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An early warning system could increase our capacity to manage natural disasters.

We now know that, as flash floods devastated southern Queensland, tens of thousands of people had no warning that the waters were on their way until it was too late – in the case of Toowoomba, some six hours after the floods had hit.

This is unnecessary. Australia should have an early warning system that would allow authorities to predict flash floods and give a timely warning to people in the path of danger.
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One of the great challenges in dealing with flooding over vast areas is knowing what the big picture looks like. Another is getting that information quickly enough to make it useful to people working on the front lines of disaster response.

The best way to get the information is from space, yet Australia is one of the few developed nations not to have its own Earth-observation satellite or weather satellite.

The most recent Defence white paper identified the need for such a satellite. This is a big investment, but starting with a relatively small investment of about $5 million in a purpose-built satellite ground receiving station would give us the capacity that Australia urgently needs to effectively deal with natural disasters.

Since late December, my colleagues and I have been supplying Queensland emergency authorities with high-resolution satellite radar imagery of the flood zones. We have had to rely on radar images taken by Earth-observation satellites owned by the Italian space agency.

This has meant delays of up to six hours while our researchers wait for the satellites that have imaged the Australian disaster zone to pass over European ground stations to download their data. They then have to wait for the large volume of data, in the order of one to five gigabytes, to be decoded at the overseas facility and be delivered back to Australia via the internet so we can process the data into usable intelligence for our emergency authorities.

If we had our own receiving station we could obtain the data almost instantly. With our current capacity the overall delay could be comfortably reduced to less than three hours and, with some further work on the automation of data processing, it could be cut to less than 30 minutes.

Satellite radar can do what our weather satellites, equipped with only optical cameras, cannot – penetrate cloud, smoke and haze and take images day and night to track how quickly water is moving. For researchers it’s also a vital tool to benchmark and verify flood-prediction models.

The benefits of being able to provide these near real-time maps are enormous, not only for flood monitoring but for other natural disasters such as bushfires and earthquakes.

The University of New South Wales has been called upon by various agencies in recent years to assist in emergency responses to a number of major natural disasters because of its cutting-edge research into mapping disaster zones. For example, after the Sichuan earthquakes we assisted Chinese authorities by rapidly developing ground deformation maps of the quake zone with data obtained from Japanese and European satellites.

A state-of-the-art ground station would elevate Australia to super user status, allowing our researchers to enjoy high-priority programming of overseas satellites.

Emergency management agencies now rely heavily on aerial surveillance for intelligence of disasters such as floods, bushfires and oil spills. Timely intelligence from space will keep the aerial surveillance flights to a minimum, not only sparing more air space for aircraft used for firefighting (in the case of bushfires) and evacuation and resupply to isolated communities (in the case of floods), but also bringing significant cost savings.

Australia has been left far behind in terms of Earth observation from space in comparison to the US, Europe, Japan, China and Canada. The government has already made the right decision to invest in the Australian Space Research Program – and, yes, we urgently need our own high-resolution radar satellite – but in the meantime why not make the small investment that could make such a difference to our capacity to manage natural disasters.

Linlin Ge is an associate professor in the UNSW School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems.

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September issue

Arctic Sovereignty, Ecosystem and Resources: PM Announces Support for the Canadian Next Generation RADARSAT Satellites

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced support for the next phase of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, a system of three advanced remote sensing satellites. The RADARSAT Constellation is a fleet of three state-of-the-art remote-sensing satellites, the successors of the RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 satellites. They will extend the 15-year archive of RADARSAT images, a rich source of geophysical information of Canada and the world. These images are a critical resource of information documenting environmental changes and human habitation and are of key interest to government and university researchers, scientists, and policy makers. Images supplied by the Constellation will also support the sustainable management, development and use of natural resources, enhance weather monitoring, support the enforcement of fisheries and environmental regulations, secure the safety of navigation in our coastal waters and provide support for disaster management, humanitarian and relief efforts. On August 25, For more information, please visit

International Assistance: Canada’s response to the floods in Pakistan with RADARSAT-2

Heavy monsoon rains, which began on July 21, 2010, affected many regions of Pakistan causing significant flooding and landslides. More than 1,500 people have lost their lives, 4 million are homeless and more than 17 million people have been affected by the floods. Extensive damage to infrastructure and transportation routes has been reported and may hamper the provision of essential services. The Government of Canada will provide up to $33 million to respond to the most urgent needs of flood-affected populations in Pakistan. Canada is monitoring the situation very closely and working with local authorities. RADARSAT-2 images of affected regions were acquired. To view example of flood products derived from RADARSAT imagery to better manage the event, please visit

