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BERLIN, Oct. 9, 2014—INTERGEO 2014 in Berlin has clearly demonstrated that the industry really has secured its place in the digital, networked world. Geoinformation has evolved from a specialist niche and is becoming part of mainstream IT. The trade show focuses on products and applications in a digital world. The geoinformation industry is being, and will continue to be, shaped by applications that address important social issues. INTERGEO reflects these issues.


“Our thanks go to Google, for all the attention that geo applications have gained since the launch of Google Earth.” This is how one INTERGEO exhibitor summed up the current market dynamic in the innovative geoinformation sector. Technology leads to applications and complex data streams yield crucial information – this puts the geoinformation industry at the heart of important social developments in a digital world.

INTERGEO – a growing forum for dialogue and the industry

This trend is reflected at INTERGEO in increasing internationalisation and rising exhibitor and visitor numbers. A brief look at the figures shows an increase of around ten percent in overall visitor attendance (over 17,000 in 2014) and in the number of visitors from outside Germany (around 35 percent of the total). More than 45 percent of visitors said that they were responsible for or involved in decision-making processes. According to the results of the visitor survey that are now available, the most popular topic with visitors this year was GIS software, followed by surveying equipment and integrated surveying solutions. This year’s conference attracted some 1.400 delegates.

Dr. Karl-Friedrich Thöne, INTERGEO organiser and President of the DVW (German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management) sums up the success of the event: “The numbers prove that our trade fair and conference addressed the right subjects. Full rooms and a great atmosphere in the exhibition halls and conference rooms are in my opinion the best indication that the 20th INTERGEO is on the right track.”

Olaf Freier from the organisers, HINTE GmbH, adds: “Once again, INTERGEO brought together the big international players in the geo community. As an industry forum, INTERGEO is ideally placed to meet the need for knowledge-sharing and orientation in the complex field of data capture and data use. In 2015, we will be building on and expanding our position as the largest UAV forum in the German-speaking world.”

Added value from public data

Spearheaded by Germany’s Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of the Environment, the third national INSPIRE Conference was also a great success. Here, too, it was demonstrated that geoinformation is increasingly finding its way into areas of major social importance, including e-government, digital administration, security and disaster protection. In her keynote speech, German Federal Environment Minister Dr. Barbara Hendricks clearly expressed her support for open data. She said that the federal government had adopted a guiding principle of releasing publically obtained data into the value-added chain. “The public should not have to pay for the same thing twice,” Dr. Barbara Hendricks said.

The event, organised by the GeoBusiness Commission (GIW Kommission), also focused on the “market activation of public geoinformation”. Parliamentary State Secretary Brigitte Zypries made an urgent appeal for coordinated collaboration: “Cooperation and coordination are key to developing the geoinformation industry. This applies equally to federal government, regional administrations and industry.”

Positive image of INTERGEO boosts recruitment campaign

Attracting up-and-coming talent is still essential to keeping the market dynamic. In this respect, INTERGEO has clearly proved itself as an international careers forum. The international student meeting, JobSHAKER and targeted campaigns by associations and companies have taken effect. In the words of DVW President Thöne: “The number of students in Germany and Austria studying geodesy and geoinformation is rising significantly!” As the leading trade fair and conference for geodesy, geoinformation and land management, INTERGEO conveys the positive image of a high-tech industry, which is crucial when seeking to encourage the next generation into this future-oriented sector.

The 21st INTERGEO will be held in Stuttgart in 2015. From 15 to 17 September 2015, the focus of the conference will be on modernising infrastructure.

Further information is available at www.intergeo.de

A $26 million science instrument carried to the International Space Station last month by SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule has been switched on and is measuring winds over the world’s oceans to help forecasters track the intensity of tropical cyclones, NASA officials said.

Made of leftover parts from a satellite developed in the 1990s, the instrument package was mounted on the outside of the space station to fill a data gap that could degrade the ability of meteorologists to monitor hurricanes.

