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Shrimp Farming in Honduras
Honduras is one of the top exporters of shrimp from Latin America. To create shrimp farms, coastal deltas are transformed from mangrove swamps into large holding ponds, which are then stocked with hatchery-raised or wild-caught shrimp brought in from the Gulf of Fonseca. Read more >> |
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NASA, University Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins -- From Space
Remains of the ancient Maya culture, mysteriously destroyed at the height of its reign in the ninth century, have been hidden in the rainforests of Central America for more than 1,000 years. Now, NASA and university scientists are using space- and aircraft-based "remote-sensing" technology to uncover those ruins. Read More >> |
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Maya Ruins
Around the eighth century A.D., one of the world’s densest populations in human history lived in Central America, thanks to a very efficient method of agriculture and irrigation. Read More >> |
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Tehuano Winds Stir the Pacific Ocean
During the winter, Central America may not see much snow, but it does see wind. The Tehuano winds, which roar out toward the Pacific Ocean through breaks in the western coastal mountains, were raging on February 9, 2006. Read More >> |
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Tracking Hurricane Wilma across the Caribbean
Information on cloud-top heights at different stages in the life cycle of the rapidly intensifying Hurricane Wilma may prove useful for evaluating the ability of numerical weather models to predict the intensity changes of hurricanes. Read More >> |
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Santa Maria Erupts
The Santa Maria Volcano in Guatemala experienced a small eruption on October 26, 2005. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite took a picture the same day of the volcano’s summit. Read More >> |
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Hurricane Wilma Strikes the Yucatan
Hurricane Wilma remained a powerful Category 4 storm when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this image at 12:25 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on Friday, October 21, 2005. Click here to view image >> |
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Hurricane Wilma
On the morning of October 19, 2005, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aircraft measured a pressure of 882 millibars in the center of Hurricane Wilma—the lowest pressure ever measured in an Atlantic hurricane. Read more >> |
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Santa Ana Volcano, El Salvador
On October 1, 2005, El Salvador’s Santa Ana Volcano, also known as the Ilamatepec Volcano, erupted—it’s first eruption since 1904. In addition to volcanic ash and lava flow, the October 1 eruption reportedly shot out car-sized lava rocks and a flood of boiling mud and water. Read more >> |
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Serving Earth
A thousand years ago, Mayan civilization collapsed. Today, a Space Age "situation room" in Panama is helping Central Americans avoid mistakes that doomed the Maya. Read more >> |
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Landsat image of Cozumel, the largest of the islands in the Mesoamerican Reef system
The island of Cozumel off the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is the largest of the islands in the Mesoamerican Reef system. The Mesoamerican Reef is the largest in the Atlantic Ocean. More >> |
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Hurricane Emily takes toll on sea turtles
More than 84,000 eggs laid by endangered green and loggerhead turtles were swept away. More >> |
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NASA Researchers Studying Tropical Cyclones
NASA hurricane researchers are deploying to Costa Rica next month to investigate the birthplace of eastern Pacific tropical cyclones. They will be searching for clues that could lead to a greater understanding and better predictability of one of the world’s most significant weather events – the hurricane. More>> |
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Deforestation around the Panama Canal
Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has saved every ship passing through it a 7,872-mile trip around South America. Now, each ship takes a 51-mile journey through an intricate system of gates, locks, and drains. Read more >> |
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Hurricane Adrian
Hurricane Adrian was zeroing in on the Pacific coast of El Salvador and Guatemala when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image on May 19, 2005, at 10:45 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time. More >> |
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Tropical Storm Adrian
Adrian, the first tropical storm of the season in the eastern Pacific, became the first hurricane to hit El Salvador when it came ashore on Friday, May 19, 2005, between Acajutla and Puerto La Libertad west of San Salvador. Read more about Adrian and view image showing rainfall totals as seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite>> |
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Fires in Central America
On March 22, 2005, dozens of fires were burning across southern Mexico and several Central American countries when NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. More >> |
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Chíchén Itzá
Deep in the northern Yucatan jungle lies one of the Northern Hemisphere’s oldest solar observatories. At the ruins of an ancient city called Chíchén Itzá ("the mouth of the well"), a well-preserved collection of buildings and plazas reveals the sophisticated astronomical and architectural knowledge possessed by the Maya more than a thousand years ago. More >> |
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Fires in Central America
Dozens of fires, burning in the northwestern corner of Guatemala, are visible in an image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. These fires are part of the continuing threats to the already beleaguered Laguna del Tigre National Park, which occupies the area covered with the highest concentration of fires. More >> |
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NASA Develops Central American Monitoring System
A state-of-the-art environmental monitoring facility in Panama is the first to employ NASA Earth science research and space-based observations to provide Central American decision makers with early warning about a variety of ecological and climatic changes.
