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by Emily Calandrelli (@TheSpaceGal). Astro Digital, a satellite imaging and imagery analysis company, released the newest version of their image processing software today. Anyone can access their software, for free, and retrieve satellite imagery of any area on Earth. The company also offers an API that developers can use to incorporate satellite data into their products.

The software itself compiles global satellite imagery and allows users to select specific areas of the Earth to monitor over time. Users are notified each time a new satellite image comes in for their specified area.

With this tool, Astro Digital hopes to create a user-friendly platform that enables customers to easily understand and make use of terabytes worth of satellite data.

Currently, Astro Digital has leveraged open data initiatives like LandSat to fill their database. Eventually, however, the company plans to use imagery from their own satellites. To date, they’ve tested 2 satellites in space and are scheduled to launch 4 new satellites later this year.

“By the end of this year, we will have the ability to monitor all agricultural land in the U.S. every day.”- Bronwyn Agrios, Head of Product at Astro Digital

The commercial Earth-observation space is certainly getting crowded. With companies like Planet Labs and Alphabet’s Skybox Imaging leading the way, there are more private satellites imaging the Earth than ever before. In 2016, 92 commercial Earth-observation satellites are scheduled to be placed in orbit, which is 10 times more than the number in 2013.

Satellite imagery contributes to weather forecasts, disaster relief, climate modeling, population analysis, and crop monitoring. The images are especially useful when you can watch how specific areas on the globe change over time.

For example, with new images of the Earth provided daily or even weekly, the effects of a drought could be kept in check, we could track the spread of wildfires, or farmers could analyze how different agriculture strategies affect their crop yield.

This real time picture of the Earth is nearly a reality. As more private satellites come online, the commercial Earth-observation industry starts to encounter a new challenge: How do you package terabytes of Earth imagery in a way that works for paying customers?

This is where Astro Digital comes in. The company plans to set itself apart from other satellite imaging companies by offering the best platform for image processing, storage, distribution and access. Essentially, they want to make incorporating space into any business quick and easy.

Bronwyn Agrios, the Head of Product at Astro Digital, told TechCrunch that they’ve established themselves in this industry by focusing on the software just as much, if not more, than the hardware.

“The pixels are going to be commodified, so we’re going beyond just pretty pictures.” – Bronwyn Agrios, Head of Product at Astro Digital

However, Astro Digital isn’t the only imagery analysis player in this space. The company Descartes Labs conducts historical analysis of imagery to predict crop yields, Orbital Insight has developed machine learning algorithms that are used to track and predict the capacity of parking lots and even construction in China, and satellite operators like Planet Labs offer their own software products for their customers.

Agrios, who previously worked at Planet Labs and ESRI, said that Astro Digital is unique in that they will provide live monitoring to customers. They’re set up in such a way that allows them to process and deliver imagery to their customers in real time as soon as one of their satellites downlinks new data.

They’re also unique in that their software platform is easily accessible right from their main website and free to anyone. Other companies also offer APIs, but they’re not readily available on their websites without a paid subscription or submitting a request for access.

However, the free version only allows users to access a limited volume of content. To monitor larger areas of land over longer periods of time, a paid subscription is required.

By using their software, people can select an area of the Earth and retrieve satellite images processed to show any of 4 attributes: true color, vegetation density, urban growth, and land/water borders. When satellites downlink new data for your selected area, you are notified automatically.

Astro Digital was co-founded by Agrios in January of 2015. She said the company is working to ensure that as soon as their satellites are launched and commissioned, they’ll already have a fully functioning processing pipeline and customer facing platform.

In just over a year, the company has employed 21 engineers and received 6 million in seed funding. They will seek out Series A funding once construction of their first satellites is complete.

Astro Digital plans to improve and iterate their software as they get feedback from users. New versions of their software will be released every 2 weeks with major releases every 3 months.

