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The launch of the GOES-R geostationary satellite in October 2016 could herald a new era for predicting hurricanes, according to Penn State researchers. The wealth of information from this new satellite, at time and space scales not previously possible, combined with advanced statistical hurricane prediction models, could enable more accurate predictions in the future.


“For decades, geostationary satellites such as the GOES series have been the primary tool to monitor severe weather like storms and hurricanes in real time,” said Fuqing Zhang, professor of meteorology and director of Penn State’s Center for Advanced Data Assimilation and Predictability Techniques.

“They have helped people see what’s going on in the present, but, until now, we as a community have not been able to tap into these resources to guide us to predict future severe weather.”

Geostationary satellites like the GOES series orbit the Earth at a fixed location, taking snapshots of cloud formations and other meteorological information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates GOES with contributions from NASA.

Historically, two main challenges exist when using satellite data for hurricane predictions – the type and amount of data collected. Satellites do not directly measure many quantities related to a hurricane’s intensity, such as surface pressure, wind speeds, temperature and water vapor beneath the cloudy regions of the hurricane eyewall.

They do, however, collect data known as brightness temperature, which show how much radiation is emitted by objects on Earth and in the atmosphere at different infrared frequencies. Because all objects naturally emit and absorb different amounts of radiation at different frequencies, the complexity of data poses challenges to researchers hoping to use these data for hurricane prediction models.

“At some frequencies water vapor absorbs moderate amounts of radiation passing through it, at other frequencies it absorbs most of that radiation and at other frequencies it absorbs hardly any at all.

Unlike water vapor, clouds strongly absorb radiation at all of these frequencies,” said Eugene Clothiaux, professor of meteorology. “Comparing measurements at different frequencies leads to information about water vapor and clouds at different altitudes above the Earth. This begins to tell us about the physical structure of water vapor fields and clouds, including those in the area around a hurricane.”

Using brightness temperature satellite data to improve model forecasts of hurricanes is not straightforward. Brightness temperature information is a complex mixture related to the ground, atmospheric water vapor and clouds. The team had to develop a sophisticated analysis and modeling scheme to extract information in useful ways for model forecasts.

Zhang, Masashi Minamide, graduate student in meteorology, and Clothiaux demonstrated in a pilot study that it is becoming feasible to use brightness data. They found definitive correlations between measurements of brightness temperature and information about the storm – wind speed and sea level pressure underneath the hurricane. They report their results in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

Using data from GOES-13, the team completed a proof-of-concept experiment, analyzing data from Hurricane Karl in 2010. They used the Penn State real-time hurricane analysis and prediction system that Zhang and his team have been developing and refining for nearly a decade.

“Hurricane prediction models work by chunking individual blocks of the hurricane and this starts from the initial information that is fed into the model,” said Zhang.

“We then run an ensemble of possible outcomes for the hurricane using different variables to estimate uncertainty and this tells us how the hurricane might behave. If we are able to use a higher resolution for the initial state, this could allow us to vastly improve hurricane predictions in the future.”

GOES-13 provides data at a resolution of 2.5 miles, and GOES-R will increase that to under 0.6 miles for some frequencies of brightness temperature. The increase in resolution is especially important because of the size of hurricanes.

The eyewall, the layer of clouds surrounding the eye, varies in size but is roughly 6 miles thick. Using GOES-13 brightness temperatures with 2.5-mile resolution, the eyewall is often grouped together with other parts of the storm, with only one or two brightness temperature measurements from only the eyewall itself.

A 0.6 mile resolution brightness temperature measurement would allow for up to 10 eyewall measurements to be fed into prediction models as separate chunks of information instead of grouped together with other parts of the storm.

This new data source could have implications on the longstanding challenge of predicting hurricane intensity, Zhang said. Researchers know that wind speed and other levels of activity near the eye of the hurricane are linked to future intensity, but actually collecting these data is difficult.

Today, NOAA uses airborne reconnaissance to collect data, but this is only possible when the storm is within flying distance. Satellites that constantly monitor the oceans at high spatial and temporal resolution and with many frequencies of brightness temperature, like GOES-R, could remove that constraint.

