IMAGING

New batch of RS satellites by China

China successfully launched three new remote sensing satellites from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province on June 23, 2022.

The satellites were launched as the second batch of the Yaogan-35 family at 10:22 a.m. (Beijing Time) by a Long March-2D carrier rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully.

This launch marked the 424th mission for the Long March series carrier rockets. https://english.news.cn

Remote sensing helps track carbon storage in mangroves

Mangrove forests store huge amounts of carbon but figuring out how much is stored globally is challenging. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a new model that uses remote sensing of environmental conditions to determine the productivity of mangrove forests.

In a recent study in Scientific Reports, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, developed a model to assess the productivity of coastal mangroves in China. Mangroves grow along tropical coastlines and are regularly inundated by seawater. These unique species are well adapted to tropical coastal habitats and have special features such as aerial roots and salttolerant tissues that enable them to thrive under dynamic conditions. As a result, the productivity of mangrove forests is influenced by a range of environmental factors, such as sea surface temperature, salinity, and photosynthetic active radiation.

In the past, light use efficiency models have been used to assess the productivity of terrestrial forests but there are no such models for more complex mangrove ecosystems. https://phys.org