Authors: Kapil Oberai and Rohith Rajan Data is a collection of facts, numbers, words, and pictures. Data is everywhere, from social media posts to smart watch steps. Information is what we get when we organize and understand that data. Why are we talking about "big" data now? The reason is that, there's whole lot more of it and its being Continue Reading »

What if we had a digital copy of Earth that could help us test decisions before making them in real life? This is exactly what scientists are building today through Digital Twins of the Earth. A digital twin is a virtual representation of the real world that is continuously updated using satellite, weather station, sensor, and computer data. Unlike a Continue Reading »

For many years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been seen as complex and highly technical. Even simple tasks like identifying flood‑prone areas or finding suitable land for development require expert knowledge and advanced software skills. Because of this, decision‑making often depended on a small group of GIS specialists. The delay was not because the analysis was difficult, but because the Continue Reading »

Authors- Ashok Ghildiyal and Ashish Joshi, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO Dehradun NOAA weather satellites continuously transmit Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) signals that carry live images of the Earth’s surface. These signals can be received using a software-defined radio (SDR) such as an RTL-SDR dongle, paired with a suitable antenna and decoding software. The NOAA satellites, particularly NOAA-18 and Continue Reading »

Long-term observational datasets are essential for understanding the magnitude and frequency of past extreme events over extended timescales. In mountain regions where instrumental records are limited, tree rings provide a valuable natural archive of environmental and geomorphic changes. Tree rings are formed by the vascular cambium, a thin layer of dividing cells between the wood (xylem) and bark (phloem). At Continue Reading »