Beirut explosion before and after 8 August 2020
A devastating explosion in Beirut on 4 August has killed at least 200 people and injured around 5,000 others. The disaster was preceded by a large fire at the Port of Beirut, on the city’s northern Mediterranean coast, later there was a colossal explosion that sent a mushroom cloud into the air and a supersonic blast
“Iceberg-tsunami” on icelandic Jökulsárlón lagoon
Last acquired Copernicus Sentinel-2B image captured an unusual event on the Jökulsárlón lagoon in Iceland where a mini-tsunami was generated by a massive calving on Breiðamerkurjökull outlet glacier. An iceberg had broken off the glacier and was in the process of flipping over when the image was sensed by the Sentinel-2 on perfect timing. As the
(43°N 142°E) Hokkaido: lattice structure
One of the more unusual features of Hokkaido, as seen from space, is a lattice-shaped windbreak forest found in the Konsen Plateau. This pattern is created by trees (primarily larch) planted in a lattice structure to protect farmland and livestock from bitterly cold, blowing winds. There is about 3 km (1.9 mi) between the lattices,
Flooding in Madagascar, a first assessment from Satellite
Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, and due to its position in the middle of Indian Ocean is regularly hit by cyclones between the months of November and April. The last tropical cyclone “Ava” hit the island country off the southeastern coast of Africa between the 5th and the 7th of January, killing at least 36
Kutupalong, the largest refugees camp in the World
Kutupalong refugee camp is a refugee camp located in Ukhia, Bangladesh inhabited mostly by Rohingya Muslims that have fled from persecution in neighboring buddhist Myanmar country. It recently became the largest refugee settlement in the world hosting almost 600,000 occupants. Such huge growing is due mainly to the Rohingya Muslims exodus who have sought asylum
Tidal monitoring with Sentinel-2
Tidal phenomenon along the shores was well known since the prehistoric era, but a long trip of investigations through the centuries was necessary from the Greco-Roman Antiquity to the modern era to unravel in a quasi-definitive manner many secrets of the ebb and flow. Tides were firstly studied by Greek philosophers who tried to find
Bogoslof Island: a puzzle for geographers.
Bogoslov Island has a Russian sounding name and indeed belongs to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska which was sold by Russia to United States in 1867. It is actually the summit of a stratovolcano 1800 m height from the seabed and emerged from the ocean in late 1800 after an underwater eruption and since then has been