Wednesday, June 11th, 2014
With a ferocious wildfire season expected in the parched West, fire forecasters will be without a new technology that scientists say could help predict sudden blowups and shifts in the direction of fires. The new computer-modeling technique offers the promise — for the first time — of producing updated predictions of wildfire growth throughout the
Wednesday, June 11th, 2014
“You can’t control the weather.” It’s a phrase we often utter as we plan weddings, family picnics, and beach vacations. While it’s true that we can’t control the weather, scientists and technologists are working hard to improve our ability to predict it. What that means for enterprise IT isn’t just the ability to foresee disasters
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Last week, 5 June, aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières reported new cases in the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The priority for NGOs and health workers is to deliver appropriate aid in the fastest and most effective way. To do so, it is vital to have a clear picture of the area affected
Monday, June 9th, 2014
The UAE is insisting on technology transfer before restarting negotiations with France to purchase two spy satellites, according to a high level UAE official. The deal gained international attention in January after Defense News reported that the US $930 million contract signed in July 2013 was in jeopardy after the discovery of US-made components in
Monday, June 9th, 2014
The shrinking of the Arctic ice sheet in the upcoming 10th edition of the National Geographic Atlas of the World is one of the most striking changes in the publication’s history, geographers say. The reduction in multiyear ice—commonly defined as ice that has survived for two summers—is so noticeable compared with previous editions that National Geographic
Monday, June 9th, 2014
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the United States Army Corps of Engineers got to work on a massive network of levees and flood walls to protect against future catastrophes. Finally completed in 2012, the project ended up costing $14.5 billion — and that figure didn’t include the upkeep these defenses will require in years
Sunday, June 8th, 2014
The arrival of free data from Europe’s Copernicus environmental satellite network will cause one or more commercial Earth observation firms in Europe to go out of business or change their focus, the head of one such company said June 3. Miguel Bello Mora, chief executive of Madrid-based Deimos Space, said the company’s current satellite, Deimos-1,
Sunday, June 8th, 2014
A secret government agency that played a critical role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden says it plans to build a new facility in the St. Louis area to replace an aging structure in the city. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an arm of the U.S. Defense Department, confirmed to the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday that
Sunday, June 8th, 2014
PRISM, the next generation in climate mapping, is a mapping system created by a group of scientists at Oregon State University. A new approach to developing more accurate climate mapping was developed by Chris Daly in 1991 while he was a Ph.D student at Oregon State University. He knew elevation played a major role in
Friday, June 6th, 2014
Most people use DigitalGlobe’s (DGI) satellites every day. They capture the super-realistic images on Google Maps (GOOG) and Bing maps. A wide array of corporate customers use these eyes in the sky for more specific targets, from mining companies looking for telltale clues of underground deposits to defense departments hunting for terrorists. Since the first
