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Already, with its first image acquisitions, TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement) has surpassed its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X.

On 24 June 2010, only 3 days and 14 hours into the mission, the satellite sent its first image data back to Earth. The transmission was received by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fŸr Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) ground station at Neustrelitz and processed to produce images. TanDEM-X looked down from an altitude of more than 500 kilometres above northern Madagascar, Ukraine and Moscow.

Even the ups and downs of the waves in the Indian Ocean – coloured pale yellow on the image – are charted by TanDEM-X as it flies over at a speed of seven kilometres per second. The change in the waves at the entrance to the Diego Suarez Bay is clearly visible. The water in the bay itself, on the shore of which the provincial capital, Antsiranana, can be recognised, is very flat – in contrast to the undulating ocean – and reflects the radar signals from TanDEM-X more uniformly. The area of valleys to the south drains the volcanic cone of Ambre-Bobaomby into the Indian Ocean. (courtesy: DLR)

Even the ups and downs of the waves in the Indian Ocean – coloured pale yellow on the image – are charted by TanDEM-X as it flies over at a speed of seven kilometres per second. The change in the waves at the entrance to the Diego Suarez Bay is clearly visible. The water in the bay itself, on the shore of which the provincial capital, Antsiranana, can be recognised, is very flat – in contrast to the undulating ocean – and reflects the radar signals from TanDEM-X more uniformly. The area of valleys to the south drains the volcanic cone of Ambre-Bobaomby into the Indian Ocean.

The image of Ukraine shows how a radar satellite perceives fields and forests. The satellite imaged a reservoir near the River Donets, a tributary of the Don. Forests and agricultural land surround the reservoir. These areas are worked differently, and thus exhibit differences in the way they reflect radar signals. This variable surface structure is revealed in the image by different brightness levels and colours. East of the smaller reservoirs near the centre of the image, a moving train is visible as a bright, curved line. From the offset of the train on the tracks, seen from space, it is even possible to calculate its speed. (courtesy: DLR)

The data were received yesterday afternoon at around 16:55 hrs. “We have broken the world record that we set with TerraSAR-X,” says project leader Manfred Zink from DLR’s Microwaves and Radar Institute. At that time, the first reception occurred after four and a half days. For TanDEM-X, the team was ready to download data just three days and fourteen hours after the launch, which took place at 04:14 on 21 June 2010.Eight gigabytes of data reached the Neustrelitz ground station of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (Deutsche Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum). Before this, the flight dynamics team had exactly predicted the route of TanDEM-X and had derived the commands for controlling the attitude of the satellite, which were used by the instrument operations team.

Reservoirs, fields and a moving train in Ukraine

The image of Ukraine shows how a radar satellite perceives fields and forests. The satellite imaged a reservoir near the River Donets, a tributary of the Don. Forests and agricultural land surround the reservoir. These areas are worked differently, and thus exhibit differences in the way they reflect radar signals. This variable surface structure is revealed in the image by different brightness levels and colours. East of the smaller reservoirs near the centre of the image, a moving train is visible as a bright, curved line. From the offset of the train on the tracks, seen from space, it is even possible to calculate its speed.

Moscow from 500 kilometres above

At the centre of the image is Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, about 30 kilometres northwest of the city centre. Terminal One, to the north, was opened on 8 November 1959 and now serves mainly domestic flights. Terminal Two, in the south, was built for the Summer Olympic Games in 1980 by German companies following the design of the terminal at Hanover Airport. Today, it deals with international flights. The two runways are clearly visible. Because the flat concrete surfaces reflect the radar signals away from the satellite, the paved areas are shown as black lines. To the north of Moscow, there are major reservoirs such as the Pirogovskoye Reservoir and the Uchinskoye Reservoir.

At the centre of the image is Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, about 30 kilometres northwest of the city centre. Terminal One, to the north, was opened on 8 November 1959 and now serves mainly domestic flights. Terminal Two, in the south, was built for the Summer Olympic Games in 1980 by German companies following the design of the terminal at Hanover Airport. Today, it deals with international flights. The two runways are clearly visible. Because the flat concrete surfaces reflect the radar signals away from the satellite, the paved areas are shown as black lines. To the north of Moscow, there are major reservoirs such as the Pirogovskoye Reservoir and the Uchinskoye Reservoir. (courtesy: DLR)

Mission milestones

“That’s a neat milestone,” says a satisfied Michael Bartusch, TanDEM-X Project Manager at the DLR Space Agency in Bonn. He accompanied the satellite during transportation to Baikonur; for the launch, he sat in DLR’s German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen. “With the image, we have the proof that the radar satellite works without problems.” “But of course, now we have had experience with TerraSAR-X.

