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26.02.2024 - 02:48 / tech.hindustantimes.com / Space
As soldiers and citizens provide information from the front lines and affected areas of the war in Ukraine – two years old as of February 24, 2024 – in quasi-real time, an active open-source intelligence community has formed to keep track of troop activity, destruction and other aspects of the war.
Remote sensing complements this approach, offering a safe means to study inaccessible or dangerous areas. For example, seismologists have documented the high pace of bombardments and firing of artillery around Kyiv during the first few months of the war.
Previously, Teng Wang, a professor at the Peking University in China, and I – both Earth scientists – studied illegal nuclear tests in North Korea with satellite data.
Putting our skills to good use once again, we, with graduate student Hang Xu, have analysed the development of the war from space. We exclusively used open-source, freely accessible data to ensure that all our findings could be reproduced, guaranteeing transparency and neutrality.
Sensors on satellites record electromagnetic waves radiated or reflected from Earth's surface with wavelengths ranging from hundreds of nanometres to tens of centimetres, enabling semi-continuous monitoring on a global scale, unimpeded by political boundaries and natural obstacles.
Optical images, the equivalent of photographs taken from space, help governments, researchers and journalists monitor troop movements on the front and the destruction of equipment and facilities. Although optical images are easily interpreted, they suffer from cloud cover and operate only during daylight.
To counter these issues, we used radars onboard satellites. Space-borne radar systems beam long-wavelength electromagnetic waves toward the Earth and then record the returning echos. These waves – about 0.4 to 4 inches (1 to 10 centimetres) – can penetrate clouds and smoke. Radar interferometry has already proved to be an invaluable tool to monitor widespread damage caused by natural disasters.
Free and publicly available radar data for civilian applications is rare – the United States is scheduled to launch its first one in March 2024 – but the European Space Agency has made such data available since the early 1990s. Data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite radar is freely accessible via their data hub.
Two radar images formed over the same area can be used to detect changes to structures and other surfaces. Interferometry measures the difference in travel time between two radar signals, which is a measure of change in the shape or position of surfaces. Another measure of surface change is the coherence of the reflected signals – that is, the degree of similarity between two different images when comparing neighbouring pixels
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Stars are born in chaotic and fascinating environments, and scientists are eager to understand more about these processes. And at the forefront of this exploration is US space agency NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Ever since its launch, it is helping astronomers see these celestial events like never before.
Under pressure from European regulators, Apple took a step back in its feud with Epic Games on Friday, clearing the way for Epic Games to put its own game store on iPhones and iPads in Europe. Earlier this week, Apple had taken steps to block Epic from starting up a store and bringing back the popular game Fortnite, which Apple removed from its App Store in 2020 after Epic broke the iPhone maker's in-app payment rules in protest.
Russian state-sponsored hackers have managed to access some of Microsoft’s source code repositories and internal systems, the US company said on Friday.
Yesterday, Ukrainian developer Frogwares delivered one of the best surprises of the Xbox Partner Showcase with the announcement of The Sinking City 2.
2019’s The Sinking City was a solid entry in the growing catalogue of Lovecraft-inspired horror and adventure games, which later became better-known for the bitter legal battle over the game between developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon. Frogwares was ultimately successful in that battle, and today during the latest Xbox Partner Preview showcase, they announced The Sinking City 2 is on the way.
Following a strange, lengthy legal battle over The Sinking City, Ukrainian developer Frogwares is finally following up with a sequel that's set to go full survival horror, and this time the studio is taking its project to Kickstarter because "the ongoing war adds an ominous layer of uncertainty."
With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth right around the corner, you would likely assume the Square Enix sequel to be dominating the pre-order charts found on Sony's own PS Store. However, for roughly a week now, this hasn't actually been the case. Ever since the confirmation of the PS5, PS4 Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, the RPG follow-up has had to fend off stiff competition to claim top spot from two re-released PS2 classics.
With Helldivers 2's servers having finally reached some level of stability, the developers at Arrowhead Game Studios can turn their attention to other matters, like clarifying what does and does not actually harm the ongoing, intergalactic war effort. Today's bugbear? Farmers — those players who efficiently join for quick missions, acquire resources, and leave before the operation is complete, repeating the process ad infinitum.
SpaceX rocket was successfully launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, along Florida's Atlantic coast today and it is heading to the International Space Station. The spacecraft consists of a capsule called Endeavour which is carrying four astronauts in a 16-hour flight to the ISS. Crew members are expected to reach the ISS on Tuesday if everything goes as planned. Know more about the SpaceX rocket launch and the Crew-8 mission here.
Swedish gaming company Embracer Group AB will sell one of its largest subsidiaries, Saber Interactive, to a group of private investors in a deal worth up to $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,142 crore), according to a person familiar with the transaction.
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