Tuesday, November 8th, 2016
Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., have been working on the tricky problem of CubeSat transmission antennas, which must be small enough for these diminutive devices yet still transmit data through the huge expanses of space. “It’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” said Nacer Chahat, a specialist in
Thursday, August 25th, 2016
New Real-Time Maps Transform Forecast Data into Vivid Pictures of U.S. River Flows REDLANDS, Calif.—August 25, 2016—Smart-mapping leader Esri today released a beautiful, robust new collection of Web maps that forecast NOAA stream-flow data throughout the continental U.S. Esri’s multiscale visualization of the National Water Model enables forecast water flows in real time at high
Monday, September 15th, 2014
The big boom in unmanned aircraft may come from what’s known as precision agriculture — using high-tech systems to help farmers increase yields and cut costs. In recent years, consumer-quality drones that are cheaper and easier to fly have become commonplace, but Federal Aviation Administration rules have restricted their civilian use to recreation and research
Friday, September 12th, 2014
Russian reconnaissance satellite Kosmos-2495 reentered the atmosphere and crashed last week, a spokesman for the US Strategic Command told RIA Novosti on Friday. “US Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space through the Joint Space Operations Center assesses with high confidence that Kosmos-2495 reentered the atmosphere and was removed from the
Friday, September 12th, 2014
Government-released open data is fuelling a whole new level of innovation in sustainability. Moving beyond hackathons, today’s climate data partnerships are creating unique ventures that cross boundaries between business, government and academia. Recently, the geographic information system technology (GIS) company Esri held the Esri Climate Resilience App Challenge in conjunction with the White House’s Climate
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
Current hurricane-hunting planes gather data on winds, pressure, precipitation and temperature, but they can’t fly below about 5,000 feet because of extreme turbulence. Dropsondes, small cylindrical sensors that can be dropped from a plane, only provide a few minutes’ worth of data before falling into the ocean. A new unmanned aerial vehicle, however, will go
Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
The rise in mobile navigation technology has, in just a few years, transformed the way we get around cities. In 2011, 35 percent of Americans had smartphones; by 2013, that had grown to 61 percent. Three-quarters of those people now use their phones for directions and location-based services. One in five Americans used the Google Maps app in June;
Monday, September 8th, 2014
Studying complex environmental systems, such as atmospheric chemistry and climate, requires a global, long-term view—the view from a satellite. Civilian Earth-observing satellites date to 1960, when NASA launched its first Television Infrared Observation Satellite to map cloud cover. Today, NASA counts 17 and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration counts 15 active Earth-observing platforms in
Monday, September 8th, 2014
The Library of Congress may soon have search engine software that can locate and manage geospatial information in and outside the library system and work with a variety of geographic mapping and analysis tools. The “geospatial search engine software solution” would let staff collect data in a variety of formats and sources, including geospatial data
Monday, September 8th, 2014
The earth’s mighty shifting – which caused about $400 million in damage to Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties – also mysteriously forced groundwater to the surface and into several dry or nearly dry creeks and streams in the region. Torrents of water have been flowing down Wild Horse and Green Valley creeks and another unnamed waterway
