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As part of the development process for ESA’s Sentinel-3 Earth observation mission, remote-sensing experts carried out an extensive experiment campaign across southern Europe this summer. The results provide valuable insight into the imagery the mission will deliver after it is launched in 2013.

For all new Earth observation missions, a crucial part of the development process, after defining and designing the instruments, is to assess the future performance of the sensors. In addition, the algorithms being developed to transform the satellite data into usable information products also have to be tested.

In order to make these assessments, ESA organises test campaigns using airborne instruments that closely match the characteristics of the spaceborne sensors. The effort is coordinated with ground-based teams that collect complementary scientific data for calibration and evaluation.

One such campaign was recently completed for Sentinel-3, which is the third in a series of five space missions ESA is developing for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative. Led by the European Commission, GMES will fulfil the growing need among European policy-makers to access accurate and timely information services to manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change, and ensure civil security.

The ‘Sentinel-3 Experiment’ campaign – or Sen3Exp for short – involved a series of coordinated activities with scientists making ground-based measurements in Spain, Italy and the Ligurian and Adriatic Seas, while aircraft with sensitive instrumentation passed overhead and satellites acquired data simultaneously from space. The result is a comprehensive dataset of imagery and ground-truth information that can be used to simulate Sentinel-3 optical data, test the processors under development to generate the data products, and analyse whether these data products will satisfy the requirements of the user communities.

The campaign’s Principal Investigator, Dr Carsten Brockmann, confirmed that, “A unique, comprehensive and valuable dataset has been created that will significantly support the development of the Sentinel-3 mission.”

Primarily, Sentinel-3 will support services related to the marine environment, such as maritime safety services that need ocean surface-wave information, ocean-current forecasting services that need surface-temperature information, and sea-water quality and pollution monitoring services that require advanced ocean colour products from both the open ocean and coastal areas. Sentinel-3 will also serve numerous land, atmospheric and cryospheric application areas such as land-use change monitoring, forest cover mapping and fire detection.

The mission’s complement of optical sensors will comprise an Ocean Land Colour Instrument (OLCI), which is based on Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), and a Sea Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR), which is a successor to Envisat’s Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR).

The Sen3Exp campaign began in June in Barrax, La Mancha, Spain. An aircraft operated by the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), equipped with three hyperspectral imaging spectrometers, made two flights over the area. Meanwhile, satellite data were acquired by Envisat’s MERIS and AATSR and by the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) aboard ESA’s Proba-1 satellite. At the same time, ground teams, under the direction of Prof. Jose Moreno from the University of Valencia, made atmospheric radiometric and biophysical measurements.

The campaign then moved to Pisa in Italy, from where a pine forest at San Rossore could be reached. At San Rossore, Prof. Federico Magnani from the University of Bologna oversaw the week-long ground measurement programme. The dataset was again complemented with MERIS, AATSR and CHRIS satellite data.

In July, activities focused on the marine environment where measurements were taken at two oceanic sites: the Boussole monitoring buoy in the Ligurian Sea and the Aqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT) in the Adriatic Sea, close to Venice. Both sites have played an important role in supporting ocean colour algorithm development and product validation for many years.

Boussole typifies the global ocean, where the measured signal is determined solely by the absorption of phytoplankton. AAOT is in an area where there is both open ocean water and also water that is optically complex because phytoplankton, suspended sediments and coloured dissolved organic matter also affect the measured signal. Such water can be found in all coastal regions and is a challenge to understand from space.

Routine radiometry measurements are made at these locations, both above and below the water surface and fed into the Mermaid database, managed by ARGANS, UK. A unique flight pattern was developed by the Sen3Exp team that encompassed a wide range of observational configurations. Two overpasses over each site were carried out and an image over the coast that included the transition between land and ocean was also acquired, which will be important for understanding how the signal behaves in coastal zones.

The campaign also took advantage of the fact that the MERIS 15 spectral bands can be reprogrammed. Thus, for several short periods during the campaign window, data were acquired using some of the new spectral bands planned for OLCI and provided some of the most realistic simulations possible of the data expected from Sentinel-3.

With more than 60 people involved, the success of this technically and logistically complex campaign demonstrates the excellent cooperation between European scientists. Now comes the task of analysing the huge dataset collected during the campaign. An additional opportunity for data analysis is provided by the inclusion in of data collected from the Airborne Prism Experiment (APEX) imaging spectrometer during a parallel campaign in Switzerland and Belgium.

