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Information from the Copernicus Earth Observation programme, launched by the European Union and European Space Agency, is being used by Defra to improve understanding of our environment and better inform our work to manage it.

Following record December rainfall in the north of England, Sentinel-1, one of the first two orbiting satellites in the programme, was activated to support the emergency response by providing rapid data on flooded farms and helping with recovery efforts.

Six pilot research projects across Defra are also uncovering how satellite and Earth observation data can help improve water quality, increase biodiversity and manage our forests and woodland. One project will see the creation of ‘Living Maps’, plotting natural features such as grasslands, marshes and woodland so we can better manage nature, improve pollination and reduce erosion in areas that need it most.

The new data could also help us manage our agricultural landscapes and speed up payments to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy.

Today Defra hosted an Earth Observation and Open Data event, which brought together academics, government and the private sector to explore future applications of this data.

Speaking ahead of the event, Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: _“We’re already making great strides in using Earth observation data to help people and communities across the UK – the information was a vital part of our flood recovery efforts and will help us identify and restore farmland across the country.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg and we have an ambitious 25 year plan for our environment. By generating huge amounts of invaluable information on our natural environment, Earth observation can help us deliver this.“That is why today we have brought together some of the best brains in the business to explore how else we can harness this data to create a cleaner, healthier environment which benefits everyone and will help preserve it for future generations.”
The event follows the launch of the Earth Observation Roadmap last year, which Defra developed under the UK Space Agency’s ‘Space for Smarter Government Programme’ to make sure all policies are using satellite data to its full potential.”_

Elizabeth Truss added: “Data and smart ways of working should be at the heart of everything government does, which is why we’re working with experts in the field to realise the potential of Earth observation data. Not only will this help us deliver our priorities quickly and efficiently, but the benefits to our growing economy could be huge. The Copernicus programme will be investing €4.2 billion up to 2020 to provide new environmental data – if UK businesses get on board to use this data, creating innovative products and services, we could see new jobs created across the country.”

Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director of Growth at the UK Space Agency, said: “Today’s event showcases the vast potential of satellite data for use across government. Observing our Earth enhances our everyday lives, help departments save money and deliver better services for the taxpayer, as well as generating real returns for UK businesses. Our Space for Smarter Government Programme is proud to have supported Defra in reaching this point – together, we can recognise the potential space offers to help make a difference for our country. I hope this project inspires others across the public sector to think about how space can help them.”

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GEO-CRADLE brings together key players fully representing the Region of Interest (Balkans, N. Africa and M. East) and the complete EO value chain therein, with the overarching objective of establishing a multi-regional coordination network that will:

  • i. Support the effective integration of existing EO capacities (space/air-borne/in-situ monitoring networks, modelling and data exploitation skills, and past project experience),
  • ii. Provide the interface for the engagement of the complete ecosystem of EO stakeholders (scientists, service/data providers, end-users, governmental organisations, and decision makers),
  • iii. Promote the concrete uptake of EO services and data in response to regional needs, relevant to four thematic priorities: adaptation to climate change, improved food security, access to raw materials and energy)
  • iv. Contribute to the improved implementation of and participation in GEO, GEOSS, and Copernicus in the region.


The GEO-CRADLE ecosystem

In this context, GEO-CRADLE has started by inventorying the regional EO capacities and user needs, through targeted interviews with key actors in the region and through the dissemination of dedicated surveys. The findings of these activities will be combined within a gap analysis that will enable the definition of region specific (G)EO Maturity Indicators and common priority needs.

This will be followed by four feasibility studies, demonstrating how the regional priorities can be tackled by the GEO-CRADLE Network. In parallel, GEO-CRADLE will set up a Regional Data Hub, which abides by the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles and facilitates access to and dissemination of region-related data.

Finally, the project will elaborate a roadmap for the future implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the region, with the ultimate aim to enable sustainable exploitation of the regional infrastructures and capacities as well as informed decision-making.


The GEO-CRADLE work breakdown structure

More information can be found online at http://www.geocradle.eu/

Google has just announced that Skybox Imaging has been renamed Terra Bella. The new name is to intended to indicate a change of focus from just a satellite imaging company to pioneering the search for patterns of change in the physical world.

