Bhuvan, ISRO’s geoportal and gateway to Indian earth-observation data products and services, announced that now users can select, browse and query the thematic datasets from its website. Users can also use these thematic datasets and integrate them into their systems as OGC web services. At present, Land Use Land Cover (LULC) 50K : 2005-2006, datasets are available on the website. It can be accessed from the link provided at the Bhuvan home page (www.bhuvan.nrsc. gov.in) or accessed directly from http:// bhuvan-noeda.nrsc.gov.in/theme

National Remote Sensing Centre of India will set up a remote sensing ground station in the continent of Antarctica. Once the Antarctica ground station is operational, it will boost the remote sensing data transmitted by Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites. The data will be helpful during natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, besides providing regular data terrain. According to NRSC sources, the proposed ground station in Antarctica will receive data around 10 to 12 orbits per day from different IRS satellites.

A spy satellite for the Japanese government rode an H-2A rocket into orbit replenishing a fleet of secret spacecraft designed to keep track of missile development in North Korea. The secret satellite, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., is circling Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of more than 300 miles. The spacecraft was a more than $500 million payload outfitted with an optical camera and telescope to supply imagery to the Japanese government for intelligence, defense and civilian remote sensing applications. The spacecraft will become an operational member of Japan’s optical spy satellite fleet.

yandex buys 10 mn sq.km of images: Yandex, a Russian search engine, purchased high resolution images of 10 million sq.km of the Earth territory from ScanEx. The resolution shall be 0.8m per pixel.

1,145 satellites to be launched in next decade:
Euroconsult, a research and analyst firm specialising in the satellite and space sectors, forecasted that approximately 1,145 satellites will be built for launch during the next ten years (2011-2020), 51 percent more satellites than the previous decade. These projections came from Euroconsult’s just-released Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2020, World Market Survey.

The Government of Vietnam selected Belgian consortium which is led by SPACEBEL, a software engineering company operating in the Space and Earth monitoring applications sectors, for its second microsatellite for earth observations, ‘VNREDSAT-1B’. Vietnam will develop this microsatellite through its VNREDSAT (Vietnam Natural Resources Environment and Disaster monitoring small Satellite) programme. SPACEBEL is in charge of the mission and system studies, design and development of the entire satellite software package as well as the development and deployment of the ground segment.

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Software improves forests management
New software developed by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain can generate maps of forest areas with information on timber volume, biomass or height of the trees, among other variables. The development of this software by the Group …

Venezuela to use Chinese technology in RS satellite:
Venezuela signed manufacturing contract with China for the development of its remote sensing (RS) satellite. The satellite will be launched in October 2012. This remote sensing satellite will be used for monitoring of natural phenomena, such as earthquakes, floods and heavy rains. The life of satellite will be five to six years.

Taiwan releases its first aerial photography drone
A local company has unveiled Taiwan’s first indigenous unmanned vehicle for aerial photography, hoping to break into a market that so far has been monopolized by imported products. The AI Rider, a system based on a six-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle weighing about 1,450 grams, is highly competitive because of its price and after-sales service, including training that is more easily available to domestic customers, said Clark Lin, vice president of Gang Yu Corp.
The remote-controlled aerial photography vehicle is said to be entirely developed in Taiwan and made with domestic components. It can carry a payload, such as a video camera, of up to 400 grams, and can climb to an altitude of 550 meters.

Israel, Russia to boost cooperation in space: Israel and Russia have agreed to increase cooperation on space research and exploration. According to Zvi Kaplan, Director, Israel Space Agency, a project has been proposed which includes remote sensing of Earth from space, planetary studies and space medicine. Kaplan said that the two nations may also join forces on astrophysical research and satellite navigation.