Space Industry and Business News  
EARTH OBSERVATION
A New Pair Of Glasses To View Earth

This image, which shows part of the Mediterranean Sea, was processed from data collected during the Sen3Exp campaign to support the development of ESA's Sentinel-3 mission. It is based on MERIS data when the instrument was reprogrammed to some of the new Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) bands and processed to simulate OLCI products. The image shows radiance in the new OLCI band at 400 nm. This new band will improve the detection of phytoplankton in water and determination of land cover types. Credits: ACRI-ST/Brockmann Consult
by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Oct 18, 2010
Our view of Earth is set to become even sharper with new instruments to be carried on ESA's Sentinel-3 satellites. In many ways, it will be like looking at Earth through a new pair of glasses.

Sentinel-3 is one of the five missions that ESA is developing for Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative. Primarily, Sentinel-3 will deliver data for GMES services related to the marine environment, such as ocean-current forecasting services that need surface-temperature information, sea-water quality and pollution-monitoring services requiring ocean-colour products and surface-wave information for maritime safety.

The mission will also supply data for numerous land services, such as fire detection and land-cover mapping.

To achieve this, the Sentinel-3 satellites carry a suite of advanced instruments, including a precision radar altimeter, an infrared radiometer and a wide-swath ocean and land colour radiometer. The first satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2013, followed by the second to maximise coverage.

The Sentinel-3 Experiment campaign, or Sen3Exp for short, was carried out last year to simulate acquisitions by the mission's optical instruments: the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) and the Sea Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR).

The campaign, which took place in Spain, Italy and the Ligurian and Adriatic Seas, was a huge international effort involving over 60 scientists from Europe and Canada, six satellite instruments, three airborne hyperspectral instruments and 50 instruments to collect data on the ground.

One highlight of the activity was the reprogramming of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument on ESA's Envisat satellite to correspond to a subset the spectral bands that OLCI on Sentinel-3 will use in the future. Operating in 21 spectral bands, OLCI will effectively supersede MERIS, which has 15 bands.

This major campaign was coordinated to allow scientists on the ground and at sea to take ground-truth measurements while aircraft carrying the sensitive hyperspectral instruments passed overhead and satellites acquired data simultaneously from space.

The instruments on the aircraft covered the whole spectral ranges of OLCI and SLSTR - from the UV at 400 nm to the thermal-infrared wavelength of 12 m.

Carsten Brockmann, the campaign's Principal Investigator, said, "The campaign was a tremendous international effort that provided a unique and important dataset for the preparation of the Sentinel-3 mission and possibly beyond."

In order to simulate Sentinel-3 data products accurately, the vast amount of data collected during the campaign had to be carefully analysed and processed - a complex task that took a year to complete.

Nevertheless, the effort has been worthwhile and scientists have been rewarded with results that clearly show the added benefits these two instruments will bring and that help to visualise the future images of Earth expected from Sentinel-3.

In particular, the additional spectral bands offered by OLCI will make a step change in ocean and land colour data products, so that, for example, phytoplankton in seawater and different types of land cover can be detected more accurately.

The clarity of the new products will effectively be like putting on a new pair of glasses, sharper, clearer and a more detailed view of Earth's surfaces.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Sentinel 3
GMES
Envisat
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


EARTH OBSERVATION
Satellites join up to map Earth
Berlin (UPI) Oct 15, 2010
Two German satellites orbiting within 380 yards of each other are preparing to create the most detailed map ever made of Earth's entire surface, officials said. The radar satellites TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X will make 3-D maps of the surface as they orbit the globe, sweeping around the planet at more than 14,000 mph, the BBC reported. TerraSAR-X was launched in 2007 and TanDEM-X wa ... read more







EARTH OBSERVATION
TerraSAR-X And TanDEM-X Flying In Close Formation

TechDemoSat-1 To Demonstrate UK Innovation In Space

Apple net profit up 70 percent, 4.19 million iPads sold

Space Debris' Enviromental Impact

EARTH OBSERVATION
Indian army in communication system tender

Military Terrestrial Satcom Market To Grow Slightly

MEADS Demonstrates Interoperability With NATO

Space security surveillance gets new boost

EARTH OBSERVATION
ILS Proton Successfully Launches XM-5 Satellite

Ariane Moves Into Final Phase Of Globalstar Soyuz 2 Launch Campaign

Arianespace Hosts Meeting Of Launch System Manufacturers

Political Obstacles For Sea Launch Overcome

EARTH OBSERVATION
NKorea Jamming Device A New Security Threat

KORE Telematics Introduces Location-Based Service Offering

Trimble Releases Next Gen Of TerraSync GPS Data Collection Software

EU's Galileo satnav system over budget, late: report

EARTH OBSERVATION
India mulls Boeing Globemaster III deal

Boeing Projects 90 Billion Dollar Commercial Airplanes Market In Russia And CIS

War games pits Eurofighter against Su-30

Goal set for capping emissions from international aviation

EARTH OBSERVATION
Intel to invest up to 8 billion dollars in US chip plants

Intel posts three billion dollar quarterly net profit

Motorola sues Apple for patent infringement

Intel to spend 2.7 billion dollars on Israel plant upgrade

EARTH OBSERVATION
A New Pair Of Glasses To View Earth

Bluefin Tuna Hit Hard By Deepwater Horizon Disaster

TalkingFields Guides European Farmers From Space

Insight Into Volcanic Eruptions, Courtesy Of Space

EARTH OBSERVATION
Riot police, protesters clash in Naples garbage protest

US launches drive to clean oiled Gulf beaches this year

Slovak ministry sees one toxic waste reservoir as risky

Can Hungary's Red Sludge Be Made Less Toxic With Carbon


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement