Earth Matters

From an Atmospheric River to a River of Sediment

February 21st, 2017 by Adam Voiland

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/VIIRS/Jesse Allen. More details about the image here.

In the past two months, weather reports in California, Oregon, and Washington have been filled with news of “atmospheric rivers” bringing copious amounts of rain and snow to the western United States. Atmospheric rivers are long, thin fingers of moisture that develop in the tropics and flow into higher latitudes. If one of them makes landfall, huge of amounts of rain and snow can fall in a short period.

Much of this moisture, of course, eventually finds its way back to the sea through rivers. When waterways are swollen and flowing rapidly, they also become rivers of suspended sediment, full of clay, mud, sand, and other debris. Though the flooding from atmospheric river events can be devastating, the enormous amount of sediment they send rushing into the sea can also be surprisingly beautiful.

For instance, on February 11, 2017, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP acquired this remarkable view of rivers and streams spewing sediment into the Pacific Ocean. Close to the outlets of streams and rivers, sediment-rich waters appear brown. As the sediment dissipates and mixes into the ocean, the water appears teal.

Duane Waliser, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, recently tallied just how damaging atmospheric rivers can be for coastal areas. In a study published in Nature Geoscience, Waliser and a colleague showed that atmospheric rivers are among the most damaging storm types in the middle latitudes. Of the very wettest and windiest storms (those ranked in the top 2 percent), atmospheric rivers were associated with nearly half of them. Waliser and colleagues also found that atmospheric rivers were associated with a doubling of the typical wind speed compared to all storm conditions.

Image originally published by NOAA.

Satellite Images We Love

February 14th, 2017 by Adam Voiland

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the NASA Earth Observatory staff took some time to look through our archives to find a few images that we absolutely love. You will find eight of our favorite scenes below: the islands of Mergui Archipelago, tea-colored water in James Bay, a snowy scene of Long Island, the intricate waterways of Musa Bay, an eddy of phytoplankton near South Africa, the Nardo racing ring in Italy, sea ice and icebergs in Antarctica, and a meandering river in the Amazon. Each staff member wrote a short note explaining why they chose the image.

Do you have a crush on NASA, earth science, and satellite imagery like we do? Get in on the fun by finding your favorite image from our archives and posting the link to the comment thread (and your social media sites of choice) with a few words explaining why you love the image. If you have trouble finding the perfect match by blindly searching our archives, you can also go to this page and sort by category, year, and month. You can also try our Visible Earth archive, where the images are conveniently categorized by what they show and which satellite sensor acquired them.

Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 5/TM. More details here.

This image is full of fantastic reminders about our planet and the science of Earth observation. Sediment flows, forests, and human settlement can all be seen in gorgeous color. But what’s more — the image was acquired by Landsat 5 back in 2004. We are currently two generations further in the Landsat constellation; this image is a vivid reminder of the quality and depth of that legacy. — Joshua Stevens, data visualizer

 

Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8/OLI. More details here.

If you’ve ever read the blog FYFD or even spent time looking carefully at cream swirling around in your coffee, you’ll know why I love this image. There are times that fluids just going about their mundane business of mixing and flowing make patterns that are insanely beautiful. Check out our original story for a more detailed view of the von Kármán vortices swirling away from the small island in the middle of the Bay to see what I mean.  — Adam Voiland, science writer

 

Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8/OLI. More info here.

Home is where the heart lies. In my case, that’s New York City and Long Island — my two homes. I grew up in both of these places, and love them both. This image shows dense snow that covered New York in February 2015. If Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) could zoom in farther, you might see my mom and me cross-country skiing on the beach, or my dog bounding through the hills of snow.  I still remember the enormous ice floes in Long Island Sound, which you can see in this image. — Pola Lem, science writer

 

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observtory/EO-1/ALI. More info here.

