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Earthzine invites undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to submit an essay for its 2011 Third Annual College and University Student Essay and Blogging Contest. This year’s contest theme is “How Can Earth Observation Help Us to Build a More Sustainable World?”

Earthzine, an online publication dedicated to promoting the societal benefits of Earth observation and Earth information, is conducting a competition to encourage students to explore the role of Earth observation in creating a sustainable world.

Students are invited to submit original essays that describe, reflect upon, or envision roles for Earth observation in improving sustainability around the globe. Earth observation includes technological solutions such as satellite observation, navigation and positioning systems; in situ observations, international web-based collaboration and data sharing initiatives; and social perspectives that address sustainability through a better understanding of our planet.. From local to global benefits, we are interested in essays that address the potential of Earth observation to meet the environmental challenges we face.

After an initial judges’ review, Earthzine will post candidate essays on its website. The author(s) of the essay will be invited to lead a blog about their essay and to participate in blogs of competing essays. Winners will be determined based on the overall quality of the essay and blog.

Winners will share $1,200 in prizes, with $500 for the first prize. They also will receive certificates. All finalists will receive an Earthzine T-shirt.

Eligibility: Enrollment in any (e.g. American, European, African, Asian, etc.) undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited college or university, attending full or part-time at the time of essay submission. Please indicate your anticipated year of graduation and the contact email of your registrar.

Submission Guidelines:

*The submission deadline is Dec. 22, 2011 (Solstice).
*Winners will be announced on March 20, 2012 (Equinox).
*Essays should be no longer than 2,500 words and should conform to Earthzine’s Writer’s Guidelines. See earthzine.org/about.
*All essays must be original and previously unpublished.
*Please include a brief (<100 words) biographical sketch of the student, corresponding mailing address and T-shirt size.
*Images are welcome, but must be either owned by the author or in the public domain.
*Failure to comply with the Submission Guidelines may result in disqualification.
*Earthzine reserves the right to edit any content posted on its site.
*Queries and final essays should be sent to Dr. David Mullins, Associate Editor for Education, at dmullins@sf.edu.

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More than 100 ideas have been submitted to the first GMES Masters Competition between 1 July and 15 September 2011.

Initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and T-Systems ( and supported by the EU), the new innovation competition will reward the best projects and business ideas for a GMES commercial service in five categories:

Ideas Challenge
Best Service Challenge
ESA App Challenge
DLR Environmental Challenge
T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge

Dedicated experts are currently assessing the submitted proposals while for the Best Service Challenge the winner has already been selected by the online audience: SRRS – Satellite Rapid Response System, submitted by Luca Mellano from the Italian company CHELYS. SRRS performs real-time processing of satellite data from ESA and NASA missions, making these data available only 2 minutes after acquisition. SRRS ‘ strength is instant availability: raw data are processed without waiting for them to become higher level products, meaning no reliance on processing times in reception centres, and instant access to images and data for users and researchers on any type of client (mobiles, PCs, tablets, etc.).

All other winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 19 October 2011.

The overall winner of the competition – the GMES Master – will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge. The GMES Master will receive a cash prize of 20,000 Euro.

The results of the first European Earth Monitoring Competition will be published on the competition website www.gmes-masters.com on 20 October 2011.

For further information on the GMES programme please refer to www.esa.int/gmes & www.gmes.info

Future Earth observation scientists: learn about using satellite data for science and applications development.

An ESA series of advanced thematic training courses in remote sensing applications was held in Krakow, Poland last month. Those who were not able to attend can now watch the video replays of the presentations and discussions.

The course aimed to train the next generation of European and Canadian Principal Investigators by introducing the available tools for taking advantage of Earth-observing satellites.

The week-long event stimulated and supported the exploitation of ESA and Third Party Mission remote sensing data for land applications.

