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28 March 2013
March has been an eventful month for satellite Earth observation missions. Presented here is a summary of those events.
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that two of its missions are performing beyond expectations, furthering research in unanticipated areas. Progress is also continuing with the development of the Sentinel-3 satellite and the PROBA-V satellite is being prepared for launch.
- Data analysed from the GOCE satellite's accelerometers has revealed that it "heard" the devastating earthquake that struck Japan in 2011. Read more
- The Sentinel-3 satellite platform has been delivered to Thales Alenia Space in France where the instruments will be installed and the satellite tested.
- The PROBA-V minisatellite has reached the Spaceport in French Guiana where is it is being prepared for launch in April.
- The SMOS satellite has demonstrated the ability to further research into wetlands and help contribute to the understanding of the carbon cycle.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has acquired data from the new LDCM satellite and utilised data from another to further research.
- Data from the Aura satellite has been used to determine the causes of the 2011 Arctic ozone hole.
- And the first images from the Landsat-8 (LDCM) satellite have been released.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced plans to build two new Earth observation satellites.
- CartoSat-3 is planned to be a very high resolution imager, with a planned resolution of 0.25 metres.
- Gisat is planned for launch in 2016-2017 and is aimed to carry multi-spectral and multi-resolution imaging instruments.
And Vietnam is planning to launch its first Earth observation satellite; VNREDSat-1 in April.