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Tracking Locust Swarms | Earth Wise

June 12, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Plagues of locusts have been reported since the times of the Egyptian pharaohs. In recent history, there have been desert locust plagues during multiple decades of the 20th century. Since January, a very large population of locusts gathered in Kenya and has destroyed over 2,000 square miles of pasture and crop land. Swarms have since reached portions of Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, and South Sudan. Apart from East Africa, there are locust swarms in Yemen and other Middle East countries and in Pakistan as well. The current situation continues to represent an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in East Africa. Locust swarms can range in size from less than half a square mile to hundreds of square miles, each containing 20 to 40 million locusts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses a powerful air quality model to track the movement and deposition of pollution from wildfires, volcanoes and industrial accidents. Called the HYSPLIT dispersion model, it has now been refined for the purpose of tracking swarms of locusts.

Because desert locusts are passive fliers that drift with the wind, the model’s high-quality data on wind speed and direction can lead to accurate predictions of where the locusts will go and when.

NOAA is working with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – the FAO. The new web application based on HYSPLIT is being used by the FAO to issue forecasts and warnings to affected countries about forthcoming waves of locust swarms. Such forecasts enable local officials to conduct aerial spraying to reduce the impact of desert locusts which can destroy grains, grasses and other greens that are life-sustaining foods for entire regions.

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NOAA teams with United Nations to create locust-tracking application

Photo, posted November 20, 2004, courtesy of Niv Singer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Weather-Responsive Traffic Signals

April 17, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We all spend time sitting at red lights – sometimes it seems like a whole lot of time. There is a fair amount of science applied in the design of traffic signals that at least has the aim of easing congestion and improving traffic safety.

Signals in modern cities are timed using optimization models that analyze multiple factors including traffic volume and speed with the goal of safely getting as many vehicles as possible through intersections. It sure doesn’t seem that way in many places, but that is the intent in any case.

But a real problem with these models is that they assume normal conditions including weather conditions. In places that experience real winter conditions, the assumptions of traffic models fail. If the road surface is covered with snow and ice and visibility is poor, variables like speed and stopping distances become very different.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada collected data from real-world intersections and ran computer simulations to determine the effects of adjusting traffic signal behavior in bad weather (as well as in the presence of other conditions such as accidents or construction.) They found that such adjustments could reduce traffic delays by as much as 20%.

Cities with computerized signal systems are already equipped to remotely and inexpensively adjust the timing of traffic lights. To gain the benefits of smarter signals, there would need to be video cameras and a certain amount of artificial intelligence software that would be able to automatically tweak the timing of lights in response to traffic changes caused by weather, accidents or construction.

It sounds like a great idea.

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Weather-responsive intersections could ease traffic congestion

Photo, posted September 22, 2009, courtesy of Tristan Bowersox via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Misconceptions About Electric Cars

February 8, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Tesla’s Model 3 was one of the best-selling cars in the United States last year, eclipsing all but a handful of sedans. This was the first time that an electric car had that honor and is indicative of how electric cars are finally becoming mainstream. A host of other new electric models from multiple manufacturers will be the entering the market over the next couple of years.

Despite all of this progress, there is still a great deal of misinformation about electric cars. A new study commissioned by Volkswagen revealed some of the widespread misconceptions about the vehicles.

Some people believe that electric cars can’t be driven through puddles. Nearly one in five people believe that electric cars slow down as the battery depletes. Many people believe that electric cars are fundamentally less safe than gas-powered cars.

More generally, people are unaware of how far current electric cars can drive on a charge. More and more models can go 200 and even over 300 miles between charging sessions. People also don’t know how quickly cars can charge up either. Fast chargers like Tesla’s Superchargers can add 200 miles worth of charge in about 20 minutes. And people don’t know what it costs to charge electric cars. In most places, it is only a fraction of what it costs to drive the same distance using gasoline.

Despite their limited knowledge about electric cars, the 2,000 people surveyed in Britain were positively disposed towards them with nearly 6 in 10 saying that they would like to own an electric car some day and would even consider one as their next vehicle.

Electric cars will become more familiar and less exotic as more and more of them are on our roads and highways.

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Major misconceptions prevent drivers from buying electric cars, study claims

Photo, posted April 6, 2018, courtesy of Brian Doyle via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/electric-cars-misconceptions-battery-charging-safety-volkswagen-study-results-a8700536.html

Speed Breeding Of Crops

January 4, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A technique pioneered by NASA for the purpose of growing plants extra-terrestrially is now being applied here on earth to fast-track improvements in a range of crops. The technique, known as speed breeding, has been adapted for use by British and Australian researchers on a scale ranging from vast greenhouses to desktop growth chambers.

Speed breeding uses enhanced LED lighting and day-long regimes of up to 22 hours to optimize photosynthesis and promote rapid growth of crops. By speeding up the breeding cycle of plants,it is possible, for example, to grow six generations of wheat in a year compared with two generations using traditional breeding methods.

With shortened breeding cycles, genetic improvements such as yield gain, disease resistance and climate resistance can be fast-tracked in crops such as wheat, barley, chickpeas, various Brassica species, oil seed rape and peas.

The ability to do this in compact desktop chambers permits cutting-edge research to be performed inexpensively before being scaled up to large greenhouses.

Crop development is an increasingly important activity and speed breeding is increasingly attractive in light of the opposition in some quarters to modern gene-editing techniques to create GMO crops. Speed breeding allows crop improvements via anon-GMO route.

The new technique is already being applied in Australia, which is experiencing one of the worst droughts on record. It is being used to rapidly cycle genetic improvements to make crops more drought resilient.

Generation time in most plant species is a major bottleneck in applied research programs and breeding. Speed breeding can greatly reduce this bottleneck, allowing scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases, the changing climate and increased demand for specific plant traits.

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