Satellite Launched to Study Maleria Infected Mosquitoes

Malaria is a deadly sickness that kills around 800,000 people a year. Shockingly, nearly 90% of those deaths are in Africa alone. Even more saddening is that most of the victims of malaria are very young children. This sickness is transported by mosquitoes who have the disease and infect humans every time they attempt to steal some of our blood. The European Space Agency understands this is something that must be studied and have launched the Cryosat-2 satellite that will finally give us some answers about how the disease comes about and where it specially evolves from.

It is important to first state that scientists do know that the majority of mosquitoes who spread malaria come from the Amazon and central Africa. However, it is important for scientists to study why it is this specific area that is prevalent in this disease and what methods can be taken to stop it from happening in other areas of the world. The satellite's main responsibility will be to gather data so that the organization can develop a tool that will give them the ability to forecast the risk of malaria.

A group of Spanish scientists have spent the past couple of years working on a specialized project that uses radar altimetry. This type of radar use will allow them to detect the presence of mosquito breeding grounds. Most of these breeding grounds are in the ponds and puddles of water where mosquito's happen to lay their eggs. Since water can be easily picked up by a radar signal, it made it rather easy for the team to develop a tool to monitor these areas.

The gathered information will then be tied to other data-sets that have been gathered throughout the past decade. Scientists have learned that there is a correlation between temperature and precipitation with the presence of malaria. The information will be applied together with the hope of producing risk infection maps for Africa. They will be able to identify the large gatherings of mosquito's with malaria and develop pre-emptive measures to fight the disease. This includes targeted spraying of insecticides to help eliminate the disease from the area.

Perhaps what is most important is that the scientists will gain a better understanding of how mosquitoes fully get the disease. By better understanding what areas become more populated with the infected mosquitoes will lead to other nations being better prepared if the disease ever comes their way. This is a smart use of satellite technology and it will be interesting to see what type of data is gathered over the next year. Stay tuned here for any updates about this study.

Sources:

1. Steven Mottor, My Own Knowledge, 2010

2. Treehugger, http://www.treehugger.com/satellite-hunt-mosquitos-from-space.php