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Claudia Roth visits the ZKI
21 December 2018
On December 20th, 2018, Mrs Claudia Roth, Vice-President of the German Bundestag, visited the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen. Special focus was set by the member of the Bundestag on tasks of the Center for Satellite based Crisis Information (ZKI), a user service of the Earth Observation Center (EOC).
Daily Air Quality Forecasts with Sentinel-5P
10 December 2018
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides for Europe and the rest of the world hourly updated forecasts for trace gases that affect our climate and air quality.
The service now uses data products generated at EOC based on Copernicus Sentinel-5P (S5P) satellite data for its ozone forecasts. Although the ozone layer in the stratosphere provides us with a protective shield, ground-level ozone is a primary ingredient of urban smog, irritates the respiratory tract, and damages vegetation.
Snow Cover in Germany in Winter 2017/2018
10 December 2018
The consequences of climate change on snow coverage are evident worldwide. In addition to tourism, these changes also affect water availability, vegetation, agriculture, animal populations, and the global radiation balance. Based on satellite data available daily at EOC, routine assessment of global snow cover is carried out in order to understand these processes and their relevance for society and the natural environment. The results of such analyses are consolidated in the “Global SnowPack” data set.
Sentinel-2 Level-2A now at CODE-DE
21 November 2018
Nicely in time for the 2018 National Remote Sensing and Copernicus Forum in Berlin, the CODE-DE service platform makes available throughout Europe rectified and atmospherically corrected Sentinel-2 data (Level-2A). This adds another valuable data set to the existing inventory, which exceeds 1.2 million products.
Fire disaster in California – DLR supports with FireBIRD data
15 November 2018
A, for the season, unusual drought lead to devastating forest fires in California. So far several hundred thousand people were evacuated and dozen deaths were registered. Butte County, located in Northern California, is especially affected. Satellite data has already been made available as part of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters".
Fire disaster in California – DLR supports with FireBIRD data
15 November 2018
A, for the season, unusual drought lead to devastating forest fires in California. So far several hundred thousand people were evacuated und dozen deaths were registered. Butte County, located in Northern California, is especially affected.
DLR Science Award 2018
07 November 2018
The DLR Science Award 2018 was granted to a joint science team from different DLR institutes. It is an acknowledgement of the work on the generation and performance assessment of the global digital elevation model provided by the TanDEM-X mission. Dr. Birgit Wessel, Dipl.-Ing. Martin Huber and Dr. Thomas Fritz from the Earth Observation Center (EOC) and further scientists from the Microwave and Radar Institute were forming the team.
EOC scientist receives "ASTO Förderpreis"
06 November 2018
For the fifth time the "ASTO Förderpreis" was awarded by the ASTO Group at 24th of October. This year Celia Baumhoer (Department Land Surface Dynamic, DFD) was awarded for her work in the context of her PhD thesis “Glacier front dynamics of Antarctica – Analyzing changes in glacier and ice shelf front positions based on SAR time-series“.
Pine Island Glacier continues to shrink!
31 October 2018
The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica fascinates scientists worldwide and is the hotspot for glaciologists and climate researchers who try to understand the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In a study in which scientists from the EOC were also involved, the changes at Pine Island Glacier were examined in more detail.
Copernicus Masters 2018 – DLR finalists confirmed
12 October 2018
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has selected the best application ideas in the field of Earth observation for the Copernicus Masters.
Following a multistage selection process, the three finalists for the DLR Challenge as part of the Copernicus Masters 2018 have now been confirmed.
Sentinel-3B operational at EOC
10 October 2018
On 1 October the Processing and Archiving Center (PAC) at EOC began routine operations for handling data from ESA's Sentinel-3B satellite. This date marks the full implementation of the PAC commissioned by ESA.
First processed images from DESIS hyperspectral Earth observation instrument
02 October 2018
The German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Teledyne Brown Engineering presented the first images of the DESIS hyperspectral Earth observation instrument at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). The instrument was mounted to the exterior of the International Space Station on 27 August 2018.
The World in 3D to Download Free of Charge
28 September 2018
From today DLR made available to the public the 90 metre resolution global elevation model from the TanDEM-X mission. The data set can now be downloaded free of charge via the new EOC download service.
Ms Monika Hohlmeier, Member of the European Parliaments, Visits EOC
25 September 2018
She informed herself about the remote sensing opportunities offered by the WorldView reception and processing systems at EOC.
Hurrricane Florence – DLR provides satellite information
18 September 2018 updated
17 September 2018
On 14th 2018, hurricane Florence made landfall on the coast of North Carolina, USA. In the frame of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR supports the crisis management activities.
