Group for Earth Observation

No 62 - June 2019

A feature of this Meteor M2 image acquired on May 29, 2019 is a ring of cloud over the North
Sea stretching from the south of Denmark, crossing the Dutch provinces of Groningen andFriesland, then looping round the North Sea before finally turning east, almost back to Jutland.

Useful User Groups

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
Director and Public Relations

Weather Satellite Reports

Francis Bell,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB,

This group provided weekly reports, updates and news
on the operational aspects of weather satellites.
https://groups.io/g/weather-satellite-reports

England.

SatSignal

Tel:

This end-user self help group is for users of David
Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools, including the orbit
predictor WXtrack, the file decoders GeoSatSignal and
SatSignal, the HRPT Reader program, the remapper
GroundMap, and the manager programs - MSG DataManager, GOES-ABI Manager, AVHRR Manager etc.
https://groups.io/g/SatSignal

Coturnix House, Rake Lane,

01483 416 897

email: francis@geo-web.org.uk

General Information
John Tellick,email: information@geo-web.org.uk

MSG-1

GEO Newsletter Editor

This forum provides a dedicated area for sharing
information about hardware and software for receiving
and processing EUMETCast data.
https://groups.io/g/MSG-1

Les Hamilton,
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

Technical Consultant (Hardware)

GEO-Subscribers

David Simmons

This is the official group is for subscribers of the Groupfor Earth Observation (GEO), aimed at enthusiasts
wishing to exchange information relating to either GEO
or Earth Observation satellites.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/
GEO-Subscribers/info

email: tech@geo-web.org.uk

Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk

Management TeamDavid Anderson
Rob Denton
Nigel Evans
Clive Finnis
Carol FinnisPeter GreenDavid SimmonsDavid Taylor

Meteor M 2-2 launch on July 5
Following postponements, the launch of Russia’s
Meteor-M2-2 weather satellite is scheduled for July 5.
As with the ill-fated Meteor M 2-1, it will blast off aboard
a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with Fregat upper stage, fromthe Vostochny space center.
The upper stage of the Fregat launcher, which will carry
Meteor M 2-2 into orbit, arriving at the Vostochny Space
Centre for testing prior to the July 5 launch.
Image: Roscosmos

2

Let’s hope lessons have been learned from the failure of
the previous launch.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Les HamiltonARs this edition of the GEO Newsletter reaches you, expectations arehigh that we will soon have a new Earth orbiting weather satellite tomonitor.

oscosmos, Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities, iscurrently testing and assembling the satellite and its launcher attheir far eastern Vostochny Space centre, located on the 51st parallel northin the Amur Oblast.

Regular readers will recall that Meteor M2-1, the intended successor
to the current Meteor 2M—which continues to operate wellalmost ﬁve years following its successful launch in July 2014—wasdestroyed following a bungled launch operation in November 2017
(GEOQ No 57, page 8). If all goes well, this new satellite Meteor M2-2 will be
lifted into orbit on July 5 this year.
n almost all respects, the new satellite isatwin of the current Meteor M2, and offers
identical LRPT image transmissions for theamateur community to capture and enjoy—with one crucial exception.
he modulation used by Meteor M2
in its LRPT transmissions is QPSK
(quadrature phase-shift keying). The new
Meteor will, however, use OQPSK (Offset
QPSK) in its transmissions), and you will
have to adjust your software accordingly.

ITT

hose of you using the Meteor plugin for
SDR Sharp must change the modulation
type to OQPSK, as illustrated in thisdiagram. Otherwise, you will be unable todecode the satellite’s LRPT data stream into imagery.