With the end of the launch and early orbit phase this weekend, the TanDEM-X team begins the first part of the commissioning phase, during which the satellite is ‘put through its paces’. “It takes about three months to prepare it for operational use,” says Bartusch. By the end of July, the two satellites will be brought within 20 kilometres of one another. In October, is will be another, unique milestone: the satellites will fly in formation with a distance of only some 200 metres separating them as they orbit the Earth. This marks the second part of the commissioning phase, during which the approach and control of both satellites is in focus.

Teamwork by the two satellites

As soon as the satellites begin to record data as a combined ‘pair of eyes’, the ‘complex interactions’ begin, says project leader Michael Bartusch. The design of their orbits prevents the satellites from colliding but they must also be prevented from illuminating one another with their radar signals. “If TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X illuminate one another during formation flight, there is a possibility of damaging the instruments at this short range.” The first official three-dimensional image acquisition by the twin satellites will occur in January 2011. “Then we will begin with measurements of the entire Earth and the generation of the elevation model.”

Public-private partnership

DLR is responsible for the scientific use of TanDEM-X data, the planning and execution of the mission, the control of the two satellites, and the production of the digital elevation model. Astrium built the satellite and is sharing the costs for its development and use. As for TerraSAR-X, Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of EADS Astrium, is responsible for the commercial marketing of TanDEM-X data.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is implementing the TanDEM-X mission with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in the form of a public-private partnership with Astrium GmbH.

(source: DLR)

INSPIRE Conference 2010 ends with an agreed Declaration to Member State Governments

The European Commission (EC) Joint research Centre INSPIRE information platform has published the Krakow INSPIRE Declaration

The declaration states

“Krakow Declaration on INSPIRE approved at the Closing Session of the Conference “INSPIRE as a framework for cooperation”, 23-25 June, 2010

In total 670 scientists, engineers, educators, entrepreneurs, managers, administrators, and representatives of civil societies from 50 countries have assembled here, in the historic city of Krakow, to attend the INSPIRE Conference 2010, organized by the European Commission and the Polish Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography.”

“We therefore recommend our governments and organisations to

  • maintain their efforts and investments needed for reaping the societal benefits that INSPIRE provides;
  • increase their international collaboration efforts to create an INSPIREd information society without obstacles or borders;
  • support the implementation of INSPIREd spatial data infrastructures in non-EU countries in Europe and beyond.”

Related news topics

INSPIRE: Commission refers Germany to court

INSPIRE 2010 Conference: proceedings published

“Source”:

India sent an all-purpose Earth observation satellite into orbit early Monday, replenishing the country’s fleet of mapping spacecraft for resource planning and security applications.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off at 0352 GMT Monday 12 July (11:52 p.m. EDT Sunday) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast, where it was 9:22 a.m. local time.

The 146-foot-tall rocket soared into clear skies and flew southeast from the launch site. The four-stage launcher reached a 395-mile-high orbit approximately 17 minutes after liftoff, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

The PSLV released Cartosat 2B, the mission’s primary payload, less than 40 seconds later, ISRO announced.

After jettisoning a dual satellite adapter, the rocket’s fourth stage deployed an Algerian remote sensing satellite and three student-built spacecraft to complete the launch sequence.

The PSLV was flying in its core-alone configuration without six solid rocket boosters.

Indian space officials declared the flight a complete success during a celebratory press conference.

“I’m extremely happy to say that the PSLV had an excellent flight,” said K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of ISRO. “The 16th successive successful flight injected precisely five satellites [into orbit].”

The perfect blastoff occurred less than three months after ISRO was hit by a sobering failure of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, the country’s largest rocket.

ISRO attributed the mishap to a problem in the liquid hydrogen turbopump of the GSLV’s cryogenic third stage. The April 15 launch was the first flight of the Indian-built third stage, which was developed to replace a Russian engine used on the GSLV’s previous missions.

The launch of the workhorse PSLV came as India begins fixing the problem that plagued the GSLV mission in April. In a statement last week, ISRO said the indigenous GSLV third stage would fly again within a year.

Several former ISRO chairmen and at least one senior government official attended Monday’s launch and congratulated teams responsible for the success.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India’s Planning Commission. “Congratulations to all of you on a perfect take-off. I know that ISRO makes the country proud.”

