О буржуйских спутниках ДЗЗ

[Старый]

А ещё весь урожай может погибнуть из-за засухи в августе или дождей в уборочную. И всё что удалось снять в июне-июле - псу под хвост.
 В целом у нас урожай зависит в основном только от погоды. Погоду же можно определить обычными метеоспутниками или даже по метеосводкам в газетах.
 То есть Лэндсаты тут вообще не при чём.

[Брабонт]

13 марта сошёл с орбиты КА ДЗЗ OrbView-3.

[ZOOR]

Вот голливудские звезды дают жару, однако ...

Satellite Sentinel Project: George Clooney plans to hire private satellites to track troop movements in Sudan [/size]

[ZOOR]

Выложены презентации докладов  V Юбилейной Международной конференции «Космическая съемка — на пике высоких технологий»

Семинар компании DigitalGlobe: "Уникальные мультиспектральные возможности спутника WorldView-2"
Марчизио Дж., старший научный сотрудник компании DigitalGlobe (США).
http://www.sovzondconference.ru/pdf_2011/062.pdf  (55 Мб)

Стоит посмотреть - очень красиво все показано

[ZOOR]

Вся надежда на капиталистов - ТУСУР объявил "Открытый аукцион в электронной форме № АЭ- 196/13160/11 на заключение государственного контракта на поставку и установку системы приема, хранения и обработки данных дистанционного зондирования Земли из космоса " на 14 800 000,00 Российский рубль
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=1925836

1. Назначение поставляемого товара:
Земная станция приема и обработки космической информации Х-диапазона предназначена для приема и обработки информации, передаваемой с низкоорбитальных природно-ресурсных искусственных спутников Земли.  
- Terra (формат DB),
- Aqua (формат DB),
в диапазоне 8 ГГц со скоростью до 170 Мбит/с в одном канале.

[Ded]

Вся надежда на капиталистов - ТУСУР объявил "Открытый аукцион в электронной форме № АЭ- 196/13160/11 на заключение государственного контракта на поставку и установку системы приема, хранения и обработки данных дистанционного зондирования Земли из космоса " на 14 800 000,00 Российский рубль
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=1925836

1. Назначение поставляемого товара:
Земная станция приема и обработки космической информации Х-диапазона предназначена для приема и обработки информации, передаваемой с низкоорбитальных природно-ресурсных искусственных спутников Земли.  
- Terra (формат DB),
- Aqua (формат DB),
в диапазоне 8 ГГц со скоростью до 170 Мбит/с в одном канале.

Это же практически серийная продукция. Практически -станцию необходимо "привязат" к объекте.

[Morin]

Вскоре после запуска Лэндсата-1 (тогда ещё ERTS-1) в СМИ поползли конфеденциальные слухи что какаято организация в США по его данным с высокой точностью определила предстоящий урожай зерновых в СССР, что позволило сформировать политику цен.
 КПСС вместе с Госпланом были вне себя: супостат осуществил их заветную мечту: узнать сколько же они соберут зерна!
 Вскоре после этого лэндсатовская наземная станция была продана Китаю. И опять конфеденциальные слухи: Китайское правительство с её помощью следит за директорами колхозов - за их отчётностью по посевным площадям и урожайности.
 Этого ЦК КПСС  вместе с Госпланом стерпеть уже не могло. Все строгие постановления были немедленно подписаны и Фрамы с Ресурсами-Ф пошли косяками. Чуть ли не десяток в год. Дело было сделано, очередной вклад в разорение СССР бессмысленными космическими программами внесён. Естественно у нас ни предстоящего урожая ни посевных площадей никто так и не определил.

Я не думаю, что советское руководство так уж верило сообщениям о точном прогнозировании амерканцами нашего урожая. Если уж я вполне обоснованно не верил им, то уж ЦК КПСС со своими экспертами - точно. Тем более они знали истинные урожаи и могли оценить прогнозы американцев.
Да и с количеством пусков народно-хозяйственных спутников вы несколько погорячились. Вот статистика: Фрам -23 шт. за 75-85г.г., Ресурс-Ф1 -52 (-2 неудачи)шт. за 79-93г.г., Р-Ф2 10 шт. за 87-95. Т.о. в год от 2 до 7  максимум. Хотя, конечно, было (и есть) весьма соблазнительно иметь независимый инструмент оценки с/х производства. Ну так над этим до сих пор бьются. В задачи Фрамов-Ресурсов входила и масса других задач, в т.ч. фоторазведка, оценка состояния лесов по вредителям, по пожарной опасности и мн. др.