“Geostationary satellites are there all the time, which makes them ideal for capturing the initial and evolving states of hurricanes, including the crucial information in the cloudy region of the storm,” said Zhang. “Using satellite data more effectively could potentially revolutionize hurricane monitoring and prediction for many years.”

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Satellite technology plays a crucial role in measuring greenhouse gas emissions globally, the heads of several space agencies agreed Sunday as they vowed to work together to develop a coordinated monitoring system.

The pledge comes after a landmark climate accord in Paris last year at which world leaders agreed to cap global warming by “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels.

Satellites will play a “major role” in ensuring that ambitious target is met by measuring harmful emissions that contribute to the planet’s warming, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of France’s National Space Studies Centre (CNES), at the meeting in the India capital.

“The idea is to bring together all these ideas about satellite projects from different agencies” to measure carbon and methane emissions in order to eventually achieve “global coordination”, he told AFP.

Some countries already have satellites measuring emissions, but efforts have not been linked between countries, and as such there is no comprehensive measurement system in place.

Japan’s GoSat and the US OCO-2 satellites are already at work measuring carbon emissions.

China is developing its own TanSat and France is working on the MicroCarb satellite to survey Co2 emissions.

Meanwhile France and Germany are working together to develop a methane monitoring satellite that they have dubbed Merlin.

Le Gall said heads of space agencies around the world, including from China, France, India, Japan and the United States, agreed to work together to “achieve maximum cross-collaboration of tools and cross-verification steps” to coordinate and fact-check measurements.

The goal is to be able to track global emissions and also to record emissions per country, CNES said.

The meeting was organised by Le Gall and Kiran Kumar, president of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

It follows a similar conference last year in Mexico at which space agencies said satellite observation technology was a “key element of a global measurement system” and integral to reducing greenhouse gases around the world.

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(NASA) – Beginning today, all Earth imagery from a prolific Japanese remote sensing instrument operating aboard NASA’s Terra spacecraft since late 1999 is now available to users everywhere at no cost.

The public will have unlimited access to the complete 16-plus-year database for Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument, which images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet.

ASTER’s database currently consists of more than 2.95 million individual scenes.

The content ranges from massive scars across the Oklahoma landscape from an EF-5 tornado and the devastating aftermath of flooding in Pakistan, to volcanic eruptions in Iceland and wildfires in California.

Previously, users could access ASTER’s global digital topographic maps of Earth online at no cost, but paid METI a nominal fee to order other ASTER data products.

In announcing the change in policy, METI and NASA cited ASTER’s longevity and continued strong environmental monitoring capabilities. Launched in 1999, ASTER has far exceeded its five-year design life and will continue to operate for the foreseeable future as part of the suite of five Earth-observing instruments on Terra.

“We anticipate a dramatic increase in the number of users of our data, with new and exciting results to come,” said Michael Abrams, ASTER science team leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, home to ASTER’s U.S. science team. ASTER data are processed into products using algorithms developed at JPL and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan.

A joint U.S./Japan science team validates and calibrates the instrument and data products.

ASTER is used to create detailed maps of land surface temperature, reflectance and elevation. The instrument acquires images in visible and thermal infrared wavelengths, with spatial resolutions ranging from about 50 to 300 feet (15 to 90 meters).

ASTER data cover 99 percent of Earth’s landmass and span from 83 degrees north latitude to 83 degrees south. A single downward-looking ASTER scene covers an area on the ground measuring about 37-by-37 miles (60-by-60-kilometers).

ASTER uses its near-infrared spectral band and downward- and backward-viewing telescopes to create stereo-pair images, merging two slightly offset two-dimensional images to create the three-dimensional effect of depth. Each elevation measurement point in the data is 98 feet (30 meters) apart.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and changes over time.

Example applications include monitoring glacial advances and retreats, monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, evaluating wetlands, monitoring thermal pollution, monitoring coral reef degradation, mapping surface temperatures of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance.

