Satellite Technology Could Help Ease Suffering in Dharfur

This story from ABC News helps put geospatial technology in perspective.

Boston University Egyptian-American geologist, Farouk El Baz, believes he has found a massive lake, the size of Lake Erie, hidden under the desert in Dharfur - a water resource that could help ease violence and poverty in the region.

El Baz is the Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, and an expert at radar topography — a scientific technique he has used to find out what lies below the land's surface. From the ABC News report -

"For the last three years, El Baz has been scrutinizing radar images from satellites and a space shuttle mission, hoping to find water under the miles of sand in Darfur.

Now he believes he has found a massive lake, the size of Lake Erie, hidden under the desert. El Baz believes this discovery means a possibility for peace in the region lies buried beneath the desert."

Click HERE to learn more about the "1,000 Wells for Darfur" project.

I created the application above using Gaia 3.1 as I was watching the ABC News story.

The following organizations provided software or OGC SDI services used in this example - CubeWerx, NASA, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Yahoo! Maps.

- Jeff