On 16 October, Luc St-Pierre, Coordinator of UN-SPIDER, presented via teleconference the 2014 report of activities of UNOOSA in support to the International Charter: Space and Major Disaster (International Charter) during the Charter Board Meeting in Incheon, Republic of Korea. The report highlighted the actions taken by UNOOSA and UN-SPIDER in promoting the Charter's Universal Access initiative, started in September 2012.
On 19 and 20 September 2014, UN-SPIDER hosted a joint workshop with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Tohoku University, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) on the UN Campus in Bonn. The topic of the workshop was "Remote Sensing and Multi-Risk Modeling for Disaster Management" and aimed to serve as a platform for researchers to exchange ideas and present the recent advances in the field of disaster risk management, response and recovery using remote sensing and geo-science technology.
Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed a satellite-based prediction tool for volcanic ash distribution. It generates detailed images of areas with both heavy and light ash loads.
Scientists at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) recently developed a satellite-based map of human settlements, with a precision currently unparalleled by other global surveys. The maps are based on data of the German radar satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X captured from an altitude of 500 kilometres. The imagery has a resolution of three metres allowing to identify even individual buildings.
UN-SPIDER, together with representatives of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the European Commission (EC), SERTIT, ITHACA and the US Geological Survey (USGS), participated in a meeting of the International Working Group on Satellite-based Emergency Mapping (IWG-SEM) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. The meeting took place from 20 to 21 May 2014 under the chairmanship of ITHACA. On the last day of the event, the chairmanship was handed over to DLR according to IWG-SEM's rotating principle.
A new analysis of data derived from various satellite sensors shows that Congo's rainforest, the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world, has suffered from long-term drought over the past ten years. The study included data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, the NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat), and NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center.
The European Earth observation programme Copernicus has launched the Copernicus Masters competition. It will give recognition to outstanding ideas, applications, and business concepts that utilise Earth observation data for commercial purposes and socially relevant projects. Along with cash prizes, the winners will receive technical support in realising their ideas, access to satellite data, and start-up support from a prize pool worth a total of more than EUR 300,000. In 2014, for the first time, the Copernicus Masters is carried out on a worldwide basis.
The Russian research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy was trapped for over a week in the Antarctic ice. High-resolution radar satellite data provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) helped to assess the conditions at the location and develop a rescue plan. In pack ice, conditions can change fast due to change in winds and air conditions. For this reason the German researchers used up-to-date, high-resolution images from the Earth Observation satellite TerraSAR-X, which they provided to the team of the trapped vessel and the rescue mission participants.
The German Aerospace Center, abbreviated DLR, is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne and it has multiple other locations throughout Germany.
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