Skip to content

A Russian Cosmos 3M booster launched from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia has put Germany ‘s SAR-Lupe satellite into orbit

December 2006
The satellite was put into orbit at 2.28 p.m. GMT 20-12-06 “This is the first time Russia is launching a German military spacecraft,” spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov said.
The Russian launch vehicle successfully took off on schedule from the Russian Plesetsk space station south of Archangelsk at 15:00:19 hours Central European Time, placing the first of a total of five radar satellites in its low orbit at an altitude of around 500 km half an hour later as planned. The German satellite system is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It offers spatial resolution of less than 1 meter, and allows imaging at night and through clouds.
Source: RIA Novosti/Spacewar

An international conference on the Baltic Sea and the European Marine Strategy was held in Helsinki on 13 to 15 November 2006 under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the Council in order to focus on the need for intensified dialogue between researchers and policy-makers on issues related to the marine environment.

Scientists and policy makers discussed the Directive on marine strategy tabled by the European Commission that defines common principles for the protection of Europe‘s seas. In their final declaration, participants called on national, regional and European authorities to set up and implement more environmental policies and legislation using innovative and economic instruments to provide incentives and technical solutions to protect European Seas. GMES, as Environment monitoring system, will be of major support to ensure the marine environmental protection.

From Website Conference
The EU‘s new strategy on the marine environment and a related draft directive stress the need to apply an “ecosystem approach” to improve the state of the Baltic Sea and Europe‘s other troubled seas. Such an approach involves comprehensively examining the impacts of all human activities on marine environments. For this to be done effectively, more must be learnt about complex marine ecosystems and the processes that affect them. A major international conference on the Baltic Sea and the European Marine Strategy, which was opened today in Helsinki by the Finnish Minister of the Environment Jan Erik-Enestam (Opening speech), will focus on the need for intensified dialogue between researchers and policy-makers on issues related to the marine environment.
The proposed marine strategy directive aims to define common principles for the protection of Europe‘s seas. The ultimate objective is to ensure that all European seas can be classified as having “good environmental status” by 2021.
“Finland has always stressed the importance of protecting the seas – also during our current EU Presidency,” says Enestam. “Our ambitious objective is that a decision will be made on the new marine strategy directive at the December meeting of the EU Environment Council.”
The draft directive aims to intensify the work being done to protect the marine environment, taking advantage of existing tools such as Europe‘s various regional marine conventions. The fruits of the work done over the last 30 years under the Helsinki Convention on the protection of the Baltic marine environment, for example, will be comprehensively exploited in the implementation of the new directive.
“Europe‘s seas are all unique, and they face different problems. Over-fishing is a serious problem in the Atlantic, while the Mediterranean is particularly threatened by excessive coastal development. Here in the Baltic Sea the greatest problem is eutrophication – the consequences of which include toxic algal blooms in the summertime,” says Enestam. “I‘m especially worried about the rapidly increasing amounts of oil and chemicals being shipped over the Baltic from Russia. To respond to this threat here in Finland we‘ve strengthened our capacity to combat oil pollution in recent years. We also have our own wide-ranging national programme for the protection of the Baltic Sea, which aims to control the factors that endanger the state of the sea.”
The new marine strategy and directive will form the environmental pillar of the EU‘s future maritime policy. This common policy aims to maximize the economic benefit obtainable from Europe‘s seas. “There is always a risk that economic benefit might be prioritised ahead of environmental issues,” says Enestam. “The marine strategy directive must draw lines that cannot be crossed. It‘s important to remember that many livelihoods such as fishing and tourism are dependent on the state of the marine environment.”
The conference is organized by Academy of Finland, Finnish Ministry of the Environment, Finnish Institute of Marine Research, Finnish Environment Institute, Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, Finnish Ministry of Education, Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry, Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation, City of Helsinki, HELCOM Baltic Marine Protection Commission
For more information:
Ministerial Councellor
Ulla Kaarikivi-Laine,
tel +358 50 559 9142
Maria Laamanen,
senior Adviser,
Ministry of the Environment,
tel. +358 400 285 410

