See How China Built Two COVID Hospitals Within Days

These satellite images are provided by the China Land Observing Satellite Data Center. These images are the locations of two new COVID hospitals built in Wuhan, Hubei Province earlier in 2020. To counter the pandemic in Wuhan, the Chinese government decided to build two completely new infectious disease hospitals borrowing the experience from Xiaotangshan Hospital built during the SARS outbreak in 2003. The decision to build the first hospital, Huoshenshan Hospital was made on January 23. The construction began on January 25, and was completed on February 2. Shortly after the start of the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital, the second hospital, Leishenshan Hospital also began construction. Leishenshan Hospital was completed on February 6. The two hospitals had over 2,000 beds in total, they played a critical role in China's fight with the COVID-19 pandemic. These satellite images showed the huge effort China made and the Chinese people's confidence against COVID.

Construction of Huoshenshan Hospital (30.5291°N 114.0822°E)

Caidian District, Wuhan, Hubei Province

Construction of Leishenshan Hospital (30.4320°N 114.2883°E)

Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei Province

Source (in Chinese): https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5842152

Coronavirus transmission being studied alongside new environmental datasets

Caption: The above image is a visualization of reanalysis data that will be used to investigate what environmental factors are related to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

NASA recently announced a new international initiative to make global environmental data more easily accessible to scientists and researchers.  It was widely reported in March that global air pollution levels dropped during the global economic shutdown and shelter-in-place related to COVID-19.  Now scientists are investigating whether the spread of the coronavirus itself could be tied to large scale, seasonal shifts in humidity or temperature. 

In particular, NASA is pushing the availability of reanalysis datasets, which can be updated with new observations.  It’s not yet clear whether there is any relationship between the rapid spread of the pandemic and the sort of environmental changes that can be tracked in these data.  However, with more remote sensing data on hand – using both ground sensors and satellite imagery – scientists are optimistic that in the long run there will be a better understanding of how seasonal changes might affect the virus.


https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/covid-seasonality

Australian Fires

This satellite image from January 2020 taken by NASA MODIS Satellite published in an Argentinian newspaper, Página 12, shows the Southeastern region of Australia covered in smoke by the wildfires. Although wildfires are not a strange thing in Australia, the unprecedented magnitude of these ones was-  burning over 46 million acres of land during over 4 months .

The smoke from the fires, visible here as the light grey cloud like structure in the center of the image- much larger than the small white regular clouds, took over the Australian sky, and had a plume that even reached Chile and Argentina, and lasted for three months.

Cooling Solutions for Phoenix's Heat Islands

Phoenix, Arizona is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. It is also the hottest, and as more and more of the landscape is developed, the land loses its natural capability to cool itself, thereby creating an increasing public health issue. Climate scientists at ASU, land developers, public officials, and citizens in the hottest parts of Phoenix are attempting to cool things down a little. They used NASA ASTER and LANDSAT satellite imagery, paired with census information and heat-related public health data, to assess which neighborhoods are the hottest and in direst need of help. ASTER imagery was used to analyze heat surface temperatures, and LANDSAT was analyzed using NDVI to look at the overall vegetation cover and the greenness. This study found three neighborhoods to target with new heat-reduction development and revitalization practices, including tree and shrub planting, installing shading structures at rest areas and parks, and repaving streets and sidewalks with heat-reflecting materials.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/climate-solutions/phoenix-climate-change-heat/

Aguada Fénix, the Newly Discovered Maya Ceremonial Center

Three dimensional representation of a ceremonial plateau in Aguada Fénix, Tabasco, Mexico (June 3, 2020)

The archaeologists used LiDAR technology to map out the site and later create this three-dimensional image. The plateau measures about 1400 meters long by 400 meters wide, and it is so far the largest known structure built by Maya civilization. Scientists suspect it served as a ceremonial site on special calendrical dates. Several buildings, plazas, and reservoirs have been discovered nearby the ceremonial plateau, as well as nine walkways.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lidar-reveals-oldest-biggest-ancient-maya-structure-found-mexico

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/06/massive-ancient-maya-ceremonial-complex-discovered-hiding-plain-sight/

https://nypost.com/2020/06/06/massive-3000-year-old-mayan-structure-discovered-in-mexico/

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/aguada-fenix-monument-08503.html

Mount St. Helens: 40 Years of Forest Recovery

These Landsat images show Mount St. Helens after it erupted in May, 1980. The photo to the left is from 1984 and the photo to the right is from 2013. Scientists with the U.S. Forest Service have been studying photos like these for 40 years. Previously, little was known about if and how reforestation occurs after volcanic events. Thanks to satellite imagery and scientific analysis, much has been learned about the dynamics of forest recovery and associated changes in carbon stocks.

Inside the Forest Service

Using Thermal Satellite Data to Predict Famines

  

Image 1: The first thermal images received from ASTER sensor on the Terra satellite of Ethiopia, 15 years ago.  Thermal images like this are what Senay uses to monitor crop health in Ethiopia.  

  

Gabriel Senay is a Research Physical Scientist with the US Geological Survey.  He has developed a way to use thermal data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, which record Earth's temperature for every square kilometer daily, along with historical temperature data from NOAA and the University of California at Berkeley.  

In the past scientists have used a land's greenness to monitor the health of vegetation in an area.  The problem with using greenness is that vegetation can stay green for weeks even after the crops have become stressed and begun dying.  

 

 Image 2: Map by Guilbert Gates; Source: Eros  

  

Senay's technique uses thermal imaging to look at how plants "sweat" - evapotranspiration - to see how healthy they are.  Evapotranspiration is a cooling process.  When plants aren't releasing as much moisture, such as in the beginning of a drought, the land become hotter.  These changes in temperatures can be seen almost immediately.  Senay has found that these spikes in temperature are a reliable quick way to judge if an area is about to experiance a drought.  Senay is focusing specifically on Ethiopia where there are rural farms and ranches which do not often have easy ways to communicate with agencies that could help during a drought.  Senay hopes to take this monitoring a step further and create a mobile app where farmers can report their land changes as well as see weather forecasts.  This app would also help connect experts, monitoring thermal data, to more quickly send aid to farmers before a drought, and famine, is in full swing.  

  

Sources:  

https://globalmonitoring.sdstate.edu/content/senay-gabriel  

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/predict-famine-before-strikes-180954945/?no-ist  

http://terra.nasa.gov/areas/aster 

  

by Tess MacFarlane