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The help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been deployed by tech firms and NGOs worldwide to fight the climate change crisis. Gadgets 360 caught up with some, including the team at Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) — a New Delhi-based NGO — and IBM India, to talk about their efforts to apply tech to mitigate the climate crisis.

Although big tech companies are now moving towards measures to become more sustainable (Apple and Facebook have pledged to be carbon neutral by the end of the decade), a lot remains to be done, and this is one of the areas where artificial intelligence is making an impact.

With the UN Climate Change Conference that began in Glasgow on October 31, the discourse on the global climate change crisis is back in the spotlight. The 26th edition of the Conferences of the Parties (COP26) will go on till November 14 and will see global leaders, academic experts, and activists gathering to discuss how to contain the rise in global temperatures.

But while world leaders develop policies and long-term plans, we spoke to companies innovating on the ground to see how they can help contribute to change.

Evading disasters through Sunny Lives

SEEDS developed Sunny Lives, an AI-powered disaster impact model that uses high-resolution satellite imagery to assess the risks of hazard at a hyper-local level. The Sunny Lives project has been executed in partnership with Microsoft and technology partner Gramener, and is being supported under Microsoft’s global programme ‘Artificial Intelligence for Humanitarian Action’.

Mridula Garg, who is leading the Sunny Lives project at SEEDS said that Sunny Lives detects building footprints and then assigns them relative risk scores as values from 1 to 5. “The model takes into account the type of hazard say floods or heat waves, analyses the exposure based on geographic parameters such as slope and vegetation, and uses building classification as a proxy for the socio-economic vulnerability of the inhabitants. The relative risk score assigned after detecting the building footprints is used by our disaster response teams for prioritising families at highest risk,” Garg said.

During the application for an impending cyclone, satellite imagery is procured for Areas of Interest that are selected based on the cyclone’s predicted path issued by the IMD. The Sunny Lives AI Model is then run for these areas to generate the risk scores.

It was clear to the team at SEEDS that the type of building played a significant role in predicting the effect of a disaster on it. For example, a concrete house and a thatched roof dwelling would face a difference in impact from a cyclone even when they are located next to each other. The model was developed from the desire to code this knowledge so that disaster risk assessment could be scaled widely.

Microsoft’s data science team and tech partner Gramener used machine learning to automate the process of identifying dwellings and their types. Satellite images of low-income, highly dense and vulnerable settlements in India were used to identify 7 different categories of dwellings including tarpaulin roofs, metal sheet roofs, double side sloping tiled roofs etc.

The AI model was trained on 15,000 buildings from low-income, highly dense, and vulnerable settlements of Puri and Mumbai. The 15,000 buildings were tagged to build the training dataset for the AI inundation model. A similar exercise is now being done for the cities of Dehradun and Gangtok as the model is being adapted for assessing earthquake risks.

Sunny Lives was deployed at a scale for the first time during cyclone Yaas in May 2021. The model was run for Puri in Odisha, based on which SEEDS reached out to over 1,000 families that were identified as high-risk. Advisories were shared which outlined the steps to be taken in case of evacuation and also suggested low-cost measures to reduce

Garg said that post-disaster impact surveys highlighted that 97 percent of the families found the information useful and were able to reduce losses and take preemptive measures during the cyclone. “In addition, we have recently concluded around 1,500 ground truthing surveys in Puri which will help analyse and further improve the accuracy of the model,” said Garg.

An AI model like Sunny Lives provides an unending possibility to scale across urban geographies and is being adapted for multiple hazards. Deploying the model at scale through collaborations is the next key focus for SEEDS. “We have gathered a lot of interest from several state government authorities and are reaching out to many more. Our vision is to integrate the use of the model for climate change adaptation and disaster management in a way that the hyper-local risk of the communities is understood and pathways for their protection and resilience are put into practice,” Garg said.

Tech firms’ solution to counting CO2

Major companies around the globe have pledged to stop climate change. These companies are facing a challenge with quantifying their emissions and understanding the best way to mitigate the climate change crisis. In response to this, several tech firms have come up with solutions to help businesses prepare for and respond to climate risks.

Salesforce’s team built the Salesforce Sustainability Cloud with a mission to track emissions. The Sustainability Cloud is priced at $4,000 (roughly Rs. 3 lakh) a month. Microsoft is also previewing a tool for calculating emissions called Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. They are aiming to make it available by mid-2022.

IBM also recently brought out a suite of environmental intelligence software that uses AI to help organisations prepare for and respond to climate risks. The team from IBM said that the suite will help businesses which have deployed it to more easily assess their impact on the planet, and reduce the complexity of regulatory compliance and reporting.

“We wanted to make it easier for companies to both manage and to know about the risk affecting their business operations and to act differently in order to minimise the risks,” said Gargi Dasgupta, Director, IBM Research, India.

The suite puts existing weather data from various sources to use to collect and compile data. IBM said in its blog post that the suite is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution designed to help organisations monitor for disruptive environmental conditions, predict the potential impacts of climate change, prioritise mitigation and response efforts, and measure and report on environmental initiatives. The IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite utilises the AI-driven innovations from IBM Research.

Shantanu Godbole, the technical lead of IBM’s global research team, said that while assessing how technology would impact climate change, they focused on two areas — mitigation and adaptation. “Mitigation works towards helping organisations meet their net zero carbon emission goals, optimisation of their emissions, and making their business processes more sustainable,” he said.

