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©EUMETSAT (Tuesday, 12 April 2016). Following its successful launch and early operations phase, EUMETSAT has been supporting the European Space Agency (ESA) in-orbit commissioning activities, before EUMETSAT takes over routine operations of the spacecraft and processing data at its Sentinel-3 Marine Centre.

The Copernicus programme is Europe’s response to the challenge of global environment monitoring and climate change.

Sentinel-3A will provide systematic measurements of the Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.

It has been described as “the most beautiful satellite ever built” from oceanographers’ perspective, with its cutting-edge instruments’ ability to provide highly accurate data on the ocean colour, sea surface temperature and sea surface height.

These data are crucial for Europe’s 500 billion euro a year “blue economy” and will be relied upon by the fishing and aquaculture industries, coastal planners, the marine transport industry, environment and climate scientists and others, in addition to weather and ocean forecasters.

The EU has entrusted EUMETSAT to undertake, in cooperation with ESA, routine operations of Sentinel-3A, which was launched on 16 February and is now going through its commissioning phase, and to deliver its marine mission.

In addition, EUMETSAT will deliver to Copernicus data from the joint European-US Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite, which was launched in January this year, as part of an integrated marine data stream, incorporating data from third-party missions of our partners in the US, China and India.

Jason-3 will expand until 2021 the unique mean sea-level climate data record, started in 1992 by Topex-Poseidon, and continue to provide the reference ocean surface topography measurements used for cross-calibrating all other altimeter missions, including Sentinel-3, and this data will also soon be available.

Sentinel-3A has already delivered impressive first images from its Ocean and Land Colour Instrument, altimeter and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer and the quality of the products is expected to improve with fine-tuning over the remaining months of the commissioning before EUMETSAT begins routine operations.

When Sentinel-3A’s marine mission is fully operational, these new, advanced instruments will be sending back to Earth high quality data in vastly increased amounts.

EUMETCast provides a very reliable, cost-effective and easy to use mechanism for the near real time delivery of more than 50 gigabytes of satellite data every day”. It is an essential component of ECMWF’s data reception system.

EUMETSAT offers users and service providers access to a multi-mission data stream via EUMETCast, a highly-reliable, cost-effective system based on off-the-shelf, commercially available, standard Digital Video Broadcast technology.

EUMETCast’s highly scalable architecture will provide the near real-time Sentinel-3 data services to an unlimited number of simultaneous users, regardless of the possible limitations of local communication infrastructures.

The UK-based European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (“ECMWF:“http://www.ecmwf.int/), which produces and disseminates numerical weather predictions to its 34 Member States and is both a research institute and operational service, receives more than 50 gigabytes of data via EUMETCast in near real time every day.

EUMETCast delivers the majority of the satellite observations operationally assimilated at ECMWF,” ECMWF Head of Evaluation Section David Richardson said.

“These are important to the quality of the forecasts in all regions and in those parts of the world where non-satellite observations are scarce the forecast skill would fall dramatically without the observations disseminated by EUMETCast.
“ECMWF is also making use of the EUMETCast service to broadcast essential weather forecast products to over 50 African countries overcoming the lack of network infrastructure available in this area of the world.”

“The addition of Sentinel-3A data will complement the already existing marine data stream we have available on EUMETCast”

EUMETSAT User Relations Manager Sally Wannop said: “As a single data access mechanism, EUMETCast is the one-stop-shop to a wide range of environmental data.

In addition, EUMETSAT will disseminate the Sentinel-3A data on-line, via its Copernicus Online Data Access, and to international partners via EUMETCast Terrestrial, which functions like the satellite service but using a terrestrial network instead.

The DVB satellite link is replaced by a connection to a national research network. EUMETCast Terrestrial has the potential to reach users beyond the EUMETCast satellite footprint, for example, in Australia.

EUMETSAT is already looking at future evolutions of its data services to users.

A series of pathfinder projects, involving hosted processing, new data view capabilities, the creation of a format conversation toolbox and online data platforms, for example, are currently being undertaken.

