Case Studies

Approximately fifty miles east of the Central American coast lies Lighthouse Reef. Part of the Mesoamerican Reef System, it provides an extremely unique environment, one that enables assessment of the global influence of climate change and other factors on reefs and terrestrial ecology. Lighthouse Reef is without the influence of local or point-source pollution, which other parts of the Mesoamerican reef system are exposed to.

A group of engineers is working through Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in Denver, Colorado to bring clean drinking water to a village in Southeastern Madagascar. The village of Ambalona (pronounced Am-ball-na) is made up of approximately 1,600 people that currently bathe, wash their clothes and collect their drinking water all from the Sakave River.

Last spring adventurer J. Armand Musey along with an eight-person climbing team reached the 29,028-foot summit of Mount Everest after a six-week-long ascent over some of the most challenging terrain in the world. Musey, a widely-respected securities analyst in the telecommunications and satellite industries, took time off from his career to complete his life-long goal of climbing the "Seven Summits" or the highest peak on each of the seven continents.

Musey’s second goal for climbing Mt. Everest was to raise funds for the American Red Cross’ International Relief Fund (IRF). He paid the entire cost of the Mt. Everest expedition out of his own funds and then secured sponsors and supporters from his satellite industry contacts, including GeoEye, the premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information. The GeoEye Foundation donated to the IRF since satellite imagery is often used for disaster response and recovery.

Musey spoke to all GeoEye employees at the company’s headquarters in Dulles, VA on January 13, 2009 and thanked the Foundation for their contribution. All money was donated directly to the American Red Cross' International Relief Fund. To read more about Musey’s adventures, visit his blog at http://www.museyeverest.com

During August and September, 2008, a series of four tropical storms and hurricanes (Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike) caused a severe and protracted humanitarian disaster in Haiti, affecting more than 800,000 people. Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav passed through the Caribbean in late August, 2008, both causing heavy rains over Haiti. With the ground saturated, rain bands from Hurricane Hanna then swirled over northern Haiti for four days, causing extensive flooding and mudslides. Badly hit was the northern city of Gonaives, which was flooded to a depth of about two metres with water and thick mud.

Inspections conducted on images of the Martian surface have led to the identification of lobe-shaped features which bear a striking resemblance to glaciers found on Earth. Some researchers have interpreted these lobes as potential rock glaciers; glaciers which, on Earth, are composed of particulate matter held in an ice matrix. Others have merely labeled them as viscous flow features. This is on account of their tongue-like shape which is highly indicative of mass movement under a viscous regime. Unfortunately, no direct evidence has previously been found to actually demonstrate flow within these landforms.

U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Christian Perry is utilizing high resolution IKONOS satellite imagery to develop an interactive computer program called SIAFOR, (the Spanish acronym for Sistema de Información de Aprovechamientos Forestales de Puebla), to allow forest managers to navigate a collection of digital maps to access valuable information about current private timber harvests within the Mexican state of Puebla.

A project to assess the potential of high-resolution satellite imagery (HRSI) for 3D spatial data generation in Bhutan is being undertaken by researchers from the University of Melbourne and ETH-Zurich in cooperation with the National Land Commission of Bhutan. The aim of this initiative is to evaluate, in a practical way, HRSI as a data source for mapping, and to assist by way of technology transfer in the form of training and sample IKONOS data to enable an upskilling of National Land Commission personnel. Through the generosity of GeoEye, stereo IKONOS imagery has been made available to the project.

When developing parks, what one seeks above all is the maintenance of ecosystems. This goal constitutes a challenge when designing plans for large urban parks. The urban park of Ouagadougou, which this survey focuses on, is a protected space characterized by the value of the different natural zones that compose it, and a strong pressure take advantage of its proximity to the metropolitan area of the city of Ouagadougou and develop some recreational and residential uses for it as well.

The ancient desert plant species Welwitchia Mirabilis is one of the oldest plants in existence; some plants reach nearly 2,000 years old. Considered a living fossil, the plant is difficult to map due to the fragile ecosystem in which it lives, as well as the fact that a large part of its indigenous area is inaccessible as a result of diamond mining. In order to combat these circumstances, graduate student Roman Kellenberger used IKONOS® imagery to detect and map the plant in Africa’s Namib desert.

Researchers William Harrison and Roman Motyka, in conjunction with the Geophysical Institute of Alaska, used satellite imagery to monitor Variegated Glacier in the St. Elias Mountains of Alaska. Variegated Glacier has an impressive history of seven surges during the 20th Century, with the latest surge terminating in 2004. The Geophysical Institute used the imagery to evaluate the evolution of surges as well as their causes and timing. Specifically, the imagery was used to compare and contrast snow, cloud cover, and crevassing in order to shed light on factors that may be affecting the glacier and causing this environmental event.

Remote sensing, coupled with data-processing procedures, has been found effective in detecting and decrypting data concerning natural resources that offer an added, health-related benefit. This is the case for the Canadian yew tree (Taxus Canadensis). The Yew tree is the main source of Paclitaxal, a chemical substance that, when processed, can be used to treat cancer. The lens behind the project is GeoEye’s IKONOS® satellite. An otherwise nearly impossible task, IKONOS remote-sensing procedures provide high-resolution results that help directly localize the tree, and reveal its density and potential future conditions.

University of Texas professor Hongjie Xie and doctoral student Burcu Cicek are in the process of using IKONOS® imagery to monitor the changing ice sheets in Antarctica. Hongjie and Cicek are specifically using the imagery to create a channel through the ice sheets of McMurdo Sound to grant supply ships easier access. The creation and maintenance of this channel will be based off the satellite imagery and mapping of the ice where the channel will exist. Additionally, the researchers will be using IKONOS imagery to monitor melt ponds in the Antarctic and to create a three-dimensional (3D) high-resolution view of the region.

Eric Green and partner AVSI-Gulu have been using imagery awarded by the GeoEye Foundation to create a representative sampling of Ugandan people displaced by the 20-year conflict between the Government of Uganda and Lord’s Resistance Army. The purpose of Green’s research is to map the transition process as the displaced citizens begin to filter back into Northern Uganda and to monitor the societal implications of the displacement and relocation.

Rattlesnake researcher Bryon Shipley and the Plains Conservation Center used GeoEye satellite imagery along with radio transmitters to track rattlesnakes in Colorado. The imagery was used in conjunction with radio transmitters in order to determine the effects of prairie dogs on local reptile and amphibian populations. Surgically implanted radio transmitters tracked the movement of several male and female rattlesnakes over the course of two years, comparing the movement with prairie dog activities and rattlesnake utilization of rodent burrows.