DLR Earth observer Xiaoxiang Zhu wins prize for her achievements
4 September 2018
Xiaoxiang Zhu of the Remote Sensing Technology Institute at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been awarded the 30,000 euro Leopoldina Early Career Award 2018.
DESIS gets its own spot on the International Space Station
27 August 2018
Its view of Earth will be something special: The DESIS hyperspectral instrument has 235 spectral channels to look at our planet and observe the changes in land and water surfaces. On 27 August 2018 at about 21:00 CEST, the instrument developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and equipped with a robotic arm was taken out of the airlock of the International Space Station (ISS) and installed on the MUSES platform located on the space station's exterior. The hyperspectral data obtained from space is expected to deliver information for environmental monitoring, among other uses.
Federal Minister Peter Altmaier visits EOC
20 August 2018
A tour of EOC was also on the agenda of the visit of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Peter Altmaier, to the DLR research center in Oberpfaffenhofen.
Minister Altmaier was keenly interested in DLR's satellite technologies and earth observation research activities.
DLR project VABENE++ supports BRK's new Rapid Deployment Group in situation analyses
27 July 2018
With the new Rapid Response Force, the Bavarian Red Cross is preparing itself for emergency operations in the event of disasters. The assessment of the situation on the ground could in future be supported by researchers from the EOC. Within the framework of VABENE++, remote sensing technologies have already been tested and demonstrated.
Drought in Northern and Eastern Germany
17 July 2018
Recent weeks of heat and aridity have dried out soil and vegetation in northern and eastern Germany. In some regions the lowest precipitation levels in 50 years have been measured. EOC time series analyses document the extent of the drought.
FDP Members of Parliament visit DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen
11 July 2018
On 10 July 2018 Dr. Marcus Faber, Olaf in der Beek and Ulrich Lechte paid a visit to DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. These members of Parliament came for a comprehensive introduction to the pioneering research being undertaken at this DLR location. After words of welcome extended by Oberpfaffenhofen managing director Dr. Reinhold Busen and his deputy Zekeriya Ceyhanli, the FDP politicians acquainted themselves with the most important facts concerning the research centre, followed by a joint tour of the facilities. At EOC the delegates were particularly interested in DLR climate and environmental protection research and in the activities of the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI).
Accurate air pollution measurements – the Sentinel-5P data service commences operations
11 July 2018
Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to health worldwide. Around seven million people die as a result of pollutants every year, as the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently established in a global study. Industrial fumes and exhaust emissions from cars and other vehicles make a significant contribution to the number of deaths, as the particles penetrate deep into people’s airways, lungs and cardiovascular system. There is now a special service that can pinpoint sources of pollution precisely and analyse global pollutant distributions from space.
Hyperspectral Earth observation instrument DESIS sets off for the ISS
03 July 2018
The DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) – an environmental and resource monitoring system from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) – set off for the International Space Station (ISS) at 05:42 EDT (11:42 CEST) on 29 June 2018. The Dragon capsule carrying DESIS launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The hyperspectral instrument will monitor the environment and resources on Earth. The ground segment was developed by the Earth Observation Center.
Jubilee Congratulations from Space
21 June 2018
The TerraSAR-X satellite sent a very special greeting to mark the 150th anniversary of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Tracking Methane with an Airplane
18 June 2018
As a greenhouse gas methane is 25-times more effective than CO2. Its sources include agriculture, forestry, and mining activities, livestock farming, wastewater treatment plants, and waste-disposal sites, among others. Because of its potent greenhouse effect it is particularly important to identify methane sources. EOC is participating in a large European measurement campaign to test various technologies for detecting and measuring carbon dioxide and methane sources.
Why the tongue of the Pine Island Glacier suddenly shrank
15 June 2018
Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is not only one of the fastest flowing ice streams on the Southern Hemisphere. In the past eleven years huge icebergs have also broken off four times from its floating ice tongue. The reason for the abrupt retreat of the glacier front has now been clarified with the help of two EOC scientists.
Andes - Laboratory for Natural Hazards
05 June 2018
Urban agglomerations are growing rapidly worldwide and new megalopolises are emerging. The dense settlement structures with sometimes millions of people are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards. In the RIESGOS project (Spanish: risks), the EOC investigates natural hazards and their interactions in the Andean region.
