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Space | 12. December 2018 | posted by Manfred Gottwald

TanDEM-X image of Hiawatha Glacier

Credit: DLR
TanDEM-X radar amplitude image of the region around Hiawatha Glacier. The apparent texture is due to the surface structure of the ice and its dynamics.

Glaciers abound on Greenland's coastline; fed by the Greenland ice sheet, they flow towards the Arctic Ocean. In the northwest, Hiawatha Glacier is located at 78.8 degrees north, 67 degrees west. It emerges from a semi-circular lobe at the ice sheet margin and forms a narrow tongue with a length of 10 kilometres extending onto the ice-free Inglefield Land. Hiawatha Glacier’s northern neighbour, the large Humboldt Glacier, is much more widely known. The front of the Humboldt Glacier is over 100 kilometres wide where it flows into the Nares Strait. The TanDEM-X image shows the region around Hiawatha Glacier.

Recently, however, Hiawatha Glacier has received worldwide attention. Some years ago, radar measurements performed as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a campaign to monitor changes in the polar ice caps, revealed a circular depression in the ground underneath the ice where Hiawatha Glacier emerges from the ice sheet. Subsequent surveying by an international research team using a more advanced airborne radar system on board the Polar 6 aircraft operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) yielded a more detailed view of that bowl-shaped feature. With a diameter of 31 kilometres and a depth of more than 300 metres, it resembles impact craters on Earth or the solid surface of other celestial bodies. read more

Space | 04. July 2016

BIROS to Earth…

Das BIROS-Team im Deutschen-Raumfahrt-Kontrollzentrum (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
The BIROS team in the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen

It only took around 15 minutes for BIROS, the small remote sensing satellite, to report back to us for the first time after the successful launch of the Indian PSLV-C34 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket on 22 June 2016. Prior to this, the microsatellite had separated from the rocket at precisely 507 kilometres.

This initial contact during a flyover above the O’Higgins Station operated by the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) in Antarctica was a minor surprise, as it was not entirely certain whether this first connection would be successful. We had firmly expected an initial contact during the flyover above Inuvik Station in North Canada approximately one hour after take-off. But plenty of things had to come together to make this initial contact work: firstly, separation from the rocket had to be precise; secondly, the satellite passed over the ground station at a very flat angle, making the duration of possible contact quite short. So this fleeting sign of life was simply the icing on the cake for our team at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC). BIROS had arrived safe and sound! read more

Space | 22. June 2016 | posted by Julia Heil

Bye Bye BIROS

Credit: ISRO
On 22 June 2016, the microsatellite BIROS took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on board a PSLV launcher (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle).

It was finally time: after another postponement of the deadline, the fire detection satellite BIROS (Bi-spectral Infrared Optical System) took off on 22 June 2016.

All of the collectively crossed fingers helped: here is a look back at the days that preceded the launch.
Although a part of the DLR team had already set off on their homeward journey to Germany, systems engineer Christian Schultz, project coordinator Matthias Hetscher, design engineer Matthias Lieder and software engineer Stefan Trippler remained on site in India to accompany the microsatellite in its final preparations. Schultz set off for Germany shortly before the launch to take his place at the control centre in Oberpfaffenhofen. read more

Space | 09. June 2016 | posted by Julia Heil

BIROS – A small satellite on the move

Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
Upon its arrival, the BIROS microsatellite had to be removed from its transportation crate

Forty degrees Celsius and approximately 60 percent humidity – these are the weather conditions outside. That is why the BIROS team is happy to work in the cool cleanrooms of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in India for most of the day. They are working out here, as the launch date for the BIROS (Bispectral InfraRed Optical System) microsatellite is drawing near. It is due to be launched from the SDSC on the island of Sriharikota on the south coast of India on 22 June 2016. BIROS and its partner satellite TET-1 (Technologie-Erprobungsträger 1; Technology Experiment Carrier 1) will then orbit Earth at an altitude of 500 kilometres, from where they will each use two infrared cameras to keep an eye on forest fires and other high-temperature events. A great deal of work and coordination effort will have been carried out before BIROS can start its work in space – 10 DLR institutes have been working for three years on preparing the satellites for their mission.

From Adlershof to India

The group of scientists from the DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems reached the Indian city of Chennai on 10 May. At that point, BIROS was already at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, some 80 kilometres away, after having been picked up from Berlin-Adlershof on 4 May. The buzzing metropolis of Chennai awaited the scientists and engineers. In 2014, the city was the sixth largest in India with 4.9 million inhabitants – and it is still growing. read more

Space | 24. March 2014 | posted by Tom Uhlig

A close encounter

"I have something nice to post in our blog," said my colleague Cesare Capararo from the console. What he had to say made me put the certification plan I was working on down and walk over to the office of satellite experts Jaap Herrman, Michael Kirschner and Kay Müller – a very special rendezvous will occur in space on Friday 28 March 2014. read more

Space | 30. July 2013 | posted by Ralph Kahle

Formation swapping - Comic about the TanDEM-X mission

An exciting manoeuvre awaits us. In early August (6–8 August 2013), the two TanDEM-X mission satellites will be reversing their formation. Until now, the TanDEM-X satellite has been circling around its twin, TerraSAR-X, in an anti-clockwise direction; after the reversal, it will circle clockwise. read more

Space | 12. February 2013

Landsat 8 – into space on Carnival Monday

For over 40 years, the US Landsat series of satellites has been delivering multispectral and thermal imaging data of the entire planet at a consistent high quality. As a consequence, the Landsat data archive has become an important tool for Earth remote sensing. It has helped to visualise long-term changes on the ground, to explore the influence of mankind on the biosphere and to manage natural resources. read more

Space | 23. July 2012

Congratulations! DLR experts receive IEEE award

Congratulations! DLR experts receive IEEE award

DLR scientists had reason to celebrate one month ago – the successful TerraSAR-X mission celebrated its fifth anniversary in space. Today, on 23 July, during the Plenary Session at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2012) in Munich, the hard work of DLR experts involved in the radar satellite TanDEM-X mission has been recognised. Our DLR colleagues were awarded with the ‘IEEE WRG Baker Paper Award’. This award is given annually to scientists who accomplish extraordinary achievements in the field of electrical engineering and computer science. read more

Space | 12. July 2012 | posted by Andrea Haag

Observing Earth from space - IGARSS 2012

IGARSS 2012

The countdown to the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS 2012, has begun - only 6 days remain. This year, IGARSS will be held at the International Congress Centre in Munich from 22-27 July, and with this blog, we will be reporting on all the breaking announcements and important events. We will do this with written entries, images and webcasts - in which specialists in Earth observation and remote sensing will join us. read more