EDRS space network ready to go ahead

Paris (ESA) Nov 25, 2012

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The design of Europe's data relay satellite system - EDRS - has been completed and approved. This marks the moment when it moves ahead with a green light from its first customer, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative from the European Union (GMES).
EDRS will provide a telecommunications network that is fast, reliable and seamless, making real-time information from satellites available on demand. EDRS will be the first commercially operated data relay system to deliver services to the Earth observation community.
It is being built through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between ESA and Astrium Services, using payloads carried by two satellites in geostationary orbit, hovering 36 000 km above the Equator, where their speed matches Earth's rotation.
Data transmitted from satellites in lower orbits to either of these EDRS payloads can then be relayed to the ground.

TerraSAR-X image of the month - the Santorini volcano expands

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Nov 25, 2012

British researchers have used images acquired by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fόr Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) TerraSAR-X satellite to create a map showing changes in the Santorini archipelago. The cause of the deformation is the Santorini volcano located beneath the archipelago. In some places, the Kameni Islands inside the flooded caldera have risen by eight to 14 centimetres. The breadth of the caldera as a whole has increased by about 14 centimetres since early 2011. In the analysis of the radar data, the red and yellow shading shows the areas where the ground has risen the most. The main island of Thira is unaffected by the deformation, thus appearing blue. image credit DLR

Glasses are rattling on the shelves and the ground is rumbling - since January 2011 the earth under the Santorini volcano has been stirring.
Most of the time, it is barely noticeable, but every now and then the inhabitants notice small tremors jolting the volcanic archipelago. Nearly circular, and seemingly carved from stone, the submerged caldera is located in the Aegean Sea.
"It was clear to the local people that something was happening with the volcano - but it wasn't until we saw, among other things, the images from the TerraSAR-X radar satellite that we realised that molten rock was pooling beneath the volcano," says British scientist Juliet Biggs from the University of Bristol.
Images acquired by the German Aerospace Center's (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) satellite show the entire archipelago not just rising, but also expanding.
It has been 3600 years since a powerful explosion formed the large caldera. Since then, a new vent has been gradually forming in the middle of this basin, where today the Kameni islands protrude from the water. The volcano last erupted in 1950 and then fell dormant again, so the scientists from Oxford and Bristol were all the more surprised when the inhabitants started reporting tremors.
"Tour guides, who often visit the volcano with tourists on a daily basis, told me there was an increase in the quantity of strong smelling gas being released by the summit," explains PhD student Michelle Parks. "The colour of the sea had changed as well."
Expanding magma chamber Funded by the UK National Environment Research Council, radar specialist Juliet Biggs, Parks and volcanologist David Pyle began to study the Santorini volcano closely.
Using GPS receivers, they determined precise locations with millimetric accuracy on a daily basis. The TerraSAR-X radar satellite also observed the archipelago from orbit, at an altitude of 514 kilometres, recording its uplift and expansion from one orbit to the next. The results showed that the Kameni islands had risen eight to 14 centimetres in many places.

Instrument Delivered for NASA's Upcoming Mars Mission

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 18, 2012

A $670 million NASA mission to Mars led by the University of Colorado Boulder is on track for a November 2013 launch. Illustration courtesy NASA

A remote sensing instrument that will peer into the ultraviolet to offer clues to how Mars might have lost its atmosphere has arrived at Lockheed Martin for integration into NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft.
"The Remote Sensing package team built a system that meets all technical requirements and delivered it on schedule and on budget," said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"I look forward to the instrument's next level of integration onto the spacecraft and ultimately the science it will provide."
The Remote Sensing package consists of an Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) and its control electronics box, the Remote Sensing Data Processing Unit (RSDPU).
The Remote Sensing package was conceived, designed and built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) at Boulder, under contract to NASA Goddard.
The Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph collects the light and spreads it out into spectra and records the spectra using imaging detectors. IUVS is the eyes of the instrument.

Spacecraft Monitoring Martian Dust Storm

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 25, 2012

This nearly global mosaic of observations made by the Mars Color Imager on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 18, 2012, shows a dust storm in Mars' southern hemisphere. Small white arrows outline the area where dust from the storm is apparent in the atmosphere. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A Martian dust storm that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been tracking since last week has also produced atmospheric changes detectable by rovers on Mars.
Using the orbiter's Mars Color Imager, Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, began observing the storm on Nov. 10, and subsequently reported it to the team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.
The storm came no closer than about 837 miles (1,347 kilometers) from Opportunity, resulting in only a slight drop in atmospheric clarity over that rover, which does not have a weather station.
Halfway around the planet from Opportunity, the NASA Mars rover Curiosity's weather station has detected atmospheric changes related to the storm. Sensors on the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), which was provided for Curiosity by Spain, have measured decreased air pressure and a slight rise in overnight low temperature.
"This is now a regional dust storm. It has covered a fairly extensive region with its dust haze, and it is in a part of the planet where some regional storms in the past have grown into global dust hazes," said Rich Zurek, chief Mars scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"For the first time since the Viking missions of the 1970s, we are studying a regional dust storm both from orbit and with a weather station on the surface."