Google acquired Skybox Imaging back in June 2015. We have not seen Skybox imagery in Google Earth, mainly because it is lower resolution that than offered by Google’s usual imagery suppliers. Despite the lower resolution, Skybox has produced some interesting products over the years. We saw a gif animation of the Burning Man festival and in the same post you can see the first HD resolution video of Earth from space. We also had a look at Skybox’s image of the November 2014 Poppy display at the Tower of London. We love the Google Chrome extension “Earth View” and we noticed that it includes a few images from Skybox Imaging. In October 2014 Skybox announced the Skybox for Good programme which works with non-profits to provide fresh satellite imagery where they need it.

Terra Bella plans to launch a lot more satellites in the coming years and we hope to see great things from them in the future.

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The 2016 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference will take place in EUMETSAT’s home town of Darmstadt in Germany from 26 to 30 September 2016. This is particularly fitting as 2016 sees the 30th anniversary of EUMETSAT’s establishment in 1986.

In Germany, Darmstadt holds the official title “City of Science” and is also known as the “City of Weather, Space and Science”, as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities and high technology companies and the home town of EUMETSAT and the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) of ESA.

The EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference is a forum that brings together meteorologists, scientists and researchers from around the world to share their experience and knowledge during plenary, poster and workshop sessions. In 2016, the conference will discuss advances in nowcasting and short-range numerical weather prediction (“limited area modelling”), marine meteorology and oceanography, amongst other topics and have a special session on the Arctic challenge.

The performances of short-range weather forecasting systems of the National Meteorological Services need to continue to improve to fulfil the increasing demand for accurate nowcasting services and to deliver timely warnings that help save lives and reduce losses to property and infrastructure. Indeed, these requirements are further growing due to our increasingly weather-sensitive global economy and vulnerable society. In response, new generation geostationary satellites such as Meteosat Third Generation will deliver even more diverse, accurate and timely observations from space which can be fed into short-range numerical weather prediction models and provide forecasters with critical inputs to their challenging tasks.

As the needs of the users of weather services continue to grow, they are now beginning to encompass “environmental” prediction of air quality and ocean and climate services. The role and use of satellite observations in these areas will be topics addressed at the conference.

The session on the Arctic challenge acknowledges the growing interest in the Arctic region and its critical importance for short, medium and extended range forecasting in our changing climate. It will discuss progress made in improved weather and environmental prediction services for this region.

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The results of the joint NEREUS-ESA project Improving Copernicus among Local and Regional Authorities will be presented on Tuesday 28th of June 2016 at the European Parliament, during an event under the auspices of Patrizia Toia, Member of European Parliament and Vice-Chair of the ITRE Committee.

European local and regional authorities (LRAs) are responsible for territorial management and environmental policy implementation. Information gained by COPERNICUS Sentinel satellites can provide an effective support in this respect. However, this opportunity is not always fully known or readily exploited. Through this project, NEREUS and ESA joined forces in order to familiarize LRAs with Sentinel-based potential applications, discuss roadblocks and potential recommendations to overcome them.

Draft programme

REGISTRATION IS MANDATORY

(Paris, France – March 15, 2016 )Leading UK Experts Join Forces to Develop Unique Solutions for Transport Operators.


CGG GeoConsulting announced that its NPA Satellite Mapping group has been awarded a contract to lead the ‘Live Land’ demonstration project, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the “Integrated Applications Program (IAP)”. The aim of Live Land is to design, develop and demonstrate new and innovative services for assessing geological hazards, their impact on UK transport infrastructure and alert geotechnical asset management teams accordingly. This is achieved through the integration of data from Earth Observation satellites and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

Transport operators across the UK face significant challenges in detecting, monitoring and forecasting landslide and subsidence hazards across their networks. Incidents along or within the vicinity of road and rail corridors resulting from these geohazards can disrupt business and communities, especially in remote locations. As a result, owners and operators of transport infrastructure increasingly need to understand geohazards, to better manage their exposure, mitigate risk and improve their planning and response to incidents when they occur.