As more companies begin to incorporate satellite imagery into their business, the way that data is packaged and delivered will become increasingly important. One can only image the globe in so many different ways. Providing useful analysis on top of that data and creating slick, user-friendly platforms to present that analysis is sure to generate an entirely new wave of competition in the space industry.

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Over the past 15 years, satellite imagery has revealed that deforestation has been increasing at an unprecedented rate in the Peruvian Amazon. According to the Environment Ministry of Peru, the high rates of deforestation are attributable to the rise of agroindustrial crops such as coffee, cacao and African palm oil. These ‘cash crops’ are transforming the Amazon rainforest, impacting the local climate, water cycle and biodiversity. Satellite imagery has been used to produce valuable maps which reveal the ‘hotspots’ where this deforestation is occurring and where the effects are likely to be most prominent.

These maps show how the deforested areas are closely correlated to regions where large-scale plantations have already been established, thus showing how agroindustrial crop managers are expanding their operations. The Peruvian government are actively demonstrating an awareness of climate change, especially with protecting the Amazon rainforest, though the trend in local government appears to disagree.

Peruvian law forbids private ownership of the public forest, though recently, permits for forest land parcels have been awarded to the agriculture industry. Coupled with poor law enforcement and possible corruption, the local authorities are effectively promoting unsustainable deforestation.

The indigenous people have gathered to form an opposition to this movement, using satellite imagery as their evidence. The area of San Martin lost 24,300 hectares of forest between 2010 and 2014, and the total loss in Peru was larger than the state of Rhode Island in the US, deemed unacceptable by the local population.

In light of these findings, Peru has received $300 million of pledges from Norway and Germany to improve its forest management, with the goal of achieving a ‘net zero’ deforestation by 2021. Curbing the deforestation of our rainforests is of global importance, as they are critical in the fight against human-induced climate change. Satellite imagery has proved once again to be vital, helping the Peruvian government understand the gravitas of their current situation

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The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announces that the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) through the Geomatics Committee and IPIECA (the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues) have issued, in cooperation with OGC and Resource Data, Inc., the OGC IOGP/IPIECA Recommended Practice for a Common Operating Picture for Oil Spill Response.

This is the final report of the IOGP/IPIECA Joint Industry Project to produce a recommended practice for GIS/Mapping in support of Oil Spill Response and for the use of GIS technology and geospatial information in forming a Common Operating Picture (COP) for management of the response.

Rob Cox, Technical Director, IPIECA, explained, “The report lays the groundwork for coordinated activities by multiple stakeholders that need to come together quickly to respond to a spill. Having the report endorsed as an OGC Best Practice gives it the authority it needs to act as a focal point in support of that coordination.”

As stated in the report, “Responding to an oil spill requires access to and understanding of many types of information. Effective, coordinated operations for the response are based on a shared, common picture of the situation. Interoperability provides shared situational awareness of the crisis and the response activities. What is needed is a common picture of reality for different organizations that have different views of the spill so that they all can deal with it collectively.

Recent oil spills have provided lessons learned and recommendations on forming a Common Operating Picture for oil spill response. Through a joint project, industry is responding to the call, moving from recommendations to reusable best practices supported by open standards that can be deployed quickly in any region of the globe.

This architecture report is part of the IOGP and IPIECA Oil Spill Response – Joint Industry Project (IOGP–IPIECA OSR-JIP) to produce a recommended practice for GIS/mapping in support of oil spill response and for the use of GIS technology and geospatial information in forming a Common Operating Picture to support management of the response.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

The International Association of Oil & Gas producers (IOGP) is a unique global forum in which members identify and share best practices to achieve improvements in every aspect of health, safety, the environment, security, social responsibility, engineering and operations. IOGP encompasses most of the world’s leading publicly-traded, private and state-owned oil & gas companies, industry associations and major upstream service companies. IOGP members produce more than half the world’s oil and about one third of its gas.