A

lthough there have been no reader contributions for articles in thisissue, please remember that these are always welcome, by email, to theeditor atgeoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

Contents
GEO Report
Quarterly Question
A New QFH Antenna Design
Savage South Georgia
GEO OutreachQueensland Floods
A Break in the Clouds for Europe
Ash and Snow at Shiveluch
Lithium Harvesting at Salar de Uyuni
Dazzling Spring Aurora over Hudson Bay
Stellite Status

Francis Bell
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
European Space Agency
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory

www.geo-web.org.uk

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Francis Bell
Dundee Satellite Receiving Station
Because I have a background of amateur radio interests,
and a dedication to live signal reception, I have tended
to focus my home satellite activities towards direct signal
reception with appropriate dishes plus other antenna anddedicated receivers. However, I increasingly recognise thatobtaining the same data and images can be achieved via
Internet sites.
Occasionally in the past I have downloaded satellite
images from Dundee University’s Satellite Receiving
Station, recognising the quality of their work and its
availability to the public. Perhaps, being a little innocent,I never considered how the University financed this Earthobservation program until recently, when I received,
together with others, emails from the University indicating
the financial uncertainty of continuing with their project.
This news triggered a reaction from me.
My first email from Dundee indicated their need togenerate finances to continue their project and it gave
broad outlines of their future programme (details below).
Also included in the email was a request for financial
support to help them achieve a target of £65,000 of which
an encouraging £7,200 had already been achieved as I
compiled this report.

Dundee is £5,000 and at the time of writing arrangements
are being made to pay this money into an appropriate
Dundee account: Scottish Charity Number SC015096.

Personally, I was supportive of Dundee’s initiative, and in
the background recognised that GEO has reserve funds inthe bank which could contribute to the Dundee project.

I offer my congratulations to GEO for agreeing to thisdonation and my best wishes go to Dundee for theirsatellite, Earth observation and climate projects.

Most of the money that GEO has in the bank has been
generated by the profits made over the years by the
GEO ‘Shop’. Our other income from annual membershipsubscriptions has almost exactly covered the cost of
running the group with the major costs being the printing
and distribution of our Quarterly publication.

Below are some notes from Dundee University explaining
their programme.

I though it would be to everyone’s benefit if GEO madea substantial donation to the Dundee fund, enablingthem to continue with their Earth observation and climate
programme.
I contacted the three past managers of our GEO Shopand they agreed with my idea of making a substantial
donation to the Dundee project—with the qualification thatthe money would go towards the satellite project rather thatjust disappearing into the University’s general funds.
From our previous GEO Newsletter you can see our
accounts which show that our ‘Shop’ account has abalance of about £14,000. The amount of our donation to4

Winter 2010-11 in the UK
Image: Dundee Satellite Receiving Station

From its inception in the late 1960s until 1978, theUniversity students and faculty funded the station. From1978 to date, the DSRS has received public funding toprovide this invaluable service. However, on 1st April
2019, this funding was stopped and there is no plan foran equivalent service. We are now seeking alternative
financial backing to not only continue the operations, but
to launch the next weather-climate ‘mission’. We see thisas an opportunity to “reboot” the Station and engage yet
more with the public, while we continue to work with, andsupport, the efforts of climate change scientists in the UK
and worldwide. We are now seeking funding to:
1 Continue collection operations using the experienced
staff to extend the 40+ year unbroken record ofenvironmental data.
2 Upgrade existing infrastructure and extend capability
to acquire data from new and more sophisticatedsatellites, thus launching the DSRS onto its next

Visit: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/
or http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/future.php
www.geo-web.org.uk

www.geo-web.org.uk

Dundee Satellite Receiving Station’s crowdfunding web page (imaged prior to the GEO donation)

mission, “The Mission to Planet Earth II”, honouring
the original NASA mission of the late 1990s.
3 Improve the website and enhance public ease ofaccess and use, strengthen the our international
educational and outreach focus, and become mobilefriendly with equivalent facilities available “on themove” to make our data even more accessible.
4 Guarantee the existence of a civilian facility that hasa philosophy of free information, if at all possible, foreveryone around the world when it comes to weather.
5 All funds raised will be specifically for the DSRS
operating fund and used to pay for the objectives
listed above.
6 Any funds raised will be withdrawn and presented toa specific DSRS account maintained by the Univ. of
Dundee, Scotland, a Scottish Registered Charity, No.
SC015096.

option. I believe some of the EUMETSAT staff were also
disappointed with our cancellation. However, subsequent
feedback from some of our members has revealed thatmany more were planning to join the Darmstadt visit
but had not registered in time. I particularly express mydisappointment to those members who did actually registerfor our visit and I hope the cancellation has not excessively
disrupted their plans for this summer.
With appropriate support, perhaps it will be possible tohave the visit to EUMETSAT, ESOC and Usingen next
year. Perhaps with improved internal communications
within GEO we will be able to keep in touch with eachother more easily hence avoiding the recent cancellation.
I know we have the YAHOO GEO-Subscribers group but
something more personal may sometimes be appropriate.