The launch was delayed more than two months from early May after workers found a marginal drop in the pressure of the PSLV’s liquid-fueled second stage during standard testing. The stage was sent to another ISRO facility for repairs, then returned to the launch site to resume launch preparations.

Cartosat 2B is India’s third satellite with a peak imaging resolution of less than one meter.

The 1,530-pound spacecraft’s black-and-white camera has a resolution of 0.8 meters, or approximately 2.6 feet, giving users close views of cities, neighborhoods, natural resources and military sites around the world.

The imagery will have applications in resource mapping, urban planning, transportation studies, water monitoring, and crop inventories, according to ISRO.

Cartosat 2B is the 10th member of the Indian Remote Sensing satellite fleet, joining other platforms observing Earth’s land and ocean surfaces from orbit.

Monday’s flight also orbited the Alsat 2A remote sensing satellite for Algeria. Built by EADS Astrium of France, the spacecraft carries an imaging instrument with a maximum resolution of 2.5 meters, or 8.2 feet.

Alsat 2A is the first of two satellites Astrium is building for Algeria under an export cooperation contract. Alsat 2B will be assembled in Algeria with help from Astrium.

Algeria plans to use the satellites in cartography, agriculture and forestry management, mineral and oil resource monitoring, crop protection, and disaster response planning, according to Astrium.

A 14-pound satellite to demonstrate maritime ship-tracking technologies was also launched aboard the PSLV. Named AISSat 1, the craft was built by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies for the Norwegian government.

Norway plans to test the satellite’s ability to track shipping traffic with the Automatic Identification System, a radio communications network with transmitters on most large vessels.

-Two more small satellites, TIsat 1 and Studsat, were launched Monday for Swiss and Indian university students._

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Wayland, MA – The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC®) is seeking public comment on a Geography Markup Language (GML) XML encoding for describing the characteristics of a moving object, such as a GPS enabled car. This candidate standard provides a way of describing in simple terms the motion of an object, such as a car driving through city streets or a person walking in a park.

This candidate standard fills a need for “lightweight” packets of tracking information, such as direction and velocity, that can be communicated between diverse platforms and applications supporting mobile location-aware devices. The GML encoding used in this candidate standard is compatible with a wide range of other standard encodings used in other communities, such as emergency services.

The candidate standard and information on submitting comments on this document are available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/69.

The public comment period closes on August 7th, 2010.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 395 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org

American scientists have made a major breakthrough in remote wave sensing, opening the way for detecting hidden explosives, chemical, biological agents and illegal drugs from a distance of 20 meters.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s new, all-optical system, using terahertz (THz) wave technology, has great potential for homeland security and military uses because it can “see through” clothing and packaging materials and can identify immediately the unique THz “fingerprints” of any hidden materials.

Terahertz waves occupy a large segment of the electromagnetic spectrum between the infrared and microwave bands which can provide imaging and sensing technologies not available through conventional technologies such as x-ray and microwave.

Xi-Cheng Zhang, director of the Center for THz Research at Rensselaer, said: “The potential of THz wave remote sensing has been recognized for years, but practical application has been blocked by the fact that ambient moisture interferes with wave transmission.”

Dr. Zhang, the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of Science at Rensselaer, is lead author of a paper to be published next week in the journal Nature Photonics. Titled “Broadband terahertz wave remote sensing using coherent manipulation of fluorescence from asymmetrically ionized gases,” the paper describes the new system in detail.

The “all optical” technique for remote THz sensing uses laser induced fluorescence, essentially focusing two laser beams together into the air to remotely create a plasma that interacts with a generated THz wave. The plasma fluorescence carries information from a target material to a detector where it is instantly compared with material spectrum in the THz “library,” making possible immediate identification of a target material.

Dr. Zhang said: “We have shown that you can focus a 800 nm laser beam and a 400 nm laser beam together into the air to remotely create a plasma interacting with the THz wave, and use the plasma fluorescence to convey the information of the THz wave back to the local detector.”

Because THz radiation transmits through almost anything that is not metal or liquid, the waves can “see” through most materials that might be used to conceal explosives or other dangerous materials, such as packaging, corrugated cardboard, clothing, shoes, backpacks and book bags.

Unlike x-rays, THz radiation poses little or no health threat. However, the technique cannot detect materials that might be concealed in body cavities.

