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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is luring young entrepreneurs to utilise massive amounts of geo-spatial data procured through its series of earth-mapping satellites to launch start-ups and earn in millions in the years to come via consultative services to respective users.

Director of ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Dr YVN Krishna Murthy told Bangalore Mirror at the 104th Indian Science Congress in Tirupati that they have gathered up to a whopping 17 million gigabytes (or 17 petabytes as 1 petabyte is 1000000 gigabytes) of geospatial data, which is set to cross 50 million GB (50 petabytes) in the next five years with the addition of a more sophisticated constellation of satellites in space to map the Indian sub-continent.

Geospatial data is information about physical objects (in terms of land, crops, water resources, agricultural information, etc) that can be represented by numerical values in a geographic coordinate system. These data have been collected using 21 remote sensing satellites so far – IRS-1A being the first one to be launched on March 17, 1988, and Resourcesat-2A, the last to be launched on December 7, 2016.

The data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites are used for various applications of resources survey and management under the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS), which include space-based inputs for decentralised planning; national urban information system; ISRO disaster management support programme; biodiversity characterisations at landscape level; pre-harvest crop area and production estimation of major crops; drought monitoring and assessment based on vegetation condition; flood risk zone mapping and flood damage assessment; hydro-geomorphologic maps for locating underground water resources for drilling wells; irrigation command area status monitoring; snow-melt run-off estimates for planning water use in downstream projects; land-use and land cover mapping; urban planning; forest survey; wetland mapping; environmental impact analysis; mineral prospecting; coastal studies; and integrated mission for sustainable development (initiated in 1992) for generating locale-specific prescriptions for integrated land and water resources development in 174 districts.

“There is an immense scope for start-ups. With time, the cost of technology will go down while its scope will only increase,” Murthy said. “Young entrepreneurs can look at our portals to launch start-ups on a consultative basis for users and rake in millions of rupees.”

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Back in the 15th century, the region of Silesia had a thriving copper mining industry and the ore inspired the names of many things in the area, including surnames. A genius born in a small village of Silesia carried his surname into fame as his ideas changed the world. The man was Nicolaus Copernicus. It is remarkable to think that a man who lived in a world where people couldn’t even dream of space travel restructured the model of the universe using the sheer power of his imagination.

The European Union’s Copernicus Programme is standing on the shoulders of such giants of the past and seeks to inspire and enable the future generation of great minds. As Copernicus Sentinel satellites are observing the Earth from Space, the European Commission is focusing on enabling users on the ground to take advantage of the free data and services provided not only to Participating Countries but globally. As part of Copernicus User Uptake activities, the European Commission has launched the Copernicus Academy and has recently made public the list of the founding members of the network

The Copernicus Academy will connect European universities, research institutions, business schools, both private and non-profit organisations, in the Participating Countries of the Programme and beyond. The goal of the Network is to develop lectures, training sessions, traineeships as well as educational and training material to empower the next generation of researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs with suitable skill sets to use Copernicus data and information services to their full potential.

The Academy Network will also work to increase the exchange of ideas and best practices across borders and disciplines while contributing to the development of the use of Earth Observation data in general and Copernicus data and information in particular, in various public or private user organisations or industries. Moreover, the Academy will foster collaboration between educational institutions and established commercial operators or entrepreneurs so that innovation can reach the market and benefit the citizens of Europe and the future of our Planet.

The Copernicus Academy Members will have access to a comprehensive toolbox of User Uptake tools and will receive updated information from the European Commission and the recently established Copernicus Support Office. Starting in early 2017, Academy Members’ questions and inquiries will be answered by the Support Office via email, live chat and phone. There are numerous animation activities planned for the Copernicus Academy Members in coordination with the Copernicus User Forum and existing national structures, the Copernicus Relays and the Copernicus Support Office.

As an integral part of the recently released European Space Strategy, the Copernicus Academy has the ambition to develop new tools, to foster exchanges of knowledge as well as cross-border and cross-sectorial collaboration, with a view to contribute to unleashing the vast potential of Copernicus Sentinel data and service information to change our world for the better. The sky is not the limit!