Read the Earth Observatory article >> |
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NASA Installs Climate-Observation System
From AP News--PANAMA CITY, Panama - NASA has installed a climate-observation system at a former U.S. military base bordering the Panama Canal that will allow scientists to monitor forest fires, earthquakes and tropical storms.
Read the news article >> |
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NASA Research Supports Environmental Management in Mesoamerica
NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joined with other U.S. and Central American partners to launch an innovative, Web-based, environmental management system. NASA is supporting the system with USAID; the World Bank; the Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC); the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD); the City of Knowledge, Panama; and Cable & Wireless Panama.
Read the news article >> |
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Mexico Plans to Preserve Tropical Forest
Mexico and a U.S. environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula in what officials said Friday was the largest conservation project in the country's history. Read the article >> |
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Floods in Gonaives, Haiti
From the Earth Observatory, the floods that claimed the lives of at least 1,500 Haitians and left as many missing, also filled a large lake basin outside of Gonaives. The basin, which was a dry dust bowl on August 8, 2001, was still completely covered with water on October 3, 2004, two weeks after Hurricane Jeanne’s heavy rains induced the flooding. Read the entire article >> |
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Cambio climático será mucho peor para el Sur
From Tierramérica, "Caerá el rendimiento de los cultivos, las zonas templadas desaparecerán y aumentarán las personas con hambre, según la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, FAO. Con el calentamiento global, “el mundo en desarrollo va a perder”, aseguró a Tierramérica el especialista Prabhu Pingali." Read the article >> |
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Preliminary Meteorological Analysis of the Panama City, Panama Flooding of September 17-18, 2004
A preliminary meteorological analysis of the Panama City floods of September 17-18 has been performed using GOES-12 IR Ch4 imagery and TRMM radar-based rainfall estimates. Please Click here to see the details. |
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Mayan Mysteries
From the Earth Observatory--Centuries before Europeans arrived, an advanced civilization flourished in Mesoamerica, a region extending from southern Mexico through Central America. The Maya mastered astronomy, developed an elaborate written language, built towering monuments, and left behind exquisite artifacts.
According to NASA archaeologist Tom Sever, the Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica was one of the densest populations in human history. Read more>> |
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Keeping an Eye on Central America
Science@NASA published an article about SIAM-SERVIR entitled "Keeping an Eye on Central America."
NASA-supported researchers have developed software anyone can use to fly, video game-style, over Central America and survey its current environmental conditions. Read the article in English or in Spanish. |
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"Extinct" Bird Rediscovered in Mexico
The Cozumel Thrasher (Toxostoma guttatum), a bird not seen or recorded by scientists for close to a decade and thought by some to have gone extinct, was sighted last month by a team of field biologists, American Bird Conservancy and Conservation International announced. Read the article >> |
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Flood Disaster Hits Hispaniola
From an article in the Earth Observatory by Timothy Gubbels and Robert Brakenridge: The death toll continues to climb from last week’s flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reports that at least 1,068 people are dead, 1,600 are missing, and 25,000 are in need of emergency food and non-food assistance. Read the article >> |
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