Watch Land Training Course 2011

Source ESA

Three calls published for the mapping activities of the GIO Emergency Management Service

Three calls have just been published for the implementation of the mapping activities of the GIO (GMES Initial Operations) Emergency Management Service. These calls address the following activities:

  • Mapping in ‘‘rush mode in support to the crisis management during the response phase
  • Mapping in ‘non rush mode’ in support to the crisis management during the other phases of the crisis
  • External validation

The corresponding contract notices are available through the “Tender Electronic Daily” part of the Europa portal:

TED:NOTICE:293912-2011
TED:NOTICE:293913-2011
TED:NOTICE:293914-2011

INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) data specifications reached an important milestone in June 2011 with the delivery of the Data Specifications Version 2.0, the launch of the stakeholder consultation and the start of the proposed specifications testing.

It was a difficult task, considering the number, complexity and inter-relations between the 25 themes of Annex II and III, and the dependencies, in many cases, on Annex I data specifications.

The consultation and testing period will end on 21 October 2011. Then, the Thematic Working Groups and the European Commission INSPIRE Team will start the important and final phase of the INSPIRE Data Specification development: the Delivery of Version 3.0 of the Data Specifications and the preparation of the Implementing Rules for Annexes II and III.

Further information is available at INSPIRE

Source GMES.Info

Exchange of views on future EU space policy at the European Parliament

During the meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 30-31 August, the rapporteur Aldo Patriciello – Group of the European People’s Party, Italy – held an exchange of views on the Communication “Towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens”.

This Communication aims at reinforcing Europe’s space infrastructure and calls for supporting research to increase European technological non-dependence, fosters cross-fertilisation between the space sector and other industry sectors, and boosts innovation as a driver of European competitiveness. Implementing the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme with Member States is among the priorities set out by the Communication.

The consideration of the draft report will take place on 5/6 October. The deadline for amendments is 12 October. The vote in ITRE is scheduled for 22/23 November and the vote in Plenary for December 2011.

More information is available at Europarl

New Delhi, India (SPX) Jul 07, 2011 Recognising that Remote Sensing data provides much essential and critical information – which is an input for developmental activities at different levels, and is also of benefit to society;

Noting that a large number of users – both within and outside government, use Remote Sensing data from Indian and foreign remote sensing satellites for various developmental applications;

Taking into consideration the recent availability of very high-resolution images, from foreign and commercial remote sensing satellites, and noting the need for proper and better management of the data acquisition/ distribution from these satellites in India;

Recognising that national interest is paramount, and that security consideration of the country needs to be given utmost importance;

The Government of India adopts the Remote Sensing Data Policy (RSDP) – 2011 containing modalities for managing and/ or permitting the acquisition/ dissemination of remote sensing data in support of developmental activities.

Department of Space (DOS) of the Government of India shall be the nodal agency for all actions under this policy, unless otherwise stated.

1. For operating a remote sensing satellite from India, license and/ or permission of the Government, through the nodal agency, shall be necessary.

a. As a national commitment and as a “public good”, Government assures a continuous and improved observing/ imaging capability from its own Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) programme.

b. The Government, through the nodal agency, shall be the sole and exclusive owner of all data collected/ received from IRS. All users will be provided with only a license to use the said data, and add value to the satellite data.

c. Government reserves the right to impose control over imaging tasks and distribution of data from IRS or any other Indian remote sensing satellite, when it is of the opinion that national security and/ or international obligations and/ or foreign policies of the Government so require.

2. For acquisition/ distribution of remote sensing data within India, license/ permission from the Government of India, through the nodal agency, shall be necessary.

a. Government reserves the right to select and permit agencies to acquire/ distribute satellite remote sensing data in India. DOS shall be competent to decide on the procedure for granting license/ permission for dissemination of such data, and for the levy of necessary fees.

b. To cater to the developmental needs of the country, the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)/ DOS is vested with the authority to acquire and disseminate all satellite remote sensing data in India, both from Indian and foreign satellites.

i. NRSC shall enter into appropriate arrangements with DOS for acquiring/ distributing data from IRS within the visibility circle of NRSC’s receiving station(s).

ii. NRSC and/ or Antrix Corporation Ltd., shall be competent to enter into agreements with foreign satellite operator(s) for acquisition/distribution of foreign satellite data in India. However, NRSC will distribute the data as per terms agreed to with Antrix Corporation Ltd.

c. NRSC shall maintain a systematic National Remote Sensing Data Archive, and a log of all acquisitions/ sales of data for all satellites.

