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Gisat has been selected by Nordregio for development of the MapEx Web Mapping Platform. The project will result in the implementation of a dynamic online web-mapping platform for Nordregio’s web.

The platform will provide an engaging user experience to end users, thereby making Nordregio spatial data, analyses and research results more accessible and policy relevant.

Nordregio is a leading international Nordic research institute in the broad field of regional studies. The institute undertakes strategic research with the aim of producing informed and relevant material for decision-makers at the international, national and regional levels. As one of its core competencies, Nordregio also contributes to knowledge on regional development dynamics in the Nordic, European, Baltic Sea Region and Arctic contexts through the mapping of spatial and territorial data and undertaking of spatial analysis using statistics and GIS.

Gisat’s assignment follows the company’s previous successful web implementation cases utilizing internal “WebTool” framework, e.g. for World Bank or ESPON. Gisat, a vibrant geoinformation insight provider, delivers both integrated information content and innovative web-based exploration and analysis systems tailored for specific user domains.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

SAFETREE project is based on an innovative approach for operational monitoring and assessment of the forest fire risk.

Forest fires represent one of the hazards in the Czech Republic that is being paid increasing attention. Even though the areas affected by forest fires are not as large as in Mediterranean Europe, the economic and environmental impact and natural loss is high. The phenomenon occurs constantly every year with fluctuating but increasing intensity.

Czech Ministry of Agriculture is the responsible body mandated to define measures for forest fire threat monitoring for forest owners. The Ministry ensures the operation of national aviation fire service and coordinates the activities with all relevant stakeholders. Airborne patrol is the main tool to monitor forests in case of fires threats as part of pre-event emergency activity. So far the forest fire risk assessment and airborne patrol planning are mostly based on local knowledge and meteorological data.

The aim of the SAFETREE (Satellite Support to Forest Fires Airborne Patrol) project is to design, develop and verify a concept of the operational forest monitoring service dedicated to support forest fire risk assessment in the Czech Republic. Time series of satellite imagery allow monitoring of various aspects of forest vegetation with high spatial and temporal resolution. Integration of selected indicators into forest fire risk assessment will improve the planning and increase the efficiency of the airborne patrol. Proposed prototype of the monitoring system will allow identification of hot-spots with highest forest fire threat and will deliver flight navigation data that shall be directly integrated into the flight plans of the airborne patrol operators.

SAFETREE project is supported by the ESA ARTES Integrated Applications Programme (IAPARTES element 20). The project team is coordinated by Gisat and includes one additional partner – Sprinx Systems.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

VITO, together with a consortium of European research institutes, SMEs, and key international partners in agricultural monitoring, started an EC FP7 funded project on global agricultural monitoring to support GEO and GEOGLAM. Remote sensing, along with in situ observations and expert knowledge is used to improve current monitoring systems including an assessment of the long-term effects of agricultural practices on the environment.

Executive Summary

In 2007-2008 the global food crisis pushed millions of people into hunger and extreme poverty. This crisis had multiple causes but above all demonstrated the possible effect of local shocks on price volatility of global agricultural markets. As a result of that, the G20 established the AMIS and GEOGLAM initiatives. AMIS, the Agricultural Market Information System which is coordinated by FAO, collects and provides information on agricultural markets on the G20+7 main economy and producers of wheat, maize, rice and soybean. GEOGLAM (Global Agriculture Monitoring), managed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), uses remote sensing technologies to increase reliability and timeliness on agricultural production as an input to AMIS.

SIGMA is one of the major contributions of the European Commission to GEO and specifically to GEOGLAM and it is financed through the EC framework research programme (FP7). GEOGLAM has 6 major components focused on different aspects of a “Global Systems of Systems” for Agriculture as envisaged by GEO.
SIGMA is focused on innovation with the main aim to produce datasets and methods that result in improvement of current early warning systems at global, regional and local level. In the first place it contributes to the JECAM (Joint Experiment on Crop Area Monitoring) initiative which is the GEOGLAM R&D component.
Practical project outputs, such as an improved crop mask, maps identifying areas with the potential for agricultural intensification, consistent remote sensing datasets and methods that allow to identify crop land changes, are meant to be directly usable within the GEOGLAM community.

