NASA has successfully blasted two probes into space on a landmark lunar exploration mission to scout water sources and landing sites in anticipation of sending mankind back to the moon in 2020.
Showing posts with label satellite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satellite. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Haryana gets satellite images of Aravalli constructions
Haryana’s Forest department has said that it has begun receiving satellite images clearly depicting construction closed on the Aravalli Hills in areas falling under Sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) 1900. Prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), these images are open to public scrutiny as the department has extended an invitation for those interested in seeing the maps.
The Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) is likely to table these images with the apex court during the next dates of hearing, which are March 18, 19 and 20. Earlier too, the CEC had submitted the satellite images of 25 villages in the Aravalli Hills of Faridabad and recommended demolishing structures constructed there. The forest department had dispatched raw drawings of all 58 villages to FSI for preparing change of land-use maps this January.
Finance Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Forests) P.K. Gupta said his department had received images of 10 of the 58 villages situated on the Aravalli Hills in Gurgaon. “We hope to get images of all 58 villages by the next date of hearing, when the CEC produces these before the SC,” he said.
The Haryana government had provisioned an expenditure of Rs 1 crore for classifying the type of constructions on Aravalli Hills in the Faridabad and Gurgaon regions through satellite images. The FSI gets the high-resolution remote sensing satellite images from the National Remote Sensing Agency of the Department of Space that uses a Quick Bird satellite of US make.
Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com
The Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) is likely to table these images with the apex court during the next dates of hearing, which are March 18, 19 and 20. Earlier too, the CEC had submitted the satellite images of 25 villages in the Aravalli Hills of Faridabad and recommended demolishing structures constructed there. The forest department had dispatched raw drawings of all 58 villages to FSI for preparing change of land-use maps this January.
Finance Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Forests) P.K. Gupta said his department had received images of 10 of the 58 villages situated on the Aravalli Hills in Gurgaon. “We hope to get images of all 58 villages by the next date of hearing, when the CEC produces these before the SC,” he said.
The Haryana government had provisioned an expenditure of Rs 1 crore for classifying the type of constructions on Aravalli Hills in the Faridabad and Gurgaon regions through satellite images. The FSI gets the high-resolution remote sensing satellite images from the National Remote Sensing Agency of the Department of Space that uses a Quick Bird satellite of US make.
Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Chandrayaan-1 enters Lunar Transfer Trajectory
The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out today (November 4, 2008) morning at 04:56 am IST. During this manoeuvre, the spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about two and a half minutes. With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory with an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of about 380,000 km (three lakh eighty thousand km).
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu. Since its launch on October 22 by PSLV-C11, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are performing normally. Chandrayaan-1 will approach the Moon on November 8, 2008 and the spacecraft’s liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit.
source:
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu. Since its launch on October 22 by PSLV-C11, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are performing normally. Chandrayaan-1 will approach the Moon on November 8, 2008 and the spacecraft’s liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit.
source:
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
GeoEye-1 successfully launched - now see the world better than ever
USA - GeoEye-1 the super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite was launched into orbit on 6th of September from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast. A Delta 2 rocket carrying the GeoEye-1 satellite lifted off at 11:50 a.m. Video on the GeoEye Web site showed the satellite separating from the rocket moments later on its way to an eventual polar orbit.
The satellite makers say GeoEye-1 has the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system. It can collect images from orbit with enough detail to show home plate on a baseball diamond. The company says the satellite's imaging services will be sold for uses that could range from environmental mapping to agriculture and defense.
GeoEye-1 was lifted into a near-polar orbit by a 12-story-tall United Launch Alliance Delta II 7420-10 configuration launch vehicle. The launch vehicle and associate support services were procured by Boeing Launch Services. The company expects to offer imagery and products to customers in the mid- to late-October timeframe.
The GeoEye-1 Satellite
GeoEye-1, designed and built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, is the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite. Designed to take color images of the Earth from 423 miles (681 kilometers) in space and moving at a speed of about four-and-a-half miles (seven kilometers) per second, the satellite will make 15 earth orbits per day and collect imagery with its ITT-built imaging system that can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 0.41-meters (16 inches) in size in the panchromatic (black and white) mode. The 4,300-pound satellite will also be able to collect multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter ground resolution. While the satellite will be able to collect imagery at 0.41-meters, GeoEye's operating license from NOAA requires re-sampling the imagery to half-meter resolution for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government.