[Старый]

Я не думаю, что советское руководство так уж верило сообщениям о точном прогнозировании амерканцами нашего урожая. Если уж я вполне обоснованно не верил им, то уж ЦК КПСС со своими экспертами - точно.

Отнюдь. Верило и очень сильно. Наверно даже сильнее чем в нырок Шаттла над Москвой.

Тем более они знали истинные урожаи и могли оценить прогнозы американцев.

Так результат прогноза не сообщался. Сообшалось только что успешно спрогнозировали.

Да и с количеством пусков народно-хозяйственных спутников вы несколько погорячились. Вот статистика: Фрам -23 шт. за 75-85г.г., Ресурс-Ф1 -52 (-2 неудачи)шт. за 79-93г.г., Р-Ф2 10 шт. за 87-95. Т.о. в год от 2 до 7  максимум.

В первые и последние годы было по 1-2 запуска, а в 80-е получалось чуть ди не по десятку в год.

Хотя, конечно, было (и есть) весьма соблазнительно иметь независимый инструмент оценки с/х производства. Ну так над этим до сих пор бьются. В задачи Фрамов-Ресурсов входила и масса других задач, в т.ч. фоторазведка, оценка состояния лесов по вредителям, по пожарной опасности и мн. др.

Оценка по вредителям и пожарной опасности это самоуспокоение. Спутники тут ничем помочь не могли. Основной задачей был именно контроль с/х. Если и были другие задачи то это картография и топография.

 В этой истории американцы успешно реализовали блеф об успешности природноресурсных спутников и втянули нас в очередную бессмысленную разорительную авантюру.
 
 Напоминаю ещё раз. Американцами была распространена "теория" о том что 3/4 развединформации получается из анализа открытых источников. Мы клюнули на эту теорию и после этого американцам оставалось лишь наполнять СМИ соответствующими публикациями.

[Morin]

Я не думаю, что советское руководство так уж верило сообщениям о точном прогнозировании амерканцами нашего урожая. Если уж я вполне обоснованно не верил им, то уж ЦК КПСС со своими экспертами - точно.

Отнюдь. Верило и очень сильно. Наверно даже сильнее чем в нырок Шаттла над Москвой.

Хотя, конечно, было (и есть) весьма соблазнительно иметь независимый инструмент оценки с/х производства. Ну так над этим до сих пор бьются. В задачи Фрамов-Ресурсов входила и масса других задач, в т.ч. фоторазведка, оценка состояния лесов по вредителям, по пожарной опасности и мн. др.

Оценка по вредителям и пожарной опасности это самоуспокоение. Спутники тут ничем помочь не могли. Основной задачей был именно контроль с/х. Если и были другие задачи то это картография и топография.

 В этой истории американцы успешно реализовали блеф об успешности природноресурсных спутников и втянули нас в очередную бессмысленную разорительную авантюру.
 
 Напоминаю ещё раз. Американцами была распространена "теория" о том что 3/4 развединформации получается из анализа открытых источников. Мы клюнули на эту теорию и после этого американцам оставалось лишь наполнять СМИ соответствующими публикациями.

1. Верило-не верило - мы не знаем. все наши ИМХИ
2. Ну, почему? Помню говорили, что лес, поврежденный вредителями отличается в определенных диапазонвх от здорового. Избыток сушняка, наверняка, то же как-то проявляет себя в каких-то диапазанах. Американцы втянули нас? А французы тоже запускали свои Споты.
3. Ну и даже если авантюра,то уж совсем не разорительная. Спутники разрабатывались на базе серийных разведчиков (Зенитов), лишних 2-9 пуска в год на фоне 50-60 одних тлько союзовских, не такие уж затраты. Тем более, что 30-50% съемок этими спутниками проводилось, опятьтаки в интетесах МО, т.е. опять же как Зениты использовались.
4. Как работала разведка мы можем судить только по косвенным данным и по мемуарам. Как писали в советских публикациях, первоначальная наводка осуществлялась по открытым источникам, а потом проверялась и уточнялась (если была правдивой) по нелегальным каналам или техническими средствами. Не так уж и верили открытым источникам. На сколько я знаю по некоторым примерам.

[Старый]

1. Верило-не верило - мы не знаем. все наши ИМХИ

Ну какбы судя по принятым решениям...

2. Ну, почему? Помню говорили, что лес, поврежденный вредителями отличается в определенных диапазонвх от здорового.

Говорили. Но не видели.

