Ecuador volcano eruption caught by DMC satellite NigeriaSat-1

Thursday, January 31. 2008

DMC International Imaging was on regular 24/7 duty as the Emergency On-Call Officer (ECO) for the International Charter; Space & Major Disasters from 21st to 28th January 2008. Gary Crowley, DMCii Operations Manager, coordinated the scheduling of images from DMC satellites as well as Envisat, Radarsat, ALOS, SPOT-5, IRS (Pan & LISS-3), Ikonos and QuickBird, for the Charter response to two disaster activation calls.

DMC image of the erupting Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador, showing the long plume of ash blackening the area (vegetation is false red) Image; NigeriaSat-1 25th Jan 2008 © NASRDA


Last Tuesday (22nd January) DMCii monitored a volcanic eruption in Ecuador. The images below are by kind permission of NASRDA.

Zoom of the volcano crater belching ash. Image; Nigeriasat-1 © NASRDA 2008


Just last Friday (25th January) the International Charter was activated to image flooding in Bolivia.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Cooperation, Space at 12:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Second Galileo satellite on track

Thursday, January 3. 2008

SSTL’s second Galileo contract, GIOVE-A2, has progressed through a successful Critical Design Review (CDR). The small satellite is a follow-on mission to the successful GIOVE-A mission launched two years ago.

The two-day CDR meeting, attended by ESA representatives at SSTL’s headquarters in Guildford, reviewed the design changes between GIOVE-A and GIOVE-A2. The next stage in the project will progress towards manufacture.

ESA awarded the follow-on contract to SSTL in March 2007. The project covers initial activities leading to the construction of a further spacecraft for the Galileo satellite navigation system, based on SSTL’s proven GIOVE-A technology.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Space at 11:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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SSTL on Sky at Night this Sunday

Friday, November 30. 2007
In the news

Back in August, the Sky at Night invited Martin Sweeting down to Patrick Moore's home in Sussex to film an interview for a programme celebrating 50 years of space. This program will also include a discussion of SSTL's lunar studies with Andy Phipps.

The Sky at Night
Dr Chris Lintott finds out how British technology is leading the way in satellite science, while Sir Patrick Moore investigates the threat from space debris that astronauts face in space.

For anyone that would like to tune in, the Sky at Night will be broadcast this Sunday evening, 2nd December, on BBC 4 at 20:30.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in In the news, Space at 14:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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ALSAT-1 maps forest fires

Thursday, November 29. 2007
In the news

Algeria is celebrating the 5th birthday of its first satellite, ALSAT-1 this week.

Last summer, a heatwave struck Algeria bringing with it temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsuis. This dryed out the North African landscape, leading to forest fires in several forests.

The Batna region, which has some of the most densely forested regions in Algeria, was one of the worst affected areas. In particular, places like Djebel Belezma and Beni Fedhla were stricken by severe conflagrations accented by sirocco winds blowing at more than 80 kph.

Fire damage in the Bliza area


The fire has destroyed a significant part of the forests in the Batna region. For example, only this summer, fires have destroyed over 8000 hectares in Djebel Kimmel and in the area of Arris.

Forest fires: astronomical figures



Algeria used the SSTL-built ALSAT-1 satellite in a study to monitor forest fires and evaluate the damage caused and assess the forests’ ability to regenerate.

Fire damage surrounding Tipaza


The location referenced (geospatial) images from Algeria’s own satellite were supplemented where required with additional Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) data where required.

How satellite imaging is applied
The images were acquired from areas of interest are first pre-processed using the ENVI image processing software, these are then analysed and finely processed for later use. This results in cartographical (maps) that are easy to read with the human eye. The maps are then used to identify the various forest formations and the impact that this summer’s (2007) fires have had on them.
Both supervised classification and the vegetation index (NDVI) methods were used to determine the different forest formations and to deduct the fire impact on them. This methodology has allowed the Centre National des Techniques Spatiales (CNTS) to accurately assess the destruction of forest fires in the north of Algeria during this year’s (2007) campaign.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in In the news, Space at 15:25 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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