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In an article published in Nature on 7 December 2016, JRC scientists describe how, in collaboration with Google, they have quantified changes in global surface waters and created interactive maps which highlight the changes in the Earth’s surface water over the past 32 years.

In an article published in Nature on 7 December 2016, JRC scientists describe how, in collaboration with Google, they have quantified changes in global surface waters and created interactive maps which highlight the changes in the Earth’s surface water over the past 32 years.

Based on over three million satellite scenes (1 823 Terabytes of data) collected between 1984 and 2015, the Global Surface Water Explorer was produced using 10 000 computers running in parallel. The individual images were transformed into a set of global maps with a 30-metre resolution, which enable users to scroll back in time to measure the changes in the location and persistence of surface water globally, by region, or for a specific area. The maps are available for all users, free of charge.

Where and when water is found on the planet’s surface is hugely important as it influences the climate system, the movement of species, sustainable development and social, institutional and economic security. While surface water is only a tiny fraction of the Earth’s water resources, it is the most accessible part, and provides wide-ranging ecosystem services.

This long-term history of the water-surface of the planet shows that total global surface water has increased over the past three decades, with over 180 000 km2 of new permanent water bodies forming in some parts of the planet and almost 90 000 km2 of permanent surface water disappearing from other areas. Much of the increase is linked to reservoirs and climate change (e.g. accelerated snow-and-glacier melt in Tibet), and the net loss (more than 70% of which occurred in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq) is linked to drought and human activities such as river diversion, damming and unregulated use.

The data show that the impacts of climate on where and when surface water occurs can be measured, and that the presence of surface water can be substantially altered by human activities. It will help to improve modelling scenarios, show where changes are occurring, and inform water-management decision-making. Combining this with other datasets, such as satellite altimetry measurements, could lead to estimates of surface water volumes, river discharge and sea-level rise, that will have additional benefits in helping to understand the impacts of climate change.

Of immediate use in climate science, water resource reporting and monitoring and commitments to multilateral environmental agreements, the authors expect that it will also find many other uses, such as in risk, resilience and recovery linked to water movement, infrastructural planning and yet others that are still to be imagined.

Use of radar and optical satellite imagery from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 of the EU Copernicus Programme will greatly help to improve the detail and accuracy of the information in the Explorer in the future.

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AlSat Nano, a UK-Algeria CubeSat mission, has captured its first full colour image following its launch in September 2016.

The image was taken by the Open University C3D2 instrument’s wide field camera on 3rd December, 2016, over the Arkhangelsk Oblast region, on the North West coast of Russia. It was captured under twilight conditions at dawn, showing the coastline to the top, and a brief winter sunrise over the arctic region with a deep red-brown hue.

Through the cloud cover there is evidence of hills and snow on mountains, and mist in the river valleys. The object in the foreground is the Oxford Space Systems Ltd AstroTubeTM Boom payload, also carried on board the spacecraft.

This marks an important milestone for the mission as all core payloads have now been commissioned successfully, paving the way for further scientific and commercial exploitation.

Dr Chris Castelli, UK Space Agency Director of Programmes said: “Successfully delivering this joint UK-Algeria mission from payload selection to launch readiness in 18 months is a great achievement from all programme partners. As this latest image demonstrates, mission operations are going from strength to strength, validating cutting edge UK space technology and our open approach to working with international partners.”

AlSat Nano is Algeria’s first CubeSat mission and shows the capability of UK technology in partnership with industry and academia. With a spacecraft the size of a shoebox yet featuring all the core subsystems of much larger satellites, the programme demonstrates how CubeSats can be assembled quickly and launched at a fraction of the cost. This will help Algeria strengthen its domestic space technology capability by giving their scientists and engineers first-hand experience of spacecraft operations.

