Student Research Reports
Open social media sharing options menu
A Study of Environmental Conditions associated with the 2015 Dengue Outbreak in Southeast Brazil
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Prayag Sreenivasan
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Educator(s):Cassie Soeffing
Contributors:Dr. Rusty Low, scientist, IGES
Peder Nelson, scientist, OSU
Dr. Erika Podest, scientist, NASA JPL
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report, Mission Mosquito Report
Protocols:Mosquitoes
Presentation Video:
View Video
Presentation Poster:
View Document
Language(s):English
Date Submitted:02/09/2022
One of the major carriers of diseases are mosquitos and the diseases they have carried have
resulted in epidemics with widespread impact. They are vectors for Malaria, Zika, West Nile and
Dengue. An estimated 700 million people worldwide are affected by these diseases. In 2015
there was a Dengue fever outbreak in Brazil. During this outbreak, about 1.5 million cases and
1032 dengue deaths were reported.
Since Dengue is carried by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, I have focused my research on the
environmental conditions that existed during 2014-2015 in southeast Brazil, specifically in Rio
de Janeiro and San Paulo.
The data focused on soil moisture, precipitation rates, soil temperature, and land water storage.
The measurements were obtained from the data collected by remote sensing Earth orbiting
systems. The Giovanni tool developed by NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and
Information Services Center (DISC) and the GLOBE Mosquito Habitat Mapper Data were used
to georeference observations of mosquito habitats and larvae reported by GLOBE students and
citizen scientists, and to collect and organize the raw land cover data and draw correlations and
conclusions from it.