In the meantime, Professors Moreno and Magnani agree that, “A large data archive has been generated that will help not only to provide important input for Sentinel-3 but will be valuable for future ESA missions.”

SOURCE ESA

September 21, 2009 SPECIM, Spectral Imaging Ltd. (Oulu, Finland), a leading provider of Hyperspectral Imaging sensors and Airborne Technologies GmbH (Wiener Neustadt, Austria) have agreed about collaboration which aims at providing the airborne remote sensing market with turnkey multiple sensor platforms.

Specim’s role in the collaboration is to provide high performance hyperspectral sensors for the platforms. Spectral information is used to categorize and analyze target and its condition in great detail in growing range of applications, inluding environmental monitoring, forestry, farming, and geological surveys.

Airborne Technologies’s integrates hyperspectral imaging with other sensors, like a laser scanner and digital camera. Installation can take place on different kinds of platforms. Fusions of hyperspectral imaging with topographic information from the laser scanner is becoming a powerful technigue in forest mapping, land use and urban planning, and prompt monitoring of large scale natural disasters or guiding the rescue operations.

“Through this collaboration, SPECIM and Airborne Technologies can supply their customers with complete multi-sensor platforms, as well as training and support in their operation. The customer will be immediately ready for efficient data collection and application work” said Timo Hyvärinen, Managing Director of SPECIM.

About Airborne Technologies

Airborne Technologies has an extensive experience in integrating instrumentation in various aircrafts, and taking care of the required certification processes. Airborne Technologies also provides data collection and processing services by utilizing multisensor platforms. For more information please visit www.airbornetechnologies.at

or contact:

Mario Rathmanner
Chief Operating Officer
m.rathmanner@airbornetechnologies.at
phone +43 664 88453023

About SPECIM

SPECIM, Spectral Imaging Ltd, Finland, is a world leading manufacturer of innovative hyperspectral imaging instruments and technologies, known for their high performance and best value on the market.

SPECIM provides ImSpector imaging spectrographs, Spectral Cameras, and the SISU series of Hyperspectral Imaging Scanners to rapidly growing industrial and scientific clientele. These products are used in a broad range of demanding applications, like color inspection, chemical imaging, process analytical technologies (PAT), life sciences, forensics, security and military applications. SPECIM’s AISA series of airborne Hyperspectral sensors provides market leading remote sensing solutions, from small UAV systems to full featured commercial, research and military remote sensing tools. For more information, please visit www.specim.fi

or contact:

Dr. Katja Alanko-Huotari,
Product Manager,
katja.alanko-huotari@specim.fi
phone +358 10 4244 408

Mr. Harri Karppinen
Sales Coordinator
harri.karppinen@specim.fi
phone +358 10 4244 436

Proba-2, one of the smallest satellites ESA has ever built for space, is about to leave its Belgian homeland.

Its development and testing complete, the satellite is being packed up for the first leg of its journey to orbit – shipment to the distant Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia.

Proba-2 is second in ESA’s Project for OnBoard Autonomy series, building on nearly eight years of operational experience gained with Proba-1. While standard satellites are truck-sized structures, the Proba satellites have a volume of less than one cubic metre. But this small scale does not limit their functionality: Proba-2 incorporates a total of 17 new technological developments and four scientific experiments, focused on solar and space weather observations.

Like Proba-1 before it, Proba-2 was constructed for ESA by Verhaert Design & Development in the East Flanders town of Kruibeke, with the support of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. On Wednesday Belgian Minister for Science Policy Sabine Laruelle visited the company to bid farewell to the satellite and emphasise again the importance of space technology for the Belgian space policy.

“Proba-2 is the result of ESA’s commitment to technological innovation,” said Director Courtois. “This mission is serving as a testbed for a variety of new space technologies. And the next two in the Proba series, the Proba-3 formation flying demonstrator and Proba-V vegetation monitoring mission, are already in preparation.”

PROBA was developed under the ESA General Studies Technology Programme (GSTP), which fosters the development of flight hardware,” explained Frank Preud’homme, Verhaert Space Business Unit Manager. “This allowed Verhaert Space to build up satellite engineering capabilities and to attain a competitive position on the international market for small satellites.”

