ESA Scaling Up Workshops: Application Deadline Approaching (Feb 8)

Workshop Application Deadline Approaching (Feb. 8th)
Scaling Up Workshops on Continental-Scale Ecology
Concurrent Workshops for Students and Early Career Scientists
Organized by the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
http://www.esa.org/scalingup/

June 2013 at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute
Linthicum Heights, MD (near Baltimore)
http://www.ccmit.org/

 

ESA is organizing two concurrent workshops to address new scientific questions at the continental scale and the use of large-scale data in education.  Applications close on Friday, February 8th at 5:00pm Eastern.  Please see the Scaling Up website (http://www.esa.org/scalingup/) for more details on eligibility, selection, and how to apply to each workshop.

For Early Career Scientists:
Scaling Up: Population and Community Ecology Workshop
Early Career Scientists (no more than 8 years post-PhD) will explore key questions and tools in Population and Community Ecology, as well as identify needs and capabilities for developing new tools to address continental-scale questions.  Participants will have opportunities to develop research agendas and practical applications of continental-scale data across disciplines, examine broader impacts of their research, and form new collaborative research teams.  If you have questions about the early career workshop, please contact Jill Parsons (jill@esa.org). 

For Students:
Scaling Up: Future of Environmental Decisions Workshop
Current students and recent graduates will learn about the role of continental-scale science in helping citizens and decision-makers better understand the interaction of local and regional issues and the complexity of environmental decision-making using a case study of the Chesapeake Bay. Participants will have opportunities to work in groups with scientific experts to explore geospatial datasets, present findings to peers and environmental professionals, and explore scientific research practices in the Chesapeake Bay.  If you have questions about the student workshop, please contact Andrea McMillen (andrea@esa.org).

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ESA Seventh Earth Explorer To Be Selected In March

This March marks an important milestone in the Earth observation calendar. Scientists from all over Europe will be gathering in Graz, Austria, to scrutinise three innovative satellite concepts. One will then be chosen as ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer.

Using breakthrough technology, the series of Earth Explorer satellites is designed to advance science by exploring different aspects of Earth. Together, these missions are improving our understanding of the complex interactions between Earth’s different components and how human activity is affecting natural processes.

With three missions already in orbit and another three on the road to launch, the next User Consultation Meeting will be held on 5–6 March.

This meeting provides the opportunity for the scientific community to debate the merits of three new mission concepts – each of which promises to deliver novel information on how our planet works.

The philosophy of developing Earth Explorer missions centres on the involvement of the scientific community from the very beginning of a mission’s life. Being proposed by the scientific community and realised through the user-driven selection process ensures that this series of state-of-the-art missions addresses the most urgent Earth science questions of our time.

The success of this approach is borne out by the advances that the GOCE gravity mission, the SMOS water mission and the CryoSat ice mission are already making to science. The Swarm magnetic field mission, to be launched this year, followed by the ADM-Aeolus and EarthCARE missions are set to improve our knowledge even further.

The three new concepts, Biomass, CoReH₂O and PREMIER, have already undergone extensive feasibility studies to demonstrate their value to science and their technical viability. This phase culminated in the release of three in-depth reports for mission selection that form the basis for choice of the next mission.

Moreover, the latest analyses of the three missions performed in the past months are gathered in addendum reports which can be downloaded from the right-hand bar.

The meeting now provides the opportunity for the community to put forward their views, which are considered by ESA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee before recommending which mission should be selected.

Registration for the meeting can be made via the User Consultation Meeting website.

SOURCE ESA

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RapidEye joins ESA Third Party Missions Programme

RapidEye, a leader in high-resolution, wide area repetitive coverage of Earth through its constellation of five satellites announced today that it is now part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Third Party Mission (TPM) Programme. Through this programme, ESA provides data to the European and international scientific user community, as well as to supplement its own internal projects for research and application development.

RapidEye's archive data is now available to the scientific user community from ESA member states (including Canada), the European Commission Member States, as well as Africa and China (as part of the Dragon programme) through project proposal submission via the RapidEye information area on ESA's Earthnet Online Portal.

Further details are available on the ESA RapidEye Mission.

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ESA App Camp 2012

From 18 to 22 June 2012, the European Space Agency (ESA) will be holding its first App Camp event at its ESRIN facilities in Frascati (near Rome), Italy. App developers 18 years and older from all 27 E.U. member-states will be able to apply to participate in the App Camp www.app-camp.eu until 6 May. ESA will then invite 20 participants to Italy based on their previous work to spend a week at the ESA App Developer Lab. Those selected will need to have experience in app development on the Android or iOS platforms that can be verified with links to published apps and other references.

