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“Environmental policy making depends on timely, accurate information about the state of our planet and predictions about its future.” With this sentence, the European Union’s Science for Environment Policy Future Brief sketches the vast importance of Earth observation programs like the EU-led initiative, Copernicus (previously known as Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, or GMES).

Copernicus aims to produce data to be used by national and local EU authorities for monitoring, modelling, forecasting and reporting while at the same time contributing to key EU-led initiatives like Resource-Efficient Europe, EU Environment Action Programme 2020, SEIS and INSPIRE.

Copernicus is a joint effort with the European Space Agency (ESA), which is developing five new missions called Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the Copernicus program. The Sentinel missions, to be launched this year, are based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfill revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services. These missions carry a range of technologies, such as radar and multi-spectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring.

For more information click here

Source EOportal Earthzine

Belarus and Russia are planning to set up an advanced civilian satellite grouping, Pyotr Vityaz, a spokesman for the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, said on Tuesday.

At present, the Belarusian-Russian space grouping consists of a Belarusian spacecraft, BKA, and its Russian counterpart, Kanopus-B, which were launched in July 2012.

They provide satellite imagery with a resolution of 2.1 meters (6.8 feet).

“We are currently discussing with the Russians the possibility of establishing a [satellite] grouping with a resolution of one meter (3.2 feet),” Vityaz said.

Sergei Zolotoi, director of a space firm affiliated with the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, said the existing Belarusian-Russian space grouping will be reinforced with three satellites.

Five to six satellites are needed to ensure continuous monitoring of the Earth’s surface, he added.

Source Spacedaily and RIA Novosti

Geographic information systems (GIS) is a technology that uses location to bring different types of data together. One of the most important markets for the technology is the government, where it has quickly become the backbone for U.S. national security and a key driver of the technology’s growth.

One forecast estimates a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent from 2011 to 2015 and it’s a trend that offers significant career opportunities for professionals with a GIS master’s degree.

“Much of the work in GIS related to homeland security involves data synthesis, exploratory data analysis and scenario modeling efforts to produce optimal routes that minimize risk by identifying emerging patterns and trends in the data,” say Dr. Stephen McElroy, GIS program chair for American Sentinel University.

Officials found that GIS technology can quickly render one to several layers of digital geospatial data – such as the movement of people, location of potential targets, identification of key natural resources – into map-like products for a wide range of relevant geospatial analyses.

The government relies on these systems and technology professionals who know how to use them to access and process digital geospatial data virtually anywhere to instantly transmit from wherever it’s maintained and stored to any place where it’s needed to gain insight into potential dangers.

McElroy notes that the ability to discriminate among a wide range of data inputs to create a meaningful action plan using GIS is critical to maintaining the safety and security of personnel.

GIS for intelligence applications extends beyond mobility operations, so an individual with some military training or knowledge and an advanced education in geospatial theory and practice is well-positioned to seek meaningful employment opportunities in the broad field of homeland security,” adds Dr. McElroy.

GIS allows governments to create systems to perform rapid analysis on intelligence to improve threat, risk and vulnerability assessments and more effectively plan for emergencies and respond to them.

Here are five ways the government is using GIS technology:

  • Detection – GIS can help to link information in time and space and quickly.
  • Preparedness – When teams respond to an emergency – an attack or natural disaster – having all the relevant data for a specific geographic location can improve the ability of teams to respond.
  • Prevention – Knowledge of borders and geographic features can help officials take action against the detected early stages of an attack and prevent it before it can actually occur.
  • Protection – GIS allows a full analysis of locations and infrastructures to better understand vulnerability, which helps officials devise improved protection plans.
  • Rapid Response and Recovery – Focusing more on natural disasters and events like wildfires, it is impossible to stop them. But with the full analysis and detailed tracking that GIS makes possible, emergency officials can more quickly and effectively take action.

All these activities require people with all levels of GIS knowledge and formal education, and particularly those who can combine technology with analysis, data skills and strategic insight.

Dr. McElroy says that there are key skills sets that GIS professionals must possess when working in this high demand field.

“Data interpretation and synthesis, remote sensing and spatial analysis techniques and critical thinking skills are three overarching skill sets that are highly desirable,” he says.

In addition, he points out that being able to make quick decisions based on limited information is a key job task of an intelligence analyst.

