Taking the Bite Out of Mosquitoes
Spaceborne data are monitoring these airborne assailants in the name of public health. It’s a simple tactic in mosquito combat—find out where the little bloodsuckers are headed and cut them off at the pass. An online system is using NASA data to do just that. Cyber (Mosquito) Warfare When California public health agencies need to stop a flying menace, they turn to an online weapon first. Called the California Vectorborne Disease Surveillance Gateway, or CalSurv Gateway, this decision support system acts as a central repository for crucial mosquito information. For example, control agencies can input and share surveillance data detailing where potential disease-carrying mosquitoes have been collected in traps. And thanks to Earth-observation data, they can also access maps that highlight which communities are the most susceptible to the next mosquito invasion. “Models based on NASA data have been a valuable complement to California’s decision support system for mosquito-borne viruses for more than a decade,”...