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As North Korea keeps the world’s militaries worried with what it claims was a satellite-launch attempt, South Korea is quietly preparing its first satellite mission for a July launch date.

Lee Joo-jin, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, told a Washington audience late last week that the first Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) is scheduled to launch a 100-kilogram (220-pound) scientific satellite into low Earth orbit in July.

The liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket will lift off from the NARO Space Center on Oenaro Island in southwest Korea on a mission to orbit the country’s second Science and Technology Satellite (SCISAT-2).

Based on previous South Korean micro-satellite technology, SCISAT-2 will carry the Dual-channel Radiometers for Earth & Atmosphere Monitoring (DREAM) instrument, and the Laser Reflector Array (LRA). DREAM is designed to measure Earth’s brightness, while the LRA will allow precise measurements between the spacecraft and a ground station.

“As we develop our own satellite launch vehicles, the second one will be around 2017,” Lee said. “We plan a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander, based on the KSLV-2 to send our satellite to the moon.”

Under South Korea’s guiding space-development legislation, the lunar orbiter would come in 2020, with a lander to follow in 2025.

Lee said his agency is working with NASA on scientific objectives for its lunar missions, and a technical team is scheduled to visit Seoul later this month to continue bilateral talks on a variety of cooperative efforts.

The South Korean government has continued to support the space program, which also uses U.S.-built communications satellites and launch vehicles as well as domestic Earth-observation spacecraft, Lee said. The country also is a participant in ongoing multilateral talks aimed at creating a “Global Exploration Strategy” to guide international human exploration of the moon and other bodies.

Lee cited the recent trip to the International Space Station (ISS) of Yi So-yeon, a South Korean astronaut who spent 10 days on the orbiting laboratory after launching on a Russian Soyuz, and said his agency would like to work with NASA and its space station partners to conduct long-duration experiments on the ISS.

However, Michael O’Brien, assistant NASA administrator for external relations, said that with the shuttle retiring as early as next year all of the seats are taken, and experiment space on the ISS is scarce for now.

However, with NASA developing a six-seat version of the Orion crew exploration vehicle for transport to the ISS, it may be possible to accommodate astronauts from Korea and other nations that aren’t station partners in the future.

Photo of fairing separation test for KSLV-I DM: KARI
By Frank Morring, Jr

EUROSENSE created a “historical” Urban Atlas map over the Metropole Area Lille within the GSE Land project. The production was based on a change detection methodology comparing recent with historical satellite imagery.

Land use is driven by the interplay of economic, social and environmental factors. Good land management aims to find the right balance of these, often competing, factors, leading to a sustainable urban & regional land use. To achieve this, cities and regions need land use information. This information must not only cover the current state of the land, it should also evaluate the evolution over the last years and predict future trends.

Remote sensing methods can be employed to detect different land use types in a practical, economical and repetitive fashion, without facing typical problems with borders to cross or areas that are difficult to reach. This makes satellite data and its resulting applications an important input for reliable and timely land monitoring tools.

As metropolitan areas are growing and changing at unprecedented rates it is important to provide spatio-temporal data which can illustrate where changes have occurred and quantify the rate of urban sprawl and thus loss of green space. This kind of data can be used as a basis for understanding urban growth changes within a historical perspective.

Fig.1 shows the land use evolution – urban sprawl in the periphery of Lille. The images show the construction of a new highway and some residential areas. © SPOTimage

In that upset, EUROSENSE created a “land use change map” of the “Metropole Area Lille”. A comparison in soil occupation between 1993 and 2006 was performed using archive SPOT imagery. A SPOT5 image mosaic (2.5m resolution) from 2006 was compared to a corresponding dataset from 1993 using SPOT2 10m resolution satellite images.

The changes over this 13-year period were mapped using on-screen change detection methods, providing an accurate delineation and interpretation of land use evolutions. Combining these changes with the formerly created Urban Atlas 2006 resulted in a “historical” Urban Atlas map of 1993 over the Metropole Area Lille.

