Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has completed its August 2008-July 2009 detailed survey of deforestation by shallow cut throughout the Amazon region (INPE announcement). Its PRODES (Monitoring of the Brazilian Forest by Satellite) programme analyzed 400 images from Landsat, CBERS and the DMC Satellite Constellation to confirm that deforestation during the period was 7464 square kilometers, a reduction of 42% in comparison to 2007-2008. This is the lowest annual deforestation rate since INPE started systematic monitoring of the Amazon forest by satellite in 1988.

DMCii has worked with INPE to provide annual imaging of the whole Amazon Basin since 2005 to support this activity. By using multiple satellites, each capable of imaging a 650km wide swath of the forest canopy, DMCii is able to provide multi-spectral images of the entire area in 4-6 weeks. This provided INPE with valuable and timely information to help identify the extent of deforestation.

A significant decline in deforestation in the Amazon Basin has been observed since 2004. This is due in part to INPE’s new earth DETER system that detects deforestation in real time by fortnightly satellite imaging. This allows the supervisory board to take effective and prompt actions to combat illegal logging as it happens, rather than having to wait until after the damage is done.

Satellite capabilities play a crucial role in providing impartial information about deforestation in these large, inaccessible areas. The development of satellite constellations, pioneered by the DMC satellite constellation, has led to improved temporal and spatial resolution, enabling operational monitoring to support active and timely response to deforestation.

INPE announcement: www.inpe.br/ingles/news/news_dest117.php

SSTL is celebrating the 8th year in orbit of the high resolution CHRIS Imager, which was launched on-board the European Space Agency’s PROBA-1 mission, in October 2001.

The Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) is a highly versatile hyperspectral system that was developed by SSTL’s Optical Payload Group. CHRIS was one of many instruments on-board the mission, with the others including a Space Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) and a Payload Autonomous Star Sensor (PASS).

CHRIS offers the highest spatial resolution of any hyperspectral system currently in orbit and can provide simultaneous images of the Earth in 19 wavebands. This allows for many features of the images it produces to be identified and analysed.

This high resolution imager enables ESA’s Proba-1 mission to acquire detailed images of the Earth. The result – stunning images of natural and urban phenomena.



Many more images can be seen on ESA’s website including that of the Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii and Tokyo.

CHRIS can be used for many applications, including precision farming, disaster monitoring, air quality assessment and seabed classification, and has proved so successful that it has paved the way for advanced sibling CHRIS-2, which allows for other valuable applications to be addressed, including mineralogy and pollution monitoring.

The CHRIS Imager is not the only family to have grown, as the ESA’s Proba-1 mission has now been joined in orbit by Proba-2, which was successfully launched yesterday.

In addition to SSTL's CHRIS hyperspectral imager, ESA's 8-year old PROBA-1 mission has been continuing to depend on a number of sub-systems provided by SSTL (incorporating contributions from Space Innovations Limited). These include the power system, communications system, AOCS sensors, the Data Handling System computer and the SGR-20 Space GPS receiver. All systems remain fully operational in the primary chain of the satellite and have served to enable the extended life imagery capture from the CHRIS and HRC payloads.

Space Blog readers from the US might be interested to learn that SSTL and its earth-imaging subsidiary DMCii will be featured in the Discovery Channel series program “How Do They Do It?”. The show has already aired in Europe, and now as promised in our August blog Watch SSTL and DMCii on TV, here's an update on the first US broadcast.

The episode is due to receive its first US transmission on Discovery Science Channel on Thursday 1st October at 9pm Eastern Time. It will also be repeated at midnight that day and then on Saturday 3rd October at 4am Eastern Time. Tune in with your family and friends for a lighthearted insight into how SSTL is changing the economics of space and see a hyperspectral imager being assembled at SSTL's optical payloads group.

It's a busy time for both SSTL and DMCii as the new DMC satellites UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1, which were launched on the 29th July are commisioned and their imaging systems thoroughly tested and calibrated.

Just a week after launch, DMCii had already begun acquiring stunning satellite imagery from both satellites using the new 22m multi-spectral imaging payloads that they carry onboard. This would not have been possible without the new 22m multi-spectral imager that was developed by SSTL's Optical Payloads Group (OPG) in Sevenoaks, Kent. In a addition to the more obvious resolution increase it has over the previous 32m DMC imager, it includes a number of technological advances that improve the quality and calibration of the images DMCii receives.

This first image shows the states of Texas and Oklahoma, USA. The DMC satellites are specifically designed to image very large areas with rapid response and at regular intervals, as shown in this first multi-state image. The new satellites can image much larger areas in a single pass than the previous DMC satellites due to advances in onboard storage and high speed satellite downlinks to the Earth.



This is one of the first 11 images taken by Deimos-1, see the Deimos-1 gallery provided by the satellite owner Deimos Space for more.

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