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[Via Satellite 03-17-2016] Small satellite startup Satellogic is on its way to building and orbiting a constellation of 300 Earth Observation (EO) satellites to provide near-real time imagery of the Earth, with the first non-prototype launches slated to occur this year. Having already launched three prototype satellites between 2013 and 2014, Satellogic opened a manufacturing facility in Montevideo, Uruguay last year with the potential to build several dozen satellites per year — something the company feels is necessary to support a constellation of this size.

Emiliano Kargieman, founder and CEO of Satellogic, told Via Satellite that the factory has a 10,000 square foot clean room, able to produce the SmallSats in large quantities. Satellogic chose the location because of its close proximity to the company’s largest Research and Development (R&D) facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each spacecraft in the constellation is to have an approximate weight of 35 kilograms, and will perform one-meter multispectral imaging. With multiple pilot programs already underway with prospective customers, Satellogic is eager to get its fleet in orbit. Kargieman said the factory will be dedicated exclusively to producing the company’s own spacecraft

“The factory is dimensioned to allow us to build in excess of 50 of our satellites per year, so we expect to keep it busy over the next few years as we grow our constellation,” he said.

Satellogic originally planned to begin launching its satellites in 2015, so that a service constellation of 16 spacecraft would be active this year, but launch delays have stretched out this timeline. Kargieman said the company now plans to have an initial constellation of six satellites by year’s end, with two launching May 30 on a Long March 4B from China, and another four later on aboard a Russian Dnepr rocket.

“It’s a tough market for launch. The one we are doing in May was originally scheduled for December 2015. In a similar way Dnepr launches for their own political reasons were delayed,” explained Kargieman. “We still expect to complete the constellation of 16 satellites. It will be later than we originally planned; it will be in the first two quarters of 2017.”

SmallSats, due to their lower commercial launching value, are frequently relegated to the role of secondary payloads, paying deference to larger spacecraft that dictate missions. Kargieman said Satellogic is pursuing launch opportunities for another 19 SmallSats in 2017, after the original six, in hopes that launch will not continue to be an obstacle.

“Other opportunities to launch satellites that we are considering would potentially put us in a position to grow our constellation further than that up to 25 satellites during the year. Of course, that all is pending on launches going according to plan. If we have to judge by previous history, then it’s reasonable to expect a few delays,” he said.

In the wake of the recent SmallSat boom, a groundswell of new launch companies offering dedicated services tailored for this market has emerged. Kargieman said Satellogic is closely following these new entrants. Among the new players, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne rocket are currently scheduled for maiden flights in 2017. Both won CubeSat launch contracts from NASA last year along with Firefly Space Systems, whose Firefly Alpha vehicle is scheduled for suborbital flight in 2017, followed by orbital missions in 2018. Kargieman expressed interest in new players offering these types of services, and said Satellogic is “talking to all of them.”

“We really hope to see more availability in launch; particularly not only more availability, but faster turnarounds and shorter cycles to get our satellites in orbit,” he said. “We are also expecting — and this is the part where the promise still needs to pay off — that this will translate into more reasonable costs for launching into orbit. So far, from the small launchers, we have seen really good value propositions in terms of responsiveness, but not necessarily very competitive pricing. We expect the competition will drive prices down to bring not only more responsive, but also more competitive launch opportunities in the next few years.”

Kargieman said it will take several years to complete the constellation of 300 SmallSats, but that this is the requisite number for Satellogic to achieve the imaging rate it desires.

“A constellation of 300 satellites would allow us to average revisit times of around 5 minutes anywhere on the planet for one meter resolution multi-spectral imaging,” he said.

The first constellation would have a revisit rate starting around 2 hours for anywhere on Earth, he said.

Regarding other constellation prep, Kargieman said Satellogic is building a network of ground stations to support the large stream of data its satellites intend to produce. He said the company will use a combination of its own ground stations and third party stations to tap into a network of more than 20 around the world. Satellogic has two of its own stations operational today, and plans to complete another two before the end of the year. Kargieman said the company is also working on downstream analytics platforms for customers to access data without having to develop their own cumbersome image processing capabilities.

