Worst Locust Swarms in 70 yrs Cause Crop Devastation in Kenya
Satellite imagery details a path of destruction
Above-average rainfall in the horn of Africa in 2019, one of the wettest years on record, has combined with an abundance of vegetation growth to cause the worst locust infestation in 70 years. In the last two months, over 200 billion locusts have started their journey from Somalia, south Ethiopia and are now in northeastern Kenya. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that the situation is deteriorating and urgent outside help is required in parts of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Without aid, it is expected that the locust swarms will continue their on-mass transit across Kenya until at least June when conditions in the region become drier. The following are a set of processed maps taken from data from NASA’s MODIS satellite via www.Soar.Earth, showing vegetation conditions from early December 2019 until February 2020. The southwestern transit of swarm from the southern Ethiopian / central Somalian border region down into northeastern Kenya is clearly evident by the decrease in green vegetation values captured by the MODIS satellite.
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The world's maps and satellite/aerial images have a big problem. 80% of this content is found only through direct channels, often via enterprise or government level services. Meaning that currently not only is getting the right map data difficult but in most cases time consuming, inaccurate and expensive. There are Petabytes of data out there that only a small fraction of people get to see and use. Imagine if we could unleash this to the masses and truly democratise its outputs? With Soar, we are creating the world's first civilian mapping platform that is capable of map data viewing, analysis, and sharing. Our goal is to build a unified platform where users can access everything from near real-time satellite imagery, historical aerial imagery, archival to pographic or geological maps (and more!), all in one place. We are building the world’s biggest index of maps and imagery and you can contribute. Please visit us at soar.earth to learn
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