The goal of the App Camp is to promote the development of mobile applications that facilitate the use of Earth observation data on smartphones - particularly data from ESA's and the European Union's ambitious and joint Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Experience in integrating this type of data, however, is not necessary to participate in the App Camp. Participants will be able to choose from one of four broad subject areas, which they will then work on in teams of four during their week at the ESA App Developer Lab. In the category "GMES for Everyday Life", for example, teams will need to make Earth observation data accessible to any target group they choose. This can involve apps from virtually any field, from recreation and healthcare to business and the environment (to name just a few). "Observe and Learn", meanwhile, is intended to produce an app with learning content and information on the subject of satellites and satellite data. The team that chooses the category "Play the GaMES" will be tasked with popularising GMES with the next generation through mobile games, social networks, and coupon and crowdsourcing apps. Finally, the "Earth and Beyond" category will give one team the freedom to develop its vision of an app that reveals, observes, describes, or explains the Earth in some way.

ESA will provide the App Camp participants with access to satellite data at its ESRIN facilities - as well as free travel and full boarding and lodging - for the entire week of the event. On the final day of the App Camp, the concepts developed will be presented and the winning team selected by a jury of ESA representatives. The members of the winning team will each receive an iPad 3 and other attractive awards.

Those interested can apply to participate in the App Camp at www.app-camp.eu until 6 May 2012.

Further information on App Camp is also available at www.app-camp.eu. For more information on GMES, please visit www.esa.int/gmes.

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ESA Launches CubeSats Student-Built Satellites

History was made today as ESA’s new Vega launcher lifted off from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. On board were nine small satellites, including seven ESA- sponsored CubeSats built by teams of students from European universities.

Among these educational payloads were the first satellites ever designed and built in Hungary, Romania and Poland.

The first payload to be released into orbit was the LARES Laser Relativity Satellite from the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Some 16 minutes later, the Vega upper stage motor shut down for the third time, followed immediately by deployment of the seven CubeSats and the University of Bologna’s ALMASat-1 nanosatellite. Ejected from special deployment mechanisms known as P-PODs (Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployers), each CubeSat was placed in an elliptical orbit of approximately 300 x 1,450 km altitude.

Over the coming days, the student teams from six European countries will be listening for the first signals from their tiny creations, checking out the satellites’ systems and then conducting the onboard experiments, supported by radio amateurs around the world.

The story of the pioneering picosatellites began as long ago as 2007, when ESA officials decided that the maiden launch of Vega would be an ideal opportunity to fly student-built satellites. Slots were available for at least six cube-shaped satellites, each only 10 cm across and weighing no more than 1 kg.

More than 250 university students in six countries participated in designing and building the seven CubeSats that eventually made it to the launch, along with their innovative technology and science experiments.

Supported by experts from ESA, academic staff from their universities and various national space agencies and institutions, most of the teams succeeded in overcoming numerous logistical and technical challenges to deliver the satellites on time.

SOURCE ESA

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Ice Dataset on CryoSat App for iPad and iPhone

Discover ESA’s ice mission, track it in real time and obtain the latest measurements with the new CryoSat app for iPhone and iPad. CryoSat is measuring the thickness of polar sea ice and monitoring changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica.

The CryoSat iPhone and iPad application – or CryoSatApp – is now available at Apple's App Store.

CryoSatApp’s main menu provides access to four sections: mission description, a 3D model of the satellite, position tracking and data visualisation.

In the first section, users can easily find information on the CryoSat mission, including images, videos, archived news and an overview of how CryoSat obtains and delivers data.

The 3D model feature allows users to zoom in on how the satellite is built and discover its instruments – such as the radar altimeter for measuring ice thickness.

Information on CryoSat’s current position is automatically updated, including its visibility over selected ground stations. Users can also track the satellite’s position in relation to the iPhone or iPad’s geographical location.

But it’s the data feature that makes this app unique. Not only does it give access to all of CryoSat’s measurements, it can help you visualise the ice sheets by providing a vertical profile over the area.

All geophysical parameters stored in the CryoSat products can be easily displayed at the touch of your fingertips as soon as they are generated on the ground. Users can select the day and orbit from which they want to extract the data, and view Earth’s ice profile from that orbit.