Satellogic has pilot programs with end users in the energy and agriculture markets today. Kargieman said the energy studies have focused on pipeline monitoring for oil and gas, and agriculture studies on crop monitoring oriented toward precision agriculture. The company is also examining opportunities in forestry related to calculating and maintaining wood stocks, and looking at carbon capture.

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February 29, 2016, By James Carroll. Designed by Teledyne DALSA, a multispectral imaging system on board the DMC3 earth imaging satellites, is now returning images from space, in order to aid urban planning and intelligence management based on high-resolution images.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) launched three SSTL-300S1 satellite platforms that formed the DMC3 constellation, which provides change detection, disaster monitoring, and response planning in the form of high-resolution imagery. Specifically, the high resolution VHRI 100 imager on board the satellites was designed to provide 1 meter ground sampling distance in in panchromatic mode, and 4 meters of GSD in multispectral mode, with a swath width of 23.4km.

Teledyne DALSA created a multispectral imaging solution by placing advanced dichroic filters directly in the imaging area. The company’s multispectral solutions are “push-broom” linear and TDI sensors with linear resolution to 16000+ pixels, in either CCD or CMOS sensor formats. A single multispectral imaging device can contain multiple imaging areas tailored to different multispectral bandwidths (wavelengths).

DMC3 satellites have captured a number of high-resolution images aboard the satellites, including 1 1 meter resolution image of Athens Olympic Stadium and Sydney airport (pictured.)

“We’re pleased by the results we’re seeing from the DMC3 satellites,” commented Luis Gomes, Director of Earth Observation at SSTL. “The imager performance on all three space crafts has surpassed our expectations and the performance of the sensors has been outstanding. The Teledyne DALSA team not only met our critical technical requirements, they have delivered well beyond them.”

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by Peter B. de Selding — March 31, 2016. PARIS — Geospatial imaging services provider UrtheCast Corp. of Canada on March 30 gave investors an in-depth look at the company’s strategy, including a new eight-satellite constellation addition to the 16-satellite system announced in 2015.

UrtheCast declined to say when its OptiSAR constellation of eight optical and eight two-band radar satellites would be built, insisting that the company would not seek funding from the capital markets but would wait for prospective customers to commit the needed resources.

The same is true for the newly disclosed UrtheDaily constellation of eight medium-resolution optical satellites. To be built by the same Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.-based team that will build OptiSAR, UrtheDaily will not happen without firm customer commitments, the company said.

“The trigger is when we’ve signed up enough customers whose contractual demand is enough for us to finance against it,” UrtheCast Chief Executive Wade Larson said, adding that the company’s business model borrows more from established geospatial imagery provider DigitalGlobe of Westminster, Colorado, than from Google’s Skybox Imaging, recently renamed Terra Bella, of Mountain View, California.

UrtheCast, following its July 2015 purchase of Deimos Imaging of Spain, operates four optical sensors. The medium-resolution Deimos-1 satellite and a medium-resolution Theia camera mounted on the Russian side of the international space station offer wide-area coverage.

The high-resolution Deimos-2 satellite provides sharper imagery but of smaller areas and for sales purposes is often bundled with UrtheCast’s high-resolution Iris video camera, also on board the space station.

Iris faced multiple delays because of a defective installation and reached full operating capability only this year. Even so, its appeal to defense and intelligence-agency customers is not what was expected, in part because of the installation issues. UrtheCast early this year received the final payment on its Iris-related insurance claim.

“We had to do a lot of engineering to fix the vibration and friction issues” after the initial Iris installation, Larson said. “In the end, we were able to produce a really good product in spite of that. It’s not absolutely at the exact specifications” of its designed performance.

UrtheCast’s cloud-based Web platform, considered perhaps its biggest product differentiator in a market growing thick with commercial Earth observation businesses, is now merging imagery from the two Deimos satellites and the medium-resolution Theia camera.

