The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is unique within Germany and in Europe with regard to its work and research areas – as a national research centre and Space Administration as well as a Project Management Agency.
Emergency services in the US state of California are still fighting fierce forest fires. Severe drought and strong winds have allowed the fires to spread. The FireBIRD (Fire Bispectral InfraRed Detector) mission run by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) consists of a pair of satellites – TET-1 (Technology Experiment Carrier) and BIROS (Bispectral Infrared Optical System).
More and more people around the world are flocking to cities, creating densely populated regions. This also means that natural disasters pose a threat to a greater number of people, and that risk has been rising for decades worldwide.
The inner values revealed in this year's last DLRmagazine say something about the resilience of components. But as is the case with inner values, they are not readily disclosed. The information is cleverly obtained from the material, by means of three-dimensional digital images of the pores in material alloys, for example.
Seafaring vessels use satellites to determine their precise position to within a few metres. It is particularly important that exact positional information is constantly available in coastal waters and ports or near offshore wind farms and oil platforms.
In anticipation of the catastrophic Hurricane Harvey, the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' was activated early on the evening of 24 August 2017. This was initiated by the Charter member United States Geological Survey (USGS) on behalf of the Texas Emergency Management Council. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided real-time recordings and archive data from the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X, which enabled a detailed analysis and an overview of the flood situation. Using these and other satellite data provided by 16 Charter members, the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas is currently working on providing assistance and information to disaster relief personnel on the ground.
On 24 July 2017, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) presented the new DLR strategy at the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), in tandem with project leader Airbus Defence and Space, has successfully flight tested a new aircraft as part of the development of future production-ready drones (UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles).
The Senate of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) approved the establishment of seven DLR institutes in its meeting on 28 June 2017. DLR was tasked with building new institutes by a resolution of the Budgetary Committee of the Deutscher Bundestag in November 2016.
Scientists from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) teamed up with I.S.A.R. Germany (International Search and Rescue) and Germandrones to take part in an international disaster rehearsal from 8 to 10 May 2017.
Expansive forest fires have raged through Chile for some weeks now due to a long dry spell. On 25 January 2017, the Chilean National Office for Emergency (Oficina Nacional de Emergencia del Ministerio del Interior; ONEMI) activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to obtain up-to-date situation images of the disaster area to assist emergency services.
Climate change, digitalisation, Industry 4.0 and transformation of the energy and traffic systems – these central societal responsibilities will be at the heart of the research conducted by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in 2017. DLR will present the focus of this year's research and some selected projects at the New Year’s press conference on 26 January 2017 in Berlin.
A test simulating crashes between high-speed trains, hunting for clouds in West Africa, the maiden flight of a four-passenger fuel cell aircraft – 2016 at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has been a year of numerous research highlights.
The Budget Committee of the German Federal Government has approved 42 million euro in funding to establish six new institutes within the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
More than 1.5 million children and their families in over 130 countries around the world are currently receiving support from the humanitarian aid organisation SOS Children's Villages International. The Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) site in Oberpfaffenhofen is supporting the organisation by establishing emergency and disaster management concepts in order to provide effective assistance in the event of natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes or forest fires.
Four days and four cases that pose a threat to maritime security – in several scenarios that took place between 5 and 9 September 2016, the EMSec joint project (Echtzeitdienste für die Maritime Sicherheit - Security; Real-Time Services for Maritime Security) was able to successfully demonstrate research findings from the last three years.
In the Situation Centre, an alarm flashes on the screen – a passenger ferry has changed its planned course for no apparent reason. The AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal eventually disappears from the display. By now, all ship-specific information must have been requested and compared in order to quickly clarify the situation and take immediate action.
Ships can be led astray with fake GPS signals. If signals for navigation of vessels are jammed or spoofed, positional and other critical data, such as course and speed, can be affected. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have tested new receiver systems and methods for suppressing interference in a three-day measurement campaign.
A new corporate network will ensure increased safety and lower costs in the field of maritime traffic in future. Five private companies and a research institute are now working together within the MARSAT project to develop new services for the maritime industry using satellite data.
Today, the analysis and use of satellite images is commonplace. Just 15 years ago, however, only a handful of specialists worked with these valuable data. Since then, a particular niche expertise has rapidly developed – the use of satellite data for disaster management.