You can learn more about Dunde Satellite Receiving
Station by visiting the following links:
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/future.php
Crowdfunding Initiative
New fund raising efforts are under way, including a
crowd-funding opportunity through which donations
towards Dundee Satellite Receiving Station are very
welcome. For more information please visit

https://www.gofundme.com/
dundee-satellite-receiving-station
GEO Visit to Darmstadt
I was very disappointed having to cancel our proposed
visit to Darmstadt this summer but with only eight people
having registered I thought this was the only realistic

Visit: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/
or http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/future.php
www.geo-web.org.uk

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

Francis BellMy thanks to those readers who emailed me with the answer to the last Quarterly Question which related toa satellite image of a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. I think the question was straightforward because
several towns were mentioned in the accompanying text, so although the islands did not have particularly
special outlines, the towns should have led to the identification of the island group which was: The Azores.

Figure 1 - A remote Pacific island© : Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019),
processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Quarterly Question 62
This Quarterly Question relates to the island image shownin figure 1. The previous Quarterly Question also related to
an island group and seemed to generate readers’ interest,
so it seemed appropriate to have a further island question
this issue.
The Descriptive Text below, which I have edited a little,
accompanied the image which I downloaded from ESA,and should help to identify the island in question. The
reference to a volcano—which is named—should also help
to identify the island: the scale can be judged from thelong runway of the airport which can be seen enlarged infigure 2 overleaf.
The question is straightforward: name the island shown inthe satellite image and quote its latitude/longitude to thenearest whole degree. Also, state which country currently

6claims sovereignty over this island. Answers by email toFrancis Bell at this address:
francis@francisbell.com
by August 25, 2019.
Also mention if you have ever visited this island. I believe I
know of one GEO member who has been there!
Descriptive Text
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image was taken over one of
the most remote islands in the world. The island is locatedin the Pacific Ocean, over 3500 kilometres from any
mainland. The island was given its current name by theEuropeans who arrived there in the 1700s.
The island is famous for its monolithic stone statues,
called Moai, said to honour the memory of the original
inhabitants’ ancestors. There are nearly 1000 scatteredwww.geo-web.org.uk

around the island, usually positioned near fresh water.
Many are located near the Rano Raraku volcano, on thesoutheast coast. The white edges along the southern coast
show the harsh waves colliding with the shore.
An interesting feature of the image is the ochre-orange
colour of the Poike—the peninsula on the eastern end of
the island. In ancient times, it is said that there was a lotof vegetation on the island. However, land clearing for
cultivation and rats played a role in deforestation, leading
to the erosion of the soil, particularly in the east.
Several reforestation projects have been attempted,
including a eucalyptus plantation in the middle of theisland, visible in dark green. The brown patch to the rightof the plantation is likely to be a burn scar from a wildfire.
The majority of the island’s inhabitants live in the main
town with its harbour on the west coast, clearly visible in
the image. Interestingly, the long runway of the island’s
only airport, located on the south west of the island with
an approach over the sea, was once designated as an
emergency landing site for the US Space Shuttle.
At the very edge of the southwest tip of the island lies
Ranu Kao, the largest volcano on the island. Its shape isdistinctive owing to its crater lake, one of the island’s only
three natural bodies of water.

Figure 2 - A close-up image of the airport© : Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019),
processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Many tourists are drawn to the island for its mysterious
history and isolated position. What is relatively unknown isthe existence of two small beaches on the northeast coast.
Anakena beach has white, coral sand, while the smaller
Ovahe beach, surrounded by cliffs, has pink sand.