There’s a lot to this image I really like. The dendritic pattern of waterways and the sharp contrast that has against the strong straight linear features of man-made structures is quite striking. Also, the way that the warm, reddish-browns and the cool-toned blues and greens weave together is really compelling. Finally, I like the backstory of how we found this image: it was an accidental discovery made possible only because the satellite — Earth Observing-1 — produces a small number of images each day, making reading the entire list of images acquired (not just known objects of interest) possible for serendipitous discoveries like this. — Jesse Allen, data visualizer

 

Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Terra/MODIS. More info here.

After 6.5 years and 2500+ images since I joined EO, I have a hard time calling any image a favorite. But I thought of this one today because it pulls together many strands of my life. I have worked with scientists studying the Earth from space and with those studying the ocean from ships. I have long enjoyed learning and writing about the macrocosm and the microcosm — seeing things on both the grandest and the smallest of scales. And I have always preferred nonfiction, photography, and realism to abstract and impressionistic art. This phytoplankton bloom, which is tracing out the vortices of an eddy, looks like a blue rose in the sea. And while it looks like a painting, it is completely natural. It was created by the tiniest of organisms — phytoplankton — and by unseen, potent forces — deep ocean currents. It’s another day when reality is just as beautiful as any art. — Michael Carlowicz, managing editor

 

Image credit: NASA/International Space Station/Expedition 14. More info here.

Being an automotive enthusiast, as well as an amateur racer, I’ve always loved images of the Nardo Ring.  This racing circuit is a perfect circle, and massive in order to be used for vehicle testing.  Highways, city girds, and other roadways are often prominent features in astronaut photography, but the scale and precision of the Nardo Ring are impressive when set against the Italian farm fields.  It’s easy to see, even from up there, the impact the racing and automotive culture has on Italy, and the rest of the world.  — Paul Przyborski, programmer/dba/designer

 

Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/EO-1/ALI. More info here.

I really like this image because of the variety of blue and white hues. There is young ice, old ice, icebergs that are trapped in sea ice, and all of it is accentuated by an oblique sun angle casting shadows and highlighting texture. — Kevin Ward, team leader

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8/OLI. More info here.

If I’m not mountain biking, you will probably find me kayaking—a hobby partly inspired by regularly seeing incredible views of Earth’s rivers from space at work. What I love most about this image of Rio Mamoré in the Amazon Basin is how you can see how much the rivers meander and migrate over time. Interestingly, researchers studying rivers in this region found that the greater the amount of sediment from external sources (glacial, volcanic, or human activity), the more likely the rivers were to meander. — Kathryn Hansen, science writer

 

Using Satellites to Size Up the Severity of Crop Fires in Northern India

February 8th, 2017 by Adam Voiland with Hiren Jethva

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using VIIRS data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership and the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). The map shows fires detected on November 2, 2016.

When I was writing about the crop fires in northern India last fall, it was obvious that 2016 was a pretty severe burning season. For several weeks, large plumes of smoke from Punjab and Haryana blotted out towns and cities along the Indo-Gangetic plain in satellite images.

But I didn’t realize just how severe the fires were until Hiren Jethva, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, crunched the numbers. By analyzing satellite records of fire activity, he found that the 2016 fires were the most severe the region has seen since 2002 in regards to the number of fire hot spots satellites detected. In regards to the amount of smoke detected, the 2016 burning was the most severe observed since 2004. He used data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on Aqua and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on Aura to reach his conclusions.

Smoke and fire in northern India have become common in October and November during the last three decades because farmers increasingly use combines to harvest rice and wheat. Since these machines leave stems and other plant residue behind, farmers have started to use fire to clear the leftover debris away in preparation for the next planting.

For more details about how 2016 compared to past years, see the charts below, which Jethva prepared. His explanation for each chart is in italics.

Aqua Detected More Fires in 2016 Than During Any Year Since 2002

Chart by Hiren Jethva based on MODIS data.

