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On Feb. 13, 2012, NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor detected heat signatures on Tinakula. Over the past decade, satellites have detected intermittent “thermal anomalies” on the island that suggest eruptions have taken place, but eyewitness observations are infrequent.

Around the island, the reflection of sunlight on the ocean—sunglint—gives the surface a milky appearance that makes the wave patterns readily visible. The image was collected by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

Source: NASA

The three satellites that make up ESA’s Swarm magnetic field mission were presented to the media on Feb. 17, 2012, at the IABG Center in Ottobrunn, Germany.

Swarm is the first constellation of Earth observation satellites designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to measure the magnetic signals from Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere, providing data that will allow scientists to study the complexities of our protective magnetic field.

The magnetic shield protects the planet from charged particles that stream in as the solar wind. Without this shield, life on Earth would be impossible.

This shield is generated mainly deep inside Earth by an ocean of swirling iron in the liquid outer core. How the magnetic field is created and how it changes over time is complex and not fully understood. This force is constantly changing; at the moment, it shows signs of significant weakening. But with a new generation of sensors, the Swarm constellation will provide greater insight into these natural processes and the “weather” in space.

Swarm will be ESA’s fourth Earth Explorer mission in orbit, following GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat. In five months, the trio of satellites will be launched together on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Two will orbit close together at the same altitude—initially at about 460 km—while the third satellite will be in a higher orbit of 530 km.

The different near-polar orbits, along with the various Swarm instruments, improve the sampling in space and time. This helps to distinguish between the effects of different sources of magnetism. At the press event at the IABG centre in Ottobrunn, Germany, where all three satellites have just completed an intensive testing program, representatives from ESA, the industrial team, the scientific investigator team and other experts from the scientific community gave presentations on the satellites and the mission’s scientific objectives.

It was the last chance to see the satellites before they are packed up and shipped to Russia in May.ESA’s director of Earth Observation Programs, Volker Liebig, said, “Swarm is the next mission in our Earth Observation Envelope Program. We expect the innovative Swarm constellation of three satellites orbiting in formation to deliver the best-ever survey of Earth’s magnetic field.

Since 2010, engineers from EADS-Astrium, who lead the consortium building the satellites, have been testing them against the harsh environment of space by exposing each satellite to different temperatures, vibration and shocks. The satellites and instruments have their own magnetic properties and therefore influence the measurements they make. The origins of all the magnetic signals stemming from different parts of the satellites were accounted for so that the measurements taken in orbit are not misinterpreted.

The tests were carried out in a “magnetically clean” environment at IABG, and the instruments on all three satellites performed well.

“This period of the project is really exciting,” said Yvon Menard, ESA’s Swarm project manager.

“We collected excellent test results, and the team is eager to verify the performances of the constellation in orbit to confirm the promises from the ground test campaigns.”

Source: ESA

On March 2, 2009, Landsat 5 celebrated its 25th anniversary of operation, 22 years over its 3-year mission.

Landsat 5 imaging was halted last November when an electronic component vital to transmission of the satellite’s Thematic Mapper (TM) data began showing signs of imminent failure. Following an unsuccessful attempt to recover the backup electronic component, the Flight Operations Team (FOT) is exploring potential changes to operational procedures for the primary component.

“The challenge of attempting to recover operations of malfunctioning, three-decade-old components in an unmanned satellite orbiting more than 400 miles above Earth is daunting to say the least,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “Regardless of whether any additional data is collected, Landsat 5 has already exceeded all expectations for longevity.”

Should no significant improvement in transmitting TM data be realized, a limited amount of transmission life would remain. In that case, TM imaging will be prioritized to collect growing season imagery over the Northern Hemisphere.

Meanwhile, USGS is researching the prospect of recovering the secondary imaging instrument on Landsat 5, the Multispectral Scanner (MSS), which was turned off many years ago. TheMSSinstrument collects imagery in four spectral bands at 79-meter resolution and uses a different data transmission scheme than the TM instrument.MSSdata would provide some data continuity in the event TM data could no longer be transmitted. However, the current condition of the instrument is unknown, and the reception and ground processing capabilities for its data would have to be reconstituted.

