N. Korea satellite appears dead: scientist

Washington (AFP) Dec 17, 2012
A satellite launched with fanfare last week by a defiant North Korea appears to be dead as no signal can be detected, a US-based astrophysicist who monitors spaceflights said Monday.
The United States and its Asian allies have acknowledged that North Korea succeeded Wednesday in putting an object into orbit that the communist state said was observing the Earth and airing patriotic songs.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said that the satellite was clearly in orbit but that no songs could be heard.
"To the best of our knowledge, the satellite isn't operating," he said.
"It's definitely up there and it's whizzing around, but it's just not feeling very well."
McDowell said it was unclear whether the satellite -- called the Kwangmyongsong-3 -- worked initially and that it remained possible that it was transmitting at a level too faint for detection.
But in another sign of trouble, McDowell said that the satellite was fluctuating in brightness. That means that the sun is shining at different angles and the satellite is not pointing down at the Earth as it should.

China launches Turkish EO satellite

Beijing (AFP) Dec 18, 2012
China early Wednesday "successfully" launched a Turkish earth observation satellite into orbit aboard a Chinese rocket, according to state media, hailed in Turkey as a "historic moment".
A statement from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert said the satellite was launched at 12:13 am (1613 GMT Tuesday) and was delivered into its predetermined orbit by a Long March 2D rocket, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The satellite, jointly developed by Turkey's Space Technologies Research Institute and Turkish Aerospace Industries, will mainly be used for environmental protection, mineral resource exploration, urban planning and disaster monitoring and management, the statement said.
In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan watched the launch live from giant screens along with hundreds of Turks. "It is a historic moment for our nation," he said following the launch.
"In the past we did send satellites to space but Gokturk-2 has proven that we are now a country with a claim in this field. We are rising to position ourselves as one of the 25 countries which are capable of producing their own satellites."
He said Turkey, as the next step, would aim to become one of the few countries with its own launch pad.
China views satellite launches as part of its ambitious space programme. The country sent its first female astronaut, Liu Yang, into space earlier this year on the Shenzhou-9 in China's first manual space docking mission.
Last month China launched a European-made telecommunications satellite into orbit, according to Xinhua. In September a Chinese rocket launched a Venezuelan earth-observation satellite.
source: http://www.spacedaily.com

Raytheon wins DARPA contract to design new military imaging satellites

Tucson, AZ (SPX) Dec 14, 2012

For this contract, Raytheon has teamed with Sierra Nevada Corporation, University of Arizona and SRI International to assist with design work and eventually production. Next year, in phase two of the SeeMe program, the Raytheon team would build six satellites for ground testing.

Raytheon was awarded a $1.5 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for phase one of the agency's Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) program.
During the next nine months, the company will complete the design for small satellites to enhance warfighter situational awareness in the battlespace.
The SeeMe program will provide useful on-demand imagery information directly to the warfighter in the field from a low-cost satellite constellation launched on a schedule that conforms to Department of Defense operational tempos.
"Leveraging our state-of-the-art missile assembly lines, we can mass produce these small, lightweight satellites quickly and affordably," said Tom Bussing, Raytheon Missile Systems' vice president of Advanced Missile Systems.
"As the world's only producer of exoatmospheric kill vehicles, we are already developing and building hardware to space standards."
For this contract, Raytheon has teamed with Sierra Nevada Corporation, University of Arizona and SRI International to assist with design work and eventually production. Next year, in phase two of the SeeMe program, the Raytheon team would build six satellites for ground testing.
"We are pleased to be working with DARPA to solve the challenge of providing warfighters with a tactical space sensor capability at a production rate price," said Bussing.
source:  http://www.spacewar.com

Shadows on ice: Proba-1 images Concordia south polar base

Paris (ESA) Dec 13, 2012

The base's distinctive double-cylinder habitats, home to skeleton crews during winter, are picked out by the area of greatest shadow. For a larger version of this image please go here.