Without the need for a dedicated launcher or a standalone satellite, NASA saved more than $300 million by recycling spare parts launching the wind monitoring sensor to the space station, according to Howard Eisen, the mission’s project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“RapidScat is the ultimate effort in recycling,” Eisen said. “We took hardware, some of which was 17 or 18 years old, and we put it to new use.”

The International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat, instrument launched from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 21 in the unpressurized trunk section of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon supply ship.

The Dragon spacecraft, carrying more than 2.5 tons of pressurized and unpressurized cargo such as food, experiments and spare parts, arrived at the space station Sept. 23.

Under the control of engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the station’s Canadian-built robot arm and Dextre manipulator — a two-armed device with mechanical hands — completed a two-step procedure to pull the RapidScat instrument and its mounting adapter from the Dragon spaceship’s trunk.

The first step on Sept. 29 attached an adapter for RapidScat to an external platform on the space station’s European Columbus laboratory module. After engineers made sure the adapter had a firm mechanical and electrical attachment to the station, the outpost’s robotics system extracted the RapidScat sensor system and mated it to the adapter plate on Columbus.

The instrument was powered up Oct. 1, according to a NASA press release, and it should be supplying weather forecasters with operational data by the end of the month.

RapidScat’s primary sensor is a 100 watt, 2.5-foot-diameter microwave antenna that spins at nearly 20 rpm, emitting and receiving signals bounced off the ocean’s surface.

From those signals, scientists can process data on wind speed and direction by analyzing returns reflected off the ocean at different angles, helping hurricane forecasters and climate researchers keep track of short-term and long-term trends.

One of the first weather systems observed by RapidScat was then Tropical Storm Simon off the west coast of Mexico.

“Most satellite missions require weeks or even months to produce data of the quality that we seem to be getting from the first few days of RapidScat,” said Ernesto Rodriguez, RapidScat project scientist Ernesto Rodriguez at JPL. “We have been very lucky that within the first days of operations we have already been able to observe a developing tropical cyclone.”

Engineers constructed RapidScat out of components originally manufactured for NASA’s QuikScat mission, which launched in 1999 but stopped producing wind speed data in 2009 when the satellite’s main antenna quit rotating.

The space station does not have the same global coverage as a satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit, which flies over a given location at roughly the same time each day.

But with the end of QuikScat’s mission and the loss of a sensor on India’s Oceansat 2 satellite in February, scientists faced a hole in ocean wind measurements from space.

“We’ve lost the capability, due to some losses in the international constellation, to do this global monitoring on a daily basis,” Rodriguez said in a press briefing before RapidScat’s launch.

RapidScat’s microwave radar can see a 500-mile-wide swath of the ocean as the space station flies overhead, but it must be switched off during certain space station operations such as spacewalks where astronauts will pass close to the instrument. The radar’s coverage will also be restricted when unmanned supply ships are attached to the station’s Harmony module, Eisen said.

Coupled with data from a similar instrument on Europe’s polar-orbiting MetOp weather satellites, RapidScat will give scientists a daily view of winds in the same region.

“Right now, I think the biggest impact it will have is the ability to close the gap on seeing things that change quickly — like hurricanes,” Rodriguez said. “Right now, it can happen and it does happen, that the (European) ASCAT scatterometer will completely miss a hurricane that’s intensifying. By having an additional platform that helps bridge that gap, we will have at least daily observations of hurricanes.

“This is especially important not as it approaches land, where we have airborne facilities, but when it’s forming and when it’s actually starting to move. Predicting things like where it’s going to move from Africa all the way to America is really hard with satellites, and having that daily observation really helps.”

RapidScat is scheduled for a two-year mission on the space station. By then, scientists hope India can launch a satellite with another scatterometer for maritime wind measurements.

RapidScat’s arrival at the International Space Station marks the first of at least five Earth observing instruments to launch to the complex over the next few years.

The space station’s viewpoint “doesn’t get to the poles, but it does view the lower latitudes, between plus or minus 50 or so degrees, with much more frequent repeat cycle and also at different times of day” than polar-orbiting free-flying satellites, said Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs in NASA’s Earth science division.

