Image of the Day: Himalayans Glacier retreat 1989-2015

This pair of Landsat images has compared the Ngoyzumpa Glacier located in Nepal Himalayas in 1989 and 2015. It shows that the supraglacial lakes on the glacier surface (melting ponds) have increased in amount and in size from 1989 to 2015. This reveals that with the global warming and rising temperature, the melting speed of glacier has increased. This pair of images serves as a good evidence for global warming and glacier retreat and help researcher investigate the glacier condition in the Himalayas, as the melting glacier and lakes might affect the agriculture and local residents in this area.

https://landsat.visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=90185

Mars from 10,900 Miles Away on November 26, 2018

This is an image of Mars from 10,900 miles away, captured on November 26, 2018 by NASA’s satellite Mars Cube One (MarCO). In the image you can see the reddish-brown sphere of mars soaking up the sun, all of which is framed by components of the satellite. Besides for simply being a beautiful image, I thought this was relevant considering it was captured the day NASA landed their most recent Mars rover InSight. InSight itself will surely bring some amazing remote sensing images in the near future!

Barrio Obrero, Puerto Rico April 2018

        This image shows the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in September 2017. The blue tarps on the top of houses were used as temporary solutions until the houses could be repaired properly. However, the date of this image is April 2018, almost eight months after the hurricane and they still haven’t been fully fixed. The image is a true color composite and shows how remote sensing can be a powerful tool to observe and assess damage repairs in large-scales areas. In this image we can see how slow the reconstruction process for Puerto Rico has been.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/92789/recovering-from-hurricane-maria

Image of the Day

For my image of the day, I found a very interesting article from the New York Times on one of the reasons on how China became a superpower. The article explains how China controls the energy consumption of many of the countries around it, and Cambodia is one of those countries. This image shows the Kamchay dam in Cambodia. The deep blue water is in stark contrast with the eroded landscape below it. The dam seems to be located in a non-urban setting, with a landscape consisting of sparse forest and grassy area surrounding it. The river does not seem to be flowing much past the dam, which could effect the ecosystem of the area that once relied on the river. This image is important because it symbolizes the reliance countries like Cambodia have on China. According to the article, China has paid for the construction of 7 dams in Cambodia alone that generate over half of the countries electricity. This leaves Cambodia indebted to China, without the consistent running of the dams by their large neighbor to the north, their country could come to a screeching halt. 

Image of the Day: Eye of the Sahara

This image displays the Richat Structure located in the Saharan nation of Mauritania. Sometimes called the "Eye of the Sahara", and claimed to be proof of the Lost City of Atlantis this structure was once though to be an impact crater. After many years of confusion surrounding it, the Richat Structure was determined to be the eroded remnants of a geologic dome. Although not completely understood, the use of remote sensing technologies may hold the key to solving the mysteries surrounding this bizarre geologic feature.

"Sand Sea" in Arabian Peninsula

The image is dating back to 2005 and was captured by ASTER sensor of Terra satellite. The so called "Sand Sea" in the image is taken in Rub' al Khali desert in Oman, on Arabian Peninsula. Due to high reflection from the parts between the dunes, the landscape seems so "wavy", while the highly reflected areas are just the flat plains that are left here after the shallow lakes present in the area many thousands of years ago dried up. The desert is mostly dry, having just 3.5 cm of precipitation yearly, however, this year in spring-summer season it rained heavily (tropical cyclone Mekunu) and the precipitation level raised up to 28 cm for 2018. The importance of the periodic satellite imagery of a region is that they allow us to evaluate the change in natural landscapes, and estimate its effect on related fields (e.g.rise in vegetation, that could serve as a food source for local camels).

Forest Fires

This image is from the late 2017 wildfires in California. I was inspired to look for images of wildfires because of their recent wildfires, but this one was more interesting to me than recent images available. In the image you can see a very strong contrast between burned, which is different shades of brown and spared land, which is mostly green areas, as well as land that is currently burning, designated by the orange flames. Along with the orange flames, there are trials of white/grey smoke leading to the source. There was so much burning in this area that a large section of the image is covered by smoke.