The Live Land demonstration project is the follow-on of a previous ESA IAP feasibility study concluded in 2014 and draws on expertise from a team of internationally respected authorities in their respective fields:

  • NPA Satellite Mapping (www.cgg.com/npa)
  • British Geological Survey (www.bgs.ac.uk)
  • Met Office (www.metoffice.gov.uk)
  • Nottingham Scientific Ltd. (www.nsl.eu.com) – GNSS experts

NPA Satellite Mapping is a world-leading satellite mapping consultancy that derives geospatial intelligence from satellite imagery. Its mapping solutions are used around the world by a client base ranging from oil and gas operators to transport asset owners to maximize operational insight and minimize risk. NPA Satellite Mapping has considerable experience in leading geohazard research projects for the European Space Agency and European Commission, and, with its expertise in satellite InSAR (surface deformation) mapping, is optimally placed to coordinate and bring to market the unique monitoring solutions that will be developed within the Live Land project.

During an initial 2.5 year period, the Live Land team will together develop a number of innovative solutions that will address the requirements of two prominent Scottish transport operators, Network Rail (Scotland) and Transport Scotland. These services will range from regional geological hazard susceptibility and activity datasets that exploit satellite InSAR (earth observation) measurements, to hazard forecasting models using geological and meteorological data, and the development of cost-effective, multi-sensor devices (GNSS receiver and inertial sensors) for in-situ monitoring. Applied to high-priority sites across Scotland and parts of England, the services will provide new insights into geohazard potential and activity along and in proximity to rail and road assets. Once successfully demonstrated in Scotland and regions of England, Live Land is expected to expand across the UK and continental Europe as the project team engages with other transport operators who could benefit from the new information that will be available on geohazards.

Claire Roberts, Live Land Project Manager, and Remote Sensing Consultant with NPA Satellite Mapping, said: “Live Land will initially play a crucial role in helping to better understand, monitor and forecast geological hazards across the UK’s road and rail networks. The developments targeted in the project are ambitious but necessary given the scale of the issues we want to address. The project team looks forward to working with Network Rail and Transport Scotland and is grateful for their continued support of the project.”

If you are a transport operator and are interested in discussing this opportunity further, please contact Claire Roberts using the details below.

About CGG:

CGG (www.cgg.com) is a fully integrated Geoscience company providing leading geological, geophysical and reservoir capabilities to its broad base of customers primarily from the global oil and gas industry. Through its three complementary businesses of Equipment, Acquisition and Geology, Geophysics & Reservoir (GGR), CGG brings value across all aspects of natural resource exploration and exploitation.

CGG employs more than 7,000 people around the world, all with a Passion for Geoscience and working together to deliver the best solutions to its customers.

Contacts

NPA Satellite Mapping: Claire Roberts. +44 1732 865023. claire.roberts@cgg.com
Media Relations: Sara Pink-Zerling. +33 1 64 47 38 83. media.relations@cgg.com

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In 2011, eLEAF received funding from the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Hortgro and ESA to start the FruitLook project. The purpose of this project is to provide farmers with an improved knowledge of water and crop management for fruit and wine producing areas of the Western Cape.

Targeting fruit and wine grape growers, FruitLook’s objective is to deliver satellite imagery-based information directly to the farmers responsible for crop management, through an open online portal.

In order to meet their own objectives, FruitLook required an operational service that was reliable in terms of data quality and delivery. The need for cloud free optical data required working with a company being able to make several recordings a week of the area.

The only constellation in the market able to provide high quality data and a regularity of 22m resolution imagery that could meet their needs was the DMC constellation from Airbus Defence and Space.

FruitLook is an open online platform to monitor vineyards and orchards in the Western Cape of South Africa, building on satellite imagery and weather information. FruitLook provides farmers weekly insights in crop production and water use during the growth season.

A better informed farmer makes better decisions in farm resource management, which eventually leads to more efficient water use on their farm. As FruitLook is accessible to almost every fruit and wine grape farmer in the Western Cape it has the potential to improve water use efficiency at an unprecedented scale.

Solution and Results

Since 2011 the DMC Constellation has delivered to FruitLook: imagery on a regular basis data, the possibility to plan new acquisitions to avoid cloud cover, good communication with the operations team, and 22m resolution data to capture in-field variation in productivity.

eLEAF uses 22m data acquired weekly from the DMC Constellation over the 35 week growing period. They then use this data together with other data sources and SEBAL technology (Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land), to produce data components containing information regarding the moisture, growth, and minerals of each crop. These data components are delivered on a weekly basis.

This information can then be seen by the farmers in the FruitLook portal in order to assess the vegetation index (NDVI), biomass production, actual water use (evapotranspiration) and water productivity.