The project is further focused on the development of a specific methodology to better assess the effects of agriculture on the environment, which is commonly not addressed in agricultural monitoring systems. Lastly, SIGMA provides a platform to enable experts world-wide to meet and exchange experience from different areas in the world. As such, and along with dedicated capacity building activities, we hope that SIGMA will also make a significant contribution to information transparency and capacity at global level and national level. The SIGMA partnership consists of 22 key expert institutes in agricultural monitoring from 17 different countries, it is led by VITO (Belgium). The partnership includes a number of European SME’s which enables the better engagement of European EO companies in global agricultural monitoring.

The partners of SIGMA are: FAO (UN organization), JRC (European Commission), Alterra (Netherlands), EFTAS (Germany), CIRAD (France), GeoVille (Austria), ITC (Netherlands), GeoSAS (Ethiopia), IIASA (Austria), RCMRD (Kenya), DEIMOS (Spain), UCL (Belgium) – SARMAP (Switzerland), INTA (Argentina), SRI (Ukraine), GISAT ( Czech Republic), IKI RAN (Russia), SarVision (Netherlands), AGRHYMET (Niger), NMSC (China), RADI (China).

Background project

Global population has grown from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to more than 7 billion in 2012 and is projected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. To achieve food for all, global food production will need to grow by 70% and up to 100% in developing countries. As a result, human activity and impact on the Earth’s natural resources will increase and continue to lead to competition for land and natural resources. Expansion of urban centres, intensification of agriculture, unsustainable land practices and deforestation among others may lead to short term gains but probably they will have severe effects on the longer term. Increasing food production can only take place through intensification of current agricultural practices or expansion of area under cultivation. Sustainable land management practices along with efficient use of inputs and resources are crucial to guarantee food production on the longer term. FAO’s State of the Land and Water Report (2011) states that the largest contribution to increase agricultural output will most likely come from intensification of production on existing agricultural land. This will require widespread adoption of sustainable land management practices and more efficient use of irrigation water through enhanced flexibility, reliability and timing of irrigation water delivery. In order to achieve this, a thorough understanding of agricultural systems is essential.

Issue & needs

Food production needs to be assured for future generations through sustainable cultivation practices. Sustainable intensification of agriculture requires, among others, production systems which ensure environmental health in the long term. Both the OECD (2008) and the EC (COM 508) have defined a set of environmental indicators for agriculture which concern policy, land use, water, air, biodiversity, farm management and agricultural inputs. These indicators cover broad domains and covering them all at a global scale would be simply unfeasible. As such, and given the priorities of the call, the research will be focused on indicators which can be addressed through the combination of remote sensing and in situ observations, and which can actively contribute to a “global” agricultural monitoring system in particular in relation to: Agricultural Expansion, with an assessment of crop land dynamics, and agricultural Intensification, with an assessment of potential and actual shifts in cultivation practises.

Proposed solution

Current remote sensing based agricultural monitoring systems focus mostly on “short term” assessments of agriculture in terms of productivity forecasts and estimates and do not take into account (or only to a limited extent) the environmental considerations, which inevitably reduces agricultural productivity and impacts agricultural sustainability in the long term.
Therefore, SIGMA’s main challenge is to develop innovative methods and indicators to monitor and assess progress towards “sustainable agriculture”, focussed on the assessment of longer term impact of agricultural dynamics on the environment and vice versa.

In short, SIGMA intends to develop methods and products that will enable us to answer the following sustainability questions:

  • How and where do changes in crop land distribution affect other ecosystems?
  • How and where do changes in cropping systems and cultivation practices affect environmental and sustainability options?
  • How can we ensure integration of developed methods in global monitoring systems?

Industry perspective

There are three main activities in SIGMA. Firstly the project partners will identify and map crop land in terms of change (shrinking and expansion), which will provide an insight in potential for agricultural expansion. Secondly, potential for agricultural intensification will be studied, identifying crop yield gaps (difference between actual and potential yield) and changes in agricultural systems (single to multiple cropping, irrigated versus not irrigated). Methods to characterize environmental effects of both expansion and intensification will be studied in a third activity. These key components are further supported through capacity building, to engage and train a wider community, data coordination, management and outreach activities. Global and regional data sets (based on low resolution data and models) are used to analyze crop land change and some well-known land degradation issues. This global approach is then ‘verified’ at regional level and number of sites at specific locations, potentially providing insight into the validity of such global and regional approaches. Specific developments at local scale can further lead to significant improvements in methodology.

