to the discovery of new species.
How can technology advancement benefit humanity? The IEEE Technology for the Benefit of Humanity conference addressed this question and the practical challenges technological solutions pose to overcoming humanitarian needs.
Recent events reveal that our health care infrastructure is vulnerable to severe weather. These events highlight that when a hospital building fails, so too does the continuum of health care delivery. Patients, staff, and families suffer. This is the primary reason why a closer look is needed at risks and mitigation opportunities for hospitals.
Storms act to redistribute heat in the atmosphere. Considerable progress has been made in understanding how future climate change may affect weather. As the climate warms, we might experience fewer storms overall, but more of the strongest storms.
Benjamin-Axel Mugema of Makerere University on why Earth observation provides direction for citizens to positively contribute to the sustainability of natural resources, and to the creation of a more liveable planet.
The proliferation of wireless communications and other active services such as radars and radio location devices blinds us from seeing the natural electromagnetic emissions necessary, for example, for monitoring the ocean temperature and studying the formation of stars. Scientific use through passive measurement of the radio spectrum is important ÛÏto enhance public safety, environmental security, and extend human knowledge of the Earth and the larger universe.Û The authors, members of a U.S. National Research Council committee investigating this problem, recommend action.
The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee so as to avoid another catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina.
In the future, every stage of disaster management will benefit from widespread implementation of service oriented architectures designed mainly for non-disaster uses and based on open standards.
Over the past five years, Jackson State University has taken a leading role in the development of a world-class mesoscale observing network in Mississippi for research, education, and operational use: The Mississippi Mesonet (White and Matlack 2005). Broadly speaking a mesonet can be considered to be a network of automated weather observing stations whose spatial distribution facilitates near-real time description in between the standard “synoptic” observing stations of the National Weather Service (NWS) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In many cases, they are characterized by improved temporal resolution and supplemental sensors compared to the synoptic network.
As the climate changes, superstorms are becoming more common. Earthzine staff explore how severe weather affects people and how remote sensing can change our understanding of storms. Earthzine’s latest monthly focus topic comes as spring begins to brighten the northern hemisphere. For the month of March, our focus topic articles center on superstorms – massive storms that effect millions of … Read More
