Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/55888
Time-sensitive GeoWorld departments such as NetLink, PeopleLink, Product News and Business News now are maintained solely at the GeoPlace.com Web site. Check there often for the latest updates as they happen. French Imagery Satellite Now Online The Pleiades 1A satellite launched in mid-December 2011 by French space agency CNES has begun producing imagery. The satellite, launched on a Soyuz vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana, was designed and built by Astrium and will serve as a very-high-resolution dual-use observa- tion system for civil and military users. The Pleiades concept is based on a vision of smaller, cheaper, more-agile satellites in comparison to Pleiades predecessors: the SPOT series of satellites. Eventually, Pleiades 1A will be joined by a second, identical Pleiades satellite, and the two will operate in a phased orbit with SPOT 6 and SPOT 7, the successors to SPOT 5. Pleiades 1A can capture imagery through 360 degrees and produce stereo-image cover, according to Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS. Pleiades 1A will supply imagery at a resolution of 70 centimeters, which then will be processed on the ground to achieve a resolution of 50 centimeters. Imagery produced will be suitable for further processing for various geoinformation applications. Imagery collected by the satellite soon after its launch included images of Paris and San Francisco. An image from the recently launched Pleiades 1A satellite shows San Francisco's Bay Bridge. of up to 20 participants, with stored data or data streaming in near-real time. "The missions of the U.S. Air Force are inherently three-dimensional and even four-dimensional," noted Amy Lessner, Zebra Imaging's FMHD project manager. "This technology can revolutionize situational aware- ness, command and control, and decision making across many Air Force missions." Environmental Group Maps Extreme Weather Events The Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environment action group, released a mapping tool that should help users better understand extreme weather trends. The Extreme Weather Map lets users explore connections among climate change and extreme weather events in locations throughout the United States. The new offering plots extremes, such as record temperatures and snowfall, on a map, with results viewable by month. The tool, part of a suite of NRDC maps that depict weather-related extremes, is avail- able online at www.nrdc.org/health/extremeweather. According to NRDC, there were more than 2,900 monthly records broken in communities across the United States in 2011. "From heat waves to floods to fires, 2011 was a year of extreme weather for com- munities throughout the United States," noted Kim Knowlton, the NRDC senior scientist who led develop- ment of the new tool. "This alarming, yet illuminating, data is indicative of what we can expect as climate change continues." Information depicted on the map, and drawn from an NRDC year-end survey, shows a range of extreme weather events. The survey found that at least 1,302 heat-related records, 1,090 rainfall records and 549 snowfall records were set in counties across the nation. The Midwest and Northeast, which suf- fered heavy flooding, were especially hard hit during the year, as was Texas, which endured an extended period of wildfires, extreme heat and drought. Nationally, the damage caused by 2011's extreme weather was estimated at $53 billion. Hurricane Irene as well as flooding in the Midwest and along the Mississippi River resulted in more than $20 billion in damage and nearly 60 deaths. Southwestern droughts, heat waves and wildfires resulted in more than $10 bil- lion in losses to agriculture as well as structures. FEBRUAR Y 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 7 ASTRIUM