“Mongabay.com is pleased to announce the beta version of a global forest disturbance alert system (GloF-DAS) developed in partnership with Cal State Monterey Bay and NASA Ames Research Center. The tool offers the potential to pinpoint areas that are being deforested on a quarterly basis. GloF-DAS is based on a new product derived from satellite data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The product, developed at NASA Ames Research Center by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) ecosystem modeling team, is based on comparison of MODIS global vegetation index images at the exact same time period each year in consecutive years. It registers change when more than 40 percent of a five x five kilometer surrounding forest area has lost greenness over the previous 12 months. Seasonal variation is generally mitigated through the product’s quarterly baseline. GloF-DAS could help users detect deforestation shortly after it occurs, offering the potential to take measures to investigate clearing before it expands.”