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©geospatialworld, Oct 2014. The German Remote Sensing Data Center aims to ensure global earth observation at high temporal and spatial resolution, and to contribute to an understanding of global change processes. Prof. Dr. Stefan Dech, Director, DLR, German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), explains how DFD will contribute to national and European earth observation missions

How has the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) evolved over the years?

The mission of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) is to support science, industry, and the general public, enabling informed decision making in the context of global change on the basis of satellite- based earth observation techniques. DFD and its sister-institute, the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) together comprise the Earth Observation Center (EOC), which has become a centre of competence for earth observation in Germany. It belongs to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is the country’s national institution for aerospace, energy and transportation research. At DFD, we have set ourselves the task of making remote sensing an indispensable tool for earth stewardship. We operate national and international satellite data receiving stations which enable direct access to data from many earth observation missions, derive value-added information products from raw data, and archive and disseminate such products and information to the end users. We also host the World Data Center for Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere (WDC-RSAT) — a user service that processes, archives, and distributes atmospheric in- formation. Today, DFD is Germany’s most important EO institution. There is no other institution in Europe with a comparable architecture comprised of geoscience research, engineering advances, round-the-clock uninterrupted operation of receiving stations, and a national data archive.

Which are the sectors in Germany that are important users of remote sensing technology?

End users of DFD products and services are the Federal national government, states, and communities; international government bodies and line agencies, large international and non-governmental organisations; and of course the industry and the media. For example, during the disastrous tsunami in Indian Ocean, in December 2004, DFD delivered maps within 48 hours to relief organisations such as Germany’s Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the German Red Cross, or ‘Médecins sans Frontières’. Our map products, which depicted damage extent and accessibility challenges, were requested by television, print, and online media to inform the public. At that time, we founded the Center for Satellite based Crisis Information (ZKI), which has been actively contributing to disaster related mapping activities globally for 10 years now.

What are the current trends in the earth observation industry in Germany?

Earth observation in Germany is driven by large research organisations — German as well as Germany-based international companies — as well as small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), and to a certain degree by R&D initiated at universities. For example, the German satellite TerraSAR-X, which was realised via a public-private partnership between DLR and EADS Astrium, has been effective in boosting synthetic aperture radar (SAR) based earth observation applications. The mapping and analysis of urban area floods, surface motion, and many other application fields have profited greatly from this sensor. The success of TerraSAR-X led to the launch of the TanDEM-X satellite, enabling exact and consistent topographic mapping of our planet at unprecedented precision. EADS Astrium, a company that has been fused with Cassidian and Airbus Military to form the new Airbus branch Airbus Defence and Space, with headquarters in Munich, will be responsible for commercially distributing the resulting so-called WorldDEM dataset.

A trend which we observe at the global scale is the opening up of data archives, making earth observation data freely available. Here, the USA has set the pace with the free provision of a large number of medium resolution datasets, as well as products provided by the MODIS and Landsat science teams. Landsat data is also freely available to the global community, and the EU and the European Space Agency are already following this path by providing easy access to historic ENVISAT satellite data and making the upcoming Sentinel sensor fleet data freely available. The large amount of free data of course poses challenges for many analysts and scientists with respect to storage space and data processing.

The latest trend of launching CubeSats — miniature satellites — might change EO. CubeSats form the backbone of commercial ventures such as PlanetLabs. DLR has helped Berlin University of Technology (TU Berlin) to launch its CubeSats BEESAT-1 to BEESAT-3, a small mission meant for educational purposes.

Another trend which will make a difference in the EO industry in the future is development of so-called citizen science applications. We are living at a time when nearly every citizen owns a smartphone. The devices are increasingly capable of not only collecting GPS coordinates and photographs, but evolve more and more towards being mini-laboratories that can be equipped to measure atmospheric parameters such as air temperature, moisture, and particle density, or can even be used to steer tiny mini-drones. At the same time, the challenge of Big Data will remain: the tricky task will be to extract 5% of useful information and data from the huge amount of not-so-useful data.

