Latest Earth observation satellite Stories

NASA [ Watch The Video Bi-ocular Animations of Two Oceans ] NOAA's GOES-13 and GOES-15 weather satellites sit 60 degrees apart in a fixed orbit over the eastern and western U.S., respectively, providing forecasters with a look at the movement of weather systems in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The GOES Project at the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. announced the creation of satellite animations of both GOES-13 and GOES-15 to show continuous views of both oceans,...

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have released the first images from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite, which was launched Feb. 11. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The natural-color images show the intersection of the United States Great Plains and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado. In the images, green coniferous...

ESA ESA joined international delegates in Doha, Qatar, to discuss how satellite observations show our planet’s most sensitive areas reacting to climate change – and how this information is useful to the people living there. After almost two weeks of talks and negotiations, the UN Climate Change Conference has entered its final phase, when countries are represented mainly by their Ministers of Environment. During the first week of the ‘COP 18’ Conference of the Parties, ESA...

NASA has selected a proposal from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to build the first space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the North American continent hourly during daytime. The instrument, to be completed in 2017 at a cost of not more than $90 million, will share a ride on a commercial satellite as a hosted payload to an orbit about 22,000 miles above Earth's equator. The competitively selected proposal, Tropospheric Emissions:...

Space debris came into focus last week at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy. Envisat, ESA’s largest Earth observation satellite, ended its mission last spring and was a subject of major interest in the Space Debris and Legal session. Envisat was planned and designed in 1987–1990, a time when space debris was not considered to be a serious problem and before the existence of mitigation guidelines, established by the UN in 2007 and adopted the next year by ESA for...

Many people know and crave delicious Belgian chocolate, but might not be aware that the Belgian city of Tienen is known as the ‘Sugar City’ of Europe. And satellites are helping to grow the crop that makes our taste buds tingle. Central Belgium’s Tienen is the home base for one of the world’s biggest producers of sugar beet seeds, SESVanderHave. A key element to producing world-class sugar beet seeds is tailored agricultural practices with continuous monitoring of the plants...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com The European Space Agency (ESA) lost contact with its flagship Earth observing satellite almost two weeks ago, but the space agency hasn't skipped a beat in trying to make contact with Envisat. The recovery team at ESA is using every source available to try and determine if Envisat has entered its "safe mode."  This mode sees that the satellite placed its solar panels in a position so that it can draw power from the Sun. ESA said on Friday that valuable...

Ground controllers from the European Space Agency (ESA) are still trying to make contact with the space agency's flagship Earth observation mission, Envisat. Radar pictures taken from the ground appear to show that the satellite is intact, but there is no confirmation that Envisat has entered the "safe mode" of an ailing spacecraft. During this mode, the spacecraft ensures the solar panel is pointed at the Sun and that onboard power systems are prioritized above all other activity....

As ESA’s Envisat satellite marks ten years in orbit, it continues to observe the rapid retreat of one of Antarctica’s ice shelves due to climate warming. One of the satellite’s first observations following its launch on 1 March 2002 was of break-up of a main section of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica – when 3200 sq km of ice disintegrated within a few days due to mechanical instabilities of the ice masses triggered by climate warming. Now, with ten years of observations...

[ Watch the Video ] In the early hours of 1 March 2002, the largest Earth observation satellite ever built soared into orbit from ESA’s launch base in Kourou, French Guiana. For a decade, Envisat has been keeping watch over our planet. The eight-ton satellite has doubled its planned five-year lifetime, circling Earth more than 50 000 times. With ten sophisticated optical and radar sensors, the satellite is continuously observing and monitoring Earth’s land, atmosphere, oceans and...