Earth Observation Portal Update: Launches, Satellites, Articles January - March 2024
Activity Report
The period January - March 2024 saw a number of updates and additions to the EO Portal, including satellite missions for Earth Observation, as well as other space activities.
Seven launches have taken place over the period including notably SpaceX’s Transporter-10 which put a number of new missions into orbit. Three new EO Portal articles covering new missions and three new articles on new thematic topics have been published, and more than 15 articles have been updated with new information.
Summary
Recent Satellite Launches
Seven new Earth observation satellites were launched between January and March 2024.
INSAT-3DS
INSAT-3DS was launched on 17 February 2024 off atop a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT; 5:35 p.m. local India time) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeast coast.
PACE
PACE was launched on 8 February 2024 from the Cape Canaveral Complex 40, at the Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket lifted off at 1:33 a.m. EST (06:33 GMT).
The SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-10 smallsat rideshare mission launched from Space Launch Complex 4E, at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 4 at 2:05 p.m. PT. This was the tenth dedicated rideshare mission organised by SpaceX.
The launch vehicle carried a number of payloads, including both new and returning customers:
GHOSt
GHOSt-4 and 5 were launched, on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
MethaneSAT
SpaceX successfully launched MethaneSAT on a Falcon 9 rocket, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
BRO
BRO-12 & BRO-13 (H2OWL MISSION), have successfully reached orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-10 mission, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The following articles are for Rocket Lab’s and SpaceX’s missions that have launched in September, November and December 2023. The articles have now been updated with the relevant information:
Capella Space X-Band SAR
The Capella-12 SAR satellite (Acadia-2), was launched on a dedicated Rocket Lab Electron vehicle on September 19, 2023 at 2:55 a.m. Eastern, from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.
The launch failed after approximately two minutes. This mission, which the company called "We Will Never Desert You," was its ninth in 2023 and 41st overall.
Planet
Pelican-1, along with 36 of its SuperDoves Flock 4Q, were successfully launched to orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-9 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, November 11, 2023.
SpIRIT
The SpIRIT landmark nanosatellite lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the United States, on December 2, 2023 at 5.19am (AEDT).
Newest Mission Articles
Over the period, three new mission articles were added to the EO Portal. These describe important new capabilities in water cycle studies, weather prediction, climate modelling, and radar imaging.
GLOWS (Global L-band Observatory for Water Cycle Studies)
Global L-band Observatory for Water Cycle Studies (GLOWS) is a new mission concept proposed by NASA that will use an L-band radar and radiometer to measure ocean salinity, sea ice thickness, vegetation water content, and ocean surface winds. GLOWS will address the need for a future L-band mission to maintain data continuity at the same resolution and accuracy as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) missions.
HAWC-Sat
The High altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds Satellite (HAWCSat) mission is an Earth observation mission of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), planned for launch in 2031, that will form part of the NASA-led Atmosphere Observing System (AOS), an international constellation of four satellites. HAWCSat aims to support extreme weather prediction, climate modelling and disaster monitoring, as well as investigate the interaction of aerosols, clouds, convection and precipitation in the Earth’s atmosphere.
LotusSat-1
LOTUSat-1 (name derived from the “Lotus” flower) is a Vietnamese X-band radar imaging satellite designed and manufactured by Japanese company NEC for the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC)/Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). Planned to launch from December 2024 to February 2025, LOTUSat-1 will provide timely information to respond and minimise the impacts of natural disasters and climate change in Vietnam.
Newest Thematic Articles
Over the period, three new articles added to the EO Portal covering thematic topics that tie together articles from across the EO Portal. These include a look at instruments focused on taking Ocean Colour measurements, Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging, and the measurement of aboveground biomass from space.
Ocean Colour
Ocean Colour is the apparent hue of water produced by backscattered sunlight after interaction with the water and its microscopic column composition. These interactions lead to the absorption or scattering of photons at different wavelengths, giving the ocean its distinctive colours. Satellite ocean colour radiometry involves detecting variations in spectrally-resolved water-leaving radiances, which is used to investigate the quality and quantity of materials that compose bodies of water from local to global scales.
SAR
The development and employment of satellite remote sensing has proved invaluable for improving our understanding of the Earth and its processes. Through these systems, it has become possible to take repeated observations of the entire globe. The applications are numerous, ranging from civil to scientific to military, as are the number of satellites taking observations.One of the key advantages of satellite SAR instruments is that radar signals aren’t impacted by lighting conditions and can penetrate weather. This enables day/night observations that are largely unaffected by cloud, rain, or other weather conditions. SAR makes use of the movement of the satellite in orbit, taking repeated observations as the instrument moves along its track, synthesising a much larger antenna and providing detailed, high-resolution images of the ground track. Further information on the observed environment can be obtained through the use of different wavelengths with different penetrative properties.
Above-Ground Biomass
Biomass is the sum weight of carbon of all living or recently-living organisms. As the looming threat of anthropogenic climate change grows ever more pressing and realised, so too does our interest in global carbon stocks. Life, particularly plant-life, is an exceptionally integral component of the Earth’s carbon cycle. Anthropogenic (human) activities are causing the breakdown of this cycle from two main contributors, which has instigated the current climate crisis. The first point of failure is input of far too much carbon into the atmosphere, primarily from ancient underground stores (e.g. fossil fuels). The second point of failure is the widespread removal of carbon-storing vegetation (deforestation). This removal contributes to both the over-input of carbon into the cycle - through burning of vegetation for energy or for land clearing - and to a reduced pulling of carbon from the atmosphere. As a result, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are significantly higher than they should be for a stable climate, and a key part of understanding, preparing for, and tackling this issue is to pay keen attention to the levels of biomass stored on Earth.