How would you rank the German remote sensing industry in terms of the technology innovations?

Germany’s major strength is in airborne and spaceborne SAR sensor and platform development. At the global level, we are in the same league as the USA, France, Italy, or Japan. In the field of optical sensor development, France is a strong player within Europe, and historically there has always been a bit of competition between the two countries, with France setting the pace. However, German companies such as Jenoptik, OHB System (including the former Kayser-Threde), and Astro- und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof are often high in demand when it comes to sensor technology. The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), for example, has cooperated with German private-public partnerships for many years, and relies on DLR technology to boost its national KOMPSAT satellite programme. Furthermore, international players like Airbus Defence and Space have branch offices in Germany.

Additionally, several dozen SMEs focussing on data processing and remote sensing applications have been established in recent years. Most of them are partners of DFD in numerous projects, such as the companies GAF and the former Euromap, European Space Imaging, BlackBridge, EOMAP, Brockman Consult, Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, EFTAS, and CloudEO, to name a few. The German remote sensing industry is well-respected on the global scene, valued for high precision technology and high quality information products.

What is the strategy to support local SMEs and to raise the profile of the geospatial industry in Germany?

DFD has already been an incubator for SMEs in Germany for more than three decades. Several small companies have been successfully founded either by former DFD experts or with the strong support of the DFD directorate. The EOMAP, specialising in information products for oceans and inland waters, was founded in 2006 by one of our former post-doctoral scientists. Another SME Green Spin, focussing on satellite- based solutions for efficient agricultural management, has evolved from the remote sensing department at the University of Würzburg, and has a solid backup via the knowledge and competence available at DFD. DLR furthermore offers technology marketing support for colleagues who would like to found a company and continue their career on the open market. The fact that space science in Germany is funded and supported by the BMWi ensures bridging of the gap between science and industry. In this way utmost transparency between both sectors is ensured, and cooperation can easily be backed up and strengthened.

Is DFD involved in skill development or training?

While training and capacity building is not the main mandate of DFD, many of our scientists are actively involved in such activities around the globe. Some of our experts — especially from the geoscience research departments — assist the next generation of scientists and frequently teach at German universities. We have close links with the Munich University of Technology, and the University of Augsburg. Furthermore, some of our group leaders teach during summer schools or short workshops of the European Space Agency (ESA) and other space agencies. In many of our bilateral and international applied research projects we support local partners in the focus countries with training in remote sensing data analysis. Such training has — for example — been well received by institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and by surveying and mapping agencies in Indonesia and Kazakhstan. At the moment, we are actively involved in IT training in the Chinese Yellow River Delta, where DFD, jointly with its Chinese partners, is implementing an environmental information system to support local stakeholders’ planning tasks.

Furthermore, DFD actively contributes to the DLR School Lab. DLR operates 12 school labs at 12 different locations in Germany. One of them is located on our premises in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.

How do you see remote sensing technology and related industry evolving in the coming years in Germany?

I am confident that exciting times lie ahead of us. More and more earth observing sensors are being launched into orbit — especially emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil or Vietnam have started building up monitoring fleets. In February 2013, Landsat 8 was launched by the USA, granting mission continuity to this important sensor line. And this spring, the ESA has launched Sentinel-1 — the first of a fleet of so-called Sentinel satellites. The Sentinels are a milestone in European earth observation. The very next launch will be Sentinel-2, which is scheduled for April 2015. DFD plans to acquire, process, and use Sentinel-2 data as part of the national collaborative Copernicus ground segment and initiatives such as the Bavarian Copernicus Center.

