Space Products & Innovation

Energy, Resources, and Environmental Management


Satellite Pictures of Volcano Keeps Aircraft Safe

In June 2011, the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón volcano in Chile led to the evacuation of 3,500 people. Satellites were able to capture images of the eruption and provide details on the associated ash plume, monitoring its path for many days.

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Disaster Charter Helped Japanese Recovery Efforts

When Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, more than 63 satellite observations were made in the first 48 hours following the event. Japan invoked the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which ensures that satellite images are freely available to authorities and aid workers.

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Measuring Industrial Emissions

In another example of space spinoff technology in the environmental and energy sector, German company ESCUBE produces sensors to monitor emissions from industrial heating systems. The company uses technology originally developed by ESA to measure oxygen levels near spacecraft reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

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Powder Keeps Oil Spills in Check

Space technology plays a role in monitoring and responding to environmental disasters unfolding in real time, such as the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. During the oil spill response, satellites were used daily both to track the geographic extent of the spill and to help forecast weather systems that might have affected the spread and the clean-up of the oil spill.

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Mapping “Hot Spots” to Fight Fires

The same wide perspective that allows satellites to track the effects of an insect infestation helps forest managers and emergency response agencies to monitor and respond to forest and wildfires. In August 2010, the United Nations’ (U.N.) Food and Agriculture Organization, in partnership with the University of Maryland, launched the Global Fire Information Management System.

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Eyes On Managing Mountain Pine Beetle

Since 2006, the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and Canada has been the site of a Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak. The current outbreak is among the most severe on record and may result in the death of entire forests. These beetles infect native pine species, which generally cannot be cured, often resulting in the death of infected trees.

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