1,000 Kilometres Across an Ice Shelf — with TerraSAR-X
22 May 2018
A four-person research group achieved the largest Antarctic expedition since the 1950s. Back then, the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Vivian Fuchs successfully crossed the Antarctic via the South Pole for the first time. During this year’s Antarctic summer a team from Antarctica New Zealand, a government agency, found a way across an unknown section of the Ross ice shelf, an ice region the size of France. Crucial information for determining the route was supplied by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) using data from the TerraSAR-X radar satellite. The successful traverse was part of the "Ross Ice Shelf Project", which is investigating how the ice shelf reacts to global warming.
Sentinel-5 P: volcanic emissions with unprecedented sharpness
18 May 2018
After several weeks of increasing lava lake levels in the craters Halema'uma'u and Pu'u 'O'o of the Hawaiian shield volcano Kilauea, the crater floor of Pu'u 'O'o’ collapsed on May 1st, causing earthquakes and several fissures opened in the East Rift Zone and erupted
60 Petabytes for the German Satellite Data Archive D-SDA
16 May 2018
A few days ago a new data library came into operation at the German Satellite Data Archive, D-SDA. The volume of earth observation data is increasing almost exponentially, requiring a 60 petabytes (60 billion megabytes) expansion of D-SDA storage capacity. D-SDA safeguards long-term the data from German and international earth observation missions and makes them available for research.
Launch of Sentinel 3B – twin satellites united in space
26 April 2018
The Sentinel-3 satellite pair, one of the principal components of the European Copernicus programme, is now united in space. On 25 April 2018 at 19:57 CEST (20:57 local time) the Earth observation satellite Sentinel-3B lifted off on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. "The twin satellites will now monitor Earth together," explains Michael Nyenhuis, responsible for the Sentinel-3 mission at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Space Administration. "Once Sentinel-3B has been successfully commissioned in orbit, the system will be fully operational and we will receive valuable additional data."
EOC nominated: Blue Compass for Green Roofs!
25 April 2018
Climate change poses enormous challenges for cities. Extra green spaces on rooftops can provide some relief. A technology developed at EOC helps detect green rooftops and those that can be potentially vegetated. Green rooftop mapping has now been nominated for a “Blue Compass” award by the federal environment agency as a contribution to climate protection and adaptation to climate change.
Hyperspectral instrument DESIS en route to International Space Station in 2018
20. April 2018
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the United States corporation Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) are announcing the completion of the development and manufacturing process of the DESIS hardware.
Copernicus Masters enters the next round
10 April 2018
In April, the Copernicus Masters competition was launched, in which DLR once again offers an attractive prize. We are looking for innovative applications and ideas that make the most of Copernicus data to improve human well-being, the environment and the use of natural resources.
Data Cubes for Easier Access to Earth Observation Data
29 March 2018
The BigDataCube project has the goal of advancing the paradigm of the “data cube” – in other words, ready-to-analyse spatiotemporal raster data – from the status of a science prototype to a pre-competitive earth-observation service.
Air Pollution and Health: Kick-off for BioClis
22 March 2018
Nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulphur and particulate matter in the air we breathe have moved to the centre of public attention. Increasingly strict threshold values for these pollutants are being exceeded in numerous cities. However, whether and to what extent particular individuals suffer from air pollution depends on additional environmental parameters, as well as on personal disposition. In the recently launched BioClis project EOC is investigating these connections with the goal to inform people about their environmental and health risk.
Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO): Fourth Symposium in Grenoble, France
19 March 2018
The Fourth Symposium of the Virtual Alpine Observatory, VAO, took place from 13-15 March 2018 in Grenoble, France. It was attended by about one hundred scientists from the Alpine region countries Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France. Institutions affiliated with VAO in Norway and Georgia were also represented.
Exhibition "The Call of the Mountains" opens at Gasometer Oberhausen - March 15, 2018
15 March 2018
At 4478 metres the Matterhorn is not one of Earth’s highest mountains—not even the highest mountain in the Alps. But its striking triangular shape makes it unique. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has measured this rock pyramid with the help of satellite and aircraft overflights and generated from the data a precise terrain model that now brings the mountain to Gasometer Oberhausen as a 3D projection on a 17 metre high reproduction of the Matterhorn. There it floats upside down in the 100 metre high airspace of the Gasometer as the highlight of the exhibition "The Call of the Mountains", opening on 16 March 2018. A mirror on the floor reflects the mountain, enabling a bird’s eye view.
Warming of the Stratosphere Leads to Arctic Temperatures!
02 March 2018
Temperatures in the two-digit minus range dominate the weather these days; a record-breaking seasonal value below -30°C was measured on Mount Zugspitze.
