Cool Geo-Pic: Predicting Rift Valley Fever

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. Its a good example of the sample belief applied by Dr. Snow in solving the source of a cholera outbreak of London in 1854. The basic premise is, "if you can map the disease - both in source & extent, you can contain it & perhaps avoid its consequence in the future".

Rift Valley fever risk assessment

download large image (4 MB, JPEG) acquired December 1 - 31, 2006

download large image (2 MB, JPEG) acquired December 1 - 31, 2006

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ...Most of the time, a case of Rift Valley fever is a minor thing. For four to seven days, the afflicted person runs a fever with aching muscles, joints, and head. But in some cases, a very small percentage of cases, the symptoms are more serious .... These images illustrate how [native Kenyan and NASA-funded scientist Assaf Anyamba and his colleagues at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the World Health Organization, the United States Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya, and the United States Department of Agriculture] used satellite data to predict the outbreak of Rift Valley fever.

The top image shows vegetation growth in December 2006 compared to average growth in previous Decembers from 1998 through 2006 as seen by France’s SPOT satellite. Areas where plants were growing far more than average are dark green, while less-than-average growth is represented in brown. This information served as a proxy for the conditions that accompany an outbreak of Rift Valley fever...."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Anyamba, A., Chretien, J.P., Small, J., Tucker, C., Formenty, P., Richardson, J., Britch, S., Schnabel, D., Erickson, R., Linthicum. K. (2009, January 20). Prediction of a Rift Valley Fever outbreak. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (3), 955-959.

Hansen, K. (2009, February 13). NASA Study Predicted Outbreak of Deadly Virus. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Accessed February 13, 2009.

World Health Organization. (2009). Rift Valley Fever. Accessed February 13, 2009.

NASA images created by Jesse Allen, using provided by the United State Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service and processed by Jennifer Small and Assaf Anyamba,

NASA GIMMS Group at Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
Instrument: SPOT

Cool Geo-Pic: Stratosphere Influences Winter Weather

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Obervatory, Stratosphere Influences Winter Weather

The video compares wind & weather inter-dependence at different elevations. A nice parallel of what "happens below begins from above".

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ...The lower pair of images represent the air mass, or polar vortex, that controls the wind pattern. Essentially, the winds are strongest at the edge of the polar vortex (where the pressure difference between the air masses is greatest). The area of red in the lower left image represents polar air that typically sits over the Arctic during January.

In general, strong winds circle the red regions, or areas of high vorticity, in a counterclockwise direction. These winds, moving at speeds well above 100 miles per hour, influence winds and weather patterns closer to Earth’s surface. Their influence means that weather in England and Western Europe typically comes from the west. Over England, western winds blow in ocean air warmed by the Atlantic Gulf Stream.... "

Full Article - Click Here

Full video - Click Here

References / Credits:

Full Credit to NASA's Earth Observatory. Data provided by the Goddard Modeling and Assimilation Office, courtesy of Paul Newman. Caption by Holli Riebeek with information provided by Paul Newman.

Cool Geo-Pic: Oil Seeps in the Gulf of Mexico

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Sometimes we get caught up in the political discussions and "time-filling" news media hype to such an extent - that we forget, while not in the same measures in degrees of severity (slick vs. spill) or the temporal nature of humankind's escalation of impact (decades vs. millennial of measured change), many "man-made calamities" are things that have a "natural" parallel.

While it was certainly covered in my M.S. work years ago, I had forgotten that oil slicks are also a natural earth phenomenon.

Perhaps this is yet another reminder that the planet can survive anything we (humanity) can "dish out". The question is, can humanity survive its own dishing?