Fig.2 shows the land use evolution between 1993 and 2006, clear changes are visible between both Urban Atlas maps. The land use changes are delineated in black. © EUROSENSE

The production of this change map was realised by EUROSENSE within the project “GSE Land” (GMES Service Element), funded by ESA – www.gmes-gseland.info.

“Urban Atlas” is a European initiative; its purpose is to map the largest European cities according to a fixed procedure and legend. This legend consists of 26 different classes (derived from the CORINE and MOLAND nomenclature) with focus on artificial areas. Through this initiative it will be possible to compare the land use of different European cities and follow it up in time. The Urban Atlas constitutes also the basis for the calculations of different Urban Audit indicators/statistics.

The realisation of the project was a cooperation between the Intercommunale Leiedal, the province of West Flanders, l’Agence de Développement et d’Urbanisme de Lille Métropole and EUROSENSE.

EUROSENSE has a great expertise in the processing of satellite images. EUROSENSE has no limitations concerning satellite type or resolution. We have profound experience in the processing of a large spectrum of optical and radar satellite images (FORMOSAT, KOMPSAT, SPOT, IKONOS, Landsat, TerraSAR-X …).

For more information on these services, we refer to the following contact information:
EUROSENSE Belfotop N.V Belgium
Address: Nerviërslaan 54, B-1780 Wemmel, BELGIUM
Phone: +32 (0)2 460 70 00
Fax: +32 (0)2 460 49 58
Website: http://www.eurosense.com

(April 2009) RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate their own satellite constellation, has reached a new contractual agreement with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA). This partnership will allow MDA to be the sole supplier of direct downlink solutions for RapidEye’s international ground station customers.

MDA, RapidEye’s prime contractor, conducted the commissioning period on both the space and ground segment in which system performance and product quality have been thoroughly measured, analyzed and verified.

As part of the agreement with MDA, RapidEye’s international ground station customers will be provided with ground systems capable of programming, receiving and processing imagery from RapidEye’s constellation of five satellites.

Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye, commented, “The expansion of RapidEye’s range of services to include direct data downlink services will complement our core products and services business and will allow us to serve even more customers with near real-time imaging requirements.”

David Hargreaves, one of MDA’s Vice Presidents in the Information Systems group, said: “The strategic cooperation agreement established between MDA and RapidEye will enable our team to provide our operational defense and intelligence customers with secure, near real-time direct access to the broad area surveillance capabilities of the RapidEye constellation.”

About RapidEye AG
RapidEye is an ISO-certified geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security, and emergency.

RapidEye experts and the satellite system – a constellation of five satellites capable of downloading over 4 million km² of high resolution, multi-spectral imagery per day, and a ground segment for processing and archiving data – allow for cost-effective customized services. The unique combination of large area coverage, high spatial resolution and the possibility of daily revisit to an area provide for superior management information solutions. Currently, more than 100 experts from more than 20 countries are employed by RapidEye, with plans to grow the team to 140 by early 2009.

RapidEye benefits from a public-private partnership with the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. RapidEye is also cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

For more information on ERDF please contact efreinfo@mw.brandenburg.de

For more information about RapidEye, please visit www.rapideye.de

RapidEye AG Contact
Molkenmarkt 30, 14776 Brandenburg a. d. Havel, Germany
Toll Free (US): +1 800 940 3617 | Phone: +49 3381 8904-0 | Fax: +49 3381 8904-101 |press@rapideye.de| www.rapideye.de

RapidEye is a “Selected Landmark in the Land of Ideas” and therefore part of the event series “365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas”. This program is run by the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas” and Deutsche Bank. Being a “Selected Landmark” RapidEye will stand for Germany being a “Land of ideas” in 2009 and will demonstrate Germany’s spirit of innovation. The initiative is under the patronage of Germany’s federal president Horst Köhler. www.land-of-ideas.org

An ice bridge linking the Wilkins ice shelf to two islands in Antarctica has collapsed, triggering warnings that climate change is having a clear impact on the region.

A satellite picture from the European Space Agency (ESA) shows that a 40 km long strip of ice holding the Wilkins in place had splintered at its narrowest point, about 500 meters wide.