People catch colds, automobiles do not start up, high-tension power lines break. What we are experiencing these days impressively demonstrates how the higher layers of Earth’s atmosphere can influence the weather on the ground – for scientists at EOC a fascinating field of research! ...
Excellence in Earth Observation –
German-French Information Exchange
01 March 2018
France and Germany are the two largest member states in the European Space Agency (ESA). The French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and DLR have many common interests in earth observation. On 28 February Dr. Juliette Lambin, head of CNES earth observation programmes, learned about current research and projects at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. She was accompanied by Mr. Klaus Schmidt, deputy head of earth observation in the DLR Space Administration Division in Bonn. ...
Tracking Climate Change – at the Border to Outer Space
01 March 2018
Realistic modelling of climate change requires an appropriate description of energy fluxes in the atmosphere. Some of the energy is transported via so-called gravity waves, which progress through the atmosphere similar to the movement of water waves. They can break, thereby releasing energy. An important parameter for determining the energy transported by gravity waves is the so-called Brunt-Väisälä frequency. This value is now available as part of a climatology for every day of the year in the Alpine region. ...
Hot Spots for Climate Change and Evolutionary Survival
26 February 2018
Shorter winters and the decreasing extent of snow cover worldwide threaten the survival of animal species adapted to living in snow. An international research team has identified regions where species can successfully adapt to new climate conditions, partly by adaptive evolution. EOC’s “Global Snow Pack”, a remote sensing product documenting how snow cover is evolving worldwide, was used in this study. ...
PAZ Earth observation satellite successfully launched
23 February 2018
The Spanish Earth observation satellite PAZ was successfully launched on 22 February 2018 at 15:17 CET from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States, on board a Falcon 9 rocket. Interestingly, PAZ is being positioned on the same orbit as the German TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar satellites. In addition, the PAZ ground segment builds on technologies developed by the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute for the twin satellites. A constellation of three satellites will make images available faster in the future. ...
Virtual Alpine Observatory – Symposium 2018
22 February 2018
From 13 to 15 March 2018, the Virtual Alpine Observatory (VAO) will host an international symposium to present its latest findings and encourage networking activities. The symposium will be held in Grenoble, France, and will include presentations about new results from science and technology as well as about new project initiatives. ...
Using Earth Observation Data for Sustainable Development
31 January 2018
At the 13th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference in Tel Aviv on 29 Jan. 2018 the chair of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund, had a discussion with the deputy director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), P. Kunhikrishnan; the president of the Italian Space Agency ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana), Prof. Roberto Battiston; the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Dr. Eugene Tu; and the deputy director of the Russian Space Organisation ROSCOSMOS, Sergey Saveliev. The discussion was moderated by Avi Blasberger, director of the Israel Space Agency (ISA). ...
2017 Third-coldest year since measurements began—in the mesopause
30 January 2018
For Germany, 2017 was the third-coldest year since measurements started in 1987—but that was true only at 87 kilometres altitude.
The temperature development there takes a course opposite to the one at Earth’s surface. This atmospheric region, the upper mesosphere, is at the focus of EOC interest because that is where changes that will take place in the atmosphere underneath can be detected and measured beforehand. ...
Global Change and Rice Cultivation
29 January 2018
Rice is one of the world’s most important sources of nutrition. A satellite-image-based analysis carried out at EOC shows changes in China's rice acreage.
Climate change and urbanisation on the one hand and national subsidy programmes on the other are resulting in a relocation of rice cultivation. ...
Strong Growth in Aquaculture Threatens Ecosystems
26 January 2018
Aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of the food industry worldwide and meanwhile supplies almost half of all fish that people consume. With methodology developed at EOC this growth can be detected over a wide area. On the Asia coasts the expansion of aquaculture leads to ecosystem destruction, the clearing of mangrove forests, and water pollution. ...
High Forest Loss in Paraguay
23 January 2018
Until 2004 Paraguay’s rates of deforestation were the highest in all of South America. EOC investigations show an annual decrease in the area covered by the Atlantic Forest averaging 2.2 percent between 1999 and 2004. Strictly prohibiting deforestation has considerably slowed down forest clearing activities since 2004, but satellite-based analyses reveal that large sections of the Paraguay forest are still being destroyed. ...
Snow in the Sahara
10 January 2018
In the night to Sunday, 07 Jan. 2018 an extremely rare weather phenomenon occurred in the Algerian desert: snowfall in the Sahara. Scientists at the Earth Observation Center (EOC) make use of satellite-based snow analyses to show just how seldom this event is. ...
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