Past Posts
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...
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...
Biebrza National Park Fires in Poland
Tragedy strikes in Poland as nearly 10% of the country's largest national park goes up in flames. As a result of one of the longest droughts in more than a decade, farmers near Biebrza National Park have been forced to burn crop fields and grasslands to increase soil...
Anak Krakatau Erupts
Anak Krakatau volcano erupts in Indonesia April 10th 2020. The volcano has been known to cause deadly eruptions. In 2008 the volcano's eruption caused a massive tsunami that devastated neighboring islands, killing 437 people. This eruption was not as severe as no...
Slash and Burn Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
These purple, blue, and green placemarks showing heat signatures recorded by VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) over Africa have put a perspective on the vast use of slash and burn farming techniques happening as of Feb. 26, 2020. Slash and burn agriculture techniques is thought...