Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
South Korea partially suspends inter-Korean agreement over North’s spy satellite
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea said North Korea fired...
Chinese software firm inks deal with Kenya to boost geospatial technology cooperation
Chinese technology firm, Supermap International, signed an agreement with...
Survey of India, Genesys International Sign MoU to Develop ‘Digital Twins’ Of Indian Cities
Genesys International, India’s home-grown geospatial mapping company and Survey...
UAE Space Agency leads first Space Pavilion participation at COP28
DUBAI - The UAE Space Agency is leading the...
ISRO, NASA likely to launch remote sensing satellite in 1st half of ’24
NEW DELHI: If everything goes as per plan, India...
IBM Advances Geospatial AI to Address Climate Challenges
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new...
Australia Greenlights Game-Changing Era: Commercial Drones with ParaZero Safety Systems to Fly
ParaZero is thrilled to be at the forefront of...
Asia’s top satellite operator aims to launch solar energy forecast system in Europe
Japan’s satellite titan SKY Perfect JSAT aims to expand...
Japan to set up $6.7bn JAXA fund to develop space industry
TOKYO -- Japan's cabinet on Monday approved a bill...
China launches a satellite to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink
This was stated by Business Insider, citing a report...

April 30th, 2019
Visiting a Young Island

image

On Oct. 8, 2018, Dan Slayback of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., joined scientists and students with the Sea Education Association’s SEA Semester South Pacific cruise to visit a three-year-old island he’d only seen from space.

“There’s no map of the new land,” Slayback said. It erupted from the rim of an underwater caldera in early 2015, nestled between two older islands. The new Tongan island is one of only three that has erupted in the last 150 years that have survived the ocean’s eroding waves longer than a few months.

The three-year-old volcanic island (center) as seen from the SEA drone. (Credit: Sea Education Association/SEA Semester)

Slayback and his colleagues Jim Garvin at Goddard and Vicki Ferrini at Columbia University have been watching it from satellites since its birth, trying to make a 3D model of its shape and volume as it changes over time to understand how much material has been eroded and what it is made of that makes it partially resistant to erosion. But while high-resolution satellite observations are revolutionary for studying remote regions, they can only tell you so much without actually visiting the place on the ground.