IPIECA is the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues. IPIECA was formed in 1974 following the launch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). IPIECA is the only global association involving both the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry on environmental and social issues. IPIECA’s membership covers over half of the world’s oil production. IPIECA is the industry’s principal channel of communication with the United Nations. When IPIECA was set up in 1974 the acronym stood for the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association. In 2009, recognizing that this no longer accurately reflected the breadth and scope of the association’s work, IPIECA stopped using the full title. The association is now known as IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues.

Resource Data, Inc. (RDI) has been supporting the oil & gas industry with information technology for spill response since 1989. RDI brings unparalleled experience to oil spill response, leading the geographic information system (GIS) and database teams for the Exxon-Valdez spill and more recently the GIS response team in the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon spill. RDI has developed numerous spill response data systems, participated in multiple drills, and developed risk analysis systems for major pipeline networks. Our depth and breadth of expertise in spill preparedness and response uniquely positions RDI to assist in the development of a Common Operating Picture for the oil & gas industry.

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[Via Satellite 02-22-2016] DigitalGlobe has formed a joint venture with TAQNIA, a firm dedicated to accelerating technology development for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in partnership with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), to develop a constellation of highly capable small imaging satellites to support the needs of customers around the world. The joint venture will be responsible for developing six or more sub-meter resolution imaging satellites.

The companies expect the small satellites to be capable of collecting imagery with anticipated 80 cm resolution and to leverage DigitalGlobe’s ground infrastructure. The companies expect the spacecraft to launch in late 2018 or early 2019.

TAQNIA and KACST will benefit from DigitalGlobe’s imagery production platform and catalog of high-resolution, high-accuracy imagery, which will improve the native accuracy of the small satellite imagery. TAQNIA and KACST will also benefit from DigitalGlobe’s global distribution capability and existing customer relationships with worldwide buyers of commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information.

KACST will construct, integrate, and launch the satellites, and will own 50 percent of the satellites’ imaging capacity inside of KACST’s communication cone, which includes Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region. DigitalGlobe will have rights to the other 50 percent of the capacity inside this region and 100 percent of the satellites’ capacity outside of the region. TAQNIA will be responsible for marketing and monetizing 50 percent of the capacity within the KACST communication cone. DigitalGlobe will be responsible for marketing and monetizing the remaining 50 percent of capacity within the KACST communication cone and 100 percent of the remaining worldwide capacity. Additionally, DigitalGlobe, TAQNIA, and KACST will share the commercially generated revenue.

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London, United Kingdom, 23 February 2016 – CGI to develop a proof of concept to forecast impact of severe wind storms in the next 35 years

CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), has been awarded a two year contract by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for the EU Copernicus programme to develop a proof-of-concept for a Sectoral Information Service (SIS) focused on the insurance sector. Funded by the European Commission, Copernicus uses information collected from satellite, land, sea and air to help industry and business sectors as well as policy-makers and scientists to understand and mitigate climate threat, adapt to change and capitalise on business opportunities. CGI’s project aims to work with the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to make the Copernicus climate change data more accessible to the different industrial and public sector user communities.

The number and size of losses suffered by the insurance sector due to natural disasters caused by atmospheric hazards, and severe wind storms in particular, has increased steadily over recent decades. CGI will lead a team of specialists including two national meteorological agencies, two universities, and industrial partners from the space and insurance sectors to develop the Wind Storm Information Service (WISC) proof of concept to help the insurance sector better understand the level of risk.

CGI will develop and integrate the WISC platform which will take data on hundreds of historical windstorms, going as far back as 1900, and input it to an advanced catastrophe modelling framework to produce high-quality forecasts of potential future losses from severe windstorms. The project will produce key indicators such as number of European winter windstorms per year, average maximum wind speed of winter windstorms and average storm severity.

CGI will lead the insurance sector engagement to ensure the service delivers the most useful information, including forecasts of the total insurance losses per year due to windstorms and the total losses of transport infrastructure per year. The information generated by WISC will also support planning for the impact of climate change in other sectors such as energy, transport, civil engineering and government.

