Nabin K. Malakar, Ph.D.

NASA JPL
I am a computational physicist working on societal applications of machine-learning techniques.

Research Links

My research interests span multi-disciplinary fields involving Societal applications of Machine Learning, Decision-theoretic approach to automated Experimental Design, Bayesian statistical data analysis and signal processing.

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Interested about the picture? Autonomous experimental design allows us to answer the question of where to take the measurements. More about it is here...

Hobbies

I addition to the research, I also like to hike, bike, read and play with water color.

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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Wild Fire in Langtang National Park detected from Space

DHUNCHE: A massive wild fire spread across Rasuwa’s northern Timure and the surrounding forest of Langtang area this morning. The inferno in Langtang National Park area was reported after a huge cloud of smoke was seen from the headquarters at around 10:00 am. According to locals, they first suspected a volcano eruption but they did not hear any explosive sound. As the incident site is far from human settlement, people are safe, said District Police Office. The incident site is a three-day walk from the district headquarters. A Nepali Army chopper, which had reached the site at 1:00 pm, is learned to have returned without learning about the cause of the fire.
That was the news. Source: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Fire+engulfs+Langtang+National+Park+area&NewsID=358587

The NASA remote sensing observation satellites called Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer  (MODIS) detected fire activities in the area. Attached is the screenshot.
NASA MODIS detection of recent wildfires in Nepal. This is an example of how useful the remote sensing observation can be for mountainous country like Nepal. The helicopter observation could not tell whether it was fire or volcano. Twitter was filled with the news of volcano/not volcano discussions.  I believe one of the ministry (of environment) should be enrolled to NASA fire updates so that they can get alerts for such incidents.

More about the tools:
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) integrates remote sensing and GIS technologies to deliver global MODIS fire locations and burned area information. The active fire locations are processed by LANCE using the standard MODIS MOD14/MYD14 Fire and Thermal Anomalies product. Each active fire location represents the center of a 1km pixel that is flagged by the algorithm as containing one or more fires within the pixel.
http://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/

If someone is concerned about the fire in any particular location, they also provide email subscription alerts. I think someone in environment ministry should be interested. Just wanted to point out the tools that may help the decision makers.

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

बादल छैन परदेशीलाई

गाउँमा वदली हुँदा मेरी आमा आकाश तिर हेरेर, 
धारे हात लाउँदै "अब कुन पाखा लान्छस् ?" भनेर बिच्कन्थे । 
खोला साँध परेको खेत, आधा बगेर पारीपट्टी चरन भएको थियो ।
नत पारीकाले दाबी गर्न सके नत हाम्रो हक लाग्यो !

म भने बादल हेरेर खुब रमाउँथे 
बादलले लिने आकार हेरेर दंग पर्थें र 
बादलको हात्ति चढेर कल्पनाको संसारमा डुबीरहन्थे।

"यो मोरा कति ट्वाल्ल परेर बस्न सक्छ?"
"बादल हेर्ने मान्छे हुस्सु हुन्छ "
मैले बादल हेर्न छोडीन।  मेरो घैटोमा घाम लागेन।

आज म बर्षैभरि घाम लाग्ने ठाउँमा छु 
तर यहाँ बदलि हुन्न। निलो आकाशतिर टोलाउँछु केवल रिक्तता पाउँछु ।
मानिसले मानिसलाई मानिस नगन्ने यो मरुभूमिमा  
आकार बुन्ने र सपना देख्ने मेरो सहारा, बादल, कतै भेटिन्न ।
सपनाको देशमा आएपछि,  सपना बुन्ने मेरो क्षमता टुटेको छ ।

Mom, I miss you :'(
"बादल छैन परदेशीलाई"

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