The satellite-based sensor MODIS can detect the signal of fire hot spots, also called thermal anomalies, because the signal measured by the sensor in space in the thermal infrared bands appears to be an anomaly compared to the signal emanated from the background land. Since its launch in 2002, the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite has detected thermal anomalies such as wildfires, agricultural fires, and gas flares on a daily basis.

The yearly evolution of total number of fires and Fire Radiative Power (FRP) — the heat energy produced from these fires — detected over Punjab and Haryana showed 2016 to be an anomalous year, with the highest number of crop residue fires (18,707) and the highest FRP in relation to the fires in all other years over the region. In comparison to 2015, the total number of fire hot spots detected over the region in 2016 was 43 percent higher; the difference is 25 percent if the hot spot counts are averaged over the last five years, i.e., 2011-2015. A careful look at the time-evolution of fire counts also reveals an increasing trend in the total number of fires over the region.

Punjab Skies Were Unusually Smoky 

Chart by Hiren Jethva based on OMI data.

These fires produced huge amounts of fine aerosol particles and trace gases, which can potentially impact the climate and degrade air quality drastically at ground level. NASA’s A-train sensors such as the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite and the MODIS on Aqua offer capabilities to measure the total amounts of airborne particles. The UV Aerosol Index (UV-AI), which is an excellent indicator of the column amounts of light-absorbing particles in clear as well as cloudy atmospheres, showed 2016 was the smokiest season on record since 2004.

 

Greener Fields and Larger Harvests Lead to More Fires

Many studies have shown that satellite measurements of the “greenness” of  crop fields prior to harvest and crop yield after the harvest are strongly correlated. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is derived from satellite measurements of radiation at the red and near-infrared light, is one useful measure of greenness. As seen in the charts above, there seems to be a one-to-one relationship in NDVI measured by the MODIS sensor on Aqua prior to harvest (September) and the total number of fire hot spots observed during harvest season (Oct-Nov). This suggest that the increase in the number of fires is likely related to increasing crop yields.

February Puzzler

February 6th, 2017 by Pola Lem

Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The February 2017 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting.

How to answer. Your answer can be a few words or several paragraphs. (Try to keep it shorter than 200 words). You might simply tell us what part of the world an image shows. Or you can dig deeper and explain what satellite and instrument produced the image, what spectral bands were used to create it, or what is compelling about some obscure speck in the far corner of an image. If you think something is interesting or noteworthy, tell us about it.

The prize. We can’t offer prize money or a trip to Mars, but we can promise you credit and glory. Well, maybe just credit. Roughly one week after a puzzler image appears on this blog, we will post an annotated and captioned version as our Image of the Day. After we post the answer, we will acknowledge the person who was first to correctly ID the image at the bottom of this blog post. We may also recognize certain readers who offer the most interesting tidbits of information about the geological, meteorological, or human processes that have played a role in molding the landscape. Please include your preferred name or alias with your comment. If you work for or attend an institution that you want us to recognize, please mention that as well.

Recent winners. If you’ve won the puzzler in the last few months or work in geospatial imaging, please sit on your hands for at least a day to give others a chance to play.

Releasing Comments. Savvy readers have solved some of our puzzlers after only a few minutes or hours. To give more people a chance to play, we may wait between 24-48 hours before posting the answers we receive in the comment thread.

Good luck!

Editor’s Note: Congratulations to Gareth Renowden for being the first reader to solve the puzzler on the Earth Observatory site, and to Mark Baumgartner for answering first on Facebook. See a labeled version of the February puzzler here.

A Shape-Shifting Volcanic Island

February 2nd, 2017 by Kathryn Hansen

Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Looking at Earth from space every day, we notice that nature takes on some curious shapes. (We have found, for example, features that resemble every letter of the alphabet.) The landform in the image above, which looks a lot like a human ear, is actually Bogoslof Island—a volcano in the Bering Sea that has been erupting in recent weeks. But the island didn’t always have an ear-like shape, and it might not look that way in the future.