The Wilkins shelf, which is the size of Jamaica, has been retreating since the 1990s. It is one of many Antarctic ice shelves that have begun to break up over the past few decades and it is part of the Antarctic Peninsula, which has seen some of the most dramatic temperature increases in the area – up to 3 degrees, according to Elaine Baker of UNEP GRID-Arendal’s Shelf Programme.

Christian Lambrechts, a Policy and Programme Officer with UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), warned that the development was significant: “Although the Wilkins Ice Bridge collapse will have no direct consequence on sea level rise, it might have an indirect impact, as the decay of the ice shelf will reduce the stability of the glaciers that are feeding it,” he said.

“The collapse of the Ice Bridge will expose a new expanse of sea surfaces that absorb an increased amount of solar radiation, contributing to continued and accelerated warming,” he added.

According to research conducted in March 2009 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for the International Polar Year (IPY), warming of the Antarctic is much more widespread than previously known. The research found that a freshening of the bottom water near Antarctica is consistent with increased ice melt from that continent that could affect ocean circulation.

Indeed, the loss of the Wilkins ice bridge, jutting about 20 meters out of the water and which was almost 100 km wide in 1950, may now allow ocean currents to wash away far more of the shelf.

A 2008 report released by UNEP and the World Glacial Monitoring Service (WGMS) showed that the average rate of glacial melting and thinning more than doubled between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. The estimates, based on measuring the thickness of glacier ice, indicated an average loss of around 1.5 metres in 2006, up from just over half a metre in 2005.

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The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing.

New evidence from satellite observations also shows that the ice cap is thinning as well.

Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate.

Scientists who track Arctic sea ice cover from space announced that this winter had the fifth lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest maximum events since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years (2004-2009).

Until recently, the majority of Arctic sea ice survived at least one summer and often several. But things have changed dramatically, according to a team of University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists led by Charles Fowler. Thin seasonal ice – ice that melts and re-freezes every year – makes up about 70 percent of the Arctic sea ice in wintertime, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. Thicker ice, which survives two or more years, now comprises just 10 percent of wintertime ice cover, down from 30 to 40 percent.

According to researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 5.85 million square miles. That is 278,000 square miles less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000.

“Ice extent is an important measure of the health of the Arctic, but it only gives us a two-dimensional view of the ice cover,” said Walter Meier, research scientist at the center and the University of Colorado, Boulder. “Thickness is important, especially in the winter, because it is the best overall indicator of the health of the ice cover. As the ice cover in the Arctic grows thinner, it grows more vulnerable to melting in the summer.”

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and intense cold sets in. Some of that ice is naturally pushed out of the Arctic by winds, while much of it melts in place during summer. The thicker, older ice that survives one or more summers is more likely to persist through the next summer.

Sea ice thickness has been hard to measure directly, so scientists have typically used estimates of ice age to approximate its thickness. But last year a team of researchers led by Ron Kwok of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif., produced the first map of sea ice thickness over the entire Arctic basin.

Using two years of data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), Kwok’s team estimated thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean ice cover for 2005 and 2006. They found that the average winter volume of Arctic sea ice contained enough water to fill Lake Michigan and Lake Superior combined.

The older, thicker sea ice is declining and is being replaced with newer, thinner ice that is more vulnerable to summer melt, according to Kwok. His team found that seasonal sea ice averages about 6 feet in thickness, while ice that had lasted through more than one summer averages about 9 feet, though it can grow much thicker in some locations near the coast.

Kwok is currently working to extend the ICESat estimate further, from 2003 to 2008, to see how the recent decline in the area covered by sea ice is mirrored in changes in its volume.

“With these new data on both the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice, we will be able to better understand the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ice cover to changes in climate,” Kwok said.

“Source Spacemart”: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Satellites_Show_Arctic_Literally_On_Thin_Ice_999.html

ICESAT
Spacemart

In Santa Maria, Azores, EDISOFT is responsible for the management and operation of a dual-mission Station: the ESA Tracking Station and EDISOFT’s Earth Observation Station.

In Santa Maria, Azores, EDISOFT is responsible for the management and operation of a dual-mission Station: the ESA Tracking Station and EDISOFT’s Earth Observation Station.