The Last Pictures

Since 1963, more than eight hundred spacecraft have been launched into geosynchronous orbit, forming a man-made ring of satellites around the Earth. These satellites are destined to become one of the longest-lasting artifacts of human civilization, quietly floating through space long after every trace of humanity has disappeared from the planet.

image credit: http://creativetime.org/projects/the-last-pictures/the-pictures/

Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures is a project that marks one of these spacecraft with a visual record of our contemporary historical moment. Paglen spent five years interviewing scientists, artists, anthropologists, and philosophers to consider what such a cultural mark should be. Working with materials scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Paglen developed an artifact designed to last billions of years—an ultra-archival disc, micro-etched with one hundred photographs and encased in a gold-plated shell. In Fall 2012, the communications satellite EchoStar XVI will launch into geostationary orbit with the disc mounted to its anti-earth deck. While the satellite’s broadcast images are as fleeting as the light-speed radio waves they travel on, The Last Pictures will remain in outer space slowly circling the Earth until the Earth itself is no more.

source:  http://creativetime.org/projects/the-last-pictures/

A Global System for Monitoring Ecosystem Service Change

credit: http://www.jstor.org

Earth’s life-support systems are in flux, yet no centralized system to monitor and report these changes exists. Recognizing this, 77 nations agreed to establish the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) integrates existing data streams into one platform in order to provide a more complete picture of Earth’s biological and social systems. We present a conceptual framework envisioned by the GEO BON Ecosystem Services Working Group, designed to integrate national statistics, numerical models, remote sensing, and in situ measurements to regularly track changes in ecosystem services across the globe. This information will serve diverse applications, including stimulating new research and providing the basis for assessments. Although many ecosystem services are not currently measured, others are ripe for reporting. We propose a framework that will continue to grow and inspire more complete observation and assessments of our planet’s life-support systems.

source and article full text: http://www.jstor.org/stable/full/10.1525/bio.2012.62.11.7

Satellite photo shows odd cloud phenomenon

Greenbelt, Md. (UPI) Nov 20, 2012

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

NASA says its Terra Earth observation satellite has captured a striking image of an atmospheric phenomenon knows as "cloud streets" over Canada's Hudson Bay.
Cloud streets are long parallel bands of cumulus clouds that form when cold air blows over warmer waters, while a warmer air layer -- or temperature inversion -- rests over the top of both, the space agency said.
As the comparatively warm water gives up heat and moisture to the cold air above, columns of heated air called thermals naturally rise through the atmosphere until they reach the inversion layer which acts as a lid.
The rising thermals hit this "lid," roll over and loop back on themselves to create "streets" of parallel cylinders of rolling air.
This creates flat-bottomed, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds that line up parallel to the prevailing wind, NASA said.
If the land or water surface underneath is uniform, as in Canada's huge Hudson Bay, cloud streets can stretch for hundreds of miles, the agency said.
The Terra satellite obtained the image on Nov. 13.

source: http://www.terradaily.com

New Radar Technologies for the Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems Mission

By Wanda Archy, posted on November 16th, 2012 in Atmospheric Chemistry, Earth Observation, Featured Article

NASA’s future Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) Mission will address fundamental science questions concerning the role of aerosols on cloud development and ecosystems. Recommended by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Earth Science Decadal Survey, ACE targets a broad class of hydrometeor types. The mission’s instruments will measure cloud droplets, ice crystals, rain and snow, which are subject to change in the presence of aerosols. These changes also impact the Earth’s ecosystems and the ocean’s storage of carbon dioxide. The ACE measurements aim to improve the understanding of aerosol, cloud and ecosystem interactions. Also, ACE measurements will have spin-off benefits, including aiding in air-quality forecasting.

Aerosol pollution in Northern India and Bangladesh. Source: Wiki Commons.

ACE seeks to study cloud and aerosol height, organic material in surface ocean layers, and aerosol and cloud type properties. Overall, the mission will provide improved climate modeling and better predictability of climate change variability, measure ocean productivity and health, and create air-quality models and forecasts. Results of the mission will help decrease uncertainty in climate predictions. ACE will focus primarily on two phenomena: aerosol-cloud interactions and carbon uptake in oceans.
The ACE mission calls for the use of two radars, ACERad, which represent a significant advancement compared to earlier atmospheric radar technologies. The radars will operate at 94 gigahertz in W-band and 35 gigahertz in Ka-band, and unlike previous missions, have Doppler and polarimetric capabilities. The dual-frequency Doppler measurements will provide valuable information about how particle sizes change with height. Dual-polarization will provide information about the water particle state and shape.
The Ka-band radar will scan to provide images for a more comprehensive picture of precipitating systems. The use of these two radars will create stronger vertical profiles for measurement of cloud droplet size, glacier height, and cloud height.