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Canadian Earth Observation Technology: SMOS satellite Used For Tracking The Pakistan Floods

The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite, which was launched on 2 November 2009, has been used for monitoring the heavy monsoon rains which hit Pakistan at the end of July. The unique instrument on board of SMOS (an 8m-wide interferometric radiometer) has studied the water content in the soils of the affected area. The acquired data has been processed to make a series of maps showing how the Earth became saturated as a result of the rains. Radar data, in particular, is used to identify the presence and extent of floodwater in cases of floods. In the case of the Pakistan floods, the SMOS team has been particularly encouraged to have got good results out of a mountainous area, a type of terrain from which it is difficult to retrieve soil moisture values from space. Canada is a cooperating member of ESA and contributed to the development of SMOS. Array Systems Computing Inc. (Toronto, Canada) in collaboration with the Expert Support Labs (ESL), ESA and CSA, has successfully developed the SMOS Level 2 Soil Moisture processor. To learn more and to view SMOS soil moisture products of Pakistan, please visit the BBC web site

To learn more about the Canadian Space Agency Government Related Initiatives Program (GRIP) SMOS activities, visit

Arctic Monitoring: Greenland Glacier Gives Birth to Giant Iceberg

Envisat has been observing a rare event in the Arctic since early August – a giant iceberg breaking off the Petermann glacier in North-West Greenland. The Petermann glacier is one of the largest glaciers connecting the Greenland inland ice sheet with the Arctic Ocean. Upon reaching the sea, a number of these large outlet glaciers extend into the water with a floating ‘ice tongue’. An animation was created by combining three Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) acquisitions (31 July, 4 August and 7 August 2010) taken over the same area. The breaking of the glacier tongue and the movement of the iceberg can be clearly seen in this sequence. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contributed to the development of Envisat. To view the animation, please visit

Earth’s Climate and Ice Thickness: Scientists Receive First CryoSat-2 Data

A better understanding of how Earth’s ice fields are changing has come another step closer as the first data from the new CryoSat-2 ice mission are released to selected scientists around the world for fine-tuning. This release, which comes just three months after CryoSat-2 was launched, is the first milestone in the scientific exploitation of the mission’s data. These data are essential for determining tiny variations in the thickness of ice floating in the polar oceans and in the large ice sheets that blanket the Arctic and Antarctica. Around 150 scientists from about 40 research institutes now have access to the data. As part of the calibration and validation procedure, it is their job to help ensure these measurements meet the mission’s exacting standards before the data are released to the wider scientific community later this year. For more information, please visit

To learn more on the Canadian participation to CryoSat-2, please visit the GRIP web page

3rd RADARSAT-2 Workshop: On-line Registration Now Available

The third RADARSAT-2 Workshop, will take place at the Canadian Space Agency, St-Hubert, Quebec, Sept 27 – Oct 1 2010. The main objective of the Workshop is to inform all potential users of the utilizations of RADARSAT-2 data from an operational, commercial and R&D perspectives. The on-line registration and the final program are available on the webpage

Seats are limited, please register now if you want to attend. For more information, please contact Daniel De Lisle (SymposiumRadarsat2@asc-csa.gc.ca).

Latest findings on Earth’s environment using Earth Observation satellites: Revisit the Living Planet Symposium

Nearly 1200 scientific researchers and operational users attended ESA’s Living Planet Symposium in Bergen, Norway, from 28 June – 2 July 2010, to present their latest findings on Earth’s environment and climate using data from Earth Observation satellites. Selected highlights from the symposium were streamed live on the web and are now available for replay (i.e. Data policies, GMES session, Sentinels session, oil spills session, etc.): website

Air Quality: Russian Forest Fires Smoke Plumes Tracked With Canadian Earth Observation Technology

Central Russia and the Moscow region experienced their hottest July in history, with record temperatures reaching over 35ºC posing a high fire risk. Several large smoke plumes originating from burning peat fields and forest fires are visible in this Envisat image covering the area east of Moscow. The smoke plumes stretched over several hundred kilometres and, combined with the normal air pollution in the city, caused pollution levels ten times the normal levels for the capital. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contributed to the development of Envisat. During the development of Envisat, ABB Bomem of Quebec City (Quebec, Canada), developed software to allow the selection and generation of the MERIS instrument products. To view the MERIS image acquired on July 29 2010 at a resolution of 300 meters, please visit

