The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Revolutionary technology unlocking secrets of rainforest Posted: 21 Oct 2011 07:08 AM PDT NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, Oct 21 — A new imaging system that uses a suite of airborne sensors is being developed that could transform how tropical forest research is conducted. The system is capable of providing detailed, three-dimensional pictures of tropical forests — including the species they contain and the amount of CO2 they store — at astonishing speed. These advances could play a key role in preserving the world's rainforests.  Tropical rainforests play a vital role in the conservation global bio-diversity and climate regulation. — Reuters pic The system known as AToMS — or Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System — conceived by Greg Asner, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, has the potential to transform how tropical forest research is conducted. By combining several breakthrough technologies, Asner and his colleagues can capture detailed images of individual trees at a rate of 500,000 or more a minute, enabling them to create a high-resolution, three-dimensional map of the physical structure of the forest, as well as its chemical and optical properties. In Peru, the scientists hoped to not only determine what tree species lay below, but also to gauge how the ecosystem was responding to last year's drought — the worst ever recorded in the Amazon — as well as help Peru develop a better mechanism for monitoring deforestation and degradation. Asner's system, a significant advance on the so-called Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) that he developed in 2006, could also play a vital role in global forestry in the decades ahead. The technology could help alleviate uncertainty about carbon emissions from deforestation and different forms of forest management, both of which are critical to the emerging policy of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), a United Nations programme that aims to compensate tropical countries for preserving their forests. "The whole idea was to measure each of the things plant ecologists measure on the ground to evaluate biodiversity," said Asner, as he flew over the Amazonian cloud forest. Asner is now helping the National Science Foundation develop an airplane with this suite of monitoring technologies, and is in talks with Nasa about equipping a satellite with the system. One of the key technologies Asner uses is known as LiDAR, which employs two powerful lasers to blast through canopy vegetation, reach the forest floor, and return a wealth of information about the forest's structure. Depending on the aircraft's altitude, sensors can map the forest at resolutions ranging from 10 centimetres to one metre, fine enough to "see" understory shrubs and epiphytes in tree crowns. LiDAR is also good for measuring aboveground biomass, or the amount of carbon stored in a forest's vegetation. It can also detect surface elevations to identify watersheds and waterways. To truly understand an ecosystem, however, scientists need to know more about its characteristics, including aspects that can't be seen with the naked eye. This is where Asner's CAO really sets itself apart, using newly developed sensors — built by engineers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — that can detect dozens of signals. These signals include photosynthetic pigment concentrations, water content of leaves, defence compounds such as phenols, structural compounds such as lignin and cellulose, as well as phosphorous and other micronutrients — all of which can be used to build signatures to distinguish individual plant species, as well as other measures of forest condition. The result, using the so-called VSWIR Imaging Spectrometer, is a system that can map the chemical and spectral attributes of a forest that may have more than 200 species of trees in a single hectare. "When leaves interact with sunlight, the compounds bend, stretch and vibrate at different patterns and rates," said Asner. "These different rates led to different scattering of light. The spectrometer picks up on this and we've been able to deduce chemicals from these signatures." But for the CAO to accurately assess biodiversity, Asner's team has to first do the groundwork by creating a database of the chemical and spectral properties of various plants, which are then fed into the CAO's library of information on individual plant species. These are then correlated with the data collected by the CAO's various sensors. In the Amazon, Asner and his team conducted extensive, on-the-ground work to compile information on nearly 5,000 plant species. "We have the best team of tree climbers in the world," said Asner. "They can climb 75 trees a day, conducting full sampling." The aircraft that carries the system allows Asner's team to map large areas, sometimes more than 49,000 hectares a day. In 2009, using an older, less sophisticated version of the system, Asner mapped 4.3 million hectares of Peru's Madre de Dios region. Now he is working on a bigger scale: nearly the entire Peruvian Amazon. After this, he goes to Colombia and Panama. "We're looking at biodiversity in regions that have never been put down on the science map," said Asner. * Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Telenor Norway opens Europe’s most modern mobile network Posted: 21 Oct 2011 05:57 AM PDT  Blogger Nereng launching Telenor's new mobile network in Fornebu, October 20, 2011. On the left is Telenor CEO Berit Svendsen. "This new mobile network secures its users higher speeds and greater capacity when surfing on PCs, tablets or mobile phones," said Telenor CEO Berit Svendsen, at a time when smartphones are accelerating data traffic. Increasingly, people are using the mobile network to send pictures and videos, browse the news, read emails and share movies and information on Facebook. This doubles the data traffic each year, and Telenor estimates 15 times more data traffic by 2015. Said 15-year-old Nereng: "I blog and use my mobile phone everywhere, so for me it is important to have good coverage. Sharing video clips and checking Facebook is a must, and I demand high speed." Said Svendsen: "We have acknowledged the consequences of new user requirements. Last summer saw the implementation of, by far, the quickest and largest-scale replacement of the mobile network for exactly this reason. "We've expanded the network to ensure that customers throughout the country can enjoy superb coverage, and the capacity required to make use of all the new services to come, even in the future." Norway showcase The total upgrade includes more than 9,000 base stations in 6,379 sites throughout Norway, including oil installations in the North Sea. The new network gives Telenor improved data traffic capacity, enabling higher speeds. The new equipment will be used to deploy the next generation mobile network (4G/LTE), starting in 2012. "Right now we can access all the information we want from a mobile phone, freeing us up to move out of the office and into the nature, up at the cabin or down on the beach," said Svendsen. "There is nowhere in the world where communication services create a better experience than in Norway." Behind Telenor's major investments lies a clear ambition to make Norway into the showcase for the rest of the world in this regard. Successful teamwork Base stations are located on mountain tops, in confined lofts in apartment buildings, on oil installations in the North Sea — to provide coverage wherever people are to be found. More than 1,000 of these sites could only be reached by helicopter to replace the equipment. Norwegian weather and road conditions — with snow storms, darkness and mountains and forests with no roads — presented challenges in implementation. "We have replaced the entire infrastructure while still handling daily operations of the network," said Svendsen. "The process has been a bit like changing the engine while driving the car. "The implementation was a team effort, with participants from Telenor Norway and more than 10 suppliers and contractors. Around 700 people of more than 20 different nationalities have worked together. I am extremely proud of the work that has been done, and not least, the results." The new equipment reduces Telenor's energy consumption by around 15 GWh a year, or the equivalent of power used in 800 homes. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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