The satellite will be able to see an object the size of home plate on a baseball diamond but also map the location of an object that size to within about nine feet (three meters) of its true location on the surface of the Earth without need for ground control points. Together, GeoEye's IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites can collect almost one million square kilometers of imagery per day.
With the ability to revisit any location on the globe every three days, and at lesser resolution more frequently, GeoEye-1 will enable customers to receive imagery updates on a regular basis and is ideal for large-scale mapping projects. This capability will benefit a broad array of industries including national defense and intelligence, online mapping, state and local governments, environmental monitoring and land use management, oil and gas, utilities, disaster management, insurance and others.
Source : http://geoeye.mediaroom.com/
Friday, September 5, 2008
Iran launch of Omid successful
Iran announced Sunday that it launched a satellite into space earlier in the day, the country’s first domestically made.
The satellite, Omid (hope), was launched Sunday by using Safir (ambassador) satellite-carrier rocket, the armed forces said in a statement, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
The Omid Satellite which was successfully fired on the birth anniversary of the last Imam (prophet) of Shiites, Hazrat Mahdi (who is believed to reappear at the end of the world) illustrated the auspicious name of the Imam in the space, IRNA said.
According to Iran’s English-language Press TV satellite channel, the domestically manufactured Omid Satellite will pass over the country six times a day.
The launch of Safir rocket aimed to test remote sensing, satellite telemetry, and geographic information system (GIS) technology as well as remote and ground station data processing, Press TV said.
Another news agency Fars quoted government spokesman Gholam- Hossein Elham as saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was at the launch of the communications satellite from Iran’s space station.
In February, Iran said it has prepared for the satellite launch by sending a probe into space of a rocket on the mission.
Ahmadinejad announced in his press interview in Istanbul Friday that Iran would in near future launch its first domestic satellite to the space.
Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear ambitions, has pursued a space program for several years, according to media reports.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
The satellite, Omid (hope), was launched Sunday by using Safir (ambassador) satellite-carrier rocket, the armed forces said in a statement, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
The Omid Satellite which was successfully fired on the birth anniversary of the last Imam (prophet) of Shiites, Hazrat Mahdi (who is believed to reappear at the end of the world) illustrated the auspicious name of the Imam in the space, IRNA said.
According to Iran’s English-language Press TV satellite channel, the domestically manufactured Omid Satellite will pass over the country six times a day.
The launch of Safir rocket aimed to test remote sensing, satellite telemetry, and geographic information system (GIS) technology as well as remote and ground station data processing, Press TV said.
Another news agency Fars quoted government spokesman Gholam- Hossein Elham as saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was at the launch of the communications satellite from Iran’s space station.
In February, Iran said it has prepared for the satellite launch by sending a probe into space of a rocket on the mission.
Ahmadinejad announced in his press interview in Istanbul Friday that Iran would in near future launch its first domestic satellite to the space.
Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear ambitions, has pursued a space program for several years, according to media reports.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Isro,India to launch Italian, Algerian satellites
India - Antrix Corp. Ltd, the commercial arm of India’s space agency, has won a pair of deals from Algeria and Italy to launch earth observation satellites next year on the polar satellite launch vehicle, or PSLV, its workhorse rocket.
The contract awarded by the Algerian space agency to launch Alsat-2A, a 200kg remote sensing satellite, is the first won by Antrix from an African nation. The Algerian agency has the option to launch a second such satellite. For the Italian space agency Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Antrix will launch a satellite named IMSAT, which will be the second Italian satellite to be boosted into space by the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, which in April 2007 launched Agile, a 352kg scientific satellite.
The Algerian and Italian satellites, besides a 100kg satellite for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Cubesat, a three-satellite package from the Netherlands, would ride piggyback on heavier Indian satellites, said K.R. Sridhara Murthi, managing director of Antrix. He didn’t disclose financial details.
Antrix is also in talks with space agencies of South Africa and Nigeria to carry out similar launches, Murthi said. “We are also looking at opportunities bigger than that—remote sensing satellites, where payloads (are) of 800kg or even higher.”