David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium briefed journalists on Proba-2’s Sun-monitoring instruments: LYRA (Lyman-Alpha Radiator) is designed to measure solar irradiance in key ultraviolet bands, while SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active pixel detector and image Processing) will make ultraviolet observations of the corona around the Sun. Two further science instruments developed by a scientific consortium from the Czech Republic will detect the radiation and plasma environment around the spacecraft.

In-orbit technology testing supporting European competitiveness

The Proba series are part of ESA’s GSTP In-orbit Technology Demonstration Programme: missions dedicated to the demonstration of innovative technologies. In orbit demonstration is the final step on the technology development ladder, proving new hardware has the ‘right stuff’ for ongoing use.

Such missions provide small and medium sized companies with rich operational experience essential for European industry to remain innovative and competitive.

As part of ESA’s strategy to reduce mission costs the satellite will piggyback its way to orbit aboard the same Rockot launcher carrying ESA’s full-sized Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer satellite. The two are scheduled to launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 2 November.

More information
Frederic.Teston, ESA

Source ESA

Hampshire, UK – More than a dozen UK government departments and organisations have purchased the latest marine mapping from SeaZone.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), English Heritage, Natural England, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency are amongst those benefiting from SeaZone data products in the implementation of their marine management, development and protection responsibilities.

SeaZone continues to promote the adoption of Central Government collective agreements to provide easier management, better co-ordination and cost savings to Government, with the Welsh Assembly Government, Countryside Council for Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales the first to benefit from this approach.

“We are extremely pleased to have signed our first collective agreement with government departments and organisations in Wales and are working towards a number of similar agreements in Scotland and Northern Ireland,” commented Mike Osborne, Managing Director and Founder of SeaZone. “It is also encouraging to note that individual organisations are increasing their use of our solutions with, for example, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showing a 50% increase in users compared with last year.”

One user of SeaZone’s marine geographic information data is English Heritage, the government’s statutory advisor on the historic environment. Their AMIE (Archives and Monuments in England) database contains tens of thousands of maritime records and SeaZone data has proved invaluable in compiling, updating and managing these records, allowing them to provide enhanced information to their partners and customers.

“English Heritage’s remit for the protection, promotion and understanding of England’s historic environment extends out to the twelve mile territorial limit. We have made SeaZone HydroSpatial data available to staff through our intranet and desktop GIS systems to provide context to our marine planning and designation work,” commented David Gander, webGIS Manager for English Heritage.

SeaZone has developed a range of marine geographic information data, software and services. Easy to use, fit for purpose geographic datasets include detailed water depth information, scanned and geocoded Admiralty Charts and the only truly authoritative digital marine map – SeaZone HydroSpatial. SeaZone has also developed next generation software to manage and present survey and environmental monitoring data and provide desktop access to the world standard in tidal prediction methodology. To complement its data and software portfolio SeaZone can also provide application specific product and Geographical Information System training, data manipulation and analysis and software development.

Source SpatialNews

EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 67th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, on June 20th and July 1st.

The meeting was chaired by General Dr. Massimo Capaldo, Head of the Meteorological Department (Chief of the Staff Office – Ufficio Generale Spazio Aereo e Meteorologia) in the Italian General Meteorological Office. This was the first EUMETSAT Council attended by Latvia and Poland as full Member States. The accession process continues, with the Council adopting a resolution on the accession of Romania as a full EUMETSAT Member State by January 2010.

The_Jason-3 altimetry program and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)_ received impetus from the Council. A draft program proposal, declaration, and enabling resolution on the optional Jason-3 altimetry programme were approved, opening the Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite follow-on program to subscriptions by interested EUMETSAT Member States. The aim is for the Jason-3 programme to be fully funded by the end of 2009. EUMETSAT is prepared to contribute 63 million euros to the 252 million euros program costs of Jason-3.

The Council also approved a Framework Agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will pave the way for further detailed arrangements between both organizations for cooperation on GMES Sentinels (Sentinels-4 and -5). The Council also adopted a draft program proposal and EUMETSAT/ESA implementing arrangement on the GMES Sentinel-3 Program under the responsibility of ESA. EUMETSAT will be the operator of Sentinel-3, serving the marine user community with near-real-time and off-line products.

Other future programmes discussed by the Council were the Post-EUMETSAT Polar System (Post-EPS) and Meteosat Third Generation (MTG). The full MTG program is expected to be approved in 2010. The first generation of EUMETSAT’s successful Meteosat series will continue operations, with Council extending the Meteosat Transition Program (MTP) to provide the Indian Ocean Data Coverage service for three years starting in 2011, and closing out in 2014. It also approved the provision of Météo France’s RETIM data distribution service via EUMETCast.