Participants from across Europe meet to discuss the proposed GMES Atmosphere Service

The GMES Atmosphere Service Workshop was held on 6 and 7 December at the Belgian Academy Palace in Brussels. The workshop was attended by over 100 participants from 27 countries, several European Commission Directorates General (Environment, Joint Research Centre, Research, Transport and Energy, Enterprise and Industry), European agencies and organisations, such as ECMWF, EEA, ESA, EUMETSAT, as well as key projects funded through European Commission 6th Framework Programme and ESA GMES Service Element activities (GMES and PROMOTE).
The workshop was organised as part of the follow up from the GMES Advisory Council (GAC) request to launch a GMES atmosphere-related service.
The workshop presentations and discussions focused on three main items:
* Users, objectives and requirements
* Implementation issues
*Conditions for sustainability
The workshop was structured in three parallel sessions around different user streams:
´Air Quality’,
‘Climate Change/forcing’ and
‘O3/UV/Renewable energies’.
To support these discussions, an orientation document was circulated to the participants prior to the workshop.
Following introductory presentations from Directors P Weissenberg and T. Makela, the plenary session continued with overview presentations on the three main items for discussion. A final presentation from the Head of the GMES Bureau, V. Moutarlier provided an overview of the structure of GMES and the implementation process.
The workshop brought numerous communities together and identified some important cross-cutting issues. Outcomes from the workshop are in general in agreement with the focus of the orientation paper, however with some subtle but important changes with regard to scope and priorities. Sustainability was acknowledged to be strongly compromised by gaps in space data coverage from 2010 to 2020 and in-situ data issues. Continued involvement of users in the implementation process was seen as key.
The main conclusions of the workshop will be reported as input to the GAC meeting scheduled February 14th, 2007. Based on the workshop report and orientation paper, the GMES Bureau will request the GAC to endorse the start of the implementation process for a GMES Atmosphere Service Pilot.
(Source GMES.Info)

SEOS- Science Education through Earth Observation for High Schools: Contributions from EO Industry to the e-learning tutorials.

An initiative of using remote sensing in science education curricula at high schools has been launched by the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL). The project, entitled Science Education through Earth Observation for High Schools (SEOS) and submitted to the European Commission in the 6th Framework Programme, is intended to start in the very near future. It combines the efforts of 11 partners, all members of EARSeL and representing re-search and cultural organisations, universities and information management corporations. Based on their research results, internet-based tutorials will be realised on selected topics in earth obser-vation. This will also assist the students in understanding how earth observation form space is beneficial to society by improving knowledge of our planet.
The tutorials cover themes, which are relevant to lessons in geography, biology, physics, engi-neering and mathematics. A particular focus is on the context of these subjects, in agreement with the interdisciplinary aspects of earth observation, which stimulates knowledge in other science disciplines and solves problems in team work. Students will connect local personal observations to global perspectives, and will thus gain an understanding for the techniques needed to receive and interpret these data. Its results are thus suitable to achieve scientific literacy, which belongs to the key scientific education standards. Besides an overview module on Earth observation from space entitled A World of Images, the tutorials will cover the following topics: Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritages, Coral reefs, Remote sensing and geo-information in agriculture, Land-cover/landuse change and land consumption, Understanding spectra from the earth, Ocean colour in the coastal zone, Currents in the oceans measured from space, Remote sensing using lasers, 3D models based upon stereoscopic satellite data, Natural resources management, Marine pollu-tion, Classification algorithms and methods, Modelling of environmental processes, and Time se-ries analysis.
The European Space Agency ESA and several national remote sensing organisa-tions will make their data archives available to the project.
The tutorials will be realised at first in the English language. At a later stage they will be translated into other European languages, by means of modern technical language translation tools but with added human control, to make them useable in Europe and beyond. UNESCO will use the pro-duced material for educational purpose in selected developing countries, hence extending the benefits of this project to an even larger audience.
Making earth observation with remote sensing an element of science education provides a basis for using environmental monitoring in the work-life subsequently. The tutorials realised in SEOS span also the elements of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) pro-gramme, and are particularly suitable for the users of GMES services and information products at governmental organisations and in the private sector.

