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IMF/HR Team wins the DLR Science Slam 2013
See their final round presentation …

17 December 2013
For all those who couldn’t be there, here is the entry of the Science Slam winner at the DLR Annual Meeting in Göttingen, presented by the "Remote Sensing" Team: Maria Tello Alonso and Michele Martone (DLR Microwave and Radar Institute) and Daniele Cerra, Claas Hendrik Grohnfeldt, Aliaksei Makarau, Kevin Alonso Gonzalez (DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute) Moderator: Normen Odenthal (Englisch, 10 min, 150 MB).

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Great Barrier Reef Mapped for the First Time in High Resolution – a Development with EOC Roots

11 December 2013
For the first time the Great Barrier Reef has been completely mapped in high resolution. Earth’s largest coral reef extends for more than 2000 kilometres along the east coast of Australia and covers an area of ca. 350,000 square kilometres. The initial high resolution bathymetric measurements of this enormous area were made by EOMAP with the help of satellite data. The groundwork for this technology was laid at EOC. EOMAP is an EOC spin-off fostered by DLR.

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Hurricane-force low pressure system leaves tracks in trace gases

6 December 2013
Storm Xaver held Germany spellbound. Optical satellite images show the storm front as a wide band of clouds. But satellite trace gas measurements reveal more. For example, HNO3 (nitric acid) functions like a contrast medium for identifying currents in the atmosphere. EOC scientists use such trace gas measurements as well as the 3D chemical transport model SACADA developed at DLR to analyze the activity of planetary waves. These waves play a decisive role in determining our weather.

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TWOPAC Classification Tool successfully deployed

November 20, 2013
The TWOPAC image classification tool (Twinned Object and Pixel Based Classification Chain) developed by the “Land Surface” department of DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) was successfully deployed and tested abroad. The release of this open source software includes a seven-minute animation film introducing the idea behind TWOPAC, an extensive handbook, and the TWOPAC software itself, encapsulated in a virtual machine with all the components needed for installation on a USB stick.

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DFD provides maps for the relief effort in the Philippines

November 14, 2013
Working in shifts around the clock, staff of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) produced their first maps of the Philippine disaster areas based on satellite image data. When typhoon Haiyan reached the islands on 8 November 2013, extensively destroying wide areas, Germany's disaster aid organization (THW Technisches Hilfswerk) activated DFD’s Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) via the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters". The analyzed and processed images are now providing basic information for THW relief efforts on the island of Cebu.

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EOC successful at "Copernicus Masters 2013"

November 06, 2013
On 5 November 2013 the winners of the “Copernicus Masters” competition were selected at the Alte Kongresshalle in Munich. Hartmut Runge from the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) of DLR’s Earth Observation Center won the “BMW Connected Drive Challenge” as well as the overall “Copernicus Master 2013” award. His idea could be a step toward achieving automated vehicle navigation. It involves combining data on the location of objects as detected by car sensors with highly precise object detection data from satellite radars such as on Sentinel 1. The goal is highly precise localization of a motor vehicle independent of GPS.

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	Innovation Prize 2013 for the “Flying Wildlife Finder” November 04, 2013 The Gesellschaft von Freunden des DLR (Association of Friends of the German Aerospace Center) has awarded its 2013 Innovation Prize to the EOC Team of Martin Israel team (IMF) for “outstanding scientific achievement in the Flying Wildlife Finder Project”
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URUK: Reconstruction Based on Satellite Data

October 21, 2013
The temporary exhibition “URUK – 5000 Years of the Megacity” at the Pergamon Museum on Berlin‘s Museum Island was viewed by some 440,000 visitors. DFD produced an animation based on satellite data for this exhibition in order to give a visual impression of the world’s first metropolis. Now the exhibition moves to the LWL-Museum für Archäologie in Herne, where it will be on display from 3 November 2013 to 21 April 2014.

