Radar Imagery Aiding California Coastal Pollution Study

摘要

NASA researchers recently completed a study using radar imagery collected by Canadian and European satellites to monitor pollution hazards off the coast of Southern California. The effort is intended to demonstrate how the satellite imagery can help government officials make decisions in protecting coastal regions from pollution hazards, said Paul DiGiacomo, Earth missions concepts groups supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Coastal regions are very popular places for people to live, work and play, and a significant fraction of the U.S. population lives at coastal regions," DiGiacomo said. About 20 million people live near the coast of Southern California, nearly 25 percent of the U.S. coastal population, he said.