07 April 2020This year's DLR Copernicus Masters Challenge Environment, Energy and Health has started! Ideas and solutions leading to more sustainable management of our earth can be submitted from the beginning of April until the end of June. Especially at times of global change, pandemics and climate change this is more important than ever before. The specific focus of DLR is on managing the environment, natural resources, and the energy economy. In addition, human welfare, the connection between health and environmental factors, and the effects of epidemics are an important topic.
30 March 2020Remote sensing data can be useful in agriculture for increasing productivity while protecting the environment and biodiversity. In the "AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 – Remote sensing technologies for digitisation in plant cultivation" project, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is assessing remote sensing technologies suitable for digitisation applications in the agriculture sector through regional field testing at an experimental site in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
25 March 2020We got used to the fact that an ozone hole appears every year in the Antarctic spring. Due to special meteorological conditions this spring a similar effect is observed over the northern polar region. The ozone hole is caused by the combination of temperatures below -80°C, sunlight, and ozone depleting substances (ODS). In contrast to the Antarctic, the Artic polar vortex in the spring is less stable and the temperatures inside the vortex are relative warm.
Progress report part 1 - 6It began toward the end of September 2019 in a discussion with Dr. Christine Wesche of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). The idea of using a supply trip by the icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II to the AWI Antarctic station to conduct some research at the same time evolved in a few weeks with the support of DLR, AWI, and not least also my family, into a concrete plan. After the obligatory medical check-up and instruction about environmental protection in the Antarctic we were to head toward South Africa already in mid-January.
4 - 6 February 2020On February 4, the fifth symposium of the Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO) was opened at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Over the following three days, scientists from France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Finland and ESA discussed the impact of climate change on the Alpine region and comparable mountain regions in Europe.
30 January 2020At Gars O’Higgins in the Antarctic there was good reason to celebrate. The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X orbited the earth for the 70,000th time. Among other places, its data are acquired at the German Gars O’Higgins receiving station that is operated by DLR and the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy and supported year-round by EOC staff.
23 January 2020Michael Schrodi (SPD), a member of the German parliament, visited DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen on 22 January 2020. His interest in climate protection and climate change also brought him to EOC.