Godbole added that the focus of their team in terms of adaptation was to help businesses adapt to extreme weather conditions. “Weather forecasting is done for upto one to two weeks into the future. No data is available on the scale of six months or three years down the line. That is a horizon that is an important opportunity area from a planning and decision making perspective. We feel enterprises need to have technology to help make decisions at those times,” Godbole said.


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Massive Steam Plume Spotted at Alaska’s Mount Spurr as Volcano May Erupt Soon

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Massive Steam Plume Spotted at Alaska’s Mount Spurr as Volcano May Erupt Soon

A large steam plume has been seen emerging from Mount Spurr in Alaska, signalling increased volcanic activity. Images shared by the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) on March 28 confirmed steam and gas emissions visible from the volcano’s summit and a northern vent. The volcano is located around 80 miles west of Anchorage and stands at 11,070 feet high. The experts have revealed that there could be a possible eruption in the coming weeks or months. However, nothing is certain yet.

Increased Signs of Unrest Reported

According to the latest update by the Alaska Volcano Observatory steam was observed rising from the summit on March 26. A smaller plume was also recorded from a fumarole on the volcano’s northern flank. No immediate changes in seismic activity or gas levels were detected during these observations as per the AVO statement.

The AVO had earlier mentioned in a March 11 update that a noticeable rise in gas emissions indicates fresh magma has moved into the crust beneath Mount Spurr. This has led scientists to assess the chance of an eruption in the near future. The observatory clarified that the exact timing of any eruption cannot be predicted yet.

Hazards and Possible Alerts

The observatory has cautioned that the volcano’s alert level might be raised if there are further signs of escalation. According to AVO, this may include persistent seismic tremors, increased gas emissions or visible surface changes. If an eruption occurs, possible hazards include ash clouds impacting flights, ashfall across nearby areas, pyroclastic flows and mudflows known as lahars.

The volcano last erupted in 1992. That eruption resulted in heavy ashfall and affected air travel in the region. AVO has advised residents and visitors to stay informed and follow safety instructions if alerts are raised.

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Study Identifies Plasma Formation as a Pseudostreamer

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Study Identifies Plasma Formation as a Pseudostreamer

A towering spiral of plasma has been recorded extending millions of kilometres from the Sun. The video was taken by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter during an eight-hour period on October 12, 2022. A coronal mass ejection caused the plasma to rise from the Sun’s surface. The footage captured something which was never observed before. It showed a swirling motion in the solar wind. As per the latest report, scientists also recorded bright streaks that were moving across the frame. Researchers also revealed that these streaks appeared as pixelated lines, which might also ressemble like UFOs. Scientists later confirmed they were distant stars visible due to the imaging process.

Study Identifies Plasma Formation as a Pseudostreamer

The study published in The Astrophysical Journal revealed that the massive structure that appeared in the photos was a large pseudostreamer. It was formed near the Sun’s north pole after a solar flare erupted. The report further highlighted that the plasma reached 1.5 times the Sun’s width and remained visible for three hours. Scientists believes the twisting movement of the plasma was due to Alfvénic fluctuations. These fluctuations happen when waves of charged particles respond to magnetic disturbances. Scientists says the pseudostreamer’s location influenced its unique shape. Magnetic fields at the Sun’s poles are stronger than those near the equator.

Unusual Streaks Explained

The video also showed bright, half-dark lines crossing the screen. These lines appeared to move in a pattern similar to arcade game graphics. ESA confirmed that these were distant stars. The video’s editing technique made them appear as streaks rather than points of light. The Solar Orbiter’s movement against the background created this effect.

Solar Activity Expected to Intensify

The Sun is currently experiencing solar maximum. Flares and solar winds have increased since early 2024. The pseudostreamer in the video formed before this peak. Scientists were surprised by its early appearance. ESA’s Solar Orbiter continues to capture detailed images of solar wind. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Proba-3 mission are also studying these phenomena. More extreme solar winds are expected in the coming years.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


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SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9 Rocket, Booster Lands Safely

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SpaceX Launches 27 Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9 Rocket, Booster Lands Safely

SpaceX has sent another batch of satellites into orbit. On April 3, a Falcon 9 rocket launched 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket lifted off at 9.02 p.m. Eastern Time and was followed by a successful landing of the first-stage booster on a drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean. This booster had already been used on four earlier flights. The satellites are expected to be deployed nearly an hour after takeoff if mission steps proceed as planned. The launch formed part of SpaceX’s continued effort to expand its low Earth orbit network.

Details from the Launch Mission Description

According to the mission information provided by SpaceX, the launch marked the fifth use of the same Falcon 9 booster. The drone ship used for recovery was named “Of Course I Still Love You”. This reusable system has become a routine part of SpaceX operations. The booster’s return was completed around eight minutes after liftoff. The launch contributed to the growing total of Starlink satellites which is aimed at building a global broadband network.

Launch Activity in 2025

This latest mission has brought the number of Falcon 9 launches in 2025 to 38. About two-thirds of those have supported the expansion of the Starlink constellation. Earlier this week, two separate launches were also completed. One of them included the Fram2 private astronaut mission, which carried crew members into orbit over Earth’s poles. That mission marked a new milestone in human spaceflight.

Starlink Satellite Network

Over 7100 satellites are now part of the Starlink constellation. The system is already the largest of its kind. SpaceX continues to work on expanding its coverage by launching more satellites regularly. The objective remains to provide consistent internet access worldwide, especially in regions with limited connectivity options.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


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