ESA's Earth-observing microsatellite Proba-1 has glimpsed one of the loneliest places on Earth - Concordia research base in the heart of Antarctica. This image was acquired by the High-Resolution Camera, the smallest imager on ESA's smallest satellite. This black and white digital camera incorporates a miniaturised telescope to fit in Proba-1, whose overall volume is less than a cubic metre.
Long shadows cast by the low Sun pick out details of the base's layout in this 5 m-resolution image.
The Concordia station, built and operated by France's IPEV polar institute and Italy's PNRA Antarctic programme, is one of the few permanently crewed habitats in Antarctica. Located 3233 m above sea level in the high interior, its nearest neighbour is Russia's Vostok base, some 560 km away.
Its extreme location makes it interesting to ESA, which sponsors medical research on how isolation affects overwintering crews during months of cold darkness.
Life in Concordia is similar to living on another planet. No help can arrive during the winter months and venturing outside is dangerous - temperatures can drop to -80 degrees C.
The base's distinctive double-cylinder habitats, home to skeleton crews during winter, are picked out by the area of greatest shadow. Directly northeast are the summer camp buildings, with the base runway visible to the north.
To the east of the main habitats are an astronomy platform - Concordia boasts some of the clearest skies in the world - and glaciology survey areas where subsurface drilling extracts ice cores.
A faint dot further east is the entrance to an underground seismology shelter measuring ground tremors.

Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 13, 2012

This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows a vast river system on Saturn's moon Titan. It is the first time images from space have revealed a river system so vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth's Nile River: a river valley on Saturn's moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its "headwaters" to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth.
Scientists deduce that the river, which is in Titan's north polar region, is filled with liquid hydrocarbons because it appears dark along its entire length in the high-resolution radar image, indicating a smooth surface.
"Though there are some short, local meanders, the relative straightness of the river valley suggests it follows the trace of at least one fault, similar to other large rivers running into the southern margin of this same Titan sea," said Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
"Such faults - fractures in Titan's bedrock - may not imply plate tectonics, like on Earth, but still lead to the opening of basins and perhaps to the formation of the giant seas themselves."
Titan is the only other world we know of that has stable liquid on its surface. While Earth's hydrologic cycle relies on water, Titan's equivalent cycle involves hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane.

A 50,000-Megapixel Camera Points and Shoots

Analysis by Jesse Emspak
Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:52 AM ET

A camera that can see five times better than a person with 20/20 vision is here. The resolution is 50 gigapixels, or 50,000 megapixels. Cameras used by professionals reach the 40-megapixel mark, and a typical point-and-shoot might have eight or 10. The amount of information the gigapixel camera captures in a frame is nearly as much as the amount of data stored on a PC's hard drive -- all for one picture.

The group that developed the camera was led by David Brady, professor of electrical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, along with scientists from the University of Arizona, the University of California -- San Diego and Distant Focus Corp. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also supported the research. The military has an obvious interest in better image processing and in decades past, has spearheaded the development of sophisticated imaging tools. But a camera like this is also useful for fields as such as astronomy.
Unlike conventional digital cameras that have a single image sensor, the gigapixel camera has 98, all working in unison. A computer puts all the disparate images together to create a single picture. Blowing up the image reveals details that the naked eye wouldn't initially see.

Michael Gehm, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Arizona, who led the research there, noted in a press release that to boost the camera's resolution, the team had to go beyond simply making the optical elements more complex. This time, the researchers improved the electronics and built a system of parallel processors. The camera lens focuses the light to each of the image sensors and the computer takes care of building the final image.
Processing all the information is so complicated that 97 percent of the physical camera is comprised of the electronics and computer; only about three percent of the camera itself is deveoted to the optical elements. Details of the new camera were published in the journal Nature.
Photo: An image from the gigapixel camera, showing enlargements of certain sections. Credit: Duke University Imaging and Spectroscopy Program