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Evaluation of the Earth Observation Center

25. Oktober 2013
The institutes of the Earth Observation Center were evaluated between October 22 and 24, 2013 by an external team of experts under the leadership of Professor Hartmut Graßl. Eleven renowned reviewers from the fields of science, industry, ESA and the public sector spent three days assessing the science and engineering achievements and the strategic focus of the two EOC institutes: the German Remote Sensing Data Center and the Remote Sensing Technology Institute. This was the second such evaluation since this institute cluster was established 2000.

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	Global SnowPack – A snow cover dataset on a global scale October 21, 2013 Information about extent, beginning, duration and melt of snow cover are important for climate research, hydrological applications, flood prediction and weather forecast. DFD scientists now developed a new global snow cover data set.
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ROSCOSMOS joins "International Charter Space and Major Disasters"

August 28, 2013
In a formal ceremony at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS in Moscow on 28 August 2013, the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS signed a declaration on membership in the "International Charter Space and Major Disasters". German participation in the Charter is made possible by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and jointly implemented by DLR’s Space Administration and German Remote Sensing Data Center, which includes the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI).

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New Book on Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing

July 16, 2013
The book „Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing: Sensors, Methods, Applications” provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of thermal infrared remote sensing. The editors are DLR-scientists Dr. Claudia Künzer and Professor Dr. Stefan Dech from the DFD. In this book renowned international experts contributed chapters on currently available thermal sensors as well as innovative plans for future missions. Further chapters discuss the underlying physics and image processing techniques for analyzing thermal data. Ground-breaking chapters on applications present a wide variety of case studies leading to a deepened understanding of land and sea surface temperature dynamics, urban heat island effects, forest fires, volcanic eruption precursors, underground coal fires, geothermal systems, soil moisture variability, and temperature-based mineral discrimination.

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Dr. Robert Backhaus retires

11. Juli 2013
After 27 years of dedicated service to DLR, Dr. Robert Backhaus was given an official farewell on the occasion of his well-deserved retirement. After a lecture by Dr. Backhaus on the UN-SPIDER program, Prof. Stefan Dech, director of the German Remote Sensing Data Center, paid tribute to Dr. Backhaus’ systems analysis approach to applying remote sensing to issues of environmental protection and planning and to his exceptional commitment to the UN-SPIDER program as a national remote sensing expert.

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	5th TerraSAR-X and 4th TanDEM-X Science Team Meetings July 08, 2013 From 10 to 14 June 2013 the 5th TerraSAR-X and 4th TanDEM-X international gathering of users of data from these missions for science purposes took place at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. Over 300 participants from 26 countries presented the new insights they gained with the help of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X data.
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Gone with the Wind

June 26, 2013
Once it has been swirled up into the air, fine desert dusk is often transported long distances by wind currents. This effect can be exploited to reveal complex wind currents in the lower atmosphere, which is especially useful when studying small gravity waves in the atmosphere. The direction of propagation and horizontal wavelengths can almost be read off with the eye.

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	Birthday Celebration for Twins 21. Juni 2013 This month TDX and TSX, two German radar satellites, are three and six years old, respectively. Despite their age difference they can be considered twins, and together they are undertaking one of the most exciting current earth observation missions: TanDEM-X.
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	Summer Solstice June 21, 2013 Summer has hardly begun, and the days are already getting shorter again. In 2013 the sun reached its highest point over the horizon in the northern hemisphere on 21 June. The summer solstice, marking the longest day and the shortest night of the year, is now behind us.
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Research plane took off for to take high-resolution aerial images of flooded regions

June 05, 2013
The Earth Observation Center makes available to rapid response teams up-to-date images of the flood regions. Toward this end, the DLR research airplane Dornier Do 228-212 took off equipped with a camera system and flew over the cities of Passau and Regensburg in Bavaria and the areas around Halle an der Saale and the Mulde reservoir in Sachsen-Anhalt. The collected data were then processed and made available by ZKI (Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information). For this campaign the EOC scientists made use of technologies developed for the traffic research project VABENE (Traffic Management for Major Events and Disasters).