Jean-Noël Thépaut, Head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF, said “A key objective of the Copernicus Climate Change Service is to combine observations of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative information about the past, current and future states of the climate and its impacts. We are delighted that CGI is leading this first proof-of-concept and has brought together an experienced team to demonstrate how this service can bring clear benefits to the insurance sector”

“We are proud of our 40 year heritage in the space industry and pleased to have secured our first contract with ECMWF under the Copernicus Climate Change Service” said Steve Smart, SVP of Space, Defence, National and Cyber Security at CGI. “We understand the huge potential of exploiting climate data from space, into information services which bring business benefit to commercial markets. We are excited to work with the insurance sector to demonstrate the value that the Wind Storm Information Service can deliver to them and we intend to develop other services in the future”.

CGI delivers complex, mission-critical space systems and works on the major European navigation, communication and earth observation programs such as Galileo, Skynet 5, Iris Precursor and Copernicus. Our systems produce weather satellite images and data for over 3 billion people across Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa and we deliver the maintenance and evolution of ESRIN’s earth observation ground systems.

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Fast Market Research announces the availability of the new TechNavio report, “Global Satellite-based Earth Observation Market 2016-2020”, on their comprehensive research portal

Boston, MA — (SBWIRE) — 02/17/2016 — Satellite-based EO involves the gathering of vital information pertaining to the earth’s system through remote sensing satellites. It is used across verticals such as defense and intelligence, weather, agriculture, natural resources, engineering and construction, media and entertainment, and tourism.

Technavio’s analysts forecast the global satellite-based EO market to grow at a CAGR of 14.11% during the period 2016-2020.

Covered in this report
The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global satellite-based EO market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the following:
-Data and VAS, including image and data processing, and information products.
-Defense and intelligence, government authorities, energy and natural resources, navigation and location-based services, and living resources.
-Revenue generated for EO industrial applications by insurance, manufacturing, and agriculture industries.

Get More Details on this Report and a Full Table of Contents at Global Satellite-based Earth Observation Market 2016-2020

The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:
-APAC
-EMEA
-Latin America
-North America

Technavio’s report, Global Satellite-based Earth Observation Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

Key vendors
-Airbus Group
-DigitalGlobe
-DMC International Imaging
-MDA
-ImageSat International

Other prominent vendors
-BlackBridge Group (Planet Labs)
-Deimos Imaging (UrtheCast)
-e-GEOS (an ASI/Telespazio company)
-GeoOptics
-Geosys
-hisdeSAT Servicios Estrategicos
-PlanetiQ
-Planet Labs
-Satellogic
-Skybox Imaging (Google)

Market driver
-Widening application base of EO satellites
-For a full, detailed list, view our report

Market challenge
-Adoption of UAV-based earth observation
-For a full, detailed list, view our report

Market trend
-Increased lift-off of nano and micro satellites
-For a full, detailed list, view our report

Key questions answered in this report
-What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?
-What are the key market trends?
-What is driving this market?
-What are the challenges to market growth?
-Who are the key vendors in this market space?
-What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?
-What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?

You can request one free hour of our analyst’s time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.

Companies Mentioned in this Report: Airbus Group, DigitalGlobe, DMC International Imaging, MDA, ImageSat International, BlackBridge Group (Planet Labs), Deimos Imaging (UrtheCast), e-GEOS (an ASI/Telespazio company), GeoOptics, Geosys, hisdeSAT Servicios Estrategicos, PlanetiQ, Planet Labs, Satellogic, Skybox Imaging (Google).

About Fast Market Research
Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world’s top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget. For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website or call us at 1.800.844.8156.

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To ensure adequate emergency monitoring in Russia’s Arctic, the country will build two new remote sensing centres in the region. The same was confirmed by Russian Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) on Wednesday.

The ministry added that it also planned to create a net of 10 search-and-rescue centers in the Arctic. Four of them have already been launched. “In October 2015, a joint Remote Sensing Center on the basis of EMERCOM’s Murmansk department was launched. Similar centers will be deployed in Dudinka and Anadyr, which will enable control over the Russian Arctic territory,” the statement issued by the ministry reads. Russia unveiled a strategy to boost its presence in the Arctic, believed to hold vast oil and natural gas reserves, in 2014.