source: http://news.discovery.com

Wildfires Light Up Western Australia

by Rani Gran for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 12, 2012

This nighttime image of Australia was cropped from the Suomi NPP "Black Marble" released by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in December 2012. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Careful observers of the new "Black Marble" images of Earth at night released this week by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have noticed bright areas in the western part of Australia that are largely uninhabited. Why is this area so lit up, many have asked?
Away from the cities, much of the night light observed by the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite in these images comes from wildfires.
In the bright areas of western Australia, there are no nearby cities or industrial sites but, scientists have confirmed, there were fires in the area when Suomi NPP made passes over the region. This has been confirmed by other data collected by the satellite.
The extent of the night lights in this area is also a function of composite imaging. These new images were assembled from data acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012.
This means fires and other lighting (such as ships) could have been detected on any one day and integrated into the composite picture, despite being temporary phenomena.
Because different areas burned at different times when the satellite passed over, the cumulative result in the composite view gives the appearance of a massive blaze. These fires are temporary features, in contrast to cities which are always there.
Other features appearing in uninhabited areas in these images could include fishing boats, gas flaring, lightning, oil drilling, or mining operations, which can show up as points of light. One example is natural gas drilling in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota.
source:  http://www.spacedaily.com

Environmental satellite produces first photo of Earth

Beijing (XNA) Dec 11, 2012

File image.

China's first synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite for environmental monitoring has produced its first "clear, coherent and informative" image of Earth, authorities said Monday.
The satellite, which was launched on Nov. 19, on Sunday successfully produced an SAR image of the city of Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province, said a statement from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
The image was then sent to a station located at the Academy of Sciences' Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth in Beijing, the statement said.
"Compared with optical imaging satellites, the SAR environmental monitoring satellite has greatly enhanced the efficiency and overall ability of the country's Earth observation satellites," it said.
The launch of the satellite marked the completion of a plan initiated by China in 2003 to create a group of environmental monitoring satellites, according to north China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, where the satellite was launched.
The radar satellite joined two optical satellites launched in September 2008, forming a network that covers most of China's territory.
This satellites will help provide scientific evidence for assessing natural disasters, 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.
source: http://www.spacedaily.com

Birds of a feather

The KH-9 HEXAGON on display at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. (credit: D. Day) by Dwayne Day Monday, December 10, 2012 Way back in 2004, I wrote an article about why there was no KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Museum near Washington Dulles International Airport (see: “The invisible Big Bird: why there is no KH-9 spy satellite in the Smithsonian,” The Space Review, November 8, 2004). In the late 1990s the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was actively working on declassifying the HEXAGON and the other film return reconnaissance satellite program that operated from 1963 to 1984, the GAMBIT. The NRO even approached the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum about donating two large artifacts to the museum, a leftover GAMBIT-1 (or KH-7) reconnaissance satellite, and the HEXAGON ground engineering test vehicle, which included a working camera system. At the time the Air and Space Museum was planning on building what was then called the “Dulles Annex,” and had a tabletop plastic model of it, complete with little cut out figures of airplanes showing how they would be located in the large building. One such figure, in the shape of the Hubble Space Telescope, was labeled “KH-9.” Apparently the artifacts were victims of bad timing; the Udvar-Hazy Center was then preparing for the arrival of the space shuttle Discovery and the departure of the space shuttle Enterprise. But the declassification effort for these two top secret programs stalled around 1998 and did not resume until over a decade later. It was not until September 2011 when the programs were declassified. The HEXAGON and GAMBIT-1 were both displayed at Udvar-Hazy for one day: the bus-sized HEXAGON—popularly referred to as the Big Bird for its immense size—was displayed in a tent in front of the building, and the GAMBIT-1 inside, hidden from the general public by a curtain and visible only to attendees of an evening party celebrating the NRO’s fiftieth anniversary (see “Big Black throws a party,” The Space Review, September 19, 2011).

Elbit Systems to Provide Space Camera for the Italian OPTSAT 3000 Observation Satellite

Haifa, Israel (SPX) Dec 10, 2012

File image: OPTSAT 3000 observation satellite.

