Remote Sensing & Lagoons: How to measure inundation with aerial images

Hey geo-loves! Hope everyone was able to enjoy the weekend despite the political events that recently transpired. Going to the Women’s March in Boston last week was a really inspiring way to see people come together.

One of my photos from Instagram of the protest last weekend.

So, I’d like to talk a little bit more about my lagoons (they feel like my lagoons because I look at them so much!) and what I’m doing with them. Right now, I’m developing remote sensing for my lagoons in Salar de Atacama in Chile. What is remote sensing? It’s when you take satellite data (which in my case are images) and manipulate that data to get information.

In my case, I’ve been taking images of my lagoons and outlining the extent of their surface area in ArcGIS. By outlining the lagoons, I’m able to measure how the surface water expands and retreats through time. I am specifically focusing on a time period after a large precipitation event that occurred in March of 2015 to see how the lagoons responded to precipitation-driven recharge. Here’s a “before and after” shot of the lagoons on March 17, 2015 versus May 20, 2015.

Can you see the difference?

There’s a pretty noticeable difference, isn’t there? To measure the surface area of the lagoons, I draw polygons around the surface water extent and then use ArcGIS to measure their surface area.

I’m really excited for some new maps with even better resolution that will come out on the Landsat Imagery website later in February. I’m also excited to take this remote sensing a step further and measure the coloration of the pixels in each image to get even more accurate surface area measurements.

So what do we see in these lagoons’ responses to the March 2015 storm? First, we see that not all lagoons react uniformly. Those differences in response may indicate variations in topography, in discharge, or in recharge based on each locale’s stratigraphy. Second, we notice that the most recent lagoon changes may be a part of an ongoing decline in the over all extent of lagoons throughout the salar.

Why are these variations in lagoon surface area occurring? That’s for me to explore further in my thesis, and I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated every step of the way. In the mean time, feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me with questions or thoughts! Have a good weekend!

DJ Khaled (a.k.a. Abu Asahd, a.k.a. Khaled Mohammad Khaled)

Hey guys! I hope everyone is excited for the weekend as I am! I’m going to Boston to hang out with S and his family, and I can’t wait!

In the mean time, I figured I would share a bit of information on one of my favorite R&B / Rap artists this year: DJ Khaled.

More than a few of my friends and family are a bit puzzled by my interest in DJ Khaled, so I want to give you a peek into all the cool things about DJ Khaled that make him a fascinating figure:

1.)  He is Palestinian-American. And his actual name is Khaled Khaled, which means that his first name is Khaled and his last name is also Khaled. Perhaps his parents have a sense of humor, or maybe his grandfather’s name is Khaled (because in Arab culture it’s common for the first-born son to be named after the grandfather).

2.)  His perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is unclear. While DJ Khaled certainly seems sympathetic towards Palestinians in interviews, he is certainly not outspoken about the conflict or any politics in general. This is remarkable, to me at least, because I’ve never met a Palestinian who doesn’t have a very strong opinion on the conflict and is not shy to share it. Earlier this year, he participated in an event with Sabra Hummus (which has ties to funding the Israeli army via the Strauss Group) and got a lot of criticism for it from his pro-Palestinian fans, but I’m not sure if he ever responded to that criticism.

3.)  He named his son Asahd, which means “lion” in Arabic. Anyone who knows DJ Khaled knows that the lion is his spirit animal, so his naming choice clearly shows a connection both to his heritage and his love for lions. In Arab culture, parents are called the father or mother of their first-born son (or daughter, if they have no sons), which means that I bet in some circles he’s now known as Abu Asahd. He is really adorable with his son on Snapchat, by the way.

4.)  He Snapchat-ed the birth of his son. This phenomenon is mind-blowing in itself because it shows how, in this moment in time, social media has given the world a window into strangers’ most intimate moments. I’m amazed that his fiancée didn’t take the phone and beat him over the head with it. Anyway, he did update his Snapchat feed regularly, and I did follow it. And I find that how people react to these important moments of life illuminate their values. For example, watching DJ Khaled’s Snapchat, I learned that he’s Muslim because he paused his music in the middle of the birth when it was time to play the call to prayer. This was cool way to see how versatile DJ Khaled is in navigating between two cultures, by partying to his own music while also taking time to connect to his faith during the birth of his son.