3. For acquisition and distribution of IRS data for use in countries other than India, the Government of India, through the nodal agency, shall grant license to such bodies/ agencies of those countries as are interested in the acquisition/ distribution of IRS data, as per specific procedures.

a. The Antrix Corporation Ltd. (of DOS) is vested with the authority for receiving the applications for grant of license for acquisition/ distribution of IRS data outside of India; to consider and decide on the granting of license within the policy considerations of the Government, and to enter into licensing agreements with the prospective users on behalf of the Government. Antrix Corporation Ltd. shall also be competent to levy such fees for granting licenses as may be considered appropriate by it. It shall also be responsible, where necessary, for rendering any further help/ guidance needed by the license.

b. The Government reserves right to impose restrictions over imaging tasks and distribution of IRS data in any country when it is of the opinion that national security and/ or international obligations and/ or foreign policies of the Government so require.

4. The Government prescribes the following guidelines to be adopted for dissemination of satellite remote sensing data in India: a. All data of resolutions up to 1 m shall be distributed on a nondiscriminatory basis and on “as requested basis”.

b. With a view to protect national security interests, all data of better than 1 m resolution shall be screened and cleared by the appropriate agency prior to distribution; and the following procedure shall be followed: 1. Government users namely, Ministries/ Departments/ Public Sector/ Autonomous Bodies/ Government R and D institutions/ Government Educational/ Academic Institutions, can obtain the data without any further clearance.

2. Private sector agencies, recommended at least by one Government agency, for supporting development activities, can obtain the data without any further clearance.

3. Other private, foreign and other users, including web based service providers, can obtain the data after further clearance from an interagency High Resolution Image Clearance Committee (HRC), already in place.

4. Specific requests for data of sensitive areas, by any user, can be serviced only after obtaining clearance from the HRC.

5. Specific sale/ non-disclosure agreements to be concluded between NRSC and other users for data of better than 1 m resolution.

5. This Policy (RSDP-2011) comes into effect immediately, and may be reviewed from time-to-time-by Government.

Source

LE BOURGET, France — The German government is willing to reconsider its position on whether the private sector is able to take over full financial responsibility for future civil German radar satellites in light of the slower-than-expected radar imagery revenue, the head of Germany’s space agency said.

Johann-Dietrich Woerner, executive chairman of the German Aerospace Center, DLR, said that while Germany is still pushing industry to assume an increasing share of the risk of building Earth observation satellites, it may be too soon to insist that industry go it alone.

“A full private investment in the next-generation satellite, TerreSAR-X 2, was what we had said we wanted,” Woerner said here June 23 during the Paris air show. “This was the basic idea, but we are now discussing whether this is feasible.”

TerreSAR-X was launched in June 2007 at a cost of some 185 million euros, or $260 million at current exchange rates, including launch charges. The German division of a company called Astrium Geo-Information Services paid 20 percent of that sum in return for exclusive rights to commercialize the radar data. DLR paid the remaining 80 percent.

A twin satellite, called TanDEM-X, was launched in June 2010. Its 165 million euros in cost was paid 75 percent by DLR and 25 percent by Astrium Geo-Information Services.

Both satellites are healthy in orbit and delivering imagery with a ground resolution of between 1 meter and 16 meters, depending on the desired observation mode and swath width. Since late 2010, they have been moved to within 350 meters of each other to operate in tandem to produce a stereo map of the Earth’s entire land mass.

Since the launch of TerreSAR-X, Astrium Geo-Information Services, which is part of Astrium Services and a subsidiary of Europe’s EADS aerospace conglomerate, has been informed by the French government that future French Spot optical Earth observation satellites will be the sole responsibility of the private sector.

Astrium Services is now spending around 300 million euros to build and launch the Spot 6 and Spot 7 satellites, which will succeed the larger Spot 5 satellite that is now in orbit and well past its contracted retirement date.