Elbit Systems reports that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop, was awarded a contract from Israel Aerospace Industries ("IAI") to provide a space camera for the Italian OPTSAT 3000 observation satellite.
The total project, comprising the Jupiter advanced camera and additional services, is valued at approximately $40 million and will be completed within three and a half years.
Adi Dar, Elop's General Manager, commented: "We are proud to have been selected to supply the space camera for the Italian satellite. Elop has been a world leader in the field of space cameras for many years, and our systems are supplied to a variety of space agencies and customers in the satellite market, providing high performance and reliability throughout the mission lifecycle. We trust that this contract will lead to additional contracts, both in Israel and abroad".
source:  http://www.spacemart.com

Seeing stars, finding nukes: Radio telescopes can spot clandestine nuclear tests

by by Pam Frost Gorder for OSU News San Francisco CA (SPX) Dec 10, 2012

File image: Very Large Array (VLA).

In the search for rogue nukes, researchers have discovered an unlikely tool: astronomical radio telescopes. Ohio State University researchers previously demonstrated another unlikely tool, when they showed that South Korean GPS stations detected telltale atmospheric disturbances from North Korea's 2009 nuclear test.
Both techniques were born out of the discovery that underground nuclear explosions leave their mark-on the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere.
Now, working with astronomers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), they have analyzed historical data from the Very Large Array (VLA), a constellation of 27 radio telescopes near Socorro, New Mexico-and discovered that the VLA recorded a very similar pattern of disturbances during the last two American underground nuclear tests, which took place in Nevada in 1992.
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, professor of geodetic and geoinformation engineering at Ohio State, said that the new findings help support the notion that GPS systems-and their technological successors, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)-are viable tools for detecting clandestine nuclear tests around the globe. She added that now is a good time to begin developing the concept.
"With a global availability of permanently tracking GPS networks now extending to GNSS, tremendous amounts of information are becoming available, and the infrastructure is growing," she said. "We have a great opportunity to develop these ideas, and make a tool that will aid the global community."

A sense of place

Geography matters as much as ever, despite the digital revolution, says Patrick Lane

Oct 27th 2012 | from the print edition

THERE WAS SOMETHING odd about the black car at the junction of Sutter and Hyde Streets. It was an ordinary saloon. Its windows were clear, and it looked in good condition. And yet, as the lights changed and the car pulled away into the bright San Francisco morning, a question remained. Why was it sporting a luxuriant pink moustache at its front?
The moustache is the trade mark of Lyft, a ride-sharing service that began in the city this summer. Its drivers are private individuals who, in effect, rent out seats in their cars for a few dollars a time. Lyft’s cut is 20%. It works through a smartphone app. When you register as a customer, you supply your phone number and credit-card details. When you want a ride, you open the app and see a map with the locations of the nearest moustachioed motors. You tap to request a ride, and the app shows you your driver’s name, his rating by past passengers (out of five stars) and photos of him and his car. He will probably greet you with a friendly fist-bump. Afterwards you rate him and pay through the app. He rates you, too, so if you are poor company you may not get another Lyft.

NASA-NOAA Satellite Reveals New Views of Earth at Night

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 07, 2012

This image of the continental United States at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The image was made possible by the satellite's "day-night band" of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

Scientists have unveiled an unprecedented new look at our planet at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite, shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before.
Many satellites are equipped to look at Earth during the day, when they can observe our planet fully illuminated by the sun. With a new sensor aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite launched last year, scientists now can observe Earth's atmosphere and surface during nighttime hours.
The new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth's atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea. Satellites in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program have been making observations with low-light sensors for 40 years. But the VIIRS day-night band can better detect and resolve Earth's night lights.
The new, higher resolution composite image of Earth at night was released at a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. This and other VIIRS day-night band images are providing researchers with valuable data for a wide variety of previously unseen or poorly seen events.
"For all the reasons that we need to see Earth during the day, we also need to see Earth at night," said Steve Miller, a researcher at NOAA's Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. "Unlike humans, the Earth never sleeps."

Skybox Imaging Completes Significant Testing Milestone Preceding its First Satellite and Product Launch

Mountain View CA (SPX) Dec 06, 2012

File image.

