1 Using Satellite Images in Determination of Malaria Outbreaks Potential Region

Malaria outbreaks are affecting nearly 40 percent of the earth’s population most of whom are living in tropical and subtropical zones. Malaria is an infectious disease that is being transferred by the female mosquito of the species Anopheles. The life cycle of the malaria parasite develops in the anopheline and in the human body. These parasites require suitable environmental parameters in order to complete their development cycles within the mosquito. These parameters are temperature, humidity, vegetation and water. A temperature range of 25°C to 35°C and relative humidity range of 50 to 80 percent is suitable for developing malaria outbreaks. As the fly-range of the mosquito is limited to 2 to 4 kilometers and since water pools are necessary for breeding, then the vector abundance is significantly higher around water bodies. Vegetation cover has an indirect role on malaria vector abundance. The vegetated areas help moisture availability in the air and on the soil. To locate the high potential region for malaria outbreaks, one could extract the map of abovementioned parameters via remote sensing images. A 7ETM+ image of Landsat platform is used in this study and maps of parameters such as land 2 surface temperature, air temperature, air humidity, water pools and patches and vegetated area were produced. A weighted combination of these layers showed acceptable agreement with the positive malaria cases collected in the stations. The methodology innovated in this study is fast and accurate enough to rely on