A New QFH Antenna Design
Joachim Scharrer was in touch recently to say that he had just constructed a new QFH-Antenna following a design by
a Norwegian, Børre Ludvigsen. The design is an adaptation of the 135 MHz QFH described in ‘Taming the QFH’ by Bill
Sykes and Bob Cobey’ in the March 1997 RIG Journal. Børre’s detailed construction guide can be visited at
http://abdallah.hiof.no/QFH/
The illustrations show Joachim’s new QFH antenna, and part of the first Meteor M2 image he received using it on
March 31 this year.

www.geo-web.org.uk

7

Savage South Georgia
NASA Earth Observatory

More than two centuries ago, Captain James Cook
sailed around the Antarctic circle searching for
the Southern Continent. Instead, he landed on an
isolated island about 1,300 kilometres southeastof the Falkland Islands in the Southern Ocean. He
became the first recorded explorer on the remoteisland, which he claimed for Great Britain andnamed the ‘Isle of Georgia’ for King George III.
But the island was ‘savage’, according to Cook. As he
described in a manuscript,‘Pieces were continually breaking off, and floatingout to sea; and a great fall happened while
we were in the bay, which made a noise like acannon. The inner parts of the country were notless savage and horrible.’
Cook began mapping the coastline, but did notbring the ship into the island due to the dangerous
conditions.
South Georgia is still known for its rugged terrain
and inhospitable environment. The island has elevenpeaks rising more than 2,000 metres above sea level.
The mountains shield the north and east coasts
from prevailing winds blowing from the Southern
Ocean and Antarctica. The island also supports 161
glaciers, several of which are in retreat.
All of the images on this page were acquired by the
Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on
December 25, 2018. Figure 1 shows a clear view ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Figure 2 - South Georgia Island

South Georgia provides a unique ecosystem
for wildlife: its waters are highly productive,
supporting large populations of krill, which feed on
phytoplankton and provide food for many marine
predators. The steep terrain above and below
the water line includes deep bays that shelter
substantial populations of penguins, seals, and theglobally threatened wandering albatross. Scientists
have collected more than 30 years of population
data on seabirds and marine mammals at South
Georgia—one of the longest and most detailed
scientific datasets in the Southern Ocean.
Figure 3 shows the southern tip of the island (detailbox on figure 1). The discoloured water near the
shore is possibly due to phytoplankton blooms or
sediments from the island mixing into the sea. The
southernmost point has the quirky name ‘Cape
Disappointment’, a label given by Cook when herealised he had not reached a southern continent.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat datafrom the U.S. Geological Survey, and topographic data from the Shuttle
Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Story by Kasha Patel.

Figure 1 - South Georgia Island

Figure 2 gives a sense of the topography byoverlaying the Landsat data over a digital elevation
model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM). The Novosilski and Brøgger Glacier areapproximately 13 km and 11 km long, respectively.

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Figure 3 - Detail from the southern tip of South Georgia Island

www.geo-web.org.uk

Francis Bell G7CND

The GEO stand preparing to receive visitors. On the left is David Simmons G1MAL tuning in his SDR dongle and on the right Robert Coombes G4ZEJ
connecting the coax cable from his dish positioned in the car park to the radio receiver and computer on the stand.

GEO recently attended its first rally of the year. This rally
was organised by the South London Amateur Radio andComputer Group with the venue being Kempton Park West
London.

Literature explaining weather satellite reception wasavailable on the stand together with some of our remaining
past copies of the GEO Quarterly. As usual, our literature
was well received by those visiting our stand.

We have attended this rally for many years and always
found it worthwhile because of the opportunity it provides
to keep in touch with local GEO members and to meetinterested members of the general public with ourdemonstrations of weather satellite reception which can beachieved at home or in interested schools.

Further planned events for this year include the ‘Spacelink’
school conference at Farncombe, Surrey and the amateur
radio rally at Newbury on 23rd June 2019.

