Mangroves are salt tolerant plants that occur between 32°N and 38°S latitudes. Mangroves play an important role in stabilizing shoreline and protect the coast against storm surges and heavy tides. Though the mangrove inventory has been done earlier in India using satellite data but no systematic attempts has been made to map the mangroves at the community level for the entire country. The present paper reports the mangrove inventory at community level for India using Resourcesat-1 satellite data. State wise inventory on the mangrove area and the dominant communities are presented.

The study estimated, for the first time, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with cattle raising in Brazil, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2008 and the three principal sources: 1) portion of deforestation resulting in pasture establishment and subsequent burning of felled vegetation; 2) pasture burning; and 3) bovine enteric fermentation. Deforestation for pasture establishment was only considered for the Amazon and Cerrado. Emissions from pasture burning and enteric fermentation were accounted for the entire country.

A new data set of middle- and upper-stratospheric temperatures based on reprocessing of satellite radiances provides a view of stratospheric climate change during the period 1979–2005 that is strikingly different from that provided by earlier data sets. The new data call into question our understanding of observed stratospheric temperature trends and our ability to test simulations of the stratospheric response to emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances.

A new model of glacial isostatic adjustment used in conjunction with GRACE satellite data suggests that ice loss from Antarctica is contributing 0.19 millimetres per year to global mean sea level, which is substantially less than previous GRACE-based estimates.

Being a low laying deltaic country, the morphological changes of the coastal zones of Bangladesh become a major social, economic and environmental concern. In this study, images of Landsat satellite during 1989-2010 are analyzed to detect the variation of shoreline positions. The western-central coast has been divided into different segments and changes have been observed in the south face. Shoreline change rates have been analyzed for two period 1989-2000 and 2000-2010. Every segment has been facing more changes in the previous decade 1989-2000 as compared to the recent decade 2000-2010.

Satellite data are invaluable for mapping India's remaining forests, but their coarse resolution limits the information they can provide for protection purposes (Nature 489, 14–15; 2012). For example, individual tree species cannot be identified from satellite data. (Correspondence)

The Nagaon district in Assam is in a sub-humid region with a greater part of the district comprising alluvial soil ranging from pure sand on the banks of the Brahmaputra to stiff clay. The area is subjected to frequent flooding by rivers during a spell of 4 months in a year. In the present study, flood hazard layer is considered as the primary input and is integrated with land use/land cover, infrastructure and population data and weightages are assigned to each class. Based on this, village flood risk index map for Nagaon district has been generated.