As it approaches the 28th anniversary of its launch, Landsat 5 is in a safe state while USGS does everything it can to restore imaging operations. Should neither the restoration of TM data transmissions nor the revival of theMSSinstrument succeed, USGS will proceed to decommission the satellite. The FOT is now developing the procedures required to turn off all systems and safely lower the orbit of Landsat 5, should this step prove necessary.

The USGS-operated Landsat 7 remains in orbit collecting global imagery. Since its launch in 1999 with a 5-year design life, Landsat 7 has experienced an instrument anomaly that reduces the amount of data collected per image. Landsat 8, currently called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, is scheduled to be launched in January 2013.

Source: USGS

Thick cloud cover tends to reflect a large amount of incoming solar energy back to space.

CERES collects critical information about Earth’s “radiation budget,” which is the difference between the incoming energy from the sun and the outgoing energy back to space. This determines Earth’s temperature and climate. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists will use data from CERES to improve their understanding of the role clouds and energy play in global climate change

“CERES data will also improve the accuracy of radiation data derived from operational weather satellites,” said Istvan Laszlo with NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

Image courtesy of the NASA/NOAA/CERES team.

Source: NOAA

A Mikrokopter UAS similar to this one reportedly was shot down seconds after an animal rights group in South Carolina launched it to video record a pigeon slaughter.

Steve Hindi, president of SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone on Feb. 12 to video what he called a live pigeon shoot near Broxton Bridge Plantation near Ehrhardt, S.C., when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately owned plantation tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

“It didn’t work—what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal,” Hindi said in a news release. “Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the [pigeon] shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave.” He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

“Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out,” Hindi said in the release. “As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they shot down our copter.”

He claimed the shooters were “in tree cover” and “fled the scene on small motorized vehicles.”

“It is important to note how dangerous this was, as they were shooting toward and into a well-travelled highway,” Hindi stated in the release. He said someone from SHARK called the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, which took a report of the incident.

The Colleton County Sheriff’s Department filed a malicious damage to property incident report.

According to the report, Hindi told the responding deputy the group’s remote-controlled aircraft “was hovering over U.S. 601 when he heard a shot come from the wood line. The shot sounded to him that it was of small caliber.”

The incident report went on to state that “once shot, the helicopter lost lift and crash landed on the roadway of U.S. 601.” The deputy noted in the report that he was unable to speak to anyone at Broxton Bridge Plantation following the incident. Hindi estimated damage to the drone at around $200 to $300. Hindi said he will seek charges against those who shot down the drone.

“This was SHARK’s first encounter with the Broxton Bridge Plantation, but it will certainly not be the last,” Hindi said in the release. “We are already making plans for a considerably upscaled action in 2013.”

Source: The Times and Democrat 

USGIF’s presentation began with a satellite overview and concluded with examples of how GEOINT has played a pivotal role in disaster management and national security.

In January, the International Spy Museum’s Spy Fest attracted 468 attendees. As part of its educational initiatives, the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) participated to educate and generate interest in the geospatial intelligence field among kids ages 7 and up.

“Our partnership with the International Spy Museum continues to grow, and the opportunity to once again participate in Spy Fest was fantastic,” said USGIF President Keith Masback. “It was a unique opportunity to engage with children and speak with them about the power of GEOINT in the context of other intelligence disciplines. This is a great fit for USGIF as we pursue one of our goals, building the community, by sparking the imagination of the next generation of GEOINTers.”

The Foundation presented “Eyes in the Sky: Using Satellites for National Security,” an interactive demonstration using video and various satellite and aerial images—some of which were provided by USGIF members DigitalGlobe, GeoEye,AGIand others—to illustrate the impact of the GEOINT tradecraft.

“Participating in Spy Fest 2012 not only gave me the experience to work with children of all ages, but also gave me unique insight into the influence of geospatial visualization tools, such as Google Earth, on children at an early age,” said USGIF Young Professionals Group member Gabriela Maldonado. “I was surprised by the insightful questions the children had. Furthermore, Spy Fest was a great opportunity to intrigue children beyond Google Earth by providing them with interactive activities that allowed them to answer questions by simply analyzing the imagery.”

