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takyon writes:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/news/a28198/nasa-satellites-predict-malaria-outbreaks/

Malaria is one of the world's most deadly diseases, made even more deadly by the fact that it tends to affect mostly remote communities. This makes it difficult to track and control malaria outbreaks when they happen, resulting in more severe outbreaks and more victims. To solve this problem, a group of researchers have turned to an unlikely source: NASA satellites.

[...] NASA satellites can be used to track weather patterns, temperatures, and water levels in order to find the ponds and puddles where those mosquitoes breed. The researchers used NASA weather satellites, combined with a computer model called the Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS), in order to track and predict temperatures, rainfall levels, soil moisture content, and vegetation. This information can tell the researchers where most of the mosquitoes are going to be.

"It's an exercise in indirect reasoning," says investigator Ben Zaitchik. "These models let us predict where the soil moisture is going to be in a condition that will allow for breeding sites to form."

But mosquitoes are only half the equation. The researchers also need to know where the people are going to be, and for this they rely on a combination of census data and seasonal migration studies, informed by the same NASA data used to track mosquitoes.

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