Contributing to Global Security: South China benefits From Canadian Earth Observation technology During Floods

A severe flood affected Southern China on July 19. More than 52.000 people and 72 counties have been affected by the heavy rains in Jiunjian and more than 40 000 people were relocated. RADARSAT images of affected regions were acquired before and after the event to better manage the event. The products were sent to the China National Committee for Disaster Reduction. To learn more or to view the products, please visit

disastercahrter

A new and interesting geospatial book titled “Why ‘Where’ Matters: Understanding and Profiting from GPS, GIS and Remote Sensing” has been published.

The tag line is “Practical Advice for Individuals, Communities, Companies and Countries.” No other book or publication in our field brings together the technology, its history, applications, and associated policy that demonstrates the importance of geospatial as well as this one does. It is written to be highly readable and it has the ringing endorsement of a highly respected high level politician as well as one of the leading thinkers and academics in the geospatial field.

What some leaders and experts are saying about this book:

“This book is both a technology primer and a fascinating source of analysis of advanced applications of geo-information. It should be read by anyone who wants or needs to understand the sweeping implications for individuals, governments, and business of the modern use of geographically based information.” John Manley, P.C., O.C., President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

“A timely and important contribution to the geomatics literature by two experienced and well respected professionals. The book provides a comprehensive overview of current geospatial technologies, data sources and applications; and effectively addresses a number of important policy issues. It is highly recommended as an introductory text for both policy makers and professionals seeking further insight into the opportunities afforded by the intelligent application of geomatics technologies.” John McLaughlin, Professor and President Emeritus, University of New Brunswick

See the Book! Over 25 pages of the pre-publication version of the book are on display on the web site: www.geoeconomy.com

The US Federal Geographic Data Committee (http://www.fgdc.gov ) (FGDC) Steering Committee has officially endorsed a group of OGC standards along with other standards developed externally to FGDC.

These standards play an important role in enabling interoperability as part of the Geospatial Platform for GeoOneStop, place-based initiatives, and other potential future programs of the FGDC.

The Steering Committee endorsed standards (http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/fgdc-endorsed-external-standards/index_html) from the OGC, ISO TC211 and ANSI (INCITS L1) standards development organizations.

OGC’s interface and encoding standards are an essential part of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. They play a key role in providing technical interoperability among geospatial systems used at all levels of government,” said Ivan DeLoatch, Executive Director of the FGDC. “We encourage government agencies to include these standards, as well as FGDC’s data standards, in the language of software and data procurement documents.”

The FGDC Standards Working Group will revisit the list every year as part of its standards life-cycle management activities.

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is an interagency committee that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis. This nationwide data publishing effort is known as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure [http://www.fgdc.gov/nsdi/nsdi.html] (NSDI). The NSDI is a physical, organizational, and virtual network designed to enable the development and sharing of this nation’s digital geographic information resources. FGDC activities are administered through the FGDC Secretariat, hosted by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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 support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. 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/contact.

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Earthstar Geographics LLC (San Diego, CA, USA) today announced the release of the latest round of upgrades to their TerraColor 15-meter global satellite imagery dataset.

Most of the upgrades were made to reduce cloud cover in problem areas such as Tierra del Fuego, the Kamchatka Peninsula and many other regions using precision terrain corrected Landsat 7 imagery. The current upgrades are part of an ongoing program to improve the TerraColor dataset, and many examples are provided in a PDF file on the company’s www.terracolor.net website.

“We continue to upgrade TerraColor in our effort to produce the world’s most complete medium resolution global satellite imagery dataset with the least cloud cover,” said Eric Augenstein of Earthstar Geographics. “Future upgrade targets include the cloudy equatorial regions in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as other areas. “

TerraColor is a precision orthorectified global imagery base map built primarily from Landsat 7 satellite imagery. Applications include web-based mapping, GPS tracking, 3 D visualization, GIS backdrops, television, print and film images, military/defense logistics, flight simulation, accurate cartographic mapping and many others. TerraColor provides complete pole-to-pole global coverage, and is processed using Earthstar’s global ocean mask to remove clouds, ice, and image edges from ocean areas. The product may be purchased with either a standard blue ocean or a bathymetric color shaded relief ocean fill.