China launches third environment monitoring satellite

Taiyuan, China (XNA) Nov 20, 2012

Long March-2C carrier rocket carrying an environment-monitoring satellite Huanjing-1C blasts off from the launch pad at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, Nov. 19, 2012. The Huanjing-1C satellite and the other two satellites Huanjing-1A and Huanjing-1B, which were sent to the outer space in 2008, will be used to monitor the environment and help reduce natural disasters. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

China on Monday sent the third satellite in its "Environment I" family into the sky, sharpening its abilities in environmental monitoring and disaster forecasting.
The launch marks the completion of a plan initiated by China in 2003 to create a small environmental monitoring satellite constellation, according to north China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
The radar satellite will join the other two operating optical satellites "Environment I" satellites, which were launched in Sept. 2008, to form a network covering most of China's territory.
This "2+1" formula will help provide scientific evidence for assessing natural disaster situations, emergency aid and reconstruction as well as enable China to monitor and forecast ecological changes, pollution and natural disasters around the clock, the center said.
The satellite was carried by a Long March 2C rocket.
The rocket also carried two additional satellites designed to run tests and carry out in-orbit experiments for new-type aerospace equipment, materials, methods and miniature satellite platforms.
 
Source: www.spacedaily.com -  Xinhua News Agency

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Related Links China National Space Administration

How many Russian Earth observation satellites will be in orbit by 2015?

by Olga Zakutnyaya Moscow (Voice of Russia) Nov 20, 2012

The Resurs-P is meant to replace the Resurs-DK, a previous generation spacecraft, which was launched into space in 2006. Image courtesy "The Voice of Russia"

The launch of the Resurs-P spacecraft was postponed till the first quarter of 2013. This remote sensing satellite was to replace the Resurs-DK Number 1 spacecraft launched in 2006, which has already gone beyond its warranty period. Roskosmos plans to restore the group of remote sensing satellites by 2015-17, but apparently new spacecraft launch dates continue to be postponed.
The press-service of the Federal Space Agency informs that the launch of the Resurs-P remote sensing satellite will be postponed from the end of this year to the first quarter of 2013. According to the report, this decision is the result of additional tests of high-precision star sensors' photodetectors based on new technology. It was thus decided to improve the devices.
The Resurs-P spacecraft ("P" is an abbreviation of "prospective") is created at the Progress State Research and Production Space Centre (TsSKB-Progress) in Samara. It is designed for observing the Earth in the visible range of the spectrum. It is planned to place the spacecraft on a near-circular sun-synchronous orbit at an average altitude of about 475 km.
In panchromatic range (that is, when observed in all the range of the visible spectrum at once) its resolution will be approximately 1 m; in hyper-spectral mode (when a lot of images are formed in fairly narrow spectral ranges, for the Resource-P it is no less than 96 images) it will be about 3 m. The term of the spacecraft's service in orbit is 5 years.

Spatial Energy Becomes First Astrium Services OilGas Global Reseller

Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 20, 2012

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Spatial Energy has signed a strategic reseller agreement with Astrium Services in Chantilly, Va. This agreement establishes Spatial Energy as the first global reseller of Astrium products and services to the worldwide oil and gas industry.
"Astrium Services is the only geo-information data provider today with a full spectrum of satellites acquiring multi-resolution optical and radar imagery from which a variety of products and services are derived, including elevation data, global oil seeps, and geologic studies," said Bud Pope, Spatial Energy President.
"A key advantage of Astrium Services is the large capacity of high resolution imaging open to the commercial market, resulting in faster acquisitions and deliveries."
With the full range of Astrium Services' products and services catalog added to the Spatial Energy content offerings and available through its Spatial on Demand cloud-based service, the Colorado firm is better positioned to provide oil and gas customers with detailed geospatial information throughout their entire exploration and production workflows, while benefiting from favored pricing and global oil/gas licensing.

Astrium's GRAIN service shows US corn yields are lower than expected

Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 15, 2012

File image.

Astrium estimates 2012 U.S. corn yield at 116.0 bushels per acre which is at the lower end of current industry expectations. This forecast announced during Global Grain Geneva 2012, the world's premier agricultural industry congress, is based on Astrium Services' GRAIN (Global Risk Agricultural Intelligence), a unique technology combining satellite imagery processing, agronomic and meteorological models developed over several years.
The GRAIN service predicted this very low trend since June 2012, while early signs of US drought were only just emerging. Astrium Services is developing the next generation tools for decision making in the agricultural industry to provide accurate and reliable crop analysis capabilities consistent worldwide at both local and regional levels.
The robustness of the parameters is principally due to its unique deterministic plant modeling approach supported by the strength and reliability of the Astrium Services' satellite constellation. GRAIN provides homogeneous, stable and consistent crop supply information compared to current statistical methods and field surveys.

Satrec Initiative Announces Agreement with Korea Aerospace Research Institute

Seoul, Korea (SPX) Nov 18, 2012

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Satrec Initiative, a leading solution provider for Earth observation missions, announced an agreement with Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) for "Worldwide Marketing and Sales Representative of KOMPSAT-2, 3 and 5 Image data". KARI assigned Satrec Initiative as the 'worldwide exclusive representative' for KOMPSAT imagery sales.
"Satrec Initiative is pleased that KARI has selected us as the representative for KOMPSAT imagery sales. The KOMPSAT imagery will serve worldwide customers as an alternate source of earth observation data," said Sungdong Park, President and CEO of Satrec Initiative. "Also, we expect the growth of Korean remote sensing industry through commercialization of KOMPSAT imagery by domestic company."
KARI is the Korean institute dedicated to aerospace research, and is in charge of Korean Space Program. KARI has developed, and operated its optical remote sensing satellites such as KOMPSAT- 1, KOMPSAT-2 and KOMPSAT-3, and will launch the first Korean SAR satellite, KOMPSAT-5, shortly.

