Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021
Some 20 year ago, in response to severe water shortages, the South African government passed the National Water Act, which is intended to restrict the amount of water farmers use for irrigation. However, ensuring farmers only take the water to which they’re entitled is tricky. Maurits Voogt, who works for HydroLogic, a relatively small company
Tuesday, March 9th, 2021
Severe river floods are escalating in temperate climates and putting at risk populations, livelihoods and property, according to evidence published in Geophysical Research Letters by an Oxford-led international team. The first global examination of recent changes in the size, frequency and probability of extreme river floods using historical river records, the paper shows that dangers
Monday, February 22nd, 2021
After intense fires in the Amazon captured global attention in 2019, fires again raged throughout the region in 2020. According to an analysis of satellite data from NASA’s Amazon dashboard, the 2020 fire season was actually more severe by some key measures. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensors on the Suomi NPP and
Tuesday, February 9th, 2021
Using ground, airborne and satellite data, a diverse team of international researchers—including NASA scientists—created a new method to assess how the changes in forests during the last two decades impacted carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. In addition to better understanding the overall role of forests in the global carbon cycle, the scientists were also able
Tuesday, January 26th, 2021
An optical sensor that can map methane emissions from space at a resolution 100 times higher than any other sensors was deployed on Jan. 20, 2021, with the successful launch of satellite Hugo from GHGSat. The new greater granularity will allow the identification of the source of emissions, rather than just the general area. The
Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
Summer in Antarctica is marked by days in which the Sun never sets, balmy temperatures that hover as high as freezing, and electric-blue clouds of ice. NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere mission (AIM) spotted the summer’s first noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds on Dec. 8, 2020. In the days that followed, the fine wisps
Monday, December 7th, 2020
Teledyne e2v, part of the Teledyne Imaging Group, will supply infrared detectors for the UK-led climate change Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial and Helio Studies (TRUTHS) mission, which aims to establish an SI-traceable space-based climate and calibration observing system to improve confidence in climate-change forecasts, often referred to as a standards laboratory in space. Announced in
Monday, November 23rd, 2020
Human-produced noise and light pollution are troublesome to our avian neighbors, according to new research from a team at California Polytechnic State University, published Nov. 11, 2020 in Nature. Using NASA satellite data, the researchers got a bird’s-eye view of how noise and light negatively affected bird reproduction in North America. The team also discovered
Tuesday, November 10th, 2020
Maritime transport has a direct impact on air quality in many coastal cities. Commercial ships and vessels burn fuel for energy and emit several types of air pollution as a byproduct, causing the degradation of air quality. A past study estimated that shipping emissions are globally responsible for around 400,000 premature deaths from lung cancer
Tuesday, October 27th, 2020
The size of the ozone hole over the Antarctic fluctuates on a regular basis. From August to October, the ozone hole increases in size, reaching a maximum between mid-September and mid-October. When temperatures high up in the stratosphere start to rise in the southern hemisphere, the ozone depletion slows, the polar vortex weakens and finally