The Council approved the concept for EUMETSAT’s involvement in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES’), the French space agency’s SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtimeter in Ka-band) program, as a baseline for starting negotiations with CNES. The EUMETSAT Secretariat was tasked to negotiate with CNES an exchange of letters establishing EUMETSAT’s tasks in the SARAL mission. EUMETSAT’s proposed contribution would focus mainly on near-real-time processing of SARAL data and the dissemination of these processed data to end users. Finally, the Council endorsed a resolution on climate monitoring activities in EUMETSAT. As a first priority, EUMETSAT will generate Fundamental Climate Data Records and as a second priority Thematic Climate Data Records, making use of the expertise of its Satellite Application Facilities.

Source SatNews

Global Earth Observation (GEO), such as satellite observations, helps manage environmental resources and prevent disasters. However, they are expensive.

(July,3) A recent study proposes a framework to assess the value of GEOs in which stakeholders are consulted.

GEO consists of all observational information about the state of the world, including satellite observations and ‘in situ’ information. Many governments and international organisations invest a large amount in GEO to inform their decisions. However, there have been recent budgetary pressures on GEO. To assess its benefits, the European Commission has funded the GEO-BENE project1, which supported this Dutch study. The study proposes a framework based on ‘Bayesian decision theory’, whereby the probability that a decision-maker will invest in information depends on how much uncertainty will be reduced by the information.

In order to assess the framework, the study assessed the value of satellite observations to monitor water quality in the North Sea. More specifically, the study examined three case studies: eutrophication (observed via chlorophyll-a – the pigment (colour) from algae, which acts as an indicator of eutrophication), excessive algal blooms and suspended sediments. A range of stakeholders was consulted, including policy makers, water managers, researchers and representatives of interest groups, using a questionnaire based on Bayesian decision theory.

On average, the results demonstrate that respondents expect satellite observations to improve water quality monitoring in the North Sea. This expectation is greatest for suspended sediments. It is considered slightly less valuable for monitoring for algal blooms and least valuable for eutrophication as respondents believed a well-functioning water monitoring system already exists and there is a good understanding of the relationship between source and effects.

Estimates of economic pay-offs could only be made for an early-warning system for algal blooms, based on an event in 2001 where algal bloom caused an approximate loss of EUR 20 million to the Dutch mussel farming industry. From this, the study estimated a value for satellite observations of EUR 74,000 per week for monitoring algal blooms. Since the total additional costs of satellite observations are about EUR 50,000 per week, the net benefits were estimated at EUR 24,000 per week. This suggests a social rate of return of 48 per cent. It is difficult to estimate economic pay-offs for eutrophication as more than 85 per cent of nutrients which cause eutrophication come from poorly controllable sources, such as historical stocks of phosphates and nitrates and atmospheric deposits. Hence, better information about chlorophyll-a’s spread contributes little to better-targeted interventions.

The authors acknowledge much uncertainty surrounding the estimates used in the study, particularly those arising from participants’ assumptions about the reliability of GEO information. However, when accounting for these uncertainties, the probability that investments in early warning enhance welfare is still 75 per cent.

The study concludes that Bayesian decision theory provides a suitable framework for assessing the economic value of GEO information through stakeholder consultation, but that it requires a high level of expertise and awareness from the respondents to quantify their responses. It also indicates the importance of including several decision-makers in the consultation since estimates of value vary depending on background, expertise and possible allegiance to existing monitoring systems or organisations

Source European Commission, Environment DG

Info from Environmental -Expert

Western China is a very seismically active area and has had many catastrophic earthquakes during its history.


A joint European-Chinese team is using satellite radar data to monitor ground deformation across major continental faults in China to understand better the seismic cycle and how faults behave.

Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and a technique known as SAR Interferometry (InSAR), along with GPS data, scientists participating in ESA’s Dragon 2 Programme have been able to measure the ground deformation that occurred during the Wenchuan earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan Province last May.

