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China sent the Yaogan-25 remote sensing satellite into a scheduled orbit at 3:33 a.m. on Thursday 11 Dec from the Jiuquan satellite launch center.

The Yaogan-25 was carried by a Long March-4C rocket. It was the 201st mission for the Long March rocket technology.

Yaogan satellites are mainly used for scientific experiments, natural resource surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief.

China launched the first satellite in the “Yaogan” series, Yaogan-1, in 2006.

Xinhua

From a recent and dramatic image showing development at the edge of New Zealand’s Mount Egmont National Park to the weaving, interconnected waterways of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh to the stunningly unique beauty of the Namib desert in Namibia, Sanctuary: Exploring the World’s Protected Areas from Space, captures a new perspective on some of the world’s most interesting, changing, and threatened places.

NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, writes in the Foreword, “I—as a former astronaut who has looked upon our beautiful planet from space—hope that we can advance the use of space-based remote sensing and other geospatial tools to study, understand, and improve the management of the world’s parks and protected areas as well as the precious biodiversity that thrives within their borders.” Sanctuary advances readers one more step towards that vision.

Uniting satellite imagery with nature photography, conservation stories, and quotes from some of today’s leading park executives and conservationists, the book illuminates the contributions of remote sensing towards addressing the many of the themes of the World Parks Congress. These themes include reaching conservation goals, responding to climate change, improving health and well-being, supporting human life, reconciling development challenges, enhancing diversity and quality of governance, respecting indigenous and traditional knowledge and culture, and inspiring a new generation.

Published to commemorate the IUCN World Parks Congress—an event that takes place only every 10 years— the book is a celebration of global conservation efforts. Author Nancy Colleton, president of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and deputy chair of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, states, “As much as this book is intended showcase space-based satellite imagery and its role in conservation, we also wanted to tell the down-to-Earth stories of what’s happening in these areas.”

One such story is the growing trend of connecting areas to protect migrating species such as the pronghorn, which migrates the longest distance of any terrestrial animal in the United States—more than 350 miles.

Jonathan B. Jarvis, director of the U.S. National Park Service states in the book “For the first time in my nearly 40 years of work in the National Park Service, the four U.S. land management agencies are working together, applying the newest geospatial technologies to identify and protect critical corridors of connectivity between protected areas.”

Another story describes the work of the Amazon Conservation Team, which collaborates with indigenous communities to create maps of their territories and in another area develops protective measures to help preserve the rights of isolated tribes.

Published by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies with support from NASA, Sanctuary: Exploring the World’s Protected Areas from Space is available to be downloaded at www.strategies.org. Imagery and content from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), DigitalGlobe Corporation, European Space Agency, IUCN, the Amazon Conservation Team, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, The Wild Team, Rare, the American Prairie Reserve and other entities is featured.

Download Sanctuary PDF Here

Established in the framework of the FP7-REGPOT-2012-2013-1 Coordination and Support Actions – Theme Area “4.1 Unlocking and developing the research potential of research entities established in the EU ́s Convergence regions and Outermost regions”, the BEYOND project (EC GA No 316210) aims at maintaining and expanding the existing state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research potential, by Building a Centre of Excellence for Earth Observation based monitoring of Natural Disasters in South-Eastern Europe.

