Due to heavy rain in mid November some Slovenian rivers overflowed. We publish a radar image time-series of river Drava floods in the area of Zlatoličje.Radar images were taken by Sentinel-1 satellite. The benefit of radar images, unlike optical images, is the independace on weather and light conditions. Radar can see through clouds and even in the night,
Sentinel-2 images of wildefires in California. High winds, low-humidity and dry vegetation are a deadly combination for wildfires.
2019-10-27, Sentinel-2A L1C, True color
2019-10-27, Sentinel-2A L1C, SWIR
The first Slovenian microsatellite is presented at the 2. trade fair for innovative digital solutions Feel the Future in Celje. You can find more about NEMO-HD on our website or you can visit us in Celje.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has picked three candidates for its next middle class space mission, including Theseus, an early universe surveyor mission that includes Slovenian scientists from the Nova Gorica University and the Vesolje-SI centre of excellence. If picked, the mission is scheduled for launch in 2032.
Theseus, an acronym for Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor, aims to monitor transient events in the high-energy universe such as Gamma-ray bursts across the whole sky and over the entirety of cosmic history, says ESA’s website.It would make a complete census of gamma-ray bursts from the universe’s first billion years to help shed light on the life cycle of the first stars.
In addition, Theseus would also be able to follow up on gravitational wave observations by locating and identifying radiation from sources spotted by other detectors, adds ESA’s website.
Around 200 scientists from Europe, the US, Japan, China, Taiwan and South Africa are working on the project. From Slovenia, the Vesolje-SI centre of excellence and the Nova Gorica University participate with satellite and land communications technology development, and help with the definition of the mission with gamma-ray bursts expertise, respectively.
Theseus was picked as a potential mission of the ESA Cosmic Vision Science 2015-2025 programme. In addition to Theseus, Spica and EnVision projects have been picked as potential missions. The former is aimed at studying the origin and evolution of galaxies and the latter at studying geologic activity on Venus.
A total of 25 projects have applied for the programme, with the selected three moving forward to the next selection phase, told astrophysicist Andreja Gomboc, who works on Theseus
The final decision on which mission to launch is expected in 2021. According to Gomboc, much will depend on how well the project will be conceived technologically, on national space agencies’ backing and the costs, which cannot surpass EUR 550m for ESA.
Should it be picked, Theseus will be launched in 2032 and start collecting data in the low Earth orbit, at an altitude of about 600 kilometres.
You can read more about Theseus mission here.
Source: STA
Space-SI was actively involved in the International Conference on Space Technologies for Digital Economy in Vitanje, Slovenia. The conference held on April 19, 2018at the Centre for Space Technologies Herman Potočnik Noordung was organised by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, SPIRIT Slovenia, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Slovenia and the Russian State Corporations for Space Activities, “Roscosmos” and “URSC” (United Rocket and Space Corporation).
Activities in the field of space technologies supported by digital economy contribute to sectoral policies, enable responses to social change, effectively contribute to a reasonable growth in the competitiveness of the global economy and job creation. The conference was devoted to the creation of a strong ecological system for the development of space technologies, the exchange of business practices and the increased opportunities for the further development of the “New Economy” in “New Space”.
The official launch ceremony of the Copernicus Relays and Copernicus Academy took place on June 6th 2017 at the European Parliament. The event named ‘Copernicus Goes Local – Implementig the Space Strategy for Europe’ gathered more than 300 Earth Observation actors and industry representatives from acoss Europe, including Space-SI as the Slovenain Relay Centre.
The Copernicus Relays are the regional voices of Copernicus in the individual Member States, thus creating a bridge between the EC and the end-users of Copernicus. The Academy aims to educate and release an increasing amount of Copernicus-savvy people into the workforce bringing together the educational and research sectors across the EU.
More: http://copernicus.eu/news/successful-welcome-new-era-copernicus
Slovenian Centre of Excellence for Space Science and Technologies Space-SI is a DriDanube (Drought risk in Danube region) project partner. On March 16 we attended the Kick-off conference of the project partners which was held in Ljubljana.
The main outputs and expected results of the project were presented and connections with similar initiatives were sought at Danube Region, EU and global level. The event was focused on the needs and challenges for drought management in the Danube region. It aimed to serve as a forum for discussion among stakeholders from the whole region, experts working on drought, water managers, scientists and representatives of authorities.
Along the meetings and project-themed discussions the event offered a number of informal opportunities for partners to interact such as tourist tur through Ljubljana’s historical center and dinner. To the interested participants Space-SI presented its mobile ground control infrastructure for communication with a wide array of academic and commercial satellites stationed on the outskirts of Ljubljana and the multidisciplinary development lab.
More data on DriDanube project can be found on project’s web page: http://www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/dridanube.
The poject Remote and Close Range Sensing of Drought, submitted by Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana to the tender ”Project work with industry and public sector in the local and regional environment” was rated with the highest possible number of points. Within the project 8 students will have the opportunity to test and compare different methods of drought detection and monitoring on agricultural land. Students will be supervised by mentors from industry, academic and public sector, one of them is Žiga Kokalj from SPACE-SI.
SPACE-SI has been awarded by European Comission to become Copernicus Relay Centre.
As Copernicus Relay Centre SPACE-SI will play a key role by promoting Copernicus as a sustainable source of full, free, open and reliable information to meet the needs of national/regional/local public services, as well as a booster for the development of services with high commercial potential by local entrepreneurs. It will ultimately contribute to increase Copernicus awareness at the national, regional and local level.
More on Copernicus Relay Centres:
DriDanube (Drought Risk in the Danube Region) project started on 1.1.2017. Project was approved in the first call within Interreg Danube Transnational Programme, programme priority 2 – Environment and culture responsible Danube region, specific objective 2.4 – Improve preparedness for environmental risk management. Beside SPACE-SI there are 22 other project partners from 10 different countries. Lead partner is Slovenian Environmental Agency.
DriDanube aims to improve capacity of the region for drought emergency response and enhance preparedness for drought management by introducing recently developed monitoring and risk assessment tools. Following a transnational approach, DriDanube will harmonize the currently heterogeneous methodologies for risk and impact assessments, based on existing achievements in participating countries and on EU guidelines in the frame of the Civil Protection Mechanism. DriDanube aims to change mainly ad-hoc drought response to pro-active response based on risk management procedures. Cooperation among all relevant institutions will be strengthen leading to increase culture of preparedness throughout the Danube region.
