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."

Comments

Another proprietary dataset?

[chrb]

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.

Re:Another proprietary dataset?

[2Y9D57]

Infoterra GmbH will be responsible for commercial sales of the data. The German Aerospace Center deal with the scientific utilization.

Re:Another proprietary dataset?

[2Y9D57]

The German Aerospace Center deal with the scientific utilization.

and paying a license fee

data sets will be provided under COFUR (Cost Of Fulfilling User Request) conditions

Re:Another proprietary dataset?

[the_other_chewey]

data sets will be provided under COFUR (Cost Of Fulfilling User Request) conditions

...to parties that submit a request with a good reason and get it approved.

You can't just show up with a bunch of hard drives and ask for the data, even if you're
prepared to pay for costs that would produce.

ESA (and ESA-related, TerraSAR is German-only) projects have a long and annoying history
of keeping their data under wraps despite public funding and no objections by the scientific
parties (priorities of potential discoveries matter) involved.

Until this changes, it's still SRTM data for everyone.

Re:Another proprietary dataset?

[Hurricane78]

Waddaya mean “commercial sales’? It’s paid by the taxpayer, and so everyone of us (writing as a German taxpayer) must have access to it. Or else I think it is pretty much illegal.

And if everyone has access to it, and has already paid for it, who’s gonna pay for it again?
Can people really be that stupid to do this? ... ...who am I kidding? :/

Re:ah, the logic of it

[fatnickc]

Apparently Google's suggestion that people build a wall if they didn't want photos to be taken didn't go down so well

Bloody typical

[Anonymous Coward]

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>

Re:ah, the logic of it

[2Y9D57]

Where can I complain if I don't want my private property mapped by the German government?

Don't worry. The reflection from your tinfoil hat will blind the radar over your house.

Re:ah, the logic of it

[dov_0]

The elevation above sea level of the land one lives on is hardly personal or private information... A photograph of one's house, car, children playing on the lawn etc could be considered to be somewhat different.

Re:ah, the logic of it

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't a high resolution photo form the street through your living room window. It has a 12m (40ft) resolution. If you have something on your property that is more than 40ft long, I suspect people may already be aware of it.

Re:ah, the logic of it

[hedwards]

You must be one fat bastard to be showing up on a 12 meter pixel pitch image. I'm really curious as to how you get around if you're being covered by multiple pixels.

Hope they image Area 51

[Anonymous Coward]

and also Area 51A!

Zee Germans are coming?

[denzacar]

Poor rabbits...

Re:His mama is so fat...

[M8e]

that she can be identified on a 40 ft resolution height map.

Re:what about Google?

[2Y9D57]

No idea what other advantages radar has

It works through cloud cover and at night.

Re:40ft / pixel resolution is not tha high resolut

[Kjella]

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...