This is a remarkable tool for students and scientists engaged in using CryoSat products.

ESA has a new Earth Observation Data Policy, which allows for free and open access to satellite data.

Since its launch in April 2010, CryoSat-2 has been collecting data to improve our understanding of the relationship between ice and climate.

In June 2011, the first map of Arctic sea-ice thickness was unveiled. The satellite will continue to monitor the changing ice for years to come.

SOURCE ESA Portal

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ESA-EU Space Council: Importance of Space Systems for Security

Meeting in Brussels today, the 29 ministers of the ESA-EU Space Council underlined the importance of space systems for security. They drew attention to the role of satellite systems - particularly Galileo, EGNOS and GMES - as the backbone for improving Europe's response to emergencies.

Pre-operational Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) services are already available. The ministers from EU and ESA Member States urged the European Commission to accelerate the transition to full operations, in support of EU external actions.

The ministers reaffirmed GMES as a priority for the EU, and urged the European Commission to take the necessary and timely actions to secure the continuity of the programme and the services it supplies to users.

Ministers highlighted the fact that the policy governing the availability of GMES data is crucial to the secure use of services and to the development of sustainable markets in the value-adding sector.

GMES will work hand-in-hand with the high-accuracy Public Regulated Service of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellite system.

Ministers also stressed that satellite communications represent a key capability in any crisis management operation, especially when ground infrastructures are damaged or destroyed.

As well as calling on the European Commission to ensure the optimal use of space solutions in Europe’s coordination of civil protection, the ministers also turned their attention to the need to protect the satellites.

Ministers expressed concern about the risks that space weather and space debris can pose to space assets. They took good note of the recently established user requirements for systems designed to monitor and protect space assets and called on the EU, ESA and their Member States initially to exploit fully all existing capacities in this area.

For further information, please contact:

ESA Media Relations Office
Communication Department
Tel: + 33 1 53 69 72 99
Fax: + 33 1 53 69 76 90
Email: media@esa.int

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Free Landsat Images For Europe - ESA Opens Archives

ESA opens its archives of Landsat images to the public.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that over 30 years of archived data from the US Landsat Earth-observing satellites are now available, free of charge. The majority of these products are unique to ESA’s archive and have never before been accessible anywhere else by the scientific user community.

In its archives, ESA holds around two million products that cover Europe and North Africa. The total amount of data available is worth about 450 terabytes – that’s equivalent to about 900 000 hours of audio recorded at CD quality.

ESA has been acquiring Landsat data at European stations since the 1970s. “The missions were the main data source for many years during the 1980s when Earth observation started at ESA’s ESRIN centre in Italy,” said Gunther Kohlhammer, Head of the Ground Segment Department.

ESA revised its Earth observation data policy in 2010 to adapt to the ‘Joint Principles for a Sentinel Data Policy’. This policy was approved by ESA Member States participating in the GMES Space Component Programme, and supports the concept of providing free and open access to data. By revising the data policy, ESA followed the same path as the US Geological Survey, who began making its Landsat data available free of charge in 2009.

The ESA archives opens access to all products from the Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper instruments aboard the Landsats. Data from the older Multispectral Scanner will be made available at a later stage.

To access the data, users can go to the Earth Observation Principal Investigator Portal to submit a brief project description and request data. ESA then assigns the project a quota based on the system’s current processing capacity. When the data are ready, the user will receive directions for online retrieval.

In order to allow improved and faster access, ESA will soon begin gradually to process all data into an online archive for users to access independently. Owing to the vast amount of data, this process will take about two years.

The Landsat series goes back to 1972, with Landsat-5 and -7 currently in orbit. Landsat-8 is due for launch by early 2013.

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Tracking Surface Changes From Space Using InSAR

Scientists are making advances in the use of satellite data to map changes in Earth’s surface, ESA reports. Subsidence of only millimetres can be detected thanks to advances in technology.

The picturesque town of Assisi nestling in central Italy’s rolling hills has, for centuries, drawn tourists, religious pilgrims and lovers of art. But it has also drawn the attention of scientists who see the real weight of its reputation. By exploiting satellite data, they have found that some areas of the historical town are sinking by 7.5 mm per year.

This is just one of the many areas around the world where satellites have detected surface changes down to the millimetre from their orbits hundreds of kilometres above. The findings were presented at the Fringe Workshop on advances in the science and applications of radar interferometry held at ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth observation, in Frascati, Italy.

