Past Posts
Country Wide Power Outage in Pakistan
By Elijah Mt. Castle and Feng Chi, Hsu Pakistan's national power grid experienced a blackout lasting 18 hours in most areas. The power failure was caused by "an engineering fault" in southern Pakistan. The fault engaged safety systems across the grid and shut down the...
Mount Etna Erupts
By Elijah Mt. Castle The Sicilian volcano of Etna erupted on Dec 13th in the night. Etna is the most active volcano in Europe. The eruption does not threaten the surrounding city of Catania. The eruption produced a jet of lava an estimated 100m into the air and an ash...
A Million Hectares Burned in Bolivia
By Elijah Mt. Castle Fire season has been devastating across the world. Bolivia has reported that 1.4 million hectares of land have been burned from forest fires this year. As of October 8th there are 57 active wildfires in the country. Bolivian officials have opened...
Creek Fire containment Date Pushed Back
The California fire season is well underway. The Creek Fire has been burning since September 4th. The fire is now the largest single fire in California history. Over 900 structures have been damaged or destroyed and the fire has caused 45,000 people to be evacuated...
East Troublesome Fire Grows Over 100,000 Acres Overnight
By Elijah Mt. Castle The East Troublesome Fire grew over 100,000 acres overnight October 21. The fire is threatening various towns and national parks in the area and is currently the fourth largest fire in Colorado History. The town of Estes Park was evacuated October...
Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Biodiversity in Galapagos
by Elijah Mt. Castle A fishing fleet hailing from China has been forced away from the Galapagos Islands by Ecuador's navy. In recent years Chinese fishing vessels have begun fishing for giant squid during the summer near the protected area of the Galapagos islands....
Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado
By Joseph Hall and Elijah Mt. Castle The team at Earth Observation Group gathered this image of the Cameron Peak Fire in Larimer County, Colorado just outside of Estes Park and about 60 miles from The Payne Institute for Public Policy headquarters in Golden. Our team...
Historical Lick Observatory Surrounded by Wild Fire
By Elijah Mt. Castle and Mitch Burcham The Lick Observatory operated by the University of California is slowly being encroached upon by a surrounding wildfire in the Mt. Hamilton area of California. The images below gathered by the team at Earth Observation Group of...
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...
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...