EOMasters Newsletter #030

Hello EO-Masters!

This time I especially want to bring your attention to the very short questionnaire I set up. Let me know what you would like to see next from EOMasters.

Now, let's head over to the news.

In this Issue:

EOMasters News

•  Your Feedback is Needed

   

EO and RS

• Sentinel-2C is Ready to Liftoff on September 4th

• METimage Instrument Will Set New Standards for Earth Observation

• A Look at Egypt’s New Capital from Space
    

Software, Tools and Services

• NASA Earthdata gets a major overhaul. Live event reveals changes

• SEN2NBAR - Sentinel-2 Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance

Beyond EO

• NVIDIA employees work long hours, 7 days a week, but they like it

EOMasters News

Your Feedback is Needed

Because my work shall be helpful for you, dear EO-Masters. Your feedback is needed. What shall be provided next by EOMasters. I've prepared a short questionnaire. Please have a look and share your opinion. Is it, more extensions for SNAP, like more scientific tools, support for more sensors, or more quality of live features, or something else?

Visit the questionnaire and let me know!

• EO-Masters Feedback

EO and RS News

Sentinel-2C is Ready to Liftoff on September 4th

Image: ESA - European Space Agency

On 4 September at 03:50 CEST ESA Web TV will broadcast the launch of the Vega rocket which will bring Sentinel-2C to join its siblings in orbit.

This ensures the continuation of this successful mission and ensures the further support of applications like deforestation, water quality, monitoring natural disasters, methane emissions and more.

• ESA - Sentinel-2C: ready for liftoff

METimage Instrument Will Set New Standards for Earth Observation

Image: Airbus

The METimage multispectral radiometer was delivered to the EUMETSAT and ESA. The instrument measures clouds, ice cover, land and ocean surface temperatures, vegetation and fires with an unprecedented level of accuracy. The approximately €300 million spent for this new instrument allows for more precise weather and climate forecasting.

METimage scans a 2670-kilometre-wide swath with a resolution of 500 metres and provides measurements at 20 different spectral channels in a range from 443 to 13345 nanometres.

This high-quality METimage data will allow to achieve significant advances in weather and climate forecasting.

MEtimage will launch as one of the instruments of Metop-SG in 2025.

• METimage instrument to set new standards for Earth observation

• Metop Second Generation A: METImage animation (youtube.com)

A Look at Egypt’s New Capital from Space

Photo: Nasa / Landsat

Egypt is relocating its capital from Cairo to a new city 45 kilometres east, designed to house over six million residents and government offices.

Cairo’s population has grown to over 22 million, leading to congestion and pollution, prompting the move.

The new city includes government ministries, a financial district, Green River Park, and a large sports complex.

By March 2024, more than 1,500 families had moved to the city, and by the end of the year this figure is expected to rise to 10,000.

• Constructing Egypt’s New Capital

Software, Tools and Services

NASA Earthdata gets a major overhaul. Live event reveals changes

Image: NASA

The Web Unification Project launched in December 2021, and it aims to consolidate all ESDS-funded web properties into earthdata.nasa.gov by the end of 2026.

In the webinar a preview of the new EARTHDATA website prototype and a review of the project timeline will be given. The webinar takes places on September 16 at 2:00PM ET- You can register here.

• Web Unification: Optimizing Your Access to NASA Earth Science Data

SEN2NBAR - Sentinel-2 Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance

A BRDF correction is needed in remote sensing to correct view and illumination angle effects. The sen2nbar projects is implementing a simple yet effective algorithm for Sentinel-2 data. The c-factor method adjusts observed S2 surface reflectance by using the MODIS BRDF model to achieve Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). IT is available as Python package. And maybe soon in the EOMasters Toolbox Pro 🙂.

• Facilitating advanced Sentinel-2 analysis through a simplified computation of Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance

• Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) for Sentinel-2 in Python

   

Beyond EO

NVIDIA employees work long hours, 7 days a week, but they like it

Due to the AI boom, NVIDIA is one of the most successful companies of the recent years. It has become the main chipmaker for the AI Industry. The stock price has risen by 3,776% in the last five years.

NVIDIA's employees had to work hard for this success. It is reported that they often work seven days a week and more than ten hours a day. At the same time only, a few are leaving the company.

Last year, 5.3% of employees left Nvidia. But in 2024 the rate of worker attrition fell to just 2.7%. The average fluctuation rate in the semiconductor industry is significantly higher at 17.7%.

The reason is money. NVIDIA is paying its workers generously. Share packages are usually part of salary which has made many employees millionaires.

• Nvidia employees can work 7 days a week until 2 a.m. -- but few leave because of AI chip giant's lavish pay

Newsletter Archive

For past editions of this newsletter, you can visit the archive.

That's it for this issue. I hope you enjoyed this collection of news. Stay tuned for the next edition, which will arrive in your inbox in about two weeks.

Tschüss and Goodbye!

Marco 

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