Bogoslof has been erupting since mid-December 2016. We wrote about it a few weeks ago when satellite imagery showed a plume of steam and ash ejected from the volcano’s vent. Much of the volcano was (and remains) under water, with only a small part of the volcano’s top rising above the surface. Interaction of the vent with seawater was the reason that the plume contained so much steam. But by the end of January 2017, things had changed. The image above, from the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), shows the island’s new shape after an eruption on January 30-31.

The image was described in more detail by Dave Schneider on the AVO website:

“Freshly erupted volcanic rock and ash have formed a barrier that separates the vent from the sea. This is the first time this has been observed since the eruptive sequence began in mid-December 2016. The vent is below sea level, and erosion of the ash deposits by wave or eruptive processes would allow sea water to flow into the vent again.”

Find more information and images describing Bogoslof and its changing form here.

September 2016 was Warmest on Record by Narrow Margin

October 18th, 2016 by Michael Cabbage & Leslie McCarthy

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

tempanoms_gis_september2016

NASA Earth Observatory chart by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

September 2016’s temperature was a razor-thin 0.004 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest September in 2014. The margin is so narrow those two months are in a statistical tie. Last month was 0.91 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean September temperature from 1951-1980.

The record-warm September means 11 of the past 12 consecutive months dating back to October 2015 have set new monthly high-temperature records. Updates to the input data have meant that June 2016, previously reported to have been the warmest June on record, is, in GISS’s updated analysis, the third warmest June behind 2015 and 1998 after receiving additional temperature readings from Antarctica. The late reports lowered the June 2016 anomaly by 0.05 degrees Celsius to 0.75.

“Monthly rankings are sensitive to updates in the record, and our latest update to mid-winter readings from the South Pole has changed the ranking for June,” said GISS director Gavin Schmidt. “We continue to stress that while monthly rankings are newsworthy, they are not nearly as important as long-term trends.”

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations. The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn’t cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are updated when additional data become available, and the results are subject to change.

Related Links
+ For more information on NASA GISS’s monthly temperature analysis, visit: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp.

+ For more information about how the GISS analysis compares to other global analysis of global temperatures, visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2015/01/21/why-so-many-global-temperature-records/

+ To learn more about climate change and global warming, visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/

Hurricane Roundup: Matthew from Above

October 14th, 2016 by Pola Lem

screenshot-2016-10-14-17-33-32

After Hurricane Matthew ripped through Haiti, it blew through the Southeast. From above, NASA satellites, aircraft, and astronauts kept watch on the storm. The Earth Observatory published several images of the destructive storm (thumbnails above). The below includes a sampling of other notable images and maps related to the storm.

Soil Moisture
Matthew drenched the Carolinas, breaking records for single day rainfall in six places, The Washington Post reported. The Southeast received a total of 13.6 trillion gallons of water—that’s three-fourths the volume of the Chesapeake Bay. Hard-hit areas of North Carolina received 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain.

That downpour saturated the area, causing values for soil moisture to increase substantially. The North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) mapped these values for October 1, 2016.

Even before the storm arrived, the ground in many areas was saturated. Eastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina have localized areas over the 98th percentile. That means that on October 1, the soil was wetter than it was on that date in 98 percent of previous years. The already-wet soils and heavy precipitation from Matthew led to significant flooding in these areas.

carolinas_01oct2016_nldas-sm-perc

Image: NASA

Temperature and Precipitation
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) HAMSR instrument flew above Hurricane Matthew on October 7, 2016, aboard a NASA Global Hawk aircraft. The image below shows atmospheric temperatures overlaid atop ground-based radar and satellite visible images, according to a JPL release. Reds tones show a lack of clouds, whereas blue tones show ice and heavy precipitation. At the top left is an image taken from the Global Hawk.