The project team would highly welcome contributions from EARSC members to the e-learning tu-torials and is looking forward to profiting from their valuable data and information on Earth obser-vation.
Contact:
Dr. Rainer Reuter
EARSeL Co-Chairman
University of Oldenburg
D-26111 Oldenburg
Tel. ++49 (0)441 798 3522

Eurisy is carrying out a three-year programme aiming at providing a forum to representatives from Regions and Cities throughout Europe, to assess new services based on space applications and their implications, share on their practices, challenges and issues, meet with service providers and institutions, and propose evolution for the future services, based on their own requirements.

A cycle of Conferences and Workshops throughout Europe will allow those users to debate both the general implementation issues and the specific needs of different geographical local authorities. The overall programme will enable a feed back to European decision makers on the reality of the implementation of the services by Local and Regional users.
The cycle will be opened by the next Eurisy conference, in Barcelona
Future Challenges for Local and Regional Authorities: How can Space Technology help?
Barcelona, Spain – 29/30 May 2007
It will bring to Barcelona numerous professionals from regions and cities and from the space technology and service sectors. The two-day programme is designed to encourage discussion and effective information exchange on the challenges ahead from the user perspective, and also to present possible solutions provided by existing and planned space applications in the areas of earth observation, positioning navigation and timing and telecommunications.
In particular, Users from Local and Regional authorities will address the following items:
- Common challenges faced by service users from Local and Regional Authorities
- Good practices in the utilisation of Space Application based services by Local and Regional Authorities
- Space Applications based services as a leverage for improved governance and economical development
- Current limitations and difficulties
– Requirements for future Services.
A parallel Service Expo will be open to participants.
The first follow up event will be the Workshop for coastal regions in Tallinn, Estonia, on 17/18 September 2007. Additional Follow up Workshop organised around issues of interest to Local and Regional Authorities will be organised in early and mid 2008. A final, conclusive Conference, will be organised mid 2008 in Brussels to present the result to European decision makers.
For further information : www.eurisy.org
(Source EURISY)

ESA‘s smallest Earth Observation satellite, Proba, is making big contributions to science with applications ranging from environmental monitoring, agriculture, forest , land use, crop forecasting, marine and coastal science as well as biological soil crusts and solid waste landfill monitoring.

Launched on 22 October 2001, Proba orbits 600 kilometres above the Earth and acquires around 450 scientific image datasets of more than 100 separate sites each year. Its main payload, the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), is a highly configurable hyperspectral imager that sees down to a resolution of 17 metres and can acquire up to five images of a desired target at a time, each at a different angle with respect to Earth‘s surface, because Proba is manoeuvrable enough to perform controlled pitch and roll.
This unique instrument was highlighted at the 4th Proba/CHRIS workshop held at ESRIN, ESA‘s Earth Observation Centre in Frascati, Italy, from 19 to 21 September 2006, where some 60 researchers from around the world met to share current results and future plans, and have an input into future CHRIS acquisition planning.
The workshop heard how CHRIS images are being used to assess the effects of different land use strategies on vegetation types in the savannahs in Central Nambia, to evaluate aerosol retrieval in Hong Kong, to identify ancient Roman buildings, to help map and measure alpine snow cover in the Swiss National Park, to monitor waste landfill operations, and to study the role of woodland as both sinks and sources of carbon dioxide, among many others.
The themes of the workshop included CHRIS image processing and validation, land-surface processes and the atmosphere, and inland and coastal waters. In addition to hearing encouraging results presented on diverse sets of scientific and application studies, the workshop highlighted the need to continue the Proba mission until new hyperspectral missions become available.
CHRIS, which is roughly the size of a large television set, is especially useful because of its combined ability to retrieve hyperspectral and multi-angular data. The imager‘s combination of high spatial resolution and wide spectral range means that a large amount of important biophysical and biochemical properties can be gathered, including chlorophyll and water content, leaf area index and overall biomass and vegetation health. It is also useful for studying the atmosphere and bodies of water.
Mike Barnsley of the University Swansea in the UK said that although upcoming missions will offer hyperspectral capabilities, “the multi-angle acquisition capacity of Proba/CHRIS remains unsurpassed by any other equivalent mission. What the scientific community requires now is a CHRIS-2 instrument, perhaps with extended spectral on a future Proba satellite to build upon the stunning successes of the original mission.”
Participants also focused on the CHRIS/Proba mission helping to develop a new scientific community exploring applications of hyperspectral and multi-angle image data and on the growing knowledge base stemming from the mission, which is leading to a more coherent terrestrial science community that could provide informed advice on future satellite missions.
The need to better promote the advantages of the mission to a still wider scientific audience, since the CHRIS/Proba community is relatively small and select, was also highlighted at the workshop. To this end, Proba Scientific Investigators are invited to submit their contributions to the 2007 Envisat Symposium being held from 23 to 27 April 2007 in Montreux, Switzerland, where dedicated sessions will be organised.
In closing comments, the Proba community expressed hope that the spacecraft would last well beyond its 5-year anniversary next month in order to keep the science going until new missions with similar capabilities arrive.
(Source ESA)

