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Author Archive for: Brendan Jarrell

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Entries by Brendan Jarrell

What’s In the Water? An Analysis of Harmful Algal Blooms Using Remote Sensing

November 23, 2020 in /by

SkyTruth worked with researchers at Kent State University to detect toxic algal blooms quickly and easily from space using Google Earth Engine.

A few weeks ago, SkyTruth co-hosted a virtual meetup at Google’s Geo for Good Summit with our partners at Kent State University (KSU) to present our work identifying harmful algal blooms (HABs) using Google Earth Engine and satellite imagery. In this post, Geospatial Analyst Brendan Jarrell shares how we made detecting HABs quicker, easier, and more accessible to others.

Drilling Detection with Machine Learning Part 2: Segmentation Starter Kit

August 31, 2020 in , , , , , , , /by

Geospatial Analyst Brendan Jarrell explains, step-by-step, how to develop a machine learning model to detect oil and gas well pads from satellite imagery.

This is the second post in a 3-part blog series describing SkyTruth’s effort to automate the detection of oil and gas well pads around the world using machine learning. This tool will allow local communities, conservationists, researchers, policymakers and journalists to see for themselves the growth of drilling in the areas they care about.

SkyTruth’s West Virginia FrackFinder Datasets Updated

May 20, 2020 in , , , , , , /by

Oil and gas drilling activity in West Virginia continues to expand.

For more than a decade, SkyTruth has been tracking the footprint of oil and gas development in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio through our FrackFinder project. Today, we’re excited to announce our latest updates to our West Virginia FrackFinder datasets.

Bilge Dumping off the Coast of Brazil

November 8, 2019 in , , , , , /by

The cause of the massive oil spill plaguing Brazil’s beaches is still unknown, but monitoring reveals a potential new bilge dumping incident

We still haven’t found the cause of the massive oil spill that’s been plaguing Brazil’s beaches since early September. But SkyTruth’s continued surveillance of the coast of northeastern Brazil, in response to one of the country’s worst oil-related environmental disasters ever, has uncovered what appears to be another previously unreported bilge dumping incident off the coast of Joao Pessoa in the state of Paraiba.

More oil pollution in southeast Asia: suspected bilge dumping off Indonesia and The Philippines

July 31, 2019 in , , , , , , , /by

[This analysis of oil pollution in the waters of southeast Asia was written as part of a collaborative effort between SkyTruth team members Lucy Meyer and Brendan Jarrell.] Our routine monitoring of the world’s oceans has led to some extraordinary findings. For example, in previous updates, we’ve identified oil slicks in traffic-heavy locations like the […]