We feel like it has been a success in BEYOND because our work makes people’s lives a little better, and more safe, and as such it was recognised in the Copernicus Masters Awards Competition of this year, where the FIREHUB tool won the Best Challenge Service prize of 2014. The FIREHUB service provides unique real time information about the status of the active fires and the spread of fires and fire plumes over the ground.
And there is where satellite and IT technologies comes to be of great help. The unique feature of the FIREHUB service is the full exploitation of the very high temporal resolution of the METEOSAT satellites acquiring images every 5 minutes from the entire globe. Through complex modelling, FIREHUB engine combines the satellite observations with additional evidences of fire occurrence, weather forecasts, fuel, and landscape data, in order to derive and disseminate on a 5 minute basis reliable pictures of the active fires with an enhanced spatial resolution of up to 500 meters on the ground, that is 50 times better than the spatial resolution of the raw satellite observations (note that the MSG SEVIRI sensor resolution is ~3.5km over the SE Europe). Along with the fire evolution, FIREHUB provides hourly forecasts of the 3-dimensional smoke field with organic carbon concentration spreads in the atmosphere. Finally relying on any available satellite data of high or very high spatial resolution, including the future Sentinel- 2 data, the FIREHUB tool is designed to deliver daily, weekly, and seasonal burned area maps by invoking a fully automatic production chain. For more information visit: http://ocean.space.noa.gr/FireHub

bq. BEYOND_Newsletter_electronic_No_III.pdf

By MARIA SHEAHAN, Reuters

FRANKFURT – A European satellite beamed images to earth using new laser-based communications technology on Friday, opening the way for uninterrupted and near instantaneous viewing of natural disasters being sent to governments and relief agencies.

The images were a test of a 450 million euro ($562 million) space data highway being constructed. Called European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS), it will allow faster and more secure transmission of large amounts of data, such as pictures and radar images, to and from earth.

It is seen as particularly useful for monitoring flood and earthquake damage in real time.

“Currently, a satellite downloads the data that it acquires whenever it is within view of one of four ground stations on earth,” Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Observation Program Planning & Coordination Service, told Reuters ahead of Friday’s transmission.

“That means there can be periods of 45 to 90 minutes from the visibility of one station to another,” he said.

Once completed, EDRS will do away with such blind spots by using two satellites – to be launched in 2015 and 2016 and equipped with laser technology – to send data to and from Earth or between satellites at a rate of 1.8 Gigabits per second.

That is about equivalent to sending all the data that could be printed in a one-meter long shelf of books in one second, according to generally accepted industry measures.

EDRS will also offer encryption for more secure transmissions, and will make Europe less dependent on ground stations abroad to access satellite data.

In Friday’s transmission, a satellite launched as part of Europe’s Copernicus project in April, Sentinel-1a, sent images across a distance of 36,000 kms (22,369 miles) to Inmarsat’s communications satellite Alphasat, which relayed the signal to earth.

The demonstration of the new technology is key to getting the European Commission’s go-ahead for the space agency to sign an agreement making Airbus unit Astrium the operator of EDRS ahead of a Dec. 22 deadline.

EDRS will later relay data on sea ice, oil spills or floods from the multi-billion euro Copernicus earth observation project, but its services will also be available to other paying customers. — Reuters

The 82nd meeting of the EUMETSAT Council took place in Darmstadt, Germany,on 26 November.

The meeting achieved progress in the approval process for the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG) programme: 86.86 % of the financial envelope of the programme is now covered by committed contributions from Member States.

Expecting that all Member States will have completed their national approval process by June 2015 at the latest, the Council authorised the Director-General, Alain Ratier, to start the programme activities when 95% of the financial envelope is secured.

The Council also opened the Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) Optional Programme for subscription after agreeing the Programme Proposal and other documents establishing the legal framework for that programme.

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Five new NASA airborne field campaigns will take to the skies starting in 2015 to investigate how long-range air pollution, warming ocean waters, and fires in Africa affect our climate.

These studies into several incompletely understood Earth system processes were competitively-selected as part of NASA’s Earth Venture-class projects. Each project is funded at a total cost of no more than $30 million over five years. This funding includes initial development, field campaigns and analysis of data.

This is NASA’s second series of Earth Venture suborbital investigations — regularly solicited, quick-turnaround projects recommended by the National Research Council in 2007. The first series of five projects was selected in 2010.

“These new investigations address a variety of key scientific questions critical to advancing our understanding of how Earth works,” said Jack Kaye, associate director for research in NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington. “These innovative airborne experiments will let us probe inside processes and locations in unprecedented detail that complements what we can do with our fleet of Earth-observing satellites.”

