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German Radar Satellite Lifts Off Tonight
2Y9D57 writes "Germany's new TanDEM-X radar satellite is scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 04:15 Berlin time on 21 June — that's 10:14 pm Eastern today (20 June). Flying in close formation with its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X will generate the most consistent and highest-resolution digital elevation map ever of the Earth — 12m = 40ft. pixel pitch. It will take three years to image all 150 million square kilometers (58 million square miles), in the process generating more than 350 TB of raw data. Here's where to go as the time approaches for live streaming."
So what Google did was wrong, but this is good. I don't see the difference.
Unfortunately, despite being partly publically funded by the German taxpayer, it appears the complete dataset will be considered proprietary for the commercial exploitation of Infoterra GmbH.
As the name TanDEM implies, and as the summary(!) states, two satellites will fly in formation and generate a 3D map. Also, Google just bought existing sat-maps and afaik doesn't have their own sats (unlike Walmart).
And since this is radar, you get much less noise than in the optical band. No idea what other advantages radar has, I'd go for visible light and thus higher res... And has this been done before? Seems obvious to do.
So, let me see whether I get this right:
Google taking street photos = bad (according to Germans).
The German government making high resolution elevation maps from space = good (according to Germans).
Where can I complain if I don't want my private property mapped by the German government?
It's launching in Europe on the 21st June but on the 20th in the USA. Why is the good shit always released in the US first?
</typicalslashdotrant>
At 40ft per pixel resolution, a normal 2 floored house will show as a single pixel above ground.
It's decent for SAR. Of course people have done *much much better* before. 40 feet for the entire Earth is a decent goal for civilian/commercial uses.
I've no doubt that they could've done much better. I suspect they didn't want to spend 20 years doing it.
and also Area 51A!
Poor rabbits...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
If you saw a pic of your mom naked on Google street view side by side with a 40 ft resolution height map of her naked you might see why the latter is not a privacy issue.
that she can be identified on a 40 ft resolution height map.
No idea what other advantages radar has
It works through cloud cover and at night.
From TFS, it's a terrain mapper (elevation), and not meant to provide high spatial resolution*. This is what SAR does nearly best - besides reflectivity. At X-band, this satellite can probably map elevation (per pixel) to 20 cm or better.
*I am sure you have looked at the most obvious case of high-res public satellite imagery, e.g., Cambridge MA, on Google Maps. You can see people. Do you think this 1-pixel-per-40'^2 is intending to compete with that? I don't.
TanDEM-X will generate the most consistent and highest-resolution digital elevation map ever of the Earth — 12m = 40ft. pixel pitch.
The US had ten times better than that twenty years ago.
also ignores some plant life, giving a picture of the actual ground.
I love the fact that you got modded "informative".
They can actually do much better, from what I gather on this site. Their highest 300 MHz high resolution spotlight mode will do down to 1.1x1.1 meter, but the main mode that'll sweep the earth is significantly coarser. Still in relative terms I must say the development here is huge...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Watching The Fine Video? It is there for a reason...
You know... for all those people NOT remembering the actual quote.
Also... "Poor rabbits" sounds way better than "poor hares". It has more... "ZING!" to it.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
No doubt about it. She's actual size.
the correct term is topographic or relief map. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_map
I am going out tomorrow with data I downloaded off of google earth that actually was able to show the dent of a 12" corrugated metal pipe daylighting into a steam bed. I guess it's cool they are doing the whole planet but that resolution is basically useless. A program like the national map for the United states, but on a global scale where local governments (say norway) each fly planes over their territory and map the ground surface using lidar would be much better. I guess it's nice to have a 40 ft resolution map of myanmar..... Who would purchase this data? If you are in the US go to www.seamless.us.gov for high resolution imagery and use autodesk map or civil 3d to import google earth surfaces right now for better resolution than this. Much better resolution is already freely available for any area of consequence.
I guess the fact that one satellite system will cover the entire earth is notable. Though I assume you could get a patchwork to cover the earth at finer resolution from elsewhere. However, 12 m is still rather coarse, even for commercial imagery. http://www.antrix.gov.in/earth_observation.html "... it offers these data in a multi resolution package of 1m, 2.5m, 5m, 23m, 56m and 180m with suitable spectral resolutions ..."
http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/products/imagery-sources/Comparison.aspx
0.41, 0.5 and 1 m resolution commercial packages.
Barath
Has it ever occurred to you, that they're advertising 40ft/pixel, but the actual capabilities of the satellite may not actually match the description? What incentive would any government have in telling you the truth when it regards your privacy issues?
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Redefines those "Yo Momma is so fat .. " jokes all at once ..
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
In the USA, all government works are in the public domain, which leads to NASA images and others being usable by the public and due to the copyright status, also by Wikipedia.
In Germany, a different concept was chosen. The general idea is that mostly private corporation want to use works by the government, e.g. publishers of books, maps, etc. In order to give a bit of the money spend on the works back to the taxpayer, everyone who wants to use those images has to pay royalties. This results in slightly less costs for the taxpayer, which is exactly the goal of that concept.
However, this approach is no longer viable. In the digital age, everyone is a potential user of works by the government, including works like maps and satellite images. NGOs like Wikimedia Deutschland (the German chapter of Wikimedia and supporter of the Wikipedia project) are lobbying to free those images. But the laws are, as usual, at least 10 years behind the technological and sociotechnical development.
I love these launches using converted Russian ICBMs: literally Swords into Ploughshares :-)
Good database to have, if you wanted to be able to isolate your land acquisitions to those areas which would be unaffected by - or would benefit from - rising sea levels.
Caused by whatever.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
The earth is roughly a sphere with radius 6.378e6 meters. So the surface area is about 5.112e14 meters squared. So at 12m resolution, there are about 3.550e12 pixels required. At 4 bytes each for the elevation values, that should be about 13 TB.