DMCii Wins ESA Satellite Imaging Contract (Google Alert / olyecology)

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Google Alert for desertification

olyecology

http://olyecology.livejournal.com/56678.html

EU

The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded a contract to British company DMC International Imaging (DMCii) this week to provide satellite imagery of 38 countries in Europe. This will be used to monitor Europe’s environment and land use including natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. The high resolution DMC satellite images will provide a valuable resource for the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) services and to European scientists. It is difficult to achieve cloud free coverage of Europe in a single year, but DMCii coordinates a constellation (DMC) of 4 satellites carrying the same sensors, which can dramatically speed up the process, and help to avoid problems with cloud. Images are acquired within dates specified by each of the 38 countries, and delivered as precisely positioned data in each national map projection. DMCii started to acquire high resolution imagery in April ’07 and will complete the campaign in October.

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/DMCii_Wins_ESA_Satellite_Imaging_Contract_999.html

Satellite images, urban growth and climate change (Technorati / Stanford)

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Technorati (see my Blogroll)

http://www.technorati.com/search/desertification 

Stanford University Blog

http://www.stanford-b.com/blog/?p=42

Satellite images reveal link between urban growth and changing rainfall patterns

For the first time, scientists have used satellite images to demonstrate a link between rapid city growth and rainfall patterns, as well as to assess compliance with an international treaty to protect wetlands. The results have been published in two studies co-authored by Karen Seto, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences and a fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. “The exciting thing is really for the first time, using a time series of satellite images, we can monitor Earth in a way that we haven’t been able to,” Seto said. “It’s not just about urban growth or wetlands—it could be about desertification or deforestation—but it’s really just this issue of human modification of the Earth.”