News
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UN-SPIDER Conference in Beijing Wed Dec 21 2011UN-SPIDER organised the “United Nations Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster Management - Best Practices for Risk Reduction and Rapid Response Mapping” on 22-25 November 2011. The conference brought together 128 participants from 42 countries representing 93 national, regional and international organizations, non-government organizations, the private sector and...
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UN launches information system to boost disaster prevention, food security measures Wed Feb 1 2012The United Nations launched today an information system to improve and expand the exchange of weather, climate and water data, which can be used for disaster risk reduction, water management, food security and health purposes. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Information System will facilitate access to meteorological observations and products, making it easy to share them with a wide...
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GTS Exhibits Geospatial Photo Technology Used in Haiti at the 2012 International Disaster Conference and Expo Tue Jan 31 2012Geo Tactical Solutions (GTS) promotes the use of advanced GPS cameras and photo mapping technology for disaster response and management at IDCE 2012. Geospatial photo technology played an essential role in the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts and continues to be an important element of maintaining accurate and current situational intelligence for supporting the slow recovery of the Haitian...
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SumbandilaSat beyond repair Tue Jan 31 2012South Africa’s second satellite, SumbandilaSat, is no longer fulfilling its main purpose due to technical problems and is essentially beyond repair, its maker SunSpace says. Ron Olivier, head of Business Development at SunSpace, told defenceWeb that although contact can still be made with the satellite, it cannot capture images and is thus “not fulfilling its main purpose”. He said that chances...
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Disaster Averted: Instant Communication Saves Lives in Latin America Tue Jan 31 2012mBlox and InSTEDD Join Forces to Deliver Critical Services via Mobile to Vulnerable Populations in Latin America. Today, mBlox, a leader in mobile consumer interaction and payments, and InSTEDD, a pioneer in integrating social and technological approaches to solving humanitarian issues, announced they will be working together to improve the health, safety and development of at-risk communities in...
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Philippines: Geo-hazard maps go public Tue Jan 31 2012The Philippine government has made geo-hazard maps, which outline areas prone to natural disasters, publicly available in a bid to reduce vulnerability at community level. The geo-hazard map developed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR) uses colour to classify areas as either low, moderately or highly susceptible to floods,...
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Turkey paves the way for large satellites plan Tue Jan 31 2012A total of 17 satellite programs are expected to come into orbit from 2012 to 2020. Over the next five years satellite contracts could amount to $2 billion, according to a space industry expert based in Turkey. The Turkish government has devised an ambitious road map for the country’s multiple satellite programs through 2020. According to the road map, a total of 17 Turkish satellites will come...
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Potential To Tap Into Space Technology Tue Jan 31 2012Earth Observation (EO) products and services – which use orbiting, remote sensing satellite technology to monitor and map the environment – have huge potential for business and social use in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). And steps are underway to address the bottlenecks holding back use of this technology, through a major European Commission project known as the Group on...
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UAE to chair World Radiocommunication Conference Tue Jan 24 2012The United Arab Emirates, represented by Tarek Al Awadhi, Head of the Spectrum & International Affairs Section at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRI), was selected as a chair of the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) which opened in Geneva today. This is the first time the UAE has chaired the conference since joining in 1972. The conference is aimed at reviewing and...
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Satellite phone for emergencies installed in Abra Tue Jan 24 2012The Office of Civil Defense – Cordillera Administrative Region (OCD-CAR) had installed the Thuraya satellite telephone at the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) here last week for use in times of emergencies. The telecommunications facility is issued to the provincial governor to be used by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council(PDRRMC), which...
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World Bank and Google Announce Map Maker Collaboration Tue Jan 24 2012The World Bank and Google announced an agreement aimed at improving the ability of developing countries to access a web-based community mapping tool and data to help better monitor public services, and improve disaster and humanitarian response efforts. Most developing countries do not have basic local data about where schools, hospitals, or water points are located, and the data they do have is...
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A step closer to mapping the Earth in 3D Tue Jan 17 2012After a year in service, the German Earth observation satellite TanDEM-X, together with its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X, have completely mapped the entire land surface of Earth for the first time. The data is being used to create the world’s first single-source, high-precision, 3D digital elevation model of Earth. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR)...
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New Satellite Technology a Possible ‘Game Changer’ for Communications Tue Jan 17 2012As the interoperability discussion continues, so does the frustration of many who have worked on this issue for decades but haven’t seen their goals realized. So it makes sense to take a look into the future of what could be bright spot, given the right circumstances, some money and a will to make it work. Satellite technology has proven itself during major events but its limitations are...
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Ziyuan III satellite sends back images Tue Jan 17 2012The Ziyuan III satellite has sent back its first set of visual data days after the orbiter was successfully launched on January 9 to produce high-resolution imagery for civilian use. According to a statement released Thursday by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, the administration has made hi-res imagery based on analysis of the data and posted it on tianditu....
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Vietnam to launch earth-monitoring satellites Tue Jan 17 2012Japanese experts are to help Vietnam build its first earth-observation satellites in an effort to help the South-East Asian country plan for the effects of climate change and natural disasters. Last November, Japan announced that it will provide a 40-year loan of about US$93 million (7.2 billion Japanese Yen) to Vietnam for equipment and capacity development connected to the bilateral satellite...
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High Resolution OrbView - 3 Images Now Available from USGS Tue Jan 10 2012OrbView-3 satellite images collected around the world between 2003 and 2007 by Orbital Imaging Corporation (now GeoEye) at up to one-meter resolution can now be downloaded at no cost through USGS EarthExplorer. "This is a significant addition to the USGS archive and a valuable resource for the global science community," said Matthew Larsen, Associate Director, Climate and Land Use...
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China launches high-resolution remote-sensing satellite Tue Jan 10 2012China successfully launched Ziyuan I-02C Thursday, a high-resolution remote-sensing satellite, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi province. Launched at 11:26 a.m aboard a Long March 4B rocket, the satellite reached an orbit of 770 km above Earth about 13 minutes later, according to the launch center. Developed and produced by the China Academy of Space Technology, a...
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Disaster management center up in forum Tue Jan 10 2012The Philippines will seek assistance in setting up a disaster management center at next week’s forum of lawmakers in the region in Japan, a senator said yesterday. Senator Edgardo J. Angara said in a text message that he will ask “assistance from Japan, being the most prepared nation against natural calamities -- to set up a Philippine disaster center.” “I will push for...
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Shared images to help Philippines make disaster plans Tue Jan 10 2012While some countries have shipped relief supplies for the victims of Tropical Storm “Sendong,” others are sharing valuable satellite data on the devastated areas in Mindanao. Commercial satellite operators from Asia, Europe and North America have sent images of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, taken before and after the flashfloods, to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and...
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Ocean health, disaster impacts monitored from above by satellite remote sensing Tue Jan 10 2012New remote sensing technologies with applications such as predicting problems with ocean fish stocks and assessing natural disasters were reported at conferences sponsored recently in Prague by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The papers and others from SPIE Remote Sensing have been published in the SPIE Digital Library, with freely accessible abstracts and full papers...
