The Danish ship Vdderen has embarked from Copenhagen on its science expedition trip, Galathea 3. As part of the 'Satellite Eye for Galathea 3' project, ESA's Envisat satellite will acquire data along the ship's sailing route throughout its eight-month voyage.
The purpose of the expedition is to carry out research on climate and weather changes, earthquakes, tsunamis and animal and plant marine life. The Satellite Eye project coordinated by Ris National Laboratory and sponsored by ESA and Egmont Fonden is mainly an educational project and ensures the delivery of daily Envisat satellite images of the ship's route as well as other relevant locations along its track.
Daily observations of sea surface temperature, sea level height, chlorophyll and ocean colour, along with ocean wind mapping will be analysed onboard by a teacher-student team.
Scientists will be working with the teams to analyse the incoming satellite images and to produce easily understood educational reports for the public. Satellite images will also be acquired over each harbour Vdderen visits to show the development and changes of harbour towns.
Charlotte Hasager, Project Coordinator and senior scientist at Ris National Laboratory, said: "The project is already a success because some 15 projects onboard Galathea 3 are now planning to use the satellite images. Students will also learn about our planet through Earth Observation technology. Satellite images stimulate most people to ask questions about what we are seeing and how we are able to see it."
The satellite data will quantify the highly dynamical processes in the marine, atmospheric and coastal environment. Under the Satellite Eye project, the images will be loaded to a database in near-real-time and made available to schools and the scientific community via a satellite link to the ship. All educational material will be available to schools and the public through ESA's Eduspace multi-language
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Contact: Mariangela D'Acunto
mariangela.dacunto@esa.int
39-069-418-0856
European Space Agency
11-Aug-2006