Here are some links to maps and satellite imagery of the wildfires devastating Alberta right now. The Alberta provincial government’s Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard shows active wildfires and historical data; CBC News has produced four maps that distill and simplify data from that dashboard. NASA Earth Observatory has images of the wildfires from the Terra satellite’s MODIS instrument.
Category: Disasters
Extent of Tongan Eruption Revealed by New Seafloor Maps
Scientists have now mapped the seafloor around the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano, and as a result we have learned just how massive the January 2022 eruption was. By comparing their soundings with 2017 data, they determined that at least 9.5 km3 of material was discharged. Debris was found 80 km from the volcano, and the volcano’s caldera has been replaced by a cavern 850 m deep. More from the NIWA media release and from ABC (Australia).
Previously: Remotely Operated Vessel Maps Tonga Caldera.
Wildfire Aware
Wildfire Aware is an interactive map of wildfires in the United States that lists fires by the number of personnel fighting them. Selecting a fire brings up a lot more information, drawn on 22 layers from Esri’s ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. [ArcGIS Blog]
Flooding in Pakistan
The satellite imagery of the flooding in Pakistan is insufficient to grasp how widespread the devastation is, unless you zoom out enough (which you can do at the MODIS page). The imagery focuses on the flood plain of the Indus River: it covers most of Sindh province and a good chunk of Baluchistan. See The Washington Post’s maps for perspective. The Earth Observatory and MODIS pages, as well as the CNN article, have before/after image sliders: Earth Observatory compares the situation to three weeks ago, the other two to last year.
Update, 1 Sept:
The ESA has released the above image based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 data. More than a third of Pakistan is now under water.
Update, 3 Sept: The Guardian has more before/after imagery.
Remotely Operated Vessel Maps Tonga Caldera
As part of the Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project, a robotic vessel has conducted a bathymetric survey of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano’s underwater caldera. Said volcano, you will recall, erupted spectacularly last January. The 12-metre vessel, USV Maxlimer, was controlled remotely from 16,000 km away, and carried sensors to measure the state of the seabed, temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and chemical plumes. More at the press release. BBC News coverage.
Previously: The Rise and Fall of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai; Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, Before and After; How Satellites Revealed the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha‘apai Eruption.
Updates to Maps of Historical Earthquakes, Tsunami and Volcanic Eruptions
Every two years or so, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information updates poster maps based on its Global Historical Tsunami, Significant Earthquake and Significant Volcanic Eruption databases; the 2022 editions are now available. The posters, made in collaboration with the International Tsunami Information Center, are distributed to emergency response personnel; they provide a historical overview of where earthquakes or eruptions took place, or tsunami originated, going back literally millenia. The maps can be downloaded in PDF format: Significant Earthquakes 2150 B.C. to A.D. 2022, Tsunami Sources 1610 B.C. to A.D. 2022, and Significant Volcanic Eruptions 4360 B.C. to A.D. 2022.
The Rise and Fall of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai
A storymap from Esri’s Robert Waterman, based on Maxar satellite imagery, shows the rise and fall of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha‘apai from being two separate islands before a 2015 eruption combined them, through its time as an apparently stable but awkwardly compound-named single island until it got blown apart last month.
Previously: Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, Before and After.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, Before and After
NASA Earth Observatory has released digital elevation maps of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai both before and after the volcanic eruption earlier this month.
The digital elevation maps above and below show the dramatic changes at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, the uppermost part of a large underwater volcano. It rises 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) from the seafloor, stretches 20 kilometers (12 miles) across, and is topped by a submarine caldera 5 kilometers in diameter. The island is part of the rim of the Hunga Caldera and was the only part of the edifice that stood above water.
Now all of the new land is gone, along with large chunks of the two older islands.
How Satellites Revealed the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai Eruption
The BBC’s Jonathan Amos looks at the ways satellites have collected imagery and data on the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai1 volcanic eruption.
Historical Landslides in Canada
The third edition of a map showing landslides that have caused fatalities in Canada since 1771, created over six years by Geological Survey of Canada research scientist Andrée Blais-Stevens, was recently released. The Ottawa Citizen has the story; the map in question can be downloaded in PDF format here (48.7 MB).
More on the Western U.S. Wildfires
NASA Earth Observatory has had several stories on the western U.S. wildfires, gathered here. This story summarizes the situation; satellite images of the smoke generated by the fires can be seen here, here and here.
In today's Sunday edition of @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/qHosujRKrG
— Lauren Tierney (@tierneyl) September 13, 2020
Marena Brinkhurst of Mapbox has a comprehensive list of open data sources relating to the wildfires, smoke, and air quality.
Mark Altaweel at GIS Lounge looks at how GIS is being used to map wildfires, smoke and air pollution.
Previously: California Wildfires, 2020 Edition.
California Wildfires, 2020 Edition
Wildfire status tracking. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services posts a daily map showing the status of active wildfires in the state. It’s basically a one-page PDF you can print and hand out: decidedly old school and not remotely interactive. The New York Times has a series of maps tracking the various wildfire complexes. See also the Los Angeles Times interactive wildfires map, the address of which will probably work next year too. [Maps Mania/Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs]
Forecasting. NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) atmospheric model includes an experimental smoke forecast. It and other smoke and fire models are available as hourly static images (see above) or via this interactive map. [Maps Mania/UWCIMSS]
Google is adding wildfire boundaries to Search and Maps: it will provide warnings to nearby users and have an impact on driving directions. [Engadget/TechCrunch/The Verge]
Crop Damage from the Iowa Derecho
NASA Earth Observatory has before and after imagery showing the damage done to corn and soybeans fields by the derecho that hit Iowa on August 10.
NASA Maps the Damage from the Beirut Explosion
NASA has released a map of the likely extent of damage from Tuesday’s explosion in Beirut.
Synthetic aperture radar data from space shows ground surface changes from before and after a major event like an earthquake. In this case, it is being used to show the devastating result of an explosion.
On the map, dark red pixels—like those present at and around the Port of Beirut—represent the most severe damage. Areas in orange are moderately damaged and areas in yellow are likely to have sustained somewhat less damage. Each colored pixel represents an area of 30 meters (33 yards).
The map is based on data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel program, and was analyzed by NASA’s Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis team and the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
Satellite Images Reveal Extent of Beirut Explosion
CNN has satellite images, taken both before and after the explosion, showing the extent of the damage caused by the explosion in Beirut last Tuesday. [Boing Boing]
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