Washington: NASA has invited citizen scientists to help track mosquitoes to create new forecast models that can predict the spread of diseases like Zika, West Nile Virus and malaria.
People can help track mosquitoes by downloading an app called GLOBE Observer, and then collect data over the summer using the Mosquito Habi-tat Mapper tool in the app.
The app guides users through the process of identifying and eliminating mosquito breeding sites. “We do not have enough information on the geographic distribution of mosquito and time-variation in their populations. If a lot of people participated in this citizen science initiative worldwide, it will help fill in gaps and that would help our work,” said Assaf Anyamba, a scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US.
From 2017 to 2018, researchers studied West-ern Europe, not typically known for mosquito disease outbreaks.
The teams blended the citizen science data with NASA satellite observations of land surface temperatures, humidity, soil moisture, elevation, vegetation and precipitation.
The data was then used to create an interactive, open-source map on Google Earth Engine to improve prediction models for disease-carrying mosquitoes. The work is ongoing.
Early results showed that vegetation, humidity and soil moisture made it easier for mosquitoes to thrive during summer. In winter, elevation played a stronger role in creating mosquito-friendly habitats. The lower the altitude, the higher the number of mosquitoes. One challenge with the study was that the citizen data was concentrated in populated areas.