SMA Station

Santa Maria’s Launchers Tracking Station is the first station of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Portuguese Territory and the first of ESA for tracking launchers. It has performed its first mission in March 2008, for the launch of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), by Ariane 5 launcher, to the International Space Station (ISS). The management and operation of the Station of Santa Maria is a responsibility of EDISOFT, leading a consortium involving the regional companies GlobalEda and Segma.

In the last year, EDISOFT invested in expanding the station’s capacity for receiving EO SAR images from Remote Sensing Satellite, thus enabling the Station to combine two missions: launchers tracking and Earth Observation.

This new capability allows EDISOFT to complement its offer in the area of Remote Sensing with applicability in different areas, namely in Ocean Monitoring.


SMA Footprint

Santa Maria accompanies daily (day and night) the trajectories of several remote observation satellites, collecting data for monitoring oil spills and other operational services, including:

Acquisition and processing in NRT of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data

Santa Maria’s Station allows the acquisition of ENVISAT and RADARSAT-1 SAR data in the North Atlantic region in any weather conditions, both day and night.

Identification of oil spills and ships using SAR data

One interesting image acquired by the Santa Maria Station was this image of Cape Verde which identifies the track of a vessel pollution. The length of this spill was over 80-km and the polluter vessel is clearly visible through the bright spot in the far northeast of the spill.

Extraction of winds and sea agitation from SAR data

From the SAR data it is also possible to extract information concerning the wind and the agitation sea conditions.

The maritime monitoring and surveillance services provided by the Station already support the CleanSeaNet project, managed by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), and the MARISS (Maritime Security Service) project, this one an important part of the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.

As a prime promoter of research and science, EDISOFT addresses synergies with different systems, new (SAR or optical) concepts and techniques, and the integration of data from Remote Sensing with in-situ observations, in order to streamline the creation of new products and value-added services, framed within the future national and European initiatives related to GMES and GMES-Africa.

Contact

EDISOFT
Empresa de Serviços e Desenvolvimento de Software, S. A.
Rua Quinta dos Medronheiros – Lazarim-
2820-486 Caparica, Portugal
Bárbara Guerra Manso, Head of Business Development & Marketing
Tel.:(+351) 212 945 900 /Fax:(+351) 212 945 999
E-mail: barbara.manso – at – edisoft.pt // www.edisoft.pt

-EEA officially recognizes quality of delivered mapping product
-Infoterra GmbH leads European Service provider network

A homogeneous map of high resolution core land cover data for built-up areas, including degree of soil sealing, for 38 countries in Europe has now been completed and delivered to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

In line with the project schedule, a European service provider network led by Infoterra GmbH, Germany, submitted the last of the datasets in late 2008. The products have passed the intensive checks by EEA and the respective user organisations with very good results:

“We are extremely satisfied with the results of this project”, states Chris Steenmans, Head of Programme Shared Environmental Information System Support at the EEA. “The quality and accuracy of the final mapping product as well as its timely delivery, along with a reliable compliance with our specifications and deadlines, fully meet our expectations. We are convinced that a great number of public authorities across Europe – on both national and European level – will significantly benefit from these data in their daily work.”

The product comprises raster datasets of built-up and non built-up areas including degree of soil sealing in full spatial resolution (20m x 20m) for 5.8 mio square kilometres across Europe, the reference year being 2006. The datasets will be made available to users on all administrative levels.

“Our concept of gathering essential expertise from all over Europe has proven successful and although the task was challenging, the cooperation has been extremely pleasurable”, explains Marek Tinz, responsible project manager at Infoterra. The service provider network consists of GeoVille GmbH (Austria), GISAT s.r.o. (Czech Republic), Metria (Sweden), Planetek Italia srl. (Italy), Tragsatec SA (Spain), and Infoterra GmbH (Germany).

_An element of the “fast track service precursor on land monitoring 2006-2008”, this project is among the first operational geo-information services within the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA). _

About Infoterra

Infoterra, wholly owned by Europe’s leading space company EADS Astrium, is a leading provider of geo-information products and services for managing the development, environment and security of our changing world. With entities in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Hungary, its customers include international corporations, governments and authorities around the globe, and organisations such as the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Infoterra operates across a comprehensive range of markets – communications, environment, security, agriculture, defence, oil & gas exploration and many more. Furthermore, Infoterra holds the exclusive commercial exploitation rights for the high-resolution radar satellite TerraSAR-X, and plays a leading role in geo-information services within the European GMES initiative of the EC and ESA.

