Above image: PlanetScope image of Sargassum along the Miami beach shoreline taken May, 12, 2019. © 2019, Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved. In recent years, Sargassum, a large brown macroalgae, has been reported to beach along coastal shorelines in large quantities. As these piles of beached seaweed begin to decompose, they can […]
Image above: Planet image capturing cabbage fields in Yuangchang Township, Taiwan taken June 13, 2022. © 2022, Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved. Taiwan is facing a series of complexities – from a highly mountainous terrain and frequent typhoons to an aging farming population – that make the cost of agricultural operations […]
Image above: Planet image of ice sheet carvings set into the mountains of British Columbia, Canada taken July 30, 2020. © 2020, Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved. About 20,000 years ago, the world was experiencing the Last Glacial Maximum, the end of the Pleistocene epoch when ice sheets covered most of […]
Governments and NGOs around the globe are looking at ways to effectively monitor and report on carbon sources and sinks in an effort to mitigate climate change. Large programs within these initiatives focus on the protection of forests and the measurement of forest biomass as a way to quantify the role of […]
Above: Near-infrared PlanetScope image taken June 12, 2019 of research study site over the Siberian Braided River. © 2019, Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved. In high latitudes, seasonal temperature changes cause dramatic variations in water and ice presence in terrestrial areas like lakes and river systems. This water and ice is […]
True-color image above taken on March 12, 2022 displays deforestation in Jerantut Pahang, Malaysia. © 2022, Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved. The conversion of global tropical forests for large-scale commodity or small-scale agriculture activities contributes greatly to greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, there is significant uncertainty in recent measurements of land carbon […]
The Amazon rainforest is faced with daily forest loss and degradation, harming local biodiverse ecosystems. This study from Conservation International, Boise State University, and the University of Guyana, demonstrates how scientists can monitor the drivers of this deforestation, including gold mining, with PlanetScope imagery. By capturing satellite images of remote locations near […]
Urban parks in desert areas often use copious amounts of water for maintaining grass and trees. In Phoenix, Arizona, two primary irrigation methods are used: sprinklers and flooding. A new study in Ecohydrology led by Mercedes Kindler compares the benefits and drawbacks of these methods. They also analyze the impact of using […]
