Warning system

Cyclone Fani: A success in weather forecast and disaster preparedness

Giulia Roder August 20, 2019

This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image captured on 1 May 2019 shows Cyclone Fani. In the image, the width of the storm is estimated to be around 700-800 km. (Image Credit: ESA - CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Hurricane, cyclone and typhoon are different terms for the same weather phenomenon: torrential rain and maximum sustained wind speeds (near centre) exceeding 119 km/hour (World Meteorological Organization https://public.wmo.int/en). The terminology depends on the region (e.g. in the western North Pacific, they are called typhoons; in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea they are named as cyclones ...[Read More]

Hot topic for a hot summer: extreme weather and climate events in the ANYWHERE project – A Pan-European Platform for Multi-Hazard Early Warning and associated Impacts

Jonathan Rizzi August 5, 2019

Photo source: http://anywhere-h2020.eu

In this post, I have the pleasure to interview Dr.ir. Henny A.J. van Lanen. He is Associate Professor in the Hydrology & Quantitative Water Management Group of Wageningen University and he has been involved in several EU projects. Further, he is involved in many international groups or networks: Coordinator of the European FRIEND programme (EURO-FRIEND Water, Flow Regimes from International Ex ...[Read More]

I-REACT – ‘Fight disasters with your phone’

Vale Cigala June 24, 2019

The I-REACT app on a field test. Image credit: I-REACT.

Technology has never been more at hand than at the time we are living. Smartphones and the many apps on the market are proof of this. As I recently discovered, there is also an app developed to learn about natural hazards and, as they claim, fight disasters! This app is called I-REACT, and it was born from a homonymous innovation project funded by the European Commission and developed by a consort ...[Read More]

InSAR Norway: the big eye on Norwegian unstable rock slopes

Gabriele Amato April 15, 2019

Fig.1. Screenshot from insar.ngu.no that shows, for each coloured point, its mean movement (in mm/y) and the time series of its displacement.

Marie Keiding is a researcher in the Geohazard and Earth Observation team at the Geological Survey of Norway. Together with her colleague, John Dehls, who is leading the project, she works to develop and operate the new mapping service called InSAR Norway. Before we start, let’s briefly describe what is InSAR. First, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a day and night operational imaging system ...[Read More]