Many of the enhancements arising from these projects will also be applied to the Copernicus data.

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On January 11th 2016, COSPACE (consultation comittee between French State and space industry) steering comittee approved the labeling of 4 “Boosters” dedicated project enablers, bringing together different actors from space, digital and applications domains.

Among these labelised structures, the “PACA Booster” led by the cluster SAFE aims at creating applications in various fields such as security, ecotechnologies ans smart cities.

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Booster

We’re about to published our second annual report.

You can read about our activities over the last few months and understand what the Association is doing! Please download a copy from our web-site and if you are interested in what we are doing, do not hesitate to contact us and even consider joining the Association

Joining EARSC is a very efficient way of knowing the status of our industry, getting answers, and being active at defending the development of our business.

EARSC represents the European providers of geo-information services creating a network between industry, decision-makers and users. We consider that the market is at a crucial stage of development as Earth observation becomes more frequently used by society and adds positive value to our daily lives. Nevertheless, there are many issues, opportunities and threats facing industrial actors and, through a small secretariat, EARSC informs and involves its members though its website and newsletters, through the provision of web-tools, as well as organizing events.

Members tell us that they appreciate the opportunity to network with other similar companies and that this helps them develop new business opportunities as well as exchanging on best practices. They also like the regular flow of information as well as the knowledge that EARSC is able to influence EU and ESA policy when it is important for the sector

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Industry stakeholders together could transform activities into meaningful action on behalf of our sector. Your membership is more important to us than anything else. Our strength is in our unity and together we can bring about positive change for the EO service community.

©EUMETSAT. Wednesday, 06 April 2016. Arguably the most comprehensive of all the Copernicus Sentinel missions, Sentinel-3A carries a suite of state-of-the-art instruments to systematically measure the temperature of Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.

Sentinel-3 measurements like this will be used to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics and provide critical information for ocean and weather forecasting.

The Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) is particularly sophisticated, measuring energy radiating from the Earth’s surface in nine spectral bands.

By accurately measuring temperature changes, the radiometer will, for example, make an important contribution to monitoring large-scale events such as El Niño.

The very first images came from its optical channels. Before the thermal-infrared channels could be turned on they had to go through a decontamination process to ensure the highest-quality measurements.

The first image from these channels shows thermal signatures over a part of western Namibia and the South Atlantic Ocean.

The first image from the Sentinel-3A Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) thermal-infrared channels depicts thermal signatures over a part of western Namibia and the South Atlantic Ocean. This image shows the ‘brightness temperature’, which corresponds to radiation emitted from the surface. Further processing is needed to turn this into an actual temperature map. The Namibian land surface is shown in red–orange colours, corresponding to a temperature range 301–319 K. The blue colours over the ocean correspond to a temperature range of 285–295 K. The black areas correspond to clouds, which are opaque to thermal-infrared radiation and so prevent a view of the ocean or land surface.
Cold water is seen along the Namibian coast that is upwelled from deeper waters. The Benguela current flows north along the west coast of South Africa driven by south-easterly winds forming coastal upwelling. Many eddies and meanders are generated in this complex system and these small-scale features are captured beautifully by SLSTR. Understanding changes in the pattern of these waters is important for fisheries, for example.
In the top part of the image over the land, the distinct folds of desert dunes can be seen. In fact, further north, Gobabeb is the location of a land-surface temperature validation site – chosen because of its featureless arid nature and lack of vegetation. The site will be instrumental to monitor the accuracy of the SLSTR instrument during its mission.
Credits: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016], processed by ESA

“It’s extremely satisfying to see that all of the satellite’s instruments are working well”

This image shows the brightness temperature, which corresponds to radiation emitted from the surface. Further processing is needed to remove the effects the atmosphere and account for the characteristics of the surface to turn this into an actual surface temperature map.

Cold water is seen along the Namibian coast upwelling from deeper waters.

The Benguela current flows north along the west coast of South Africa driven by south-easterly winds creating coastal upwelling.