“The knowledge and ability to manipulate spatial data in GIS can make that decision-making process a more scientific endeavor that could ultimately save lives and resources. A comprehensive understanding of the multi-faceted nature of counter-terrorism efforts is possible through the use of robust GIS tools and for GIS master’s degree students that translates into important career opportunities.”

Source

Almost unknown to the public, a constellation of satellite guardians is flying overhead, and all it takes is a phone call for them to intervene when a country is hit by a storm, earthquake, tsunami or flood.

Armed with cameras or ground radar, these Earth-observation satellites were sent into orbit for scientific and commercial missions.

But under an international agreement, they can also be called on for humanitarian work.

Assigned to fly over a disaster zone, they send back high-resolution images that can be crucial for rescue teams on the ground.

Which towns or streets are most at risk of flooding? What route can be found for relief trucks after a bridge has collapsed? And where is a secure location to pitch tents for survivors?

This pooled effort gathers 14 space agencies or national organisations, which together have 20 satellites, ranging from France’s SPOT commercial satellite to the United States’ scientific satellite, Landsat.

Their cooperation comes under an agreement called the International Charter Space and Major Disasters.

When catastrophe strikes, an ‘authorised user’ of the Charter simply phones a number at the European Space Agency (ESA), where space technicians are on round-the-clock duty.

After confirming the request, the team looks at what satellites are available, determines which is best suited for the job and then sends a programming request to its operator.

Within three hours, a scout can be instructed to take pictures as it swings over the site, said Philippe Bally, ESA’s representative on the Charter’s secretariat in Paris.

The data is usually available within 24 hours, and the service is provided for free, rather as ships at sea divert course to pick up a seafarer in distress.

‘We select the satellite according to what is needed — visual images or radar images, the type of resolution — and this is determined by the type of disaster,’ said Catherine Proy of France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), which devised the initiative with ESA in 1999.

‘We also have to factor in differences in the time zone and overflight opportunities.’

To make the information usable on the ground, the raw data is sent to specialist cartographers, who highlight the disaster zone and compare the latest pictures against those from previous years in order to show the change.

Since 2000, the Charter has been ‘activated’ 369 times in 110 countries. Floods and tsunamis account for roughly half of the activations, followed by storms (16 percent) and earthquakes (11 percent).

The beneficiary countries are generally poor economies that do not have access to an Earth-observation satellite.

Haiti, for instance, was helped after the January 2010 earthquake with satellite pictures that pinpointed terrain that offered the best opportunities for clean water and identified areas at risk of landslip.

One of the 41 authorised users of the Charter is the United Nations, which can activate it on behalf of member states.

The most recent activation was after Cyclone Haruna smashed into Mozambique in February.

Rich countries, too, can ask for an activation. Germany activated the Charter in 2003 to provide images for Iran after the 2003 Bam earthquake that left 35,000 people dead.

In November last year, parts of northern England experienced their heaviest rainfall in 50 years.

By getting satellite pictures from Germany’s TerraSAR system and Canada’s RADARSAT system, engineers on the ground were able to rush pumps to ease key locations before floodwater built up dangerously.

Diverting a satellite from a scheduled orbit entails a sacrifice for the operator, because it uses up a precious supply of onboard propellant to manoeuvre it into place.

But the Charter tries to avoid this.

With 20 satellites looping around the world in different trajectories, vast areas of the planet are covered, and one satellite is usually close enough to a disaster site to take images as it flies over. Ease of coverage will be helped after Russia joins the club.

Source

ESA’s SMOS satellite is not only proving its worth by mapping soil moisture and ocean salinity, this multifaceted satellite has now shown that it can ‘see’ through vegetation to monitor wetlands for a better understanding of Earth’s carbon cycle.

It is widely appreciated that wetlands are important resources of freshwater and are rich in biodiversity.

However, it is less well known that wetlands also emit large quantities of methane – in fact, they contribute more methane to the atmosphere than any other natural source. Wetlands can also be both sources and sinks of carbon.

Although there is less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas. It is estimated that atmospheric methane was responsible for about 20% of the rise in global temperatures last century.

Methane emissions are mostly a result of human activity, but wetlands are thought to be responsible for about 20–40% of global emissions.

The waterlogged wetland soil is a prime habitat for anaerobic microbes. It is the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter covered by water that produces large quantities of methane.