Industry plays an important role in the project, taking care of advanced image processing and the development of specific tools and analysis protocols that allow to facilitate the work of agricultural analysts.

Cost justification

The project has been Kicked-off in November 2013, when experts from the consortium gathered at VITO in Belgium. Subsequent to that an international food security meeting, under the auspices of the EC, GEOGLAM and the Secure World Foundation was held, discussion progress made in developing a “system of systems” for agricultural monitoring. The current activities focus on acquiring the necessary remote sensing and field datasets for further analysis.

SIGMA will significantly contribute to the needed sustainable expansion / intensification of global agriculture. Through the products that will be develop in the SIGMA project, methodologies and models will give agricultural experts a faster a more accurate access to the global production of agricultural commodities and their environmental impacts.

Return of investment

The project has only recently started so full outcomes are not yet available. Currently remote sensing data over the different test sites is being gathered and methodologies are being tested and fine-tuned.

Geoglam-sigma

On 12 March this year, the European Parliament ratified the new European Earth Observation programme with its budget of €4.3 billion, covering the period from 2014 to 2020.

Copernicus is the programme previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) coordinated by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The set of systems making up Copernicus continuously collects data, over the long term, that can then be used for land, marine and atmosphere monitoring, tracking climate change and also for security surveillance (managing natural disasters and keeping track of maritime traffic in particular).

The European Parliamentary debate referred to a host of possible applications, including “data collection on water quality to enable authorities to better protect bathing water and predict algal bloom,” and “collecting data concerning currents, winds and icing at sea, to improve maritime traffic services and search and rescue operations”. Another keenly awaited application focuses on monitoring climate change, with the uninterrupted very-long-term analysis of masses of data to provide the clearest picture yet of the variations in temperatures and levels of seas and oceans, ice-cap melting, solar radiation, flood forecasting, greenhouse gases, etc.

All the data will be collected from a host of ground, sea and atmospheric sensors. Five Sentinel satellite missions will also have a crucial role, forming the cornerstone of the Copernicus programme as they cover a highly extensive field of observation … for 40 years no less!

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EOPages v2 has been completed and the API has been finalised which will allow other accredited organisations to use the EARSC database on EO suppliers. It will provide the companies with a single location where they can maintain their contact details and capabilities but which can be extracted by other sites to be used in conjunction with their specific applications.


EOpages is a marketplace between the Earth Observation Service Industry & Users. EOpages shows the capabilities of the geo-information industry in general and value-adding companies in particular.

The objective of EOpages is to help potential customers explore the available value-added geo-information services of interest to them in a new and user-friendly way.

More info about the project

Congratulations to ESA, Thales Alenia Space and all those involved in building and launching Sentinel 1; the first satellite in the Copernicus series. Credit also to the European Commission for having steered a complex path to reach the milestone achieved last Thursday. Photo:Sentinel1©ESA

The launch of Sentinel 1 is truly a seminal event. According to my Collins English dictionary, seminal stems from the latin seminalis literally meaning “belonging to seed”. It goes on to give the definition “Strongly influence future events or highly influential” and the Wiktionary on-line gives it as “Highly influential, especially in some original way, and providing a basis for future development or research”.

Now this certainly describes Sentinel 1. In a few days’ time we expect to see the first radar image before a 6 month period of commissioning to calibrate and validate the data coming from the satellite. We consider that the Gigabytes of data to be collected every day will lead to good opportunities both for industry and for science. There is no doubt that it will be “highly influential” and will it will certainly provide a strong basis “for future development and research”.

The objectives of Copernicus are defined in the EC regulation as being (1) to provide a reliable source of geo-information to EU public customers and (2) to develop the EU downstream services industry. I paraphrase the objectives and note that the downstream industry in this case includes both data suppliers (satellite operators; sometimes called the midstream) as well as value-adding companies.

To achieve the second objective will require careful measures particularly regarding industry access to the data as well as the rules of procurement for the Copernicus Core services. We consider that two conditions are essential that:
1. competences necessary to deliver the Copernicus services shall be developed within or at least fully available to the EO services industry.
2. it will always be possible to receive competing bids for each of the services which will be procured.