Next up is the Cloud Aerosol Transport System, a laser instrument to measure the location and distribution of clouds, pollutant particles, dust and smoke in the atmosphere. The CATS instrument is set to launch on SpaceX’s next cargo resupply flight in December for attachment outside the station’s Japanese experiment module.

Flying remote sensing instruments on the space station comes with cost savings, but it has forced engineers to rethink the design of Earth-watching payloads after tailoring them to operate on traditional standalone satellites.

“It was a surprise for us to realize that the toughest thermal environment that we’ll ever see for the instrument is from that period of time where it goes from the (cargo) spacecraft and is attached to the station,” Volz said. “It’s an unpowered period of time. We’re not used to that. When we fly our satellites on robotic missions, we have power from the start. We don’t have to worry about thermal extremes.

“Understanding the steps in an ISS installation, there are a lot of things that are different from how we do it on free-flyers. They’re all surmountable, but they need to be understood and carefully looked at one step at a time,” Volz said.

In 2016, NASA plans to launch the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 3 (SAGE 3) payload to study the ozone layer and climate change, and the Lightning Imaging Sensor to detect and locate lightning strikes over the tropics and mid-latitude regions.

Two more instruments will launch to the station later this decade: the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation will study forest canopy structure, and the Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station will study water use and water stress in vegetation.

There are also plans to expand commercial Earth observation missions on the space station. The Canadian company UrtheCast recently announced it will develop a high-resolution optical camera and radar imager to be placed outside the station’s Tranquility module in 2017.

“Now that we realize the capability of the ISS, we’re taking advantage of it,” Volz said.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
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Geospatial technology is widely used across the length and breadth of various sectors in Germany. Dr Peter Volk, CEO, GAF, a European provider for earth observation and geoinformation solutions, talks about the company’s projects and future directions

How is geospatial technology helping in growth and development projects in Germany?

Geospatial technology is widely accepted as an economic driver throughout public and private sectors, and its is increasingly contributing to the domestic growth and export markets. The EU and specifically EU programmes namely INSPIRE, Copernicus and Galileo are already delivering growth repercussions to an even wider community within Europe, and of course in Germany. The use of geospatial data, software and services has become a real commodity here in the past few years. A good measure is the growth of geospatial service companies in Germany that work in this sector and GAF is one of them.

Which are the major projects you are involved in?

GAF has experienced across-the-board expansion along the geoinformation value chain. Through our former subsidiary Euromap — now an integral part of the company — we have delivered pan-European datasets of Indian origin to the European data users within the Copernicus programme. A good example for a fruitful Indian-EU-German cooperation! We are also involved in Copernicus value-added projects and services in the area of land, emergency response and atmosphere. On the spatial software side, we work with customised Esri, ERDAS and PCI Geomatics as our workhorses but also with own software products (like GAFmap) or OS-based technologies.

GAF also deals with complex consulting services where geospatial components make up between 5 and 50% of the project. Here, we are active in various sectors such as mining, agriculture, environment, REDD and, regional planning to name a few, across many countries around the globe. Important to us are a significant number of projects for military and security customers, ranging from data and processing to analysis and software services. It is this mix that makes us special and enables us to transfer a development from one sector for the benefit of another.

What has been the progress on the ground?

There have been some remarkable developments like the wide recognition of VHR and SVHR (very-high-resolution and super-very-high-resolution) data from Earth observation satellites, capable of intruding in some airborne data domains. Spaceborne SAR and optical sensors are capable of providing uniform and detailed DEMs. Good examples include the DLR/Airbus developed World-DEM Programme and GAF’s Euromaps-3D product, which use the excellent data provided by ISRO’s P5 Cartosat system. LiDAR and UAV technology associated software solutions have just boosted a plethora of daily real-time planning and monitoring applications, which are now, for example, under consideration for operational use in time-critical emergency management projects. Advances have been made on the software side too. GIS and image processing COTS packages have converged and have reported growth, besides the wish to have focused, easy-to-use solutions which are often based on open source technology. Most interesting has been the development of service level agreements requiring rapid reaction in data procurement and analysis, sometimes up to an 365/7/24 scheme, such offerings can only be done when one has a critical number of excellent trained and motivated employees.