Infoterra, together with Spot Image, form the Earth Observation Division of EADS Astrium Services.

Images

IMG1_Europe: Visualization of sealing across Europe: Yellow coloring indicates a degree of sealing of 20% or more (representing a significant land consumption) in the 38 EEA member states.

IMG2_Subset_MetropolitanAreas: Subset of the European coverage: London and Paris metropolitan areas and the densely populated Netherlands, Belgium and Western Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr area. Yellow coloring indicates a degree of sealing of 20% or more (representing a significant land consumption).

… specialise in extracting useful information from satellite imagery and operate globally in a range of sectors, primarily Oil, Gas and mineral Exploration, Environment, Risk Management and Civil Engineering…


Company profile

Fugro NPA Limited (FNPA) was established in 1972 as Nigel Press Associates and was acquired by the Fugro Group in April 2008.

FNPA has over 35 years of world leading expertise and independent experience in Earth observation, remote sensing and digital cartographic information. Supported by highly skilled staff, FNPA has four specialist teams covering: Imagery and Data services (IDS), InSAR Surveying, Offshore Services and Onshore Exploration. Comprehensive services include satellite data acquisition and image processing, through to interpretation, validation and production of derived maps and reports. FNPA specialise in extracting useful information from satellite imagery and operate globally in a range of sectors, primarily Oil, Gas and mineral Exploration, Environment, Risk Management and Civil Engineering.


Landsat ETM+ Image of Guangzhou, China © USGS

Fugro Group

Fugro has over 13,000 staff permanently stationed in over 50 countries worldwide. Organisationally, Fugro is the world’s pre-eminent group of companies supplying information about the Earth’s near surface. Services are grouped into three major divisions: Geotechnical Services (onshore, nearshore and offshore), Survey Services (offshore and geospatial), and Geoscience Services (development production, marine surveys, and airborne surveys). Fugro gather information on soils and rocks for the oil, mining, survey and construction sectors, using advanced technologies, many of which have been developed in-house. Locations of Fugro operating companies © Fugro

Imagery and Data Services (IDS)

FNPA process, interpret and distribute a wide range of optical and radar imagery from high to medium resolution. Processes such as orthorectification, image filtering, re-projection and seamless colour-balanced mosaicing form the basis of any satellite data processing. IDS also perform further value-adding through the application of image processing techniques including: data corrections & enhancements, manual or automatic classifications, image interpretation, stereo elevation data generation, elevation modelling & analysis, hyperspectral processing. Visualisation 3D of Highland Perthshire, Scotland, UK© Fugro NPA Ltd

InSAR Surveying

FNPA’s InSAR Surveying team has over 15 years experience in the development and practical application of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) techniques for mapping and monitoring ground and structure stability for a range of applications, including: tunnel settlement, groundwater recharge, urban subsidence, slope stability and seismic deformation. InSAR is capable of remotely mapping millimetres to metres of surface deformation spanning months, years and even decades, over 1000s of km2 for sites across the world.
Historical ground motion across Newcastle, UK 1992 to 2002 using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI). Red – subsiding Green -stable Blue – uplift © Fugro NPA Ltd

Offshore Services

Satellite radar image of the Prestige Oil spill off Spain. © ESA> Amongst its services FNPA’s Offshore team has been mapping oil seepage slicks on the sea surface using satellite radar data since 1991. FNPA holds an extensive archive of offshore oil seepage, produced as part of its world leading Global Offshore Seepage Database (GOSD). This has involved the screening of over 500,000 radar acquisitions against global weather databases to identify scenes (primarily from ERS-1 & 2, Envisat and Radarsat-1) that fall within strict weather compliance parameters.