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This study, provided by Policy Department A at the request of the ITRE committee, aims to shed light on the potential applicability of data acquired from the EU Galileo and Copernicus satellite systems in both the public and private sector, and on the reasons why such potential still remains largely underutilized.

The regulatory framework, market characteristics and policy actions that are being taken to make use of space data, are comprehensively analysed. The study also addresses recommendations for different policy levels.

IPOL_STU(2016)569984_EN.pdf

In studies looking at public sector investments (eg in Copernicus), socio-economic studies analyse the economic benefits which will be generated. For EO programmes, this approach is very top down looking at broad brush benefits. In a study funded by ESA, EARSC, in collaboration with the Green Land BV ,has been developing an alternative approach which is very focused and bottom-up.

The goal of the study was to gather quantitative evidence that the usage of Copernicus Sentinel data provides an effective and convenient support to various market applications. As part of it, we defined and applied a new methodology to assess the full benefits (direct and indirect) stemming from the use of EO-derived geospatial information, in a way which has not been tackled before.

We examined how the benefits of using these data either do or can affect a full value chain by starting from the primary usage and then following the related impact down various identified tiers in the value chain. The new methodology was applied to three use cases, which have been selected considering the maturity of the application as well as the feasibility for the sake of the study.

We studied three cases:

For each case, we identified a defined product which is being used operationally to support a process within an organization, identified the value chain linking the various users and investigated the cascaded effects and the benefits brought by the use of satellite imagery for each tier down to value chain.
We’ve published 2 of the 3 cases which you can find below.

http://earsc.org/file_download/270/case+report+-+winter+navigation+in+the+baltic+final.pdf
http://earsc.org/file_download/307/case+report+-+forest+management+in+sweden+final+.pdf

Dairy farming is the latest addition to the list of traditional businesses that are achieving higher efficiency and productivity through technology.

Big cooperatives are taking the help of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to track the milk system at village-level more efficiently. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has taken the help of satellite imaging to track the animal population, fodder status, and land use patterns. Recently, an NDDB project won an award at the Geosmart India 2016 for developing an ‘internet-based dairy geographical information system’ or IDGIS.

IDGIS is a visualisation tool which enables identification of villages and integrates human census, livestock census, land-use and land-cover of villages in all the major milk producing states. A senior NDDB official said around 500,000 villages had been covered, helping milk unions plan their village-level activities more efficiently.

Anand-based NDDB has also joined hands with Isro’s Space Applications Centre and completed a pilot study of the fodder growing areas in Banaskantha district of Gujarat, using satellite imaging. Implemented at a mass scale, this would help policymakers address scarcity of fodder.

The project assumes significance when pitched against the current fodder growing pattern in India. While India is the largest milk producing country in the world, around 80 per cent of dairy farmers are small and marginal and contribute to 70 per cent of total milk production. They, however, do not own much land. According to estimates only five per cent of the country’s farmland is devoted to fodder farming.

Isro had earlier developed crop production forecast technology for major food crops, using remote sensing techniques. However, fodder crops are normally grown sparsely and on very small plots, said an NDDB official.

“This makes the job of discrimination of these crops through remote sensing quite challenging,” he added.

The pilot project at Banaskantha estimated the area under green fodder crops in the district (81,000 hectares) and fallow areas as well as cultivable wastelands (57,000 hectares) with 77 per cent accuracy level. It also pointed out that around 35 per cent of the villages in the district have more than five per cent wasteland which could be developed to grow fodder.

The aim of the study was to generate data that could help in using available fodder optimally, the NDDB official added.

This would help in planning the fodder supply chain in case of any shortage in a particular area. Fodder prices have nearly doubled in the past 10 years and fodder shortage is estimated to rise to 400 million tonnes by 2025. This study will now be scaled up on the national level.

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