What are the challenges that a private company/industry faces in Germany?

Of course cost and budgets, though Germany does not have the highest labour cost in the EU, but the level is definitely higher than in other advancing and advanced economies. As private industry we have to offer something special, we have to be even more innovative, a step ahead technically, and put emphasis on the highest quality standards or fast turnaround through outstanding project management. The geospatial industry in Germany, like the other industrial service sectors, is facing competition from public and semi-public institutions. With increasing budget constraints, universities and research establishments are forced to tap into the grey areas of pilot and operational projects, or even service level contracts. Here, it needs the good will and constant communication to find solutions.

What is your opinion about the availability of manpower resources and skill development in Germany?

Education level of geospatial experts here is good. In the powerhouse regions like Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg etc. we have basically full employment and to find excellent people there is difficult. Here we have the possibility of looking in regions that are not so endowed with economic progress, or to activate recruiting assistance in other EU countries through our human resources department within the Telespazio Group. When it comes to spatial software architects we require highly specialised staff and there is a shortage of them. It is also unfortunate that the geospatial
industry does not yet offer attractive salaries, in comparison to the financial or automotive sector. We have to instead offer a supportive and family-like environment where staff is happy to go every day. This is the recipe which many successful firms in Germany follow.

What is your opinion about the German geospatial data policy? Do you think government policies have been encouraging?

Yes, definitely. In Germany, the federal and local policies are supporting the use of geospatial technology not only within the framework of EU triggered programmes, but also by national initiatives like application driven research and geospatial infrastructures by DLR, the German Aerospace Establishment. Currently, there are five or more federal ministries involved in EO activities. This fragmentation is causing problems. Also, there is no uniform pricing and licensing policy for very high-resolution data. Though geospatial adoption in Germany is considered as advanced, there is still a lot of work to do.

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Bremen/Munich, September 1, 2014. OHB System AG, Bremen, and Erwin Kayser-Threde GmbH, Munich, have now merged under the name of OHB System AG. However, the Kayser-Threde logo will continue to be used for process control technology activities.

By taking this step, the parent company European technology specialist OHB AG is pooling its two subsidiaries’ capabilities and capacities. “Two outstanding companies in the space industry are today joining forces to become a satellite and payload systems specialist which will be assuming a new role in the European market on account of its scale and organizational structure,” says Marco Fuchs, the CEO of OHB AG and OHB System AG. “In this way, we will be able to leverage our own internal skills more effectively and thus operate with heightened efficiency and competitiveness. We will be benefiting from the resultant advantages as much as our customers will be,” Fuchs adds.

With their different skills, the two former affiliates had previously already been working jointly on major projects such as the MTG weather satellites and the EnMAP environmental satellite. Accordingly, the merger is a logical step to reinforce and optimize the joint activities on a sustained basis and to position the two sites for the challenges which they face in their operations.

The transaction is a merger of equals with key management functions and sustained recruitment and personnel development activities based at both sites. The new OHB System AG has a seven-strong management board comprising: Marco R. Fuchs (CEO), Dr. Fritz Merkle, Frank Negretti, Dr. Ingo Engeln, Kurt Melching, Andreas Lindenthal and Boris Penné. “The merger has been planned very carefully. With the organizational structures now in place, the next task at hand will be to complete the integration process swiftly over the next few months,” Fuchs adds.

One aspect of the realignment of OHB’s German satellite and payload business entails the combination of the two existing facilities in Munich at new central premises at the Oberpfaffenhofen space center near Munich. New offices are currently being built there to accommodate technical facilities which will allow OHB to assume responsibility for new and challenging projects. With the “topping-out” celebrated on July 23, 2014, the new building is scheduled for completion in mid 2015.