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar – or InSAR – is a remote sensing technique where two or more images over the same scene are combined to detect slight changes occurring between acquisitions.

Tiny changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal and lead to rainbow-coloured interference patterns in the combined image, known as ‘a SAR interferogram’.

The Fringe Workshop takes its name from these coloured fringes seen in the interferograms. Precise measurements – down to a scale of a few millimetres – can be detected across wide areas. Tectonic plates grinding past one another, the slow ‘breathing’ of active volcanoes, the slight sagging of a city street due to groundwater extraction, even the thermal expansion of a building on a sunny day.

Just a few years ago, only dedicated areas could be mapped. But advances now allow for subsidence detection over large regions – even whole countries, like Italy – while maintaining a high resolution.

At this year’s Fringe Workshop, findings and advances were presented by some of the 400 scientists – a large number compared to the original four specialists who, in 1991, decided to create the Fringe group while discussing the early InSAR results from the ERS-1 mission.

Tracking surface changes is important for areas like this because it is home to an oil reservoir. While the now-retired ERS satellites played a major role in advancing interferometry, radars aboard satellites such as ESA’s Envisat continue to collect data used to detect surface changes.

The Sentinel-1 satellite due to be launched in 2013 will ensure the continuity of SAR data for years to come, with improved coverage compared to its ERS and Envisat predecessors.

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ESA ERS-2 Satellite Says Goodbye

After 16 years spent gathering a wealth of data that has revolutionised our understanding of Earth, ESA's veteran ERS-2 satellite is being retired. This pioneering mission has not only advanced science, but also forged the technologies we now rely on for monitoring our planet.

ERS-2 was launched in 1995, following its sister, the first European Remote Sensing satellite, which was launched four years earlier.

Carrying suites of sophisticated instruments to study the complexities of the atmosphere, land, oceans and polar ice, these two missions were the most advanced of their time, putting Europe firmly at the forefront of Earth observation.

The twin satellites were identical, apart from ERS-2's additional instrument to monitor ozone in the atmosphere. Both exceeded their design lifetime by far, together delivering a 20-year stream of continuous data.

In 2000, ERS-1 unexpectedly stopped working and now it is time to bid farewell to ERS-2 before it succumbs to a similar fate.

To avoid ERS-2 ending up as a piece of space debris, ESA will take the satellite out of service by bringing it down to a lower orbit while there is still sufficient fuel to make the careful manoeuvres.

The decision to retire ERS-2 was not taken lightly, but after orbiting Earth almost 85 000 times – travelling 3.8 billion km – the risk that the satellite could lose power at any time is clearly high.

The deorbiting procedure will be carried out over a number of weeks by spacecraft operators and flight dynamics experts at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Germany.

Starting on 6 July, a series of thruster burns will gradually lower the satellite's orbit from its current altitude of 800 km to about 550 km, where the risk of collision is minimal. Eventually, ERS-2 will enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up.

Its destruction will occur within 25 years, in accordance with European Code of Conduct on Space Debris Mitigation.

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ESA Innovation Prize For Best Business Idea using GNSS

ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO) aims to facilitate the use of space technology and space-based infrastructures -- such as global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) -- for non-space applications. Nowadays, it seems hard to get around without GPS. You get in your car, turn on your navigation device, and always know when to turn left or right. However, GNSS have potential for much more than just giving us directions.

This is why ESA is sponsoring a special topic prize in the international ideas competition ESNC. The organisation will award the ESA Innovation Prize to whoever comes up with the best business idea using GNSS. The judging criteria will be the amount of time required to implement the idea and its market potential, as ESA is looking for ideas that can be incorporated quickly into a profitable business. In addition to a EUR 10,000 cash prize, the winner may be supported at one of the five ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs). There, incubated companies not only get free office space, but technical and financial support to realise their ideas, as well.

Last year, Rafael Olmedo and Luis Burillo from Spain won the jury over with their project “NEPA”, which monitors waterways to identify and locate water pollution. Detecting sources of water pollution along minor waterways is of primary interest to authorities trying to uncover illegal activities and specific sources of water quality degradation. Sensors analyse the water quality, and the GPS augmentation system EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) locates the source of the pollution. “The innovation of NEPA lies in the combination of satellite navigation, wireless communication, and electronic technologies,” says Rafael Olmedo. The jury of experts agreed in rendering their assessment: “The different technologies for measuring and tracking water pollution are already there and can be rapidly implemented in the product. NEPA’s innovation lies in how it combines these technologies in a single new system.”