Skybox Imaging (has successfully completed the simulated space environmental test of its first high-resolution imaging microsatellite. During the 16-day test campaign conducted at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., the satellite was placed in a thermal vacuum chamber that accurately simulated the thermal and environmental conditions of low Earth orbit. Skybox evaluated the spacecraft's performance in a variety of operational modes.
This included a "day-in-the-life" test where the Skybox operations team simulated flying the spacecraft for 20 orbits. The test data collected was used to accurately correlate the detailed spacecraft thermal and power models and verify that all subsystems performed as expected.
"Spacecraft thermal vacuum testing is the largest and most important phase in our integrated spacecraft test program," said Jonny Dyer, chief engineer at Skybox. "Successful completion of this milestone gives us greater confidence that our first spacecraft will perform well in the space thermal environment."
Skybox is now entering final testing phases of the spacecraft, including integrated system testing and launch base testing. The next key test is set to take place in early 2013, when the spacecraft will undergo vibration testing. This will be the last major milestone preceding the satellite's planned launch in the second quarter of 2013.
"Our team is the foundation of our success, and we are extremely proud of the completion of this milestone which brings us one crucial step forward in the lead-up to launch," said Tom Ingersoll, Skybox CEO. "This marks only the beginning of our endeavors as we advance toward the deployment of the constellation."
Skybox Imaging (Skybox) designs and builds microsatellites and cloud services that provide global customers easy access to reliable and frequent high-resolution images of the Earth via a scalable web-based platform.
By operating the world's first coordinated microsatellite constellation, Skybox aims to empower commercial and government customers to make more informed, data-driven decisions that will improve the profitability of companies and the welfare of societies around the world.

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source:http://www.spacedaily.com
Related Links Skybox Imaging

First-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 06, 2012

The aurora as seen as a color composite image from the NORUSCA II camera. Three bands were combined to make the image. Each band was assigned a different color - red, green, and blue - to enhance the features of the aurora for analysis. Credit: Optics Express.

Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light.
The camera was tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Svalbard, Norway, where it produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras-commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"-and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.
Details on the camera and the results from its first images were published in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
Auroras, nature's celestial fireworks, are created when charged particles from the Sun penetrate Earth's magnetic field. These shimmering displays in the night sky reveal important information about the Earth-Sun system and the way our planet responds to powerful solar storms.
Current-generation cameras, however, are simply light buckets-meaning they collect all the light together into one image-and lack the ability to separately capture and analyze multiple slivers of the visible spectrum.
That means if researchers want to study auroras by looking at specific bands or a small portion of the spectrum they would have to use a series of filters to block out the unwanted wavelengths.
The new NORUSCA II hyperspectral camera achieves the same result without any moving parts, using its advanced optics to switch among all of its 41 separate optical bands in a matter of microseconds, orders of magnitude faster than an ordinary camera.

Sharing Data to Keep European Oceans Healthy

By Brendon Bosworth, posted on November 28th, 2012 in Earth Observation, Featured Article, Oceans

A school of fish. Image Credit: Matthew Hoelscher

In August, the world’s seas scored 60 out of a possible 100 on a global marine health index, which assessed the status of the world’s seas through an ecosystems approach. Marine pollution, overfishing and increased greenhouse gas emissions combine to pose a suit of threats to the planet’s saltwater systems. To help enhance the ability of scientists and stakeholders in the European Union to monitor the environmental health of the Mediterranean Sea, and support the implementation of a GEO Science and Technology Roadmap, the European Commission funded the EGIDA project (the Italian acronym stands for “coordinating Earth and environmental cross-disciplinary projects to promote GEOSS”).
Since a key area of focus for EGIDA researchers is the Mediterranean, the project has assisted in the development of online tools for sharing environmental data between scientists and decision-makers in the region.
One such tool is a webmapping application developed by David March Morlà, a consultant with Spanish research institute Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), for the Gulf of Lions, a bay in the Mediterranean that lies between France and Spain. The application, which is still in its pilot stages, originated from a collaboration with the KnowSeas (knowledge-based sustainable management for Europe’s seas) project, a 4-year endeavor that ends in 2013 and brings together 32 partners from 16 countries with the intent of implementing an “ecosystems approach” to management of the Baltic, Black, Mediterranean and Northeast Atlantic seas.
Applying this ecosystems approach to marine management, KnowSeas incorporates geospatial, economic, and social science data, and a broad spectrum of practitioners, explains Tim O’Higgins, operational director for KnowSeas, based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, the body responsible for coordinating the project.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Turns 15

