2006

November 2006

A new operational service for fire monitoring in Europe

The German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) offers a new operational service on fire detection from space. Based on data of the NASA owned MODIS sensors on board of the Terra-1 and Aqua-1 satellites wild and forest fires can be detected.

October 13, 2006

OBGI - „GMES bavAIRia”

Bavaria’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology has instituted a working group entitled “GMES bavAIRia”. It was stimulated by the joint European Commission and European Space Agency program GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), in which institutes of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen are also major participants.

10 October 2006

DFD coordinates the 2006 Emergency Exercise GNEX06

The European Commission-funded Network of Excellence (NoE) on Global Monitoring for Stability and Security - GMOSS - was undertaking a 36 hour near-real-time exercise on applying satellite imagery for supporting crisis response in Europe. The Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DFD, together with the "Centre National d'Études Spatiales" (CNES) and the University of Linköping (LiU) developed a fictitious crisis scenario. Three subteams of scientists spread out over Europe were working in parallel to answer a fictitious information request by the European Commission on a nuclear leakage scenario within Europe.

01 August 2006

Satellite maps of the oil catastrophe on the Lebanese coast

On July 13 and 15, 2006 the oil-fueled Jieh power plant on the Lebanese coast approximately 30 km south of Beirut was bombed as part of the current conflict in the Middle East. Some of the storage tanks caught fire and burned for several days A large part of the heavy diesel fuel they contained spilled out into the Mediterranean Sea as a result of the attack. The Lebanese environmental ministry estimates the amount at about 30,000 tons. DFD’s Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) has generated a map of the affected region based on satelllite data.

April to August 2006

ESA’s AgriSAR 2006 campaign on the DLR long-term test site DEMMIN in Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania

DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) is cooperating with farms in Demmin county (Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania) to operate the long-term test site DEMMIN. The goals of these partners are to utilize satellite data in agriculture and to validate remote sensing methodologies and products. This year a measurement campaign of several months, AgriSAR 2006, is being carried out on the DEMMIN test site under DLR leadership and with international participation.

17 July 2006

GeoVisualizationCenter (GeoVIS) established as a new DFD user service

The importance of visualizing geoinformation data, especially in the area of earth observation, is becoming more and more evident. DFD has now concentrated the competence it has gained over recent years in the area of scientific data visualization and computer animation in a recently founded GeoVisualizationCenter (GeoVIS). GeoVIS is involved in DLR science projects and activities of popular interest in a wide variety of ways. The services of the GeoVisualizationCenter are also now available to DLR’s external project partners.

June 23, 2006

During expedition to northeast Siberia DLR takes a close look at greenhouse gases released by melting permafrost

Scientists from the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DLR) and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have recently set off to investigate the permafrost soils in the delta of the Siberian River Lena.

June 9, 2006

Soccer World Cup

During its broadcast of the evening matches of the World Cup, the German TV channel Erste offers its viewers an eye-catcher in a class of its own: zooms from space directly into the World Cup venues show the twelve World Cup stadiums from a new perspective.

April 5, 2006

Cooperation with ONERA in the field of airborne optical remote sensing

With the signing of the cooperation agreement MOTAR "Measurement and Observation Techniques for Aerospace Research" between DLR and ONERA at the end of January 2006, the Applied Remote Sensing Cluster has now formally established its long-standing cooperation with ONERA-DOTA (Département Optique Théorique Appliquée) in the field of airborne optical remote sensing.

02 April 2006

Elbe Flood 2006

After the devastating flooding in August 2002, the Elbe region in Saxony is currently affected by a flood once again. Strong rainfalls in conjunction with snowmelt in the Krkonose Mountains (Czech Republic) led to a rise of the Elbe River to a level of currently 7.45 meters. Within the scope of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", DLR prepares satellite image maps of the region. The Charter was triggered by the German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) in order to support the State of Saxony's relief efforts.

March 20, 2006

Spring from space

The beginning of spring - the time at which the sun moves across the equator into the northern hemisphere for the first time - fell on March 20 at 19:26 Central European Time in 2006.

January 19, 2006

Optimal use of renewable energy sources – „Energy Meteorology Knowledge Network” launched

What are optimal locations for future solar and wind energy converters? Can wind strength be predicted? Where can the highest levels of solar insolation be expected in the next few days and how high will they be? These and similar questions are addressed in the young science of „energy meteorology.”