The five selected Earth Venture investigations are:

Atmospheric chemistry and air pollution – Steven Wofsy of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will lead the Atmospheric Tomography project to study the impact of human-produced air pollution on certain greenhouse gases. Airborne instruments will look at how atmospheric chemistry is transformed by various air pollutants and at the impact on methane and ozone which affect climate. Flights aboard NASA’s DC-8 will originate from the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, fly north to the western Arctic, south to the South Pacific, east to the Atlantic, north to Greenland, and return to California across central North America.

Ecosystem changes in a warming ocean – Michael Behrenfeld of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, will lead the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study, which seeks to improve predictions of how ocean ecosystems would change with ocean warming. The mission will study the annual life cycle of phytoplankton and the impact small airborne particles derived from marine organisms have on climate in the North Atlantic. The large annual phytoplankton bloom in this region may influence the Earth’s energy budget. Research flights by NASA’s C-130 aircraft from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, will be coordinated with a University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research vessel. UNOLS, located at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett, Rhode Island, is an organization of 62 academic institutions and national laboratories involved in oceanographic research.

Greenhouse gas sources – Kenneth Davis of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, will lead the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport-America project to quantify the sources of regional carbon dioxide, methane and other gases, and document how weather systems transport these gases in the atmosphere. The research goal is to improve identification and predictions of carbon dioxide and methane sources and sinks using spaceborne, airborne and ground-based data over the eastern United States. Research flights will use NASA’s C-130 from Wallops and the UC-12 from Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

African fires and Atlantic clouds – Jens Redemann of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, will lead the Observations of Aerosols above Clouds and their Interactions project to probe how smoke particles from massive biomass burning in Africa influences cloud cover over the Atlantic. Particles from this seasonal burning that are lofted into the mid-troposphere and transported westward over the southeast Atlantic interact with permanent stratocumulus “climate radiators,” which are critical to the regional and global climate system. NASA aircraft, including a Wallops P-3 and an Armstrong ER-2, will be used to conduct the investigation flying out of Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Melting Greenland glaciers – Josh Willis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will lead the Oceans Melting Greenland mission to investigate the role of warmer saltier Atlantic subsurface waters in Greenland glacier melting. The study will help pave the way for improved estimates of future sea level rise by observing changes in glacier melting where ice contacts seawater. Measurements of the ocean bottom as well as seawater properties around Greenland will be taken from ships and the air using several aircraft including a NASA S-3 from Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and Gulfstream III from Armstrong.

Seven NASA centers, 25 educational institutions, three U.S. government agencies and two industry partners are involved in these Earth Venture projects. The five investigations were selected from 33 proposals.

Earth Venture investigations are part of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program managed at Langley for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The missions in this program provide an innovative approach to address Earth science research with periodic windows of opportunity to accommodate new scientific priorities.

NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, sea, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and surface-based observation campaigns. With this information and computer analysis tools, NASA studies Earth’s interconnected systems to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA’s Earth science activities, visit

SOURCE NASA

(November 2014) China will launch a new “constellation” of marine surveillance satellites in 2019 to monitor ships, oil rigs, marine disasters and land-based resources.

According to Lin Mingsen, deputy director with the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, the HY-3 “constellation” will include a series of satellites that will use synthetic aperture radar technology, “capable of operating day or night… and in all weather conditions.” The satellites will be able see meter-long objects from space and generate high-definition imagery of both land and ocean surfaces, Lin said. He said the satellites would be used to monitor ships and drilling platforms, in addition to marine oil spills, sea ice, ocean waves and surface winds among other features.

“They will play an important role in reinforcing China’s marine rights protection, marine law enforcement and supervision, management of its offshore waters and marine disaster relief and reduction,” Lin said.

Source: Xinhuanet

Data forms a key pillar in 21st century sources of growth. The confluence of several trends, including the increasing migration of socio-economic activities to the Internet and the decline in the cost of data collection, storage and processing, are leading to the generation and use of huge volumes of data – commonly referred to as “big data”.