InSAR involves combining two or more radar images of the same ground location in such a way that very precise measurements – down to a scale of a few centimetres or even millimetres in some cases – can be made of any ground motion taking place between image acquisitions

Using the InSAR technique on data acquired before and after the Wenchuan earthquake, Dr Sun Jianbao of the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration (IGCEA), Prof. Shen Zhengkang of IGCEA and Peking University, and collaborators including Dr Cecile Lasserre from France’s Laboratoire de Geophysique generated ‘interferogram’ images, which appear as rainbow-coloured fringe patterns, showing the ground displacement that occurred during and after the earthquake

The Wenchuan earthquake occurred on the Longmen Shan fault, along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Following major earthquakes, changes in stress along the faults in the region can lead to subsequent earthquakes. Using InSAR and GPS data, scientists are able to measure and monitor where and how this stress changes as well as how any associated deformation is distributed.

“Combining InSAR with GPS data, we have learned that some regions on the fault did not rupture that much during the earthquake. We must then ask ourselves if the energy is still partially locked and therefore continuously accumulating for the next ‘big one’, or perhaps there was not that much energy accumulated in the regions prior to the quake,” Shen said. “By combining the co- and post-seismic study results, we are about to answer these questions.

“If the area is moving slowly after the quake, then we know it is not accumulating energy, so we believe it to be safe. If, however, one area on the fault is not slipping but there is creeping movement around it, then we know that is a bad sign and we have to watch it more carefully.”

Earthquake monitoring is only one of numerous Dragon 2 Programme research themes, which range from agriculture and forests to flooding and landslide monitoring, assessing drought, air quality, oceanography and climate. Preliminary results of the 25 ongoing projects were presented at the Dragon Symposium in Barcelona last week.

The nearly 200 symposium participants also heard how effective the Chinese measures taken last year ahead of the Olympic Games to improve air quality were. The measures, in place from 20 July until 20 September, included taking 50 percent of Beijing’s 3,5 million vehicles off the road and closing factories in and around Beijing.

Using the GOME-2, an atmospheric instrument on MetOp, Dr Ronald van der A of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and Prof. Pucai Wang of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS) evaluated the direct effect of these measures and found the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reduced by about 60% above Beijing. The team confirmed these findings using data from the Dutch-Finnish OMI satellite instrument.

By comparing MetOp’s GOME-2 measurements available at KNMI with air-quality model results, the team was able to determine that although the air quality measures were especially effective in the Beijing area, they were also noticeable in the surrounding cities, with Tianjin experiencing a 30% NO2 reduction and Shijiazhuang a 20%.

“We could really see the effects of the measures taken by the government. There was a huge reduction in nitrogen dioxide, more than we expected at first,” van der A said.

Also unveiled at the symposium was the first Envisat ASAR wide swath image of the Kuroshio Current inverted to radar Doppler velocity. The image reveals the structure of the Kuroshio Current off China’s coast southwest of Japan with speeds up to 1,5 m per second.

The Kuroshio Current – equivalent to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic – is a warm current in the western Pacific Ocean. Its tropical waters transport heat northward along the east coast of Asia.

Prof. Johnny Johannessen of Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Dr Bertrand Chapron of IFREMER (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) and Dr Fabrice Collard of France’s CLS (formerly the BOOST Technologies Company) compared the ASAR image to a sea-surface temperature model, which clearly shows how the current moves warm water from the tropical Pacific towards the coast of Japan

“The radial Doppler velocity map shows the strong southwest-to-northeast motion associated with the path shown in the sea-surface temperature model, so it confirms the velocity pattern associated with the Kuroshio Current,” Johannessen said
. “Since we removed the effects of wind and waves, what is shown is close to a picture of the pure surface current projected in the SAR-looking direction.”

More information and images at RedOrbit

ESA

For more than 50 years, the International Council for Science (ICSU) has had world data centers — open, nonpolitical repositories of data for scientists in every country.

Now, the ICSU is replacing the centers with a leading-edge World Data System (WDS) whose scope and technologies are evolving but whose policy of nondiscriminatory access to science remains a priority.

The ICSU, founded in 1931 as the International Council of Scientific Unions, is a nongovernmental organization with a global membership of 114 scientific bodies representing 134 countries and 29 international scientific unions. It was formed to provide a mechanism for international exchange of data in all disciplines related to the Earth and its environment and the sun.

In 1957, ICSU coordinated planning for the large-scale International Geophysical Year, a 17-month event intended to allow scientists from around the world to take part in coordinated observations of geophysical phenomena. ICSU established the world data centers to capture the solar, geophysical and environmental data arising from the event and developed data-management plans for each discipline. The centers were a success and became a permanent forum for exchanging data.