Many eddies and meanders are generated in this complex system and these small-scale features are captured beautifully. Understanding changes in the pattern of these waters is important for fisheries, for example.

Over land, the distinct folds of desert dunes can be seen. In fact, further north, Gobabeb is the location of a land-surface temperature validation site – chosen because of its featureless arid nature and lack of vegetation.

The site will be instrumental to monitor the accuracy of the sensor during its mission.

Susanne Mecklenburg, ESA’s Sentinel-3A mission manager, said, “It is still early days, but the data already look good and we are confident that we will be able to provide high-accuracy surface temperature products so that fine thermal structure both over land and over sea can be detected.

“It’s extremely satisfying to see that all of the satellite’s instruments are working well and we can be proud of the European industry and technology that makes it possible.”

“We are now looking forward to being able to provide these data to the oceanography and meteorology communities”

Hilary Wilson, EUMETSAT’s Sentinel-3 Project Manager added, “It is very exciting to see all the small scale thermal features clearly captured in the Benguela region and this really demonstrates the potential of the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer.

“With its dual view measurement capability, it will be used to derive accurate surface temperature, a key parameter at the ocean-atmosphere boundary. Therefore, it is important for both operational oceanography and meteorology, and ultimately for long term climate monitoring.
“We are now looking forward to being able to provide these data to the oceanography and meteorology communities, as well as to all citizens and decision-makers, for maximum data exploitation.”

While the instrument’s thermal channels will measure the temperature of the land and sea surface, it also includes dedicated channels for measuring fires.

This capability along with the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument will help to map carbon emissions from burnt biomass and to assess damage and estimate recovery of burned areas.

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The e-GEOS Board of Directors, a company created by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), appointed Massimo Claudio Comparini as new CEO of the company.

The e-GEOS Board of Directors, a company created by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), today appointed Massimo Claudio Comparini as new CEO of the company.

Born in Rome in 1963, Massimo Claudio Comparini graduated in electronic engineering at the University “La Sapienza,” and began his career in the space industry in 1983 at Selenia Spazio (later Alenia Spazio), taking positions of increasing responsibility, up to that of Chief Technology Officer.

With the establishment of the joint venture Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Finmeccanica 33%), he took on the role of head of research and development and product policy, and then Deputy Chief Technical Officer. In 2013 he was appointed Chief Technical Officer at Telespazio, a joint venture between Finmeccanica (67%) and Thales (33%).

Comparini is chairman of the Space Innovation technology platform in Italy, and is a national expert in the space configuration of the European Horizon 2020 programme.

The president of e-GEOS, Roberto Ibba, said: “We welcome Massimo Claudio Comparini in his new and prestigious position and we thank Marcello Maranesi, who led the company since its establishment thirteen years ago, bringing it to be one of the most prestigious international companies in the field of Earth observation, concluding a long career dedicated to the worldwide growth of the sector and of geo-information”.

Cannes, Cote d’Azur, France, 2016/02/09 – Thales Alenia Space is celebrating today the signing with the European Space Agency (ESA), for the contract worth €450 million, to build the Sentinel-3C and D environmental monitoring and oceanographic satellites for the European program Copernicus.

Thales Alenia Space is once again prime contractor for these two new satellites, as for the Sentinel-3A and 3B satellites, with responsibility for design, development, integration and testing. These satellites are compatible with the European light launcher, Vega, and will each be fitted with four main instruments:

  • Two optical instruments: one dedicated to the color of the oceans, OLCI (Ocean and Land Color Instrument), and a Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR)
  • Two radar instruments: a Synthetic aperture Radar ALtimeter (SRAL) completed by a MicroWave Radiometer (MWR), used to provide versatile capability of surface topography measurement with primary mission over the oceans but offering also sea ice, ice and in land waters and land capabilities.

Slated for launch as from 2021, the Sentinel-3C and 3D satellites are an integral part of Europe’s vast Earth observation program Copernicus (formerly known as GMES), managed by ESA in partnership with the European Commission. Copernicus aims to ensure European independence in the acquisition and management of our planet’s environmental data, to provide sound support for Europe’s authorities and decision-makers.