ISRO offers the home-grown PSLV to carry satellites of up to 1,700kg into low-earth orbit at a cost that’s nearly 30% cheaper than that charged by firms such as International Launch Services, owned by Space Transport Inc. and two Russian organizations, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia. Low-earth orbit is the region above earth between 200km and 2,000km, ideal to place earth observation or remote sensing satellites.
India is still a fledgling competitor in the global satellite manufacturing and launch industry, which is expected to grow to $145 billion (Rs6.3 trillion) over 10 years to 2016, from $116 billion in the 10 years to 2006, according to Paris-based research firm Euroconsult.
“(ISRO’s) benchmark is with international specifications on quality, reliability and credibility of the systems. And then, you are also cost competitive,” said K. Kasturirangan, director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, a think tank in Bangalore. “The opportunity is just growing.”
Source : http://www.livemint.com/
The contract awarded by the Algerian space agency to launch Alsat-2A, a 200kg remote sensing satellite, is the first won by Antrix from an African nation. The Algerian agency has the option to launch a second such satellite. For the Italian space agency Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Antrix will launch a satellite named IMSAT, which will be the second Italian satellite to be boosted into space by the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, which in April 2007 launched Agile, a 352kg scientific satellite.
The Algerian and Italian satellites, besides a 100kg satellite for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Cubesat, a three-satellite package from the Netherlands, would ride piggyback on heavier Indian satellites, said K.R. Sridhara Murthi, managing director of Antrix. He didn’t disclose financial details.
Antrix is also in talks with space agencies of South Africa and Nigeria to carry out similar launches, Murthi said. “We are also looking at opportunities bigger than that—remote sensing satellites, where payloads (are) of 800kg or even higher.”
ISRO offers the home-grown PSLV to carry satellites of up to 1,700kg into low-earth orbit at a cost that’s nearly 30% cheaper than that charged by firms such as International Launch Services, owned by Space Transport Inc. and two Russian organizations, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia. Low-earth orbit is the region above earth between 200km and 2,000km, ideal to place earth observation or remote sensing satellites.
India is still a fledgling competitor in the global satellite manufacturing and launch industry, which is expected to grow to $145 billion (Rs6.3 trillion) over 10 years to 2016, from $116 billion in the 10 years to 2006, according to Paris-based research firm Euroconsult.
“(ISRO’s) benchmark is with international specifications on quality, reliability and credibility of the systems. And then, you are also cost competitive,” said K. Kasturirangan, director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, a think tank in Bangalore. “The opportunity is just growing.”
Source : http://www.livemint.com/
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
ISRO postpones Chandrayaan I until mid-October
India - The launch of India's first unmanned mission to the Moon has been postponed until the middle of October, the head of the Indian space program has said.
The launch of the Chandrayaan I lunar orbiter by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was originally planned for September 19 but scientists have yet to conduct the thermo-vacuum testing of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) with the orbiter on board.
full story
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
IIT Kanpur proposes micro satellite for disaster management to ISRO
India - IIT Kanpur has submitted a proposal to the Indian Space Research Organisation, relating to design and development of a micro satellite.
The micro satellite, weighing around seven kg, can be used as part of disaster management and in cartography, Director IIT Kanpur S G Dhande, said on the sidelines of a conference on Smart materials, structures and systems.
The project was expected to require a funding of around Rs five to seven crore, he said, adding the proposal on the subject has been submitted to ISRO.
Highlighting other applications of micro and smart systems, he said currently a railway project was on to test the application of micro and smart system to track down the location of a train en route to its destination.
The system fitted over the train engine could send data which could be displayed on a screen locating the train's current position on the route.
The screen could be displayed in coaches for passengers to be updated on their travel.
The device could also help the driver get information on all the trains travelling on that route, he said.
Speaking during the inauguration of the conference, G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Isro said that smart materials and technology held huge potential in terms of application.
Citing an example, he said use of smart systems in cars could help a driver gain information on the proximity of other vehicles and automatically apply brakes.
Source : http://www.business-standard.com/
The micro satellite, weighing around seven kg, can be used as part of disaster management and in cartography, Director IIT Kanpur S G Dhande, said on the sidelines of a conference on Smart materials, structures and systems.