Tim Springer, the ESA special topic prize winner in 2009, is currently at the ESA BIC Darmstadt, Germany. In 2009, he submitted a high-accuracy GNSS solution for locating ships at sea. His spin-off now has three employees and his service, “Positim”, is in its testing phase. “We are also working on a survey to improve the accuracy for users,” Springer reports.

About the European Satellite Navigation Competition:

The European Satellite Navigation Competition is an international ideas competition that awards the best ideas based on satellite navigation. Anyone can participate, from companies and entrepreneurs to research institutes, universities, and private individuals. What counts is the idea. Between 1 April and 30 June, participants can submit their ideas at www.galileo-masters.eu.

Having started in 2004 with three partner regions, the ESNC has since grown into a global network of innovation and expertise. More than 20 regions now compete against each other to produce the overall winner – the Galileo Master – who receives EUR 20,000 and the chance to realise their idea at an incubation centre of their choice.
www.galileo-masters.eu

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European Space Agency Helps in Mapping Mosquitoes in Europe

European Space Agency, ESA, is helping to take the bite out of mosquitoes and their deadly diseases by tracking their distribution and habitat via observation satellites, satnav, and mobile communications.

The Vecmap initiative is testing the accurate mapping of mosquitoes in Europe, in particular, mosquitoes carrying diseases, for public health agencies and regional mosquito controllers. Testing began in 2009 in the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy. Transmitters of disease such as mosquitoes are known as vectors.

With this information, the insects can be kept below the level where they become a nuisance or able to spread disease.

Vecmap is now being refined and is planned to be tested further by users in several European countries during the next two summer seasons before it is marketed commercially.

Predicting mosquito presence, abundance and risks is difficult. The conditions, location and timing of hatching vary widely between species. Highly detailed and frequent information on the local environment and weather conditions are required.

ESA has enabled three companies to join forces in developing Vecmap, who are now working closely with future users. Users are being coordinated by The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Vecmap addresses the problem by integrating the entire process of producing risk maps into a single package that can be used by a wide range of practitioners.

Vecmap combines inputs from field work and Earth observation satellites such as vegetation, land temperature, moisture and water bodies. The field measurements are entered into a palm-to-web terminal or smart phone, which pinpoints them using satnav. Then they are transferred to a central database. In this way, the field work can be done effectively and independently.

The consortium is led by Avia-GIS (BE), a company specialising in spatial risk management, and includes ERGO (GB), MEDES (FR) as developing partners; VITO (BE) and EARS (NL) which provide remote sensing imagery; and RIVM which represents the user community.

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Mapping Earth's Gravity with GOCE Satellite

ESA’s GOCE satellite has reached its ambitious goal of mapping Earth's gravity with unprecedented precision. In two short years, the sophisticated satellite has collected the measurements needed to record the 'geoid' reference shape of our planet.

"GOCE is one of ESA’s most innovative missions. The number of 'firsts' it embodies led to many challenges for our scientists, engineers and more than 40 companies involved in building the satellite," said Volker Liebig, Director of ESA's Earth Observation Programmes.

"I am happy to announce that their hard work and dedication have paid off. The satellite has recorded the measurements necessary to enable us to produce a high-resolution map of the 'geoid' that is far more accurate and has a much higher spatial resolution then any other dataset of this kind."

The geoid is the shape of an imaginary global ocean dictated by gravity in the absence of tides and currents. It is a crucial reference for accurately measuring ocean circulation, sea-level change and ice dynamics – all affected by climate change.

The planned mission of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite, launched in March 2009, included two six-month measurement periods. On 2 March it completed its 12th month of gravity-field mapping.

In the coming weeks, these data will be calibrated and processed for scientists to create a unique model of the geoid.

Although GOCE has completed its planned mission, the low solar activity during the last two years led to a lower fuel consumption than anticipated.

Based on this fuel saving, the good health of the satellite and the excellent quality of its data, ESA decided in November 2010 to extend the mission until the end of 2012.

"By nearly doubling the mission’s lifetime, GOCE data will provide an even better gravity field map and geoid products," said GOCE Mission Manager Rune Floberghagen.

"Once the gravity models are completed, they will be made available to all users, free of charge in line with ESA's data policy."

The new GOCE products and the science derived from these products will be presented and discussed at the Fourth International GOCE User Workshop held at the Technische Universität München in Munich, Germany, on 31 March–1 April.