Dr Abdewahab Chikouche, Director of Space Programmes at Algerian Space Agency, said: “The Alsat-1N project is a concrete example of the success of our cooperation with UKSA. This project, very enriching from the scientific and technological point of view, allowed ASAL engineers to progress in the integration and testing of nanosatellites and acquire autonomy in its operation. This project will enable Algerian researchers and academics to strengthen national capabilities in advanced space technology.”

Approximately half of the spacecraft’s volume was made available as part of an open call to the UK CubeSat community as a free flight opportunity for self-funded payloads. AlSat Nano stuck to a tight development schedule, with less than 18 months between payload selection and flight readiness.

Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, Director of Surrey Space Centre said: “AlSat Nano has been an exciting project for the Surrey Space Centre to be leading. Educational and research elements, and the technology knowledge transfer with the Algerian Space Agency were key parts of this project. Additionally, the development of this nanosatellite platform has been a great opportunity to work with UK payload providers, who are demonstrating some exciting new technologies.”

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As the result of an agreement signed in late 2015 between the Australian Government and the European Commission, Australian researchers will gain access to the imagery and data generated by the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, delivered by the European Commission with key partners European Space Agency and EUMETSAT. This data will be disseminated via research and education network infrastructure worldwide, initially through GÉANT (the pan-European research and education network) and in Australia by AARNet, in partnership with Geoscience Australia.

The Copernicus program, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) collects vast amounts of global data from satellites and other systems which it stores, analyses and distributes for a wide range of applications such as protecting the environment, promoting sustainable resource development, mitigating the effects of climate change and managing risks and emergency response for natural disasters.

Key to the programme is enabling fast access to these data for the international community through the establishment of regional data hubs.

AARNet is collaborating with GÉANT to provide the high-speed data access for the data hub located in Australia, which will serve users in the Southeast Asia and the South Pacific region. This regional data hub, managed by Geoscience Australia will be located at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) in Canberra. Geosciences Australia will make the data available to users through a consortium that includes Australia’s CSIRO national research organisation and the Australian state governments of Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.

Chris Hancock, AARNet’s CEO, says the international network of research and education networks is uniquely positioned to ensure the distribution of Copernicus data globally.

“AARNet and the international network of research and education networks is built to deliver the scalable, robust capacity that meets the Copernicus programme’s rigorous demand for bandwidth and latency, reliability and geographical reach,” said Hancock.

“We are excited to be collaborating with our partners to develop the data access infrastructure that will provide Australia and our neighbours with new opportunities to address today’s most pressing challenges and improve everyday lives.”

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The United States is thinking big on small satellites. At the White House Frontiers Conference — a national convening to boost innovation — hosted by US President Barack Obama in Pittsburgh this week, $50 million have been earmarked in federal funds to harness the smallsat revolution.

By receiving continuously updated imagery of the Earth through smallsats, the administration aims to increase the adoption of small satellites for commercial, scientific, and national security needs.

Of these $50 million, NASA will invest $30 million to support public-private partnership opportunities in the smallsat domain. This means that constellations of commercial smallsats will be tapped for earth science observations by the government for a variety of purposes.

NGA partnership with Planet

The news comes on the heels of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) entering into a $20 million data purchase agreement with smallsat startup Planet. NGA Director Robert Cardillo has admitted before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Sep 27 the agency is looking to purchase and co-develop alerting services and algorithms for automated object-change detection from commercial data streams.

“This will enable analysts to leverage commercial sources they would not otherwise have time to individually exploit. That’s why NGA has expanded outreach and coordination over the last year to the most mature of the ‘new space’ providers such as Planet, Terra Bella, and BlackSky Global to assess mission utility and access to operational data and services,” Cardillo had testified.

Obama pushes for innovation

Meanwhile, Obama pushed for innovation in a recent article for Wired.com as well. “We need not only the folks at MIT or Stanford or the NIH but also the mom in West Virginia tinkering with a 3D printer, the girl on the South Side of Chicago learning to code, the dreamer in San Antonio seeking investors for his new app, the dad in North Dakota learning new skills so he can help lead the green revolution,” he wrote, adding that the US must keep funding scientific, technological, and medical research.

