News
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AMCDRR 2012: Asian Ministers discuss Disaster Risk Reduction Mon Oct 22 2012More than 1,200 participants including 49 Government Ministers and high level delegates from Asia will meet on Tuesday, 23th of October in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR). The Conference is the first gathering of Asian Government Ministers to consider a successor to the world's first comprehensive agreement on disaster risk...
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GOES-13 returned to operations Fri Oct 19 2012The GOES-13 spacecraft returned to full operations on Thursday, October 18, 2012. The satellite had been taken out of service due to technical problems in late September. The trouble stemmed from a motor vibration, which caused a lubricant buildup that obstructed the spinning motion of the filter wheel in the sounder. A team of engineers from NOAA, Boeing and ITT suppressed the vibration, the...
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Earth Observation Data Sales are growing in Developing Countries Thu Oct 18 2012According to Euroconsult's latest research report "Satellite-Based Earth Observation: Market Prospects to 2021", the commercial earth observation data markets in South-East Asia, Latin America, Russia and CIS are all experiencing high growth rates. With these drivers supporting the industry, commercial data sales are forecasted to reach $3.9 billion by 2021. At the same time the...
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4th Annual CrisisMappers Conference concluded Wed Oct 17 2012The 4th International Conference of Crisis Mappers (ICCM) took place from 11 to 14 October 2012 in Washington D.C. bringing together experts, practitioners, policymakers, technologists, researchers, journalists, scholars, hackers and skilled volunteers engaged at the intersection between humanitarian crises, technology, crowdsourcing, and crisis mapping. The Conference was kicked off by a Pre-...
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Canadian Space Agency supports Caribbean Satellite Disaster Pilot Wed Oct 17 2012The Canadian Space Agency, in close cooperation with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), continues to be a major contributor to the Caribbean Satellite Disaster Pilot (CSDP), which is GEO (Group on Earth Observations) project (GEO task DI-01-C5_1). During the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season RADARSAT-2 has captured some 70 high-resolution images to-date for rapid damage...
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GMES Publication highlights Importance of Earth Observation Tue Oct 16 2012The potential of GMES for crisis management and environmental monitoring is highlighted in a new publication with users demonstrating the importance of Earth observation data to European regions. The publication was presented at an event held on 10 October at the European Parliament in Brussels. The joint ESA-NEREUS (Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies) publication is a...
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ESA Satellites show rising ground in Andes Tue Oct 16 2012In the central Andes mountains, satellites have detected ground deformation under way above a major subterranean magma body. The Altiplano–Puna volcanic province is part of an active volcanic arc in South America’s central Andes. Extending through Peru, southwestern Bolivia, Chile and northwestern Argentina, it is home to a number of large calderas formed following catastrophic...
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NASA Satellite captures Nigeria Floods Mon Oct 15 2012Nigeria continues to be heavily affected by floods. The country’s National Emergency Management Agency reported that floods had killed 431 people and displaced 1.3 million more. Floods had also wiped out 152,575 hectares (377,020 acres) of farmland, and Nigerians could expect rapidly rising food prices as a result. On 25 September 2012, the International Charter "Space and Major...
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International Charter again activated for Floods in Africa Mon Oct 15 2012The International Charter "Space and Major Disaster" was activated twice last week for floods in Africa: Chad and Nigeria. UNITAR/UNOSAT on behalf of UNICEF activated the mechanism for Chad on 10 October 2012. Heavy rains which started in early August had caused continuing floods in Chad. Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the floods, with damage to both property and...
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RADARSAT-2 Data helps manage Canadian Richelieu River Flood Mon Oct 15 2012Within the framework of the international Committee on Satellite Earth Observation (CEOS), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is collaborating with NASA on various projects helping to prevent, manage and respond to natural disasters. During the spring flood along the Richelieu River in May 2011, CSA asked colleagues from NASA to acquire satellite images with the EO-1/ALI sensor in order to capture...
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Step up for Disaster Risk Reduction: UN celebrates IDDR Fri Oct 12 201213 October 2012 is the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDRR). IDRR seeks to raise awareness of how people are taking action to reduce their risk to disasters. The theme of the 2012 IDDR is “Women and Girls – the [in]Visible Force of Resilience”. Women and girls are powerful agents of change. They have unique knowledge and skills - crucial when addressing or managing...
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UN-SPIDER Side Event at 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction Thu Oct 11 2012UN-SPIDER is organizing a side event at the 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) scheduled to take place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 22 to 26 of October 2012. The side event "Improve DRR Practices based on the Lessons Learned from Major Disasters in Asia - A Space Technology Intervention" will mainly look at three recent disasters in Asia: Japan...
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Learning from Megadisasters: World Bank and Japan release Study Thu Oct 11 2012On March 11, 2011, a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan. Now the World Bank and the Government of Japan have launched a joint knowledge-sharing project called "Learning from Megadisasters". In the framework of this project, a study containing 32 thematic Knowledge Notes were published last week. They include six thematic clusters: Structural measures Nonstructural...
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Galileo: Two complementary satellites to be launched Wed Oct 10 2012Two Galileo satellites will be launched on 18:15:00 GMT (20:15:00 CEST) on 12 October. They will complement two other Galileo satellites which are already in orbit. This follow-up launch marks a major step for Europe's own satellite navigation system. Four is the minimum number of satellites needed to achieve a navigational fix on the ground, with one satellite each to measure latitude, longitude...
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NASA Satellites observe Monsoon Season Floods in Pakistan Wed Oct 10 2012The summer of 2012 marked the third consecutive monsoon season in Pakistan that caused widespread flood damage. These images show part of the irrigation infrastructure. Both images show flood conditions, but flood waters shifted between the date of the earlier image, acquired September 19, 2012, and the later image, acquired October 5, 2012. Acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging...
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New Software for Mobile Mapping Tue Oct 9 2012Topcon Europe Positioning has introduced eGIS PC, a handheld mapping software solution designed for Windows-based tablets. This software allows users to create, edit and display map geometry and attributes, view data which has been overlaid on one of the many web mapping systems available and is fully compatible with the industry standard ESRI ArcPad SHP file format. Designed for...
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Satellites are measuring the volume of the sea-ice cover Tue Oct 9 2012This year, satellites saw the extent of Arctic sea ice hit a record low since measurements began in the 1970s. ESA's SMOS and CryoSat satellites are now taking a deeper look by measuring the volume of the sea-ice cover. Measurements from Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission show that ice has thinned significantly in the seasonal ice zones, with extensive areas less than half a metre...
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UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Mission to Solomon Islands concluded Mon Oct 8 2012At the request of the Government of the Solomon Islands, UN-SPIDER carried out a Technical Advisory Mission (TAM) from 24 to 28 September 2012. The goal was to evaluate the current and potential use of space-based information in all the aspects of disaster management and strengthen disaster risk management in the country by providing better access to space-based information for disaster risk...
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CATHALAC analyses Mangrove Cover of Guatemala Mon Oct 8 2012In collaboration with the Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources (MARN) in Guatemala, UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office CATHALAC (Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean) is carrying out a satellite-based analysis of the current mangrove cover of Guatemala. The experts elaborated several maps showing the cover in 2012. Various remote sensing and field data...
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ArcGIS adds high resolution imagery for India and Africa Fri Oct 5 2012ArcGIS announced that an additional batch of the large set (up to 50 million square kilometers) of high-resolution imagery to be added to the World_Imagery map service is fully processed and published to ArcGIS Online. The World Imagery map was recently updated to include expanded coverage of 1m resolution GeoEye IKONOS imagery for parts of India and Africa. This represents the latest update as...