Our stand, see thephotographs, had four
computers demonstrating
libraries of pre-recorded
images as well as live
reception of radio signals in
the aircraft band using thesame SDR dongle which isused for 137 MHz receptionof polar orbiting satellites. A
bonus at this rally was thelive reception of EUMETCast
images. Robert Coombes hadbrought his tripod mounted
Robert Coombs’ s 85 cm. dish85 cm dish and placed it inphotographed in his garden but
the car park just outside theused at the Kempton rally for live
exhibition area with a coax
reception of EUMETCast images.
Correct focus and direction arecable running directly to ouressential but the modest size
stand. The resulting displayed
and portability of the dish should
live images suitably impressed encourage anyone considering
their own home reception ofvisitors to our stand.
EUMETCast.

If any member has a local event where they think it may
be appropriate to have a GEO stand, then please get intouch with me for possible help.

This photograph shows some visitors to our stand examining literatureand enjoying watching live EUMETCast images.

www.geo-web.org.uk

9Queensland Floods
European Space Agency

The Burdekin River pouring sediment into the Coral Sea following torrential rains.
Copyright contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over
Queensland, Australia’s northeast state, where a large
amount of sediment is visible gushing into the Coral Sea,
close to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. In early 2019,many areas in Queensland received more than theirannual rainfall in less than a week. The downpour led
to millions of dollars’ worth of damage, including homes
being destroyed and the loss of almost 500 000 cattle.

and 900 coral islands, divided by narrow passages.
An important area of biodiversity, the reef became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

This image was captured a few days after the torrential
rain, and shows the muddy waters flowing from the
Burdekin River into the Coral Sea. The Burdekin Riverrises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain andflows close to 900 kilometres before emptying into theCoral Sea. Burdekin River is one of Australia’s larger
rivers by discharge volume, and is a major contributorof sediment and freshwater to the Great Barrier Reeflagoon.

The reef suffers regular damage, more than half of it
having disappeared over the past 30 years owing toclimate change, coral bleaching and pollution. Large
quantities of sediment that flow out from rivers carry
chemicals and fertilisers from inland farms. The sedimentblankets the coral, and reduces the amount of light, as
well as potentially causing harmful algal blooms.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef,
extends for 2000 kilometres along the northeast coast ofAustralia and covers almost 350 000 square kilometres.
The reef is an interlinked system of about 3000 reefs

10

The sand-coloured sediment plume can be seen
stretching over 35 km from the coast, dangerously close
to the vivid turquoise reef. The blues of the coral contrast
with the dark-coloured waters of the Coral Sea.

Data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 plays a key role inproviding information on pollution in lakes and coastal
waters. Frequent coverage is also fundamental tomonitoring floods. Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite
mission, each satellite carrying a high-resolution camerathat images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands.

www.geo-web.org.uk

A Break in the Clouds for Europe
NASA Earth Observatory
If you look at global maps of cloudiness or sun
duration, you will notice that Europe stands out
as being one of the cloudiest continents. Asidefrom relatively sunny Spain and Portugal, clouds
regularly darken skies across the rest of thecontinent, particularly in the winter when the jetstream often steers storm systems directly toward
western Europe.
So the bout of unusually clear days and nights
in late February 2019 most likely came asa welcome change in atmospheric scenery.
With a strong high pressure system hanging
over Europe, skies were remarkably clear
between February 23 - 27, a period whentemperatures soared. Weather stations in
England, Scotland, the Netherlands, andSweden have all measured record-breaking
temperatures for this time of year.
The daytime and nighttime satellite images
opposite highlight the many contrasting
features of the land surface, featuresthat are often obscured by clouds. In
the daytime image (figure 1), acquiredby the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Terra satellite, some of the mostprominent patterns relate to farming.
Areas with high concentrations of croplands andfew forests, most notably in France and Spain,
have a light brown colour for winter; more densely
forested areas appear darker green.

