Andrew Trlica

Urban trees may — in some contexts — make residential greenhouse emissions worse.

NASA image acquired April 18 - October 23, 2012rrThis new image of the Earth at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite over nine days in April 2012 and thirteen days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earths land surface and islands.rrThe nighttime view of Earth in visible light was made possible by the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight. In this case, auroras, fires, and other stray light have been removed to emphasize the city lights. Named for satellite meteorology pioneer Verner Suomi, NPP flies over any given point on Earths surface twice each day at roughly 1:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The spacecraft flies 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface in a polar orbit, circling the planet about 14 times a day. Suomi NPP sends its data once per orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and continuously to local direct broadcast users distributed around the world. The mission is managed by NASA with operational support from NOAA and its Joint Polar Satellite System, which manages the satellite's ground system.rrNASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center). Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.rrInstrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS rrCredit: NASA Earth ObservatoryrrClick here to view all of the Earth at Night 2012 images rrClic

Shining a light on the global spread of cities

July 22, 2019July 29, 2019 Andrew Trlica 0 Comments cities, ecology and society, remote sensing, urban ecology

Researchers demonstrate a machine learning approach using the nighttime glow of urban areas to streamline satellite-based mapping the worldwide extent cities.

Case Studies Cities Climate Human Exposure and Public Health

Science by Bicycle: A novel study of urban heat

May 29, 2019June 1, 2019 Andrew Trlica 0 Comments meteorology, urban climate, urban heat island, urban landscapes

A new study used a bicycle-mounted temperature sensor to measure heat extremes across urban Madison, WI — and investigate options for keeping cities cool.

A tractor planting corn in a no-till field

Climate Environmental Science

Keeping carbon in the ground

March 8, 2019March 11, 2019 Andrew Trlica 0 Comments agriculture, carbon, Climate Change, Soil

A new long-term study shows that switching to no-till practices may help restore cropland soils to pre-disturbance conditions, letting farmers join the fight against climate change.

Author: Andrew Trlica

Using urban trees to reduce home energy use: Location, location, location

Shining a light on the global spread of cities

Science by Bicycle: A novel study of urban heat

Keeping carbon in the ground