SPOT 6 Launches
Yup, the continuation of the SPOT mission is good with the launch of SPOT 6 (spotted by GoGeo). A little history here and an odd location for initial imagery. The Gibraltar image looks impressive!
posted on: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Remote Sensing of the Environment: Landsat Special Issue
Well the Landsat party just continues with this 17-paper special issue over at Remote Sensing of the Environment. Some good intro papers on the history of Landsat, forthcoming LDCM and then a mix of review and research papers on some of the common (primarily ecological) applications. Good stuff.....bookmark.
posted on: Fri, 07 Sep 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
40 years of Landsat
A nice cover image and article over at PE&RS celebrating 40 years of Landsat missions. The cover article looks at the analysis of the first ever Landsat scene which is a pleasant bit of nostalgia - and perhaps provides an excellent example of the power of multispectral remote sensing in identifying surface features.
posted on: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
NEXTMap World 30
Intriguingly Intermap has just release another global DEM in the form of the NEXTMap World 30. Perhaps the most useful document to read is the technical review which contains a fair bit of detail on the product - that is, its a fusion of ASTER GDEM, SRTM and GTOPO. They clearly believe that their experience in fusing data products has led to the production of the "best available" near-global DEM under the NEXTMap badge. I'm not going to argue and it'll be interesting to see how many people start using this.
posted on: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
MER Panorama
NASA has released a new panorama from ne of the rovers on Mars which shows an incredibly detailed image of the Martian surface. Nice viewing!
posted on: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
What's the story....
....morning glory
posted on: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Aerofilms Historic Collection
A great BBC narrated clip on the Aerofilms collection.... watch the Britain from Above project as it develops. Completion 2014.
posted on: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Some remote sensing news old and new.....
Old: news from Voyager 1
New: X37-B
posted on: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Get voting people....
....them there is some amazing images
posted on: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
SpaceX Success
So on the face of it a perfect mission - launch, manoeuvres, docking, unloading, loading and return. I guess once the Dragon gets back to SpaceX and is unloaded they get a better picture. For something so complex, it will never be perfect and the vast amount of data recoded during the mission will be invaluable in nailing the many problems that must have been uncovered. That doesn't detract from the remarkable achievement - and the almost inevitable $1.6B contract. No pressure then!
posted on: Sat, 02 Jun 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
8 years of Cassini in 5 minutes.... stunning
Posted from here, a spell binding view of Saturn.....
posted on: Mon, 28 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Docked and hatch opened
The title about says it all....none the less exciting stuff!
posted on: Sun, 27 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
SpaceX Dragon close to docking
Well the success of the SpaceX mission continues with the Dragon capsule successful grabbed by the ISS (more details). It's a remarkable achievement by any standards, particularly for a first mission. It would be fascinating to see a comparison of costs with a similar NASA mission! Let's see if the full docking completes successfully this weekend.
posted on: Fri, 25 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
SpaceX - successful launch
After the disappointing postponement of Saturday's scheduled slot, SpaceX successfully launched their Dragon freight capsule on board the Falcon rocket....
posted on: Tue, 22 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
NDVI Differencing
During my remote sensing class in the fall term I cover some introductory level image processing techniques that can be used in quite profound ways....
posted on: Fri, 11 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
The king is dead (again).....
.....long live the king. And a few more days counting until the Sentinels launch.
posted on: Wed, 09 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
The king is dead......
.....long live the king. 262 days and counting to the launch of LDCM.
posted on: Mon, 07 May 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Envisat still in trouble.....
The Envisat mission still remains suspended with the satellite still unresponsive to communications. Great image of the satellite from Pleiades which shows there has been no substantive damage. The search goes on....
posted on: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Envisat in trouble
Not to be outdone by NASA, the European Space Agency now has it's own satellite in trouble, Envisat. Like Landsat, Envisat has done sterling service (10 years in fact) in monitoring the Earth. It's the biggest EO satellite ever launched and has a sophisticated range of sensors on board. Anyway, another "watch this space"....
posted on: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
North Korea's Satellite Ambitions....
....ended up in the Yellow Sea. Hopefully the rocket launch in North Korea hasn't escaped people's attention over the last week, not least because of the diplomatic tensions it has caused and the potential for using this launch as a test for the development of ballistic missiles. Anyway, the "reason" for the launch was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-Sung and to place an EO satellite in to orbit. Jonathan Amos has a nice piece highlighting the difficulties in rocket launch and satellite development.
posted on: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Landsat MSS back online!
And here we have it.... Landsat MSS is officially back online and collecting data (see earlier blog). According to the news item this is the first time in over a decade MSS has been collecting data and we have a raw image of, well, somewhere, to prove it. What that space.
posted on: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Far side of the moon - photos taken by kids
Great news story over at Earth Observatory - wonderful way of engaging kids in science.
posted on: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Gatewing bought by Trimble
Hot on the heels of Geo12, Trimble announced yesterday that it had acquired Gatewing (an industry comment here).