The Co-Founder and President of Planet, Robbie Schingler — who was present at the White House Frontiers Conference — calls initiatives like this a rebirth of space activities, or the Space Renaissance. He said in a blog post, “It seems that with each passing month, there is a new space-bound company or initiative announced. This is extraordinary. It is like a new breed of aerospace entrepreneurs are forming with innovation coming from unlikely places to create new low-Earth orbit missions.”

Oceans might not be thought of as magnetic, but they make a tiny contribution to our planet’s protective magnetic shield. Remarkably, ESA’s Swarm satellites have not only measured this extremely faint field, but have also led to new discoveries about the electrical nature of inner Earth.

The magnetic field shields us from cosmic radiation and charged particles that bombard Earth from the Sun. Without it, the atmosphere as we know it would not exist, rendering life virtually impossible.

Scientists need to learn more about our protective field to understand many natural processes, from those occurring deep inside the planet, to weather in space caused by solar activity. This information will then yield a better understanding of why Earth’s magnetic field is weakening.

Although we know that the magnetic field originates in different parts of Earth and that each source generates magnetism of different strengths, exactly how it is generated and why it changes is not fully understood.

This is why, in 2013, ESA launched its trio of Swarm satellites.

While the mission is already shedding new light on how the field is changing, this latest result focuses on the most elusive source of magnetism: ocean tides.

When salty ocean water flows through the magnetic field, an electric current is generated and this, in turn, induces a magnetic response in the deep region below Earth’s crust – the mantle. Because this response is such a small portion of the overall field, it was always going to be a challenge to measure it from space.

Last year, scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, showed that if it could be measured from space – never done before – it should also tell us something about Earth’s interior. However, this all remained a theory – until now.

Thanks to Swarm’s precise measurements along with those from Champ – a mission that ended in 2010 after measuring Earth’s gravity and magnetic fields for more than 10 years – scientists have not only been able to find the magnetic field generated by ocean tides but, remarkably, they have used this new information to image the electrical nature of Earth’s upper mantle 250 km below the ocean floor.

Alexander Grayver, from ETH Zurich, said, “The Swarm and Champ satellites have allowed us to distinguish between the rigid ocean ‘lithosphere’ and the more pliable ‘asthenosphere’ underneath.”

The lithosphere is the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle, while the asthenosphere lies just below the lithosphere and is hotter and more fluid than the lithosphere.

“Effectively, ‘geo-electric sounding from space’, this result is a first for space exploration,” he continues.

“These new results are important for understanding plate tectonics, the theory of which argues that Earth’s lithosphere consists of rigid plates that glide on the hotter and less rigid asthenosphere that serves as a lubricant, enabling plate motion.”

Roger Haagmans, ESA’s Swarm mission scientist, explained, “It’s astonishing that the team has been able to use just two years’ worth of measurements from Swarm to determine the magnetic tidal effect from the ocean and to see how conductivity changes in the lithosphere and upper mantle.

More information

Many urban residents these days will find it hard to imagine a life without mobile apps that help us locate a restaurant, hail a cab, or find a subway station—usually in a matter of seconds. If geospatial technology and data already make our everyday lives this easier, imagine what they can do for our cities: for example, geospatial data on land-use change and built-up land expansion can provide for more responsive urban planning, while information on traffic conditions, road networks, and solid waste sites can help optimize management and enhance the quality of urban living.

The “urban geo-data gap”

However, information and data that provide the latest big picture on urban land and services often fail to keep up with rapid population growth and land expansion. This is especially the case for cities in developing countries—home to the fastest growing urban and vulnerable populations.

To address this gap, the World Bank partnered with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in establishing the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC). The platform brings cutting-edge technology and knowledge to cities and helps translate this knowledge into practice and investment to promote integrated urban planning in about 30 partner cities across 11 countries, with broader, global efforts planned for the future.

