It has now been seven years since the successful launch of the earth observation satellite mission UK-DMC2, which currently forms part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).
With 22m resolution multispectral satellite imagery and the option for very wide area monitoring, adjustable up to 620km swath, the DMC delivers valuable geospatial information for agriculture, forestry, land cover mapping, disaster monitoring and environmental sciences, coordinated and specialised in rapidly programmed campaigns. In addition, thanks to daily revisit capacity coupled with rapid data delivery, the DMC is able to deliver up-to-date imagery and rapid whole country coverage. This makes it the perfect tool for all applications requiring timely image collection.
As an example, in North Africa, prone to yearly plagues of locust, UK-DMC2 data is used by the Algerian Space Agency to assess vegetation conditions. When combined with weather data, locust forecasts can be created and used to focus the application of pesticides, which in turn can help prevent the spread of locust swarms.
Land cover mapping also takes benefit from DMC imagery. Thanks to their rapid revisit and wide swath imaging capabilities, annual and seasonal maps are easily available, providing the ideal dataset for change detection analysis. Such land cover evolution maps can be vital for applications including climate change, ecology and conservation, urban and landscape planning, along with health and hazard assessments.
“The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) has also been actively delivering data for the response and management of disaster events since 2004,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space. “UK-DMC2 has a bright future and will continue to support environmental and mapping needs into the foreseeable future”.