Media representatives will be invited to attend the event. For more details, please see the programme at http://www.goce2011.org.

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Two new Earth observation missions chosen for further study

As part of the procedure to realize European Space Agency’s (ESA) series of Earth Explorers, two new mission proposals have been selected for further development. The missions, called FLEX and CarbonSat, now vying to be the eighth Earth Explorer, both address key climate and environmental change issues.

The selection follows ESA's Call for Earth Explorer Proposals that was released in October last year and ended in the Agency receiving 31 high-quality mission concepts. Subsequently, the proposals were carefully evaluated by leading Earth scientists in four peer review panels.

This evaluation process resulted in ESA's Earth Science Advisory Committee selecting two missions considered the most scientifically relevant, recommending that the Florescence Explorer (FLEX) and CarbonSat be presented to ESA's Programme Board for Earth Observation.

The CarbonSat mission would quantify and monitor the distribution of two most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, also released through human activity: carbon dioxide and methane. Data from the mission would lead to a better understanding of the sources and sinks of these two gases and how they are linked to climate change.

The FLEX mission aims to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity. The data would improve our understanding of how much carbon is stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles.

The mission would work in combination with the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument and the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer on Sentinel-3 to improve models of future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

The next step in the development of these two mission concepts is to begin the definition studies in the second quarter of 2011.

There are three Earth Explorers in orbit: GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat; a further three being constructed: Swarm, ADM-Aeolus and EarthCARE; and three undergoing feasibility studies competing for selection as Earth Explorer-7: BIOMASS, PREMIER and CoReH2O.

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Phytoplankton Bloom Captured by Satellite Image

A giant bloom photographed by satellite off the west coast of Ireland is harmless, according to the Marine Institute. Images of the phytoplankton bloom were captured last week by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

It has caused the sea to turn a milk-white colour, due to the dense accumulation of phytoplankton known as Emiliania huxleyi in response to warm surface water and sunlight. Billions of microscopic cells have formed the bloom, which tends to occur in summer months.

Marine Institute scientist Joe Silke explained that they “form the base of the marine food chain and are important contributors of atmospheric oxygen and essential components of a healthy oceanic biodiversity”.

A satellite image from the European Space Agency showing the swirls of phytoplankton blooms south of a cloud bank off the coast of Ireland. Photograph: European Space Agency [via: Irish Times]

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ESA to track global vegetation daily

The small but powerful camera of ESA’s Proba-V mission can fit on a single laboratory table for testing. But when it reaches orbit, this compact sensor will deliver a daily overview of virtually all vegetation growth across Earth.

Daily global monitoring is an ambitious enough goal for a full-sized mission, but Proba is ESA’s smallest satellite platform – smaller than a cubic metre.

The aim is to have a microsatellite doing an equivalent job to the wide-swath ‘Vegetation’ camera on France’s full-sized Spot-5 satellite. But engineers needed to shrink it by a factor of ten, swapping glass lenses for lighter aluminium mirrors and combining three separate telescopes.

A test version of Proba-V’s wide-viewing imager has been subjected to a combination of hard vacuum and temperature extremes in ESTEC’s Mechanical Systems Laboratory, simulating conditions it will face in space.

“We are checking the instrument temperature stays within set limits,” said Jorg Versluys of Belgium’s OIP, the company building the imager. “Because its three telescopes have overlapping views, any temperature-driven deformation could put them out of alignment.”

Proba-V is a new departure for the Proba series, explained Karim Mellab, Proba-V Project Manager: “Proba-V’s Vegetation payload will need to be operational on top of its experimental nature.”

For the past 12 years, the Vegetation camera on Spot-4 and Spot-5 has been recording global vegetation growth and land cover changes, using its extremely wide 2250 km multispectral viewing swath and the ability to revisit all locations on Earth on a daily basis.

But France’s planned Pleiades follow-on satellites have no room to carry further Vegetation cameras. Instead, ESA and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office began investigating the feasibility of flying a cut-down version of the instrument to continue delivering data to its users.

“One of our main objectives is to get the new sensor in orbit by mid-2012,” explained Mr Mellab. “This will give us overlap with Spot-5’s Vegetation sensor, allowing us to calibrate the new instrument.”

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New RADAR Processing Algorithm for Boreal Forest Biomass

Having a large-scale boreal forest biomass inventory would allow scientists to understand better the carbon cycle and to predict more accurately Earth’s future climate. However, obtaining these maps has been wrought with difficulty – until now.

