Tornado Damage in Dallas Suburb Seen From Planet Imagery

This image shows the scar of a recent tornado (October 22nd) through the Preston Hollow suburb of Dallas. You can see the dusty curvy pattern showing the path the tornado took. While assessing the damage on the structures itself is difficult, it is clear that a tornado had a impact on a relatively wide area. The image can be utilized to see extent of damage for federal, state, local, and private agencies that might respond. They could assess images like these to determine what kind of resources are needed.

 

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/10/23/dallas-tornado-satellite-photos-reveal-twisters-path-above/

 

Deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil

Relevant to our previous course material, this aerial image shows a fire burning in the Amazon rainforest in Porto Velho, Brazil. According to the Brazilian government, deforestation of the Amazon has reached its highest level in over a decade. About 9,762 square kilometers (3,769 square miles) of rainforest were lost in the 12 months leading up to July 2019, a 29.5% increase over the previous year and is reported to be the highest loss of rainforest since 2008, as reported by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Many of these fires can be attributed to illegal activity, such as agriculture, logging, and mining on protected land, as well as a lack of effort to protect the Amazon rainforest by current Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

Aerial images such as these, as well as satellite data, can measure the rate of deforestation across the Amazon, in addition to recording the number and scale of ongoing fires. This can be useful in conservation efforts by not only fighting these fires, but also tracking and stopping the illegal activities that can cause them.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/19/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-2019-trnd/index.html

Forest Density near Manoa, Brazil

The LiDAR image is of a swamp near Manoa, Brazil. With LiDAR, it’s possible to map the heights of the trees in the forest as well as the density of the forest like this image does. With this information, one can obtain values that tell how much carbon the forest can sequester. Before LiDAR, measurements had to be made in person to do the same calculation. This cuts time spent obtaining data significantly, and reinforces the idea of reforestation as a way to combat climate change. 

Image of the Day - November 19th, 2019

This is an aerial photo containing a portion of Runit Island, located in the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands. This atoll was a site of intense nuclear bomb testing by the US from 1946 to 1958, and the two circular features in this image are both nuclear bomb craters. The one in the water remains unaltered since the detonation that caused it, but the one on the island has been altered substantially. In 1958, the US Military detonated an 18 kiloton nuclear bomb nicknamed "Cactus" over Runit Island, which created a crater 105m in diameter. This went untouched until the late 1970's, when the Marshall Islands negotiated control over the Enewetak Atoll from the US. In the negotiations the US agreed to clean up the radioactive debris scattered around the Atoll - an operation that would take 3 years, 4000 US workers, 6 of which lost their lives. In the end the material was mixed with concrete, poured into the crater, and encased in a concrete dome, and that dome is the reason this place has become newsworthy as of late.

The Runit Dome, as it is called, is deteriorating. Cracks are forming in the structure, and rising sea levels over the past 40 years have caused storm and flood events to occur more frequently, working water into the dome and spreading the radioactive material around. Work done by Columbia University and the LA Times has suggested that the dome is at risk of collapsing. If it does, it won't increase the overall radioactivity of the atoll by much - it is already very radioactive - but it does risk the release of Plutonium-239 and other toxic, radioactive heavy metals into the groundwater. The Marshall Islands have had to deal with issues of leftover radioactivity from the era of US bomb testing ever since they regained control of the atoll in 1986.

https://www.iflscience.com/environment/climate-change-is-threatening-to-crack-open-a-cold-war-nuclear-tomb/

https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/the-dome/9198340

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runit_Island

https://marshallislands.llnl.gov/ccc/Hamilton_LLNL-TR-648143_final.pdf

The Retreat of the Taku Glacier, Alaska

This is a true color, vertical satellite image of the Taku Glacier in Alaska, captured in medium resolution by Landsat 8 on August 9, 2019. This snowy glacier dominates the left portion of the image, with vegetation-covered mountains towards the lower right hand corner. The Taku Glacier is one of the thickest alpine glaciers in the world, and it showed no signs of retreat until the 1990’s, when its advance slowed and some thinning occurred; the glacier began its full retreat in 2018. When comparing this image to an image captured on August 14, 2014 (see the NASA link below), the glacier’s mass and snow loss around the terminus are apparent, especially where the glacier meets the river. This image, which shows the sudden retreat of one of the world’s thickest glaciers, forces us to imagine the effect that increasingly warmer global temperatures will have on glaciers of all sizes worldwide. The Taku Glacier’s retreat presents yet another chilling example of the detrimental impact of climate change on Earth’s natural cycles.

New York Post article link to original image (Note that the New York Post article misreports the image date as 2018 when it was really captured in 2019, according to NASA’s official site below):

https://nypost.com/2019/11/08/nasa-images-reveal-worlds-thickest-mountain-glacier-is-melting/

NASA’s Earth Observer link to comparison photo of glacier 2014 versus 2019:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145830/retreat-begins-at-taku-glacier

Atmospheric Gravity Waves Over Australia

I found this image while I was looking through the CNN website this evening.  It shows how a satellite was able to capture Atmospheric gravity waves over Australia.  I had never heard of this phenomena before reading the article, and I thought that seeing the image was very illuminating in explaining what was going on, as atmospheric gravity waves occur when big bodies of gasses act like fluids, and it was really clear and easy to see in the image. In the article they also had a video that showed some different color combinations, and though I wasn't exactly sure whether the image was true color or not, it was really interesting to see how the different ways of presenting the image showed different characteristics.    

Image of the Day - November 13, 2019

This is a composite image showing the burn scar of the Kincaid Fire in Sonoma County, California, which burned over 77,000 acres in late October and early November. The yellow dots in the image are areas where the fire was still smoldering on November 3, 2019. The yellow dots, from the thermal infrared channel of ASTER, are overlaid on the true-color image from ASTER's visible channels. The burn scar is the large area of dark gray or purple in the image.

Visualizing the Extent of Rural Agricultural Fires Contributing to Delhi's Pollution Crisis

The Indian capital of New Delhi is currently experiencing a severe outbreak of air pollution and toxic foam. Approximately 25% of the city's smog in the winter months has been attributed to the practice of stubble burning by farmers in nearby provinces, which is done to clear remaining crop residue after harvest. The red dots on the satellite image represent active fires in the vicinity of New Delhi. The ubiquity of the dots indicates the widespread nature of stubble burning, despite the existence of a ban on the practice. Over 6,500 fires were recorded on a recent day in the neighboring state of Punjab. The image is a reminder of how seemingly localized adverse environmental practices can impact places hundreds of miles away.

Image of the Day: Easy Fire threatening Reagan Presidential Library

This image is a high resolution oblique aerial photo. The main focus of this image is the man-made structure in the middle which is distinguishable by its rectangular shapes. Directly surrounding the structure there is a lot of greenness which create shadows leading me to believe that they are trees. Due to the fire hazard in the area, the trees could be serving as a fire block. Surrounding the trees, there is a lot of brown area which could be previously burnt area. Another key feature of this photo is the grayish cloudy area in the top of the photo creeping up on the building. There is also a noticeable line of orange by the gray fog signifying that it is a fire and the fog is smoke. 

This image is important and relevant in that it shows the current Easy Fire in Southern California creeping up upon the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. This image was used on the U.S. News website in order to make the public more aware of the severity of this wildfire. 

Gravity Waves in Atmosphere: November 6th

This image shows gravity waves in the atmosphere which is not frequently seen. According to the article, this phenomenon is only spotted if there are clouds to show the wave movement in the atmosphere. This phenomenon does not pose an everyday threat to people but is something pilots should be aware of.