Dr. Zhang said: “Our technology would not work for owners of an African diamond mine who are interested in the system to stop workers from smuggling out diamonds by swallowing them.”

Though most of the research has been conducted in a laboratory setting, the technology is portable and eventually could be used to check out backpacks or luggage abandoned in an airport for explosives, other dangerous materials or for illegal drugs. On battlefields, it could detect where explosives are hidden.

The fact that each substance has its own unique THz “fingerprint” will show exactly what compound or compounds are being hidden, a capability that is expected to have multiple important and unexpected uses. In the event of a chemical spill, for instance, remote sensing could identify the composition of the toxic mix. Since sensing is remote, no individuals will be needlessly endangered.

Dr. Zhang said: “I think I can predict that, within a few years, the THz science and technology will become more available and ready for industrial and defense-related use.” (ANI)

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22 June 2010, Brussels

EARSC held its AGM in Brussels on 22nd June and the afternoon was devoted to a workshop on the insurance industry and Geo-spatial information. BP happens to be self-insured so they have their own fund set aside to deal with disasters yet this is rare and Fiona Shaw of Willis Analytics and Dr Haverkamp of MunichRe explained that they have significant needs for geo-spatial information to support their risk assessments for underwriting. This looks to be a market worth exploring further and EARSC will continue to act as a broker and mediator to create opportunities for its members.

The morning was devoted to the agm itself and a workshop looking at GMES. The agm proceeded smoothly; Han Wensink gave an upbeat report on the industry and the activities of the association. Importantly he reported that we are finally near to finding a Secretary General for the Association that will indeed be a major step forward once he or she is in place. The treasurer, Andre Jadot, reported that the finances of the Association remain sound – in no small way aided by the award of the eoVox2 study for which Logica is the prime contractor but which supports directly EARSC in its business.

On GMES, first Norbert Glante Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur of the recent opinion on the Initial services communication. Praised the progress being made by the EC on GMES and welcomed the voice of EARSC as a representative body with which to engage in shaping future legislation.

Then Mauro Facchini, deputy head of the GMES Bureau also welcomed the opportunity to exchange with EARSC and the position paper that we are preparing. This will help greatly in ensuring that the industry role is recognized and reflected in the future actions. He explained that now the initial operations has been approved the focus will turn to governance.

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The Airborne Sensing Corporation (ASC) has contracted with Vexcel Imaging GmbH, a Microsoft® company, to upgrade its UltraCamD to an UltraCamX large-format digital aerial camera system. ASC has used Vexcel Imaging products since June 2005 when the company first acquired an UltraCam, and then later purchased an UltraCamX in 2008.


“We have been pleased with the performance of our UltraCamD. The imagery has always met or greatly exceeded our clients’ expectations,” noted ASC’s President, Alex Giannelia. “We decided to upgrade to the UltraCamX because it will give us productivity improvements while maintaining a common equipment infrastructure.”

“Vexcel Imaging is pleased to continue its association with ASC,” said Alexander Wiechert, Business Director of Microsoft and Managing Director for Vexcel Imaging GmbH. “We make every effort to develop the products our customers need, and to provide upgrade paths that help them grow their businesses.”

Vexcel Imaging provides upgrade paths so that clients can upgrade any large-format UltraCam model to any newer model and retain compatibility with established workflows. The sequence of large-format digital aerial camera system models is UltraCamD, UltraCamX, UltraCamXp, UltraCamXp Wide Angle. Similarly, the medium-format UltraCamL can be upgraded to an UltraCamLp.

Internet: www.microsoft.com/ultracam/en-us/UltraCamXp.aspx

DigitalGlobe, a global content provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, announced that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has extended its contract with DigitalGlobe to enable a “Rapid Delivery of Online Geospatial-Intelligence” (RDOG). DigitalGlobe is providing NGA with unclassified imagery-derived products and services in support of NGA’s mission to develop imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U.S. national defense, homeland security and safety of navigation.


“When RDOG was announced, it was an innovative, new world imagery solution which provided unparalleled support to the war-fighter by combining DigitalGlobe’s imagery and web services solutions,” said David Robinson, DigitalGlobe’s senior director of U.S. National Security Programs. “Over the past year, the RDOG program has exceeded expectations and has proven to be extremely beneficial when responding to recent world events. We are honored to continue our relationship with the NGA to offer innovative imagery solutions in support of the war-fighter.”

