News
See a geographical representation of news
-
Disasters: Smart weather data can make a difference Tue Feb 21 2012“When should we plant?” is a question increasingly being asked by small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa who depend on rain-fed agriculture. To help answer such questions, climate scientists are being urged to provide more reliable and relevant local climate data, and better communicate their knowledge on climate adaptation techniques."When we think about preparing for imminent...
-
Use space technology for food security: Former ISRO chief Tue Feb 21 2012India must embark on a “new evergreen revolution” with the extensive use of appropriate bio- and space technology inputs to ensure food security for all and enable the country to compete successfully in a globalised economy, says renowned space scientist U.R. Rao. India’s population is bound to cross 1.6 billion by 2050, which will demand doubling of our foodgrain production to...
-
New web tool to improve accuracy of global land cover maps Tue Feb 21 2012An interactive web tool has been developed to improve the accuracy and extent of global land use and forest cover information. The new 'Geo-Wiki' uses Google Earth and information provided by a global network of volunteers to fill in 'data gaps' and to verify existing land cover information. Developers this week have launched a Geo-Wiki competition to raise awareness of the tool and to encourage...
-
Disaster Management Guidelines for Information and Communication System released Tue Feb 21 2012National Disaster Management Guidelines for Information and Communication System (NDMICS) prepared by National Disaster Management authority (NDMA) were released in New Delhi today. Speaking at the occasion, Shri M. Shashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman, NDMA stressed that the holistic approach for Disaster Management calls for a dedicated fail-proof communication system to ensure seamless flow of...
-
Timely Upgrade of Weather Information Systems Tue Feb 21 2012The United States Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the U.S. State Department and USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), has been upgrading Emergency Managers Weather Information Systems (EMWINs) in the Pacific to ensure that local officials and decision makers receive timely warning for better...
-
Landsat 5 Suspension of Operations Extended Tue Feb 21 2012Landsat 5 Earth imaging operations have been suspended for an additional 90 days while the U.S. Geological Survey Flight Operations Team (FOT) continues to investigate options for the resumption of imaging. Landsat 5 imaging was halted in November 2011 when an electronic component vital to transmission of the satellite's Thematic Mapper (TM) data began showing signs of imminent failure. Following...
-
NASA Landsat's Thermal Infrared Sensor Arrives at Orbital Wed Feb 15 2012A 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...
-
Spaceborne Precipitation Radar Ships from Japan to U.S. Wed Feb 15 2012Japanese scientists and engineers have completed construction on a new instrument designed to take 3-D measurements of the shapes, sizes and other physical characteristics of both raindrops and snowflakes. The instrument will be shipped from Japan to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., to be integrated into an upcoming NASA Earth science satellite. Designed and built by the Japan...
-
Vega success assures Sentinel launches Wed Feb 15 2012Yesterday’s successful maiden flight of ESA’s new Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, opens a new set of launch services – including two of the Sentinel satellites for GMES. According to contracts signed in December, Arianespace will launch Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-3B on this new light launcher. These launches are foreseen in 2014–15. The...
-
Twitter expands SMS service to satellite phones Mon Feb 13 2012The social networking website Twitter on Friday announced it has partnered with two satellite providers to make its messaging service available on satellite phones for the first time. A post on the company's blog said Twitter has partnered with the two largest satellite operators, Iridium and Thuraya, to allow their subscribers to access Twitter SMS. It will enable people to access the...
-
3-D Map Study Shows Before-After of 2010 Mexico Quake Mon Feb 13 2012Geologists have a new tool to study how earthquakes change the landscape, and it's giving them insight into how earthquake faults behave. In the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science, a team of scientists from the United States, Mexico and China, including geophysicist Eric Fielding of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., reports the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet...
-
Advanced Tool for Weather Forecasting Turned On Aboard NPP Mon Feb 13 2012Experts managing the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, formerly the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project, say that the spacecraft has just turned on an instrument that will make it extremely suited for weather forecasting. The satellite was launched on October 28, 2011, aboard a Delta II delivery system that took...
-
SMOS water mission turns hurricane hunter Mon Feb 13 2012ESA’s Earth Explorers have again shown how they are surpassing expectations. Designed to map soil moisture and ocean salinity, the versatile SMOS satellite has demonstrated that it can also offer unique information to improve hurricane forecasts. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite carries a novel microwave radiometer to capture images of ‘brightness temperature...
-
3rd Annual Meeting of UN-SPIDER Regional Support Offices Fri Feb 10 2012UN-SPIDER conducted its 3rd Annual Meeting of Regional Support Offices (RSOs) on 6 and 7 February 2012 in Vienna. The meeting brought together representatives of the RSOs from Colombia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Romania, Ukraine and Hungary (as the newest RSO) and also from the Regional organisations ADRC and RCMRD. In addition the meeting was attended by representatives from Argentina,...
-
Romantis Provides Turnkey Satellite Telemedicine Network to All-Russian Center for Disaster Medicine Thu Feb 9 2012Romantis, a global provider of satellite capacity and satellite networking equipment, has announced the successful implementation of the state project on delivery of communication, management and interaction systems to connect the Regional Centers for Disaster Medicine (RCDM) of the Russian Federation with the unified national system of prevention and liquidation of emergency situations. In...
-
BSEE, NOAA Enhance Response Mapping Thu Feb 9 2012BSEE and NOAA to complete Arctic oil spill response mapping tool. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today they are partnering to enhance the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) for the Arctic region by summer 2012. ERMA® is the same interactive online mapping tool used by...
-
Rockot to launch two Sentinel satellites Thu Feb 9 2012ESA and Eurockot today signed contracts for launching two ESA satellites: Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-3A will fly in 2013 on Rockot vehicles from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia for Europe’s GMES programme. The contract signing by Matthias Oehm, Chief Executive Officer of Eurockot Launch Services GmbH, and Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, took...
-
New Way to Map Drought and Water Use Wed Feb 8 2012US - Every month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Center for Climate Prediction has a drought briefing by teleconference to identify the latest drought areas in North America, writes Don Comis of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS scientists, Martha Anderson and Bill Kustas, are hoping that in a year or so, data from their computer model/satellite...
-
NASA's Aqua satellite sees small new tropical storm near Tonga Tue Feb 7 2012Tropical Storm 11P has formed in the South Pacific Ocean, and NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of its cloud temperatures, revealing power in the cyclone. NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard the Aqua satellite passed over the newest tropical storm in the South Pacific, Tropical Storm 11P, on February 6, 2012 at 0053 UTC (Feb. 5 at 7:53 p.m. EST...
-
NASA satellite sees cyclone Jasmine heading for Vanuatu, New Caledonia Tue Feb 7 2012NASA's Aqua satellite passed over strengthening Tropical Storm Jasmine and noticed bands of thunderstorms wrapping into its center as it heads toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Vanuatu and New Caledonia are island nations in the South Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu is about 1,090 miles (1,750 km) east of northern Australia, and 310 miles (500 km) northeast of New Caledonia. New Caledonia is an...