А французы тоже запускали свои Споты.

И каков итог?

3. Ну и даже если авантюра,то уж совсем не разорительная. Спутники разрабатывались на базе серийных разведчиков (Зенитов), лишних 2-9 пуска в год на фоне 50-60 одних тлько союзовских, не такие уж затраты. Тем более, что 30-50% съемок этими спутниками проводилось, опятьтаки в интетесах МО, т.е. опять же как Зениты использовались.

Сотня лишних запусков - неслабые деньги. В интересах МО их использовать было невозможно - слишком низкое разрешение.

4. Как работала разведка мы можем судить только по косвенным данным и по мемуарам. Как писали в советских публикациях, первоначальная наводка осуществлялась по открытым источникам, а потом проверялась и уточнялась (если была правдивой) по нелегальным каналам или техническими средствами. Не так уж и верили открытым источникам. На сколько я знаю по некоторым примерам.

А по каким каналам уточнили про нырок Шаттла?
 В том то и дело что внедрить везде агентуру невозможно, а тут такая уверенность во всемогуществе открытых источников...

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Veteran Landsat 5 satellite on the brink of failure

An aging Landsat observation satellite could be nearing its end due to a faulty electronic component essential for downloading surface images back to Earth, the U.S. Geological Survey announced Friday.



After several close calls with other components, Landsat 5 is showing signs of an "impending failure" after more than 27 years in space. USGS engineers have suspended image acquisitions using the satellite for at least 90 days, the agency said in a statement.

Over the last several months, satellite controllers monitored fluctuating performance of an amplifier for transmitting images from the spacecraft to ground stations. The amplifier's performance declined more in the last 10 days, according to the USGS.

"Numerous engineering and technical adjustments have been made to Landsat 5 in the past several days to sustain at least a limited imaging capability, but performance has continued to decline," the USGS statement said. "Instead of continuing to operate until the amplifier fails completely, which could bring the mission to an end, USGS engineers have suspended imaging activities for an initial period of 90 days in order to explore every possible option for restoring satellite-to-ground image transmissions."

Launched in March 1984, Landsat 5 has outlived its three-year design life nine times. Landsat 5 collected imagery in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, plus countless other natural disasters.

"This anticipated decline of Landsat 5 provides confirmation of the importance of the timely launch of the next Landsat mission and the need for an operational and reliable National Land Imaging System," said Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior. "The USGS is committed to maintaining the unique long term imaging database that the Landsat program provides."

The launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which will become Landsat 8, is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2013.

Landsat 5 was providing better data than the younger Landsat 7 satellite, which launched in 1999.

Part of Landsat 7's imaging instrument stopped working in 2003, significantly reducing the quality of data from the satellite.

The faulty part is called the scan line corrector, a mirror-like assembly that compensates for the "zigzag" motion of the image scans by the Enhanced Thermal Mapper Plus instrument.

Due to the glitch, each scene is missing about 22 percent of data, leaving gaps that give make some researchers hesitant to use Landsat 7 imagery. Scientists studying crops, forests, the water cycle and other disciplines say they preferred Landsat 5's data for their work.

An interruption in the Landsat program could harm research into climate change, ice fields, the carbon cycle and operational interests in agriculture, land use and resource management.

The Landsat program has kept a constant vigil over Earth since the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972. The constellation's 39-year legacy provides a robust archive of data at the fingertips of scientists.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/18landsat5/

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ESA opens Landsat archives

23 November 2011

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.

The 40-year-old Landsat programme is jointly managed by NASA and the US Geological Survey. ESA supports the Landsat series as a Third Party Mission, meaning it uses its ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute Landsat data to users.

"It is great finally to open the archives. We are keen to get the data to the users – especially in preparation for Sentinel-2, which is built on the heritage and knowledge of 40 years of Landsat," says Bianca Hoersch, Third Party Mission Manager.

A Landsat image will be featured on this week's Earth from Space video programme, broadcast online every Friday at 10:00 CET.

http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMD65ZW5VG_index_0.html

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NASA's Jason-1 Achieves a One-Decade Landmark

On Dec. 7, 2001, NASA and the French Space Agency Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) launched the Jason-1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., embarking on a planned three-to-five-year mission to study Earth's ocean from space. Today, Jason-1 celebrates 10 years of precisely measuring ocean surface topography. The mission continues to reveal new insights into the ocean's complicated circulation patterns, while providing a critical measure of climate change by contributing to a nearly 20-year record of global sea level monitoring from space.

