Remote Sensing

Satellite measurements becoming to play role in verification of GHG emission inventories

Jacek Skoskiewicz — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:23:14 -0700

Description

Satellite measurements together with inverse modeling are reaching enough spatial and time resolution to play role in verification of GHG reports submitted under Kyoto.

IIASA Workshop, 2 July 2008

Source

3D mapping of atmosphere by Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), satellite, and global modeling

Win Trivitayanurak — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:20:09 -0700

Description

Comprehensive knowledge of the Earth atmospheric compositions and processes taking place in the atmosphere is critical for advancement of understanding of the climate system and how climate change is taking place. To limit the scope, let's focus on the troposphere, meaning starting from the surface up to the tropopause (roughly 13 km. altitude). And the focus is on gases and particulate matters. The key idea is large dataset of high quality atmospheric observation by mulit-platforms (Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), satellite, and more) that will enable rigorous test on global 3D models. Global models have advanced significantly over the past decade but field observations to test the models are still not sufficient.

Improvement in the ability of satellite remote aerosol characterization has improve but still have room for more improvement. UAVs may be employed in parts of the world that we need more atmospheric data in high enough frequency that can provide routine data, e.g. daily, hourly.

IIASA Workshop, 2 July 2008

Source

UAVs is mentioned in Ramanathan and Carmichael, 2008, Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon; Nature Geoscience.

Reality Mining

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:24:12 -0800

Description

Technology Review declares reality mining one of its top 10 ideas for 2008.

Every time you use your cell phone, you leave behind a few bits of information. The phone pings the nearest cell-phone towers, revealing its location. Your service provider records the duration of your call and the number dialed.

Some people are nervous about trailing digital bread crumbs behind them. Sandy Pentland, however, revels in it. In fact, the MIT professor of media arts and sciences would like to see phones collect even more information about their users, recording everything from their physical activity to their conversational cadences. With the aid of some algorithms, he posits, that information could help us identify things to do or new people to meet. It could also make devices easier to use--for instance, by automatically determining security settings. More significant, cell-phone data could shed light on workplace dynamics and on the well-being of communities. It could even help project the course of disease outbreaks and provide clues about individuals' health. Pentland, who has been sifting data gleaned from mobile devices for a decade, calls the practice "reality mining."

Why does this matter?

Personal reality mining infers human relationships and behavior by applying data-mining algorithms to information collected by cell-phone sensors that can measure location, physical activity, and more.... Cell phones are now sophisticated enough to collect and analyze data on personal behavior, and researchers are developing techniques that allow them to effectively sort through such information.

Impact: Models generated by analyzing data from both individuals and groups could enable automated security settings, smart personal assistants, and monitoring of personal and community health.

Context:

Source

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&id=20247&a=

The Argo global ocean observatory

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:18:39 -0800

Description

In November 2007 the 3000th Argo float was deployed. Argo floats collect information about oceanic conditions, and represents one of the largest instrument networks ever developed.

Map showing locations of Argo floats in February 2008: Argo is a global array of 3,000 free-drifting profiling floats that measures the temperature and salinity of the upper 2000 m of the ocean. Source: http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/

Argo is a global array of 3,000 free-drifting profiling floats that measures the temperature and salinity of the upper 2000 m of the ocean. This allows, for the first time, continuous monitoring of the temperature, salinity, and velocity of the upper ocean, with all data being relayed and made publicly available within hours after collection.

Marine Technology Reporter describes the Argo floats:

Argo floats are built to rise and fall vertically through the top 2,000 meters of the water column, using simple mechanical pumps, bladders, and other devices to change their buoyancy. These instrumented cylinders measure water temperature, depth, and salinity as they also move horizontally with ocean currents, traveling long distances without the need of a ship, person, or propeller. Floats are programmed to rise to the surface periodically in order to note their position (via the Global Positioning System) and send data via satellite antenna to scientists on shore.

Of course, physical oceanography is an old science, and expeditions like Challenger in the late 1870s collected the same kinds of data that Argo is designed to record. So why is Argo novel?

For the first time, the physical state of the upper ocean is being systematically measured and the data assimilated in near real-time into computer models. Argo builds on other upper-ocean ocean observing networks, extending their coverage in space an time, their depth range and accuracy, and enhancing them through the addition of salinity and velocity measurements. Argo is not confined to major shipping routes which can vary with season as the other upper-ocean observing networks are. Instead, the global array of 3,000 floats will be distributed roughly every 3 degrees (300km).

Source

http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/

Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography

Jess Hemerly — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:48:32 -0800

Description

Abstract:

In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop interesting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? I compare this new phenomenon to science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

Goodchild, Michael F. (2007). “Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography”, GeoJournal 69: 211-221