The original system included 27 data centers distributed among government and academic institutions in the United States, Europe, the then Soviet Union and Japan.

At the time — the height of the Cold War — the data centers gave scientists in the politically polarized United States and Soviet Union a way to freely exchange data and improve each other’s global databases, said David Clark, a visiting scientist with the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center in Colorado, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“It was better for science,” he told America.gov, “and transcended politics.”

By 2008, when ICSU members agreed to upgrade the aging centers with the new WDS, the 50 world data centers in 12 countries had holdings that included a range of solar, geophysical, environmental and human-dimensions data — data related to the interwoven system of human activities and natural processes.

“When the first world data centers were established, the main goal was to facilitate the continued exchange of scientific data for research and educational purposes between East and West. That is no longer an issue,” said Bernard Minster, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and incoming chairman of the ICSU World Data System Scientific Committee.

“The issue looming today,” he said, “is to create and sustain exchange of scientific data between North and South,” meaning between developed and developing countries.

MANAGING DATA

Data — which ICSU characterizes as “the raw material of scientific understanding” — are gathered systematically night and day by scientists, computer networks, and terrestrial, oceanic, airborne and space-based instruments around the globe.

Geologists set up a device on Mount St. Helens in 2004 that monitors the ground for movement and sends data to scientists by satellite.

Data include digital observations, scientific monitoring, data from sensors and sensor webs, metadata (data about data), computer model output and scenarios, qualitative or observed behavioral data, visualizations, statistical data and historical data.

“Progress in science depends heavily on the worldwide exchange of ideas, information, data, materials and people,” former ICSU presidents Goverdhan Mehta and Jane Lubchenco — now NOAA administrator — wrote in Science magazine in 2004.

Advancing information and communication technologies have produced an explosion in data volume and diversity and increased the need for scientific datasets to be properly identified, assessed for quality, tracked and held to defined standards.

A NEW PARADIGM

An ICSU Strategic Coordinating Committee for Information and Data, with members from around the world, has three years to consider how best to coordinate ICSU data activities, including the WDS, incorporating the newest information and communication technologies, international partnerships and innovative funding mechanisms.

The WDS will incorporate some or all of the world data centers’ holdings and those of the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis Services, and will have closer links to the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology, called CODATA.

Members of the new coordinating committee are building partnerships with institutions and organizations around the globe that collect massive amounts of data.

These include the World Meteorological Organization, the European Space Agency, NOAA, NASA and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, an effort that integrates data from the Earth-observing networks of surface-based, airborne and space-based monitoring instruments.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a system without having it be interoperable with or part of other data systems,” Clark said. “That’s another challenge of the scientific committee — to determine how that [integration] would work.”

A new, integrated World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development was recently established in Kiev, Ukraine, led by academician and WDS Science Committee member Michael Zgurovzky, strengthening the Russian-Ukrainian WDS segment.

Two pilot projects are under way, Minster said. One involves a portal for oceanographic data and will connect multiple oceanography data centers by high-bandwidth networks. The project is led by Michael Diepenbrock at the University of Bremen in Germany.

A second pilot project with the National Research Foundation in Pretoria, South Africa, aims to develop a new World Data Center for Biodiversity and Human Health.

More information about the International Council for Science is available at the organization’s Web site.

Source All Africa

The National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) says the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and Russia on exploration of outer space will foster the cooperation of both countries for peaceful purposes.

Dr. Saidu Muhammad, director-general of NASRDA told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, that the agreement would enhance their cooperation in the use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

He said the agreement would also encourage cooperation in areas of astrophysical research, planetary studies, remote sensing of the earth from space meteorology, satellite navigation and associated technologies and services, exchange of information and technical meetings.

``Space is for humanity and we are part of the global community and at every point we must share the benefit in the course of space to enable us enjoy the cooperation in various areas of scientific study.
``The agreement is mindful of the provision of the UN treaty on principles governing the activities of the states and exploration of the outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies of January 27, 1967, ’’ he said.

_He said the National Centre for Remote Sensing had been using earth observation in areas of agriculture, mineral exploration, water study, irrigation command and environmental monitoring.
Muhammad said satellite navigation would be used in strategic areas such as army, construction and other areas of technology as well as global positioning of systems._

He said the agency had been using earth observation satellite for the production of land mapping which improves quality of images, adding that the agreement would boost other alternative satellite images too.