Jason-1 is the successful follow-on mission to the NASA/French Space Agency's pioneering Topex/Poseidon mission, which revolutionized our understanding of the dynamics of ocean circulation and global climate from 1992 to 2006. In 2008, the meteorological agencies of the United States and Europe collaborated with NASA and CNES to launch the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite to build upon this unprecedented long-term record of consistent, continuous global observations of Earth's ocean.

Early calibration phases of the missions allowed Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1, and now Jason-1 and Jason-2, to fly over identical ground tracks. The resulting data streams from these "tandem missions" have provided seamless coverage between the three missions, allowing scientists to observe and study both short-lived events such as hurricanes, and interannual climate phenomena such as El Nino, La Nina and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Other significant science results from the mission include studies of ocean circulation; the ties between the ocean and the atmosphere; and improved global climate forecasts and predictions.

"Jason-1 extended Topex/Poseidon's record of global sea level rise, one of our most important indicators of climate change, into a second decade," said Lee-Lueng Fu, Jason-1 project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the U.S. portion of the Jason-1 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "The altimeter-observed geographic pattern of long-term sea level change is a landmark discovery of oceanography."

The Jason missions don't collect their observations in isolation, however. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-supported ocean-profiling float project, called Argo, was created to collect observations measured directly from the ocean surface and to complement the Jason data. More recently, data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission have been combined with the altimetry data from Jason and Argo to give scientists a more complete picture of Earth's changing ocean, providing an important global observing system for sea level and ocean circulation studies.

NASA is currently working with its partners NOAA, CNES and EUMETSAT on the next mission in the series, Jason-3, projected for launch in 2014. Concepts for future missions, including Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) and the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), are currently in development.

"Jason-1 measures the ongoing rise in global sea level, which is a result of human-caused global warming," said Josh Willis, JPL oceanographer and Jason-3 project scientist. "Driven by melting ice and expanding seawater, global sea level rise has become a powerful reminder of how fast humans are changing the climate. Along with its predecessor, Topex/Poseidon, and its successor, Jason-2, Jason-1 has kept a finger on the pulse of global climate change."

For more information on Jason-1 and NASA's satellite altimetry missions, visit: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-379

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NASA's TRMM Satellite Measured Washi's Deadly Rainfall

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was providing forecasters with the rate in which rainfall was occurring in Tropical Storm Washi over the last week, and now TRMM data has been compiled to show rainfall totals over the devastated Philippines.

Washi, known locally in the Philippines as Sendong, began as a tropical depression on December 13, 2011 in the West Pacific Ocean about 2150 km (~1333 miles) due east of the southern Philippines. Washi only intensified slightly and never exceeded tropical storm intensity as it tracked due west towards the southern Philippines' island of Mindanao.

Washi made landfall on the east coast of Mindanao on the afternoon of Dec. 16 as a moderate tropical storm with sustained winds reported at 55 knots (~63 mph). Despite its modest intensity, Washi had a huge impact on the island. As Washi made its way across Mindanao, it dumped heavy rains over parts of the island, which in turn triggered flash floods and mudslides. These turned out to be catastrophic as over 900 people were killed with hundreds more reported missing when entire villages where swept away.

Rainfall estimates from the TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. were compiled for the period of Dec. 13 to 20, 2011 for the southern Philippines. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Rainfall totals are on the order of 200 to over 250 mm (~8 to 10 inches) along Mindanao's east coast where Washi made landfall, but the highest amounts are along the northwest coast, where totals are on the order of 300 to over 400 mm (~12 to over 16 inches). To put the rainfall in perspective, 16 inches is the equivalent of about four months of rainfall in Washington, D.C.

In the southern Philippines places like Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City suffered the most devastating mudslides. In addition to deforestation and weak construction, poor warnings are being blamed for the deadliest cyclone disaster to hit the Philippines in three years. The residents of the southern Philippines see far fewer cyclones per year than in the north, and most of the heavy rain was reported to have fallen over the mountains before flowing down in raging rivers.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2011/h2011_Washi.html

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Guest Post: Jason Davis: The state of Earth observation, January 2012
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003334/

Мировой план ДЗЗ-запусков

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NASA Landsat's Thermal Infrared Sensor Arrives at Orbital

A new NASA satellite instrument that makes a quantum leap forward in detector technology has arrived at Orbital Sciences Corp. in Gilbert, Ariz. There it will be integrated into the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM).

