exactEarth Ltd. announced the successful launch on Sept. 28, 2015, of its exactView-9 (EV9) automatic identification system (AIS) satellite, expanding its global vessel-monitoring constellation to eight in-orbit satellites.
Satellite Firm Gets $1 Million State Loan
Toledo-based Blue Water Satellite Inc., which uses satellite data to provide high-accuracy measurements of water and soil conditions, received a $1 million loan from the state of Ohio.
U.S. Using Satellite Data to Map Alaska, Arctic
The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the University of Minnesota's Polar Geospatial Center are collaborating to use high-resolution satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe, processed with NSF-supported advanced computing resources, to produce improved, publicly available Digital Elevation Models of Alaska by mid-2016 and the entire Arctic by the end of 2016.
Shaping Next-Generation Scientists
September 29, 2015 — With the new Earth observation satellites carrying a range of technologies such as radar and multispectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring, data are available for the next 20–30 years. However, this means little...
Earth-Observation Market Reports Released
A pair of Earth-observation industry market reports were published almost simultaneously in September 2015, and both were optimistic as to the current and future states of satellite-based remote sensing.
New Smallsat Technologies Targeted for Wildfire Response
Aquila Space is building briefcase-sized satellites that can capture and send back images of more than 12 million square miles of Earth daily. Meanwhile, its Silicon Valley partner Astro Digital is developing software that allows anyone to process and analyze the data.
Drones Monitor Chimpanzee Habitat in Tanzania
Ecologist Jeff Kerby is using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), or drones, to count chimpanzee nests and monitor their habitat in Tanzania's Ugalla Forest. Such counts typically are performed on foot, but UASs allowed researchers to cover a much larger area at reduced time and cost.
University Coalition Developing UASs to Improve Weather Forecasting
Oklahoma State University (OSU) as well as the universities of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kentucky will share a $6 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) that improves weather forecasting by studying atmospheric physics.
EU Conducting Unmanned Disaster-Monitoring Flights
The European Union has been conducting simulated flood-disaster situations monitored by Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) technology. The Driving Innovations in Crisis Management for European Resilience (DRIVER) project features a D-CODE research aircraft, a Do-228, circling over the simulated disaster, taking situational images in real time, which rescue workers can use to coordinate the disaster response.
How Many Trees Are on Earth?
According to a tally by an international team of scientists, there are roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth”more than seven times the number previously estimated. The study also finds that approximately 15 billion trees are cut down each year; since the onset of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, the number of trees worldwide has dropped by 46 percent.