by Ellen Gray for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 29, 2012

This 3-D image of Hurricane Sandy's rainfall was created using TRMM Precipitation Radar data. It shows the storm as it appeared on Oct. 28, 2012. Red areas indicate rainfall of 2 inches (50 mm) per hour. Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce.

When it rains it pours, goes the saying, and for the last 15 years, the data on tropical rainfall have poured in. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was launched on Nov. 27, 1997, and for the last decade and a half has enabled precipitation science that has had far-reaching applications across the globe.
Rain is one of the most important natural processes on Earth, and nowhere does it rain more than across the tropics. Orbiting at an angle to the equator that covers 35 degrees north to 35 degrees south of the equator, TRMM carries five instruments that collectively measure the intensity of rainfall, characteristics of the water vapor and clouds, and lightning associated with the rain events.
One of the instruments, the Precipitation Radar, built by NASA's mission partner the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is the first precipitation radar flown in space. It returns images of storms that for the first time have revealed close-up, three-dimensional views of how rainbands in tropical cyclones develop, potentially indicating how strong the storms might become.
The TRMM Precipitation Radar penetrates clouds to see raindrops and precipitation-sized ice such as hail. The radar's ability to make precise measurements of both the altitude and the intensity of precipitation gives scientists clues about the energy that fuels thunderstorms, hurricanes and other kinds of severe weather.

NASA's TRMM Satellite Confirms 2010 Landslides

by Lisa-Natalie Anjozian for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 29, 2012

Around midnight on Aug. 8, 2010, a violent surge of loosened earth roared down mountain slopes and slammed into quietly sleeping neighborhoods in Zhouqu County in Gansu, China. The catastrophic mudslides - the deadliest in decades according to state media - buried some areas under as much as 23 feet (7 meters) of suffocating sludge. 1,765 people died. Property damages totaled an estimated $759 million. Cutting from right to left, this detailed image, from DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 satellite, shows the largest slide in the lower part of the city on Aug. 10, 2010. Credit: Image from WorldView-2 2010 by DigitalGlobe. For a larger version of this image please go here.

A NASA study using TRMM satellite data revealed that the year 2010 was a particularly bad year for landslides around the world. A recent NASA study published in the October issue of the Journal of Hydrometeorology compared satellite rain data from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) to landslides in central eastern China, Central America and the Himalayan Arc, three regions with diverse climates and topography where rainfall-triggered landslides are frequent and destructive hazards to the local populations.
The work, led by Dalia Kirschbaum, a research physical scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of an ongoing effort to catalog worldwide rainfall-triggered landslides-one of the world's lesser known but often catastrophic natural hazards. Locating them is a step in an effort to be able, one day, to predict and warn.
Currently, Kirschbaum explains, no consistent regional or global scale warning system exists for landslide disasters. To create one, scientists need to understand more than the individual factors that may contribute to local landslides - the intensity and total amount of rainfall over hours to days, slope angle, soil type and saturation, among others.
"For other hazards like hurricanes, there's a clearly defined season," says Kirschbaum. "From satellite data and observations we know that hurricane season in the Atlantic spans from June 1 to Nov. 30. But we don't have that type of record for landslides around the world, and we want to know when and where to expect them in different regions."
Scientists also need a systematic way to assess landslide hazards for a region, and one way to do that, says Kirschbaum, is to look at the distribution and intensity of rain from satellite data and see how that correlates with where and how often landslides are being reported.