Cloud computing will revolutionise the way we store and process earth observation information. An ever increasing IT affinity in our society will influence how we transport and validate our results. Environmental information systems and decision support systems will become standard tools for visualising and sharing our data products and findings. While there definitely is a trend towards privatisation of the space sector, there also is a trend towards more input from the global public — be it via CubeSats, funding projects, or mobile data uploading. Our society is greatly fascinated by space, remote sensing and earth observation, and I observe an increase in participation; maybe one could even call it democratisation. These are truly exciting times!

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23 – 24 October, Berlin

Connect with high-level representatives from leading institutions such as the European Space Agency, European Commission, European GNSS Agency, European Patent Office, EU Committee of the Regions, Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, German Aerospace Center, and NASA, as well as major industry players like Airbus Defence and Space, European Space Imaging, Hisdesat, Garmin, Nokia, Skybox Imaging, TomTom, T-Systems and many more. A multitude of exciting start-up companies from the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) and other award-winning entrepreneurs will also be in attendance.

VIEW SPEAKERS & PROGRAMME

Taking place on 23 – 24 October 2014 in the start-up hub of Berlin, the event will feature an outstanding blend of conference sessions, workshops, and round-table discussions. Meanwhile, the Satellite Masters Conference is much more than just a networking event: It is a unique marketplace for sharing innovations in space-based technology and infrastructure and connecting with the world’s leading network for downstream satellite business. Become part of this unique constellation!

Awards Ceremony (23 October, 18:30)
The Conference will cap off the joint Awards Ceremony of Europe’s major innovation competitions for space applications – the European Satellite Navigation Competition and the Copernicus Masters.

Business matching (23 & 24 October, all day)
The Satellite Masters Conference will provide an excellent opportunity for individual meetings with other conference participants. All participants are invited to register for the Business matching to pre-schedule one-on-one meetings with their peers.

REGISTER NOW

To attend the Satellite Masters Conference and Awards Ceremony 2014, free registration is required. Please use the online registration form at www.satellite-masters-conference.eu before 10 October.

VENUES

Conference
German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI)
Invalidenstraße 44
10115 Berlin
Germany

Awards Ceremony
Deutsche Telekom AG Hauptstadtrepräsentanz
Französische Straße 33 a-c
10117 Berlin
Germany

[Via Satellite 10-07-2014] South African aerospace group Space Commercial Service Holdings (SCSH) has launched its first self-developed export product.

The Phoenix-20 HS is a micro-satellite that uses an advanced remote sensing system based on hyperspectral imaging, which breaks up images in different spectral bands and enables it to unveil more details of the Earth’s surface.

The Phoenix-20 HS can be used for monitoring the health of agriculture crops for food security, forest canopies to enable early warnings for pest control, soils and vegetation restoration after mining operations, aquatic ecosystems for future water resource, mapping of natural vegetation, shoreline changes, the effect of climate change, and the management of natural disasters.

The Phoenix, according to Sias Mostert, CEO of SCSH, will have a total weight below 24 kg and cost between $2.5 million and $4 million. It is available in two options: either with a design lifetime of one year and 500 km orbital height above the Earth’s surface, or a three to five year lifespan at a height between 500 and 700 kilometers. It typically takes around two years from signing of the contract to the launch of a satellite.

Source

Chinese space authorities have released the first imagery captured by Gaofen-2, the country’s most advanced earth observation satellite so far. Gaofen-2, which was launched on 19 August, can render images with a ground sampling distance of 80 centimetres in panchromatic mode and 3.2 metres in multispectral mode.

Chinese space authorities have downloaded 15 high-resolution photos from the EO satellite. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense plans to use the new satellite to help with a variety of tasks, including land use surveillance, mineral resource surveys and disaster relief.

This comes as China announced last week that it plans to build a comprehensive Earth Observation system within the next ten years that integrates use of air-, space-, and ground-based technology, including UAVs, satellites, and GNSS systems.

Gaofen-2 is the second of seven planned earth observation satellites comprising the Gaofen project, which is expected to be operational by 2020.