In late September, GPSC brought together urban planners, policy makers, GIS experts, as well as scientist and development organizations for a meeting at the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Center for Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy. The mixed expertise and ESA’s demonstration of satellite technology for earth observation provided the opportunity for participants to see the power of geospatial technology in mapping and supporting some of the key urban services.

Better urban planning, enabled by geospatial tech

A telling example of geospatial technology application is the Spatial Development Framework 2040 for Johannesburg, presented at the meeting by the city’s lead urban planner. Johannesburg has used geospatial data for analyzing inequality and poverty, job-housing mismatch, spatial disconnection, low walkability, and land-use defects. This data then informed city planning and helped officials prepare development scenario options for the future.

According to Herman Pienaar, Director of City Transformation and Spatial Planning in Johannesburg, the management of social, economic, and environmental challenges as a result of rapid urbanization is one of the major issues facing Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa. “Satellite technology and geospatial information help track our urban footprint and understand the impact of our interventions,” he told us at the meeting.

GPSC supports other cities in transferring and applying this knowledge into their own contexts. For example, in Dakar, Senegal, we are now working to enable the city to “leapfrog” by utilizing geospatial technology to better understand its expansion as well as the vulnerabilities caused by climate change.

At the World Bank, we are also collaborating with the ESA to raise awareness about the significant potential of satellite-based information for planning and building more sustainable cities in Brazil, India, Vietnam and other countries. The long-term goal is to make Earth Observation data a systematic and preferred source of information for all phases of urban development projects, according to Maurice Borgeaud, Head of the Science, Applications and Future Technologies Department in ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programs.

And yet, availability of geospatial data is only the first step. A much more challenging task is the integration of the data analysis from multiple sectors into one coherent urban planning process. As part of GPSC, we are currently developing a guidance document—“Urban Sustainability Framework”—to support cities in this effort. The framework, which we expect to release early 2017, will integrate geospatial data, multidimensional indicators, Sustainable Development Goals, and modeling tools to help city governments define their vision and identify priority action areas and investment strategies.

Are you an urban planner attending or following the Habitat III conference next week? Tell us in a comment what difficulties you have faced in terms of geospatial data availability? Could you suggest other applications of this data in the urban planning process?

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Europe is contributing to the UN’s Global Geodetic Reference Frame (GGRF) by developing a platform for exchanging information and expertise.

The creation of a new UN-GGIM: Europe working group, GRF- Europe will connect a range of stakeholders and act as an intergovernmental link whilst also promoting the sharing of open geodetic data and common standards as well as fostering capacity building where needed.

In doing so, it will provide a link between the geospatial community, including EUREF the International Association of Geodesy Reference Frame Sub-Commission for Europe, scientists and policy makers.

“The UN General Assembly urges the sharing of geospatial data to benefit people and the planet,” explains GRF-Europe Working Group Leader, Markku Poutanen from Finland.

“Accurately measuring the shape, rotation and gravitational field of planet Earth is vital for monitoring changes in the continents, ice caps, oceans and atmosphere and the UN recognises the importance of a globally–coordinated approach to geodesy. However, more detail is required at regional level.”

“Our aim is to provide a common forum for those involved in maintaining and enhancing national geodetic infrastructures throughout Europe, as well as the users of this data. Not only will this help to avoid duplication, but we believe working under a UN mandate will enable multilateral collaboration among organisations that do not have technical expertise or hold political or economic power of their own.”

UN-GGIM’s GGRF Working Group was tasked with drafting a roadmap to be completed in 2016. GRF- Europe will coordinate the region’s contribution.

The GGRF aims to change from the current system, where contributions to the development of the global geodetic reference frame are undertaken on a ‘best efforts’ basis, to one where they are made through a multilateral collaboration under a UN mandate.

For more information, please visit www.un-ggim-europe.org

UN-GGIM: Europe

UN-GGIM: Europe is a regional committee of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM).

Drawing on the national capacities and capabilities of Member States, UN-GGIM was established in 2011. It takes a leading role in setting the agenda for global geospatial information development as well as in promoting its benefits for addressing both national policy and key global challenges.