About OHB System AG
OHB System AG is one of the three leading space companies in Europe. It belongs to listed high-tech group OHB AG, where around 2,000 specialists and executives work on key European space programs. With two strong sites in Bremen and Munich and more than three decades of experience, OHB System specializes in high-tech solutions for space. These include low-orbiting and geostationary satellites for earth observation, navigation, telecommunications, science and space exploration as well as systems for manned space flight, aerial reconnaissance and process control systems.

Contact for media representatives:
Martin Stade
Head of Corporate Communications
Phone: +49 421 – 2020-620
Fax: +49 421 – 2020-9898
e-mail: pr@ohb.de

French space company Arianespace is scheduled to launch an Indian earth observation satellite (EOS) on December 4. It would contain an Electronic Intelligence System (ELINT) package that will boost New Delhi’s capability to collect strategic intelligence in the neighbourhood.

While the ELINT satellite launched from French Guiana will act as a force multiplier for India’s National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), India has also asked French nuclear reactor supplier Areva to consider joining hands with Indian private sector to build steel pressure vessel forgings in order to supply pressurised reactors for 9,900 MW Jaitapur power plant in Maharashtra.

Both the issues were discussed at the 26th India-France Strategic Dialogue meeting on October 9 with Jacques Audibert, diplomatic advisor to French President Francois Hollande, meeting National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Audibert also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi the next day.

At the meeting, both sides decided to speed up the Rafale Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal but a India-France proposal to produce short range surface to air missile was shot down by the Indian Air Force, which appeared to be in favour of DRDO developed Akaash medium range surface to air missile.

India and France have deepened cooperation in high technology, nuclear, space and intelligence areas. The ELINT satellite project was moved through NTRO in 2011 with both sides freezing technical classifications and parameter in 2013 strategic dialogue.

The SR-SAM project was cleared by previous UPA-2 government in July 2011 and Defence Acquisition Council in December 2012. Both MMRCA and SR-SAM projects are worth billions of dollars.

With Japan playing hardball on signing the bilateral civilian nuclear deal, any hope of the steel pressure vessels to house Areva reactors from Japan Steel Works is ruled out.

As the designs of the steel vessels belong to Areva, New Delhi has asked France to consider tying up with Indian high technology companies so that the steel forgings can be made within India.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Areva are partners in the Jaitapur nuclear plant. In 2010, both companies signed an agreement to supply first set of two third generation European Pressurised Reactors and 25 years worth of nuclear fuel.

NASA inaugurated a new era of research for the International Space Station (ISS) as an Earth observation platform following the successful installation and activation of the ISS-RapidScat science instrument on the outposts exterior.

The ISS Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat, is NASA’s first research payload aimed at conducting near global Earth science from the stations exterior and will be augmented with others in coming years.

RapidScat is designed to monitor ocean winds for climate research, weather predictions and hurricane monitoring.

The 1280 pound (580kilogram) experimental instrument is already collecting its first science data following its recent power-on and activation at the station.

“Its antenna began spinning and it started transmitting and receiving its first winds data on Oct.1,” according to a NASA statement.

The first image from RapidScat was released by NASA on Oct. 6, shown below, and depicts preliminary measurements of global ocean near-surface wind speeds and directions.

The remote sensing instrument uses radar pulses to observe the speed and direction of winds over the ocean for the improvement of weather forecasting.

“Most satellite missions require weeks or even months to produce data of the quality that we seem to be getting from the first few days of RapidScat,” said RapidScat Project Scientist Ernesto Rodriguez of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, which built and manages the mission.

“We have been very lucky that within the first days of operations we have already been able to observe a developing tropical cyclone.

“The quality of these data reflect the level of testing and preparation that the team has put in prior to launch,” Rodriguez said in a NASA statement. “It also reflects the quality of the spare QuikScat hardware from which RapidScat was partially assembled.”

RapidScat, payload was hauled up to the station as part of the science cargo launched aboard the commercial SpaceX Dragon CRS-4 cargo resupply mission that thundered to space on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 21.

Dragon was successfully berthed at the Earth-facing port on the stations Harmony module on Sept 23, as detailed – here.

