ISDE Blog

First images from SPOT 7 satellite within three days after launch

SPOT 6/SPOT 7 constellation in place now, designed for unparalleled high-resolution national coverage

Airbus Defence and Space has published the first images obtained from the SPOT 7 satellite, a mere three days after its launch on 30 June. Over the last few hours, the entire chain – from satellite programming and image acquisition to telemetry reception and processing – was successfully put into operation to deliver these first spectacular images.

These images show highly diverse landscapes, revealing SPOT 7’s full potential in terms of natural resource and urban zone mapping and agri-environmental monitoring.

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Fiji

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – La Reunion

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Sydney, Australia

The SPOT 6/7 constellation is now in place and considerably improves the capabilities and performance offered by SPOT 5, which has been in operation since 2002 and which is scheduled to be decommissioned from commercial service during the first quarter of 2015. This new constellation offers a higher resolution, greater programming reactivity and a much higher volume of images acquired daily (in monoscopic or stereoscopic mode).

SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 mark the dawning of a new era for the SPOT family in forming a constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites phased at 180° in the same orbit. This means that each point on the globe can be revisited on a daily basis and wide areas covered in record time, all with an unparalleled level of precision. With both satellites in orbit, acquisition capacity will be boosted to six million square kilometres per day – an area ten times the size of France.

With the very-high-resolution twin satellites Pléiades 1A and 1B, SPOT 6 and now SPOT 7, Airbus Defence and Space’s optical satellite constellation will offer the company’s customers a high level of detail across wide areas, a highly reactive image programming service and unique surveillance and monitoring capabilities.
 

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Baku, Azerbaijan

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Mecca, Saudi Arabia

The first SPOT 7 images can be downloaded via FTP

ftp.astrium-geo.com/SPOT7

Source:http://www.astrium-geo.com/en/5928-first-images-from-spot-7-satellite-within-three-days-after-launch

NASA’s C-20A crew is shown preparing for flight from Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Panama. The aircraft was deployed to Central and South America for a research study using JPL’s UAVSAR located in an underbelly belly pod (note red cover).

Image Credit: 

NASA / Stu Broce

Volcanoes in Central and South America were the primary focus of a four-week Earth science study in late April and early May 2014 using a NASA-developed airborne synthetic aperture imaging radar.

The synthetic aperture radar developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory mounted on NASA’s C-20A research aircraft captured this image of Peru’s Ubinas volcano on April 14, 2014, during its Latin American research mission. The false colors represent different polarizations in the image.

Image Credit: 

NASA JPL UAVSAR / Ron Muellerschoen

The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, was carried in a specialized pod on NASA’s C-20A. The 29-day deployment ended May 6 when the aircraft returned to its base in Palmdale, California after 19 flights totaling 97 hours in the air.

This is the second consecutive year the UAVSAR team has conducted a campaign to study sites in Central and South America. Many of the flights imaged the Andean volcanic belt located in western South America.

“By combining images acquired in 2013 with the 2014 images, researchers will produce detailed surface motion measurements to improve volcanic deformation models,” said Naiara Pinto, the UAVSAR science coordinator from JPL’s Suborbital Radar Science and Engineering group.

In coordination with the volcano studies, the agency’s C-20A gathered data over Amazonian forests in Peru, agricultural sites in Chile and glaciers in the Chilean/Argentinian border region. These data will aid in algorithm development and sensor calibration activities, improving scientists’ ability to monitor and study Earth’s carbon and water cycles. All of these research projects involve Latin American institutions, including universities and hazard monitoring agencies.

NASA’s C-20A, the military designation for the Gulfstream III aircraft, features a high-precision autopilot designed and developed by engineers at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, allowing the aircraft to fly the same flight lines this spring as those flown in 2013.

The Ubinas Volcano, located in southern Peru, is the country’s most active volcano. This image was captured from NASA’s C-20A as it flew UAVSAR flight lines during a study of Central and South American volcanoes.

Image Credit: 

NASA / David Fedors

The Precision Platform Autopilot guides the aircraft by using a kinematic differential Global Positioning System developed by JPL in concert with the aircraft’s inertial navigation system to enable it to fly repeat paths to an accuracy of 15 feet or less. With the precision autopilot engaged, the synthetic aperture radar is able to acquire repeat-pass data that can measure land-surface changes within centimeters.

This mission was conducted under NASA’s Airborne Science Program.

NASA and its partners monitor Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA’s Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

For more information about the UAVSAR, visit:

http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/

Beth Hagenauer, Public Affairs
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Source:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/Features/C-20A_studies_andean_volcanos.html

Turning on new satellite instruments is like opening new eyes. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) released its first images of Earth, collected at 1:40 p.m. EDT on March 18. The first image shows the meeting of the Great Plains with the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado. The natural-color image shows the green coniferous forest of the mountains coming down to the dormant brown plains. The cities of Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder and Denver string out from north to south. Popcorn clouds dot the plains while more complete cloud cover obscures the mountains.

LDCM is a joint mission of NASA and the Department of Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey.

“It’s a really great day,” said Jeff Pedelty, an instrument scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who worked on the LDCM Operational Land Imager, or OLI instrument, that took the natural color image. He’s very impressed with the level of detail they can see with the advancements to the sensor. “It’s wonderful to see, there’s no doubt about it, and it’s a relief to know that this is going to work wonderfully in orbit.”

The natural color image showed the landscape in the colors our eyes would see, but Landsat sensors also have the ability to see wavelengths of light that our eyes cannot see. LDCM sees eleven bands within the electromagnetic spectrum, the range of wavelengths of light. OLI collects light reflected from Earth’s surface in nine of these bands. Wavelengths on the shorter side include the visible blue, green, and red bands. Wavelengths on the longer side include the near infrared and shortwave infrared.

LDCM’s second instrument, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) detects light emitted from the surface in two even longer wavelengths called the thermal infrared. The intensity of the emitted light at the longer wavelengths measured by TIRS is a function of surface temperature. In the black-and-white image of the first thermal band on TIRS, warmer areas on the surface are brighter while cooler areas are dark.

The first thermal images seen by Dennis Reuter, TIRS instrument scientist at Goddard, were forwarded to him from the data processors. “To say it was exciting was an understatement,” said Reuter, who was blown away by the data quality. “Wow! This is beautiful!” he wrote in an email. “Look at those amazing clouds! And the detail!”

Clouds in the colder upper atmosphere stand out as black in stark contrast to a warmer ground surface background. The TIRS images were collected at exactly the same time and place as the OLI data, so all eleven bands can be used together.

The infrared bands on both TIRS and OLI complement the visible bands, said Reuter. “You’re seeing things in the visible that you don’t necessarily see in the infrared, and vice versa,” he said.

Source:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/first-images-feature.html?goback=.gmp_4538605.gmr_4538605.gde_4538605_member_225103056

China is planning to launch a high-resolution Earth observation satellite this month, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SATIND).

The government agency revealed details about the launch on Thursday, which was carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The satellite will be the first to provide high-resolution observation data of the Earth. It will be launched using a Long March 2D carrier rocket, the SATIND said, and examinations of both the satellite and its carrier rocket have been completed.

China plans to launch five to six satellites by the end of 2015 in order to build a complete spatial, temporal, and spectral high-resolution observation system, Xinhua reported.

Data collected by the satellites will be used by the Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Environmental Protection for disaster management, geographic and oceanic surveys, urban transportation management, and national security, the agency said.

Sources:

http://www.asianscientist.com/topnews/china-launch-earth-observation-satellite-month-2013