Using satellite data to predict onset of disease

An interesting article about how an outbreak of malaria was prevented:

What the researchers at Goddard had noticed at the time of the first outbreak was that in the months preceding it, surface temperatures in the equatorial part of the Indian Ocean had risen by half a degree. These higher temperatures brought heavy and sustained rains, cloud cover and warmer air to much of the Horn of Africa. Mosquitoes multiplied wildly—and lived long enough for the virus that causes the fever to develop to the point where it is easily transmissible. In September 2007 the researchers saw the same thing happening in the ocean, and suspected the same consequences would follow.

Later on, the article goes on to talk about how ponds and their salinity were measured to gauge whether the mosquitoes would have the right environment to multiply.