The project was expected to require a funding of around Rs five to seven crore, he said, adding the proposal on the subject has been submitted to ISRO.
Highlighting other applications of micro and smart systems, he said currently a railway project was on to test the application of micro and smart system to track down the location of a train en route to its destination.
The system fitted over the train engine could send data which could be displayed on a screen locating the train's current position on the route.
The screen could be displayed in coaches for passengers to be updated on their travel.
The device could also help the driver get information on all the trains travelling on that route, he said.
Speaking during the inauguration of the conference, G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Isro said that smart materials and technology held huge potential in terms of application.
Citing an example, he said use of smart systems in cars could help a driver gain information on the proximity of other vehicles and automatically apply brakes.
Source : http://www.business-standard.com/
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Future of Satellites: Nano, Micro and Mini Satellites
India - The smooth and flawless launch of eight nano satellites developed by universities from across the world along with two Indian spacecraft in one go by the April 28 path-breaking flight of the four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), while helping put ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) on par with front-ranking international space agencies, has brought into sharp focus the growing popularity of nano, micro and mini satellites.
These eight nano satellites are being used for experimental communication, forest fire detection and earth observation applications. Apparently, these eight nano satellites, whose launch has fetched Antrix Corp Ltd, the Bangalore based commercial arm of ISRO, Rs 24-million, were essentially designed to prove the feasibility of emerging nano technologies in building satellites as well as for the development of technologies for satellite applications.
For quite some time now, space researchers have been stressing the point that micro systems technology and micro electronics for space applications can draw great advantages from pre qualification in a real space environment. Reducing weight, size and energy characteristics of micro, mini and nano satellites is a major challenge before space professionals. The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of USA have a strong R&D programme for designing and building small, micro and nano satellites.
Similarly the 83-kg IMS-1, an Indian mini satellite payload for earth observation applications, launched by the April 28 PSLV mission, features many innovative technology and miniaturised sub systems. IMS-1 carries two remote sensing payloads: a multi-spectral camera and a hyper spectral camera capable of operating in the visible and near infrared regions of the electro magnetic spectrum.
The flexible satellite platform built for IMS-1 will serve as a forerunner of space missions for end uses like remote sensing, communications and space science research. Sometime ago, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair had stated that “we are now trying to look at a small platform which can take up scientific experiments or may be used for cluster formation and things like that.” ISRO has called for proposals from the Indian scientific community for space science research with the help of small satellite payloads.
The PSLV flight, slated to take place over the next one year, will orbit X-sat, a micro satellite designed and developed by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Cubesat, a nano satellite cluster from Netherlands as piggy back payloads. And sometime before the end of this decade, a PSLV mission will launch 35-kg Anusat, designed and developed by Chennai-based Anna University with the support of ISRO. This is an imitative of ISRO to bring university-based academicians and experts of ISRO together to implement a project in the University environment. This micro satellite will have body mounted solar panels and feature a digital store and forward payload for amateur communications. In addition, it features turbo coolers and MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) hardware. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kanpur are also planning micro satellites for launch by ISRO.
Another important micro satellite project being spearheaded by ISRO is Youthsat which will carry payloads of scientific interest with the participation of youth from universities. According to ISRO, youth from universities will participate from testing of the payloads in laboratories up to utilisation of the data from payloads. The micro satellite bus is planned and designed to carry different kinds of payloads like earth imaging, atmospheric applications, weather monitoring, stellar observation and scientific experiments. Youthsat will be launched as a piggy back payload by one of the PSLV flights during 2008-09.
In fact, it is the prohibitive cost of building large satellites and putting them into orbit, that has proved to be a "push factor" for the development of micro, mini and nano satellites. Micro satellites can also be used for the monitoring of disasters, natural resources and landscape mapping.
Surrey Satellite Technology, functioning under the Surrey University, is a pioneer in micro satellite technology. A number of countries have built small satellites inspired by the SSTL satellite models. Sweden, on its part, has developed and launched micro satellites for communications, scientific research and remote sensing applications.
Source : http://www.deccanherald.com/
These eight nano satellites are being used for experimental communication, forest fire detection and earth observation applications. Apparently, these eight nano satellites, whose launch has fetched Antrix Corp Ltd, the Bangalore based commercial arm of ISRO, Rs 24-million, were essentially designed to prove the feasibility of emerging nano technologies in building satellites as well as for the development of technologies for satellite applications.