While Astrium Services is one of EADS’s most profitable businesses, the market for Earth observation imagery, and particularly radar data, has not grown as fast as expected.

Eric Beranger, chief executive of Astrium Services, said many governments — which remain the majority market for Earth observation data of all kinds — have reduced their budget for Earth observation data as part of broader spending cutbacks.

“This is mainly driven by short-term constraints and is not entirely unexpected,” Beranger said. He said that to make radar data more easily usable by government agencies more accustomed to optical data, Astrium Geo-Information Services is introducing what it calls “Color-SAR,” which he said is more appealing than conventional radar images, “which are mainly shown in shades of gray.”

The French government is financing the launch of two high-resolution Pleiades optical Earth observation satellites, each with a 70-centimeter imager, for commercial, civil government and military use. The first is set for launch on the second Europeanized version of Russia’s Soyuz rocket, a launch that has been tentatively scheduled for mid-December.

Astrium Geo-Information Services will have access to Pleiades data, but Beranger said neither the French nor any other government has committed to any purchases of Spot 6 and Spot 7 data. Astrium officials have said the French government’s decision not to take part in the satellites’ financing means French government agencies will be paying a lot more per Spot image than they have paid in the past.

Woerner said Germany accepts that the commercial business of selling radar data has been far slower than predicted when TerreSAR-X and TanDEM-X were launched.

“Our thinking was that fully recurrent satellites after TanDEM-X, which was the subject of a private-public partnership, should be paid for entirely by industry,” Woerner said. “But now we see that seems to be not so easy. The prices for which the images can be sold are not as high as what was expected. In addition, in some countries you have open access to data, which makes the commercial business a little tricky.”

Woerner did not disclose how far Germany would go in helping industry with the purchase of a successor to TerreSAR-X, a decision that must be made within the next year if Germany wants to avoid a gap in data flow in the event TerreSAR-X fails soon after its contracted five-year service life.

“It is a priority for us that we have continuity in X-band radar,” Woerner said. “But we still expect industry to keep its word” about increasing the share of program risk it takes in future systems.

Source SpaceNews

1 June 2011 – As the world marks the 50th anniversary of humankind’s first flight into outer space, the United Nations today reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation in developing norms of law to ensure adherence to treaties that promote peaceful and beneficial uses of outer space.

In a declaration adopted today, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), which is also marking 50 years since its first session in 1961, voiced its conviction that space science and technology and their applications, including satellite communications, Earth observation systems and satellite navigation technologies, provide indispensable tools for sustainable development.

They can also contribute effectively to efforts to improve people’s lives, conserve natural resources and enhance disaster preparedness and mitigation.

“When I looked down on Earth from space, I saw the beauty and the wounds of our planet. The effects of climate change are very visible when you look down,” said Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, the chair of UNCOPUOS, reflecting on his time in space as the first Romanian astronaut in space.

The Vienna-based UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has invited members of the public this week to celebrate the two anniversaries.

Activities will include meeting astronauts and cosmonauts, touching a rock from the moon and joining a Space Tour at the Vienna International Centre.

More than 25 States and organisations have put their national space accomplishments on display. Tomorrow, astronauts and cosmonauts will discuss the topic “Future of Humankind in Space.” On Saturday, astronauts and cosmonauts, as well as representatives of all major space agencies, will be present to answer questions from visitors.

Aleksei Leonov, a Russian cosmonaut and the first person to walk in space, reminded UNCOPUOS members that outer space belongs to all humankind.

“We have to share with the developing countries the benefits from outer space and also what we know about it. We have to work hard in all countries to make that kind of education available to everybody,” he said.

The UNCOPUOS declaration called upon States to take measures at the national, regional and global levels to engage in common efforts to use space science and technology and their applications to preserve Earth and its space environment for future generations.

Source=

A satellite that will map the saltiness of seawater has gone in orbit. Data from the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft will help scientists understand better the processes that drive ocean circulation and the movement of freshwater around the planet.

A Delta rocket carried the satellite aloft, launching from California, US, at 0720 local time (1420 GMT). The mission is led by the space agencies of America and Argentina (Nasa and Conae). There are inputs also from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy.

