Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
Just a little more than two weeks after its Feb. 19, 2017, launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon spacecraft, the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) is now safely installed on the outside of the International Space Station, where it will monitor ozone and aerosols in Earth’s upper atmosphere. In a highly choreographed
Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Detecting and predicting lightning just got a lot easier. The first images from a new instrument onboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite are giving NOAA National Weather Service forecasters richer information about lightning that will help them alert the public to dangerous weather. The first lightning detector in a geostationary orbit, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), is
Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
Aeromon, a Finnish cleantech startup that utilizes its innovative analytics platform and mobile sensors to flexibly map emissions in real-time, successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of drone-mounted platforms for measuring industrial emissions. A pilot program at the Ämmässuo waste treatment centre (operated by the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY, Finland) compared historical data captured using
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
New U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps identify potential ground-shaking hazards in 2017 from human-induced and natural earthquakes in the central and eastern United States (CEUS). This is the second consecutive year both types of hazards are forecasted, as previous USGS maps only identified hazards from natural earthquakes. This research recently was published in Seismological Research
Tuesday, February 28th, 2017
In the second half of 2018, the European Space Agency (ESA) Vega small launcher is set to demonstrate its extended capability to deploy multiple light satellites using its new versatile Small Satellites Mission Service (SSMS) dispenser. This demonstration provides the first of the launch opportunities under the new Light satellite, Low-cost Launch opportunity (LLLor L3)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2017
The emerald golfing greens have seen better days. According to the U.S. National Golf Foundation, the number of players has steadily declined from over 30 million in 2005 (pre-recession) to 24.7 million today; 680 US and 158 Canadian courses have closed. “Golf course owners are working smarter to manage resources like water and labor more
Monday, February 6th, 2017
After Rwanda made waves in early 2016 for allegedly being the first country to approve drone delivery, people payed attention. The country, with its rolling hills and one of the fastest-growing economies in Central Africa, now has established regulations regarding drones and has become a vanguard of sorts for the region. “My impression is that
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
More accurate, immediate and economical information on severe weather phenomena such as hurricanes soon could be available thanks to the Weather Hazard Alert and Awareness Technology Radiation Radiosonde (WHAATRR) Glider. According to project manager Scott Wiley, the vehicle could potentially save the National Weather Service up to $15 million a year compared to current methods.
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
Hydrologists at the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center are providing streamflow forecasts for watersheds within the Colorado River Basin, which includes some of the most parched land in the United States. “The forecasts we get from the center provide crucial information for managing our water resources and reservoir facilities,” said Dave Kanzer, a deputy chief
Tuesday, January 17th, 2017
The SWAP camera onboard the European Space Agency (ESA) Proba-2 satellite takes advantage of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths to capture the hot turbulent atmosphere of the Sun’s solar corona. To illustrate what SWAP does and what it can teach, ESA and the Royal Observatory of Belgium collected and published 366 solar images—one for each day of