ESA’s SMOS water mission carries a novel microwave sensor to capture images of ‘brightness temperature’ to derive information on soil moisture and ocean salinity. This information is improving our understanding of water cycle.

However, SMOS is showing itself to be a very versatile tool and extending its usefulness to other areas of Earth science.

Surpassing expectations, SMOS is also being used to monitor thin Arctic sea ice, map freezing soil, determine wind speeds under hurricanes and monitor ocean eddies. Extending the value of SMOS even further, studies have shown that monitoring wetlands could be added to the mission’s repertoire.

Because SMOS measures emitted radiation at a rather long wavelength of 21 cm, vegetation and the atmosphere have little affect on the observations. This means it is possible to look at how wetlands change over time.

Such information is extremely valuable for our understanding of the role that wetlands play in the carbon cycle and how they contribute to atmospheric methane.

Moreover, it has recently been demonstrated that observations from SMOS can reproduce features seen in complex datasets that include observations from many satellites such as that shown in the image on the left.

Catherine Prigent from the Paris Observatory explains, “SMOS offers the opportunity to implement fast and easy single satellite algorithms for monitoring wetland areas.

“This complements current methods of analysis that require a lot of work to blend the different products.”

A future SMOS product could be interesting for the GlobWetland II project. This programme, which is funded through ESA’s Earth Observation Data User Element, is helping to establish the Global Wetlands Observing System.

Here, high-resolution optical data such as that from the Sentinel-2 mission, could be combined with the coarse-resolution SMOS observations to make optimal use of available remotely-sensed information.

By mapping wetlands and soil moisture, SMOS can also lead to a better understanding of the exchange processes between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, including carbon fluxes.

Integrating SMOS observations into global carbon models is another novel application that was presented during the SMOS land application workshop held in February in Italy.

(Source ESA)

(© Copernicus.eu) The European Union offers numerous opportunities to companies to co-finance innovation either through the attribution of grants or through mechanisms that facilitates the access to loans.

The European Union offers numerous opportunities to companies to co-finance innovation either through the attribution of grants or through mechanisms that facilitates the access to loans. These funding mechanisms can help companies in the different phases of their development(R&D, prototyping, commercialisation, business expansion, etc.). They can in particular be exploited by SMEs willing to develop new GMES-based products or services.

However, this wide variety of mechanisms is in itself an obstacle for small companies since it is time consuming to analyse and understand what the most appropriate sources of financing are and how to access them.

A Beginner’s Guide has been produced by the GRAAL project with the objective to facilitate the first steps of new comers in the “jungle” of existing funding opportunities.

Source

(© Copernicus.eu website) (Nov 2012) The “Copernicus Observer” is a e-magasine that will report every three months on Copernicus-related activities through three main sections


  • In the field, presenting concrete achievements;
  • Business Corner, addressing the development of the Copernicus market;
  • In motion, presenting ongoing activities such as R&D projects.

The magazine will also include a list of key events (e.g. workshops, conferences) relevant to Copernicus.

The first issue of the magazine, which was published before GMES was renamed “Copernicus” and was therefore issued under the name GMES Observer” (November 2012), is now available here. In this first issue, a specific focus was put on the following main topics:

  • First six months of activity of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service – Mapping;
  • “Eye on Earth” portal of the European Environment Agency;
  • European Space Expo, the interactive exhibition on space applications.

Copernicus.eu website)

According to a recent study, the influence of soot (also known as “black carbon”) on global warming, has been greatly underestimated and could be twice previous estimates.

The report finds black carbon is a significant cause of the rapid warming in the Northern Hemisphere at mid to high latitudes, including the northern United States, Canada, northern Europe and northern Asia. Its impact can also be felt further south, causing changes in rainfall patterns from the Asian Monsoon.

Some of the co-authors of the study are directly involved in MACC-II, working together on improving the aerosol monitoring and forecasting system. This part of the Copernicus Atmosphere service will contribute to help reduce uncertainties on black carbon and its impact on climate and air quality.

Read more…
See news item on MACC-II website
(Source University of Leeds & MACC-II) & Copernicus.eu website

The EU has been tackling air pollution since the 1970s. Steps like controlling emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere and improving fuel quality have contributed to progress in this area, but the problem still remains.