The director-general said that the mapping would also be used for land evolution to know the type of crops to grow on a particular soil type through land capability classification assessment.

Muhammad said the earth observation also offered assessment of the health of the crops affected by pest and for environmental monitoring in issues of locust invasion which constantly affect farms.

He said that the centre for astronomy was working on radio telescope, about 28 metres, the biggest in the southern hemisphere, would facilitate space research and help to demystify science, especially in the nation yet to fully accept science and technology as a culture.

He said the technology would also be used to determine the extent of drainage pattern and density as well as identifying rivers and where agriculture could possibly take place.
NAN reports that the agreement will end in 2014.

Source

(June 2009)The German radar satellite TanDEM-X has been successfully completed by the space company Astrium in Friedrichshafen. The satellite has been developed in conjunction with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).


  • Testing to be undertaken in Munich – Launch from Baikonur in October
  • Mapping of the Earth with innovative radar interferometer
  • High-precision digital elevation model available as of 2012

During mid June, the satellite, which is five metres long and weighs 1.3 tonnes, has been transported to Ottobrunn near Munich where has been tested at Astrium’s and IABG’s test facilities. TamDEM-X remains there until mid-September, where final checks will be conducted ahead of launch. It will then be transported to the Baikonur space centre (Kazakhstan) with lift-off aboard a Russian Dnepr launcher scheduled for October.

TanDEM-X will fly in tandem formation with the identical TerraSAR-X satellite for a period of two years, generating a digital elevation model of the Earth’s land masses. By flying in close formation at distances of just a few kilometres to 200 metres apart, both satellites form a radar interferometer. Through this process the satellites will be able to provide radar images of unprecedented quality over the coming years.

As with the TerraSAR-X ’sister mission’, the TanDEM-X project was implemented in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between Astrium GmbH and DLR. The PPP agreement provides TanDEM-X funding and data utilisation. Thus, the partners (DLR and Astrium) jointly financed the satellite to the total of approximately €85 million: €59 million was provided by DLR and €26 million by Astrium. Furthermore, DLR has developed the mission-relevant ground segment and is responsible for mission planning and implementation, as well as for the control of both satellites and the generation of the digital elevation model. Data exploitation for scientific purposes is coordinated by the DLR institute for high-frequency technology and radar systems. Infoterra GmbH (Friedrichshafen), a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium, is exclusively responsible for commercial marketing.

With the aid of the tandem formation of TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X it will be possible to completely measure the Earth’s land surface (150 million square kilometres) within a period of only three years. For a 12-metre grid (street width), height information can be determined with an accuracy of less than two metres.

The distinct advantage of satellite-based Earth measurement is the generation of a world-wide, consistent and homogeneous terrain model with no discontinuity at regional or national borders and no inhomogeneities resulting from different measurement procedures and measurement campaigns staggered in time (mosaics). The radar plays a decisive role here, since it can be operated completely independent of weather and clouds, day and night.

This mapping procedure is unparalleled and is of particular interest to the USA. TanDEM-X is a key project for demonstrating, safeguarding and extending the German competence and competitiveness in the field of satellite-based radar technology.

As of 2012, Germany will possess a digital terrain model of the Earth – an attractive and worldwide unique data product – which, in addition to many scientific application possibilities, can be used in initiatives and programmes, such as the centre for satellite-based crisis information (ZKI – Zentrum für satellitengestützte Kriseninformation), GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), and also in security-relevant cooperation agreements.

About TanDEM-X

The TanDEM-X project is being implemented by a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Astrium GmbH.

The primary goal of the TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement) mission is to generate a global digital elevation model. To achieve this, two satellites – TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X, a satellite of almost identical construction which has been in orbit since 2007 – will form the first configurable SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) interferometer in space with a separation of only a few hundred metres. A powerful ground segment which is closely interfaced with that of TerraSAR-X completes the TanDEM-X system. The satellites will fly in formation and operate in parallel for three years to cover the entire surface of the Earth.

DLR is responsible for the scientific exploitation of the TanDEM-X data as well as for planning and implementing the mission, controlling the two satellites and generating the digital elevation model. Astrium built the satellite and shares in the cost of its development and exploitation. As with TerraSAR-X, the responsibility for marketing the TanDEM-X data commercially lies in the hands of Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of Astrium.

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