Press Coverage

20 csengineermag.com MAY 2019 software + TECH It's a bird, it's a plane. Wait no, it's the International Space Station (ISS)! Even if you live in a big city, you might be able to spot the sta- tion overhead on a clear day because it's powered by an acre of solar panels. The largest manmade object in space, ISS remains in continuous orbit an average of 240 miles above Earth's surface and in 24 hours, it makes approximately 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets and covering more than 90 percent of the global population. It's no secret that global predictions for an unpredictable climate come with increased disaster risks. As the frequency and severity of weather events intensify and populations grow, the potential impact on govern- ments, cities and businesses around the world is constantly increasing. But what if we showed you how Jacobs and NASA scientists are lever- aging remotely-sensed data acquired by ISS's orbital sensor systems and captivating images from 240 miles overhead to provide critical disaster response aid, and help communities recover and become more resilient? Capturing the scene below, every 90 minutes Traveling at a speed of five miles per second, the team of six astronauts living and working aboard the ISS orbit Earth every 90 minutes. This team has a unique vantage point to document Earth's dynamic environ- ment including its geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography and ecology. MORE THAN A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW Jacobs, in support of NASA's International Space Station team, is leveraging remotely-sensed data and high-definition imagery captured from 240 miles above, in space, to aid disaster response efforts. By Lisa Vanderbloemen Wildfires and smoke in the Central Valley, Mendocino, CA., last year. Photo: NASA, Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth 90% of Earth's population is covered by ISS orbit, with astronauts taking millions of images of the planet below. 58,319 images of lightning captured by ISS in 2018. 2,399 images documenting natural and human-made disasters used to aid in responses around the world since 2012

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