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	Floods in Germany: National Service ZKI-DE activated June 03, 2013 The German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) tasked the EOC’s Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite and arial image-based situation information covering the regions most affected by the current floods in Thuringia, Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg.
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Harvest forecasts for the business world

22. März 2013
Three graduates from Würzburg University will be supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology’s start-up program, EXIST. In their own company, the former students of the department headed by the director of DFD, Prof. Stefan Dech, intend to produce from satellite data precise harvest forecasts for the agricultural sector. “We are proud of our young colleagues. This step from the science world to independent employment is an excellent idea” is the way Prof. Dech sums up the plan. The business concept is an outgrowth of two doctoral dissertations dealing with sustainable land management, co-supervised by Prof. Christopher Conrad.

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1st Mekong Environmental Symposium in Ho Chi Minh City

March 14, 2013
From 5-7 March 2013 over 300 scientists gathered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for the 1st Mekong Environmental Symposium. The symposium was organized by DLR‘s German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) within the framework of the international WISDOM project, which is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and coordinated by DFD.

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Visit of Czech Prime Minister Nečas

February 21, 2013
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has moved its headquarters from Brussels to Prague. This provided an occasion for Petr Nečas, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, to also visit EOC at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen on 21 February 2013. DLR Executive Board member Professor Hansjörg Dittus welcomed the delegation, which was complemented by the Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer and the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transportation and Technology, Martin Zeil.

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	German Federal President Joachim Gauck visits DLR February 19, 2013 President Joachim Gauck visited the German Aerospace Center (DLR) on the occasion of his first official visit to Bavaria on 19 February 2013. Accompanied by Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer and the Bavarian State Minister Martin Zeil he also came to EOC, where Prof. Stefan Dech described the activities of ZKI.
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Global artist at work

February 04, 2013
Impressing structures can be observed these days when looking at the global stratospheric ozone distribution. Wave like structures, filaments and even filigree patterns are revealed from satellite based data of the stratospheric ozone distribution which are highly variable in space and time. Patterns of the global ozone distributions even remind of fine artwork.

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	GEO Secretariat director visits EOC January 29, 2013 The new director of the GEO Secretariat in Geneva, Barbara Ryan, visited EOC in Oberpfaffenhofen on 28 January 2013. Together with earth observation specialists from EOC she discussed DLR’s contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
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On call: Satellite Data for Emergency Response

January 22, 2013
From the research stage to full operation – The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) is now on call around the clock. This service facility established in 2004 provides up-to-the minute satellite-based maps for activities related to natural and environmental disasters, humanitarian aid, and civil security worldwide. On 22 January 2013 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) officially launched regular ZKI operations.

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EOC obtains a “world receiver”

January 09, 2013
EOC staff recently braved winter weather to install a new antenna on the roof of their building. It has a 7.3 meter diameter antenna reflector and can receive data from earth observation satellites at rates up to 600 megabits per second, 600 times the performance of a standard DSL link. Next-generation data reception—global real-time transmission of earth observation recordings—will be tested with this antenna.

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	Mekong Environmental Symposium 2013 1 January 2013 The Mekong Environmental Symposium 2013 takes place from March 5th to 7th 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon
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Typhoon in Philippines

November 11, 2013
The typhoon “Haiyan” is one of the most powerful storms ever recognized, and has caused devastating demolition in the Philippines. Officials estimate more than 10,000 people have died. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite image based situation information.

Global Salon –EOC at the Munich Tollwood Cultural Festival

October 28, 2013
On Saturday, 30 November 2013, EOC will be represented at the Tollwood “Weltsalon”. In an on-the-spot report Nils Sparwasser of DFD will give viewers a fascinating glimpse of our planet. The geographer and his team are specialists in the science visualization of earth observation missions and present images from space that show our world from an extraordinary vantage point.

Real-time Data Center Opens at DLR in Neustrelitz

September 13, 2013
On 13 September 2013 a new near-real-time data center was opened at DFD in Neustrelitz in the presence of the Minister of Economic Affairs, Construction and Tourism for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Harry Glawe. The new building contains on some 2000 square meters operations and server rooms to meet the data processing requirements of the satellite receiving station there.