GOCE's second mission improving gravity map

Paris (ESA) Nov 18, 2012

The first 'geoid' based on GOCE's gravity measurements was unveiled in June 2010. It is the surface of an ideal global ocean in the absence of tides and currents, shaped only by gravity.

ESA's GOCE gravity satellite has already delivered the most accurate gravity map of Earth, but its orbit is now being lowered in order to obtain even better results.
The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) has been orbiting Earth since March 2009, reaching its ambitious objective to map our planet's gravity with unrivalled precision.
Although the planned mission has been completed, the fuel consumption was much lower than anticipated because of the low solar activity over the last two years. This has enabled ESA to extend GOCE's life, improving the quality of the gravity model.
To be able to measure the strength of Earth's gravity, the satellite was flying in an extraordinarily low orbit about 255 km high - about 500 km lower than most Earth observation satellites.
Based on a clear preference from the GOCE user community, ESA's Earth Scientific Advisory Committee recommended lowering the orbit to 235 km starting in August.
Lowering the orbit increases the accuracy and resolution of GOCE's measurements, improving our view of smaller ocean dynamics such as eddy currents.
The control team began the manoeuvres in August, lowering GOCE by about 300 m per day.
After coming down by 8.6 km, the satellite's performance and new environment were assessed. Now, GOCE is again being lowered while continuing its gravity mapping. Finally, it is expected to reach 235 km in February.

What lies beneath? New survey technique offers detailed picture of our changing landscape

Nottingham UK (SPX) Nov 18, 2012

File image.

A new surveying technique developed at The University of Nottingham is giving geologists their first detailed picture of how ground movement associated with historical mining is changing the face of our landscape.
The new development by engineers at the University has revealed a more complete map of subsidence and uplift caused by the settlement of old mines in the East Midlands and other areas of the country and has shown that small movements in the landscape are bound by natural fault lines and mining blocks.
It appears to support concerns that movement associated with historical mining is continuing far longer than previously anticipated.
The research has been led by Dr Andrew Sowter in the University's Department of Civil Engineering. He said: "This method allows us to measure patterns of slow millimetre-scale movement across large regions of the landscape and, in the UK, almost everywhere we look is dominated by our industrial past. Large tracts of our land, including parts of our cities, towns and infrastructure as well as agricultural and woodland areas, are steadily creeping upwards over mines that were closed decades ago."
The new development builds on existing technology that allows engineers to use satellite radar technology to measure points on the landscape over a length of time to assess whether they are moving up (uplifting) or sinking down (subsiding).
A complete picture Previously, this has relied on using fixed, unchanging objects like buildings that can be accurately re-measured and compared against previous measurements time after time. However, the technique has not been practical for use in the rural landscape meaning that geologists could only get half the picture.
Now, Dr Sowter has developed a technique called the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) method which adapts the same technology and extends it to rural areas by taking stacks of these radar images and identifying those more transient points in the rural landscape against which changes over time are able to be measured.

1,000+ Satellites to be Launched in the Decade Ahead; Over One-Third Commercial

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 09, 2012

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Euroconsult's newly released research report, Satellites to be Built and Launched by 2021: World Market Survey, anticipates that 1,075 satellites will be built for launch worldwide over the next 10 years (2012-2021). Revenues from the manufacture and launch of these 1,000+ satellites will be worth $198 billion, up 36% from that generated by the 800 satellites launched in the past ten years.
In 2011, the industry entered a growth phase with 100 satellites launched that year, an activity unknown since the late 1990s when the first generation of the two commercial constellations for global mobile personal communications were deployed into low Earth (LEO) orbit.
In the next six years, an average of 120 satellites should be orbited each year, then the launch tempo will decelerate at the end of the period as government and commercial satellite constellations complete their deployment.
Governments continue to dominate the space industry Governments worldwide are responsible for almost two-thirds of the 1,000+ satellites to be launched and for the same proportion of the $198 billion expected in revenues.
With 260 satellites to be launched in the decade ahead, Earth observation is the largest satellite application for governments that operate electro-optical and radar satellite systems through national agencies, multilateral cooperation and public/private partnerships.
Satellite demand of civilian government agencies will be much stronger than that of military agencies since military space remains concentrated in a limited number of countries for dedicated applications such as imagery intelligence.
Despite the continuous emergence of new space countries globally, the six established space powers continue to dominate 85% of future government satellite demand.
According to Rachel Villain, Director for Space at Euroconsult and Editor of the research report, "Governments in established space countries continue to drive innovation for satellite systems with benefice for their local industries even if systems' replacements are more carefully assessed in the countries where cost limits become stricter."
Emerging space countries should represent a market of 110 satellites of different size and capabilities to be developed by local suppliers with the support of foreign companies.

Taking the 'pulse' of volcanoes using satellite images

Miami FL (SPX) Nov 08, 2012

This image shows averaged 2006-2009 ground velocity map of the west Sunda volcanic region from the Japanese Space Agency's ALOS satellite. Positive velocity (red colors) represents movement towards the satellite (e.g. uplift) and negative velocity (blue colors) movement away from the satellite (e.g. subsidence). Locations of volcanoes are marked by black triangles, historically active volcanoes by red triangles. Insets show six inflating volcanoes. Credit: Estelle Chaussard, University of Miami.

A new study by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science uses Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data to investigate deformation prior to the eruption of active volcanoes in Indonesia's west Sunda arc. Led by geophysicist Estelle Chaussard and UM Professor Falk Amelung, the study uncovered evidence that several volcanoes did in fact 'inflate' prior to eruptions due to the rise of magma.
The fact that such deformation could be detected by satellite is a major step forward in volcanology; it is the first unambiguous evidence that remotely detected ground deformation could help to forecast eruptions at volcanoes.
"Surveying entire volcanic regions using satellite data is of primary importance to the detection of ground deformation prior to the onset of eruptions. If volcanic inflation is observed, it can help us to predict where the next eruption may occur.
Moreover, in regions like Indonesia, where volcanoes are prevalent and pose a threat to millions of people, and where ground-based monitoring is sparse, remote sensing via satellite could become a major forecasting tool," said Chaussard.
Analyzing more than 800 InSAR images from the Japanese Space Exploration Agency's ALOS satellite, the team surveyed 79 volcanoes in Indonesia between 2006 and 2009.
They detected deformation at six volcanic centers, three of which erupted after the observation period, confirming that inflation is a common precursor of volcanic eruptions at west Sunda volcanoes.

Storms, Ozone, Vegetation and More: NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP Satellite Returns First Year of Data

by Laura Betz for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 08, 2012

These two images are season-long composites of ocean chlorophyll concentrations derived from visible radiometric measurements made by the VIIRS instrument on Suomi NPP. The date ranges of the two composites are included in the individual images. These false-colored images make the data stand out. The purple and blue colors represent lower chlorophyll concentrations. The oranges and reds represent higher chlorophyll concentrations. These differences in color indicate areas with lesser or greater phytoplankton biomass. Credit: NASA/Suomi NPP/Norman Kuring. View northern hemisphere larger here. View southern hemisphere larger here.

On Oct. 28, 2011, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite successfully blasted into orbit in a spectacular night launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Now, Suomi NPP has orbited the Earth more than 5,000 times and begun returning images and data that provide critical weather and climate measurements of the complex Earth system.
"The Suomi NPP flight and ground teams have spent the first year making sure the spacecraft, instruments and data products are working well. As the instruments and data products have successfully checked out, the data go out to users," says James Gleason, Suomi NPP project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"These data help us improve our computer models that predict future environmental conditions," Gleason adds. "Better predictions let us make better decisions, whether it is as simple as taking an umbrella to work today or as complex as responding to a changing climate."
Suomi NPP observes Earth's surface twice every day, once in daylight and once at night. The spacecraft flies 512 miles (824 kilometers) above the surface in a polar orbit, circling the planet about 14 times a day. Suomi NPP sends its data once an orbit to the ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and continuously to local direct broadcast users.
Named for satellite meteorology pioneer Verner Suomi, the Suomi NPP mission is managed by NASA with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) providing operational support and NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) managing the satellite's ground system.
"Suomi NPP provides NOAA with the highest quality satellite data for critical operational products and services, such as weather forecasts, climate and ecosystem assessments," says Mitch Goldberg, NOAA's JPSS program scientist. NPP is the precursor satellite for the upcoming series of JPSS Earth-observing satellites.
What makes Suomi NPP such a powerful tool is the wide range of important observations it makes with its five instruments. These instruments send back data that allow scientists to see the entire globe from space and further understand oceans, clouds, ozone, snow, ice, vegetation and atmosphere.

NASA's SPoRT Team Tracks Hurricane Sandy

Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 06, 2012

The SPoRT team provided images to the National Weather Service to help forecast Hurricane Sandy. (NASA)

As Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the east coast, weather experts at the Short-term Prediction Research and Transition, or SPoRT Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville were busy developing information to help forecasters better predict the massive storm.
The SPoRT Center uses Earth Observing System measurements and other satellite data to generate products useful in the analysis of weather events. SPoRT provides these products and data sets to partners within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA's National Weather Service, and private sector organizations like The Weather Channel.
In 2002, NASA established SPoRT, at the Marshall Space Flight Center to facilitate the use of real-time Earth Observing System measurements for short-term weather forecasting. Near real-time satellite imagery is useful for monitoring current conditions and events likely to occur in the next few hours.
SPoRT provides a variety of satellite imagery and unique products from NASA and NOAA satellites such as Terra, Aqua, and the recently launched Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP).
These products can be useful for identifying hazards such as severe thunderstorms and tropical cyclones, fog, and snow cover, or help to monitor disasters such as floods and wildfires.
SPoRT researchers also incorporate satellite observations of the land surface and profiles of atmospheric temperature and moisture within high resolution weather forecasting models with a goal of improving short-term weather predictions over the next few days.

