Research

As cornfields suffer crop damage caused by weather, corn producers can use geospatial and remote sensing technologies to get a more accurate measurement of the damage and estimate potential economic loss, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Agronomy. In the study, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) ...

In 2020, the Pantanal, the largest tropical freshwater wetland in the world and a biodiversity hotspot, was swept by high-intensity fires that destroyed native vegetation in an area totaling 44,998 square kilometers (km²), or about 30% of the Brazilian portion of the biome, which spans some 150,000 km². The estimate is presented in an article ...

A group of researchers led by China’s Nanjing University has created a global-scale inventory map to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of floating photovoltaics. “Existing statistical reports on water-surface photovoltaics (WSPV) only provide aggregated summary statistics but lack spatiotemporal information, which hinders the environmental assessment and policy management,” the research’s lead author, Shanchuan Guo, told pv ...

With many people around the world suffering from various forms of malnutrition it’s important that the absolute basics such as rice, soya and wheat are as nourishing as possible. ESA-funded research shows that the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and the Italian Prisma mission could be used to monitor the nutritional content of staple crops. This could, ...

For millions of Los Angeles-area motorists, the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area flashes by in an instant — a tattered oasis of wetlands, sycamore and oak that punctuates the monotonous sprawl of industrial parks, cinder-block sound walls and residential cul-de-sacs along the 60 Freeway and Rosemead Boulevard. But to Andrew Salas, chairman of the Gabrieleño-Kizh tribe, ...

A model that incorporates demographic and smoking history data has identified regions populated with individuals eligible for lung cancer screening, according to study results presented at the CHEST annual meeting. “Geospatial techniques allow us to look at population-level trends as part of identifying next steps in lung cancer screening outreach and resource planning,” Christine Lambert, ...

A new method named MonoXiver uses AI to build up reliable 3D maps of a camera’s surroundings based only on 2D photos. The technology could be especially useful for navigation in self-driving cars. As 2D representations of a 3D world, photos are missing a huge amount of information about the actual sizes of the objects ...

Cuando un río se desborda, inunda los terrenos que lo rodean provocando numerosos daños y situaciones de peligro. La Directiva Europea de Inundaciones regula, entre otras materias, qué se puede cultivar, edificar o programar en las vegas de los ríos con la intención de minimizar los efectos indeseados de un desbordamiento. Un equipo de investigadores ...

RUDN University ecologists found a parameter in satellite images that allows accurately calculating and increasing the wheat yield. Such technology helps agronomists monitor crops and make decisions. These results were published in The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science. Low crop yields are usually associated with disturbances in agro-climatic conditions, improper or untimely ...

Bats use the same neurons for social navigation as they do for spatial navigation. The study involved wireless neural recording and imaging of groups of Egyptian fruit bats flying in a large room. The bat’s “place” neurons in the hippocampus fired not only to indicate the animal’s location but also the identity of other bats ...

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is the second-largest contributor to climate warming after carbon dioxide. A tonne of methane, despite its shorter lifespan of about 10 years in the atmosphere, can retain an astounding 30 times more heat than a tonne of carbon dioxide over the course of a century. This means that ...

Vegetation is a crucial part of terrestrial ecosystems and an important indicator of climate change. A team of Chinese researchers has reported that the structural complexity of vegetation may influence satellites’ remote sensing monitoring. Vegetation indices (VIs), derived from satellite data, are widely used for monitoring terrestrial ecosystems and tracking plant properties, vegetation changes, and ...

While laboratory-based emissions testing can help keep polluting vehicles off the road, they alone are not enough. What is needed is new technologies, such as remote emission sensing (RES). RES uses sensors and cameras to automatically measure exhaust emissions from vehicles in real-world operation. While RES may be a proven technology, it is not widely ...

Real-time crop monitoring has become increasingly important, particularly for addressing climate-induced losses and damages, as discussed during the last United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (CoP27). Initiatives like GEOGLAM and the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) have traditionally contributed to monitoring global food security by relying on existing data ...

Using a laser gyroscope, scientists have measured variations in Earth’s rotation rate smaller than a millionth of a percent. The technique could help scientists understand the complex flows of water and air that cause the tiniest of tweaks to the planet’s spin. Earth’s rotation isn’t perfectly steady. The planet speeds up and slows down as ...