This is mainly as a result of human activities: the burning of fossil fuels and the dramatic rise in traffic on the roads, for instance. As a consequence, air pollution is cited as the main cause of lung conditions such as asthma (there are twice as many sufferers today compared to 30 years ago), and as the cause of over 350 000 premature deaths in the EU every year. Now, the European Commission is adopting a new strategy and has declared 2013 as the year of air, with new proposals on improving air quality across Europe.

The plan is to highlight the importance of clean air for all and to focus on actions to improve air quality across the EU. Already the European Commission has formed a collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. They will review the latest health science on major air pollutants such as particulate matter, ground-level ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. Their findings will be presented at an event this month titled ‘Understanding the health effects of air pollution: recent advances to inform EU policies’.

Participants will present the latest findings on the health effects of air pollution and the latest evidence for adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health effects, and identify specific sizes, sources or constituents of particulate matter (such as traffic, black carbon, fine and ultrafine particles, and diesel exhaust) associated with adverse health effects. The event will also summarise how science has advanced our understanding of the issue, as well as spotlight the uncertainties, and identify key areas for further research.

The European Commission is also asking EU citizens what they would do to improve air quality in Europe. This novel idea encourages suggestions for an improved policy on air quality. In order to gather views, opinions and ideas, the European Commission will be holding a public consultation until 4 March 2013. People can share their views on ways to ensure full implementation of the existing framework, to improve it, and to complement it with supporting actions. The results of the consultation will feed into a comprehensive review of Europe’s air policies due in 2013.

The public consultation has been open for 4 weeks, and 25 000 European citizens in 27 Member States have already voiced their opinions. The Commission will shortly issue the results of in-depth analysis and extensive consultation with a new proposal on the future of EU air policy for 2013.

For more information, please visit:
European Commission – Environment – Air
World Health Organization (WHO) – Air pollution
European Environment Agency – Air pollution

_Source Copernicus.eu and Cordis

Washington — A new Earth-observing satellite, being prepared for launch in February, will enter orbit with the capability to collect more and better data than any of its seven predecessors in the Landsat series.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) will extend the 40 years of land observations that have provided vital information in fields including energy, agriculture, resource management, environmental health, urban planning and disaster recovery.

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage the program, which began in 1972. The director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, Michael Freilich, says Landsat has elevated scientific understanding of Earth’s systems.

“USGS’s policy of offering free and open access to the phenomenal 40-year Landsat data record will continue to give the United States and global research community a better understanding of the changes occurring on our planet,” Freilich said.

NASA will launch LDCM on February 11, sending the satellite into a polar orbit. After the initial launch and systems check, USGS will take operational control as the satellite circles the planet about 14 times daily at an altitude of more than 700 kilometers. The craft will take the new name Landsat 8 when its regular orbit is assumed.

Landsat 8 will pass over every location on Earth once every 16 days and send data to ground stations in Norway, and in Alaska and South Dakota in the United States.

USGS’s Matthew Larsen, associate director for climate and land use change, says Landsat delivers crucial data about natural resources. “Forest managers, for instance, use Landsat’s recurring imagery to monitor the status of woodlands in near-real-time. Landsat-based approaches also now are being used in most western states for cost-effective allocation of water for irrigation. This mission will continue that vital role.”

LDCM has sensors that are expected to improve both performance and reliability.

LDCM will be the best Landsat satellite yet launched in terms of the quality and quantity of the data collected by the LDCM sensors,” said Jim Irons, LDCM project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

LDCM’s two instruments are the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). Irons said they will “both employ technological advances that will make the observations more sensitive to the variation across the landscape and to changes in the land surface over time.”

Landsat 7, currently in orbit, collects its observations in the near infrared and the shortwave infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. OLI will sustain those observations and will also take measurements in two new bands, allowing observation of high-altitude cirrus clouds and water quality in lakes and along coasts.

As the launch date for Landsat 8 approaches, Landsat 5 is being decommissioned, ending the longest observational satellite mission in history. Launched in 1984 and designed for a three-year mission, Landsat 5 has provided a steady stream of data for 29 years, with engineers giving the satellite a few tweaks along the way.

Landsat 5 has orbited the planet more than 150,000 times and transmitted more than 2.5 million images of surface conditions worldwide.

USGS began making Landsat data free to all in 2008, a time when advances were being made in increasing computers’ capacity to process ever-larger data sets. Those two developments have given scientists better tools to compare and analyze landscape images collected over long periods of time, allowing greater insight into a changing planet.

Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2013/01/20130114140899.html#ixzz2I90S3To1