Scientists have been able to measure ocean salinity for decades by lowering instruments from ships or by deploying robotic floats, but the technology to sense this property from orbit is a recent innovation.

Salinity is of interest to researchers because it is both a determinant of ocean behaviour and a tool to diagnose what might be happening in the climate system.

Aquarius carries three high-precision radio receivers that will record the natural microwave emissions coming up off the water’s surface. These emissions vary with the electrical conductivity of the water – a property directly related to how much dissolved salt it is carrying.

Together with temperature, salinity will define water density, and density and wind are the wheels of ocean circulation – the means by which Earth moves much of the energy it receives from the Sun around the globe.

By monitoring changes in the amount of dissolved salts at the surface, scientists can see also where water is being evaporated and precipitated.

Evaporation at the surface increases salinity by leaving behind salts as the water moves into the atmosphere. When it rains, the surface is diluted and salinity drops. In this sense, the amount of salt present is a tracer for the global water cycle. It is thought something like 80% of this cycle – which moves fresh water from the ocean to the atmosphere, to the land, and back to the ocean again – occurs out over the sea.

Eric Lindstrom, an Aquarius programme scientist at Nasa, said the new satellite would fill an important gap in the remote sensing observations made by the American agency.

“In the Earth science division of Nasa, we have 13 missions in orbit right now and about half of them measure ocean quantities – we get sea-surface temperature, ocean winds, sea level, ocean colour, and the changing mass of the oceans,” he explained.

“A key missing piece that’s really in demand by the ocean science community is ocean salinity.”

Getting this data from orbit is not a simple matter, however.

The range of salinity that can be measured is a small one – generally between about 32 and 37 parts per thousand out over the open ocean.

Ocean salinity map (ESA) Europe has already begun to make space-based maps of salinity; soon, scientists will have double the data and an even better view of the subject

“Our goal is to retrieve salinity at 0.2 parts per thousand,” said Aquarius Principal Investigator Gary Lagerloef of Earth & Space Research in Seattle. “That’s the equivalent concentration if you were to take a dash of salt about the same as one-eighth of teaspoon and put it in a gallon of water.

That works out to about one millilitre of salt in six litres of water.

“That’s the amount of salinity change that Aquarius will be able to observe from month to month over any part of the ocean.”

The Nasa-Conae spacecraft will not be the first ocean salinity mission in orbit. Europe already has a satellite in operation called Smos. This was launched in 2009 and produced the first-ever global maps of salinity built from space data.

Before it achieved this milestone, Smos had a torrid time coping with interference from radars, TV and radio links, and even wi-fi networks whose emissions were bleeding across the microwave signal. But Gary Lagerloef says the different radiometer design on Aquarius should fare much better, and he looks forward to getting double the data.

“The two teams have worked in parallel for a decade now, developing their respective missions; we have shared information and it has been a strong cooperative effort,” he told BBC News.

“Once we have both of these missions in orbit, we will compare results – we’ll inter-calibrate them, we’ll combine the measurements together. We’ll do all we can to provide the best information about ocean surface salinity to the scientific community.”

The Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft weighed about 1.3 tonnes at lift-off.

Its radiometers are complemented by a radar instrument which studies how wind is roughening the sea surface and potentially skewing the microwave signal. All this equipment is provided by Nasa.

Conae has been responsible for the spacecraft bus, or chassis. This bus also hosts seven instruments – most built by the Argentinians.

These systems will be making a wide range of observations – from the imaging of urban lighting and monitoring forest fires to looking for space debris and making measurements of sea-ice.

Nasa had been under some pressure with this launch. Its previous attempt to get an Earth observation spacecraft into orbit ended in failure when the carrier rocket malfunctioned. The Glory satellite fell into the Southern Ocean off Antarctica and was destroyed.

Aquarius/SAC-D Nasa has provided the ocean salinity instrument; Conae has provided the main satellite bus and a number of other instruments. The spacecraft will circle the Earth, travelling from pole to pole

by Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
BBC