With the correct training and weekly updates, they are able to identify problems with their irrigation systems, improve their disease management and in general make better decisions on block management.

As a result, users reported increase in water use efficiency of 10 to 30% thanks to the efforts of FruitLook and the contributing data providers.

The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) is pleased to have been accepted as Participating Organization for joining the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

“This is a critical step forward in GEO’s efforts to collaborate with the private sector in a mutually beneficial way. EARSC has invested time and energy in ensuring good communication of issues related to Earth observation products and services with the GEO community and it is most fitting that EARSC should be a major partner in this important development” – Robert Samors, Senior External Relations Manager at the GEO Secretariat.

EARSC is a partner of EU framework programs such ConnectinGEO and GEOCradle which support the activities of GEO. In the capacity of a Participating Organization to GEO, this is the next step for EARSC to support the GEO objectives to engage more with the private sector.

As a GEO Participating Organization, EARSC will share opinions on industry views at the European level, exchange documents of common interest and cooperate on projects or promotional activities where relevant. Work is underway to identify concrete GEO/EARSC collaborations and opportunities for periodic exchanges will be organized.

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GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and organizations that envisions “a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information. GEO is comprised of 100 Member states, including the European Commission, and 95 Participating Organizations. GEO strives to improve the world’s observation systems and provide policy makers and scientists with accurate and useful data that can be used to make informed decisions. GEO’s primary focus is to develop a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to enhance the ability of end-users to discover and access Earth observation data and convert it to useable and useful information. www.earthobservations.org

EARSC represents the Earth Observation geo-information services companies in Europe. Today EARSC has 75 members coming from more than 22 countries in Europe. Our members include both commercial operators of EO satellites, IT, downstream and value-adding companies. The sector plays a key role in providing value-added geo- spatial information to its customers in Europe and the world. In 2014, the revenue of the European EO services sector is estimated to be around €900m for approximatively 450 companies and giving work to over 6500 highly skilled employees. www.earsc.org

EARSC is now a GEO Participating Organization! PressRelease.pages.pdf

Tech giants Apple and Alphabet (Google), considered to be the world’s two most valuable companies, have both recently sought to strengthen their spatial data capture capabilities with strategic investments into new spatial technologies.

The ABC of satellite imagery

Alphabet, the parent company behind Google, has invested in spatial data capture by planning the launch of a constellation of Earth observation satellites for next-generation mapping and geospatial applications. Google has announced its Skybox Imaging group, a which provides commercial high-resolution Earth observation satellite imagery, high-definition video, and analytics services, was re-branded as Terra Bella and will oversee the ambitious new plans.

Founded in 2009, Skybox Imaging was acquired by Google in 2014 for $500 million after having raised a total of U.S. $91 million of private capital. The company launched its first satellite, SkySat-1, in November 2013, followed by SkySat-2 in July 2014.

“We are building an entirely new class of imaging satellites,” notes the brand new Terra Bella website. “We’ve developed a high-resolution, small satellite platform capable of rapid response, high-resolution imagery at a fraction of the cost of traditional imaging satellites.”

“We also use a two-dimensional sensor array with a proprietary image filter to capture a higher quality image by taking multiple frames per second and stitching them on the ground. This also gives us the ability to capture the first-ever commercial high-resolution video of Earth from a satellite.”

Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

On the other hand, Apple has recently shown an interest in surveying technology, with the establishment of a patent for a new LiDAR sensor.

The patent, entitled “3D depth point cloud from timing flight of 2D scanned light beam pulses”, specifies hardware and functional processes of a new type of LiDAR sensor. The Apple design usss a fixed mirror, a scanning mirror, a photodetector and a laser emitter.

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(21 March 2016) The “Big Data from Space” conference was held from the 15th to the 17th of March 2016 at the auditorio de Tenerife (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain), being co-organized by the European Commission, ESA, Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC) and the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen).

The proceedings of the conference are now available, consisting of a collection of 108 short papers corresponding to the oral and poster presentations presented at the conference. They provide a snapshot of the current research activities, developments, and initiatives in Big Data from Space.

Big Data processing is becoming a key topic in the Earth Observation data management, being collected by space-borne and ground-based sensors. These data are qualified as ‘big data’ given the sheer volume of sensed data, their high velocity, their variety, as well as their veracity.

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