News
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UN-SPIDER mission to Jamaica Tue Jan 5 20105 January 2010 - During the first week of December, 2009, UN-SPIDER conducted a Technical Advisory Mission (TAM) to Jamaica, with the purpose of assessing the current capacities of institutions regarding access and use of space-based information for disaster-risk reduction and response in order to suggest a variety of measures to strengthen such institutional capacities. The mission included...
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NASA's TRMM Satellite Measures Cyclone Laurence's Heavy Rainfall Tue Jan 5 2010Dec. 31, 2009 (Hal Pierce, SSAI/Goddard Space Flight Center) - Tropical Cyclone Laurence dropped heavy rainfall over Northwest Australia last week, and NASA and the Japanese Space Agency’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite measured that rainfall from its orbit in space. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard...
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UN-SPIDER missions to Fiji and Samoa Tue Jan 5 201021 December 2009 - Upon request from the Government of Fiji, UN-SPIDER conducted a technical advisory mission (TAM) parallel to the Pacific Islands GIS and remote sensing conference in Suva, Fiji, from 1-4 December. Meetings with the Permanent Secretary for Provincial Development and Multi-Ethnic Affairs, officials of the National Disaster Management Office and experts from Land Department,...
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UN OCHA Sri Lanka recently launched new Map Atlas Mon Dec 7 2009OCHA is the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and one of its multiple mandates is the coordination of humanitarian response, policy development and humanitarian advocacy. To accomplish this mission OCHA produces, prints and distributes a wide range of geographic and thematic maps. Nowadays, OCHA works in cooperation with the Urban Development Authority and the Survey...
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NASA's GOES Project Offers Real-Time Hurricane Alley Movies Wed Nov 25 2009People love to get the big picture of hurricane alleys, and thanks to the GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., they can now get real-time satellite animations of the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Project is offering real-time HDTV movies of the east- and west-coast "hurricane alley"...
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Global Monitoring for Environment and Security GMES – exploring opportunities for cooperation with the United Nations Thu Nov 19 2009On Thursday, November 12, 2009 the workshop “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security GMES – exploring opportunities for cooperation with the United Nations” took place at the UN-Campus in Bonn. It was organised by bridge 2GEO – European Geoinformation Network, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the City of Bonn. Its purpose was to...
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NASA's QuikScat and Aqua Providing Important Data on Tropical Storm Anja Thu Nov 19 2009Anja has continued to weaken over the last 24 hours, and NASA's QuikScat satellite has confirmed that the once mighty Category 4 Cyclone is now a tropical storm in the southern Indian Ocean. Two instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite have also helped forecasters determine Anja's location and change of shape. NASA's QuikScat satellite uses microwave technology to peer through a tropical cyclone's...
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China to host new international disaster research programme Wed Nov 18 2009China will host the office of the new international programme, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR). The International Programme Office for IRDR will be established in Beijing at the Headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE)—the first time an international office of this type has been hosted in Asia. ICSU, along with the other IRDR co-sponsors—...
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UN-SPIDER mission to Kenya and Uganda Thu Nov 12 200911 November 2009 - UN-SPIDER visited Kenya and Uganda from 21 to 30 October 2009 to attend the GEOSS workshop and the AfricaGIS 2009 conference, as well as to establish a network between UN-SPIDER, UN-agencies and Government offices in Kenya. UN-SPIDER presented their activities in Africa to the Kenya Humanitarian Forum, which generating greater awareness among the over 45 UN and Government...
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Two new ESA satellites successfully lofted into orbit Tue Nov 3 20092 November 2009 - The second satellite in ESA’s Earth Explorer series – the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission – and the second demonstration satellite under ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) were launched into orbit last night from northern Russia. SMOS will play a key role in the monitoring of climate change on a global scale. It is the first ever...
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International Day for Disaster Reduction Wed Oct 28 2009On October 14, 2009, the International Day for Disaster Reduction was used to illustrate the role of UN-SPIDER in a concrete case, namely the recent Tropical Cyclone on the Philippines. At the VIC Rotunda in Vienna, a presentation was given on the particular example. After a welcome address by Niklas Hedman (Chief Committee Services and Research Section, Office for Outer Space Affairs) and...
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The Third International UN-SPIDER Bonn Workshop - Opening ceremony with Government representatives Thu Oct 22 2009The Third International UN-SPIDER Bonn Workshop – From Concepts to Application Opening ceremony with Government representatives This year’s UN-SPIDER Workshop focuses on the implementation of concepts into actual applications and projects. Climate Change and desertification pose special challenges to the disaster management community and will receive particular attention during...
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DigitalGlobe Unveils First WorldView-2 Images Thu Oct 22 2009October 20, 2009 – DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution world-imagery products and services for defense and intelligence, civil government, and commercial customers, today released the first images from WorldView-2, the company’s most recent high-resolution, remote-sensing satellite. Initial images, issued after just 11 days on orbit, captured Love...
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UN-SPIDER accomplishes first TAM to Latin America in Ecuador Tue Oct 20 2009UN-SPIDER successfully conducted its Technical Advisory Mission to Ecuador between 29 Sept and 08 October of this year. The mission was conducted with the support of experts from INPE of Brazil, and CONAE of Argentina, and with two staff members from UN-SPIDER. The mission was coordinated at the national level with the National Secretariat for Risk Management, the Pro-Tempore Secretariat of...
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UN-SPIDER Regional Workshop in Ecuador a great success Tue Oct 20 2009UN-SPIDER conducted its regional workshop “Aplicaciones Espaciales en la Gestión para la Reducción del Riesgo y para la Respuesta en caso de Desastres” in Quito, Ecuador, between 29 September and 2 October of this year with the presence of more than 60 participants from 17 countries. The event benefitted considerably from the support provided by different agencies of...
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Astrium Inks Two-Satellite Deal with Kazakhstan Tue Oct 13 2009PARIS — Space hardware and services supplier Astrium, furthering its partnership with the government of Kazakhstan, will build and launch two Earth observation satellites, and provide a satellite integration and test center in Kazakhstan, in a contract valued at 230 million euros ($336 million) and concluded Oct. 6 during a state visit to Kazakhstan by French President Nicolas Sarkozy,...
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Satellite data instrumental in combating desertification Tue Oct 13 2009With land degradation in dryland regions continuing to worsen, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification has agreed on scientist-recommended indicators for monitoring and assessing desertification that signatory countries must report on. The landmark agreement was reached after two weeks of negotiations involving hundreds of scientists and government ministers attending the Ninth Session of the...
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Philippines appeals for flood aid Tue Sep 29 2009Forecasters warning of new storm as rescuers struggle to cope with worst floods in decades.
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Philippine Flood Kills at Least 106 Tue Sep 29 2009The number of dead and missing from Tropical Storm Ketsana has climbed to at least 106 people. The storm set off the worst flooding in the Philippine capital and nearby provinces in decades.
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SumbandilaSat launched successfully Wed Sep 23 2009South Africa: SumbandilaSat was successfully launched on 17 September at 17:55:09 CAT (Central African Time) after the launch had to be postponed twice, once due to heavy winds and the second attempt due to the fuel pressure in the feed line which was four times too low and thus caused the fueling process to take too long to be completed in time for launch. The satellite was released from the...