You can see more images from Gaofen-2 at the official release page

Source

(6 October 2014) The Exelis-built Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) will launch Oct. 7 on board a Mitsubishi Electric Corporation weather satellite, Himawari-8, improving weather forecasts and early warnings for severe weather in Eastern Asia and Western Pacific.

The second imager was delivered in August to Japan.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation integrated the Exelis-built AHI into the satellite for the Japan Meteorological Agency to provide round-the-clock regional weather forecast and severe weather alerts.

The Himawari imagers are based on the Exelis Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) designed and built for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) constellation. The Himawari-8 will be the first mission launched hosting an Exelis ABI-class instrument. As part of the Exelis intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and analytics strategic growth platform, these advanced instruments will provide better insight into the makeup of storms, higher-resolution images and will observe full-disk images of earth three times faster than today’s capability, which is critical in helping protect lives and property.

“We are all excited to get the ABI technology launched into space,” said Eric Webster, vice president for weather systems for Exelis. “It will help Japan with improved forecasting and NOAA with ABI-class data for testing and use before GOES-R launches in 2016. Japan has been hit by several large typhoons recently and ABI technology will provide significant improved capabilities for severe storm forecasting.”

The Himawari-8 and -9 (slated to launch in 2016) geostationary satellites replace current Multifunctional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) series. The Himawari (Japanese for “sunflower”) satellites are part of the World Weather Watch program within the World Meteorological Organization.

Exelis is in the process of building and delivering seven advanced imagers: two for Japan; one for South Korea; and four for NASA and NOAA. Exelis has provided every geostationary imager and sounder to the U.S. government since 1994 and has also built the current geostationary imagers flown by Japan and South Korea.

About Exelis

Exelis is a diversified, top-tier global aerospace, defense and information solutions company that leverages a 50-year legacy of deep customer knowledge and technical expertise to deliver affordable, mission-critical solutions for global customers. We are a leader in positioning and navigation, sensors, air traffic management solutions, image processing and distribution, communications and information systems, and focused on strategic growth in the areas of critical networks, ISR and analytics, electronic warfare and composite aerostructures. Headquartered in McLean, Va., Exelis employs approximately 10,000 people and generated 2013 sales of $4.8 billion.

(source: Exelis)

(3 October 2014) ESA’s ice mission has been used to create a new gravity map, exposing thousands of previously unchartered ‘seamounts’, ridges and deep ocean structures.

This vivid new picture of the least-explored part of the ocean offers fresh clues about how continents form and breakup.

Carrying a radar altimeter, CryoSat’s main role is to provide detailed measurements of the height of the world’s ice. This allows us to see how the thickness of the ice changes, seasonally and in response to climate change.

However, CryoSat works continuously, whether there is ice below or not. This means that the satellite can also measure the height of the surface of the sea. These measurements can be used to create global marine gravity models and, from them, maps of the seafloor.

Although invisible to the eye, the sea surface has ridges and valleys that echo the topography of the ocean floor, but on a greatly reduced scale.

The effect of the slight increase in gravity caused by the mass of rock in an undersea mountain is to attract a mound of water several metres high over the seamount. Deep ocean trenches have the reverse effect.

These features can only be detected by using radar altimetry from space.

Scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography at University California San Diego in the US and colleagues tapped into two new streams of satellite data to create a new gravity map mirroring features of the ocean floor – twice as accurate as the previous version produced nearly 20 years ago.

They used measurements that CryoSat has captured over the oceans during the last four years as well as measurements from the French–US Jason-1 satellite, which was retasked to map the gravity field during the last year of its 12-year mission.

Combined with existing data, the new map, described in the journal Science, reveals details of thousands of undersea mountains rising a kilometre or more from the bottom of the ocean.

The new map offers geophysics new tools to investigate little-studied remote ocean basins and processes such as seafloor spreading.

“The kinds of things you can see very clearly now are abyssal hills, which are the most common land form on the planet,” said David Sandwell, lead scientist of the paper and a geophysics professor at Scripps.