Also see George Carlin's old stand-up routine about "mother nature, why are we here & plastic".

download large image (5 MB, JPEG) acquired May 13, 2006

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... Although accidents and hurricane damage to infrastructure are often to blame for oil spills and the resulting pollution in coastal Gulf of Mexico waters, natural seepage from the ocean floor introduces a significant amount of oil to ocean environments as well. Oil spills are notoriously difficult to identify in natural-color (photo-like) satellite images, especially in the open ocean. Because the ocean surface is already so dark blue in these images, the additional darkening or slight color change that results from a spill is usually imperceptible. ..."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Hu, C., Li, X., Pichel, W.G., and Muller-Karger, F. E. (2009). Detection of natural oil slicks in the NW Gulf of Mexico using MODIS imagery. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L01604.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Level 1 and Atmospheric Archive and Distribution System (LAADS). Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument:
Terra - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: Snow and Fog in Pacific Northwest

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. Great example of what you see (in this case white in the top image) isn't always what you expect (false color results).

Snow and Fog in Pacific Northwest - Posted January 28, 2009

download large image (6 MB, JPEG) acquired January 18, 2009
download large image (8 MB, JPEG)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ...The top image is a natural-color view that covers parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. This photo-like view is made from MODIS’ observations of visible light. In this image, the landscape appears in shades of dark green, brown, and white. From an initial glance, you might decide that snow not only draped the mountain peaks and blanketed the prairie of Alberta, but also lined the deep valleys of the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia Plateau in central Washington.

The false-color version of the scene (bottom image) reveals that not all the white is snow, however. This picture is made from a combination of red light and shortwave infrared light, which our eyes cannot see. Snow and ice are red, while clouds and fog are white or pale peach. Liquid water on the ground is dark red, nearly black, and vegetation is green....."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

What do the different band combinations mean? from the MODIS Rapid Response Project FAQs.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey.
Instrument:
Terra - MODIS

Cool Geo-Pic: Get Out of Chaiten

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. Perhaps the phrase, "Get out of Chaiten" is in order. The false color composite shows vegetation as red.

download large image (6 MB, JPEG) acquired January 19, 2009

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... Chile’s Chaitén Volcano had been dormant for more than 9,000 years when it erupted in May 2008. In the months that followed, the volcano remained active, releasing plumes of steam and volcanic ash, coating local vegetation, clogging waterways, and inundating the nearby town of the same name. On January 19, 2009, an explosive dome collapse occurred at the volcano, according to a bulletin from the Volcanism Blog...."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program. Chaitén Summary. Accessed January 20, 2008.
The Volcanism Blog. (2009, January 19). Dome collapse event at Chaitén. Accessed January 20, 2009.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI

Cool Geo-Pic: Antarctic Warming Trends

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. The image is significant because of the data behind its display - the temperature changes are based on nearly a half century of temperature collections (1957-2006). Five decades of data has allot of relevance.

download large image (2 MB, JPEG) acquired 1957 - 2006

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... For a long time, it seemed that Antarctica was immune to global warming. Most of the icy southern continent, where temperatures can plummet to minus 80 degrees Celsius (-112 degrees Fahrenheit), seemed to be holding steady or even cooling as the rest of the planet warmed. But a new analysis of satellite and weather station data has shown that Antarctica has warmed at a rate of about 0.12 degrees Celsius (0.22 degrees F) per decade since 1957, for a total average temperature rise of 0.5 degrees Celsius (1 degree F)...."

Full Article - Click Here

References / Credits:

Hansen, K. (2009, January 22). Satellites confirm half-century of West Antarctic warming. NASA. Accessed January 22, 2009.
Steig, E., Schneider, D., Rutherford, S., Mann, M., Comiso, J., and Shindell, D. (2009, January 22). Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year. Nature, 457, 459-463. doi:10.1038/nature07669.
Steig, E. (2009, January 21). State of Antarctica: red or blue? RealClimate. Accessed January 22, 2009.
Image courtesy Trent Schindler, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
Instrument:
NOAA-15 POES - AVHRR

The New Problem with Traffic - Zombies

OK. I suppose I could come up with something witty on ..."How best to use GIS technology in conjuction with "zombie avoidance" drive-time functionality in your Garmin or TomTom" ... but this is just plain funny.