Question

part a
what is the meaning of susceptible as it is used in paragraph 6?
o lost; expired
o predisposed; inclined
o nearby; adjacent
o defenseless; exposed

1. the map revealed no surprises - the researchers already had a general idea which regions of the world were susceptible to landslides. “the most important factors are the slope and soil type. steep slopes and coarse soil types are more susceptible to landslides,” hong said. “and, in terms of land cover, bare soil contributes more to landslides.”

remotely sensing rainfall

1. adler and hongs primary source of rainfall data is the tropical rainfall measuring mission (trmm), a joint nasa - japanese space agency mission that launched in 1997. adler said, “there are two main things that trmm provides for this multi - satellite analysis. one, its the calibrator for the information from the other satellites. two, its always in the tropics, and gives us very good coverage in a critical area.”
2. trmm orbits the earth from west to east along the equator, weaving between 35 degrees north and 35 degrees south. adler and hong collect data from other satellites that are in polar orbits, traveling north to south around the earth. “because the trmm orbit crosses over the paths of each polar - orbiting satellite, were able to collect subsets of data from both satellites at the same time,” adler said. “we use trmm data, which we think is making the best estimate, to calibrate, or adjust the rain estimates from the other satellites.”
3. to test whether their rainfall product accurately detected landslide - triggering rain events, adler and hong identified 74 rainfall - induced landslides that occurred between the trmm launch and 2006, including the guinsaugon slide. over the years, scientists have analyzed case studies of landslides to determine the intensity and duration of rainfall - usually measured at ground - based rain gauges - beyond which landslides become likely. adler and hong plugged their satellite - based rainfall data into equations that predicted when the rainfall at each landslide location would have reached the threshold. their results closely matched previous threshold estimates, confirming that satellite observations could detect the extremely intense rainfall needed to

Explanation:

In the context of the paragraph about landslides, "susceptible" means having a tendency or being predisposed to something. Steep slopes and coarse soil types are more likely or inclined to experience landslides.

Answer:

B. predisposed; inclined