For quite some time now, space researchers have been stressing the point that micro systems technology and micro electronics for space applications can draw great advantages from pre qualification in a real space environment. Reducing weight, size and energy characteristics of micro, mini and nano satellites is a major challenge before space professionals. The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of USA have a strong R&D programme for designing and building small, micro and nano satellites.
Similarly the 83-kg IMS-1, an Indian mini satellite payload for earth observation applications, launched by the April 28 PSLV mission, features many innovative technology and miniaturised sub systems. IMS-1 carries two remote sensing payloads: a multi-spectral camera and a hyper spectral camera capable of operating in the visible and near infrared regions of the electro magnetic spectrum.
The flexible satellite platform built for IMS-1 will serve as a forerunner of space missions for end uses like remote sensing, communications and space science research. Sometime ago, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair had stated that “we are now trying to look at a small platform which can take up scientific experiments or may be used for cluster formation and things like that.” ISRO has called for proposals from the Indian scientific community for space science research with the help of small satellite payloads.
The PSLV flight, slated to take place over the next one year, will orbit X-sat, a micro satellite designed and developed by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Cubesat, a nano satellite cluster from Netherlands as piggy back payloads. And sometime before the end of this decade, a PSLV mission will launch 35-kg Anusat, designed and developed by Chennai-based Anna University with the support of ISRO. This is an imitative of ISRO to bring university-based academicians and experts of ISRO together to implement a project in the University environment. This micro satellite will have body mounted solar panels and feature a digital store and forward payload for amateur communications. In addition, it features turbo coolers and MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) hardware. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kanpur are also planning micro satellites for launch by ISRO.
Another important micro satellite project being spearheaded by ISRO is Youthsat which will carry payloads of scientific interest with the participation of youth from universities. According to ISRO, youth from universities will participate from testing of the payloads in laboratories up to utilisation of the data from payloads. The micro satellite bus is planned and designed to carry different kinds of payloads like earth imaging, atmospheric applications, weather monitoring, stellar observation and scientific experiments. Youthsat will be launched as a piggy back payload by one of the PSLV flights during 2008-09.
In fact, it is the prohibitive cost of building large satellites and putting them into orbit, that has proved to be a "push factor" for the development of micro, mini and nano satellites. Micro satellites can also be used for the monitoring of disasters, natural resources and landscape mapping.
Surrey Satellite Technology, functioning under the Surrey University, is a pioneer in micro satellite technology. A number of countries have built small satellites inspired by the SSTL satellite models. Sweden, on its part, has developed and launched micro satellites for communications, scientific research and remote sensing applications.
Source : http://www.deccanherald.com/
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Satellite pictures tell of human rights violation
USA – The term 'the morality of altitude' was coined to apply to bomber pilots who released their payloads on victims they couldn't see, without ever feeling any sense of remorse or empathy for the people whose lives, families, homes and property they destroyed.
A new initiative by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of the journal Science could well give the term a completely opposite and far more positive meaning.
A project launched by the AAAS aims to use satellite imagery to provide evidence of human rights atrocities that have been denied by the governments that perpetrate them.
The AAAS worked with Human Rights Watch to produce a 130-page report on attacks on eight villages across the remote Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia, where "before" and "after" satellite images of villages identified by Human Rights Watch were analysed by Lars Bromley of the AAAS.
It's confronting read, but the really damning evidence lies in the 'before' and 'after' images, which show blackened fields and destroyed homes where before there were whole villages.
HRW's Peter Bouckaert said that the project was in response to frequent denials by the Ethiopian government that the massacres were happening at all.
"The Ethiopian authorities frequently dismiss human rights reports, saying that the witnesses we interviewed are liars and rebel supporters," Mr Bouckaert said. "But it will be much more difficult for them to dismiss the evidence presented in the satellite images, as images like that don't lie."
Source : http://www.sbs.com.au/
A new initiative by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of the journal Science could well give the term a completely opposite and far more positive meaning.
A project launched by the AAAS aims to use satellite imagery to provide evidence of human rights atrocities that have been denied by the governments that perpetrate them.
