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The near-real-time monitoring capabilities of satellites also enable applications for tracking animal populations and their interactions with human communities. In Florida, a project sponsored by the Nature Conservancy fuses GPS and cell phone technology to track a regional population of black bears.
Read MoreA new spacecraft launched in 2009 is helping scientists to understand how Earth’s climate and weather systems work. The European Space Agency launched the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer satellite in November 2009.
Read MoreIn the United States, the state government of Idaho uses a water-use mapping system based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat satellites. The system can identify the amount of water being used in individual fields and supports decisions to enable more sustainable water consumption practices.
Read MoreSatellites provide a way to take repeated measurements over time, enabling the tracking of changes in resource levels. In 2009, authorities in India partnered with NASA to study water use in northwest India, ultimately finding that prevailing practices were unsustainable.
Read MoreSatellite-enabled measurement is becoming increasingly important in water resources management. Since 2002, ESA’s TIGER Initiative has supported projects in Africa that leverage remote sensing satellite technology to better manage increasingly scarce water resources.
Read MoreIn December 2009, Google unveiled software that allows users to monitor deforestation online. The software extracts information from decades of satellite images and provides access to raw satellite imagery as well as analytical data such as locations and the measurements of deforestation.
Read MoreRemote sensing satellites, operated by governments and private companies, provide a wide-perspective view of Earth that enables applications at local and regional levels in the energy, resources, and environmental management sectors.
Read MoreGoogle uses the GeoEye-1 satellite for projects including Google Earth and Google Maps. In January 2009, Google had exclusive use of the images of the inauguration of President Obama that GeoEye produced from a satellite orbiting 423 miles above Capitol Hill.
Read MoreSeveral new products and services in the entertainment sector emerged in 2009 utilizing satellite image and video relay capabilities. NASA posted a “Live Space Station Video” link on its web site in March 2009 that displays live video from outside the ISS.
Read MoreThe Apple iPhone and other competing products continued to evolve throughout 2009, offering new features and applications enhanced through satellite technology. SIRIUS XM Radio debuted SkyDock, the first radio dock for the iPhone, essentially transforming the smartphone into a satellite radio.
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