Spectral Reflectance Newsletter #58
Spectral Reflectance Newsletter #58
Weekly newsletter on Earth Observation
Level-2 News
UK Space Conference 2023 Highlights [link]
Follow this post on the highlights and other recent announcements at the UK Space Conference 2023.
Euroconsult Values the Global EO Market at $4.6B [link]
"Euroconsult, a space consulting firm, predicts the global EO market will grow from $4.6B in 2022 to $7.6B over the next ten years, driven by tech advancements, premium product offerings, and public investment.
North America is currently leading market share with 45%, followed by Europe coming in at 22%.
The $4.6B market in 2022 was split between B2G defense ($2B), B2G non-defense ($1.4B) and B2B commercial ($1.2B)."
NASA Convenes at Climate Conference in UAE [link]
"NASA leadership is heading to Dubai this week for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (better known as COP 28), which begins on Thursday and runs through Dec. 12.
Administrator Bill Nelson, who will become the first NASA chief to attend the conference, will lead the space agency’s delegation, according to a release."
Google’s ‘A Passage of Water’ Brings NASA’s Water Data to Life [link]
"As part of the long-standing partnership between NASA and Google, NASA worked with Google Arts & Culture and artist Yiyun Kang to create an interactive digital experience around global freshwater resources titled “A Passage of Water.” This immersive experience leverages data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites and new high-resolution data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to illustrate how climate change is impacting Earth’s water cycle."
Kayrros launches free greenhouse gas tracker [link]
"French satellite imagery analysis provider Kayrros launched a free version of its global methane tracking map Nov. 29 to help hold governments and businesses to account for their emissions.
The public platform uses data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite and a sensor on the International Space Station to provide daily snapshots of the greenhouse gas, a major cause of global warming.
The map shows 5,645 methane super-emitters worldwide, or sources that release the gas at a significantly higher rate than is typical. Of these, 3,320 are from oil and gas, 874 from coal, and 1,451 from waste and agriculture."
Tata Advanced Systems and Satellogic to Build LEO Satellites in India [link]
"Indian aerospace company Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) and Satellogic have signed a deal to develop local space technology capabilities in India and manufacture Earth observation (EO) satellites. Under the deal announced Wednesday, TASL is now a customer of Satellogic’s Space Systems business.
TASL and Satellogic will collaborate on the development of a new satellite design and work together to integrate multiple payloads on a single satellite that will generate a range of data over India. They plan to build sub-meter resolution EO satellites, the first of which will be called TSAT-1A."
Spire Debuts Weather Forecast for Utilities and Commodity Traders [link]
"Spire Global is launching a new weather forecast model geared toward the energy and commodity markets. The High-Resolution Weather Forecast model announced Tuesday is designed to provide customizable weather forecasts to help energy traders, commodity traders, utilities, and grid operators anticipate the impact of weather on price dynamics, market trends and energy supply and demand.
The solution combines Spire’s proprietary data collected by its constellation of satellites including radio occultation (RO) technology, ocean wind, and soil moisture data, along with data from public sources such as NOAA, EUMETSAT and ECMWF."
IBM and NASA to Create New AI Foundation Model for Weather and Climate [link]
"IBM and NASA have collaborated to develop IBM’s geospatial foundation model and together they will make new efforts that apply its geospatial AI technologies, to climate efforts including analysis of urban heat islands in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); reforestation across Kenya; and climate resiliency in the United Kingdom (UK)."
Wildfire Preparedness Gets a Boost with UP42 and OroraTech’s Geospatial Data Access Solution [link]
"UP42, a geospatial developer platform and marketplace, and OroraTech, a space-based thermal intelligence company, have signed a partnership agreement to grant easy and fast access to global high-resolution thermal-infrared imagery. OroraTech delivers low-latency, global coverage, near-real-time thermal data products."
Satellite Images Provide Glimpses into Gaza Aid Deliveries [link]
"Maxar Technologies, a provider of high-resolution satellite imagery, has released a series of images captured on November 26th that provide valuable insights into ongoing efforts to deliver food and supplies to Gaza during the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas."
India and US to Launch Joint Satellite for Earth Observation [link]
"India and the US will launch the joint microwave remote sensing satellite for Earth observation, named NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) in the first quarter of next year, said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh during a meeting with a high-level delegation of NASA led by its Administrator Mr Bill Nelson.
NISAR is targeted for launch onboard India’s GSLV. Data from NISAR will be highly suitable for studying the land ecosystems, deformation of solid earth, mountain & polar cryosphere, sea ice and coastal oceans in regional to global scale."
Developer’s Orbit
Tutorial with Pangeo at BiDS23 in Vienna [link]
"This tutorial with OpenEO and Pangeo at this year’s BiDS23 – Big data from Space in Vienna demonstrated how to use Jupyter Notebooks and a graphical user interface to access and analyze big data from space using openEO and Pangeo platforms.
For more information find our jointly developed training materials online here."
Introducing Dunia: ESA's Revolutionary Earth Observation Data Platform for Africa [link]
"A revolutionary EO platform Dunia has recently been launched. Now users from around Africa can use EO data processing and dissemination with easy access through smartphones. The platform has been created by GeoVille, CloudFerro, CS Group France, CS Group Romania, and DLR."
Data
The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) Version-2.0 data are available now [link]
"The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project is a NASA initiative aiming to produce a seamless surface reflectance record from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) aboard Landsat-8/9 and Sentinel-2A/B remote sensing satellites, respectively. The HLS Version-2.0 data are available now with global coverage (except for Antarctica). With four sensors currently in this virtual constellation, HLS provides observations once every three days at the equator and more frequently with increasing latitude."
New Landsat 9 Cloud Cover Assessment (CCA) Validation Dataset Published [link]
"Landsat CCA validation datasets are comprised of satellite imagery and accompanying cloud truth masks that specify the pixels in a Landsat scene that are cloudy, clear, or have other conditions such as cloud shadow.
A new Landsat 9 based CCA validation dataset was recently published. Similar CCA data were compiled for Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 Collection 2 data. All CCA validation datasets can be found here."
Snapshots
Erebus Breaks Through [link]
"The summit crater of Mount Erebus, the world’s southernmost active volcano, appeared above the clouds on a late-spring day in 2023.
Mount Erebus is one of several volcanoes forming Ross Island off the coast of West Antarctica. At 3,794 meters (12,450 feet) above sea level, it looms over McMurdo Station, located just 35 kilometers (22 miles) away. These volcanoes occur in a rift zone where extension has caused the crust to thin and allowed magma to migrate up through faults to the surface."
The winners of the 4th edition of the contest 'Seize the beauty of our Planet' for the
best satellite image of global warming [link]
"The winners were selected by internet users, who voted for the best 13 images, and then a Jury, who chose the top three entries that took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
1st place was awarded to “Water in the desert” - by Lorenzo Amici from Italy
One of Earth's driest regions, Death Valley in the US, experiences flash floods from Hurricane Hilary. In a single day, August 20, Building reliable Earth observation data processing with temporal.docx 2023, the rainfall exceeded the average annual precipitation, making history as Death Valley's rainiest day ever (Copernicus Sentinel-2, August 26, 2023)"
Interesting reads
Heating season means pollution season [link]
"Bad air quality is one of the most serious threat to public health. Starting in autumn it becomes even more dangerous. Power consumption related to the heating system and road traffic is increasing, which leads to the increase of air pollution as well. What is more, lower temperatures are favorable conditions to keep air quality poor.
This article presents how NO2 pollution changes from September to November in respect of temperature"