The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) will take the Earth's temperature with a new technology that applies quantum physics to detect heat. The engineering team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., completed TIRS on an accelerated schedule, going from plans on paper to building the instrument in an unprecedented 43 months. "That's a full year ahead of a typical schedule for a new space borne instrument," says Betsy Forsbacka, TIRS instrument manager.

"Two things made this remarkable achievement possible," says James Irons, LDCM project scientist. "The dedication of the TIRS team working nearly around-the-clock and the use of advanced detector arrays we had on-hand because Goddard played a major role in developing the technology. TIRS will be the first time this technology is used in space."

TIRS uses Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIPs) to detect long wavelengths of light emitted by the Earth with an intensity depending on surface temperature. These wavelengths, called thermal infrared, are well beyond the range of human vision and while devices for thermal infrared night 'vision' have long been available, QWIPs offered a new lower-cost alternative to conventional infrared technology. QWIPs arrays are designed for sensitivity to specific wavelengths.

The QWIPs design operates on the complex principles of quantum mechanics. Gallium arsenide semiconductor chips trap electrons in an energy state 'well' until the electrons are elevated to a higher state by thermal infrared light of a certain wavelength. The elevated electrons create an electrical signal that can be read out and recorded to create a digital image. The QWIPs TIRS uses are sensitive to two thermal infrared wavelength bands, helping it separate the temperature of the Earth's surface from that of the atmosphere.

TIRS was added to the satellite mission when it became clear that state water resource managers rely on the highly accurate measurements of Earth's thermal energy obtained by NASA satellites like LDCM's predecessors, Landsat 5 and Landsat 7, to track how land and water are being used.

"For example, irrigated fields are cooler than those suffering from a lack of moisture," says Veronica Otero, TIRS thermal engineer.

With nearly 80 percent of the fresh water in the Western U.S. being used to irrigate crops, TIRS will become an invaluable tool for managing water consumption, says Rick Allen, director of water resources research at the University of Idaho, in Kimberly, Idaho.

LDCM is scheduled to launch in January 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Aboard LDCM are two instruments, TIRS and an imaging sensor called the Operational Land Imager (OLI) built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. OLI collects data in the visible, near infrared and short wave infrared spectrum.

LDCM is the eighth satellite in the Landsat series, which began in 1972 with the launch of Landsat 1, and extends the world's longest-running satellite program for global land observations. NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images with free distribution of data over the Internet.

Because of this freely available data of more than three million current and archived images of Earth, Landsat data is the basis for thousands of university research papers, the foundation for commercial innovations like Google Earth, and a cornerstone of U.S. space cooperation with foreign nations. More than 20 nations on six continents operate local receiving stations for Landsat data.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/tirs-arrives.html

По ссылке еще видео есть.

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NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in a New Light

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth's forests. The map will help scientists better understand the role forests play in climate change and how their heights influence wildlife habitats within them, while also helping them quantify the carbon stored in Earth's vegetation.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of Maryland, College Park; and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass., created the map using 2.5 million carefully screened, globally distributed laser pulse measurements from space. The light detection and ranging (lidar) data were collected in 2005 by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument on NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat).

"Knowing the height of Earth's forests is critical to estimating their biomass, or the amount of carbon they contain," said lead researcher Marc Simard of JPL. "Our map can be used to improve global efforts to monitor carbon. In addition, forest height is an integral characteristic of Earth's habitats, yet is poorly measured globally, so our results will also benefit studies of the varieties of life that are found in particular parts of the forest or habitats."

The map, available at http://lidarradar.jpl.nasa.gov , depicts the highest points in the forest canopy. Its spatial resolution is 0.6 miles (1 kilometer). The map was validated against data from a network of nearly 70 ground sites around the world.

The researchers found that, in general, forest heights decrease at higher elevations and are highest at low latitudes, decreasing in height the farther they are from the tropics. A major exception was found at around 40 degrees south latitude in southern tropical forests in Australia and New Zealand, where stands of eucalyptus, one of the world's tallest flowering plants, tower much higher than 130 feet (40 meters).

The researchers augmented the ICESat data with other types of data to compensate for the sparse lidar data, the effects of topography and cloud cover. These included estimates of the percentage of global tree cover from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite, elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, and temperature and precipitation maps from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the WorldClim database. WorldClim is a set of freely available, high-resolution global climate data that can be used for mapping and spatial modeling.

In general, estimates in the new map show forest heights were taller than in a previous ICESat-based map, particularly in the tropics and in boreal forests, and were shorter in mountainous regions. The accuracy of the new map varies across major ecological community types in the forests, and also depends on how much the forests have been disturbed by human activities and by variability in the forests' natural height.