Onshore Exploration

For several decades FNPA’s Onshore Exploration team supplied innovative and bespoke geological mapping solutions mainly to hydrocarbon, mining and extractive industries. FNPA provide exploration companies with structural, stratigraphic and geomorphological analyses where Digital Elevation models (DEMs) are particualrly useful as they can be combined with other ancillary data and aid in the build up of 2D or 3D models of structural and stratigrpahic relationships. In addition the use of very high resolution imagery and more recently hyperspectral analyses provide further advantage to detailed mapping of structure and mineralogy.

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Extract from Kurdistan-wide geological mapping, 2008 Inset: Geological cross section. Structural geological interpretation and derived cross section © Fugro NPA Ltd.

Contact Details
Fugro NPA Limited
Address: Crockham Park, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6SR
Phone: +44 01732 865023
Fax: +44 01732 866521
Web: www.fugro-npa.com
Key contacts: Nigel Press, David Morten
Email: n.press@fugro-npa.com , d.morten@fugro-npa.com

Fugro NPA Limited April 2009.pdf

The convergence of remote sensing and geospatial technologies with wireless and Web technologies has created a significant opportunity for businesses – public and private – to enable improved decision support, planning and operations.

From small companies to large government agencies, organizations are experiencing enhancements in workforce mobility, business integration, decision support, and return on investment. Booz Allen Hamilton calls this new way of working the “location-aware enterprise.” Executives and staff members in decision-making roles or involved in business operations become fully informed – or aware – by using location information to integrate multiple workflows and disparate databases across the enterprise. This presentation includes the framework for establishing an organization as a location-aware enterprise and shows how solutions such as GeoMedia are critical components in this process.

Source GISCafé

UK takes leading role in checking up on the Earth’s health from space

A major new centre for Earth observation has been launched by Science Minister Lord Drayson.

The National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) will bring together the UK’s space experts to focus on the planet’s biggest environmental challenges. The launch is the start of a busy year for UK space science. Britain is a major investor in the European Space Agency which plans to launch three Earth observation satellites in 2009.

Speaking at the launch at the Royal Institution in London, Lord Drayson said, “Society is relying on science for answers to the most complex and daunting environmental challenges facing the planet. The launch of the National Centre for Earth Observation represents the UK’s determination to use the full potential of space technology for environmental research and make the most of this country’s considerable expertise. Satellites offer a unique perspective on the interconnected processes that are shaping our world.”

With a budget of £33 million, NCEO involves more than 100 investigators from 26 UK universities and research centres. It will bring together seismologists, oceanographers and computer modellers to analyse data generated from British satellites and from European Space Agency programmes.

Dr Brian Kerridge of The Science and Technology Facilities Council who was also speaking at the launch said: “The National Centre for Earth Observation will exploit quantitatively global observations made from satellites of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and polar ice sheets. These observations will be used to test critically diverse components of the highly complex models used for climate prediction, for example the UK’s coupled chemistry – climate model (UKCA). This will lead to improved representation of key processes in the system, and then to more reliable predictions of future climate.”

The NCEO already has a leading scientific role in developing two of the three missions in the final selection stage for European Space Agency’s Earth observation programme, the Earth Explorer missions.

If successful, the BIOMASS mission will monitor for the first time the global distribution of forest biomass. The aim is to reduce uncertainties in the calculations of carbon stocks and movements. The ‘PREMIER’ mission will evaluate the processes controlling the composition of the atmosphere between 5 and 25km above the surface of the Earth.

The first Earth Explorer mission, GOCE, or Gravity and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, has been dubbed the ‘Formula One of satellites’ on account of its sleek lines, designed to skip over the top of the atmosphere.

It is designed to map out the Earth’s gravity field in more detail than before and create a complete picture of the world’s ocean circulations.

The Soil Moisture and Ocean salinity mission, or SMOS, and CryoSat-2, which will monitor variations in the thickness of the continental ice-sheets and marine ice cover, are scheduled for launch late in the year.

NCEO director Professor Alan O’Neill said: “This is the beginning of a very exciting journey as Earth observation from space has never been more important. It is a vital tool in measuring and managing the health of the planet. We now have such advanced technology we can predict what environmental issues are likely to occur and determine how to deal with them.”

Source LabNews-