Indian Fishermen Use Smartphones to Map a Vanishing Way of Life
. The sea, the river – which were sources of our livelihood - are polluted in the process,” Saravanan said.Saravanan opened his laptop and pulled up the GIS software he uses to map hundreds of villages in his area, cross-checking the sites designated by fishermen such as Raji against satellite images of the entire area.Saravanan said he learned how to use the software from a friend who had studied software engineering and from YouTube.Next he recruited statewide volunteers to map the land.“The technology is the same [as what the government uses] ... it’s just that they don&rsquo
Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China
.SubCom’s CS Reliance vessel laid the first half of the commercial cable from Perth, Australia, to the middle of the Indian Ocean. From there, the CS Dependable took over, running the splice to Diego Garcia and laying the rest of the main trunk up to Oman, the people said.Reuters analyzed satellite images and ship tracking data on Eikon, the financial analysis platform owned by the London Stock Exchange Group. That information showed the CS Dependable operating around Diego Garcia in February and March of 2022, then sailing on to Oman.The delicate operation was made possible by a decades-long
TCarta to Deliver Satellite Derived Bathymetry for 13 Regions
satellite imagery for the 13 regions. SDB measurements are accurate to depths of 20-30 meters depending on water conditions, with two-meter spatial resolution. Feature classification includes coral reefs, large rocks, sandbars and other navigation hazards.TCarta has processed thousands of Maxar satellite images for the project, including hundreds of high-resolution scenes for one nation alone. By the time all deliverables have been submitted and approved by NGA, TCarta will have mapped the entire subsurface coastlines of the 13 regions over the 12-month Period of Performance
How AI Can Help Protect the Oceans
on Mars or in the clouds. But in some areas, AI is even better. Give one of these tools a million photographs and ask it to spot telltale signs – and it can. AI can enable research at scales previously impossible.We’ve used AI’s exceptional pattern recognition to trawl through satellite images and map the tonnes of plastic pollution threatening our seas – in real time. Already, this technique has found more than 4,000 unreported informal dumps next to rivers. This is useful, given just ten rivers contribute nearly all the plastic entering our oceans.This is just the start. So
UAF’s GINA Provides a Guiding Hand in Arctic Ocean Research
months later, it traveled farther north than ever before — almost 500 miles beyond Point Barrow.Satellite imagery produced at the Geographic Information Network of Alaska, or GINA, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute helps the Sikuliaq weave its way through the ice.The satellite images, along with satellite data from other sources, show up on the Sikuliaq’s bridge in an easy-to-use web-based map server. The map server has been on the Sikuliaq since 2013, when the ship was built.GINA radar image: An image from the map server shows the Sikuliaq amid the sea ice on Sept
Turkey and Cyprus Monitor Oil Sheen After Syria Leak
; of fuel floating across the Mediterranean from a spill in Syria, officials said.Fuel which seeped into the sea from a thermal station off the coast of Syria on August 23 has been snaking across the Eastern Mediterranean, but any potential impact on Cyprus will depend on currents.The latest satellite images of the region provided by the European Maritime Safety Agency showed the oil sheen east of Cyprus breaking down and dissolving, the Cyprus Fisheries and Marine Research Department said.The eastern Cyprus coastline, largely unspoilt, falls within two opposing jurisdictions; an area controlled
SPACEWHALE: Space Tech, AI meet to Monitor Whales from the Heavans
from satellites is developing fast and within a few years, space technology companies aim to provide daily high-resolution images of the whole globe. SPACEWHALE aims to makes use of this to boost marine research and conservation.In contrast to previous whale monitoring by ship or aircraft, satellite images cover the global ocean surface. SPACEWHALE does not only detect whales but also other large marine animals. Many questions that previously required individual biological studies can now be answered with just a few clicks. Which areas are especially used by marine mammals? When do whales pass
TCarta Wins NOAA Grant to Enhance Satellite Derived BathymetryTech
– produce the optimal characteristics for SDB,” said Goodrich. “This is helping us devise a tasking strategy to capture Alaska imagery at the right time with the right sensors.”An important Phase I result was the development of automated tools to assess water clarity in daily satellite images to monitor water clarity for suitable conditions for SDB image tasking or planning airborne LiDAR surveying, Goodrich added.In Phase II of the NOAA program, TCarta has shifted focus to SDB data processing and hydrographic analysis by developing new ways to improve confidence in the seafloor
Gliders Probe Huge Iceberg's Impact on Penguin Island's Ecosystem
these things, watching over them all the time,” Tarling said.Debate is ongoing over whether A68a’s initial split from the Antarctic ice shelf in 2017 was due to rising global temperatures.Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Boulder in Colorado, is tracking satellite images of the berg’s decomposition.The ice appears to be disintegrating, “almost like it exploded” as the surrounding water exerts pressure, Scambos said, with a spongy layer forming that eventually becomes waterlogged and breaks off.Bergs that behave this way “are going through
February 2024
