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<DIV>Dear Colleagues</DIV>
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<DIV>Please see exiting development on the release of the SRTM 30m DEM, which until now was not accessible to South Africa. We will need to anaylse the metadata to ensure interoperability with other DEM sources in South Africa.</DIV>
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<DIV>From: <B class=gmail_sendername>Crowe, John</B> <SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:jcrowe@usgs.gov">jcrowe@usgs.gov</A>></SPAN><BR>Date: Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 1:53 PM<BR>Subject: White House Press Release/Fact Sheet: Climate Resilience<BR>To: GS-CLU LRS <<A href="mailto:gs-clu_lrs@usgs.gov">gs-clu_lrs@usgs.gov</A>>, Jon Campbell <<A href="mailto:joncampbell@usgs.gov">joncampbell@usgs.gov</A>><BR><BR><BR>
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<DIV>FYI</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-actions-strengthen-global-resil" target=_blank>http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-actions-strengthen-global-resil</A><BR></DIV>
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<P style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"><U style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px">Releasing Powerful New Data to Enable Planning for Resilience</U></P>
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px; LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px">To empower local authorities to better plan for the impacts of severe environmental changes such as drought, glacial retreat, flooding, landslides, coastal storm surges, agricultural stresses, and challenges concerning public health, today the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of an ongoing commitment to open data and international data sharing through the inter-governmental Group on Earth Observations, will release a collection of higher-resolution elevation datasets for Africa. Datasets covering other global regions will be made available within one year, with the next release of data providing more accurate elevation information for Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Until now, elevation data for Africa were freely and publicly available only at 90-meter resolution. The datasets being released today, and during the course of the next year—which are based on data collected by sensors designed by an international partnership and carried on the U.S. Space Shuttle—resolve to 30-meters and will be used worldwide to improve environmental monitoring, climate change research including sea-level rise impact assessments, and local decision support. These datasets are being made available via a user-friendly interface on <A style="TEXT-DECORATION: none; COLOR: rgb(51,102,153); PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px" href="http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/" target=_blank>USGS’s Earth Explorer website</A>. With a commitment from the Secure World Foundation, and in collaboration with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, USGS, NOAA, and NASA plan to offer online training and regional workshops to further enable users to take advantage of these data resources.</P></DIV>
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<DIV><I>John L. Crowe</I>
<DIV><I>Land Remote Sensing Program<BR></I>
<DIV><I>US Geological Survey</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>517 National Center</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>12201 Sunrise Valley Drive</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>Reston, VA 20192</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>Ph. : (703) 648-5596</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>Fax : (703) 648-5939</I></DIV>
<DIV><I>E-mail : <A href="mailto:jcrowe@usgs.gov" target=_blank>jcrowe@usgs.gov</A> </I></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR><BR clear=all>
<DIV><BR></DIV>-- <BR>
<DIV dir=ltr>Jean Parcher
<DIV>Program Manager</DIV>
<DIV>DOI International Technical Assistance Program</DIV>
<DIV>1849 C Street, NW, MS 3530 Rm # 3551</DIV>
<DIV>Washington DC 20240</DIV>
<DIV>202 513-0840</DIV>
<DIV>202 713-6815 (NEW CELL)</DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><A href="mailto:jean_parcher@ios.doi.gov" target=_blank>jean_parcher@ios.doi.gov</A></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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