Ball Aerospace/B612 Foundation Sign Contract for Sentinel Mission

Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 06, 2012

Sentinel will launch into a Venus-like orbit around the sun, which significantly improves the efficiency of asteroid discovery during its 6.5-year mission. (PRNewsFoto/Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. and the non-profit B612 Foundation have signed a contract for Ball to create prototype infrared imaging sensors for the Sentinel Mission, a deep space mission to protect Earth by providing early warning of threatening asteroids. Ball's detector design characterization initiates the first phase of developing Sentinel's 20-inch diameter, space-based infrared telescope.
Sentinel is led by B612, a group of highly regarded scientists and explorers whose goal is to build, launch, and operate the first privately funded deep space mission. The mission will create a comprehensive and dynamic map of the inner solar system to catalog 90 percent of the asteroids larger than 140 meters in Earth's region of the solar system.
The map will detail the paths of asteroids during the next 100 years to provide decades of notice of threatening asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
Ball's advanced detector technology is responsible for many of the most spectacular space images ever taken, including those returned by the Kepler mission, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, the Deep Impact mission and the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
These missions developed flight proven deep space systems that will be used to minimize the technical and programmatic risks on the Sentinel mission. Ball's state-of-the-art Detector Technology Center which opened in 2006 will play a critical role in producing the Sentinel camera.
"Sentinel is unique because it relies on proven systems that will now be leveraged for a privately-funded mission," said Cary Ludtke, vice president and general manager of Ball's Civil and Operational Space strategic business unit.
"Ball was our first and only choice as the major contractor for Sentinel," said Ed Lu, Chairman, B612 Foundation. "The company is a pioneer in space observatories with a track record of excellence spanning more than 55 years. We are thrilled to have them as our partner."

USGS and Google Partner on Emergency Alerts

Released: 11/2/2012 11:00:00 AM

Emergency notifications for earthquakes, severe weather and other public safety matters are now available through Google Public Alerts. The system provides access to information during crises through the online tools you use every day. The Google Crisis Response team wants to make it easy for people to find critical information during emergencies and is doing so by partnering with authoritative sources to include public alert data into Google products. Earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been incorporated into the system, as well as weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service. "From having been on the front line of several crises, I know personally that the internet can get populated with misinformation that confuses the public and can interfere with response efforts," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “I am very grateful for this partnership with Google to point people to authoritative sources of critical information when they need it most.” Users can go to the Google Public Alerts website and search for key terms to find relevant information: What's happening? Where and when will an event strike? How severe will it be?

NigeriaSat-1 reaches end of long life

29 October 2012
Nigeria’s first satellite, NigeriaSat-1, has reached end of life after an impressive nine years in orbit, outliving its design life by four years. The satellite was retired from service after its replacement, NigeriaSat-2, was launched last year. Although it was still fully functional NigeriaSat-1 was prepared for end of life by using up its propellant and lowering the satellite orbit to reduce its remaining time in space, preventing it adding to the issue of long term space debris.
The last telemetry received from the satellite was on 27th September, and on the 4th October the power system was finally exhausted. As its successors take over, we look back at the career of a satellite that started Nigeria’s space programme….

NigeriaSat-1, BILSAT-1 and UK-DMC on the launch adapter

NigeriaSat-1 was Nigeria’s first satellite, marking the beginning of its space programme. SSTL built NigeriaSat-1 for the Nigerian Space Agency (NASRDA) to provide large coverage medium resolution (32m) imagery in 3 bands (green, red and near infrared). This multispectral imagery was ideal for environmental monitoring such as examining vegetation growth and the damage caused by fires and floods. Its huge 600 km swath width allowed NigeriaSat-1 to image large areas, returning to image a given spot on Earth with a revisit of 2-5 days.

DigitalGlobe Expects GeoEye Merger To Add $400M in Sales

PARIS — by Peter de Selding
Earth observation imagery and services provider DigitalGlobe on Oct. 31 said the planned merger with rival GeoEye would create a company generating $1.2 billion in annual revenue and $389 million in operating income by 2016.
Without the merger, DigitalGlobe said its revenue in 2016 would be $814 million, with an operating income of $324 million.
In a prospectus sent to the two companies’ investors, DigitalGlobe says the scenario assumes that the GeoEye-2 satellite, now nearing completion, is stored on the ground until 2017, when it would be launched to replace DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 satellite now in orbit.
As part of their due-diligence procedures preceding the merger agreement, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye plotted separate post-merger revenue scenarios that are included in the prospectus. The companies arrived at broadly similar revenue and profitability conclusions.
Shareholders of Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe and Herndon, Va.-based GeoEye will be asked to approve the merger — which is more a DigitalGlobe purchase of its rival — on Dec. 3. The companies’ boards of directors and several large shareholders have approved the deal, and license-transfer formalities are under way with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anti-trust review by the U.S. Department of Justice is taking a bit longer, and costing the companies slightly more, than they had planned. A second series of Justice Department questions has been received and will be answered in November, starting another 30-day review.
In an Oct. 31 conference call with investors, DigitalGlobe Chief Executive Jeffrey R. Tarr said the companies are still forecasting that the merger will clear all U.S. regulatory hurdles by late this year or early in the first quarter of 2013.
The cash and stock transaction will result in a company 64 percent owned by current DigitalGlobe shareholders, and 36 percent by GeoEye shareholders.