How best to achieve this? Various measures will be possible but, as I said at the recent EC conference on Big Data held in Brussels, I see six steps to be necessary to enable and deliver the full economic benefits:

  • 1. Free and open access to the data,
  • 2. Easy access to the data,
  • 3. Platforms to enable the combination of different types of data from different sources,
  • 4. Channels to deliver information products effectively and efficiently,
  • 5. Quality assurance and a scheme for certified products,
  • 6. Creating an enterprise culture.

Six core services are defined: land, marine, climate change, atmosphere, emergency and security; each of these will cover a range of specific products. The procurement of each service will be delegated to external bodies and although some had anticipated that industry could fill this role, the reality is that to be qualified to manage public funds through delegation, certain criteria must be met which it is very difficult for a private company to achieve.

In any case, to meet the conditions for competition, industry will prefer to be on the supply side and to avoid any potential conflicts of interest in being both procurement agent and major supplier.

The authorities selected will then procure the services and here we do expect industry to play a full role. For industry to exploit Copernicus it must master the complete chain of competency necessary to generate the Core Services. Where these lie in industry, normal market rules will apply although the EC may need to be vigilant to ensure a fair and open competition. Where these lie in a public body, backed by public-sector/government funding some arrangements with an industrial prime will ne needed. Here we see a great potential for distortion of the market.

There are several reasons why a PSB should – or even must – play a role in the service provision. In some cases the technical skills and knowledge (for example mathematical models) rest in a PSB, whilst in other cases a PSB will be a key actor/agency in a Member State and hence will be unavoidable for political reasons. A further consideration will also be the research base which will drive future innovation and new products and help underpin both the competitive environment and the delivery of new and innovative services to public and private customers alike.

Care must then be taken to ensure that key organisations, necessary for technical or political reasons, are ready and willing to work with other partners and are not constrained to work in any one particular team. If competition is to be maintained, any organisation which has been funded through public grants and which has some unique skills or links to offer, must in some way be required to offer their services openly. Of course this will be quite difficult to arrange, especially given the European dimension, and even harder to enforce but we believe that it will be necessary if Copernicus is to deliver the full benefits foreseen by the EU policy makers.

The procurement rules should be such that competition is ensured and the public sector receives good value for money. A varied, competitive supply base has to be maintained on the industrial side and single-source providers should be open – and not closed – to competitive partnering. Without measures to achieve this we believe that the full opportunity will be lost and forecast jobs and economic benefits will not be achieved.

The successful launch of Sentinel 1 really does mark a seminal moment in the development of the geo-information services business. It is our goal to see the Copernicus seed grow into a flourishing European EO services industrial sector backed up by the extraordinary research capabilities which exist in Europe.

by Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

Seminal: Strongly influence future events or highly influential
Photo:Sentinel1©ESA

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 2, 2014—Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today it has acquired the assets of privately-held GeoDesy and GeoDesy Free Space Optics (FSO) of Budapest, Hungary. GeoDesy is a European engineering and development company focused on delivering accessories for the geomatics, surveying, mapping and construction industries. Financial terms were not disclosed.

GeoDesy designs, manufactures and distributes accessories for surveying instruments, lasers, robotics, mapping and Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) systems, which includes products such as tripods, prism poles, tribaches, brackets and adapters. Along with offering company-branded accessories, GeoDesy also offers regional custom-made solutions.

GeoDesy FSO designs, manufactures and distributes laser-based free space optical communication devices. FSO is a line-of-sight technology that uses invisible beams of infrared light to provide very-high optical bandwidth connections that can send and receive voice, video, and data information for outdoor communications. This technology is typically deployed where traditional communication technologies may be challenging such as large construction sites, remote oil fields, dense urban environments, railways and mining locations. FSO is a technology of choice when high-speed data rates, integrity and data security are essential to success.

GeoDesy complements Trimble’s current portfolio of products acquired from SECO and Crain Enterprises in 2008. The purchase of GeoDesy allows Trimble to provide the necessary products and support services that can be offered as part of its positioning solutions in the engineering and construction markets. GeoDesy offers a unique perspective in the professional surveying market with over 130 years of continued innovation. In addition, GeoDesy will be able to leverage established distribution channels throughout the world.

“With the acquisition of GeoDesy, we have strengthened our ability to serve our customers in the European, Middle Eastern and African regions,” said Henry Munoz, business area director of Trimble Interconnect Solutions. “Our strategy is to combine our global design capabilities with regional innovation and deliver these solutions through localized manufacturing and distribution centers.”