Recent advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning have revolutionized many industries, and might soon help recreate your neighborhood as well. Given images of a landscape, the analysis of deep-learning models can help urban landscapers visualize plans for redevelopment, thereby improving scenery or preventing costly mistakes. To accomplish this, however, models must be able to ...

Metodologia pioneira, desenvolvida com suporte da Inteligência Artificial (IA), permitiu o alcance de um nível de acurácia de até 97%, quando aplicada em análises de imagens de satélite do Cerrado do município de Sorriso (MT), um dos principais produtores agrícolas do País. A acurácia é um aspecto relevante nos levantamentos realizados por meio de sensoriamento ...

A University of Texas at Arlington hydrologist’s study in the Nature journal Scientific Data provides the first-ever global estimate of human destruction of natural floodplains. The study can help guide future development in a way that can restore and conserve vital floodplain habitats that are critical to wildlife, water quality and reducing flood risk for ...

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have created a new geospatial mapping tool that enables developers to identify land for renewable energy development that complies with both policy and technical requirements. Called Geospatial Opportunity Mapping (GOMap), the new tool is built on the available QGIS framework. “External plugins have been developed specifically for QGIS to ...

On Sept. 29, 2009, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck near American Samoa, Samoa, and Tonga, triggering a tsunami that caused human casualties and $200 million in property damage on the islands. The earthquake also exacerbated another problem in American Samoa: subsidence, or the sinking of land. When combined with relative sea level rise, land sinking can ...

Saint Louis University has received a $1 million grant from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to create a satellite calibration network to improve the accuracy of satellite observations and the geospatial tools used to monitor global change, infrastructure resilience, and natural disasters such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and flooding. The project, “Developing global InSAR solutions ...

Manual curation of geospatial data, especially in the realm of renewable energy infrastructure and natural resource monitoring, involves a thorough process of aggregating, cleaning, and correcting datasets from various sources, often across multiple countries. This challenge has hindered efforts in emissions reduction, disaster relief, urban planning, and more, where precise geospatial insights are paramount. While ...

Surveying bodies of water accurately is a challenging task. Authorities and port operators are required to provide up-to-date maps of riverbeds and port facilities. Until now, this has required the use of special mapping vessels and a great deal of manpower. It is costly and is not being carried out with the frequency and precision ...

Locusts can destroy grain crops and pastures, threatening people’s livelihoods. In an international project, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have now developed methods to help detect locust outbreaks as early as possible and take action against them. Earth observation images acquired by satellites play a central role ...

As growing seasons become hotter and drier across the region, farmers are increasingly challenged to grow and sustain their crops. Now Oregon State University is close to launching a dry farming map project. Lucas Nebert, a research associate at OSU, heads the project. He told KLCC that a lot of farmers are interested in alternatives ...

A team of experts is working to better understand the spread of blue-green algae in Alberta lakes by combining satellite technology with near-simultaneous water sampling. The project, funded through Alberta Innovates, is a collaboration between several groups, including Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS), the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), and researcher Rolf Vinebrooke from the ...

Using satellite images, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey were able to see that sea ice in the central and eastern Bellingshausen Sea region last year broke up long before the start of the birds’ fledgling period, when penguin chicks would have developed their waterproof feathers. The research, published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth ...

Ninety-two confirmed overdose deaths and 199 more suspected deaths have occurred in the province this year as of Aug. 1, according to a report from Saskatchewan’s Coroner. Now, a new project between the University of Regina and AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan (APSS), called Project Reportneedles.ca, was launched on Wednesday, which will aim to change those ...

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radars (SARs) are commonly used in EO, offering fine imaging resolution by processing sets of consecutive acquisitions recorded while flying over the targeted area. Although SARs are well-established, research continues to seek innovative techniques to improve their performance. One such advanced technique developed as part of the SPACEBEAM project is the scan-on-receive ...

Settlements with more green spaces have a lower rate of bipolar disorder, a Taiwanese research team found. The researchers of the study shared the results yesterday at a press conference held by the Science Media Center Taiwan. The research team, using satellite remote sensing, machine learning and data analysis, found a significant negative association between ...