hamsr_resized

Image: JPL/NASA


Clouds Swirling from Above
Expedition 49 astronaut Kate Rubins took the photograph below from the International Space Station at 21:05 Universal Time, on October 4, 2016, as the hurricane approached the Florida coast. Hurricane clouds fill the shot, which includes the station’s solar arrays.

iss049e028833

Photo: NASA/Kate Rubins

Visualizing the Warmest August in 136 Years

September 12th, 2016 by Leslie McCarthy & Michael Cabbage

August 2016 was the warmest August in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

Although the seasonal temperature cycle typically peaks in July, August 2016 wound up tied with July 2016 for the warmest month ever recorded. August 2016’s temperature was 0.16 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest August (2014). The month also was 0.98 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean August temperature from 1951-1980.

tempanoms_gis_august2016

NASA Earth Observatory chart by Joshua Stevens, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

 

“Monthly rankings, which vary by only a few hundredths of a degree, are inherently fragile,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “We stress that the long-term trends are the most important for understanding the ongoing changes that are affecting our planet.” Those long-term trends are apparent in the plot of temperature anomalies above.

The record warm August continued a streak of 11 consecutive months (dating to October 2015) that have set new monthly temperature records. The analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations. The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn’t cover enough of the planet.

Related Links
+ For more information on NASA GISS’s monthly temperature analysis, visit: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp.

+ For more information about how the GISS analysis compares to other global analysis of global temperatures, visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2015/01/21/why-so-many-global-temperature-records/

+ To learn more about climate change and global warming, visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/

Related Reading in the News
+ Mashable: Earth sets record for hottest August, extending warm streak another month
http://mashable.com/2016/09/12/earth-warmest-august-hottest-summer/#ivXnyy8yusqu

+ XKCD: A Timeline of Earth’s Average Temperature
http://xkcd.com/1732/

+ Climate Central: August Ties July as Hottest Month Ever on Record
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/august-ties-july-as-hottest-month-on-record-20691

6 Ways Earth Observations Tackle Real-World Problems

August 29th, 2016 by Kathryn Hansen, Mike Carlowicz, and Pola Lem

This summer, recent college graduates and early career professionals launched 30 small research projects as part of NASA’s DEVELOP program. The aim is to use NASA satellite observations of Earth to address an environmental or public policy issue. The young researchers have just 10 weeks to do it!

On Aug. 10, 2016, the “DEVELOPers” gathered at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to showcase their results. So, how can Earth observations solve real-world problems? Let’s take a look:

1. They help land managers identify the locations of invasive species.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Austin Haney, DEVELOP project co-lead at University of Georgia, has seen first-hand how an invasive species can affect the ecosystem of Lake Thurmond, a large reservoir that straddles Georgia and South Carolina. Birds in the area “behave visibly different,” he said, after they consume a toxic cyanobacteria that lives on Hydrilla verticillata, an invasive aquatic plant. Ingesting the toxin causes a neurodegenerative disease and ultimately death. Scores of birds have been found dead in areas where large amounts of the toxin-supporting Hydrilla grow. To help lake managers better address the situation, Haney and project members developed a tool that uses data from the Landsat 8 satellite to map the distribution of Hydrilla across the lake.

 

2. They help identify wildlife habitat threatened by wildfires.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Maps that depict habitat and fire risk in eastern Idaho previously stopped short of Craters of the Moon National Monument, where shrubs and grasses transition to a sea of ankle-twisting basalt. But the environment is not as inhospitable as it first appears. Throughout the monument there are more than 500 kipukas — pockets of older lava capable of supporting some vegetation. That means they are also prone to burning. Project lead Courtney Ohr explained how her team used data from the Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellites to simulate the area’s susceptibility to wildfires. Decisionmakers can use this model to monitor the remote wildlife habitat from afar.

 

3. In conjunction with Instagram, they help find seaweed blooms

Image credit: Caribbean Oceans Team

Image credit: Caribbean Oceans Team

Who knew that Instagram could be a tool for science? One DEVELOP team searched for photographs of massive seaweed (sargassum) blooms in the Caribbean, mapped the locations, and then checked what satellites could see. In the process, they tested two techniques for finding algae and floating vegetation in the ocean.