A new processing algorithm has been developed using stacks of images from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on ESA’s Envisat satellite that allows for the retrieval of boreal forest biomass well beyond the levels that have been previously reported.

Forests play a crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in biomass. Undisturbed forests are carbon sinks as they absorb carbon, while forests that are logged or burnt down become carbon sources as they release carbon into the atmosphere.

Boreal forests and woodlands are estimated to cover approximately 14.5% of Earth's land surface, comprising an area of nearly 16 million sq km (about the size of the contiguous 48 states of the US). The boreal forest ecosystem, which spans Russia, northern Europe, Canada and Alaska, comprises interrelated habitats made up of forests, lakes, wetlands, rivers and tundra.

Read from the source.

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ESA CryoSat-2 - New launch date confirmed

The technical issue with the second stage of the Dnepr rocket that delayed the launch of ESA's Earth Explorer CryoSat-2 satellite in February has now been resolved – and the new launch date of 8 April has been set.

The launch of CryoSat-2 was originally scheduled to take place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 25 February, but had to be postponed owing to a problem with the fuel reserve in the launcher's second stage. The problem had surfaced a week before the scheduled launch date and after the 'space head module', encasing the CryoSat-2 satellite, had been mated to the rest of the rocket in the launch silo. Consequently, the space head was returned to the integration facilities pending an investigation and new launch date.

During the investigation, the Ukrainian company responsible for the overall design of the Dnepr launcher, Yuzhnoye SDO, and the company that develops the launcher's control system, Hartron-Arkos, confirmed that the ratio of fuel to oxidiser could be adjusted to improve the performance of the second stage engine. This small adjustment involved modifying the software that controls the fuel usage. The modifications have since been made and validated, and consequently the new launch date of 8 April at 15:57 CEST (13:57 UT) has been agreed with ESA.

Richard Francis, ESA's Project Manager for CryoSat-2, said, "When we visited Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine we had a thorough briefing on the problem and solution from both Yuzhnoye SDO and Hartron-Arkos. We are confident that the change implemented increases reliability and has been properly validated."

CryoSat-2 is currently being 'babysat' in the integration facilities by two team members. However, the rest of the campaign team will return to Baikonur on 23 March to resume preparations for launch.

CryoSat is Europe's first mission dedicated to monitoring Earth's ice fields. The advanced observation techniques being employed by the CryoSat mission will provide precise measurements on variations in the thickness of floating marine ice as well as the vast ice sheets that overlie Antarctica and Greenland. This information will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between ice and climate change.

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Satellite Images of Haiti After Eathquake - Coming in

As rescue workers scramble to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of people following Haiti's earthquake, Earth observation satellite data continues to provide updated views of the situation on the ground.

Following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January, international agencies requested satellite data of the area from the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters'.

The Charter, an international initiative aimed at providing satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world, immediately began re-tasking their satellites to get the data urgently needed.

Data are being collected by various satellites including Japan's ALOS, CNES's Spot-5, the U.S.'s WorldView and QuickBird, Canada's RADARSAT-2, China's HJ-1-A/B and ESA's ERS-2 and Envisat.
These data are being processed into maps that show the degree of destruction. As soon as new data arrives, updated maps will be produced and made available to the international community. The updates may be accessed by clicking on the links on the right.

Other satellite missions that are complementing those from the Charter include Germany’s TerraSAR-X, Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed, South Korea’s KOMPSAT-2 and the U.S.-based GeoEye-1.

Update: Check this post for free Haiti Earthquake images.

Provided by European Space Agency

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Satellite radar data to monitor faults, earthquakes in China

Western China is in a very seismically active area and has had many catastrophic earthquakes during its history. A joint European-Chinese team is using satellite radar data to monitor ground deformation across major continental faults in China to understand better the seismic cycle and how faults behave.

Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and a technique known as SAR Interferometry (InSAR), along with GPS data, scientists participating in ESA’s Dragon 2 Programme have been able to measure the ground deformation that occurred during the Wenchuan earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan Province last May.

The Wenchuan earthquake occurred on the Longmen Shan fault, along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Following major earthquakes, changes in stress along the faults in the region can lead to subsequent earthquakes. Using InSAR and GPS data, scientists are able to measure and monitor where and how this stress changes as well as how any associated deformation is distributed.

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