Category: David Hsu

Grizzly Creek and Pine Gulch Forest Fires

By Elijah Mt. Castle and Mitch Burcham

The team at Earth Observation Group had gathered this image of two extremely hazardous fires only 250 miles from The Payne Institute for Public Policy headquarters in Golden, Colorado. Our team utilized VIIRS NightFire technology to not only pinpoint fire hotspots but accurately calculate average temperatures of the flames within an area. These fires are occurring along I-70. One in Grizzly Creek near Glenwood Springs, and one in Pine Gulch near Palisade, Colorado. The latter of the two is quickly approaching the top 5 list for most destructive fires in Colorado history, having burned more than 69,000 acres already. The massive efforts to curb the burning in Pine Gulch has given time for the Grizzly Creek fire to expand approach one of Colorado’s most beloved hiking destinations, Hanging Lake. Grizzly Creek is expanding so quickly that it is now the top priory fire in the nation; leaving Colorado burdened with two massively destructive fires blazing at the same time. Massive evacuation orders have been put in place and I-70 has been closed as first responders struggle to control both forest infernos. Extremely dry conditions have made this fire season supremely active and dangerous not only for Colorado but for the entire western United States. Valuable forest is burning, air quality is decreasing, and drought continues. EOG will continue to monitor fires around the world, and we urge everyone to obey fire bans, and regional safety mandates so our land can remain beautiful and our homes can stay safe. For more information on fires like these follow us on twitter @eogatpayne.

8/17/2020

Oil Well Explosion in India

By William Helms

An ongoing fire in India exploded on July 22, 2020, injuring three people. Over the last two months, Oil India Limited (OIL) has suspended operations at well number 5 of the Baghjan oil field, located in the Tinsukia district of Assam, India. Problems originally started on May 27, a blowout occurred, allowing gas to spew uncontrollably from the well. Fueled by the gas, a large fire broke out on June 9, killing two fire fighters. Over a month later, efforts were being made to finally cap the well to bring the blaze to an end. However, this was unsuccessful as it resulted in a massive blast which injured three foreign experts working on the project. Fortunately, their burns were relatively minor according to OIL.

The image above shows the progression of the fire. The left side shows the night after the well blow out on May 28, when it was still relatively contained. The right side reveals June 9, when a giant eruption turned the fire into a widespread catastrophe. Both display data from Nighttime Lights overlaid on Google Earth, allowing for an excellent vantage point to see the far-reaching disaster.

8/5/2020

Sustained Activiy In Antartica During COVID-19 Pandemic

By Elijah Mt. Castle and Mitch Burcham

Imagery from Earth Observation Group’s VIIRS Nighttime Light provides additional support to a recent claim by The Atlantic that operations within Antarctica have maintained steady during the global COVID-19 outbreak. This image depicts Antarctic research bases that have maintained operation even as U.S and Australian funding as decreased due to pandemic induced budget cuts. According to Leah Fieger and Mara Wilson of The Atlantic the sustained activity, seen on the map as red dots, is the result of Russian and Chinese efforts to effectively imperialize the region. While all research in Antarctica is a collaborative effort, the decrease in U.S involvement in the area has given the green light for China and Russia to stake claim in land and potential resource treasure troves. The actual outcome of this is unclear as diplomatic discussions about the region happen regularly, however those discussions cannot begin again until social distancing practices are more relaxed. Until those discussions can begin, Antarctic operations could prove to be a topic of interest in the coming months.

Wildfires Here in Colorado

By William Helms

On the morning of May 20, 2020, lightning struck in Las Animas County. This sparked a wildfire that would eventually spread to more than 11,000 acres of land in Southeastern Colorado over the following week. As seen in the above image, the wildfire stretched northward from its initial location. The rapid spread was made possible with the help of “unseasonably warm weather and strong winds” according to Sam Tabachnik of The Denver Post. While firefighters would not be able to contain the fire until May 27 with the aid of cooler weather and precipitation according to Elise Schmelzer, also of The Denver Post, VIIRS Nightfire shows a significant drop off in heat activity in the area after May 23.

The above image was created from Google Earth using VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) data collected from May 20 to May 23 to show the temperatures and areas affected by the blaze. By additionally using an overlay of the Nighttime Lights data collected on May 23 (represented by the lighter gray and white in the image) we can see how both sets of data can be used to corroborate one another.

References:
Sam Tabachnik, “Firefighters Battle 10,000-Acre Fire in Las Animas County.” The Denver Post. May 23, 2020.
Elise Schmelzer, “Firefighting Activity Winds down as Wildfire in Las Animas County Comes under Control.” The Denver Post. May 27, 2020.

Iraq Looking to Develop its Natural Gas Resource

By William Helms

Since 2018, the United States has been putting pressure on Iraq to move toward energy independence. Iraq currently imports the majority of its natural gas from Iran, which is then burned for electricity. However, as a biproduct of its oil production, Iraq already flares the second most natural gas in the world as of 2018 per data from NOAA with assistance from VIIRS Nightfire (VNF). According to one article by Arwa Ibrahim on Aljazeera.com, the pressure from the US is believed to be an attempt to limit Iran’s influence in Iraq as well as a way for US companies to penetrate the Iraqi markets. However, regardless of the political and economic reasons, a positive side effect for the environment would be helping move toward the World Bank’s goal to have no more planned gas flaring by 2030. Capturing and reusing the gas, as opposed to just burning it on site, would help reduce the impact of greenhouse gases currently being created in Iraq. According to an article in S&P Global from June 22, 2020, capturing 30%-40% of currently flared gas could generate 3.3GW of electricity, meaning if it all were captured it could generate around 10GW of the 16.77GW currently generated by Iraq.

