NASA looks at Louisiana delta system, eyes global forecasts

A research scientist for the LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science uses a real time kinetic (RTK) GPS to take measurements on Mike Island, part of the Wax Lake Delta in the Atchafalaya Basin, in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. NASA is using high-tech airborne systems along with boats and mud-slogging work on islands for a US$15mil study of these two parts of Louisiana's river delta system. — AP

MIKE ISLAND, Louisiana: Erosion, sinking land and sea rise from climate change have killed the Louisiana woods where a 41-year-old Native American chief played as a child. Not far away in the Mississippi River delta system, middle-school students can stand on islands that emerged the year they were born.

NASA is using high-tech airborne systems along with boats and mud-slogging work on islands for a US$15mil (RM62.27mil), five-year study of these adjacent areas of Louisiana. One is hitched to a river and growing; the other is disconnected and dying.