Scientists can now receive near-real-time alerts about the world’s lands as their surfaces change, thanks to a new satellite-based monitoring system described today in Nature Communications.
Scientists can now receive near-real-time alerts about the world’s lands as their surfaces change, thanks to a new satellite-based monitoring system described today in Nature Communications.
Known as the OPERA Land Surface Disturbance Alert (DIST-ALERT), the system is the first to globally track lands that are being changed by human activity, weather events, fires and other causes. Previously, only particular areas of the globe were being carefully monitored for changes to their land cover, like areas around the equator where rainforests are concentrated, and only for specific types of changes, like forest loss or fire.
DIST-ALERT also produces this information more quickly than other monitoring systems. Whereas most monitoring systems utilize imagery from one satellite system, DIST-ALERT obtains images from two systems, Landsat 8/9 and Sentinel-2A/B/C, that have five total satellites. Since it takes multiple days for a single satellite to return to an area to take a second image—a span of days described as a satellite's “revisit rate”—DIST-ALERT’s use of five satellites shortens its revisit rate to 1-4 days, giving scientists access to information in a shorter time frame.
Read more at: University of Maryland
Photo Credit: wobogre via Pixabay