GOES-R Satellite Program Undergoes Successful Review

by Rob Gutro for Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 29, 2012

Artist's concept of the GOES-R satellite in geostationary orbit around the Earth. Credit: NOAA.

The GOES-R Series Program, which is leading the effort to replace and upgrade NOAA's existing fleet of geostationary satellites that track severe weather across the United States, received a favorable appraisal conducted by an external team of aerospace experts of its preparations to launch the new series, beginning in late 2015.
"Severe weather was again a major story in America this year," said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator of NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. "Passing this Mission Critical Design Review gives us confidence that the GOES-R Program's development is progressing well and will be ready to carry the latest technology to help improve NOAA's weather forecasts."
At all times, NOAA operates two Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) from a fixed position, 22,300 miles above the Earth. Additionally, NOAA keeps one GOES in orbital storage mode, ready to step in if one of the active satellites experiences trouble.
NOAA's geostationary satellites constantly monitor all weather conditions, from tornadoes, floods and snowstorms, to wildfires and developing tropical storms. Instruments on GOES also monitor solar activity.

Tracking Pollution from Outer Space

Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Nov 29, 2012

To accurately analyze the level of pollution over each megacity, the researchers used data gathered by three aerosol-monitoring satellites, called MODIS-Terra, MODIS-Aqua, and MISR, which NASA launched from 2000 through 2002. The combined data these satellites provide constitute an accurate survey of aerosol concentrations a few hundred meters above Earth.

The thickest layers of global smog - caused by traffic, industry, and natural minerals, among other factors - are found over the world's megacities. But getting an accurate measurement of pollution is no easy task.
On-the-ground monitoring stations do not always provide the most accurate picture - monitoring stations depend heavily on local positioning and some cities put stations in urban centers, while others build on the edge of a city.
Now Prof. Pinhas Alpert of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences and head of the Porter School of Environmental Studies, with graduate student Olga Shvainshteinand and Dr. Pavel Kishcha, is turning to three of NASA's high-tech satellites for a comprehensive view of pollutants in the atmosphere.
Using eight years' worth of data collected by the satellites, the researchers tracked pollution trends for 189 megacities - metropolitan hotspots where the population exceeds 2 million. 58 of these megacities, including New York City, Tokyo, and Mumbai, have populations that exceed 5 million.
Their method, published in the American Journal of Climate Change, is the first to provide standardized global testing of pollution levels. Beyond uncovering reliable data about pollution trends, Prof. Alpert believes that this monitoring method will also hold countries accountable for their emissions and encourage more environmentally friendly practices.

Arianespace Lofts Pleiades 1B Using Soyuz Medium-lift launcher

Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Dec 02, 2012

The Pleiades 1A and 1B satellites launched by Arianespace create an optical observation system with great agility, a quick-response ground segment and daily revisit capability - offering a new generation of "real-world" satellite Earth imagery at a resolution of 70 cm.

The maturity of Arianespace's Soyuz launch system at French Guiana - and its confirmed role as a full-fledged member of the company's launcher family - were demonstrated once again by tonight's successful orbiting of the Pleiades 1B satellite from the Spaceport.
During a flight lasting 55 minutes, the Soyuz vehicle deployed its 970-kg. passenger into a targeted circular orbit of 695 km., inclined 98.2 deg., marking the medium-lift vehicle's fourth mission from French Guiana since its introduction at this near-equatorial launch site in October 2011.
Pleiades 1B is a very-high-resolution dual-use satellite designed to provide optical imaging coverage for French and European defense ministries, institutions and civil users. It joins the twin Pleiades 1A spacecraft that was launched in December 2011 on Arianespace's second Soyuz mission from the Spaceport.
Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall noted tonight's launch was the ninth at French Guiana in 2012 for the company's launcher family; following the lightweight Vega's maiden flight in February; medium-lift missions with Soyuz in October and today; along with heavy-lift Ariane 5 flights in March, May, July, August, September and November.
Le Gall thanked all involved in these successes, including the teams who work at the Spaceport for such an "impressive" year - during which a total of 23 primary and secondary payloads were placed into orbit from French Guiana.