Other Updates
A number of other articles have been updated between January and March 2024 across the full range of EO Portal contents.
- NISAR
Launch: A launch of NISAR is planned in 2024 on an ISRO GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) Mark II launch vehicle of ISRO from SDSC (Satish Dhawan Space Center) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Mission Description, Overview, Mission Status and FAQs: New information about the planned launch have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- INSAT-3DS
Overview: INSAT-3DS Satellite is a follow-on mission of Third Generation Meteorological Satellite from Geostationary Orbit. The INSAT-3DS mission is fully funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), with significant contributions from Indian industry to the construction of the satellite. It is designed for enhanced meteorological observations and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces for weather forecasting and disaster warning. The satellite will augment the Meteorological services along with the presently operational INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR satellites.
Article’s Title, Mission Description, Spacecraft, Launch, Mission Status and FAQs: New information, images and tables, about the newly launched INSAT-3DS satellite have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- PACE
Overview: PACE has been implemented as a NASA Class C mission and it was launched on February 8, 2024 timeframe and minimum mission duration of three years, with orbit maintenance capabilities for 10 years.
Mission Description, Launch, Mission Status and FAQs: New information, images and tables, about the newly launched INSAT-3DS satellite have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- ERS-2
Mission Status: February 21, 2024: At approximately 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) ESA’s ERS-2 satellite completed its atmospheric reentry over the North Pacific Ocean, between Alaska and Hawaii. No damage to property has been reported.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- Carbon Mapper
Mission Description: Carbon Mapper is a non-profit organization committed to detecting, pinpointing, quantifying, and tracking 80% of global methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Carbon Mapper has partnered with Planet, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the State of California, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, RMI, and other philanthropic sponsors.
The company's first two satellites for the Carbon Mapper hyperspectral constellation, will be Tanager-1 and Tanager-2.
Launch, Mission Status, and FAQs: New information about the planned launch have been added.
Sensor Complement: Information, images and a table with technical specification about the Imaging Spectrometer, have been added to the article.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- CryoSat-2
Mission Status: August 23, 2023: A new CryoSat sea level anomaly product designed to enable ocean science and the development of operational marine applications has been released.
The dataset, presented in the Nature Research journal Scientific Data, provides a unique perspective on ocean surface levels, thanks to the mission’s novel orbit and its extended lifespan of more than 13 years.
It was produced and verified by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) as part of a wider ESA-backed project to validate CryoSat ocean products. The products are available for download here.
Sensor Complement: Information, images and technical details about the NOC Sea Level Anomaly (NOCSLA) gridded product have been added to the article.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- SPATIUM-I
Mission Description: SPATIUM-I (Space Precision Atomic-clock TIming Utility Mission I) was a 2U Cubesat developed jointly by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan.
The satellite’s main objective was to validate the clocking performance of a commercial off-the-shelf chip-scale atomic clock and demonstrate other key enabling technologies in orbit.
Mission Status: September 23, 2021: SPATIUM-I was deorbited, reaching the end of its mission.
Spacecraft and Launch: New information about the deorbiting of the satellite have been added
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- DTUSAT-2
Mission Description: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet Satellite 2 (DTUSAT-2) is a satellite that is used to track birds from space. It uses ground based transponders that are used during migration.
As of 2024, it is no longer operational in its primary role but still transmits beacons.
Mission Status: May 5, 2019: DTUsat-2 It is no longer operational in its primary role but still transmits beacons.
After an investigation, it was determined that the DTUSAT-2 onboard battery had been destroyed as a consequence of two errors in the satellite. Four resistors in the power system battery protective circuitry had wrong values, resulting in too low limit values of the battery charging cycle. The passive attitude system was optimised for antenna directivity, resulting in low power generation during passage over northern Africa. In combination, this resulted in deep discharge of the battery with no possibility of recovery, leading to the battery suffering permanent damage.
Other key dates about the satellite's expected launch and actual launch, have also been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- MicroMAS-2
Mission Status: August 4, 2023: MicroMAS-2 completed its mission and reentered Earth’s atmosphere.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- NigeriaSat-2
Launch, Quick facts and Mission Description: Launch date and end of life updated.
- EOS-1
Launch, Quick facts and Mission Description: Launch date and end of life updated.
- SeaHawk
Launch, Quick facts and Mission Description: Launch date updated.
- GHOSt
Launch and Mission Status: New information, about the newly launched GHOSt-4 and 5 satellites, have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- MethaneSAT
Launch and Mission Status: New information, about the newly launched GHOSt-4 and 5 satellites, have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- BRO
Launch and Mission Status: New information, about the newly launched BRO-12 & BRO-13 (H2OWL MISSION) satellites, have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- SPORT
Launch: The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) nanosatellite, arrived at the International Space Station on November 27, 2022, as part of SpaceX’s 26th commercial resupply mission for NASA. Both CubeSats deployed from the space station on Dec. 29, 2022, at 8:55 a.m. EST.
Quick facts and Mission Status: New information, about the launch, have been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.
- CHIME
Mission Status: February 27, 2024: ESA announced that during a single acquisition, the upcoming @CopernicusEU Hyperspectral Imaging Mission will acquire four times more data than any other hyperspectral satellite.
ESA video premiere for the CHIME satellite: “How will space transform the global food system?” has been added.
References: Entries have been added for the new information included in the article.