EOMasters Newsletter #029
18/08/2024
Hello EO-Masters!
Welcome to another edition of the newsletter. Among other things, we'll talk about the latest upgrade to new EOMasters Toolbox Pro and the three interesting satellites which launched into orbit in the past few days.
Let's head over to the news.
In this Issue:
EOMasters News
Update of EOMasters Toolbox Pro
EO and RS
Australia Joins USGS for Landsat Next Satellite Mission
ISRO launched Earth Observation Satellite-08 (EOS-08)
Arctic Weather Satellite and Φsat-2 Safely Dropped in Orbit
Software, Tools and Services
CryoSat data platform with new interface and datasets
Esri - Sentinel-1 Explorer
Beyond EO
Do You Want to Find a Black Hole?
EOMasters News
Released the EOMasters Toolbox Pro
In the last newsletter I've announced release of the EOMasters Toolbox Pro and now I can announce that it got updated with new features and fixes already.
This current version 1.1.1 has been updated with
New Features
Cyanobacteria Index (CI) Processor for detection of cyanobacteria blooms in water bodies.
Updated Features
SpeX: Allow to select bands based on spectral wavelength range,
bnd(minWvl:maxWvl).SpeX: Added 13 mineralogy indices
SpeX: Deprecated CRI1 and CRI2, they are replaced by CRI550 and CRI700
Fixed Issues
Parameters using paths could not be used from gpt (e.g., shapefile)
Issue accessing internal water tile ids
Fixed issue where SpeX GUI considers indexes as incompatible if referenced bands
have different sizes.OperatorDialog blocks SNAP GUI when target product is not saved to disk
Fixed link to Coastal Map Options page in help
Fixed location of License Dialog Help in online help
In addition, the shop now provides more payment methods. Besides PayPal you can now pay using your credit card.
EO and RS News
Australia Joins USGS for Landsat Next Satellite Mission
Australia and the U.S. have signed a bilateral statement to collaborate on the Landsat Next Earth observation mission, enhancing land, water, and resource management.
Australia will invest $200 million to modernize satellite ground station facilities and support advanced data processing and analytics.
The partnership aims to adopt global data perspectives, integrate AI methods, and enhance landscape analytics for societal benefits.
ISRO launched Earth Observation Satellite-08 (EOS-08)
Image SSLV-D3/EOS-08 by ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) successfully to place the Earth Observation Satellite-08 (EOS-08) on orbit.
There are three instruments on board.
The Electro Optical Infrared Payload (EOIR) is the main payload. It is accompanied by the Global Navigation Satellite System- Reflectometry payload (GNSS-R) and the SiC UV Dosimeter.
EOIR payload is to image in Mid-Wave IR (MIR) band and in Long Wave IR (LWIR) band during day and night for various applications like Satellite based surveillance, Disaster Monitoring, Environmental Monitoring, Fire Detection, Volcanic activities, and Industrial and power plant disaster.
GNSS-R payload is to demonstrate the capability using GNSS-R based remote sensing to derive applications like Ocean Surface Winds, Soil moisture, Cryosphere applications over Himalayan Region, Flood detection, In-land waterbody detection etc.
SiC UV Dosimeter is to monitor the UV irradiance at the View Port of the Crew Module in Gaganyaan Mission and to use as a high dose alarm sensor for UV Radiation
Arctic Weather Satellite and Φsat-2 Safely Dropped in Orbit
Photo: ©ESA/Mlabspace
The Arctic Weather Satellite and the Φsat-2 were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
The Arctic Weather Satellite aims to improve weather forecasts in the Arctic by providing high-resolution humidity and temperature data.
The Φsat-2 cubesat uses AI technology to interpret and analyse Earth observation data in orbit. It can detect clouds, categorise photos, and identify irregularities.
Both satellites have communicated to the ground station that they are healthy, and operations may commence.
Software, Tools and Services
CryoSat data platform with new interface and datasets
The cs2eo platform is developed by Earthwave in partnership with the University of Edinburgh
The platform now features four main functionalities: Basic Data Download, Intersection Processing, Advanced Data Download, and Time Series Processing.
Users can now filter datasets by functionalities and access short, searchable descriptions of each dataset.
For the future planned enhancements include integrating the prototype timeseries tool, providing advanced sub-settings for data download, and allowing users to view their query and download history.
Esri - Sentinel-1 Explorer
Sentinel-1 Explorer is a web application for visualizing and analyzing Sentinel-1 imagery. Sentinel-1 imagery helps to track and document land use and land change associated with climate change, urbanization, drought, wildfire, deforestation, and other natural processes and human activity.
Beyond EO
Do You Want to Find a Black Hole?
Modified image by Евангелина Вебер from Pixabay
The Black Hole Finder app has been developed by the Dutch Black Hole Consortium. It allows amateur astronomers to help identify black holes using images from the BlackGEM telescopes. Users analyse images to spot potential kilonovas, contributing to machine learning systems that identify black holes.
The better you perform, the higher you climb in a ranking system that offers rewards and privileges for users.
Newsletter Archive
For past editions of this newsletter, you can visit the archive.
That's it for this issue. I hope you enjoyed this collection of news. Stay tuned for the next edition, which will arrive in your inbox in about two weeks.
Tschüss and Goodbye!
Marco
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