News Mails - 2013

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ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL SPACE AGENCY FORUM (APRSAF)
News Mail No. 106 Jun/21/2013
http://www.aprsaf.org/
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- * CONTENTS

• 1. News on APRSAF: APRSAF-20 First Announcement to be released and other update
• 2. News on APRSAF: SAFE and CR3 workshops held June 5 and 6 in Nagoya, Japan
• 3. Images from VNREDSat-1 released
• 4. KOMPSAT-5 to be launched in August
• 5. Student rocket payload competition held in Indonesia
• 6. ASEAN EO Sat Workshop held in Thailand
• 7. IRNSS operation center inaugurated
• 8. Event Calendar

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* 1. News on APRSAF: APRSAF-20 First Announcement to be released and other update
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- APRSAF-20 First Announcement
The twentieth session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum
(APRSAF-20) will be held from December 3 to December 6, 2013, at the
Melia Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. The first announcement will be released
shortly, and the relevant information will be posted on the APRSAF
website:
http://www.aprsaf.org/

- APRSAF Task Force Final Report
Following its establishment at APRSAF-18, the APRSAF Task Force
concluded its activity at APRSAF-19 by submitting some recommendations
to the APRSAF plenary for further improvement. The Task Force's final
report is available here:
http://www.aprsaf.org/about/excom.php

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* 2. News on APRSAF: SAFE and CR3 workshops held June 5 and 6 in Nagoya, Japan
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The two APRSAF initiatives, the fifth Space Applications For Environment
(SAFE) workshop and an annual mid-year APRSAF Earth Observation Working
Group (EOWG) meeting including the Regional Readiness Review on Climate
change (Climate R3) meeting took place June 5 and 6, 2013, in Nagoya,
Aichi prefecture, Japan. Fifty people participated.

At the SAFE workshop, five new proposals were reviewed and three were
approved: Indonesia: SAR rice crop; Malaysia: Agricultural land
abandonment; and Vietnam: Rice crop monitoring.

For further information on the meetings, please visit the SAFE Portal:
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/SAFE/events/5thws-r3_report.html
APRSAF Newsletter No. 15 (July issue) will report the above meetings.
To subscribe to the Newsletter, please complete the following online
form:
https://www.aprsaf.org/newsmails_newsletters/form/

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* 3. Images from VNREDSat-1 released
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Vietnam's first earth observation satellite, VNREDSAT-1, launched on May
7, 2013; and its most recently processed images of Hanoi, Melbourne, and
Rome have been published on the website of the Vietnam Academy of
Science and Technology (VAST). Analyses of both the initial data and
system performance have yielded positive results. The satellite will be
used for natural resources management, disaster monitoring, and other
activities after a three-month system assessment.

Reference:
VAST News
http://www.vast.ac.vn/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1234:several-photos-from-vnredsat-1-satellite&catid=28:national-science-and-technogory-news&Itemid=34

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* 4. KOMPSAT-5 to be launched in August
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On May 23, the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (MSIP)
announced that Korea's first SAR satellite, Kompsat-5 (1-3 meter
resolution), will be launched on August 22 from Yasny, Russia. In
addition to primary work on its own as a high-resolution earth
observation satellite, the satellite will also work together with two
others, Kompsat-2 and Kompsat-3, to capture images of specific areas.
This will enable multiple analyses of the acquired data, and provide
diversified information for disaster monitoring and natural resources
management.

Reference:
MSIP press release via NESWiRE (in Korean)
http://www.newswire.co.kr/newsRead.php?no=696507&ected

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* 5. Student rocket payload competition held in Indonesia
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From May 31 to June 2, a rocket payload competition for university
students was held in Indonesia. A total of 55 teams from 28 universities
in Indonesia participated in the competition, KOMURINDO 2013, which was
launched in 2009. Winners in two categories are announced in the LAPAN
News at the web address below.

Reference:
LAPAN News (in Indonesian)
http://www.lapan.go.id/doc_news/komurindo13.html

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* 6. ASEAN EO Sat Workshop held in Thailand
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A workshop on ASEAN Earth Observation Satellite was held in Thailand on
April 25 and 26. The workshop aimed to foster understanding of earth
observation satellites for disaster monitoring in ASEAN countries and to
discuss the sharing of disaster monitoring systems, satellite
constellation, ground stations, and acquired data. The group agreed to
begin a feasibility study on the development of a virtual constellation
of existing satellites owned by ASEAN countries.

References:
GISTDA News
http://www.gistda.or.th/gistda_n/en/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detail&evid=719&Itemid=50&year=2013&month=04&day=25&uid=7f6f009383d21911a8148c4dd2e848a8
(In Thai)
http://www.gistda.or.th/gistda_n/index.php/gistda-activities-news/icalrepeat.detail/2013/04/25/2890/-/N2JhY2RkNjkyMGU0ODJiYmZhNDU3ODlhOWM1OTQ0NjE=

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* 7. IRNSS operation center inaugurated
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On May 28, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) opened the ISRO
Navigation Centre (INC), which is responsible for operating the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

IRNSS will have a network of 21 ranging stations located in India to
provide data for orbit determination and to monitor navigation signals.
Satellite information collected by the ranging stations is transmitted
to the data processing facility at INC, where it is processed to
generate navigation messages. The navigation messages are sent to IRNSS
satellites via the spacecraft control facility at Bhopal and then
transferred from the satellites to users.

References:
ISRO News
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?May28_2013
ISRO Future Programme
http://www.isro.org/scripts/futureprogramme.aspx

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* 8. Event Calendar
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- International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2013)
(21-26 July 2013, Melbourne, Australia)
http://www.igarss2013.org/

- Multi-GNSS environment for sustainable development
(9-13 September 2013, Hoi An, Vietnam)
* The deadline for enrollment to the event has been extended to 15 June 2013.
http://navis.hust.edu.vn/index.php/news-events/120-summer-school-on-multi-gnss-environment-for-sustainable-development

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Copyright 2013 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF News Mails are distributed to update the readers on
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APRSAF Secretariat
c/o Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
ochanomizu sola city, 4-6 Kandasurugadai, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 101-8008 Japan
Tel: +81-50-3362-5880 / Fax: +81-3-5209-3208
E-mail: secretariataprsaf.org
Web: http://www.aprsaf.org
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