The entire west coast of the Americas usually experiences enormous rainfall and flooding. In addition, there will be mass deaths of marine animals, seabirds and corals due to the warming of ocean waters. (4/5)

NASA scientists predict that this year's El Niño will continue to affect our weather well into the spring of 2024. (5/5) Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Milky Way or Greenland Galaxy?

#Greenland is covered by a layer of ice up to 3.2 kilometers thick. From space, you can watch it melt: Since 2013, Greenland has lost 3.5 trillion tons of ice. Global sea levels would rise by about seven meters if the Greenland ice sheet were to melt completely. (2/3)

About 70.000 people are stuck in the mud at #BurningMan2023 Visitors to the legendary desert festival "Burning Man" in the US state of Nevada are stuck after heavy rains. The rain has turned the desert sand into ankle-deep and viscous mud. (1/3)

How crucial waterways are for world trade has been clear at least since the blockade of the Suez Canal by the container freighter “Ever Given” in March ‘21. Recent satelllite images show ships being jammed up in front of the #PanamaCanal —because it is running out of water. (1/7)

The Panama Canal, built in 1914, 80 kilometres long, connects the Atlantic to the Pacific. Up to 14,000 ships can take a shortcut through it every year. The water to fill the locks in the canal comes from a series of artificial lakes in the north and north-east of Panama. (2/7)

However, Lago Gatún, the largest lake that feeds the system, is carrying less water than it usually does, following the droughts of the last few years. (3/7)

Since May, the canal authorities have had to keep reducing the maximum draught for freighters - most recently to 13.4 metres. The otherwise permitted draught is 15.24 metres. (4/7)

Large ships that want to enter the canal have to unload up to a quarter of their cargo to avoid running aground. Since the end of June, only 32 ships per day are allowed through the canal. Traffic jams are the result. (5/7)

The impact on global shipping is devastating — about six percent of annual world trade passes through the Panama Canal. (6/7)

The operation of the canal is also the country's most important source of income. Per year, it generates up to three billion US dollars annually for the small country. (7/7) Source: NASA

What happened in #Derna? Satellite images show the extent of the disaster ⬇

After “#StormDaniel” caused extensive floodings in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, it moved south towards the coast of Libya, where it hit hardest. Torrential rains caused two dams near the city of Derna to fail. (2/

25% of the city had “disappeared”, with large parts of the city being dragged out to sea. As of 13 September, according to Libyan officials, at least 6,000 people had died, and between 10,000 and 100,000 others were left missing. (3/4)

Several countries along the Mediterranean Sea pledged to provide aid to Libya, whose critical infrastructure has been suffering due to its ongoing #civilwar. (4/4) Source: PlanetLabs

It's done: We are online. With our new website and our V52 app, through which you can order #satellite images or ask us to do #research and #analysis from #space. 🌍🛰️ Just sign up and try it out👇 vertical52.org We look forward to your feedback. 🌍

In times when misinformation and false assumptions can spread so easily and put the lives of thousands in danger, satellite images can be a trustworthy and helpful source for finding and documenting the truth.

During the last weeks our was able to provide several newspapers with pictures from space and contribute to their reporting. Read the article by Handelsblatt 👇 handelsblatt.com/politik/intern…

We also contributed to this investigative article by Süddeutsche Zeitung👇 sueddeutsche.de/projekte/artik…