It was robotically assembled and attached to the exterior of the station’s Columbus module using the station’s robotic arm and DEXTRE manipulator over a two day period on Sept 29 and 30.

Ground controllers at Johnson Space Center intricately maneuvered DEXTRE to pluck RapidScat and its nadir adapter from the unpressurized truck section of the Dragon cargo ship and attached it to a vacant external mounting platform on the Columbus module holding mechanical and electrical connections.

The nadir adapter orients the instrument to point at Earth.

The couch sized instrument and adapter together measure about 49 × 46 × 83 inches (124 × 117 × 211 centimeters).

Engineers are in the midst of a two week check out process that is proceeding normally so far. Another two weeks of calibration work will follow.

Thereafter RapidScat will begin a mission expected to last at least two years, said Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs in the Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, at a prelaunch media briefing at the Kennedy Space Center.

RapidScat is the forerunner of at least five more Earth science observing instruments that will be added to the station by the end of the decade.

The second Earth science instrument, dubbed CATS, could be added by year’s end.

The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) is a laser instrument that will measure clouds and the location and distribution of pollution, dust, smoke, and other particulates in the atmosphere.

CATS is slated to launch on the next SpaceX resupply mission, CRS-5, currently targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fl on Dec. 9.

This has been a banner year for NASA’s Earth science missions. At least five missions will be launched to space within a 12 month period, the most new Earth-observing mission launches in one year in more than a decade.

ISS-RapidScat is the third of five NASA Earth science missions scheduled to launch over a year.

NASA has already launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in February and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) carbon observatory in July 2014.

Ken Kremer
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The pre-operational marine environment monitoring service developed in the context of the Copernicus programme has produced 25-year and 60-year reanalyses of the Mediterranean Sea three-dimensional essential state variables.

The corresponding products will be presented at the occasion of a side-meeting to the 7th EuroGOOS conference, on Monday 27 October. This side-meeting will provide a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the methodology for reanalysis generation, explore its potential in reconstructing the 3D state of the ocean and illustrate different applications stemming out of the reanalyses.

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(Source MyOcean)

Named after the Latin word for rain cloud, the Nimbus satellites were a series of seven Earth-observation satellites launched over a 14-year time period from 1964 to 1978, one of which did not achieve orbit. In total, the satellites provided Earth observations for 30 years and collectively carried a total of 33 instruments, including ozone mappers, the Coastal Zone Color Scanner instrument and microwave and infrared radiometers.

“Nimbus is the granddaddy of the current Earth-observing fleet,” said Piers Sellers, deputy director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate and acting director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“When you look at all the incredible science we are doing from Earth orbit right now, you can trace it back to Nimbus. By any measure – scientific, engineering, operational, economic, human – the program was a smashing success and a huge return on investment.”

These satellites revolutionized weather forecasting to accomplish accurate long-term forecasts and demonstrated location and related search-and-rescue technology. They provided some of the first consistent global measurements of Earth, such as sea measurements, oceanic plant life and the ozone layer.

“There’s never been quite another program like Nimbus in terms of a such a dedicated series of satellites and instruments, pushing the boundaries of our technology and expanding our scientific understanding of our world,” said Gene Feldman, oceanographer at Goddard.

Nimbus paved the way for future Earth-observing systems such as Aqua, Terra, Aura, Landsat, Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), Tropical Rain Measuring Mission and many more. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Nimbus satellite’s launch in 1964, NASA takes a look at some, but certainly not all, of the “first-ever” observations from the Nimbus satellites.

Nimbus Firsts

+ First to provide daylight and night-time pictures of intense hurricane clouds viewed from space, which initiated the use of satellite technology to provide hurricane warnings.

+ First to measure ozone columns and profiles from space, which led to the first confirmation of the ozone hole and the documentation of the recurrence of the hole every year during the southern-hemisphere springtime.

+ First to provide quantitative data on the size of volcanic eruptions by measuring sulfur dioxide, a unique tracer of volcanic eruptions. This led the path for other volcanic ash cloud tracking instruments such as the Ozone Monitoring Instrument.