Figure 1 - Daytime image

The warmth and moisture of the oceanic climateof the United Kingdom, northern France,
Belgium, and the Netherlands means vegetationin those countries maintains a healthy green
colour throughout the winter. In the colder,
drier continental climate of central and eastern
Europe, vegetation—aside from evergreen
forests—withers and browns during winter.
Aside from the snow-covered heights of
the Alps and Pyrenees mountains, thewarm weather this winter kept most of thecontinent free of snow.
By revealing the locations of cities, thenighttime image (figure 2) underscores
the human footprint on the landscape.
Madrid, London, Paris, and Berlin—
all capital cities—also stand out as
the brightest ones in their respective
countries. Note that thin cloud cover has
diffused some of the light from cities incentral Europe, making several appear

Figure 2 - Night image

www.geo-web.org.uk

11

abnormally bright. The image was
acquired by the Visible Infrared
Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
on the Suomi NPP satellite.
As shown in the cloud probability
map (right), it is usually quite
cloudy in western and central
Europe during late February. The
map shows average cloudinesssince 1999 as observed by MODIS
for seven days before and after
February 27 each year since 1999.
CreditNASA Earth Observatory images
by Joshua Stevens, using datafrom the Level 1 and Atmospheres
Active Distribution System (LAADS),
the Land Atmosphere Near realtime Capability for EOS (LANCE),
NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/
Worldview, and VIIRS day-night
band data from the Suomi National
Polar-orbiting Partnership.
Story by Adam Voiland.

Figure 3 - Cumulative cloudiness map, 1999-2019

André T’Kindt J010TR submitted this NOAA 19 APT image acquired at 17:24 UT on May 21, 2019. It was captured
using a turnstile antenna and preamp and processed in WXtoImg using its HVCT with precipitation mode.

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www.geo-web.org.uk

Ash and Snow at Shiveluch
NASA Earth Observatory

For about 30 minutes on April 10,
2019, the ever-restless Shiveluch
volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula
lofted a plume of volcanic gas andash some 8 kilometres into the chilly
Siberian air. For about thirteen hours
the plume drifted south - enoughtime for scientists using satellites like
Japan’s Himawari 8 and the European
Space Agency’s Sentinels‑2 and ‑3 toget a good look at it.
Though the airborne plume was shortlived, the eruption left an unmistakablesignature on the snow below. The day
after the eruption, several satellites
captured natural-colour imagesof a trail of ash extending southfor 220 kilometres. The Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satelliteacquired figure 1 on April 19, 2019,ten days after the eruption.
In the winter months, ash-coloured
snow is a common sight on the
Kamchatka Peninsula, one of the most
volcanically active parcels of land in
the world with 29 active volcanoes. As
recently as March 2019, ash tracks
from the simultaneous eruptions of
two volcanoes attracted some media
attention. In that case, fresh snow
covered up the ash within a few days.
On April 19, 2019, the Operational
Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8
acquired a detailed view of the
volcano (figure 2). What appears to
be a small plume of steam and othervolcanic gases is rising from thesummit.
The volcanoes of Kamchatka aredefined by their inaccessibility. Fewerthan 350,000 people live on thepeninsula, mostly in PetropavlovskKamchatsky. There are few roads,
and helicopters are the only way to
get around in many areas. As a result,the logistical challenges associatedwith installing and maintaining groundbased sensors make satellites anecessity for monitoring Kamchatka’s
volcanoes.
Story by Adam Voiland, with fact checking by
Janine Krippner (Smithsonian Institution Global
Volcanism Program).

Figure 1 - Shiveluch smoke plume captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS datafrom NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

Figure 2 - Shiveluch steam plume captured by Landsat‑8 on April 19, 2019NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the USGS

www.geo-web.org.uk

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Lithium Harvesting at Salar de Uyuni
NASA Earth Observatory

Forty thousand years ago, a large lake spread acrosssouthwestern Bolivia. When it eventually dried up, thesalt-encrusted landscape of Salar de Uyuni remained.
Covering more than 10,000 square kilometres, it is thelargest salt pan in the world.
The spectacularly flat surface and mirror-like qualities
during the wet season have turned Salar de Uyuni into a
big draw for tourists and, periodically, racing enthusiasts.
Meanwhile, geologists think the mineral-rich, blue-green
brine beneath the salt crust contains the world’s secondlargest deposit of lithium, a valuable metal used to makerechargeable batteries. The US Geological Survey
estimates that Bolivia holds about 15% of the world’s
reserves of lithium.