The European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) supports the European Union decision-making in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) through the exploitation and production of information derived primarily from the analysis of Earth Observation space imagery.

Based on integrated, service-oriented IT infrastructure, the facility will enable efficient processing of the workflows within the Centre. Thus fully support the production of the requested information dossiers.
These are relative to different domains such as general security surveillance, support to humanitarian and peace-keeping missions, maritime surveillance, management of environmental crisis…
The consortium led by ACS will implement architectural solution which includes Catalogue Interoperability, Workflow Engines and Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL) in the framework of the facility development.
(Source www.eu.eusc.int)

This year’s Summer School in Alpbach, Austria, was one of the most successful ever undertaken, according to both the students and the experts who took part.

The Alpbach Summer School was organised by the Aeronautics and Space Agency of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). It is co-sponsored by ESA and the national space authorities of its member and cooperating states, as well as by EUMETSAT, with the support of the Interntional Space Science Institute and EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies.
Each Summer School concentrates on a different subject, and the theme chosen for the 2006 event was “Monitoring of Natural Hazards from Space”. This topic was considered to be particularly appropriate at a time of growing concern over environmental change, since it involves the use of satellites to improve scientists’ ability to monitor, predict and mitigate natural hazard events.
More than 50% of the Summer School timetable was devoted to student workshops. Following on from lectures covering scientific and technical aspects of Earth Observation from space, with an emphasis on major natural hazards, students were organised into four teams, each of which had to design a different space mission that might answer some of the key questions relating to the theme. At the end of the Summer School, the teams were asked to present their mission ideas to a jury of experts.
Each team was asked to:
* Identify a natural hazard or set of hazards susceptible to space borne observation;
* Determine a set of measurements or procedures that could aid in this process;
* Identify and detail a space mission that can enable these objectives to be achieved;
* Define and outline the design of an instrumental payload to make the observations;
* Establish the mission’s technical feasibility;
* Establish a mission architecture, considering technical and planning aspects;
* Determine the launcher required, and the cost envelope of the mission;
* Identify assumptions underpinning the mission: e.g. ground infrastructure, coordination with ground-based observations, new instrument developments etc.;
* Compare the mission with others in this field and consider its competitiveness;
* Consider the cost effectiveness of the mission.
The following topics were selected:
Floods (blue team)
The blue team produced an implementation plan for a Flood Assessment Satellites mission that would provide data to support and enhance hydrological models and decision making in flood disaster management. Envisaged as a flotilla of 4 satellites, it would use an innovative L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload to monitor land water bodies and estimate soil moisture for flood model calibration, drought forecasting and climate research.
Landslides (green team)
The green team presented the case for a Movement Detection Mission, an innovative mission concept for long-term monitoring of global landslide activity at medium and large scales. The key element of the mission is an orbital synthetic aperture radar instrument known as Differential Interferometric SAR. This will provide global coverage of landslide activity over a period of 36 days.
Earthquakes (orange team)
The orange team designed the Monitoring of Surface Deformation in Active Tectonic Zones mission that would increase knowledge of global seismology and advance research in earthquake predictions. In order to achieve the required sensitivity the mission would make use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and the Persistent Scatterers processing concept. It would also include a microwave sounder to correct the low frequencies of atmospheric water vapour and a magnetometer to capture ionospheric disturbances.
Volcanoes (red team)
The ?volcano haSAT’ mission presented by the red team was intended to provide a “global fast response monitoring system for volcanoes”. A 3-satellite constellation would guarantee full global coverage each day. The spacecraft’s L-band SAR sensor would deliver information about ground deformation prior to possible eruptions. This would also lead to the creation of a SAR database for 115 selected high risk volcanoes.
**********
“Never in my life did I get such a high-ranked and comprehensive overview of natural hazards and existing remote sensing capabilities,” commented Professor Hartmut Grassl, chairman of the jury.
Professor Grassl went on to compliment the teams on their innovative thoughts and approaches.
“Overall, I was so impressed that I will report to the Earth Science Advisory Committee of ESA on the outcome of this summer school and I will propose the launch of further studies within ESA’s study budget,” he said.
The overall feedback of Summer School students was also extremely positive.
“They all really enjoyed participating in it, and reported back that it was an exceptional experience, they had learned a lot and enjoyed the atmosphere,“ said Michaela Gitsch, the Summer School cordinator.
“From the point of view of the organisers I can say that the students were extremely enthusiastic, very well organised in their work (e.g. they managed to select team spokespersons on the first day), and able to actively engage with each other and with the scientists and engineers. We had outstanding lectures, tutors and students who spent many hours – almost day and night – working toward a successful Summer School,” echoed the Head Tutor, Professor Martin Turner, from the University of Leicester, UK.
Links