“We have worked closely with Trimble for over 13 years and we believe the acquisition is an ideal strategic fit. The acquisition strengthens our industry leadership position in Europe and gives us access to further opportunities by leveraging Trimble’s worldwide distribution network,” said Peter Szabo, managing director of GeoDesy.

GeoDesy will be part of Trimble’s Engineering and Construction segment.

About GeoDesy and GeoDesy FSO

Established in 1876 and located in Budapest Hungary, GeoDesy is a market leader in the design, production and distribution of surveying instruments, precision mechanic optical components and accessories. GeoDesy FSO designs and produces laser-based free space optical communication devices. For more information, visit: http://geodesy.hu/en.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the business operations and prospects of Trimble, including the impact of the GeoDesy asset acquisition on Trimble’s ability to better serve its positioning solutions customers in the engineering and construction markets. These forward-looking statements are subject to change, and actual results may materially differ due to certain risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to changes in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to (i) realizing the anticipated benefits of the acquisition, (ii) Trimble’s ability to strengthen serving its customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa through the acquisition, and (iii) the risks and uncertainties associated with unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities that may be incurred as a result of the acquisitions. More information about potential factors which could affect Trimble’s business and financial results is set forth in reports filed with the SEC, including Trimble’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Trimble as of the date hereof, and Trimble assumes no obligation to update such statements.

Media Contact: LeaAnn McNabb of Trimble: 408-481-7808

DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE: DGI), a leading provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions, today announced that it has acquired Spatial Energy, a leading source for digital imagery and related services to the energy industry. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Spatial Energy helps energy companies reduce the cost, time and effort associated with acquiring and analyzing complex geospatial information. Spatial Energy’s robust geospatial solutions enable its customers, which include 12 of the top 20 largest oil and gas companies, to more effectively manage their workflows throughout the exploration and production lifecycle. The company provides more than 50 different geospatial data sets, allowing its customers to tailor information solutions to best meet their needs. Its cloud-based spatial data management and delivery platform — Spatial on Demand® — integrates vast archives of geospatial data into a centralized online database that can be accessed anywhere and procured through a subscription service. Founded in 2005, Spatial Energy is a privately-held company based in Boulder, Colorado.

“The acquisition of Spatial Energy advances our position as the leading source of geospatial information and insight,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, Chief Executive Officer. “Spatial Energy’s powerful cloud-based solution streamlines the process of acquiring and analyzing complex geospatial information and aligns with our goal of delivering insight that answers vital questions for our customers. In addition, Spatial Energy provides DigitalGlobe with a talented, global sales force in the oil and gas vertical, positioning us closer to end customers in this dynamic industry.”

Kenneth “Bud” Pope, co-founder and President of Spatial Energy, added, “Spatial Energy has been trusted as a leading provider of geospatial solutions to the oil and gas industry, helping companies turn imagery from a time-consuming task into a corporate asset. We’re excited to join the DigitalGlobe team to deliver more value and scale to our customers.”

Mike Bahorich, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Apache Corporation, said, “We find the Spatial on Demand platform helpful for making exploration and environmental decisions. We’re excited about the combined organization’s ability to offer us more access to the highest quality commercial imagery in the world, which will save time and resources throughout the exploration and production lifecycles.”

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a leading provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions that help decision makers better understand our changing planet in order to save lives, resources and time. Sourced from the world’s leading constellation, our imagery solutions deliver unmatched coverage and capacity to meet our customers’ most demanding mission requirements. Each day customers in defense and intelligence, public safety, civil agencies, map making and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, navigation technology, and providers of location-based services depend on DigitalGlobe data, information, technology and expertise to gain actionable insight.

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The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), thundered into space at 10:37 a.m. PST Thursday, Feb. 27 (3:37 a.m. JST Friday, Feb. 28) from Japan.

The four-ton spacecraft launched aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in southern Japan. The GPM spacecraft separated from the rocket 16 minutes after launch, at an altitude of 247 miles (398 kilometers). The solar arrays deployed 10 minutes after spacecraft separation, to power the spacecraft.

“With this launch, we have taken another giant leap in providing the world with an unprecedented picture of our planet’s rain and snow,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “GPM will help us better understand our ever-changing climate, improve forecasts of extreme weather events like floods, and assist decision makers around the world to better manage water resources.”

