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.
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.
Space Products and Services – TSR 2011
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.
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.
Imagery Interactivity Increases Information Receptivity
Space agencies increasingly are combining space-derived imagery and data with information from other sources, such as ground and aerial photography, to produce visually striking products that convey scientific information to the general public.
Integrated Earth Observation Data For Better Environmental Monitoring
To ensure that developing nations have access to satellite information and services such as these fire-mapping satellite services, NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have partnered on an initiative called SERVIR.
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.
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.