Google began showcasing the world‘s natural wonders, famous haunts, and man-made changes on its global mapping service.

Google Earth offered “Featured Content” ranging from details of the Three Gorges Dam in China and King Tut‘s tomb in Egypt to Itsukushima Shrine in Japan and Pablo Picasso‘s favorite social spot in Sweden.
“We are excited to provide users with the opportunity to learn more about the natural wonders and manmade landmarks of the world,” said John Hanke, director Google Earth and Maps. “We believe Google Earth is an excellent medium for organizing and sharing the world‘s geographic information and we continue to explore opportunities to bring visually compelling and informative content into Google Earth.”
Google created “multimedia overlays” that users can trigger by clicking icons that appear on a virtual globe.
Icons designated natural wonders, major landmarks or cities, and environmental changes such as deforestation in the Amazon and a shrinking glacier in Iceland.
Pop-up boxes provide images, brief information, and links to websites with more details.
The Mountain View, California, based online search giant‘s partners in the project included the United Nations Environmental Program; Discovery Networks World Tour; Jane Goodall Institute; Turn Here travel guides, and the US National Park Service.
(Source: Agence France-Presse)

Professor Robert Boroffice, director-general, National Space Research and Development Agency said Abuja , the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently said that the project would be built with active participation of many local engineers.

The project is slated for launch in 2008.
Professor Robert Boroffice, said that the country has a pool of highly trained engineers to undertake the design while the
construction and launch would be done with assistance from foreign experts.
Boroffice said Sat-2 would be an improvement on Nigeria Sat-1, “Which is a medium resolution earth observation satellite.”
The director-general said when Sat-2 is launched in 2008 it would provide a wide range of applications in the areas of infrastructure, water resources management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management.
Boroffice said Nigeria Sat-1, which was launched in 2003 from Plesetsk, Russia into 686 km polar orbit has been capturing high quality images using six cameras on board the satellite.
He said Sat-1 has apart from demonstrating good applications and commercial value has been configured in Disaster Monitoring Constellation with other United Kingdom (UK).
Boroffice added that Sat-1 has given Nigeria an added advantage of global coverage and daily revisit with provision of real time data.
By Kuayire Igho – Nigeria Bureau, AND