Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Sridhar Samal Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 06/03/2024. The matter related to pollution caused by Talcher Coalfield under Mahanadi Coalfields Limited in the course of its operation. It was said that on a daily …
For the first time this century, the average particulate matter exposure was higher for Indian citizens than that of Chinese people, a Greenpeace analysis of NASA satellite data on particulate matter has shown. China’s strong measures to curb pollution have contributed to the biggest year-on-year air quality improvement on record; …
The identification of properties that contribute to the persistence and resilience of ecosystems despite climate change constitutes a research priority of global relevance. Here the researchers present a novel, empirical approach to assess the relative sensitivity of ecosystems to climate variability, one property of resilience that builds on theoretical modelling …
This study is an attempt to quantify the impact of climate change on the hydrology of Armur watershed in Godavari river basin, India. A GIS-based semi-distributed hydrological model, soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) has been employed to estimate the water balance components on the basis of unique combinations of …
Three decades of rapid economic development is causing severe and widespread PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm) pollution in China. However, research on the health impacts of PM2.5 exposure has been hindered by limited historical PM2.5 concentration data. The researchers estimated ambient PM2.5 concentrations from 2004 to 2013 in China …
Marine plastic pollution is an ever-increasing problem that demands immediate mitigation and reduction plans. Here, a model based on satellite-tracked buoy observations and scaled to a large data set of observations on microplastic from surface trawls was used to simulate the transport of plastics floating on the ocean surface from …
We use the GLOMAP global aerosol model evaluated against observations of surface particulate matter (PM2.5) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) to better understand the impacts of biomass burning on tropical aerosol. To explore the uncertainty in emissions we use three satellite-derived fire emission datasets (GFED3, GFAS1 and FINN1) in the …
Using Landsat data at decadal interval (1980-2013), the glacier fluctuations (glacier area, equilibrium line altitude and specific mass balance) of nine benchmark glaciers in Kashmir Himalaya was estimated. The observed changes were related with topographic and climatic variables in order to understand their influence. From the data analysis, it was …
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture comprise 10-12% of anthropocentric global emissions; and 76% of the agricultural emissions are generated in the developing world. Landscape GHG accounting is an effective way to efficiently develop baseline emissions and appropriate mitigation approaches. In a 9,736-hectare case study area dominated by rice and …
China on Tuesday launched its most sophisticated observation satellite, Gaofen-4, as part of the country's high-definition (HD) earth observation project. Gaofen-4 was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan at 00:04 a.m. aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket. It was the 222th flight of …
Assessing the impacts of land use and land cover change (LUCC) on regional climate is essential for understanding land–atmosphere interactions and for designing climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model, we examined how different land use and land cover patterns affect regional climate in …
The response of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) to changes in temperature during the twentieth century remains contentious1, largely owing to difficulties in estimating the spatial and temporal distribution of ice mass changes before 1992, when Greenland-wide observations first became available2. The only previous estimates of change during the twentieth …
The impact of different boundary layer source regions in Asia on the chemical composition of the Asian monsoon anticyclone, considering its intraseasonal variability in 2012, is analysed by simulations of the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) using artificial emission tracers. The horizontal distribution of simulated CO, O3, and …
TAIYUAN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Yaogan-29 remote sensing satellite was launched on Thursday at 5:24 a.m. from Taiyuan launch site in Shanxi Province, north China. The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief. Yaogan-29 was carried by a Long March-4C rocket, the …
Accurate quantification of forest carbon stocks is required for constraining the global carbon cycle and its impacts on climate. The accuracies of forest biomass maps are inherently dependent on the accuracy of the field biomass estimates used to calibrate models, which are generated with allometric equations. Here, we provide a …
This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation …
Schistosomiasis is the most widespread water-based disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Transmission is governed by the spatial distribution of specific freshwater snails that act as intermediate hosts and human water contact patterns. Remote sensing data have been utilized for spatially explicit risk profiling of schistosomiasis. The investigated the potential of remote …
The importance of light-absorbing organic aerosols, often called brown carbon (BrC), has become evident in recent years. However, there have been relatively few measurement-based estimates for the direct radiative effect of BrC so far. In earlier studies, the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET)-measured aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) and absorption Angstrom …
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals penetrate through the dry snow and cloud providing crucial data over the Himalayan temperate glaciers and complement the optical images. In the present study, RISAT- 1 C band and AWiFS images of winter/ablation period over Samudra Tapu and Gepang Gath moraine dammed lakes (MDLs) in …
Come winter, and the air quality in northern India begins to deteriorate.The smoke resulting from burning crop residues combined with vehicular emissions make the air we breathe deadly. A major reason for the poor air quality is the burning of paddy stubble by farmers in Punjab and Haryana. This practice …
Come winter, and the air quality in northern India begins to deteriorate. A thick blanket of smog (mixture of smoke and fog) engulfs the National Capital Region which reduces visibility and gives a tough time to commuters. A major reason for the poor air quality is the burning of paddy …