Optical Telescopes Benefit From Precision Hyperboloids

Surrey UK (SPX) Nov 05, 2012

Optical Surfaces Ltd has been producing optical components and systems for more than 50 years and is now accepted as one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-precision optics and optical systems.

Optical Surfaces Ltd. has established a worldwide reputation of being able to deal with the extremely tight tolerances and accuracy that hyperbolic optics demand.
Hyperboloids are generally used in optical telescope systems where good off-axis performance is an important requirement. Optical Surfaces supplied hyperboloids have been at the heart of many deep space and earth observation satellites including BNSC's Top Sat, the NASA swift explorer as well as ESA's XMM and NigeriaSAT-2.
Benefiting from a uniquely stable manufacturing environment and proprietary production techniques - Optical Surfaces Ltd.'s skilled craftsmen are able to economically produce hyperbolic optics up to 500mm diameter with typical wavefront error of lambda/20 P-V, surface finish of 10/5 and microroughness less than 1.2nm RMS.
Hyperbolic optics can be supplied mounted or mounted and with a coating exactly optimised for your application. Where weight is an issue - Optical Surfaces also has experience in producing hyperboloids with light-weighting options.
Optical Surfaces Ltd has been producing optical components and systems for more than 50 years and is now accepted as one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-precision optics and optical systems.
The company's ISO 9001-2008 approved manufacturing workshops and test facilities are deep underground in a series of tunnels excavated in solid chalk where temperature remains constant and vibration is practically non-existent.
With such stable conditions testing, particularly with long path lengths, becomes quantifiable and reliable.
Working with these natural advantages is a highly skilled team of craftsmen with a commitment to excellence in both product quality and customer service.

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source: http://www.spacedaily.com
Related Links Hyperboloids at Optical Surfaces

Sizing up biomass from space

London, UK (SPX) Oct 31, 2012

The GLAS estimate of biomass for California was 211 Mg/ha - equivalent to the FIA estimate (based on 10 years worth of recordings). Global application of this method on the GLAS data, or on data provided by ICESat2, would provide a standardized, timed, snapshot of biomass.

The biomass stored in forests is thought to play a critical role in mitigating the catastrophic effects of global climate change. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Carbon Balance and Management has used Lidar data collected by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) aboard the Ice Cloud and Elevation Satellite (ICESat) to accurately measure the biomass of California. When the ICESat2 is launched in 2016 this method will be able to monitor biomass and other global data changes.
As part of the global carbon cycle it is thought that global biomass acts as a carbon reservoir and consequently that deforestation and changes of land use contribute to global warming by liberating carbon from this reservoir.
Initiatives such as United Nations Collaborative Programmed on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) are attempting to measure changes in forest carbon storage. But many countries do not have national forest inventories, and for those that do, methods and definitions used to monitor vegetation differ.
Presenting a new method of interpreting GLAS data, researchers from the US Forest Service, NASA and Colorado State University, have been able to develop a randomisation protocol which allows accurate estimates of total biomass.

SSBV Aerospace and Technology Group and SpaceMetric announce signing of MOU

Portsmouth UK (SPX) Oct 31, 2012

Spacemetric's Keystone Image Management System offers solutions that archive, catalogue, process and deliver digital images from a large number of satellite and airborne digital sensors. Very rapid access to data can be provided thanks to sophisticated treatment of metadata and highly parallel on-the-fly methods.

SSBV Aerospace and Technology Group (SSBV) and Spacemetric has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and demonstrate a multi-purpose and real-time Ground Receiving and Processing Station.
The increasing demand for regional and direct-downlink Ground Receiving and Processing Stations (GRPS) and the importance of quick access to data, as well as the ability to support different satellites and sensors, fuelled the initiative for a full end-to-end solution based on the integration of products and systems from SSBV and Spacemetric.
Under the MOU, the integration of Spacemetric's Keystone Image Management System with the SSBV's Ground Station solution is foreseen. Thanks to this, the complete processing chain between RF data reception and the delivery of the satellite image can be optimised, providing near-real-time access to satellite imagery.
SSBV's Ground Station solutions are based on providing cost-efficient ways of data processing from RF/Antenna to Level-0 data, using innovative technology to achieve a highly integrated end product.

NASA adds up Hurricane Sandy's rainfall from space

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 02, 2012

This TRMM rainfall analysis indicates that the heaviest rainfall totals of greater than 260mm (10.2 inches) were over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Rainfall totals of over 180mm. Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, satellite acts as a rain gauge in space as it orbits the Earth's tropics. As TRMM flew over Hurricane Sandy since its birth on Oct. 21 it was gathering data that has now been mapped to show how much rain the storm dropped along the U.S. eastern seaboard.
Much of the recent deadly flooding along the northeastern United States coastlines was caused by super storm Sandy's storm swell. Strong winds from Sandy persistently pushed Atlantic Ocean waters toward the coast. High tides that occurred at the same time also magnified the effects of the storm swell. Some flooding was also caused by long periods of heavy rainfall that made rivers and streams overflow their banks.
The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) is done at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The MPA monitors rainfall over a large area of the globe (from 60 degrees North latitude to 60 degrees South latitude). MPA rainfall totals over the eastern United States were calculated for the period from October 24-31, 2012 when super storm Sandy was making it's catastrophic transit through the area.
The rainfall analysis indicated that the heaviest rainfall totals of greater than 260mm (10.2 inches) were over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Rainfall totals of over 180mm (~ 7 inches) occurred over land in many areas near the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to South Carolina.