DLR and AWI test satellite-based methods for improving maritime navigation -
On the way to Antarctica on board of the research vessel 'Polarstern'

October 11, 2013
The Earth Observation Center is working on a satellite-based system for substantially improving ship navigation in ice-affected waters. The German Earth observation satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X provide the high-resolution images needed to make this possible. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) – the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research based in Bremerhaven – are currently on their way to Antarctica on board the research vessel 'Polarstern' to test the practicality of this technique.

Wide-angle view from space

August 30, 2013
Officially, the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X should have been out of service for over a year and a half – that's how long it has exceeded its intended lifespan. But engineers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have switched the satellite, which was launched to space on 15 June 2007, to yet another mode: TerraSAR-X can now record image strips over 200 kilometres wide.

For Crisis Situations: Portable Ground Station for Data Transmission

August 28, 2013
Whether natural disaster or humanitarian crisis—local rescue teams require up-to-date situation information in the form of aerial or satellite images as rapidly as possible. But critical infrastructure is often lacking in crisis regions—power supplies, telecommunications, transport routes. DLR has now successfully tested a system for autonomous data transmission: the mobile ground station TOGS can be set up wherever desired to receive in real time high resolution data transmitted via a laser connection from an aircraft or satellite. The system was operated in an actual scenario for the demonstration tests. Aerial images were received which were recorded on board DLR’s Dornier Do-228 research aircraft as part of the EOC VABENE project, which investigates traffic management for major events and disasters.

	Now Online – A Film about DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen August 27, 2013 With the help of fascinating images a new film about DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen gives an impression of research topics currently under investigation at this facility. A video (in german) of some 10 minutes, in which DFD’s "Science Communication and Visualization" unit was involved, is now available for downloading.
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Satellite View of the Oceans – Marine Security Research Unit established in Bremen

August 20, 2013
Ice floe movement, choppy seas, dangerous currents, spreading oil slicks, but also the position of ships — from the vantage point of space satellites have the best view of the oceans. That’s why EOC scientists assess radar images and receive ship signals with the help of satellites. DLR now brings together research activities of the Remote Sensing Technology Institute and the Institute of Aerospace Systems to form a Marine Security Research Unit in Bremen.

Longest glacier in Antarctica has 'calved'

July 2013
Two gigantic cracks have formed in Pine Island Glacier, the longest and fastest-flowing glacier in the Antarctic. A new iceberg with an area of over 720 square kilometres and its smaller 'brother' separated from the glacier on 8 July 2013 and have 'calved' into the Amundsen Sea, off the west coast of Antarctica. EOC scientists documented the gradual propagation of the first crack over a period of several months. On 11 May 2012, a second crack was discovered. Glaciologists can use this data to better understand the processes involved in the calving of icebergs.

ZKI Supplies Data for Charter Activation

June 24, 2013
On 19 June 2013 at 10:30 a.m. after heavy flooding in northern India and Nepal, the Indian government requested assistance from the “International Charter Space and Major Disasters”. DLR has been a member of the Charter since 2010, and in response to the resulting activation the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DFD supplied satellite data to Indian disaster aid authorities. The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X sees through cloud cover to provide images with a wide-coverage view of the flooded areas.

DLR aerial images reveal extent of flooding

June 06, 2013
DFD’s Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) has generated the first flood maps from data recorded by DLR’s research aircraft. They are available at www.zki.dlr.de. The images were recorded during a four-hour marathon flight by DLR’s Do 228-212 research aircraft. On board was a camera developed by the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) that provides images of the flooding at a resolution of 24 x 24 cm per pixel, thereby augmenting the satellite images with very precise close-ups.

DLR supports rapid-response teams with up-to-date maps based on radar data from space

June 04, 2013
Maps from DFD’s Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) clearly reveal the extent of flooding: in Passau, entire city districts near the confluence of the Inn and Danube rivers are under water; large areas around Elxleben north of Erfurt are flooded. ZKI obtains the information that supports the rapid-response teams in the German flood areas from up-to-date images recorded by the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X.

	WISDOM – Water Management for the Mekong February 06, 2013 On 5 March 2013 EOC will turn over to Vietnamese authorities a water-related information system for the Mekong Delta. This system was developed as part of the WISDOM project financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (project film, English, 10 min, 25 MB).
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