The AAAS worked with Human Rights Watch to produce a 130-page report on attacks on eight villages across the remote Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia, where "before" and "after" satellite images of villages identified by Human Rights Watch were analysed by Lars Bromley of the AAAS.
It's confronting read, but the really damning evidence lies in the 'before' and 'after' images, which show blackened fields and destroyed homes where before there were whole villages.
HRW's Peter Bouckaert said that the project was in response to frequent denials by the Ethiopian government that the massacres were happening at all.
"The Ethiopian authorities frequently dismiss human rights reports, saying that the witnesses we interviewed are liars and rebel supporters," Mr Bouckaert said. "But it will be much more difficult for them to dismiss the evidence presented in the satellite images, as images like that don't lie."
Source : http://www.sbs.com.au/
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
GIS and Satellite Remote Sensing for Arachaeology
Satellite remote sensing can provide a variety of useful data for this type of research. A variety of sources for such data exist, and while the data can be expensive and require extensive digital image processing, they provide a synoptic view which is not available from aerial photography. It takes over 200 aerial mapping photos to cover the same area as a single satellite image. We have used a variety of satellite data for this project, including older Landsat MSS from the late 1970's and more modern French SPOT and Radarsat data. New systems with 1 meter spatial resolution are now commercially available, but have not been used in this project due to cost (donations are welcome!). 
..
The image at right show the northern part of the study area. Al left you see the southern part of the research area. The banding is an artifiact of the data, and was later removed using digital image processing techniques. You can clearly see the river and gravel mines along it.
..
Radarsat image of Mont Beuvray, site of Bibracte at left, and Autun at right.
source:http://www.informatics.org
The image at right is a SPOT image overlaid on a digital elevation model of the area.
Landsat Multi Spectral Scanner (MSS)
Early in the project the only available remote sensing data was Landsat MSS, with 80 meter spatial resolution. Two images were acquired and digital image processing was conducted to generate color composite images and vegetation maps.
The following images are from the 22 March, 1973 image of the region shown in false color infrared.
This first image shows the entire study area, with the pasture lands shown in pink, forest in darker reds, urban in gray, and water in black.
.. French SPOT Data
The commercial civil remote sensing system developed by the French is called SPOT. It has a spatial resolution of 20 meters for multi-spectral data, which records information in three bands of the spectrum, and a 10 meter spatial resolution for a panchromatic band. The resolution of these images available from space can provide significant improvements in the utility of these data for regional archaeological and environmental applications, especially (as in France) where the field size is very small. Accurate modern landcover maps can be produced using SPOT satellite imagery. Below is a SPOT image which has been classified into a landuse/landcover map of the area. Yellows are pasture, greens are forest, blues are water, and reds are urban. This image was then combined with a shaded relief map (derived from a Digital Elevation Model) to produce a realistic representation of the landscape.
This is a SPOT land use/landcover image draped over the Digital Elevation Model from the project GIS database. Click on the image to see the larger version. You can clearly see the river valley down the center of the image, and the Morvan mountains at the top. The confluence of the Arroux and the Loire is at the bottom of the image. The red line at bottom is the modern highway from the town of Digoin at the confluence of the rivers, and Paray-le-Monial at right. The larger blue areas along the river are the lakes that the gravel mines leave after they remove the materials.
This is a color infrared SPOT 20 meter image, acquired 9 Nov. 1986, showing Mt. Beuvray, site of the ancient city of Bibracte, at upper left. The Arroux river valley flows from top to bottom on the right side. The city of Autun, ancient Augustodunum Aedorum, is at top right.
A close-up view of Mt. Beuvray, 9 Nov. 1986.
SPOT Satellite landcover map-modern vegetation
RADARSAT imagery
Canadian RADARSAT-1 satellite imagery has been acquired of the region on 4 November, 1998 with a spatial resolution of 8 meters. This system is different from SPOT or Landsat in that it is an active radar system that sends its own burst of electromagnetic radiation down to the ground which is then bounced off the surface and recorded on the satellite. Analysis of the Radarsat is ongoing. This system can operate day or night and through cloud cover. It provides a different and new way of visualizing the area. This image is C band, HH, descending orbit, right look, FINE mode. Inc. angle 39-42 degrees.
..Additional new imagery has been acquired, including NASA ASTER data. These will added soon.
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