Latest Earth sciences Stories

AeroMetric announced the addition of a new High Accuracy Mapping Solution for its clients. The new solution is designed to obtain tight vertical accuracy and highly detailed imagery using a helicopter based sensor system mounted on a drift-control platform. Sheboygan, WI (PRWEB) May 23, 2013 AeroMetric announced the addition of a new High Accuracy Mapping Solution for its clients. The new solution is designed to obtain tight vertical accuracy and highly detailed imagery using a helicopter...

LMU Fish fossils that are about 23 million years old give unprecedented insight into the evolutionary history of the gobioid order, one of the most species-rich groups among the modern bony fishes. Researchers led by paleontologist Professor Bettina Reichenbacher from the Division of Paleontology and Geobiology at LMU’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences have completed a comprehensive analysis of fish fossils which they assign to the group of bony fishes that includes the...

Velodyne will exhibit at the SPIE Defense and Security Conference, giving a live technology demonstration of real-time 3D LiDAR for security and surveillance purposes. Morgan Hill, CA (PRWEB) April 24, 2013 Velodyne Acoustics' LiDAR division will be attending the SPIE Defense and Security show in Baltimore, MD from April 30 to May 2, exhibiting its real-time 3D LiDAR scanner HDL32. The HDL32’s 32 rotating lasers allow to capture 360º views of its environment with a 40º...

A team of geoscientists from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) using newly available remote-sensing technology has achieved unprecedented detail in quantifying subtle, long-period changes in the water levels of shallow lakes and ponds in hard-to-reach Arctic wetlands. Analysis comparing time-lapsed, high-resolution satellite imagery of the Ahnewetut Wetlands in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska, revealed an accelerated loss of surface water in shallow thaw lakes and ponds over a recent...

In the March issue of GSA Today, seven scientists from six countries, led by Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester, propose a realignment of the terms "geochronology" and "chronostratigraphy" in an attempt to resolve the debate of whether units of the Geological Time Scale should have a single (time) or dual (time and time-rock) hierarchy. In their system, which retains both parallel sets of units, with an option to adopt one or other when appropriate, geochronology refers to all...

Plymouth University Researchers at Plymouth University, UK, believe that findings from fieldwork along the North Yorkshire coast reveal strong parallels between the Early Jurassic era of 180 million years ago and current climate predictions over the next century. Through geology and palaeontology, they've shown how higher temperatures and lower oxygen levels caused drastic changes to marine communities, and that while the Jurassic seas eventually recovered from the effects of global...

ESA Satellite radar data are being used to map Earth’s vital resources. The latest advances and applications of the POLinSAR remote sensing technique were highlighted at a conference held last week. Polarimetric InSAR – or POLinSAR – is a remote sensing technique based on polarimetric information in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. With this technique, a radar sends polarised pulses towards the target, and the information in the signals backscattered from Earth can be...

Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to Southern Methodist University paleontologists Timothy S. Myers, Louis L. Jacobs, and SMU sedimentary geologist Neil J. Tabor, the modern relationship between animals and vegetation is similar to millions of years ago. In their study, the SMU scientists used fossil soils from the Late Jurassic age gathered from locations where animal fossils were previously found to determine the levels of carbon isotopes. The team...

Berkeley Lab research could lead to a better understanding of the Arctic ecosystem’s impact on the planet's climate What does pulling a radar-equipped sled across the Arctic tundra have to do with improving our understanding of climate change? It’s part of a new way to explore the little-known world of permafrost soils, which store almost as much carbon as the rest of the world’s soils and about twice as much as is in the atmosphere. The new approach combines several...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Mysterious multicellular fossils believed to be ancient sea creatures may actually be some of the earliest land-dwelling organisms, according to a paper published online on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The controversial hypothesis has been fiercely criticized, with some paleontologists flatly rejecting the idea, but if true, the finding would push back life's transition from sea to land by as much as 100 million years or more....