This book discusses the problems in planning, building, and management strategies in the wake of application and expansion of remote sensing and GIS products in natural resources and infrastructure management. The book suggests proactive solutions to problems of natural resources and infrastructure management, providing alternatives for strategic planning, effective delivery, and growth perspectives. The uniqueness of the book is its broader spectrum of coverage with related interconnections and interdependences across science, engineering, and innovation. The book contains information that can be downscaled to the local level.

The unprecedented inside story of the people pushing boundaries of science and technology to build better weather forecasts—providing life-saving warnings and crucial intelligence about nature's deadliest threats

Gaia Wakes presents a compelling new framework for understanding the past, present, and future of our planet. Starting from a strong foundation in economics and drawing on a vast range of multidisciplinary scholarship, Topher McDougal explores the possibility of a fifth transition towards an upgraded Earth: the development of a technologically enabled planetary brain capable of coordinating ecological functions and peering far into the future and universe.

A hotshot firefighter’s gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season

Almost two centuries after British explorer Sir John Franklin and his men died amid paralyzing cold and ice in pursuit of the mythical Northwest Passage, the Arctic—in response to temperatures greater than at any time in the last ten thousand years—is melting at an alarming pace. Instead of heeding this clear sign that the world must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent runaway warming, countries such as the United States, Russia, China, and Canada are instead racing to control newly ice-free waters and the riches in the seabed below. But by choosing short-term self-interest over cooperative action, they may be condemning the world to an uninhabitable future.

This textbook provides a mathematical introduction to the theory of large-scale ocean circulation and is accessible for readers with an elementary knowledge of mathematics and physics, including continuum mechanics and solution methods for ordinary differential equations. The book consists of four parts. Part I (chapters 1 - 4) is a very brief introduction to ocean circulation and the mathematical formulation of the governing equations of ocean flows. In addition, concepts are introduced that are necessary to describe and understand large-scale ocean currents. In part II (chapters 5 - 10), the theory of mid-latitude wind-driven ocean circulation is presented. The consideration of model development includes a top-down approach and reduced equations are derived using asymptotics and scaling. Part III (chapters 11 - 12) focuses on the understanding of equatorial currents and El Nino. In the last part IV, chapters 13 - 16, the theory of planetary scale flows is presented, covering topics such as the thermocline problem, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the stability of the thermohaline circulation and the Arctic Ocean circulation. At the end of each chapter several exercises are formulated. Many of these are aimed to further develop methodological skills and to get familiar with the physical concepts. New material is introduced in only a few of these exercises. Fully worked out answers to all exercises can be downloaded from the book web site.

The world is currently closer to superpower conflict than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. World War III is a real possibility, and with 12,000 warheads in the arsenals of more than half a dozen countries, we are standing on a nuclear knife edge.

The amazing true story of the man behind modern weather prediction

Since the early use of the occultation measurement principle for sounding pla- tary atmospheres and ionospheres, its exploitation in atmospheric remote sensing has seen tremendous advances. In this book we focus on sensors on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, which exploit solar, lunar, stellar, GNSS (Global Navi- tion Satellite Systems), and LEO-crosslink signals for observing the Earth's - mosphere and climate. The methods all share the key properties of self-calibration, high accuracy and vertical resolution, global coverage, and (if using radio signals) all-weather ca- bility. The atmospheric parameters obtained extend from the fundamental va- ables temperature, density, pressure and water vapor via trace gases, aerosols and cloud liquid water to ionospheric electron density. Occultation data are therefore of high value in a wide range of fields including climate monitoring and research, atmospheric physics and chemistry, operational meteorology, and ionospheric physics. nd The 2 International Workshop on Occultations for Probing Atmosphere and Climate – OPAC-2 – was held September 13–17, 2004, in Graz, Austria. OPAC-2 aimed at providing a casual forum and stimulating atmosphere fertilizing scientific discourse, co-operation initiatives, and mutual learning and support amongst members of all different occultation communities. The workshop was attended by 40 participants from 12 different countries who actively contributed to a scientific programme of high quality and to an excellent workshop atmosphere, which was judged by the participants to have fully met the aims expressed.