Past Posts
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...