Greshko, M. (2018, October 29). Inside the daring plan to map every coral reef from space. Retrieved November 17, 2018, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/10/news-allen-coral-atlas-reefs-satellites-climate-change/
One problem to protecting coral reefs is that scientists don’t know where all of the coral reefs are. To fix this, researchers have started using data from Planet Labs. Planet Labs operates the largest amount of Earth-observing satellites to locate all of the coral reefs. The satellites orbit around the Earth’s poles and act like a line scanner, capturing images of the Earth’s surface in strips. They are making the Allen Coral Atlas, which will be the first world map of coral reefs. The maps of five coral reefs were releases at the Our Ocean conference in Bali, Indonesia, and the full map is planned to be unveiled in 2020.
The Allen Coral Atlas will lead to very important discoveries. Locating all of the coral reefs will make protecting them much easier. Scientists will be able to monitor bleaching and other changes. They will now be able to see all of the changes happening to coral reefs, and in turn will be able to make a more informed solution to protect them. This atlas and other initiatives to help save coral reefs are necessary to combat their extinction.
This is a great example of how technological advancement is help the fight against climate change. It is sad to hear about the rapid deterioration of coral reefs, so it is nice to learn about projects taking action to save the reefs. I did not realize that coral reefs were visible from space. I wonder how satellite technology can be used or is used to map out other environmental problems, such as deforestation.
I think that in the future satellite technology will be improved and will probably be used to help with other environmental problems such as deforestation.
It is very cool to see new technology coming out to save our coral reefs. Will this map be able to accurately tell us about all the reefs? With the data gathered how can scientists protect the reefs in the future?
I think the technology used to make this map has been proven to accurately detect coral reefs. This data will help scientists protect reefs in the future because they will know where all the coral reefs in the world are located, and be able to address specific problems that each reef has.