Category: EOG

Wildfires in Arizona

Wildfires in Arizona

By Elijah Mt. Castle
There are multiple fires burning north of Flagstaff Arizona. The fires are burning in Coconino National Forest. They threaten multiple communities, schools, and cultural landmarks.
The Pipeline fire started on the 12th of June. It has burned over 20,000 acres. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation; however, one person has been arrested by the U.S. Forest Service in connection to the fire. The Pipeline fire caused the evacuation of over 2,000 homes in the surrounding area. The fire is now 33% contained and only one home has been destroyed.
The Haywire fire started on 12th as well. The cause is also unknown, but it is suspected that it was caused by lightning from a passing storm. It has burned over 5,000 acres. The fire has caused around 280 evacuations. The haywire has merged with the Double fire that started around the same time. The fire is not contained.
Pictured are the VNF detections for June 13th – 15th, 2022. Also pictured are the SNPP VIIRS Day/night Radiances for June 13th.
June 15, 2022

Chinese Fishing Fleet Returns Yearly to Argentina

Chinese Fishing Fleet Returns Yearly to Argentina

By Elijah Mt. Castle
A Chinese fishing fleet has returned to the waters around Argentina. This fleet has returned year after year to fish outside of Argentina’s economic exclusion zone (EEZ). The coastal waters inside of the EEZ are biodiverse and home to the second largest squid fishery in the world. Around half of the world’s shortfin squid is caught within Argentina’s waters. The shortfin squid market can generate upwards of $2.4 billion dollars a year. While legal to fish outside of the 200-mile EEZ, portions of the fishing fleet will fish illegally within Argentina’s EEZ. The fishing vessels will turn off their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to cross over the EEZ border and fish in Argentinian waters. These illegal fishing practices are estimated to produce upwards of $36 billion globally. Of the fishing vessels near Argentina 69% are Chinese, the other portions being made up of South Korean, Taiwanese, and Spanish vessels. The main type of vessel used is the squid jigger. These types of vessels use lights to attract squids to the surface that then get snagged on the many fishing lines/hooks. Pictured are the VIIRS Day/Night Band average radiances for April 2019-2022.
June 7, 2022

Largest Wildfires in New Mexico’s History

Largest Wildfires in New Mexico’s History

By Elijah Mt. Castle

Wildfire season has started early in New Mexico. Multiple wildfires have been burning in the state since April. These fires have surpassed the largest fires in New Mexico’s history. Dry conditions, high winds, and the number of fires have hindered fire suppression. Fortunately, most of the wildfires are either contained or approaching containment.

  • The Cooks Peak Fire started on May 13th. It is now 100% contained but is still actively burning. It has burned 59,000 acres and its cause is unknown at this time.
  • The largest wildfire, Hermits Peak, started as two separate fires: a prescribed burn that became uncontrolled on April 6th; and a holdover fire from January that reemerged around the same time. Hermits Peak is the largest fire in New Mexico’s history with a total area burned at 315,000 acres.
  • Cerro Pelado began on April 22nd and its cause is still unknown. It has burned 45,000 acres.
  • Bear Trap began on May 1st and has burned 38,000 acres. Fire teams are suppressing damage to natural resources in the surrounding forest/grasslands.
  • The Black Fire started on May 14th in the Gila wilderness. It has grown to 249,000 acres and fire crews are attempting to prevent it from crossing into Gila National Forest.
Pictured are the VIIRS Nighttime Fire Detections for April 20th – May 27th, 2022. The more pronounced the color, the longer that area has been burning.

2021 Flaring Numbers Published

2021 Flaring Numbers Published

By Tamara Sparks

EOG has posted our annual 2021 flaring numbers on our VNF website. Global flaring increased slightly in 2021 to 156.2 BCM from 152.6 BCM in 2020, including upstream and downstream flaring. Both upstream and downstream flaring saw a slight increase.

Russia remained the top country for upstream flaring. Among the top 10 countries for upstream flaring, Russia, Iran, Mexico, and Libya had substantial increases in flaring, while the US, Algeria, Venezuela, and Nigeria saw decreases. The US in particular had a large drop in flaring in 2021 to almost half of what is was in 2019.

May 16, 2022

Blackout in Puerto Rico seen by VIIRS satellite

Blackout in Puerto Rico seen by VIIRS satellite

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By Tamara Sparks

The island-wide power outage caused by a fire at a power plant in Puerto Rico is visible in satellite imagery from the VIIRS day night band. Widespread loss of lighting on April 7, 2022, indicated in red, is seen across the island, although there are areas with typical lighting levels, seen in yellow. Cloud cover over the island is minimal, so the decrease in lighting is not due to clouds. In contrast, nearby US and British Virgin Islands have stable lighting, except for areas with cloud cover.