GGRF

  • The UN General Assembly adopted resolution 69/266 on a Global Geodetic Reference Frame for Sustainable Development in February 2015. A total of 53 Member States sponsored the resolution.
  • The United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN- GGIM) Working Group on the Global Geodetic Reference Frame (GGRF) is drafting a roadmap for the enhancement of the Global Geodetic Reference Frame. This will be completed in 2016.
  • The GGRF aims to change from the current system, where contributions to the development of the global geodetic reference frame are undertaken on a ‘best efforts’ basis, to one where they are made through a multilateral collaboration under a UN mandate.

On 14 September 2016 in Berlin, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the French space agency (Centre national d’études spatiales; CNES) signed a cooperation agreement for the design, construction and operational phases of the Franco-German climate satellite MERLIN in the presence of Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and Federal Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, as well as Thierry Mandon, French Minister of State for Higher Education and Research. The agreement was signed by Gerd Gruppe, DLR Executive Board Member responsible for the DLR Space Administration and Jean-Yves Le Gall, the President of CNES. The small satellite mission MERLIN – Methane Remote Sensing LIDAR Mission – will measure the concentration of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy. The mission will last for three years.

“With MERLIN, France and Germany are making a significant contribution to climate change research. Space missions such as MERLIN help us to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms that influence the Earth’s climate. This is therefore also an essential component for implementing the Paris Climate Agreement”, stated Brigitte Zypries during the signing ceremony.

“Germany and France will process and evaluate the data from the mission together and in close cooperation with research laboratories. MERLIN will be launched in 2021 and will orbit Earth at an altitude of approximately 500 kilometres,” said Thierry Mandon.

MERLIN is based on the new ‘Myriade Evolutions’ satellite bus, developed by CNES in collaboration with the French aerospace industry. The satellite payload, an active LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) instrument that can conduct measurements even at night and through thin clouds, is being developed and built in Germany on behalf of the DLR Space Administration with funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The methane LIDAR has a laser that can emit light at two different wavelengths, and is therefore capable of carrying out extremely precise measurements of methane concentrations at all latitudes, regardless of sunlight.

Methane is a particularly strong greenhouse gas. Its impact on the climate is about 25 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. Although the concentration of methane is considerably lower than that of carbon dioxide, methane is responsible for approximately 20 percent of today’s global warming.

Explaining the importance of the mission, Gerd Gruppe states: “Effective measures for climate protection must address methane. Precise and consistent measurements from all over the world are needed. This can only be achieved with a satellite. With MERLIN, Germany and France are pursuing a common goal. To achieve this, France is contributing the satellite bus and Germany an innovative space laser. Constructing such an instrument is a major technological challenge. We are thus providing innovation to last far beyond the project itself.”

The LIDAR instrument on board MERLIN emits light that is not harmful to the human eye. It releases short pulses at two different infrared wavelengths. They have been selected so that one is absorbed by the methane and the other one is not. MERLIN emits these two pulses in quick succession to the same location on Earth’s surface. The pulses are reflected and then picked up by the telescope and registered by the small satellite. One of the pulses is weakened by the methane in the atmosphere, the other is not. This difference enables scientists to determine the quantity of methane present between the satellite and the ground. The data acquired by the satellites can also be transmitted to the ground stations several times a day.

“The LIDAR method has scientific advantages: it is a so-called ‘self-calibration’ procedure, which means that the data contains an extremely low amount of systematic errors. So, when the data is supplied to numerical models for analysis, it is possible to reliably determine the methane sources and sinks, as well as their distribution across the globe,” explains DLR Project Manager, Matthias Alpers. With its short light pulses, MERLIN is able to ‘take advantage of’ every break in the clouds. In terms of a LIDAR, MERLIN is also an ‘active’ instrument. In other words, it generates the light itself and then measures its reflection. This enables the climate satellite to conduct measurements on Earth at night-time.

The LIDAR will be built by a consortium of companies and research institutions from Germany, France and the Netherlands, under the leadership of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH in Ottobrunn.

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