Monitoring light patterns: Can Satellite images reveal the impact of the Syrian conflict?

TRES 35-18 Syrian night-light fig.1

An interesting new paper recently published in the International Journal of Remote Sensing which hypothesises that night-time light can be a useful source for monitoring humanitarian crises, such as that unfolding in Syria.

The ongoing Syrian Crisis, which broke out in April 2011, has been a severe humanitarian disaster, with more than 190,000 deaths since the start of the conflict.

However, evaluating the ongoing crisis in Syria is challenging, because reliable and comprehensive witness reports are hard to gather in a war zone.

Therefore, satellite images, as one of the few sources of objective information, are potentially of great importance.

Deren Li Wuhan University

In their recent study published in International Journal of Remote Sensing, Xi Li and Deren Li analysed the effect of the Syrian Crisis on levels of night-time light as a means of evaluating and monitoring the conflict.

By comparing the levels of light in March 2011 and February 2014, (see Fig 1. attached) they found that in all of the provinces, the levels of night-time light had declined sharply following the breakout of the conflict.

Indeed, in most provinces, the level of night-time light decreased by more than 60%.

Notably, the authors also found that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from each province showed a linear correlation with the level of night-light loss.

This relationship between the number of displaced persons and the drop in night-time light levels may allow for the quantitative estimation of the number of IDPs from other areas of conflict, such as Iraq, where the activities of Islamic State are causing significant civil unrest.

More information: "Can night-time light images play a role in evaluating the Syrian Crisis?", by Xi Li and Deren Li, International Journal of Remote Sensing, Volume 35, Issue 18, pages 6648-6661, 2014, published by Taylor & Francis Group. dx.doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2014.971469

SCANEX Unique Database of Satellite Images of Russia Exceeds 3.5 Mln Items

SCANEX is the only company in Russia that has licensing agreements with the world's top remote sensing operators, including the SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre), FORMOSAT, EROS, UK-DMC2, and RADARSAT satellites series as well as UniScan ground stations.

A database of images of Russia made from space has reached more than 3.5 million pictures, a representative of Russia's SCANEX Research and Development Center told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

"A unique archive of the space images of territories of Russia consists of more than 3.5 million scenes. The volume of the received and stored information hasreached 400,000 gigs," she said.

According to the representative, the company started to archive its own Earth remote sensing data in 2004, when the UniScan ground stations network made it possible to receive space information throughout the entire territory of Russia.

The archive contains very high-definition satellite images, which is widely used in Russia and globally via the catalogs of international satellite data providers.

SCANEX Research and Development Center is Russia's leading remote sensing company providing a full range of services from acquisition to Earth observation space images processing.

SCANEX is the only company in Russia that has licensing agreements with the world's top remote sensing operators, including the SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre), FORMOSAT, EROS, UK-DMC2, and RADARSAT satellites series as well as UniScan ground stations.

A significant portion of the most recent data in the archive, received in 2013 and 2014, is a series of images made by the SPOT 5/6 satellite from the Airbus DS company.

TRMM satellite images show California storm moving eastward

This series of images from Feb. 28 to Mar. 3 shows the movement of the rain associated with the storm system that soaked California. 

On Mar. 3, precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) spread over large areas of the eastern United States. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite provided a look at the rainfall associated with the large storm system that brought soaking rains to California on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1.

Satellite imagery created at NASA shows the movement of the storm from the U.S. West Coast to the East Coast.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. images were created using data from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument that showed the movement of recent stormy weather from California's Pacific Ocean coast to the Atlantic Coast.

TRMM is a satellite managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency known as JAXA. Both agencies recently launched the GPM observatory, the follow-up to TRMM.

TRMM Images are routinely produced using TMI data which show the global area covered by the satellite.

"Those 'quick look' images use microwave brightness temperatures at 85.5 GHZ and at 37.0 GHZ combined in the red, green and blue components of the images," said Hal Pierce of the NASA TRMM team at Goddard who produced the images.

"The false color images can be used to distinguish land from water and show the differences between land surfaces such as deserts, snow cover and sea ice."

"On these images areas of dry atmosphere over water appear as blue and moist atmosphere is dark blue. Snow cover over land appears as white or grey, deserts are green. Scattering (by cloud ice) is shown as yellow."

The images Pierce created show TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument views of the movement of the recent stormy weather from California's Pacific Ocean coast to the Atlantic Coast.

The first TRMM TMI image from February 28 showed a large low pressure center in the Pacific Ocean moving toward California.

Rain associated with this storm dropped over four inches of rain in Los Angeles that resulted in evacuation orders.


This animation from Feb. 28 to Mar. 3 shows the movement of the rain associated with the storm system that soaked California. 

On Mar. 3, precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) spread over large areas of the eastern United States. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

The next day, March 1, the center of the storm was just off the California coast and precipitation had also moved into Arizona.

By Sunday, March 2, precipitation in the form of rain, freezing rain and snow extended from New Mexico through the Ohio valley.

On Monday, March 3, TRMM's TMI instrument showed precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) over large areas of the eastern United States.

NASA Aqua Image: A Rare 'Glory' Rainbow captured

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response

A view from space of a rainbow-like optical phenomenon called a Glory, consisting of brilliant lines of colour, taken by NASA's Aqua satellite.

A Glory is an optical phenomenon that resembles an iconic saint's halo about the shadow of the observer's head. 

The effect is believed to happen due to classical wave tunneling, when light nearby the droplet tunnels through air inside the droplet and, in the case of Glory, is emitted backwards due to resonance effects.

Credit: Michael Studinger. 

In this image, taken over Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf, a Glory surrounds the shadow of the DC-8 plane that is flying NASA's IceBridge mission to survey the state of Antarctic ice. 

NASA LandSat: Catastrophic growth of China’s megacities and Pollution levels

In 1973, NASA and United States Geological Survey’s Landsat 3 satellite took the image above of quiet, rural land (plant-covered land is red) along China’s Pearl River Delta. 

Six years later, in 1979, the region began to grow as China set up two economic zones north of Hong Kong. 

Then, 30 years later, in 2003, Landsat 7 satellite took this dramatic shot:

Images: NASA/USGS

It’s a catastrophic urban shift, happening all over China, with an unsupportable increase in demand for natural resources and the associated suchoking rge in pollution levels.

You can see the booming urban areas in gray, a major contrast to the mostly red image from 1973.

In the image you can see part of Guangzhou, the most populous urban area in the region today with 12,700,000 people; Dongguan, an urban area with more than 8 million people; and Foshan with more than 7 million. As of 2010, the Pearl District Economic Zone had a population of 36 million.

You can see more before and after images from 10 other cities across the globe. Or, at The Atlantic Cities, check out Nate Berg’s slightly jarring animated GIF rendition of the urban shift.