Between 3.5 and 4.5 million square kilometres (km2) of vegetation worldwide are consumed by fire every year, an area equivalent to the size of the EU. This is the result of a study conducted by EU-funded researchers and published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

(27 May 2008). A new launch date has been set for GOCE. The change of date is due to precautionary measures taken after the malfunction of an upper-stage section of a Russian Proton launcher. Now confirmed not to affect GOCE’s Rockot launcher, the most advanced gravity mission to date is scheduled for lift-off on 10 September 2008.

ERDAS announces the opening of a new office in Liège, Belgium. Effective May 27, 2008, ERDAS has moved from its Grâce-Hollogne, Belgium office to a new, larger location in Liège. Supporting ERDAS’ growth in Europe, the Liège office includes state-of-the art training and meeting facilities, in a convenient and central location for customers and business partners.

The $250 million initial public stock offering (IPO) planned by satellite Earth observation imagery provider DigitalGlobe Inc. will give investors an opportunity to make side-by-side comparisons of the Longmont, Colo.-based company with its principal competitor, GeoEye Inc. of Dulles, Va.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its own satellite imagery on the internet six months from now, rivalling popular mapping service Google Earth.

In a new publication “Window on GMES”, the vast palette of GMES services is illustrated through examples and interviews with key stakeholders. This publication is destined to key political makers, a broader sphere of users and the wider public. “Window on GMES” is being published by the “BOSS4GMES”: http://www.boss4gmes.eu/boss4gmes/Home.do consortium, a FP6 project. The BOSS4GMES

Munich – May 20, 2008 – GAF AG, an internationally active geo-information technology company, announces the successful completion of the design, implementation and testing of the Geological and Mineral Resources Information System (GMRIS) for Papua New Guinea at the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) in Port Moresby.

Mount Etna is a stratovolcano located on the Italian island of Sicily. Being Europe’s highest and most active volcano, it is one of the best monitored volcanoes worldwide and has the world’s longest documented records of volcanism starting 1500 BC. Two typical eruptive styles occur at Etna, persistent explosive eruptions, sometimes with minor lava emissions

Following the success of the recent free INSPIRE seminar and metadata workshop, 1Spatial is pleased to announce that the seminar presentations are now freely available to download.

by Adam Keith, Euroconsult. Source SatMagazine

BMT Group Ltd announced its acquisition of ARGOSS, a leading specialist provider of marine environmental information services, using satellite observations, meteorological and oceanographic data.

(Opening date: 30 April – Closing date: 30 May). The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), in cooperation with the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has agreed to launch an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for researching new developments in the application of RADARSAT-1 data and innovative mapping approaches to better understand the dynamics of hurricane genesis, morphology and movement.

SPOT Image Corporation has been providing its Reference3D® Digital Elevation Data (DEM) to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to supplement an important global foundation elevation data set that the Agency has been producing since 2002. The SPOT data is used to supplement data collected during the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Space Shuttle

High quality imageries acquired from Cartosat-2A and Indian Mini Satellite-1 (IMS-1) were presented to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in Delhi by Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO along with a team of senior scientists. It may be recalled that Cartosat-2A and IMS-1 were successfully launched by PSLV-C9 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota on April 28, 2008.

(6th May 2008) The Earth’s oceans play a vital role in the carbon cycle, given that the well understanding of the marine biological activity helps to predict how our planet will react to the annually decreasing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

London 12 June 2008. The event is being sponsored by BNSC, and will provide an excellent networking opportunity for industry and the scientific community.