About Earthstar Geographics LLC

Earthstar Geographics LLC specializes in products and services for the geospatial data industries with over 20 years experience in satellite remote sensing and image processing. For complete information on the TerraColor imagery, visit the TerraColor website at www.terracolor.net.

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Europe’s future in space and the opportunities it will offer to us all will be discussed at a conference in Brussels on October 26–27 under the aegis of the European Parliament.

For the very first time, a European Treaty – the Lisbon Treaty – which entered into force on 1st December 2009, advocates the implementation of a genuine European space policy.

The institutional progress should give a decisive impulse to space programmes such as Galileo for satellite navigation and GMES for Earth monitoring and security, as well as to the European Union’s other ambitions for space exploitation and exploration. This will have a decisive impact on the many key scientific, economic, industrial and social stakes involved.

The development will also lead to a redistribution of institutional responsibilities: firstly, between member states and the European institutions, by giving a deciding role to the Commission and the European Parliament, and secondly between these institutions and the European Space Agency (ESA). This raises critical questions ranging from political responsibility and financing to project management and programme governance.

These all have serious consequences for Europe’s future space ambitions and for the huge range of services this new space infrastructure can provide to improve public welfare. They include better management of the environment and natural resources, scientific progress, entrepreneurial opportunities and enhanced public security.

Come and debate these issues and give us your input to this exciting new policy.

The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the Vice President of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani, the Director General of ESA, Jean-Jacques Dordain, and the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mercedes Bresso, will open the Conference.

With the participation of:
The European Parliament, The European Commission, The European Council, The European Space Agency, The European Investment Bank, The European Committee of the Regions, The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Arianespace, Areva, ASI, Avio, CNES, DLR, EADS-Astrium, ECMWF, Eumetsat, Eutelsat, Eurospace, the Belgian High Representation for Space Policy, Nereus, OHB, Space Tec Capital, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space, T-Systems and many others

Register online on the Conference website: http://www.spaceconference.eu

NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development have expanded their successful collaboration with international partners to launch an innovative, web-based environmental management system for the Himalaya region.

The partners inaugurated this state-of-the-art regional monitoring system, known as SERVIR-Himalaya, at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal on Oct. 5. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and USAID’s Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Michael Yates attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Nepal.

SERVIR features web-based access to satellite imagery, decision-support tools and interactive visualization capabilities, and puts previously inaccessible information into the hands of scientists, environmental managers, and decision-makers. The Earth observation information is used to address threats related to climate change, biodiversity, and extreme events such as flooding, forest fires, and storms.

An initial SERVIR hub for the Mesoamerican region was jointly developed in 2005 by researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and USAID development experts in Washington, DC and Central America. Its name comes from the Spanish word meaning “to serve.”

“USAID’s commitment with SERVIR and NASA is to create the linkage from space to village, to apply the best in science and technology to meet development challenges,” said Yates. “We are pleased to work with our partners in Nepal, and in other regions of the world, to build capacity to use satellite data and mapping technologies for making practical decisions that improve people’s lives.”

This NASA-USAID partnership combines NASA-derived technologies with USAID understanding of foreign assistance to improve livelihoods in the developing world to reduce poverty and help avoid conflict in order to bring people and their environment into harmony.

This year, USAID will invest $18 million in the global expansion of the SERVIR platform, establishing new hubs in the developing world as an integral part of its global climate change initiative.

“NASA’s science mission begins here on Earth, with greater awareness and understanding of our changing planet, and solutions for protecting our environment, resources and human lives,” Bolden said. “The SERVIR technology, and our partnership with various organizations and people around the globe, reflects NASA’s commitment to improving life on our home planet for all people.”

Since 2005, SERVIR has served the Mesoamerican region and the Dominican Republic from the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is based in Panama. Building on this initial success, USAID and NASA added a second SERVIR hub in East Africa at the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development in Nairobi in 2008.

NASA and USAID are now expanding SERVIR to the Hindu-Kush – Himalaya region to address critical issues such as land cover change, air quality, glacial melt and adaptation to climate change. The agencies are working in partnership with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a regional knowledge development and learning center that serves member countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The countries in the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya area have unique needs related to their extreme mountain environments. The region is known as Earth’s “third pole,” because of its inaccessibility and the vast amount of water stored there in the form of ice and snow. Like the Polar Regions, this area is experiencing glacier melt due to a changing climate.

