Initial data demonstrate the performance of the hyperspectral instrument.
The German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) satellite, which is managed by the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in Bonn on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), has spent roughly one month in space since its launch on 1 April 2022. It has now delivered its first high-resolution satellite images. Following the successful completion of the mission’s Launch and Early Orbit Phase, the individual subsystems of the highly complex hyperspectral instrument were put into operation piece by piece under the control of the German Space Operations Center (GSOC). EnMAP has now imaged a strip approximately 30 kilometres wide and 180 kilometres long over Istanbul on the Bosporus, Turkey, where Europe meets Asia and sent the data down to Earth via the DLR ground station in Neustrelitz.
"The first data from EnMAP have demonstrated what the German environmental satellite is capable of," says a delighted Sebastian Fischer, EnMAP Project Manager at the German Space Agency at DLR. The mission is still in its first phase, in which the hyperspectral instrument is being calibrated and precisely adjusted. "But these first images already give us a very good idea of what researchers around the world can expect. They show that EnMAP can make a major contribution to highlighting the consequences of climate change and counteracting the ongoing destruction of the environment."
The EnMAP mission is being managed by the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in Bonn on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz; BMWK). OHB System AG was contracted to develop and build the satellite and the hyperspectral instruments. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GeoForschungsZentrum; GFZ) in Potsdam is the science Principal Investigator for the mission.
Three DLR institutes and facilities have been commissioned for the construction and operation of the ground segment. The German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen will conduct and monitor satellite operations, while the German Remote Sensing Data Center and the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute will archive, process and validate the received satellite data and make them available to the scientific community. Companies and public authorities will also test the data and use them to prepare future services. The use of EnMAP hyperspectral data by universities and scientific institutions and the development of special applications will be supported by BMWK funding programmes.
Article source: DLR
Image credit: DLR
