David Kline , PhD ’ 05 of Scripps Institution of Oceanography has teamed with the Big Pixel Initiative to determine the extent of coral bleaching — the loss of photosynthetic algae that produces colorful and healthy reefs . Higher water temperatures , whether due to climate change , a record-breaking El Niño or other factors , can cause corals to lose algae and die , leaving large swathes of white remains . Kline ’ s goal is to determine if bleaching episodes can be quantified by remote sensing , creating a “ bleaching detection tool ” to estimate the phenomenon ’ s extent and severity .
Land degradation , groundwater resources , cityscapes — Jennifer Burney of the School of Global Policy and Strategy has her hands in three research projects incorporating highresolution satellite imagery . The first examines the structure of cities to understand the actual economies that emerge as regions grow . She ’ s also assessing semi-arid ecosystems to develop density maps linked to farm management data . Launching the third project in sub-Saharan Africa , she uses satellites in lieu of on-the-ground data to identify sites with a higher likelihood for successful water wells .
UC San Diego students have also used Big Pixel resources to yield insights on equally diverse projects across disciplines :
Di Dai ’ 16 , a Big Pixel Initiative research assistant , studied how classifying images as “ built up ” or “ not built up ” helps track urbanization in India .
Graduate student Karl Rubio ’ 16 analyzed the impact of climate change on fire risk in California .
William Honaker ’ 16 evaluated foreign investment in North Korea for his master ’ s degree .
Anthropology graduate student Brady Liss ’ 15 used Big Pixel technology to identify archaeological research sites in the Faynan region of southern Jordan .
CLEAR VISION Where previous satellite imagery databases provided a resolution of up to 30 meters , the Big Pixel Initiative has access to imagery at a resolution of 30 centimeters — over 100 times clearer . ( L-R ) Researchers Jessica Block , Ran Goldblatt and research assistant Karla
Yee-Amezaga view the display .
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