{"id":242254,"date":"2016-07-22T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=f57a542371de1e4e2ae9d45c006fb821"},"modified":"2016-07-22T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T08:00:00","slug":"tonga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=242254","title":{"rendered":"Tonga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\nThe island of Tongatapu and the nearby smaller islands \u2013 all part of the Kingdom of Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean \u2013 are pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from 23 May.\n<\/p>\n

\nTonga\u2019s population is spread across 36 of Tonga\u2019s 169 islands, but about 70% live on this main island. The capital, Nuku\u02bbalofa, sits on the island\u2019s north coast and along the Fanga\u2019uta Lagoon. The lagoon\u2019s mangroves provide an important breeding ground for fish and birds.\n<\/p>\n

\nBuilt on limestone, the island has fertile soil of volcanic ash from neighbouring volcanoes, and we can see how agricultural structures cover most of the island. Crops include root crops such as sweet potato and cassava, as well as coconuts, bananas and coffee beans.\n<\/p>\n

\nNorth of the island we can see many coral reefs. Although not part of its original mission objectives, scientists are experimenting with Sentinel-2 to monitor corals and detect coral bleaching \u2013 a consequence of higher water temperatures.\n<\/p>\n

\nBleaching happens when algae living in the corals\u2019 tissues, which capture the Sun\u2019s energy and are essential to coral survival, are expelled owing to the higher temperature.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe whitening coral may die, with subsequent effects on the reef ecosystem, and thus fisheries, regional tourism and coastal protection.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe recent El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon has caused increased bleaching across the world\u2019s corals, and scientists are finding Sentinel-2\u2019s coverage helpful in monitoring this at reef-wide scales.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nThe island of Tongatapu and the nearby smaller islands – all part of the Kingdom of Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean – are pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from 23 May.\n<\/p>\n

\nTonga’s population is spread across 36 of Tonga’s 169 islands, but about 70% live on this main island. The capital, Nukuʻalofa, sits on the island’s north coast and along the Fanga’uta Lagoon. The lagoon’s mangroves provide an important breeding ground for fish and birds.\n<\/p>\n

\nBuilt on limestone, the island has fertile soil of volcanic ash from neighbouring volcanoes, and we can see how agricultural structures cover most of the island. Crops include root crops such as sweet potato and cassava, as well as coconuts, bananas and coffee beans.\n<\/p>\n

\nNorth of the island we can see many coral reefs. Although not part of its original mission objectives, scientists are experimenting with Sentinel-2 to monitor corals and detect coral bleaching – a consequence of higher water temperatures.\n<\/p>\n

\nBleaching happens when algae living in the corals’ tissues, which capture the Sun’s energy and are essential to coral survival, are expelled owing to the higher temperature.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe whitening coral may die, with subsequent effects on the reef ecosystem, and thus fisheries, regional tourism and coastal protection.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe recent El Niño weather phenomenon has caused increased bleaching across the world’s corals, and scientists are finding Sentinel-2’s coverage helpful in monitoring this at reef-wide scales.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242255,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242254\/revisions\/242255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}