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PAZ, the third musketeer

Flying in a kind of short zero-G trip, last week the PAZ satellite was set back to sleep inside its sarcophagus. Conveniently packed and looking gorgeous, it will now take a roadtrip to IABG facilities in Germany for satellite environmental test campaign. Next stop after that will be Baikonur, a Russian launch-site in the north of Kazakhstan, from where it will launch later next year onboard a Dnepr rocket. Read more →

(Modern) Art from above

Without any doubt Earth Observation has revolutionised our understanding of the Earth, and the processes that drive the major changes of our climate are just starting to be revealed to us. We’re spending our money on making people and economies healthier, safer, and better prepared to overcome the daily needs of our future societies. Read more →

Landsat and the Spain summer 2012 wildfires (II)

Some weeks ago I wrote about the uses of Landsat data in the evaluation of fire burns and how to process the pre-fire and post-fire images by using the Normalized Burn Ratio $(NBR)$. An initial assessment of one of the major Spanish fires of the summer 2012 was carried out, showing a classification of the initial fire severity. Read more →

Pyramids from Space

By late afternoon on November 5th 1922, the excavations at the Valley of the Kings led by Howard Carter revealed 12 stairs heading downwards into the rock. At the very end, a familiar royal seal and signs of ancient robbers. Even deeper, another sealed chamber was opened, and the hot air escaping caused the candles flames to flicker. Read more →

Landsat and the Spain summer 2012 wildfires (I)

Sadly, as the summer season begins news from occurring fires generously populate the headlines of many of our local newspapers. Certainly the increase in the number of frequent wildfires is a symptom of the Earth’s global warming, and it’s absolutely striking that 90% of biomass burning is human instigated. Read more →

Spot the Station!

Even if many people are not aware of the daily news in the Space world, almost everybody has heard of the International Space Station (ISS). Let’s say that human spaceflight is usually more ‘news-friendly’, you know an astronaut from your country, or simply you have always dreamt of being an astronaut. But the other day I was talking to a friend and my ISS-pass alarm beeped. Read more →

The saga continues: Landsat 8 becomes operational

Enlarging the list of successful Landsat satellites saga (save for Landsat 6), the already operational Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite (LDCM) becomes now Landsat 8. It was at the beginning of this year that Landsat 5, which set a Guiness World Record for the longest running Earth Observation satellite (launched 1984), took its last picture of the Earth. Read more →

Hello Earth!

With a slight change in the usual way of starting a new blog (the well-known ‘Hello World!’ post), I begin here my adventure into the exciting world of Earth Observation and Remote Sensing from Space. Most likely most of us won’t be as lucky as the Apollo 17 crew when they took the famous ‘Blue Marble’ picture in December of 1972, as they transited towards the Moon Read more →