“I am very pleased that through the partnership with USAID and NASA on SERVIR-Himalaya, ICIMOD will be able to augment its capacity and its network of cooperative partners in the region to use Earth observation for societal benefits of the mountain communities,” said Basanta Shrestha, division head of the Mountain Environment and Natural Resources Information System for ICIMOD.

SERVIR-Himalaya will integrate Earth science data from NASA satellites with geospatial information products from other government agencies. SERVIR was developed in coordination with the Group on Earth Observations, more than 80 nations working together to build a Global Earth Observing System of Systems to benefit the needs of society.

For more information about SERVIR, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/servir

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://nasa.gov

Source

In 2000, the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” was set up on the initiative of ESA (European Space Agency) and CNES (France’s Centre national d’études spatiales). Its purpose is to make it easier for emergency services to access satellite data in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

On Tuesday October 19, ESA, CNES and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of this Charter, which has been joined by a further seven space agencies worldwide and activated on average more than twice a month since its creation.

The principle underlying the Charter is that images and data acquired by Earth observation satellites should be made available without charge to the authorities responsible for organising relief operations in disaster areas, via a unified and coordinated system of image acquisition and delivery, wherever in the world the affected region is located.

This public interest initiative on a global scale quickly attracted a number of new partners having operational Earth observation satellites in orbit. After ESA and CNES, which initiated the Charter, Canada’s CSA joined it, early on, in 2000, followed by the United States’ NOAA/USGS and India’s ISRO in 2001, Argentina’s CONAE in 2003, Japan’s JAXA and the United Kingdom’s BNSC (now the UKSA) in 2005, and China’s CNSA in 2007. These agencies take on the Presidency of the Charter in turn every six months.

Each Charter member space agency cooperates on a voluntary basis, with no exchange of funds involved, and undertakes to provide its resources free of charge to enable the Charter to function.

Between its operational startup in November 2000 and 19 October 2010, the Charter has been activated 280 times, and already 39 times since the beginning of 2010, notably for the earthquake in Haiti in January. It is used throughout the world to monitor natural disasters, mainly those linked to meteorological, seismic and volcanic phenomena. It demonstrates the contribution that space systems can make to crisis management, making the work of the rescue teams on the ground easier.

On Tuesday October 19, from 18:30, an anniversary ceremony will take place at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris in the presence of Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA; Yannick d’Escatha, President of CNES; Steve McLean, President of the CSA; and Alain Perret, Head of French Civil Security. Media members who would like to attend this event are invited to register with ESA’s Press Service, Brigitte Kolmsee, email: brigitte.kolmsee@esa.int, tel.:+33.(0)1.5369.7299.

For further information, please contact:
CNES press contacts:
Gwenaëlle Verpeaux, tel.: 01 44 76 74 04
gwenaelle.verpeaux@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet, tel.: 01 44 76 78 37
julien.watelet@cnes.fr
ESA press contact:
Brigitte Kolmsee, tel.: 01 53 69 72 99
brigitte.kolmsee@esa.int

