To make the predictions as precise as possible takes understanding the ecology not just of the place being studied, but also of the disease and the human population. "You see tremendous variations in different areas," says Ford of how diseases behave, and "in some sense, [that is due to] just difference in human behavior."
Judging the severity of avian flu's spread from satellite imaging, for instance, requires knowing how likely certain areas are to keep domestic chickens and ducks—a practice more common in countries that consume more poultry, Xiao explains. And getting precise poultry production statistics can be a real challenge, he notes, as record-keeping can vary greatly among countries and regions.
But Ford thinks that even with these limitations, "There's no reason at all we shouldn't be able to say, 'This summer is going to be a bad hantavirus year' or 'This season will likely have a high cholera risk.'"
Novel or long-dormant diseases present more challenges for remote prediction. "Whether we can predict emerging diseases is a whole other question," Ford says, especially as their vectors or risk factors might take time to assess. And some diseases that spread among people might turn out to be nearly impossible to predict using satellite and environmental data beyond what researchers already know about seasonal cycles, like that for the seasonal flu. And, the nonseasonal H1N1 flu, for example, "is probably going to be more to do with human patterns [and] rapid transport between countries" than environmental changes that can be mapped, Ford says.
Predicting infectious diseases is a crucial step in curbing them, Ford notes. "With all our medical advances and our advances in sanitation…we still have not been able to grapple with diseases," he says. But he is hopeful for the future of satellite-based prediction—even as it becomes a greater necessity in a changing climate and globalized world. "There's really nowhere on the globe that a pathogen can really remain isolated," he says.
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3 Comments
Add CommentThe SMAP , soil moisture mission, will see soil surface temps and soil moisture to 3 feet deep, Surface & Root zone soil moisture & Carbon Net Ecosystem Exchange
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/
on the re-boot of the OCO (orbital carbon observer) to read the Carbon sources & Sinks from the tree tops down at 2 1/2 Acre resolution.
A large enough array of other sensor technologies may allow zeroing in on particular GHG emissions, N2O & CH4 & CO2 by absorption lidar
Mid-infrared laser absorption spectrometers /diode laser based detection of CO, N2O and NO.
This seems to present a developing tool, along with other proxy measurements, for soil carbon.
My hope is the common bond of Soil Carbon will lead to program synergy for Soil Carbon Sequestration. The unity of purpose between NASA, USDA, EPA, Academics,Ag Interests, etc. etc.should drive these programs from the inside out & the outside in.
Agriculture allowed our cultural accent and Agriculture will now prevent our descent.
Wise Land management, Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,
Remote sensor success would level the carbon credit playing field. No aggregaters, testers, heck, a farmer will just check his practices on Google earth with certain rewards for good behavior.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.
Cheers,
Erich
It's a whole article about modeling and predicting diseases without mentioning the geospatial modeling aspect. No one is looking at a satellite image and identifying where diseases are, rather diseases, their environmental niches, and the pathways they travel by are identified and multiple data sources (remote sensing included) are used to predict possible outbreaks. The article seems to have been written using 'satellites' as the primary medium of focus because they are far more interesting to the lay-person then what is actually the primary driver of this work: spatial statistics. yuck.
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