The authors of the study say the map provides a new window into the tectonics of the deep oceans.

Previously unseen features in the map include newly exposed continental connections across South America and Africa, and new evidence for seafloor spreading ridges at the Gulf of Mexico that were active 150 million years ago and are now buried by layers of sediment more than a kilometre thick.

One of the most important uses of this new marine gravity field will be to improve the estimates of seafloor depth in the 80% of the oceans that remains uncharted or is buried beneath thick sediment.

The new map will also provide the foundation for the upcoming new version of Google’s ocean maps to fill large voids between shipboard depth profiles.

ESA’s Richard Francis, co-author and project manager for the development of CryoSat, said, “Although CryoSat’s primary mission is in the cryosphere, we knew as soon as we selected its orbit that it would be invaluable for marine geodesy, and this work proves the point.”

(source: ESA)

DUBAI: The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) announced that it has joined PanGeo, the first Global Alliance of Earth Observation satellite operators.

The alliance was announced at the annual Summit on Earth Observation Business, in its sixth edition, in Paris and is a coalition between EIAST, and three other parties, to share the products, data and images derived from their satellites.

The PanGeo Alliance currently includes 4 satellite entities from around the world: Dauria Aerospace (US/Russia), the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology EIAST, (UAE), Elecnor Deimos (Spain) and Beijing Space Eye Innovation Technology (China).

During their participation Eng Salem Humaid Al Marri, assistant director-general for Scientific and Technical Affairs at EIAST, was a speaker at the summit and spoke on the regional focus session.

He shed light on EIAST’s strategy and the latest achievements of the institution including the launch of DubaiSat-1 and 2, and also updated the attendees on the KhalifaSat project, which will be the first to be manufactured by Emirati engineers in the UAE.

He also highlighted EIAST’s products and services, as well as its future projects.

Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, director-general of EIAST, said, “The Middle East and Africa have a genuine need for a large amount of satellite imagery to support their activities in energy, natural resources, the environment and infrastructure development.

EIAST will benefit from the PanGeo coalition as the Alliance will coordinate access to archives for all members, so that each member can see what is available and directly request images from the entire Alliance archive.

The PanGeo fleet is composed of 9 satellites currently in orbit: Perseus-M1, Perseus-M2, Dauria-DX-1, DubaiSat-1, DubaiSat-2, Deimos-1, Deimos-2, TH-1-01 and TH-1-02.

This fleet will be expanded to more than 30 satellites in the next years with the launch of KhalifaSat, of the Perseus-O and Auriga constellations, and with the expansion of the TH-1 constellation, plus satellites brought into the alliance by prospective new members that may join in the future.

The PanGeo fleet provides multispectral imagery in a wide range of resolutions (from 20m to 75cm per pixel), with a daily global imaging capability. Moreover, it provides AIS data for ship identification and maritime traffic control.

All PanGeo Alliance members can provide access to the full satellite fleet and product portfolio from all members.

source

© EURISY Interview to Gediminas Vaitkus is the owner of Geomatrix UAB


Dr. Gediminas Vaitkus is the owner of Geomatrix UAB, a small Lithuanian company that has successfully participated in the development of Copernicus core services. It specialises in automated geospatial data processing. Now that the Sentinels are being launched, we asked Dr. Vaitkus about his point of view on the prospects the Sentinels bring for small and medium businesses.

Eurisy (EY): What are the main threats European SMEs are confronted with when it comes to making commercially viable geo-information products from Sentinel data?

Dr. G. Vaitkus (GV): I would like to call out three of them, though of course the situation is more complex than a 3-bullet point list.

