Satellite images can not only be used to draw various maps, but also help people find harmful targets. According to a report by the American Physicists Organization Network on February 24, recently, American scientists used remote sensing images from satellites to predict when an epidemic would break out on Earth. Early warning before a disease breaks out is a matter of life and death. The research was published last week in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Dennis Dilling, a biologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, said that observing the changes in the color of the image on the surface of the earth can calculate when a disease will break out and when it will become epidemic, months or even years Traditional methods of tracking disease transmission are very difficult.
Dilling focuses on hantavirus, a deadly virus transmitted by rodents. Since its discovery in 1993, more than 560 people have been infected in the United States, with a mortality rate of about 50%. In order to monitor the disease, the research team investigated the rat population and captured the mice for blood tests, implanted microchips, etc., but these methods all took time and effort.
In 2004, they began collaborating with geographers to track mice with high-tech methods. They studied a large number of satellite images of central Utah to analyze changes in the amount of vegetation on the earth's surface. After a rainy winter, the vegetation is flourishing, bringing more food to the rats, so that their populations are growing rapidly, and more mice means more Hantavirus may be exposed to humans. According to data analysis over the past three years, it has been found that from the increase in the number of plants to the possibility of pathogenicity in the rat population, the interval is about 12 to 16 months.
Dem Verde, a biologist at the University of New England who studies waterborne diseases, said the prediction method is exciting. If health officials know that cholera may break out, remind people to prevent it in time, such as filtering drinking water, which can reduce mortality by 50%. But this needs more improvement. Any information from the space must be double checked to truly reflect the ground conditions.
Ford also used satellite images to examine malaria and other diseases. He believes that public health officials can use this method to check the location and quantity of local water sources, where mosquitoes breed and spread diseases. For cholera, you can check the sea level and chlorophyll level, because cholera bacteria attach to zooplankton most of the time, and these zooplankton feed on plants rich in chlorophyll. It is even possible to use remote sensing images to predict bird flu, and to map the migration routes of rice and birds to discover potential disease-sensitive areas.
However, there are still many difficulties in understanding the meaning of satellite imagery. Xiao Xiangming, a professor at the Space Analysis Center of the University of Oklahoma, said: "For example, changes in cloud cover over a certain period of time, the relationship between habitat and animals that spread disease, etc." At present, he began to study the feasibility of using satellites to track bird flu .
Xiao Xiangming said that satellite images will play an increasingly important role in the study of disease ecology and prediction. As the quality of remote sensing images has become higher and higher in recent years, data analysis techniques have become more advanced, and related research will also increase.
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