These large data sets are becoming a core asset in the economy, fostering new industries, processes and products and creating significant competitive advantages.

For instance:

  • In business, data exploitation promises to create value in a variety of operations, from the optimisation of value chains in global manufacturing and services more efficient use of labour and tailored customer relationships.
  • The adoption of ‘smart-grid’ technologies is generating large volumes of data on energy and resource consumption patterns that can be exploited to improve energy and resource efficiency.
  • The public sector is also an important data user but also a key source of data. Greater access to and more effective use of public-sector information (PSI), as called for by the 2008 OECD Council Recommendation on PSI, can generate benefits across the economy.

Greater access and use of data creates a wide array of policy issues, such as privacy and consumer protection, open data access, skills and employment, and measurement to name a few.

Objectives

The OECD is undertaking extensive analysis on the role of data in promoting innovation, growth and well-being within its multi-disciplinary project on New Sources of Growth: Knowledge-Based Capital (KBC). The objectives of the project are:

  • Improve the evidence base on the role of data for promoting growth and well-being, and
  • Provide policy guidance on how to maximize the benefits of the data-driven economy, while mitigating the associated risks.

(Nov 2014) Come and take a tour of our new web-site!

We are pleased to launch our new, fully-featured website. As EARSC celebrates its 25th anniversary this year we took the opportunity to create a new, fresh entry to our community so enhancing the quality and availability of information to members and stakeholders worldwide.

You will see a new user-friendly design and structure with a new look and feel and which offers more efficient access to ALL the essential information on EARSC tools, resources and the members Community.

All EARSC information and tools are easily accessible describing who we are and what we do including a news service, events calendar, library with published documents, access to EARSC communities or tools; EOpages, EOmag and the EO Portal.

Come and take a look at www.earsc.org

Sincerely,
EARSC secretariat

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia Haslach, and U.S. Ambassador to the African Union (AU) Reuben Brigety, met this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss resources available to help mitigate the impacts in Africa of global climate change.

On Monday, Bolden delivered high-resolution topographical data for the African continent to the technical committee of the Governing Council of the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), which hosts the SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa Hub. SERVIR is a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development that provides satellite-based Earth observation data and science applications to help developing nations. The data, collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, was recently released as part of President Barack Obama’s climate action plan, announced during the United Nations Climate Summit in September.

“It is vital that NASA and African nations continue to explore mutual areas of cooperation,” Bolden said. “I look forward to our ongoing collaboration and to making a difference on real world problems with our satellites in space and crucial ground observations. Working together, we can improve life for all of our people.”

While in Addis Ababa, Bolden and Brigety met with Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, and Martial De-Paul Ikounga, the AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, to discuss the potential for cooperation between NASA and the AU on education, disaster mitigation and applications for NASA’s Earth science research.

“The United States has been partnering with the African Union on topics as diverse as security, governance and agriculture,” Brigety said. “Administrator Bolden’s visit is another concrete example demonstrating that the United States is the natural partner for Africa and for the African Union.”

Administrator Bolden and Ambassador Haslach met with Demitu Hambisa, the Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology to discuss applications for NASA’s Earth science research. Administrator Bolden also met with leaders at the Entoto Observatory and Research Center, an observatory and education center, and spoke with students at the International Community School Tikur Anbessa High School, and Addis Ababa Institute of Technology.

“We are excited Administrator Bolden visited Addis Ababa this week and that NASA is engaging with the government of Ethiopia and the African Union on our shared objectives,” Haslach said. “While here in Addis Ababa, Administrator Bolden participated in a range of outreach activities and engaged Ethiopian policymakers and technical experts on Ethiopia’s space program, which included a visit to the new observatory on Entoto Mountain and engagement with young Ethiopians interested in space exploration and how it can help us on Earth.”

SOURCE NASA