The image above shows VNF data from July 20, 2020. It illustrates how common gas flaring is in Iraq as the red and yellow dots show heat signatures in the common range for gas flaring (1500+ K). The gas being burned at each of these sites could potentially be harnessed, refined, and used for electricity in Iraq. According to The World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, Iraq flared 17,914,000,000 m3 of gas in 2019.

7/23/2020

Argentina’s Popular Exclusive Economic Zone

By William Helms

Argentina is a nation with rich, natural squid resources. Its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is one of the best places for squid fishing on Earth. The EEZ, spanning for 200 nautical miles from any point of the Argentinean coast, is home to the Argentine shortfin Squid. Because some of the best areas for squid fishing are just near the EEZ boundary, fishing fleets from other countries try to catch these squid by getting as close as possible to the Argentinean EEZ. There are even reports that some fishing vessels will disable their GPS tracking monitors and attempt to sneak into the EEZ, thus catching hundreds of thousands of pounds of squid that legally belong to Argentina. A story by MercoPress from April 28 asserts a fleet of Chinese fishing ships have been doing just that.

The image above gives a few different views of this popular squid fishing spot. On the left, we have a portion of the “Trip the Light Fantastic” image which is comprised of years’ worth of data from VIIRS Boat Detection (VBD) put together with the white spots representing areas with high average concentrations of light – popular places for fishing boats to be. It shows the area just outside of Argentina’s EEZ is a very common place to find fishing ships clustered. On the right side of the image we have VBD data from a specific date. April 1, 2019 shows a fairly average night of fishing with large groups of ships pressed up to the Argentinean EEZ border. Some ships can even be seen just over the boundary, meaning if they are not Argentinean vessels, they are risking detection to attempt to catch some of the valuable squid resource within the EEZ.

7/10/2020

VIIRS Nightfire Sees Multiple Wildfires in Arizona

By Mitch Burcham and Elijah Mt. Castle

Continuing our ongoing efforts to report accurate and timely news related to fires around the world, the team at Earth Observation Group at the Payne Institute for Public Policy has created this map of three wildfires within Arizona that are currently destroying thousands of acres around Bighorn, Phoenix and Bringham.

As of June 11, these fires have burned more than 11,000 acres and has forced the immediate evacuation of more than 850 homes mostly within the Bighorn area. After more than a week ablaze, reports state that only 10% of the flames have been contained around Bighorn, and none have been contained for the fires burning around Phoenix and Bringham. The images below have been rendered by the Earth Observation Group using VIIRS Nightfire to show the expansion of the massive fires that are plaguing the most of Arizona. Reports around the country of poor air quality due to smoke accumulation as well as massive land damages make experts fear that the combination of all these fires could have the potential to become a major disaster for the region.

6/26/2020

VNF – A Tool Helping Fight Climate Change

By William Helms

One of the potentially impactful abilities of VIIRS NightFire (VNF) is its capability to help estimate the amount of gas burned by routine flaring at oil fields. The constant burning of gas contributes to global warming by producing carbon dioxide. In an effort to stem these effects, the World Bank and United Nations started a Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 Initiative in 2015. To aid in this initiative, the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) was established and is utilizing VNF data for gas flaring volume estimations. This will help detect the best places for reduction and elimination of gas flares – optimally through capturing and reusing the primary biproduct methane. Below is a link for Gas Flaring Data created with help from VNF.

The above image shows the two largest gas flaring states in the US: Texas and North Dakota. The yellow and red dots represent flames that are the expected temperatures for gas flaring (1500K+). According to a segment of the Texas Standard by Alexandra Hart, gas companies are flaring over 1% of what they are extracting in the United States. These are the types of flares that will need to recapture their methane instead of burning it in order to meet the Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 goal.

6/26/2020

Festival Lights Seen from Space

By William Helms

Here we take a look at a couple large festivals that are remote enough to become their own visible light source. Paradiso is a festival usually held in mid-June at the Gorge Amphitheatre in the state of Washington. Due to Washington’s notoriously rainy weather, it can be difficult to get a clear, cloudless sky. The top left portion of the image above shows the Gorge Amphitheatre area during the weekend of Paradiso, specifically June 15. It took another ten days to get a good light image for the area, but it shows the Gorge Amphitheatre area has all but disappeared. For comparison, the nearby city of Quincy (population around 8,000) is shown.

Another remote festival is Electric Forest. The right side of the image above shows it earns its name. The festival takes place at a resort in Rothbury, Michigan not too far from Lake Michigan. As displayed in the image from July 1, the festival does indeed light up the forest. The July 6 image shows the normal lighting levels for the area. Fremont, Michigan is a nearby city that has a population of over 4,000 for comparison.

More on Paradiso
More on Electric Forest

Wildfire in Fort à La Corne, Canada

More forest fire activity has recently been pinpointed by VIIRS Nightfire technology. This image over Fort à La Corne, Canada depicts heat signatures from the forest inferno. These signatures are substantially hotter than those of recent fires in places like Arizona and Poland. Dense forest and intense wind have produced flames that burn at over 2,000 Kelvin. The red and yellow data points represent the signatures of some of the hottest fires that Earth Observation Group at Payne Institute for Public Policy has recorded in 2020, and with wildfire season looming in the distance such scorching temperatures may become the norm. Follow us on twitter @eogatpayne for more information and updates.

Via:
https://panow.com/2020/05/20/change-in-weather-is-expected-to-help-ground-crews-battle-fort-a-la-corne-fire/
https://thedataface.com/2018/11/public-health/wildfires-map

5/26/2020