RDOG was first announced in June 2009 and continues to solidify the web capabilities that DigitalGlobe has offered for the last 5 years. DigitalGlobe’s standard web services enable rapid dissemination of the latest NextView-licensed imagery of specified areas to the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) within 24 hours of collection. The imagery has been used to respond to humanitarian efforts related to the crises in Haiti and Chile as well as military exercises around the globe.

DigitalGlobe was the original RDOG supplier and the service is now an NGA standard. In the first year of the program, DigitalGlobe expanded RDOG’s capabilities to include offline deliverables in addition to the online deliverables. This capability extends RDOG’s viability into areas without internet connectivity – a situation often faced by users.

Internet: www.digitalglobe.com

Internap’s Performance IP™ premier connectivity and Managed Hosting ensure real-time access to DigitalGlobe’s earth imagery

Internap Network Services Corporation, a provider of end-to-end internet business products and services, announced that DigitalGlobe, a content provider of high-resolution earth imagery, is using Internap’s Managed Hosting and route-optimized Performance IP network to power DigitalGlobe’s web services offering. This solution enables rapid web access to DigitalGlobe’s collection of earth imagery delivered through three content distribution nodes in Colorado, Hong Kong and London.

DigitalGlobe’s constellation of industry-leading commercial high-resolution satellites and aerial network allows it to collect more than 500 million square kilometers of earth imagery every year. Leveraging Internap’s solutions, DigitalGlobe’s content can be integrated and embedded into geospatial applications for defense and intelligence used by civil governments and commercial customers across desktops, portals, intranets and mobile devices around the world. DigitalGlobe’s web services enable near real-time access to daily imagery collections required for advanced imagery based applications and provides developers the flexibility and robust feature set necessary to bring a real-world view into geospatial applications.

DigitalGlobe selected Internap based on its worldwide reach and technical expertise. Internap’s tailored solution enables the movement of large amounts of imagery data within seconds of transmission, significantly improving the speed of delivery across its route-optimized IP transit services to create next-generation data delivery. Working with Internap, DigitalGlobe is able to host massive amounts of geo-located data in Internap’s data centers to offer customers the ability to rapidly search and select purchased images and have these delivered “on demand,” with the highest level of network responsiveness and application performance transparency. Utilizing Internap’s Managed Hosting services eliminates the need for customers to download terabytes of data to their own data storage facilities and are effectively creating a flexible outsource model for increasing IT infrastructure requirements.

“DigitalGlobe is committed to continuing to lead the innovation within the geospatial industry to ensure our customers have the content they need, delivered easily and efficiently. Our relationship with Internap helped create a unique, game-changing global distribution solution that enables us to transfer huge amounts of data anywhere on the planet in seconds – an industry standard that no other provider can duplicate,” said Scott Hicar, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at DigitalGlobe. “The strength of Internap’s services in key global markets made it an obvious choice in our efforts to reduce latency. Together with Internap’s solutions, we are confident our customers, no matter where they are, will receive content – and thus valuable information and insight – more quickly and efficiently than previously possible.”

Internap’s integrated solutions leverage its patented Managed Internet Route Optimizer™ (MIRO) network optimization technology, which selects the best path for internet traffic by analyzing network characteristics like latency, packet loss and route stability. MIRO is backed by a 100 percent performance service level agreement. Internap’s Managed Hosting portfolio includes managed servers and managed storage along with data protection service, virtualization products, managed network products and advanced monitoring with 24/7 live customer support. With this service, customers retain control over the software applications and content on their server while Internap controls and manages the server hardware, operating system, space, power and bandwidth to provide the flexibility necessary for customers to deliver mission-critical business applications across the globe.

“As more and more organizations such as DigitalGlobe automate and advance their core business differentiators, the quality of the underlying network and integrated solutions that support these applications becomes paramount to business performance,” said Peter Evans, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Internap. “Internap is in the unique position of helping enterprises deliver on the promise of these emerging network environments to support their evolving value proposition with the unmatched combination of high-performance IP route optimization and Managed Hosting capabilities.”

Internet: www.digitalglobe.com

Fugro-Geoteam AS has signed a contract with TGS-Nopec Geophysical Company ASA to acquire 3D survey(s) in West Africa.

The projects will take approximately 7 months to acquire and Fugro will deploy its C-Class vessel Geo Caribbean to ensure efficient production on the large seismic spread programs.

The next planned C-Class vessel, the M/V Geo Coral will be delivered to Fugro in August 2010.

Internet: www.fugro.com