Far out environmental monitoring

Excerpt

The waters of the Mississippi River, rife with fertilizers, sediment and other runoff, flow through the heartland of the United States and empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The influx of these nutrified waters stimulate algae blooms that suck oxygen from the biologically diverse waters of the Gulf, leaving a massive, uninhabitable “dead zone” in its wake. Floating a little more than 700 kilometers above, the SeaStar satellite tracks the river plume—sometimes as far as the Florida Keys—and the algae blooms it creates.

The SeaStar is one of several satellites known as the Earth Observing System that are currently collecting data on environmental health of Earth's great water bodies. This research encompasses everything from water clarity and the status of coral reefs to the spread of invasive species and harmful algac outbreaks in oceans, large lakes, and large rivers around the globe.

These are among the biggest issues we will face in the coming decades. The amount of usable fieshwater is dwindlmg at an alarming rate, and the spread of invasive species are widely considered the second biggest threat to the survival of endangered organisms.

The SeaStar itselfwas launched into outer space …