Each satellite, Sentinel-3C and 3D, will weigh approximately 1.2 metric tons at launch, and will be positioned in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 815 kilometers.

The main objective of the Sentinel-3 mission is the global observation of oceans and land, including their “color” and temperature, along with a precise measurement of ocean heights. ESA’s Sentinel programs include six families of satellites, each fitted with instruments for their specific missions. Sentinel-3 will ensure continuity with the optical observation data provided by Envisat. Sentinel-3A, scheduled for launch in mid-february 2016, will mark the start of this operational service. Sentinel-3B is now being integrated at Thales Alenia Space’s plant in Cannes, southern France, and is scheduled for launch in mid-2017.

“We are extremely proud of winning this major contract, which confirms Thales Alenia Space’s long-standing expertise in the manufacture of Earth observation satellites and instruments,” said Jean Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “Our selection by ESA also shows that we have the capabilities needed to meet the technological challenges of this program, while making a major contribution to Europe’s environmental protection strategy, today and for years to come.”

Along with Europe’s leading role in this sector, France and Thales Alenia Space, with significant backing from French space agency CNES, play a pivotal role in Earth observation programs. For example, Thales Alenia Space has been in charge of all generations of Meteosat meteorology satellites, the very successful series of Jason climatology/oceanography satellites, the third of which was launched on January 17, 2016, and the family of IASI interferometers, used for atmospheric monitoring.

About Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space ( thalesaleniaspace.com), a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%), is a key European player in space telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, exploration and orbital infrastructures. Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio form the two parent companies’ “Space Alliance”, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Because of its unrivaled expertise in dual (civil/military) missions, constellations, flexible payloads, altimetry, meteorology and high-resolution optical and radar instruments, Thales Alenia Space is the natural partner to countries that want to expand their space program. The company posted consolidated revenues in excess of 2 billion euros in 2014, and has 7,500 employees in eight countries.

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BMT ARGOSS (BMT), a subsidiary of BMT Group, the leading international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has recently completed an assessment of metocean conditions to support Energean’s Prinos and Epsilon oil field developments in the Gulf of Kavala.

Located in the Prinos-Kavala basin, situated northwest of the island of Thassos and some 18 km south of mainland northern Greece, the Prinos oil field is the main structure with Epsilon a satellite field. BMT was tasked with providing a comprehensive report on the local metocean conditions including wind, waves and current.

Ian Wade, Senior Metocean Advisor at BMT ARGOSS explains: “The location presented a number of interesting challenges with regard to quantifying the wave climate in particular. In order to provide an accurate representation of the wave conditions at the Kavala study site, we had to carry out several levels of analysis utilising our Mediterranean wave hindcast, satellite altimetry, as well as wave buoy statistics from a location between the Mount Athos peninsula and the island of Limnos.

This data allowed us to verify the performance of the wave model at that specific location and provide suitable calibrations against satellite altimeter data, without compromising results due to coastal effects. Subsequent wave transforms to the location of interest were then possible, via our spectral wave ray tracing approach.”

With extensive experience of developing, maintaining and operating state-of-the-art numerical metocean models covering local, regional and global conditions, BMT ARGOSS recognises the multiple methods that need to be employed in order to obtain accurate metocean criteria at a given study site.

Ian Wade continues: “Model simulations (hindcasts or forecasts) of metocean conditions have, for many years, been one of the main assets in our arsenal of tools with which to quantify key phenomena. However, all models have their limitations, and it is vitally important that we understand these and correct them or militate against them wherever possible.”

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The Botswana Geoscience Institute (BGI) is launching a Geoscience Portal that provides free access to multi-disciplinary datasets from Ngamiland, a district in the country’s northwest, for a period of one year.

Building on the success of online geoscience initiatives in North America, Europe and Australia, the portal is intended to help Botswana attract new investment in resource exploration, improve transparency and stimulate collaboration between government, industry and the public to advance understanding of the economic and social needs of the North-West district.