The GPM Core Observatory will take a major step in improving upon the capabilities of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM), a joint NASA-JAXA mission launched in 1997 and still in operation.

While TRMM measured precipitation in the tropics, the GPM Core Observatory expands the coverage area from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle. GPM will also be able to detect light rain and snowfall, a major source of available fresh water in some regions.

To better understand Earth’s weather and climate cycles, the GPM Core Observatory will collect information that unifies and improves data from an international constellation of existing and future satellites by mapping global precipitation every three hours.

“It is incredibly exciting to see this spacecraft launch,” said GPM Project Manager Art Azarbarzin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This is the moment that the GPM team has been working toward since 2006.

“The GPM Core Observatory is the product of a dedicated team at Goddard, JAXA and others worldwide. Soon, as GPM begins to collect precipitation observations, we’ll see these instruments at work providing real-time information for the scientists about the intensification of storms, rainfall in remote areas and so much more.”

The GPM Core Observatory was assembled at Goddard and is the largest spacecraft ever built at the center. It carries two instruments to measure rain and snowfall. The GPM Microwave Imager, provided by NASA, will estimate precipitation intensities from heavy to light rain, and snowfall by carefully measuring the minute amounts of energy naturally emitted by precipitation.

The Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), developed by JAXA with the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Tokyo, will use emitted radar pulses to make detailed measurements of three-dimensional rainfall structure and intensity, allowing scientists to improve estimates of how much water the precipitation holds. Mission operations and data processing will be managed from Goddard.

“We still have a lot to learn about how rain and snow systems behave in the bigger Earth system,” said GPM Project Scientist Gail Skofronick-Jackson of Goddard. “With the advanced instruments on the GPM Core Observatory, we will have for the first time frequent unified global observations of all types of precipitation, everything from the rain in your backyard to storms forming over the oceans to the falling snow contributing to water resources.”

“We have spent more than a decade developing DPR using Japanese technology, the first radar of its kind in space,” said Masahiro Kojima, JAXA GPM/DPR project manager. “I expect GPM to produce important new results for our society by improving weather forecasts and prediction of extreme events such as typhoons and flooding.”

A half-dozen scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., participate on the GPM science team, contributing to the mission’s precipitation science, developing step-by-step procedures for calculating precipitation data, and calibrating observatory sensors. JPL’s Airborne 2-frequency Precipitation Radar is the airborne simulator for the GPM Core Observatory’s DPR and is contributing to GPM ground validation activities.

“The JPL team has a long history of developing precipitation radar systems and processing techniques and assisted in defining the initial GPM mission concept,” said GPM science team member Joe Turk of JPL.

“Our team is also helping define the concept and advanced precipitation/cloud radar instrument for GPM’s planned follow-on mission. We look forward to the more complete and accurate picture of global precipitation that GPM will enable.”

The GPM Core Observatory is the first of NASA’s five Earth science missions launching this year. With a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns, NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space.

NASA also develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing.

The agency freely 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.

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(Spacenews, By Peter B. de Selding, PARIS) — China’s push into high-resolution optical Earth observation through its seven-satellite CHEOS system is slightly delayed but will see the launch of a second satellite this year and three more satellites by 2016, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

The China High-Resolution Earth Observation System, whose first satellite, Gaofen-1, was launched in April 2013 aboard a Chinese Long March 2D rocket, includes airborne instruments and what CNSA calls a “near-space airship,” apparently a high-altitude balloon, equipped with optical, laser and synthetic-aperture radar payloads, CNSA said.

In a presentation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, whose Scientific and Technical Subcommittee met Feb. 10-21 in Vienna, CNSA said the satellite component of CHEOS has a 1-meter ground resolution at nadir. A similar presentation of the system in October said the system could provide 80-centimeter resolution.

The Gaofen satellites, using the CAST-2000 platform built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, operate at between 600 and 700 kilometers in orbit and have a design life of between five and eight years.

“The in-orbit test demonstrates that the performance of GF-1 meets the design requirements completely,” CNSA said in its presentation. GF-1 imagery was sent to Pakistan to help that nation’s disaster-response system after an earthquake.

Chinese officials have said their slow but steady progress in optical Earth observation, where they concede they remain behind other nations’ developments, ultimately will help them reduce their imports of higher-resolution imagery.

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