Canadian Geospatial Briefing May 30th: 1. GHGSat Joins ESA’s Third Party Mission Programme, 2. Time Traveller Interactive Tool, 3. BC Climate Change Vulnerability Map, 4. Mississauga’s Photo Radar Speed Camera Locations

GHGSat Joins ESA’s Third Party Mission Programme

Methane may not be as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, but with a global warming potential around 84 times greater than carbon dioxide, monitoring and controlling industrial emissions of this potent gas is imperative to helping combat climate change. Data from GHGSat’s commercial satellites will be provided, free of charge, to researchers working in the fields of Earth science and climate change. Users will be able to access greenhouse gas measurements from sites all around the world. Through ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme, ESA allows high-quality data from a wide range of Earth observation satellite missions developed and operated by other agencies to be accessed by the wider scientific community.

The programme, which has been operating for over 45 years, includes over 60 instruments on more than 50 space missions. This Third-Party Mission approval builds on the success of long-term data-sharing partnership where ESA, GHGSat, and the Canadian Space Agency teamed up to provide 5% of data from its first commercial satellite, Iris, freely available for research purposes.

Time Traveller: Interactive Tool Lets You Map the Slopes of Mount Seymour

The Archives of North Vancouver’s new online exhibition “Skis upon Seymour’s Slopes: Mapping Mt. Seymour,” explores Mount Seymour’s extensive winter history through stories, photographs, and film. Through Historypin, you can wander around a map of Mount Seymour and take a tour through time.

Created by archives and community engagement intern Alec Postlethwaite, the exhibition expands upon Alex Douglas’ Mount Seymour History Project, which he created intending to preserve the deep history of winter recreation on Mount Seymour.

BC’s New Interactive Maps Show What Areas Are Most Vulnerable to Climate Change

There are now interactive maps that show how impacted communities in B.C. will be by climate change hazards like wildfire smoke, extreme temperatures, and flooding. The maps are a “snapshot in time that project risks and probability related to weather-related events in the Interior”, and are intended to help with city planning and for leaders to better understand climate change impact on communities.

With the devastating flooding and the heat dome that B.C. was hit with last year, the reality of climate change seems very clear. These new maps allow people to see who is most at risk, for some of the effects. There are four separate interactive maps, called The Community Health and Climate Change maps, which show climate-sensitive areas. The maps show how vulnerable areas are to high temperatures, low temperatures, flooding, and wildfire smoke.

Mississauga’s Photo Radar Speed Camera Locations and What to Know About the Growing Programme

Mississauge is planning on expanding its network of speed monitoring cameras across the city. Mississauga’s photo radar cameras were activated in the summer of 2021, and in May, Ward 9 Coun. Pat Saito successfully moved a motion to accelerate plans for more speed cameras in the city, boosting the program from two cameras to 22 by the end of 2021.

The  first two photo radar cameras became active July 5 last year with units in the Malton and Erin Mills neighbourhoods. City officials said they planned to activate the remaining 20 speed cameras by the end of 2021. City staff estimated in 2020 that 22 photo radar units would generate 160,000 charges annually.