Joint India-Us Satellite Eyes Natural Disasters

An unprecedented joint satellite project between the Indian Space Research Organisation and NASA is giving researchers the hope of better studying the Earth's climate and helping improve responses to natural disasters by monitoring the most subtle changes on Earth, including in its glaciers and wetlands.

The satellite is known as NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission. Its launch aboard an ISRO spacecraft on the 30th of July from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre sent it on its mission to send microwaves to collect data from different surfaces on the planet. When processed, the data will be visible in an exceptionally high resolution. An estimated 80 terabytes of data will be collected daily. Scientists have said that the method has "unprecedented accuracy."   Researchers and governments around the world will be able to view the data via a cloud platform where they will have open access.

Hams Decode SSMIS Satellite Data Removed by DoD, NOAA

SatDump now features software which will decode data transmitted by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) onboard defense meteorological satellites. The release from SatDump comes after the US Department of Defense announced that data from the satellites would no longer be made available to the public.

Lead developer and ham radio operator Alan Antoine said the US authorities were turning off the online distribution of real time data while the satellite passes over the US stations at Wallops Island, Virginia, and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Access to the latest versions of SatDump are available on GitHub - https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump

Satellite SO-124 FM Repeater Now Active

AMSAT has designated the recently launched HADES-R as Spain-OSCAR 124 (SO-124). The satellite features an FM repeater and is now open for amateur radio use. The upload frequency is 145.925 MHz and the downlink frequency is 436.885 MHz. SO-124 also supports APRS and FSK telemetry.

At the request of AMSAT-EA, AMSAT has officially designated HADES-R as Spain-OSCAR 124 (SO-124) in recognition of its contributions to amateur satellite communications. This designation underscores the satellite’s role in expanding access to space-based communications for the amateur radio community. AMSAT congratulates AMSAT-EA on this achievement and looks forward to the continued success of this and future projects.

SO-124 (HADES-R) - https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/so-124-hades-r/