On August 18, 2010, the Geospatial Information System for Fire Management (SIGMA-I, in Spanish) was officially launched at the national level in the Republic of Guatemala. The system is executed by the National Council on Protected Areas (CONAP) the National Forestry Institute (INAB), the National Forest Fire Prevention and Control System (SIPECIF-CONRED) and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), jointly with CATHALAC, financed in context of SERVIR through USAID, CATHALAC and NASA.

The Regional Symposium on Geospatial Technology Applications in CAFTA-DR countries was held on May 6-7, 2010, in Panama City, Panama. The event was organized in the framework of a project entitled “Expansion of SERVIR in CAFTA-DR countries for Improved Environmental Monitoring and Informed Decision Making,” which is implemented by the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) jointly with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with financing from the United State Agency for International Development (USAID).

A través del sistema HMS (Hazzard Mapping System) en colaboración con NOAA el equipo de SERVIR realizo una animación de las imágenes de satélite del sensor GOES-EAST entre las 2:15UTC y 16:45UTC del día 23 de octubre en donde se observa claramente el incendio en los depositos de combustible en una refinería de Puerto Rico. Se utilizo el canal 2 infrarrojo de temperatura para lograr observar el punto caliente (hotspot) y el humo que emanaba del mismo.

  October 6, 2009: For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas the Maya numbered 200 to 400 people per square mile. But suddenly, all was quiet. And the profound silence testified to one of the greatest demographic disasters in human prehistory -- the demise of the once vibrant Maya society.

see captionWhat happened? Some NASA-funded researchers think they have a pretty good idea.

"They did it to themselves," says veteran archeologist Tom Sever.