Figure 1 - This Landsat‑8 image shows the location of the lithium extraction
operations near the south of Salar de Uyuni

And yet just a small fraction of it gets mined and used.
Unlike neighbouring Chile and Argentina, Bolivia is notamong the world’s top lithium producers. Yet with global
demand for lithium rising, Bolivian leaders are trying
hard to change this. The government began investingin a lithium mining operation at Salar de Uyuni about adecade ago.
Landsat satellites began to detect evidence of buildings
and evaporation ponds in the southern end of the salt
flat in 2011. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on
Landsat 8 acquired figure 2 on April 12, 2013. Now,
nearly six years later, the size of the facility has grownsignificantly, as illustrated in figure 3, acquired earlier thisyear.
Wells tap into lithium-rich brine beneath the surface andpump it into rectangular evaporation pools fitted withplastic liners, where sunshine and wind separate out
lithium, salt, and other substances through evaporation.
Brine usually remains in the pools for about six months.
The lithium bearing minerals are eventually transported
for processing at a facility in nearby Rio Grande.

Figure 2 - This Landsat‑8 image was acquired on April 12, 2013

There are some big challenges associated withharvesting Salar de Uyuni’s lithium. Relatively rainy
and cool weather means it takes longer for brine toevaporate there than at other lithium mining operationsin the region. Also, Uyuni’s brine has unusually highconcentrations of magnesium and potassium that haveto be removed, making the process more expensive.
In addition to tourists and lithium miners, Salar de Uyuni
attracts Earth scientists. Though the surface looks
perfectly flat, it has just enough of a grade in certain
areas that scientists consider it to be one of the bestplaces in the world for calibrating satellite altimeters,
instruments designed to measure the elevation of land
surfaces.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat
data from the US Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

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Figure 3 - This Landsat‑8 image was acquired on January 7, 2019www.geo-web.org.uk

After a depressing spring, with cold Arctic winds keeping the temperature down for weeks on end, came the first signs of summer.
This Meteor M2 image, in RGB123 mode, acquired on May 12, shows the British Isles at last shaking off winter and heading for warmer times.

www.geo-web.org.uk

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Dazzling Spring Aurora over Hudson Bay
NASA Earth Observatory

On March 28, 2019, a
stunning aurora borealis
developed over the
Hudson Bay regionof Canada, and the
Visible Infrared Imaging
Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
on the Suomi NPP
satellite acquired this nighttime image of the dancing
lights.
VIIRS has ‘day-night band’
that detects city lights andother night time signals
such as auroras, airglow,
and reflected moonlight.
In this image, the sensor
detected the visible lightemissions that occurred
when energetic particles
raining down from Earth’s
magnetosphere interactedwith the gases of theupper atmosphere.
The creation of an aurora
typically starts when
the Sun sends a surgeof charged particles—
through solar flares,
coronal mass ejections,or an active solar wind—
towards Earth. This
surge disturbs Earth’s
magnetosphere, thesurrounding region of
space protected by theplanet’s magnetic field.
The solar particles collidewith the magnetosphereand compress it, changing
the configuration ofEarth’s magnetic fieldlines (such as their shapeand direction). Someparticles trapped along themagnetic field lines areaccelerated into Earth’s
upper atmosphere where
they excite nitrogenand oxygen molecules,
causing the release
photons of light photons,
which are observed as theaurora.

16This aurora was imaged by NASA’s Suomi-NPP satellite on March 28, 2019.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using VIIRS day-night banddata from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.

‘This aurora stemmed
from minor coronalholes that provided
just enough activity to
produce some aurora
at high latitudes’,stated Mike Cook,
space weather
forecaster lead at
Apogee Engineeringand a team memberof the citizen science
project Aurorasaurus.
‘It didn’t take muchto spark someauroral activity athigh latitudes, as weare near the Spring
Equinox which,www.geo-web.org.uk

because of Earth’s
axial tilt, aligns us forbetter geomagnetic
activity,’ added Cook.
March is historically themost geomagnetically active
month.
Caption by Kasha Patel.

This is a segment from a MeteorGIS composite image sent in by Joachim Scharrer, created from the twomorning passes of Meteor M2 on May 23, 2019.
It shows a depression that produced unseasonable cold and wet conditions over the North Sea region.

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