Monday, September 18th, 2017
Operation IceBridge is flying in Greenland to measure how much ice has melted during the summer. The flights, which began on Aug. 25, 2017, and will go on until Sept. 21, 2017, repeat paths flown this spring and aim to monitor seasonal changes in the elevation of the ice sheet. “We started to mount these
Monday, September 11th, 2017
In early September 2017, ocean scientists noticed something swirling in the waters off the coast of the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The sinuous threads of darkness amid the blue Atlantic Ocean were not caused by oil; they were the result of a phytoplankton bloom. The dark colors are probably high concentrations of dinoflagellates, according
Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
The impacts of Hurricane Harvey are being felt far and wide. As the rain continued to fall, and flood waters rose, an army of citizen-rescuers answered the call. And as governments encouraged citizens to help one another, the non-profit organization made up of mapping experts also answered the call. GISCorps, a program of the Urban
Monday, August 28th, 2017
By Mike Gundling Ever since the first GPS satellite went aloft–and especially since the first smartphones and tablets provided GPS positioning–government, industry and academia have been in a never-ending search for new ways to use location-based data. Environmental organizations conduct wetland delineation surveys. Transportation companies track trucks and trains. Public-service officials seek law-enforcement and emergency
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017
According to authors of a new study from the American Geophysical Union, it is “extremely unlikely” that 2014, 2015 and 2016 would have been the warmest consecutive years on record without the influence of human-caused climate change. Temperature records were first broken in 2014, when that year became the hottest year since global temperature records
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017
Sustainability data company Ecometrica called on countries and governments to adopt modern direct methods to measure climate-change emissions, following revelations by the BBC that official figures for emissions of climate-warming gases often are flawed, allowing some countries to underreport the level of pollution. “The time has come to move to direct monitoring of emissions and
Tuesday, August 8th, 2017
NASA and the Norwegian Mapping Authority are partnering to develop a satellite laser-ranging station 650 miles from the North Pole that will produce high-precision locations of orbiting satellites, help track changes in ice sheets, and improve the efficiency of marine transportation and agriculture. The Arctic station will be the latest addition to a global network
Tuesday, August 8th, 2017
The signing of a new joint partnership between the Wyland Foundation and the United Nations Environment Program to protect the global marine environment through the Wyland World Water Pledge, a 10-year outreach program to inspire and engage every person on earth about the sustainable use of the planet’s ocean, lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands. The
Tuesday, August 1st, 2017
According to a new study published by USC scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, rock and soil breakdown in glaciers generates more acidity and releases more carbon than other forms of natural weathering. Perhaps most interestingly, it is the elevated oxidation of pyrite, popularly known as “fool’s gold,” in the glacial
Tuesday, July 25th, 2017
In the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, far from the urban, developed world, there’s a small, lush, green island with white sand beaches. However, this uninhabited, remote corner of the tropics—Henderson Island—also has a trash problem. The beaches of Henderson Island have the highest density of plastic waste in the world, according to a