Source

News

Research on the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal as a human-technology network
Mr. Florian Neisser, Geographer at the University of Bonn, has finalized his research on the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal as “An Interactive Platf…
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NASA Administrator launches SERVIR-Himalaya Programme with ICIMOD in Kathmandu
The SERVIR-Himalaya system is being launched today, 5th October, by Mr. Charles F. Bolden Jr., NASA Administrator, and Mr. Michael Yates, Senior Deput…
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Satellite to provide images of disasters
Satellite to provide images of disasters KATHMANDU: A team of Japanese scientists has installed a receiver that will directly provide real time satel…
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High Level Conference “Space for the African Citizen” in Brussels
UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER Senior Expert Jörg Szarzynski participated in the High Level Conference “Space for the African Citizen” in Brussels….
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Application of earth-observation satellites to disaster monitoring
The small satellite constellation for environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting (SSCEDMF) is an important component of China’s earth-obser…
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ESCAP launches Asia-Pacific mechanism on drought monitoring and early warning
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), launched in to service a Regional Cooperative Mechanism on Droug…
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DMCii-led project exploits satellites to strengthen UK disaster response
The project is being run by a consortium of five organisations: DMCii takes the lead role, with Infoterra Ltd supporting the Earth observation compo…
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Flood mapping for Pakistan by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development
ICIMOD has taken up rapid response mapping for the flood affected areas in three provinces with the support from Sentinel-Asia partners and the reques…
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China launches “Mapping Satellite-I”
China successfully launched a new mapping satellite, “Mapping Satellite-I”, from the northwestern Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 3:10 p….
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International Telecommunication Union Aids Pakistan
Geneva – ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré has issued a global appeal for contributions to assist the flood-affected victims in Pakistan. IT…
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SPOT 4 Availability in Russia Extended
ScanEx Research & Development Center (Russia) and French Spot Image (France) have signed an agreement, entitling ScanEx with exclusive rights star…
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ISRO Launches Gagan Satellite Navigation System
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched the GPS-supported Geo Augmented Navigation (Gagan) satellite navigation system to aid India…
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FAO Launches Real Time Fire Monitoring Website
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new online portal on fire information and real time monitoring to help count…
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Remote Sensing of the Forests of Belize
CATHALAC and NASA in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of Belize have completed a remote sensing-based assessme…
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NASA Instrument Tracks Pollution from Russian Fires
Drought and the worst heat wave Russia has seen in 130 years have sparked a devastating outbreak of wildfires across the nation this summer, primarily…
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Satellites Help Measure Earth’s Water
Scientists say they’ve used satellite data to measure for the first time the amount of water that rises and falls in the Amazon River floodplain each …
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New Maps of Central America for Risk Management
Germany: GfK GeoMarketing released new maps for Central America offering comprehensive coverage from Mexico to Panama. These digital administrative an…
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First output of the project to assess coastal vulnerability_
Australia: Department of Planning/Department of Transport, Australia, has delivered the first outputs of the project to assess coastal vulnerability a…
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TanDEM-X delivers first 3D images
On 22 July 2010, researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) facility in Oberpfaffenhofen publish…
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UNSW to develop satellite surveying technology
University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers will develop satellite surveying technologies that will allow flooding, bushfires, deforestation and …
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Newsletter publication is also accessible at UN SPIDER

1. High Level Conference “Space for the African Citizen” in Brussels
2. UN-SPIDER strengthening ties with Crisis Mappers at ICCM 2010 in Boston
3. SpaceAid supporting response to floods in Senegal
4. Research on the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal as a human technology network
5. Read our latest Newsletter and follow UN-SPIDER on Facebook and Twitter
6. Sentinel Asia covering volcano eruption in Indonesia and flash flood in India
7. International Charter Space and Major Disasters activated nine times in September
8. SAFER activated for fires in France
9. NASA Administrator launches SERVIR-Himalaya Programme with ICIMOD in Kathmandu
10. MapAction reviews challenges of gathering and managing spatial data sets in humanitarian emergencies
11. Satellite to provide images of disasters
12. ESCAP launches Asia-Pacific mechanism on drought monitoring and early warning
13. DMCii-LED project exploits satellites to strengthen UK disaster response

Conferences and Workshops
-4th United Nations International UN-SPIDER Bonn Workshop on Disaster Management and Space Technology: “The 4C – Challenge: Communication – Coordination – Cooperation – Capacity Development”, Bonn, 12-14 October 2010
-The 4th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction: Incorporating space-based information and technologies into DRR and CCA; Incheon, Korea, 25-28 October 2010
-8th International Conference of the African Association o Remote Sensing and the Environment; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25-29 October 2010
-Pacific GIS and RS User Conference; Suva, Fiji, 23-26 November 2010
-34th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment: “The GEOSS Era: Towards Operational Environmental Monitoring”, Sydney, 10-15 April 2011
-Gi4DM 2011 – GeoInformation for Disaster Management; Antalya, Turkey, 3-8 May 2011

(Issue #10, 5 October 2010)


IMPLEMENTING GEOSS

ESA/FAO, USGS confirmed as Portal and Clearinghouse providers

The GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) has been created to ensure that end-users of Earth observations have efficient access to the full suite of Earth observation content provided through GEOSS. Continued …

Final selections announced for GEO Call for Proposals
The list of final selections for the GEO Call for Proposals is now posted on the GEO web site. Later in October, the reviewers’ reports will be sent to all contributors. In addition, the GEO User Interface and Capacity Building Committees will start working with the selected proposal teams to contact potential resource-providing organizations and to initiate their projects.