USGIF’s presentation began with an overview of some satellites and other spy platforms and concluded with examples of how GEOINT has played a pivotal role in recent disaster management and national security. During the presentation, children had the chance to search and discover what the images or video revealed and were able to see first-hand how to gain information from the spies in the sky.

Source: USGIF

Envisat’s MERIS instrument captured Italy’s widespread snow cover on Feb. 13, 2012.

According to CNN reports, the Colosseum in Rome has been forced to shut down after small pieces of its walls crumbled away as a result of freezing temperatures. Additionally, buildings in the historic walled town of Urbino—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—are reported to be at risk of collapse under the weight of snow, following unprecedented blizzards in the area.

The European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite captured some unusual views of Italy after much of the country suffered heavy snowfall for the second time in a week in mid-February. Practically the whole of the north and central parts of Italy are covered with snow, including the low-lying Po River valley. Snow is common during the winter in northern and Alpine areas, but recently regions such as Tuscany and Lazio further south have been dealing with heavy snowfall.

Source: ESA

The PDF Maps app is an all-encompassing solution for the use, distribution and sale of digital versions of paper maps to mobile devices. It includes both an app for consumers to use, discover and purchase maps directly from their devices as well as an in-app store to facilitate the transaction and delivery of maps. Think of it as iTunes or iBooks for maps.

The Avenza Map Store continues to grow and features tens of thousands of maps authored, distributed and sold by individual cartographers, established map publishers, and government agencies. The in-app marketplace provides a new mobile e-commerce venue that allows those in the industry to have access to more than 200 million Apple iOS users seeking information about specific maps.

“We’re working hard and continuing to build our community of vendors,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems Inc. “The PDF Maps app is a great platform and many companies are finally seeing how easy it is to make their maps accessible to consumers. We invite all map publishers to become a part of our vendor network.”

The PDF Maps app recently won the International Map Trade Association best mapping product in the world for 2011. Tens of thousands of users are taking advantage of geospatial technology that allows them to view maps, utilizeGPS, measure real world locations, and collect and share placemarks. It has become the ultimate accessory for travelers and adventurers where Internet bandwidth is not available or is cost-prohibitive when cellular roaming.

PDF Maps is available now on the iTunes App Store free of charge for personal use. For more information about the app, visit the Avenza website at www.avenza.com/pdf-maps. Pricing of each map is set by the publisher and free maps can be downloaded at no cost through the PDF Maps in-app map store.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GISprofessionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services. For more information visit the Avenza website at http://www.avenza.com/.

Xtract users can purchase support for up to three legacy input formats. Major improvements to each of these input formats include:

- CTDB Option: Improved handling of ModSAF/OTBSAF (CTDB 7) and new support for JointSAF (CTDB 8.7) format.

- OneSAF Option: Improved processing of complex OneSAF Terrain Format 7.

- OpenFlight Option: New support for OpenSceneGraph databases as a part of the OpenFlight import option.

In addition to these major updates, a number of minor improvements increase ease of use and efficiency. Xtract 2 includes improved shapefile and DTED export, support for input of Lambert and Geocentric OpenFlight databases, and the export of VBS2 P3D models (from other model formats) with complete configuration files.

Xtract 2 exports recovered geospatial data to the widest variety of third party geospatial data processing products, including Global Mapper, 3DStudio Max, Bohemia Interactive Oxygene, ESRI ArcGIS, OpenSceneGraph viewers, Google Earth, Presagis Creator, and more.

Xtract 2 will be shipped at no additional charge to all current TerraSim Xtract customers with active support and maintenance contracts.

To learn more about Xtract, visit http://www.terrasim.com/ or email sales@terrasim.com.

Version 6.4 has now a new licensing system embedded based on the Leica Geosystems licensing server.

An exciting range of new features such as automatic check of matching point distribution and individual absolute radiometric calibration parameter calculation based on used exposure time and f-stop are included.

“Z/I Software version 6.4 delivers aerial images with excellent image quality and high accuracy to our customers”, says Klaus Neumann, Product Manager for Z/I Imaging. “Our focus for Z/I Software V 6.4 was to improve integrated image quality control and thus increase productivity for our customers.”

Free upgrade is provided to all Z/IPPSmaintenance customers. First customer deliveries will start end of February.