5.)  His new book got to the New York Times’ bestsellerlist. That in itself is amazing, because the book’s description on Amazon is vague at best. But, reading the reviews, it seems like a lot of people and especially young men have found a lot of inspiration from his words. DJ Khaled does exude positive energy, so I’m sure that positivity shines through his book as well. I will definitely read his book whenever I have time (after my program in four years?) but anyone else who reads it, please let me know what you think.

Anyway, it’s about time for me to get back to remote sensing of my lagoons’ surface area. Hope you liked the post! Let me know what you think about DJ Khaled and stay tuned for a new post on my research coming up soon!

Update on 1/30/17: DJ Khaled actually posted a series of Snapchat videos yesterday, which consisted of a montage of protests through space and time, including images of Palestinian protesters and America's Civil Rights Movement. It turns out the montage comes from a music video made for Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." I think this is a political statement, indeed! And its beautiful imagery connect all the human and civil rights, illustrating the importance of showing up and fighting for all rights. To be honest, it's hard for most people these days in the United States to be apolitical if they care, so I'm glad DJ Khaled made a stand. And I wonder if we'll see more artistic political statements from him in the future!

¿Qué pasó con las Lagunas?

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season so far! I’m in Kentucky visiting family, and I’ve been really enjoying just relaxing. Anyway, since I’ve finished a section of my prospectus, I figured I would share a bit more on my research focus for all of you who are interested.

Photo taken by my advisor of a transitional pool looking southeast towards the Andes.

Lately, I’ve been really fascinated with the lagoons that are located in Salar de Atacama (SdA). Here’s a quick refresher: SdA is a basin in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which is the driest nonpolar desert in the world and is therefore a great place to study groundwater dynamics in arid regions. SdA is also the home of the densest naturally occurring brine, which is water that has a lot of dissolved halite (i.e. salt) and other compounds that make it denser than fresh water. My general interest is defining the factors (like evaporation, dissolution, and changes in the hydraulic gradient) that drive groundwater flow in brine-rich and arid environments which, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, are unique from mechanisms seen more temperate climates. 

Eastern view of Lagunas Miscanti and Miniques, looking towards the east at the Andes. Photo courtesy of my advisor!

I think that the lagoons are the key to studying those factors further. Why? Because the lagoons are located along the boundaries of SdA’s surrounding mountains and the basin’s halite nucleus, which is basically a giant chunk of salt that has accumulated in the valley floor of the basin from tens of thousands of years of evaporation. The lagoons are also located along the transition zone between the relatively fresh groundwater and the brine. These lagoons are only slightly briny, whereas the groundwater under the halite nucleus is incredibly briny (in fact, it’s likely the heaviest brine naturally found anywhere in the world). This means that the lagoons are likely being recharged from relatively fresh water coming from the uphill Altiplano region in the Andes. So, these lagoons and the area around them are a great place to study the processes by which freshwater turns into such heavy brine.

Flamingos depend on the algae and the crustaceans that live in the lagoons. Photo courtesy of my advisor.

So how can I study the lagoons and the areas around the lagoons to figure out how this brine develops? One good way is to delineate the extent of the brine and to figure out where the groundwater becomes so concentrated with dissolved sodium and lithium. A lot of work has already defined the lateral extent of brine, but the vertical extent of the brine is still poorly defined. There are also a lot of insightful techniques for tracing groundwater flow by studying changes in temperature, isotope ratios, and dissolved lithium and sodium. I’ll make sure to explain each tracer in more detail later on.

So, based on what we know, it looks like the lagoons are responsible for generating some of the densest brines on earth. Why? The extremely high evaporation rates extract water out of the lagoons and leave behind the dissolved compounds like sodium and lithium to create the denser brine, which eventually sinks down and into the rest of the brine that underlies the halite nucleus. The lagoons are likely the only place for this process to occur because the surface of the halite nucleus acts like a barrier against evaporation with almost no porosity and a very high albedo.

Here’s a little peak into my progress! Let me know if you have any questions, and Happy New Year!