V1 Editorial Director Matt Ball spoke with Suzette Kimball, USGS director, who has a PhD in environmental sciences with a specialty in coastal processes. The conversation touches on funding, sensing, mapping and public engagement.
Turning UAS Enthusiasm into Entrepreneurial Innovation
Steve Huntley is something of a character in Paonia, Colo., my hometown. Lately, his UAS videos of local scenes and events have been making a splash. His recording of the controlled demolition of the Oxbow Mining Silo was a big, if controversial, hit”the silo's local landmark status and association with the coal industry made its destruction a flashpoint for the region's progressives and conservatives.
Remote-Sensing Renaissance Leads the GEOINT Revolution
There's something incredibly powerful going on right now, something the USGIF refers to as the Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Revolution. It represents the synergy of remarkable advances happening simultaneously across multiple technology areas. When combined, this cooperative interaction fundamentally changes our individual and collective ability to deal with our construct of spatial thinking and awareness, altering our ability to apply space over time to a range of tasks, missions and disciplines in a way we hadn't imagined.
Coastal Monitoring Provides an Opportunity for Oil and Gas Projects
Deepwater Horizon”the memories are fading, but the negative effects still are being felt six years later and will be for a while to come. Much has been said about the impacts on the wildlife, coastal ecosystems, fisheries, tourism and other parts of the local environment and economy.
Despite Drought, Satellite Data Shows Rapid Recovery for Some California Forests
According to aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service in summer 2015, the recent California drought resulted in millions of dead trees, mainly in the state's Sierra Nevada mountain regions. NASA researchers found that years of California's drought conditions, however, have not slowed the regrowth of tree and shrub cover in some areas burned by wildfires.
Satellites Detect Rare and Remote Volcanic Island Eruption
In late April and early May 2016, satellite sensors detected signs of a volcanic eruption in the far South Atlantic Ocean between South America and Antarctica. Mount Sourabaya, a stratovolcano on Bristol Island, appeared to be erupting for the first time in 60 years.
Methane and Carbon Dioxide Levels Still Rising
Satellite readings show that atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide are continuing to increase despite global efforts to reduce emissions. Methane concentrations were somewhat constant until 2007, but since then have increased about 0.3 percent per year, whereas global carbon dioxide levels continue to rise at about 0.5 percent per year.
Operation IceBridge Image of Greenland
Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne survey of polar ice, recently returned from the Umanaq B mission along Greenland's western coast, marking its eighth spring campaign of science flights over Arctic sea and land.
NAAMES Mission Studies Oceans and Atmosphere
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES), a five-year NASA-funded study, is the first NASA Earth Venture-Suborbital mission focused on studying the coupled ocean ecosystem and atmosphere using ships and aircraft simultaneously.
Living Planet Symposium Begins in Prague
One of the largest Earth-observation conferences in the world began on May 9, 2016, as thousands of scientists from around the world gathered in the Czech Republic to present their latest findings on our changing planet.
