As this penultimate year of the decade draws to a close, our thoughts naturally turn to all the changes we have seen. (Don’t ask me why this year and not next, there is just something special I suppose about seeing that tens digit change.) One thing that strikes me is all the convincing proof we had this year about the spread of sensors around the world. Sensors are becoming ubiquitous!
Nothing makes this clearer than the launch of the U’nha-2, North Korea’s third attempt to put a satellite into orbit. Not only did a high resolution photo-imaging satellite catch the actual launch, but it turns out that a vast array of GPS sensors spread over Japan sensed its passage through the upper atmosphere. I’m sure Wonk-readers can think of other examples that illustrate the spread of sensors around the world. (My favorite example involves Iraq, but I can’t really talk about that.)
But if the world has access to more and more sensors, it’s not clear we have the capability of analyzing all of the data. (I don’t mean the sort of brilliance Kosuke Heki, a geodesy specialist at Hokkaido University, displayed in analyzing the change in GPS signals the U’nha-2’s passage caused. That sort of creativity cannot be counted on as standard operating procedure.) It’s a lot like sitting down in front of Google Earth and simply scanning the Earth’s surface, looking for something interesting. You quickly find out you need to be clued into where to look. Dealing with this data overload will be the challenge for the next decade; when it starts in 2011.
Note: The figure above shows the dense GPS array with annual crustal strains.