Eight student interns in NASA’s DEVELOP internship program are using remote sensing to identify habitat in Alabama that Lyme disease spreading ticks prefer. The students are using ASTER sensor data as well as DigitalGlobe QuickBird imagery to identify environments in the Birmingham metro area. The imagery is being analyzed and input into a GIS, with separate layers for soil moisture, vegetation coverage, and known habitat of white-tailed deer and the white-footed mouse, which are carriers for the ticks. The research aims to settle some disagreements in the health community about whether Lyme disease can occur in Alabama.

The work is being conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Laboratory for Global Health Observation (LGHO). This remote sensing lab is the first in North America to focus primarily on medical and health-based research.

View this YouTube video for a background on the lab:

Read more related Spatial Sustain posts:

• Indian Students to Benefit from Expert Lectures via EDUSAT
• Earth Eye Provides Soup to Nuts from Data Collection to Internet Mapping #SPAR2010
• The GeoTech Center Uses Virtualization to Extend Tools for Training
• India Aids Tea Growers with Remote Sensing
• Interest in Interdisciplinary Problem Solving Grows