  • 1. Stakeholder interests and resistance to changing from “traditional” (human photo-interpreted) geo-information products: Although the efficiency, objectivity, frequency and thematic variety of Copernicus products and services cause no doubts, the traditional mapping methods hold strong positions on an institutional level, with institutional users or even large service providers who are in a position of national monopoly. Annual expenses of the public sector for mapping products and services are certainly large enough for the traditional mapping lobbyists to defend their “economic interests”.
  • 2. European and national legislation and procurement policies are not in line with the most recent technological developments related to Copernicus. In many European countries legislation makes topographic mapping compulsory, focusing national funding on established priorities and methods, which leaves little room for innovation. This is actually the main problem for Copernicus service providers, more than technological competition with traditional mapping methods. Legislators do not seem to be in tune with those in charge of investing European money in innovative mapping methods, like those based on the use of satellite imagery. You would think that these questions of legislation and procurement policies should have preceded the implementation of Copernicus, but nowadays that seems to be an after-thought.
  • 3. Low accessibility of high quality multi-spectral imagery for the European service providers. This is a complex problem, including insufficient spatial resolution and spectral parameters of the imagery publicly available for the GMES/Copernicus initial operations, low revisit frequency (problems with cloud cover), high cost of very high resolution imagery (almost the same as aerial photos), etc. This problem is even worsened by on-line global imaging services like Google or Bing, which provide visualisations derived from very high resolution imagery for the general public globally and for free. So the result is that (1) the mainstream users have an extremely “populist” understanding of what EO technology really is and what information it can provide, at the same time being confident that they already have unlimited and free access to the best available EO technologies and (2) EO industry has serious problems trying to satisfy the expectations of the European (or national) institutional users in terms of high quality EO products and services with the EO data available for the real production. I do hope that Sentinel 2 will at least partially solve the latter problem, but the education of the general public still remains a serious issue for the Copernicus community at all levels.

EY: What about the bright side?

GV: There are a few reasons to remain hopeful.

  • 1. European SME capacity building. During the last years some European companies have indeed developed highly competitive technological capacities for EO services. And — surprisingly — the constraints of the European EO market (weak user community, low budgets, changing specifications, poor imagery, problems with many national projections, etc.), have actually pushed innovation and reinforced the competitiveness of European EO service providers on the global market! 5 years ago the FP7 GMES projects raised very ambitious (at that time) objectives to reduce the land-cover production costs by 20% compared to CORINE Land Cover production based on manual photo-interpretation, or even reduce the production cost down to 1-2 Euro/sq.km for ~10 “core” land cover classes. However, the actual production of GIO-Land layers was done for just a few cents/sq.km per layer — several times cheaper than the original expectations. Despite all the semantic issues, delays, diversity of national projections, inconsistency of EO imagery and other problems, the pan-European production was completed successfully by a collaborative effort of a large group of European companies, coordinated by the European Environment Agency. This achievement gives strong evidence of the competitiveness of the European EO industry and competences of public agencies.
  • 2. The promising prospect of access to global markets. Without exaggeration, European Copernicus service providers have indeed developed a capacity for serious competition on a global market. And, to be honest, the main reason why we (service providers) are so keen to finally have European EO imaging capacity (Sentinels) operating in full power is not because we expect a considerable boost of business opportunities in our own countries, but because we hope that EC will finally develop a political will to start acting as a global player on climate change, deforestation, desertification, water resources, food security and many other issues by launching large scale operational mapping and land/ocean monitoring services on a global scale, like US, Japan, China and other countries. Europe has no problem with innovation, technological capacity or even funding – I believe that with Copernicus services our main problem is lack of political will and coordination… But hopefully that is about to change.

EY: How representative do you think your view is of how SMEs in general perceive Copernicus’ opportunities?

GV: I’m not sure. My point of view – as one of a former scientist and current CEO of a micro-company competing for business in the field of EO services – is probably a pragmatic, business-like approach to the Copernicus programme. I do realise that on a European level this has been a very ambitious project on a larger time-scale than the one I consider, as a small business owner. Long preparation for the Copernicus operational phase through RTD projects demanded a considerable amount of investment and human resources from large EO service providers, but the overall level of GMES initial operations funding apparently didn’t meet expectations of the European EO industry. On the other hand, SMEs are operating on considerably lower level of expenses, therefore long-term Copernicus services and national downstreams provide attractive business opportunities for micro-companies and SMEs.