April 11, 2022

Update on Ukraine in Dark – 2022/03/05

Update on Ukraine in Dark

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By David Hsu

Most cities in Ukraine are still in the dark – except those in eastern Ukraine near Donetsk and Luhansk in the regions under Russian control. Two noticeable clusters of new lighting surrounding Chernihiv and Bucha, suggesting Russian forces making their way toward Kyiv. There were also some activities seen in Belarus near southern border.

For past images and latest update on Ukraine, visit the dedicated page here.

March 7th 2022

Multiple Wildfires around Bay County Florida

Multiple Wildfires around Bay County Florida

By Elijah Mt. Castle

Multiple fires have been burning in Bay County Florida over the weekend. The Adkins Avenue fire started Friday in Bay County and is 35% contained having burned 841 acres. The Bertha Swamp Fire started on Friday in the neighboring Gulf County and crossed into Bay County Saturday, it is only 10% contained with a burn area of 9,000 acres. The fires are burning in an area decimated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. High winds have hampered firefighting abilities in Bay County with gusts up to 25 miles per hour(40 kilometers per hour). A third fire started Sunday and forced the evacuation of a state-owned veterans’ nursing home. The other fires have forced the evacuation of over 1,000 homes. Wildfire season in Florida is just beginning and there are around 150 wildfires burning throughout the state. Pictured are the VNF detections for March 6th, 2022. Also pictured are the VIIRS SNPP Day/Night Radiances for March 6th, 2022.
March 6, 2022

Satellite data provides insights about the unfolding conflict in Ukraine

Satellite data provides insights about the unfolding conflict in Ukraine

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By Feng Chi (David), Hsu

Kyiv experienced a horrifying night on 2/26. The oil depot near Vasylkiv Air Base was on fire creating extremely large fire. EOG was able to detect the event with both VNF and VNL from the thermal signature and visible light it created. Under curfew, most cities in Ukraine are much dimmer than they used to be. But we still see some places being particularly bright. Such as Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Buryakivka radioactive waste site near the northern border. There are some other places exhibiting light where normally dark. We do not know what is being the source of light.

February 28, 2022

Earth Observation Group is the Pioneer in Global Nighttime Lights Product Generation

Earth Observation Group is the Pioneer in Global Nighttime Lights Product Generation

The Earth Observation Group (EOG) pioneered the development of monthly and annual global nighttime light products from low light imaging data collected by meteorological satellite sensors. Initially with data from the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) and later with day / night band (DNB) data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).  EOG’s approach features a cascading series of filtration steps to exclude sunlit, moonlit, stray light and cloudy pixels.  The annual sets are then filtered to remove outliers (biomass burning, High Energy Particle (HEP) detections, some aurora) and finally the background is zeroed out.  What remains are primarily surface lighting features.

Using this formula EOG has produced a total of 57 annual and 584 monthly nighttime light products over the past two decades (Table 1). These are available on an open access basis from: https://payneinstitute.mines.edu/eog/nighttime-lights/.  EOG’s nighttime lights product are widely used by researchers around the world and have resulted in thousands of peer review publications.  Google scholar lists 2500+ papers based on VIIRS nighttime lights and 5600+ papers based on DMSP nighttime lights.

Despite these successes, we are aware of the flaws and shortcomings of the products.  Users take the products and use them as-is, often without visual inspection, leading to erroneous results and skepticism on product validity. There are clear pathways for product improvement that would benefit large numbers of researchers and provide societal benefits.

February 10, 2022

 

 

VNF Detects Oil Container Explosion

VNF Detects Oil Container Explosion

By Tamara Sparks

VIIRS Nightfire detected the Trinity Spirit, a floating oil production, storage, and offloading vessel, which exploded and caught fire off the coast of Nigeria early on Feb 2, 2022. The Suomi NPP satellite overpass at 00:47 UTC first detected the blaze, with an average temperature of 1043K for detections in the area. Almost an hour later at 01:36 UTC, the NOAA-20 satellite saw the fire burning hotter, averaging 1410K. These temperatures are lower than the average gas flaring temperature at the site, 1718K. Reporting says the site had been inactive prior to this incident, which is confirmed by the VNF flaring temporal profile showing very little flaring activity since early 2020.

February 4, 2022