SERVIR supports forest management in Belize
A recent study conducted in the context of SERVIR demonstrates the utility of Earth observation technologies for monitoring the forest resources of Belize. Continued …

The Year of Tropical Convection
The Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) is an international project coordinated jointly by the World Meteorological Organization’s World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and World Weather Research Programme/The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (WWRP/THORPEX). Continued …

GEO Carbon Strategy Report now available
The GEO Carbon Community of Practice has finalized the GEO Carbon Strategy Report and posted it on the GEO web site. The Report describes the implementation of the GEOSS global carbon observation and analysis system, which will address the three components of the carbon cycle (atmosphere, land and ocean) integrating both in-situ and space-based observations. The report follows on from the Carbon theme report of the Integrated Global Observing Strategy Partnership (IGOS-P), which has since been fully integrated into the GEO Carbon Community of Practice.

Locating geothermal resources in East Africa
As described in the last issue of GEO News, the African-European Georesources Observation System (AEGOS) project (Task CB-09-05d) is a geoscience contribution to building GEOSS. Several recent workshops held by AEGOS and GEO have now proposed strengthening this contribution by adding a new task to the GEO Work Plan on identifying geothermal energy resources (a second new task will focus on managing the environmental impacts of mineral extraction). Continued …

Norway-led initiative to monitor CO2 storage sites
Norway is launching a new energy initiative to support and develop the use of Earth observation products and services for monitoring CO2 storage sites. If approved by the GEO Plenary, this initiative, entitled “Towards an Operational System for the Monitoring of CCS Sites”, will be implemented as a new Task in the current Work Plan. It will perform a gap analysis, define a strategy and draft a work plan for establishing an operational Earth observation system for monitoring CCS sites. Continued …

GEO UPDATE

Countdown to Beijing
Planning for the GEO-VII Plenary session and the second GEO Ministerial Summit, to be held back-to-back in Beijing during the first week of November, is now well advanced. The Ministerial agenda has been finalized, and a draft text of a Beijing Declaration has been circulated for discussion amongst governments in the run-up to the Summit. Continued …

User Interface Committee prepares for 2011
The 16th meeting of the User Interface Committee (UIC) was held in Oslo at the invitation of the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The meeting’s objectives were to plan the Committee’s business for 2011 and to complete preparations for the GEO-VII Plenary and Ministerial Summit in November. Continued …

STC reviews Biodiversity and Ecosystem Tasks
The Science and Technology Committee (STC) met in Rome on 28-29 September at the invitation of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). Continued …

ADC focuses on interoperability and data management
The GEO Architecture and Data Committee held its 14th meeting in Ankara, Turkey on 1-3 September. The meeting focused on the Architecture and Data Management Strategy and related issues. The presentation materials are available on the GEO FTP site. Continued …

GEO BON prepares to support Convention on Biodiversity
The Steering Committee of the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) met in July in Cambridge, UK, at the invitation of the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Continued …

Health and Environment Community of Practice elaborates projects
A three-day workshop of the Health and Environment Community of Practice was hosted on 27-29 July in Paris by the French Space Agency (CNES). It was attended by some 25 participants, including practitioners, scientists, and providers and users in the Earth-observation and public-health sector. Continued …

ISPRS holds special sessions on GEO
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission VIII held a Symposium on “Networking the World with Remote Sensing” in August in Kyoto, Japan. Two sessions dedicated to GEO were included in the agenda with the aims of promoting awareness of the benefits of GEO for the science and technology community and of engaging users. Continued …

Follow-up underway to OceanObs’09 conference
The OceanObs’09 conference brought together, among others, the major international stakeholders committed to the development of a sustained ocean observing system. These stakeholders decided to convene a post-conference working group that will formulate, by October 2010, its recommendations for a framework through which to move global sustained ocean observations forward in the next decade. Continued …

ANNOUNCEMENTS

QA4EO workshop announced for 5-7 April 2011
The QA4EO Workshop on Providing Quality Information in Harmonised Earth Observation Data will be held from 5 – 7 April 2011 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford, UK. Continued …

Earthzine extends essay, blog competition deadline to 22 October
Earthzine’s second global essay and blogging competition for college and university students worldwide has extended its deadline for submissions to 22 October 2010. Continued …

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