"Our map contains one of the best descriptions of the height of Earth's forests currently available at regional and global scales," Simard said. "This study demonstrates the tremendous potential that spaceborne lidar holds for revealing new information about Earth's forests. However, to monitor the long-term health of Earth's forests and other ecosystems, new Earth observing satellites will be needed."

Results of the study were published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/forest20120217.html

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Израильские беспилотники оснастят гиперспектральными датчиками

Израильская компания Elbit Systems оснастит свои беспилотные летательные аппараты Hermes 450 и Hermes 900 гиперспектральными датчиками, сообщает Flightglobal.

По данным издания, новые датчики, разработанные компанией Elop, дочерним предприятием Elbit Systems, позволят БПЛА получать изображение сканируемого объекта сразу в нескольких волновых диапазонах. По словам представителя Elop, благодаря новому датчику беспилотники смогут распознавать цели на основании материала, из которого они состоят.

В комплекте с датчиком, размещаемом на беспилотнике, предусмотрена наземная станция. В ее задачи входит передача задания БПЛА и обратная передача данных о цели в высоком разрешении оператору.

Помимо военного использования разработку компании Elop можно использовать также в коммерческих и научных целях. В частности, гиперспектральный датчик может применяться для оценки загрязненности морской среды, поиска залежей минералов и мониторинга растительности.

БПЛА Hermes 900 развивает скорость до 220 километров в час, может принимать на борт полезную нагрузку массой до 300 килограммов и способен находиться в воздухе до 36 часов. Первый полет Hermes 900 совершил в начале декабря 2009 года и с середины 2010 года был поставлен в серийное производство в Израиле.

Hermes 450 может развивать скорость до 176 километров в час и совершать полеты продолжительностью до 30 часов. Грузоподъемность аппарата составляет 150 килограммов.

http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/02/17/hermes/

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INGENIO
The first Spanish optical Earth observation satellite

Astrium Spain is prime contractor for INGENIO, the first Spanish optical Earth observation satellite, which will mainly serve a civil purpose.

The mission will provide high-definition panchromatic and multi-spectral ground imaging for various applications that can be used in mapping, monitoring borders land changes, urban planning, agriculture, water management, environmental monitoring, and risk and safety management. The mission will last for a minimum of seven years following launch. This will offer the capability to provide a supply of data which will be the basis for operational services, facilitating the decision-making of the Spanish government and the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) users, when necessary. The flight segment (the satellite itself) comprises the satellite platform, the optical payload, which will generate an average of 230 images (60x60km) daily, and three additional scientific payloads.

Launch of the INGENIO satellite is planned for 2014. The satellite will be operated from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.

http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/programme/ingenio-the-first-spanish-optical-earth-observation-satellite.html

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NASA Satellite Finds Earth's Clouds are Getting Lower

Earth's clouds got a little lower -- about one percent on average -- during the first decade of this century, finds a new NASA-funded university study based on NASA satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.

Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet (30 to 40 meters). Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes.

Lead researcher Roger Davies said that while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides a hint that something quite important might be going on. Longer-term monitoring will be required to determine the significance of the observation for global temperatures.

A consistent reduction in cloud height would allow Earth to cool to space more efficiently, reducing the surface temperature of the planet and potentially slowing the effects of global warming. This may represent a "negative feedback" mechanism – a change caused by global warming that works to counteract it. "We don't know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower," says Davies. "But it must be due to a change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude."

NASA's Terra spacecraft is scheduled to continue gathering data through the remainder of this decade. Scientists will continue to monitor the MISR data closely to see if this trend continues.

For more information, visit: http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/news/template/news_item.jsp?cid=466683 .

MISR, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is one of five instruments on NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched in December 1999. The instrument uses nine cameras at different angles to produce a stereo image of clouds around the globe, allowing measurement of their altitude and movement. For more on MISR, visit: http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more on Terra, visit: http://terra.nasa.gov/ .

Another NASA mission that studies clouds is NASA's CloudSat, also built by JPL and launched in 2006. CloudSat is the first satellite that uses an advanced radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure, providing a completely new observational capability from space. CloudSat's primary goal is to furnish data needed to evaluate and improve the way clouds are represented in global models, thereby contributing to better predictions of clouds and thus to their poorly understood role in climate change and the cloud-climate feedback. For information on NASA's CloudSat mission, visit: http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/cloudsat .

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/misr20120221.html