Imaging from an unmanned aerial vehicle: agricultural surveillance and decision support

who: NASA

what: conduct a proof-of-concept mission

where: Above the 1500 ha plantation of the Kauai Coffee Company in Hawaii.

when:In September 2002

why:not given

how:not given

In September 2002, NASA’s solar-powered Pathfinder-Plus unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to conduct a proof-of-concept mission in US national airspace above the 1500 ha plantation of the Kauai Coffee Company in Hawaii.

 While in national airspace, the transponder-equipped UAV was supervised by regional air traffic controllers and treated like a conventionally piloted aircraft. High resolution color and multispectral imaging payloads, both drawing from the aircraft’s solar power system, were housed in exterior-mounted environmental pressure pods.

 A local area network (LAN) using unlicensed radio frequency was used for camera control and downlink of image data at rates exceeding 5 Mbit s⁻¹. A wide area network (WAN) allowed a project investigator stationed on the US mainland to uplink control commands during part of the mission. Images were available for enhancing, printing, and interpretation within minutes of collection. The color images were useful for mapping invasive weed outbreaks and for revealing irrigation and fertilization anomalies. Multispectral imagery was related to mature fruit harvest from certain fields with significant fruit display on the tree canopy exterior. During 4 h “loitering” above the plantation, ground-based pilots were able to precisely navigate the UAV along pre-planned flightlines, and also perform spontaneous maneuvers under the direction of the project scientist for image collection in cloud-free zones. Despite the presence of ground-obscuring cumulus cloud cover of ca. 70% during the image collection period, the UAV’s maneuvering capability ultimately enabled collection of cloud-free imagery throughout most of the plantation. The mission demonstrated the capability of a slow-flying UAV, equipped with downsized imaging systems and line-of-sight telemetry, to monitor a localized agricultural region for an extended time period. The authors suggest that evolving long-duration (weeks to months) UAVs stand to make a valuable future contribution to regional agricultural resource monitoring.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168169904000456

Keywords:

plantation: 植物園， 大農場

supervise:監視

exterior-mounted :外掛的

pressure pod:壓力艙

invasive weed:入侵物種(雜草)

irrigation :灌溉

fertilization:施肥

 anomalies:異常現象

 tree canopy:林冠

loitering:徘徊

spontaneous:非自主的

maneuvers:機動動作(飛機，船)

-obscuring:朦朧的 

cumulus cloud:積雲

demonstrate:證明，證實

Paris climate talks: As world leaders head home, negotiators get to work at COP21

WHO:More than 100 world leaders

WHAT:made speeches, posed for photos and then flew home

WHERE: in Paris

WHEN:not given

WHY:not given

HOW:not given

More than 100 world leaders arrived, made speeches, posed for photos and then flew home. But the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris does not end for another two weeks.

So what happens now at the world's biggest gathering on global warming?

The nations get down to the nitty gritty.

Howard Bamsey is an adjunct professor at the Australian National University. Previously he was deputy secretary of Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and Australia's lead negotiator at the UN climate conferences.

He estimates he has been to at least 18 of the 21 conferences.

"The most important event, in terms of the expectations of the people who are looking on, is the negotiations themselves," he said.

In the lead-up to the Paris conference, a draft version of the international agreement to limit global warming was circulated.

This week, negotiators from each nation will break into specialist teams, each taking a section of the draft to consider, Professor Bamsey said.

"At this stage they're all in these smaller groups working on a limited set of issues. All separately," he said.

"So in the Australian delegation, every morning there'll be a meeting where the negotiators from the different groups come together and inform one another what's been happening in their groups so they can make the connections and see how the whole thing is shaping up.

"It's really difficult to judge what the whole picture is unless you're able to keep in touch with the different processes that are happening at the same time."

Gruelling, complex negotiations not for the 'impatient'

Professor Bamsey says negotiations happen both formally and informally, day and night, in a gruelling process for the delegates.

Sometimes talks become stuck when one nation will not budge on a particular issue.

"They insist on full discussion. They want their outcome and they won't back down very easily. So at different points, different parts of the text become a blockage to the agreement as a whole," he said.

But judging which issue to move on from and where to stand firm is all part of complex and often unrelated issues.

"What might look like a completely straightforward negotiating process is filled with all this significance that isn't apparent on the surface," Professor Bamsey said.

"So you can see inordinate amounts of time given to negotiating what might seem to be quite straightforward text.

"The ones that are invested in significance ... they can take a long time to resolve.

"Unless you're part of the process, you can become very impatient with the time taken to resolve those because they may not look on the surface as if they're significant at all."

By about Saturday, he said various pieces of the text should be settled or decisions made in a draft form.

From there, the negotiating baton is passed to the next level up. That is usually the most senior negotiators, or ministers.

"That's when the final trade-offs are made," he said.

Circus of the talks can help negotiations

The 2015 conference aims to have the text fairly well nailed down by the middle of the next week.

In the meantime, outside the often closed-door haggling over draft text, businesses, activist groups, think tanks and academics all gather in what has become the world's biggest trade-fair for climate change ideas and industry.

Professor Bamsey said the associated circus could be an indirect contribution to the negotiation process.

"In many cases delegates won't have a lot of time to get to side events. Often what's happening there is indirectly conveyed to the negotiating process," he said.

"Very often you'll hear insights that will inform an issue that's being negotiated or there's the sense of momentum that's imparted by this vast number of side events and stories about climate action.

"That sense of momentum can have a positive impact on the negotiating process."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-02/paris-climate-talks-what-happens-next/6994166

keyword:

get down to the nitty gritt: 言歸正傳

deputy: 代表

 draft version:草案

circulated:傳播

section:部分                                                                                                                                                 delegation:代表團                                

shaping up:塑造

straightforward:明確的

 inordinate:無節制的

momentum:動力 

Syria: The story of the conflict

WHO: Syrians
WHAT: Armed conflict
WHY: Anti-government protests
WHEN: Not given
WHERE: Syria
HOW: Not given

More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State. This is the story of the civil war so far, in two short chapters.

1. Uprising turns violent

Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.

The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country

Opposition supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas.

2. Descent into civil war

Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012.

By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN.

The conflict is now more than just a battle between those for or against Mr Assad. It has acquired sectarian overtones, pitching the country's Sunni majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect, and drawn in regional and world powers. The rise of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has added a further dimension.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868

Key words:

 escalating 升級

 erupted 爆發

 torture 凌虐

 slogans 標語，口號

 demonstrator 示威者

 unrest 不安，動盪

 triggered 引發
 resignation 辭職
 dissent 異議
 hardened 變堅固
 escalated 逐漸擴大
 descended 出身於...的
 rebel brigades 反叛隊伍
 sectarian overtones 宗派的暗示
 jihadist 聖戰
 dimension 範圍