See more at

Flipping through online photo albums and social media collections of “selfies” is one thing, but when pictures can show land areas where millions of people live, it can put things in a completely different perspective – especially for scientists.

One of NASA’s newest tools for effective Earth observation has been orbiting our planet for more than 15 years. The International Space Station provides a constant, reliable perspective from which to record changes on the surface of Earth.

A new user-friendly online resource will provide images from a space station camera with nearly two years of images to share. The interface is a world map that links to thousands of images made by the ISERV camera: the International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System. With the click of a mouse, the public can access the images with the ISERV Viewer.

People can view and download specific ISERV captures from a collection of more than 4,000 Earth images. ISERV scientists plan to expand the database to about 60,000 by summer 2015.

ISERV was installed as a technology testbed in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) on the orbiting laboratory in January 2013 and is scheduled to be removed from operation in 2015. The camera receives and acts on commands from the ISERV team to acquire image data of specific areas of Earth’s surface as the space station passes overhead.

Images from ISERV are uploaded quickly to the web due to a new automated georeferencing capability, allowing imagery to be processed and published much faster. This is critically important when dealing with a disaster situation. Georeferencing is a process in which points in an image can be associated with geographic locations on a map. Developed by the ISERV ground team, the automated system uses the space station orbit and position data, along with the acquisition time information contained within each image to establish location on Earth and post it on the online map.

The ISERV camera is part of the SERVIR Earth observation program. For 10 years, SERVIR — an acronym meaning “to serve” in Spanish — has been a successful collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The program provides satellite-based Earth observation data and science applications to help developing nations in Central America, Africa and Asia assess environmental threats and the damage from — and their response to — natural disasters.

ISERV has demonstrated the value of Earth observation from the International Space Station for decision makers and disaster responders around the world,” says Burgess Howell, ISERV principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “This new image portal will provide public access to a vast array of images over much of the populated area of Earth.”

With ISERV, the SERVIR team has pioneered using the space station to support humanitarian relief and disaster support in underserved regions of the globe.

“Nearly 95 percent of the planet’s populated area is visible during the station’s orbit,” said William Stefanov, PhD., associate program scientist for Earth observations in the International Space Station Program Science Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Imagery captured by ISERV provides valuable information to the scientists and governments around the world to assist in environmental assessments and disaster situations.”

The SERVIR project operates via regional “hubs” in Nairobi, Kenya; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Panama City, Panama, and is coordinated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The SERVIR hubs can task the ISERV system to image scenes of Earth’s surface in their regions of interest to address environmental issues and disasters.

Much as parents can look back to see how their child has changed over the years, scientists hope that the snapshots gathered by ISERV of land areas before and after environmental changes will improve future response to natural disasters.

For more information about SERVIR, visit the program website:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir
or
https://www.servirglobal.net/

Nigeria: Dr. Spencer Onuh, Director and Chief Executive of Centre for Satellite Technology Development, CSTD feels that the nation loses about $2 billion to capital flight annually due to importation of foreign satellite.

It is being felt that such a trend, if not checked, would negatively impact not just the country’s space agency, but also the economy at large.

Onuh noted that its quite undesirable why the nation chooses to import overseas satellite services even when they can acquire data from the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) through Nigeria Sat 1.

He underscored the merit of making more investments in country’s domestics satellite programme, thus, “ For every naira you spend on any satellite, it brings a lot of Naira in terms of employment. This is so because this agency employed over 2,000 staff and by the time the Assembly, Integration and Testing, AIT centre is ready and functional, we will be thinking about 150,000 staff including engineers and support staff in only the AIT.”

Source Vanguard