Tag: climate change
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What Really Caused Pakistan’s 2022 Floods: Extreme Rainfall, Snowmelt, or Glacial Lake Outburst Floods?
In brief: Published in Remote Sensing of Environment, this study does more than use Sentinel-1 data to map Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 floods. It seeks to answer three broader questions: How much of the country was flooded? Why was the disaster so severe? And was it worse than the major flood of 2010? The authors developed…
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From Snow and Ice Retreat in 2010 to an Ice Avalanche in 2016 and Crack Coalescence Two Days Before the Disaster: How Satellites Reconstructed a Decade of Progressive Rock-Slope Failure
The Chamoli slope did not suddenly fail on 7 February: Satellite data reveal a decade of progressive deterioration before the rockslide. At a glance: The Chamoli disaster of 7 February 2021 appeared to be a sudden rock–ice avalanche in the high mountains. This paper, however, focuses not on how far the post-failure flood traveled, but…
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A Decade of Sentinel-1 Scanning the Globe: How Much Flooding Have We Been Missing?
Key takeaway: Several global flood datasets already exist, but their long-term records rely primarily on optical remote sensing from satellites such as MODIS and Landsat. Yet the most severe floods often occur under thick cloud cover. The real question this study seeks to answer is not “How can we detect floods one more time?” but…
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Top ten frontier scientific issues in the field of remote sensing science and technology
In early July, Academician Zhang Bing and his co-authors published an article in the Journal of Remote Sensing, summarizing and discussing 10 frontier scientific questions in remote sensing science and technology. Original article: https://www.ygxb.ac.cn/zh/article/doi/10.11834/jrs.20266221/ Abstract Remote sensing is a fundamental technology for understanding the Earth system. The integration of coordinated satellite-airborne-tower-ground observations with artificial intelligence,…
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Top 10 Frontier Questions in Remote Sensing Unveiled by Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute
The Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS) announced on August 28 that the Second National Conference on Remote Sensing Geography had opened that day in Kashi, Xinjiang, where the “Top 10 Frontier Questions in Remote Sensing Science and Technology” were officially unveiled. Academicians and experts said remote sensing in China…
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ESA, Liberty Mutual Reinsurance Launch Three-Year Study on Satellite-Based Parametric Insurance
The European Space Agency and Liberty Mutual Reinsurance (LMRe) have agreed to begin a three-year collaboration to explore how satellite data can be used to develop parametric insurance products for terrestrial assets, the organisations said this week. The initiative will assess whether Earth observation (EO) data, analytics and modelling tools can support insurance products that…
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Proposed 24 percent cut to NASA budget eliminates key Artemis architecture, climate research
The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA Update May 3, 5:22 p.m. EDT: Corrected the location of Northrop Grumman’s facility housing the HALO module for the Gateway. The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to…
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Climate science mission led by University of Washington wins backing from NASA
A color-coded image based on Copernicus Sentinel satellite data shows the extent of the Antarctic ozone hole in September 2023. (ESA / DLR Graphic) NASA has selected four proposals for climate science missions, including an effort led by a University of Washington researcher, to go forward for further study with millions of dollars in funding.…
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NASA launches a billion-dollar Earth science mission Trump tried to cancel
NASA’s latest mission dedicated to observing Earth’s oceans and atmosphere from space rocketed into orbit from Florida early Thursday on a SpaceX launch vehicle. This mission will study phytoplankton, microscopic plants fundamental to the marine food chain, and tiny particles called aerosols that play a key role in cloud formation. These two constituents in the…
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ICESat-2 laser-scanning satellite tracks how billions of tons of polar ice are lost
This color-coded map shows the amount of ice gained or lost by Antarctica between 2003 and 2019. Dark reds and purples show large average rates of ice loss near the Antarctic coast, while blues show smaller rates of ice gain in the interior. (Smith et al. / Science / AAAS via UW) A satellite mission…