NASA Releases Visual Tour of Earth's Fires

by Staff WritersWashington DC (SPX) Oct 25, 2011

Fire observations from around the world taken over nearly 10 years are shown in this visualization of NASA satellite data. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center). Download the visualization from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio.

NASA has released a series of new satellite data visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

NASA maintains a comprehensive researchprogram using satellites, aircraft and ground resources to observe and analyze fires around the world. The research helps scientists understand how fire affects our environment on local, regional and global scales.

"What you see here is a very good representation of the satellite data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fire distribution is responding to climate change and population growth," said Chris Justice of the University of Maryland, College Park, a scientist who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires.

One of the new visualizations takes viewers on a narrated global tour of fires detected between July 2002 and July 2011. The fire data is combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show how fires relate to seasonal changes. The Terra and Aqua satellites were launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively.

Better use of Global Geospatial Information for Solving Development Challenges

New York NY (SPX) Oct 24, 2011

Some 350 participants in Seoul will aim to bring countries together to share their experiences in how they organize their geospatial information infrastructure; what are their policy priorities; and how do they deal with crowd-sourced information versus those produced by national authorities.

Representatives from 90 United Nations Member States and more than 50 international and civil society organizations and private sector entities will gather in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from 23 to 27 October for a series of high-profile meetings to improve the global management and coordination of geospatial information and in the application of geospatial technology to solve global socio-economic challenges.

The use of geospatial information (location-based information) goes beyond national borders. Many natural disasters and pandemicdiseases are cross-border in their impact and tackling them requires information located and displayed globally.

There is a need therefore for common frameworks and standards for national data to be used regionally and internationally and to harmonize definitions and methods that will enhance the use, accessibility and application of geospatial information globally.

"Over the last decade, new technologies have deeply transformed the availability and accessibility of geospatial information and its potential uses," said Mr. Sha Zukang, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

"After recent earthquakes in several countries, there was great demand for quick and comprehensive geospatial information, from all sources. There is still much fragmentation in national institutional arrangements, as geospatial information entities are often scattered across ministries. The same could also be said for the UN. Thus there is a great need for a thorough discussion on the geospatial policies and institutional arrangements," he said.

The power of pooling high-resolution satellite imagery, geospatial information, and particularly census and statistical information for decision making and policy formulation has now been fully recognized; while accessibility to such information is seen as an important development tool.

STRATCOM urges for single GEOINT processing authority

US: The US Air Force General C. Robert Kehler, Commander of US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), called for a single authority to help intelligence processing capacity. “To help, close the growing gap between the nation’s ability to collect intelligence data and the capacity to use it effectively, creation of a single focal point of authority over the processing, exploitation and dissemination (PED) of intelligence information is needed,” said Kehler during GEOINT 2011 Symposium. The new PED authority—which Kehler said could but did not have to be located within STRATCOM—also needs to be combined with greater use of automation in managing intelligence information, he added. Kehler noted that the volume of data collected has grown by some 1500 percent in the past five years, while the nation’s PED capacity has increased by only 30 percent. “How we process, exploit and disseminate the massive amounts of data we generate and the resulting information is where the real challenge lies,” Kehler said. “We need to think hard about how we sort through the growing volume of raw data we collect to find the critical information—not just the information we seek, but the information that indicates an unanticipated event or strategic event that could take us by surprise. How do we turn collection into focused knowledge, and eventually into action?” The dilemma is especially pressing at a time when the nation is grappling with difficult fiscal issues, Kehler stressed. “Automated capabilities may be able to reduce the data to a manageable level for exploitation, but we need to remember that we will always require a human being to make sense of the data and convey its relevance,” he continued. “The gap between collection and PED capacity is a reflection of strength, not weakness. Instead of reducing collection, we need to grow our PED capacity. First, in the long term, we have to pursue innovative methods of automation that will generate unprecedented levels of effectiveness. In the short term, we should take steps to reduce the gap through globally integrated, locally focused integration, and by managing the PED the way we manage the collection platforms—in short, in a unified structure.” In order to achieve a unified structure, however, there needs to be a unified authority, he argued. “A key question is who would have the authority to quickly direct a shift in PED capacity in the interests of the nation? What command or agency exists to manage PED, the way we manage platforms? That unifying authority does not exist, but it should and must. We should be able to synchronise under such an authority, and do so in the interests of all.” “The PED needs a single focal point, which has the authority to allocate resources and drive the effort from a global perspective— not ignoring local needs, but massing all the capability to do what’s needed. Our PED synchronisation must include both service and agency assets. In addition, where such assets exist, they should include PED capabilities in other parts of government,” Kehler stated. Such a global PED synchronisation capability could be located in STRATCOM’s Joint Functional Component Command for ISR, he suggested, while acknowledging that there could be other solutions. Source:

http://geospatialworld.net

Future belongs to GEOINT: Defence Undersecretary

US: In a keynote address during GEOINT 2011, Michael Vickers, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, US, said, “GEOINT is a critical, critical strength.” At the same time, he acknowledged budget realities and the need to be smart in meeting them. Looking at the future, Vickers believed the country’s GEOINT capabilities are much more aligned with America’s strategic needs than they have been in the past. According to Vickers, GEOINT played a key role in the elimination or capture of senior and mid-level operatives in Al-Qaeda and those organisations that support or collaborate with it. This has been especially true this year, with a string of high-profile successes. The recent progress has been so good that Vickers issued a statement that the complete defeat of Al-Qaeda is now on the horizon. He added that full motion video has proven to be the basis for the counter-terrorism (CT) effort. “GEOINT has been absolutely essential to our CT success,” Vickers stressed. As for other strategic objectives, the capabilities offered by advanced sensors and other technologies have also helped counter the threat from improvised explosive devices. Vickers added that commanders in Iraq now have access to more surveillance and reconnaissance data than at any other time in the war. In Afghanistan, 3D mapping has been done for a good chunk of the country and wide area surveillance assets now generate 53 terabytes of data every day. Vickers state that GEOINT capabilities were used during Japanese earthquake. GEOINT technologies and techniques established the extent of the disaster and the shape of its aftermath. This allowed the governments of Japan, the US, and elsewhere to assess the situation, their response, and make needed adjustments. It also showed one of the strengths that the craft offers. “GEOINT frequently allows us to corroborate other sources,” Vickers opined. As for the future, it consists of what are somewhat contradictory constraints. One is the budget, which is going to be tighter going forward than it has been in the past. Counteracting that is the fact that intelligence and special forces are going to be increasingly important. Also there is a need to develop enhanced cyber domain capabilities, and the use of unmanned aerial platforms will continue to grow. All of these trends require today’s GEOINT capabilities and more, which means results will have to be achieved for fewer bucks. The solution is to rationalise the GEOINT assets that have been developed in 10 years of war and adapt them to a new world, Vickers said. Some of the lessons that have been learned, such as how to implement rapid acquisition, will be carried forward. Others still have to be mastered, such as how to implement the needed organisational changes. Source:

http://geospatialworld.net

NGA builds irreversible momentum: Long

San Antonio, US: “We have irreversible momentum in what we have started here. The demand for GEOINT is rising, and it will continue to rise. We are delivering and we are continuing to deliver,” Letitia A. Long, Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) told GEOINT 2011 Symposium attendees. Continuing her GEOINT 2010’s talk of putting GEOINT power into the hands of users, she offered a progress report on the past year and demonstrated some of the many apps the agency is working on. Long began by explaining the framework for how she measures progress by the agency, which takes into account content, the open IT environment, customer service and analytic depth. She also explained her three level model for the delivery of services, which includes self service, assisted service and full service. “Increasingly our users are GIS savvy. They want to be able to serve themselves for the things that make sense,” she said, adding that that approach frees up analysts to be “focused on the ‘so what’ and develop new analytic tools.” The bulk of Long’s remarks, however, were devoted to explaining and demonstrating some of the apps NGA is working on. In the area of humanitarian relief and disaster response, for example, she explained how a new app had already helped the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other first responders deal with the devastation caused by the recent Hurricane Irene. Traditionally, she said, the agency prints disaster atlases of maps and imagery for those travelling to the scene. NGA analysts can produce 200 pages of documents an hour, which then are printed, bound and shipped. A typical disaster may involve 200,000 pages of material. “Sometimes we can be the bottleneck,” she acknowledged. “So we started working on a suite of applications for FEMA as Hurricane Irene was bearing down on the East Coast. We thought, what better way to test our apps than to deploy with a bunch of mobile devices. So that’s what we did.” Instead of printing atlases, NGA used an app that enabled analysts to produce the equivalent of 6,000 pages an hour on a mobile device once the information was loaded in. “We came up with a simple application to allow entry of data from the field,” Long said. “You put in your location and time, and the key attributes you want to get back to headquarters. Now everyone has access to the information. You don’t have to go back to the command post to get the information in. It also shows up on the base map. As for providing support to military forces, Long described a flight she had taken on a military aircraft the day before from Washington, D.C., to San Antonio. She noted that NGA’s mission includes preparing pre-flight information materials for military aircraft. Currently, that involves printing vast quantities of materials—10 million books and charts in 2010, at a cost of USD 20 million a year. With an app, she said, “I think I have a better, cheaper and faster way of doing that. You can just pull up a chart and have it at your fingertips and have all the information in one place. It’s going to save us and the military services a lot of time and money.” Looking ahead, Long offered these thoughts: “In support to military planning and ops, I’d like to move from a data poor to a data rich environment. I’d like to be able to build and provide apps for our military forces for operations, with secure mobile devices, and experiment and use different types of information.” “For integrated GEOINT analysis, it really is the continuation of using all of our traditional and nontraditional sources so that we are creating new value, and focusing on the key intelligence questions,” she said. “We will also do all of this while we are focused on gaining efficiencies, and while we are embedded in our mission partners’ footprints, forward with our fighting forces. We will continue to partner with industry and academic partners, the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence and our international partners.” source:

http://geospatialworld.net

Astrium signs new Pleiades contract

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 13, 2011

The upcoming constellation is based on four satellites: Pleiades 1 and Pleaides 2, two very-high-resolution satellites delivering 50-cm ortho colour products as a standard, and SPOT 6 and 7, designed to extend SPOT 5's success to the 1.5-m product family.

Astrium Services and Chinese provider of satellite data and value-added services, Beijing Eastdawn Information Technology (Eastdawn), have signed a partnership agreement to give Eastdawn access to Pleiades solutions and technologies.

This three year contract (with the possibility to extend for an extra two years) will enable Eastdawn to distribute 50-cm resolution products from the Pleiades constellation, as well as innovative services.

These products will support near-real-time applications to five key accounts in China (Ministry of Land Resources; National Administration for Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation; China Geological Survey; Ministry of Agriculture; and Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development) on an exclusive basis.

This new partnership agreement demonstrates Eastdawn's commitment to Pleiades. The company, investing in reception infrastructure, will operate three receiving stations to meet the needs of clients over the vast Chinese territory.

"China has leveraged the benefits of very high resolution satellite data since the beginning of the century to conduct land resource surveys and urban planning. Eastdawn will build on this tradition and work closely with our domestic remote sensing community," declared Mr. Bing Sun, President and CEO of Eastdawn.

"Pleiades will be the right solution to meet the needs of our target market. We believe our partnering with Astrium Services will help provide the Chinese government and key businesses with quality geospatial information in a timely and convenient manner to address applications such as land resource surveys, mapping, geosciences, agricultural assessment and urban planning."

EDRS, the future data highway in space

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 13, 2011

EDRS operations will commence with the launch of the first EDRS mission at the end of 2014. The mission will be embarked on board a Eutelsat satellite: EUTELSAT 9B that will be manufactured by Astrium and located at 9E. Astrium will also contract OHB-System, Germany, to build a second EDRS satellite for launch in 2015.

Astrium, Europe's leading space company, will partner with the European Space Agency (ESA) to design, deliver and operate the European Data Relay System (EDRS).

The EDRS will be implemented through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between ESA and Astrium. Under the terms of the agreement the partners will jointly finance the EDRS. ESA contract with Astrium amounts to 275 million euros.

The EDRS's two telecommunication payloads in geostationary orbit will enable broadband, bi-directional data relay between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and an associated ground segment via either of the EDRS payloads.

The EDRS increases the time LEO spacecraft can be in communication with the ground and enables immediate broadband data transfer to the user. It also provides the capability to re-programme LEO Earth observation (EO) satellites in almost real-time.

This ensures the timely acquisition and delivery of imagery following natural disasters, and helps emergency services on the ground to accurately map the affected areas and effectively coordinate response efforts.

Currently, LEO satellites can only be reprogrammed and images can only be received when the satellites pass over a specific geographic location with a dedicated ground station.

The new space data highway will provide Europe with independent, on demand access to EO data from LEO satellites in real-time. It solves the growing problem of "data traffic jams in space" and enables an improved reactivity as well as a more intense and efficient use of EO satellites.