 

4. They help conserve water by reducing urban stormwater runoff.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Atlanta’s sewer system is among the nation’s most expensive, yet the city still struggles with stormwater. It’s an uphill climb as new construction paves over more of the city, removing landscapes that could absorb rain. The University of Georgia DEVELOP team partnered with The Nature Conservancy to address the problem.

Using satellite imagery, the team pinpointed 17 communities ripe for more green infrastructure and reforestation that could capture more of the city’s runoff. The team used two models — Land-Use Conflict Identification Strategy and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool — as well as the Landsat and Terra satellite data. Their analysis provides local groups with a working picture of the city’s water resources.

 

5. They show the spread of the mite eating away Puerto Rico’s palm trees.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The red palm mite has devastated Puerto Rico’s trees in recent years, chewing through coconut palms, bananas, and plantains on the island. The pests have spread and hurt crops across the Caribbean.

A DEVELOP team led by Sara Lubkin analyzed satellite imagery to track the mites’ rapid spread from 2002. The team mapped changes to vegetation (such as yellowing) and differences in canopy structure. They made use of imagery from Landsat, Hyperion, and IKONOS, as well as aerial views. Their work can be used to mitigate current mite infestations and monitor and prevent future ones.

 

6. They evaluate landslide-prone areas in the developing world

Image credit: East Africa Disasters II Team

Image credit: East Africa Disasters II Team

One team of DEVELOPers took on a project to aid people in developing nations. They examined satellite imagery to find past landslides in the African nation of Malawi. Factors such as flooding after long periods of drought have made the country increasingly prone to landslides. Blending maps of the landscape, rainfall data, and population centers, the young researchers assessed the areas most at risk—and most in need of education and support—from landslides.

Want to read more about DEVELOP projects? Want to get involved? Summaries, images, and maps of current and past projects can be viewed HERE. You can also learn how to apply for the DEVELOP program HERE.

lkvictoria_ali_2014137

1) In most of the world, water hyacinth (Eichhonria crassipes) — a fast-growing, aquatic plant — is loathed for its ability to reproduce so quickly that it can blanket large portions of lakes and ponds with a thick mat of vegetation.

2) In a lake with strongly entrenched water hyacinth, plants interlock into such dense masses that they are sturdy enough to hold people walking on them. On Inle Lake in Burma, people turn mats of water hyacinth into floating islands and grow vegetables and flowers on them.

3) Lakes that are overrun by water hyacinths undergo dramatic transformations. Submerged native plants became shaded and often die. The resulting decay processes depletes dissolved oxygen in the water and leads to fish kills. Boat travel can become impossible with severe infestations.

4) Water hyacinth is native to South America, the only continent where natural predators such as weevils and moths keep it at bay.

5) Cutting a water hyacinth plant into pieces will not kill it. The plants can reproduce using a process called fragmentation. Each plant also produces thousands of seeds each year.

6) The invasive plant is currently considered an invasive weed in more than 50 countries (including Central and North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa). Climate change may allow them to spread even farther.

7) Scientists use satellites to monitor lakes infested with water hyacinth. A NASA DEVELOP group recently devised an automated technique for monitoring water hyacinth in Lake Victoria’s Winam Gulf, an area that has struggled with water hyacinth infestation for decades. The researchers used satellite data collected by the OLI, MODIS, and MSI sensors. Winam Gulf communities have struggled with water hyacinth infestation for more than a decade. Learn more about the project in the video below.

Editor’s Note: DEVELOP, part of NASA’s Applied Sciences Program, addresses environmental and public policy issues through interdisciplinary research projects. To highlight the program’s work, the Earth Matters blog occasionally highlights some of the most interesting topics that DEVELOP teams are pursuing.