NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable-zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another Earth.
On July 26, 2015, the European Space Agency (ESA) handed control of Europe's last Meteosat Second Generation weather satellite, MSG-4, to the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
New research using NASA satellite data and ocean biology models suggests tiny organisms in vast stretches of the Southern Ocean play a significant role in generating brighter clouds overhead. Brighter clouds reflect more sunlight back into space, affecting the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth's surface, which in turn has implications for global climate.
Some underserved Virginia patients were among the first to be officially helped by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), more commonly known as a drone, during research flights to a medical clinic in Wise County during July 2015.
On July 15, 2015, BlackBridge, a provider of satellite imagery and geospatial solutions, entered a definitive agreement for Planet Labs to acquire the RapidEye suite of core offerings. Planet Labs designs, builds and operates a fleet of Earth-imaging satellites.
Europe successfully launched its next-generation Meteosat weather satellite on July 15, 2015, from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The MSG-4 will rise into geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator, providing up-to-date weather coverage over Europe and Africa every 15 minutes, and rapid scan imagery over Europe every five minutes.
The German forest-fire detection effort has a new and more-effective input after installing a series of FireWatch cameras developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). More than 150 such cameras, based on technology used on space missions, have been installed in five German states.
This Blue Marble image is the first fully illuminated snapshot of Earth captured by the DSCOVR satellite, which will capture and transmit full images of Earth every few hours. The information will help examine a range of Earth properties, such as ozone and aerosol levels, cloud coverage, and vegetation density, supporting a number of climate-science applications.
As seen in the accompanying feature, Earth Observation Embracing the New Space Environment: The Significance of EO Smallsat Constellations, the small satellite (smallsat) industry has become an important and market-disrupting force in Earth observation. The following...
Remote sensing and associated technologies for oil and gas (O&G) applications aren't new”they've been around for several decades. However, above surface information hasn't been widely used in the last 30-40 years of O&G exploration and operations; sub-surface analyses have been more pervasive for several reasons.