An interesting move that really ups-the-ante and brings small drones in to the arena of major mapping. Clearly Trimble not only wants a piece of this pie, but to actively develop it in to markets where it already provides terrestrial solutions that this can add to. And I bet Gatewing founders are sitting on a nice big healthy pile of cash which is nice for 4 years work (well, and some, because they were working on it before then). A good success story and also showing how much potential low altitude aerial photography (LAAP) and photogrammetry are showing at the moment.
posted on: Sat, 07 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
KAPping in Delft
I've just spent a couple of days delivering an introduction to KAP for MSc students at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft....
posted on: Wed, 04 Apr 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Leaves in Near infra-red
During my course on Remote Sensing last year I was trying to drive home to the students that EM radiation is comprised of different wavelengths and that Earth surface features reflect radiation very differently at different wavelengths....
posted on: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Landsat 5 still refuses to die!!
Interesting news article over at USGS about their continued efforts to revive Landsat 5 (or more specifically the Thematic Mapper instrument)....
posted on: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Las Vegas: a Landsat Timeline
This shows the real power of the Landsat archive....watch a desert transform in to a city over 40 years. The ability for remote sensing to offer such a relatively simple, but powerful, output is remarkable. It also offers a visual critique of modern society...
posted on: Tue, 06 Mar 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Happy birthday Envisat
Envisat's birthday was nicely flagged by NASA EOID....at 10 years old it is doing pretty well and is required to remain in service until the Sentinel range of satellites (part of the GMES programme) become fully operational. Envisat is a big bugger of a satellite..... claimed to be the largest ever EO satellite launched (26m long) it weighs in at an impressive 8.5t and carries 10 science instruments, including the flagship radar ASAR and super-spectral MERIS (useful summary at Wikipedia).
posted on: Sat, 03 Mar 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
First orbiting photo - from John Glen
Great post over at the NASA Earth Observatory on the photo by John Glen, the first human to orbit the Earth. There is something mesmerising about this photo... yes we had had images returned by TIROS and the military CORONA programme, but this was taken by the first orbiting human and there is something personal about it.
posted on: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Remote sensing: double news day....
Well its double news day today.... the European Space Agency successfully launched its new vehicle, Vega, from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana today. This is a significant development as it is currently a hole in ESAs launch capabilities that they have been using Russian ICBMs for. Anyway, apparently there is a 40% success rate on the launch of new vehicles, so its good to see success here (and I bet the 8 missions launched for free were pretty happy as well).
...and on the same day the US has reduced funds to NASA for planetary reseasrch meaning that the plug is pulled on future joint Martian missions. Greater focus on human exploration and space technology.
posted on: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Remote sensing for monitoring EU farmland
Nice article over at the BBC today commenting on the use of remote sensing to monitor farmland across the EU. Those taking my remote sensing classes will know Churn Farm - painfully well. We do a similar classification exercise using NERC ATM data. its an interesting exercise and shows a good application for an operational task. The article also highlights the impact of false positives (so accuracy assessment is important) and the increasing use of drones for smaller scale work.
posted on: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
NPP Hemisphere
Great complete Earth hemisphere over at NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day, explaining how it was made and the strips of sunglint visible in each strip of imagery.
posted on: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Powers of Ten
I recently came across the Powers of Ten Flipbook, a wonderful odyssey in to the world of remote sensing....
posted on: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Pleiades First Images
Some really nice sample images from Pleiades.
posted on: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
TanDEM Update
Jonathan Amos gives a good overview of the TanDEM mission to date - well worth a read for those new-ish to DEMs and this particular mission. Makes good reading!
posted on: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Digital Globe Image of the Year 2011
Nice catch from GoGeo..... Digital Globe best image 2011. Well worth a look!
posted on: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
New US Army Drones
Nice article over at the BBC on new US Army drones. Helicopter based for VTOL, they sport a 1.8GP (yes, thats gigapixel) video camera capable of real time video feed at 10 frames per second, allowing multiple target tracking up to altitudes of 6000m. Nice.
posted on: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
BBC Year in satellite imagery
Really nice set of images over at the BBC highlighting aspects of 2011 using satellite imagery. Shame there isn't more detail on the sensor etc, but a powerful reminder of events.
posted on: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
First imagery returned from Pleiades
Nice articles by Jonathon Amos on the release of first imagery by Pleiades and the critical role played by British CCD manufacturer e2v. Some sample imagery at Astrium for the moment.
posted on: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
KAP Camera Settings
Capturing aerial imagery from KAP can be a hit and miss affair (although far less so with digital cameras) and therefore setting the camera up carefully prior to imaging is essential....
posted on: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
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