“In addition to encouraging investment, improved discovery and interpretation of the Ngamiland datasets can assist us in furthering our understanding of other issues, such as the causes of earthquakes in the region, evolution and geodynamics of the delta system, and contribution in the development of seismic hazard maps and zonation,” said Motsamai Tarzan Kwadiba, Chief Geophysicist with the Botswana Geoscience Institute.

Partnering with the BGI and industry stakeholders, Geosoft will make geoscientific and supporting data and information from Ngamiland freely accessible through a web portal, and will support the portal for the duration of the pilot project.

The Botswana Geoscience Portal was presented at the GeoInformation Management in Africa Symposium held during the Indaba African mining conference in Cape Town, and will launch in mid-February, 2016. Hosted by Geosoft, the symposium brought together key stakeholders in African government organizations with subject matter experts to discuss the role people, process, and technology play in using geoscientific data to foster sustainable collaboration.

The Botswana Geoscience Institute is a parastatal organization established to oversee the functions of the Department of Geological Survey. Visit the Botswana government Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.

Geosoft software and services advance exploration of the Earth’s subsurface. The company provides solutions for energy and mineral exploration, marine, government, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and the earth sciences. Visit www.geosoft.com.

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(04th March) Following the first impressive images from Sentinel-3A’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument, this latest Copernicus satellite is now showing us how another of its instruments, an altimeter, will track sea level change

Following the first impressive images from Sentinel-3A’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument, this latest Copernicus satellite is now showing us how another of its instruments, an altimeter, will track sea level change.

Just after the Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SARL) instrument was turned on, it traced the height of the sea surface over a stretch of the North Atlantic, some of the most dynamic ocean waters in the world.

Showing features relating to the Gulf Stream, the track compares very well with the background map of sea surface height. The map, produced by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, comprises near-realtime data for one day from the CryoSat, Jason-2 and SARAL/AltiKa satellites.

SRAL has been designed to deliver accurate measurements of sea surface height, significant wave height and surface wind speeds over the world’s oceans for Copernicus ocean forecasting systems and for monitoring sea level change.

On average, the global sea level has been rising at a rate of just over 3 mm/yr over the last 20 years., However , this figure varies considerably around the world.

The Sentinel-3 mission will offer valuable insight into these important variations.

Pierre-Yves Le Traon from Mercator Ocean said, “These first results are very promising and illustrate the great potential Sentinel-3 has for the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

“Sea surface height data from the satellite’s altimeter will, for example, significantly improve our capability to analyse and forecast ocean currents. This is essential for the applications we serve such as marine safety, ship routing and predicting the fate of marine pollution events.”

Another set of data show how SRAL will be used to map ‘significant wave height’, which again is important information needed for ship safety.

It will also provide accurate topography measurements over sea ice, ice sheets, rivers and lakes.

SRAL is based on heritage from the CryoSat and Jason missions. This first image is in low-resolution mode but it will provide measurements at a resolution of approximately 300 m in the along-track direction after processing.

It will be the first satellite altimeter to provide 100% coverage over all of Earth’s surfaces in synthetic aperture radar mode, directly resulting from experience with CryoSat .

Sentinel-3A has shown that these first two instruments are working well, now engineers and scientists are expecting the first data from its radiometer, which should come through in the next couple of days.

More info – Sentinel-3, Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6
To ensure accurate measurements of sea level change it is important to have altimeters on board a number of satellites, and key among these are the Jason ocean altimetry satellites, which act as the reference mission against which other altimeter instruments are calibrated against.

This means that Sentinel-3’s sea level measurements will be cross-calibrated against those of Jason-3, which will be the reference altimeter mission until after 2020, when Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 will take over.

With the optimum combination of the Jason-3 satellite and the future Sentinel-6 reference altimeter missions, and the altimeter mission of Sentinel-3, Europe will, in cooperation with the United States, provide both the reference and the backbone of the constellation expected to meet the requirements for operational oceanography and sea level monitoring for the next two decades.

EUMETSAT