+ First to provide extensive global observations of spectral signatures of ice that indicate the age of the sea ice and first to provide snow depth and snow accumulation rates over the Arctic and Antarctica. This paved the way for other NASA satellites such as Aqua and Terra.

+ First to provide global, direct observations of the amount of solar radiation entering and exiting Earth’s system. This helped to confirm and improve the earliest climate models and laid the groundwork for Cloud and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites and now on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite.

+ First to create a map of global distribution of photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton, in the world’s ocean from space. This helped scientists understand the ocean’s role in the exchange of carbon around the world and led the way for missions such as SeaWiFS, Aqua and Terra.

+ First microwave devices to distinguish rain over ocean and between snow and ice in polar areas.

+ First capability to globally measure the temperature in a planetary atmosphere quantitatively and qualitatively from space. This paved the way for instruments on NASA’s Voyager, Cassini, Aqua and Terra.

+ First to map topography and Earth’s mineral resources from space, which laid the groundwork for similar instruments on Earth-observing mapping satellites such as Landsat.

+ First satellite to reveal an ice-free opening in the Antarctica ice pack. This patch of open water, called a polynya, appeared during the winters of 1974-76 in the Weddell Sea and has not been observed since.

+ First meteorological satellites to provide day and night local area coverage every 24-hours, repeated at the same time daily. This sun-synchronous orbit became the norm for satellites.

+ First solar panels on a satellite that track the sun during the daylight portion of an orbit, an advancement adapted to many of today’s satellites. This sun-tracking arrangement allows the solar panels to harness more power than if the solar cells were fixed to the spacecraft body.

+ Demonstrated the first technology that allowed satellites to track movements of people, animals and items on Earth. This paved the way for GPS technology and international search and rescue satellite-aided tracking programs.

For more in-depth information about the Nimbus series’ contributions to earth science research please go here

Russia, September, 2014: Russian’s space agency Roscosmos is actively pursuing a new drive to lift embargo on sub-metre resolution imagery.

The agency held a meeting with President V. Putin and presented a draft resolution that permits public use of less than 1-metre imagery.

The Russian ministries of Defence and Economic Development are not far behind in championing the new initiative. The defence ministry has strongly advocated resolution restrictions should be monitored by lighter rules. It is also mulling the use of satellite imagery from commercial and satellites and those in overseas

Similarly the Ministry of Economic development is also implementing some measures to encourage lifting of ban on sub-metre imagery. In fact it has started work on a draft law ‘On the Remote Sensing of the Earth’ on remote sensing to achieve a streamlined process for end users to acquire remote sensing data.

Source Roscosmos
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(Sept) Ukraine: NATO released new satellite images that show Russian combat forces engaged in military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine. The images, captured in late August, depict Russian self-propelled artillery units moving in a convoy through the Ukrainian countryside and then preparing for action by establishing firing positions in the area of Krasnodon, Ukraine.

“The images confirmed what NATO and its Allies had been seeing for weeks from other sources. Over the past two weeks we have noted a significant escalation in both the level and sophistication of Russia’s military interference in Ukraine. The satellite images released today provide additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers, equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” said Dutch Brigadier General Nico Tak, Director of the Comprehensive Crisis and Operations Management Centre (CCOMC), Allied Command Operations. These latest images provide concrete examples of Russian activity inside Ukraine, but are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the overall scope of Russian troop and weapons movements. Also released were images showing substantial activity inside Russia in areas adjacent to the border with Ukraine. NATO believes this activity is being conducted in direct support to forces operating inside Ukraine, and is part of a highly coordinated and destabilising strategy.

“Russia is reinforcing and resupplying separatist forces in a blatant attempt to change the momentum of the fighting, which is currently favouring the Ukrainian military. Russia’s ultimate aim is to alleviate pressure on separatist fighters in order to prolong this conflict indefinitely, which would result in further tragedy for the people of Eastern Ukraine,” added Brigadier General Tak.

Source: ACO NATO

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