Suomi NPP Satellite Captures Hurricane Sandy's Mid-Atlantic Blackout

by Laura Betz for Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (SPX) Nov 02, 2012

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellitecaptured a night-time view of New York City, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania that revealed the extent of the power outages caused from Hurricane Sandy's landfall on October 29. Suomi NPP is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP captured a night-time view of the Mid-Atlantic on the morning of Nov. 1, 2012,revealing areas where power has not been currently restored.
Suomi NPP captured a night-time view of New York City, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania that revealed the extent of the power outages

To fully understand the extent of how large an area was affected by the power outage, a comparison image taken on October 21, 2012, shows a much brighter New York City and eastern New Jersey.Power outages in the Philadelphia area can also be seen by comparing the two images.
The images were provided by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Nov. 1, 2012, data was acquired at the University of Wisconsin and processed using the University of Wisconsin's Community Satellite Processing Package.
Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the New Jersey coast during the night of Oct. 29 and left more than eight million people without electricity from Maine to SouthCarolina, and as far west as Ohio. Hardest hit were New York City and northeastern New Jersey as is evident in a comparison of Suomi NPP images before and after the storm.

NASA Radar Penetrates Thick, Thin of Gulf Oil Spill

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 31, 2012

NASA UAVSAR image of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, collected June 23, 2010. The oil appears much darker than the surrounding seawater in the greyscale image. This is because the oil smoothes the sea surface and reduces its electrical conductivity, causing less radar energy to bounce back to the UAVSAR antenna. Additional processing of the data by the UAVSAR team produced the two inset color images, which reveal the variability of the oil spill's characteristics, from thicker, concentrated emulsions (shown in reds and yellows) to minimal oil contamination (shown in greens and blues). Dark blues correspond to areas of clear seawater bordering the oil slick. Images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a method to use a specialized NASA 3-D imaging radar to characterize the oil in oil spills, such as the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The research can be used to improve response operations during future marine oil spills.
Caltech graduate student Brent Minchew and JPL researchers Cathleen Jones and Ben Holt analyzed NASA radar imagery collected over the main slick of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on June 22 and June 23, 2010. The data were acquired by the JPL-developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) during the first of its three deployments over the spill area between June 2010 and July 2012.
The UAVSAR was carried in a pod mounted beneath a NASA C-20A piloted aircraft, a version of the Gulfstream III business jet, based at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. The researchers demonstrated, for the first time, that a radar system like UAVSAR can be used to characterize the oil within a slick, distinguishing very thin films like oil sheen from more damaging thick oil emulsions.
"Our research demonstrates the tremendous potential of UAVSAR to automate the classification of oil in a slick and mitigate the effects of future oil spill tragedies," said Jones. "Such information can help spill incidence response commanders direct cleanup operations, such as the mechanical recovery of oil, to the areas of thick oil that would have the most damaging environmental impacts."
Current visual oil classification techniques are qualitative, and depend upon the skill of the people doing the assessment and the availability of skilled observers during an emergency. Remote sensing allows larger areas to be covered in a consistent manner in a shorter amount of time. Radar can be used at night or in other low-light or poor weather conditions when visual surveys can't be conducted.
Radar had previously been used to detect the extent of oil slicks, but not to characterize the oil within them. It had generally been assumed that radar had little to no use for this purpose. The team demonstrated that UAVSAR could be used to identify areas where thick oil had mixed with the surface seawater to form emulsions, which are mixtures of oil and seawater.
Identifying the type of oil in a spill is vital for assessing its potential harm and targeting response efforts.

Photograph of Spy Satellite IGS-1B Captured in Its Final Orbits

by Ralf Vandebergh for Space Safety Magazine Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 29, 2012

IGS-1A and 1B satellites.

IGS-1B is a Japanese Information Gathering Satellite that was launched on March 28, 2003 together with its companion IGS-1A on board a H2A rocket. Both satellites were delivered into a 486 x 491 km orbit with an inclination of 97 degrees. The satellites orbited within 37 minutes of each other.
In 2007 it was announced by officials that IGS-1B was malfunctioning due to a loss of power. Since that time the satellite's orbit was observed to degrade.
The expected announcement of its upcoming uncontrolled atmospheric reentry finally happened on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 9:52 GMT. Reentry was located over the Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 kilometers north-east of New Zealand. It is plausible that a considerable amount of fuel was still onboard during reentry of IGS-1B.
It's companion IGS-1A is still in orbit. In the last years, I regularly pointed my camera to IGS-1A and IGS-1B without any spectacular results; the images revealed not much detail. These satellites appeared to be reasonably difficult objects to capture in their original orbits.