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Satellite remote sensing can improve chances of achieving sustainable health.

Article Excerpt
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is a welcomed cooperative in an era when we are becoming "data rich but knowledge poor." With the proliferation of satellite platforms, each monitoring different characteristics of the earth's surface and atmosphere at varying resolutions, the task of using a combination of satellite databases has been intimidating and often not possible without large analytical effort. Also, one of the most pressing challenges across the field of environmental health is obtaining accurate exposure assessments. A system that can help integrate, for instance, meteorological, air, and water pollution and soil and food contamination will improve risk assessment. Remotely sensed data are especially useful in monitoring changes in broad area or earth system disturbances; two that are especially pertinent to disease emergence include global climate change and land use change.

Many diseases or health outcomes are sensitive to climatic conditions, from mortality and morbidity due to extreme heat, cold, drought, or storms, to vector- or waterborne infectious diseases. One clear application for remotely observed data in climate-health studies is that of thermal mapping with high resolution thermal infrared aircraft (Lillesand et al. 2004). Looking at urban sprawl in aggregate, Kalnay and Cai (2003) estimated a mean surface warming due to urban sprawl and...