UrtheCast reported revenue of 41.1 million Canadian dollars for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, up from 11.9 million Canadian dollars in 2014, with an EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization – loss of 12.9 million Canadian dollars.

The company did not disclose how much revenue came from the six months of Deimos ownership in 2015. Deimos had expected to generate $40 million in revenue for the year.

For 2016, UrtheCast said revenue should rise to about 57.5 million Canadian dollars, with an adjusted EBITDA of 5.2 million Canadian dollars.

With the two Deimos satellites and the two station-mounted cameras now in service, 2016 might have been considered as UrtheCast’s first year at cruising altitude for its business. But as it suggested in 2015 with the announcement of OptiSAR, UrtheCast’s ambitions are growing as fast as it expects the Earth observation business to grow.

The company reported 250 employees as of last Dec. 31, up from 100 a year earlier. Eighty of the new hires came with the Deimos acquisition.

UrtheCast announced in 2015 that it had signed memoranda of understanding with two prospective OptiSAR customers valued at $370 million. The company announced no new deals on March 30 but said it is in active discussions with multiple leads.

One of the customers that signed the MoU also has financed the majority of the 100 million Canadian dollars ($72 million) in research and development that UrtheCast has devoted to refining the OptiSAR system.

“If they’ve invested that much money, they’re probably likely to buy the capacity that comes out of this,” said Jeff Rath, UrtheCast’s executive vice president for strategy and corporate finance.

Larson said the OptiSAR constellation would be deployed in two orbital planes, with eight satellites in polar sun-synchronous orbit and the other eight in a medium-inclination orbit at an angle of between 20 and 45 degrees relative the equator.

The synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites, each weighing 1,400 kilograms at launch, would carry two sensors, one in lower-resolution L-band, and one in higher-resolution X-band. They will also be equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) sensors for maritime sip tracking.

The optical satellites, weighing 670 kilograms at launch, would carry two focal planes, one with a ground resolution of 50 centimeters operating in push-broom mode, and the other carrying a 30-frames-per-second video.

Larson said the video camera could produce videos with a 40-centimeter ground resolution. In still-photography mode, the camera could produce 25-centimeter-resolution pictures.

OptiSAR’s general outlines were disclosed in mid-2015. In their March 30 presentations, company officials said the customers they have surveyed want still more. UrtheCast’s answer is UrtheDaily.

Apparently using the same satellite manufacturing team, the eight-satellite UrtheDaily constellation would carry 5-meter-resolution optical sensors in polar orbit to image 145 million square kilometers a day to monitor global change – human and natural.

OptiSAR’s focus is on rapidly revisiting a given area of interest to customers. UrtheDaily is focused on broad-area coverage, a market that does not require high-resolution imagery.

UrtheCast declined to estimate how much OptiSAR and UrtheDaily would cost. It said the two constellations’ synergies on the satellite platform, payload and operations side would minimize cost.

The business model, Larson said, hews more closely to traditional Earth observation systems now in orbit such as DigitalGlobe than it is to recent Silicon Valley startups.

“Earth observation is entirely a sugar daddy-funded business,” Larson said of the sector’s history. “Look at the major players in the United States, Canada and Europe. They’ve found some major anchor customer – call it a sugar daddy – who substantially funds the system in one of two ways: They put money up front and you use that in the build phase, or they give you a promissory note – a guarantee to pay you for data – and you take that promissory note and you finance against it.

“There is a new model, which has emerged in Silicon Valley, where you go find obscenely rich venture capitalists, convince them to give you hundreds of millions of dollars and then you build satellites on spec and you launch them.

“We are not following that model. We’ve simply innovated a little bit on the sugar daddy model. We don’t have one big sugar daddy, we federate lots of little sugar daddies around the world. We get them to buy in on a time-share basis. Once you’ve got enough of them with an aggregate financeable buy-in from them, you go and raise capital.”

Larson said he would not speculate on when the company would receive sufficient commitments to build the OptiSAR and UrtheDaily systems. “It’s not years, but it’s not days either,” he said.

He said OptiSAR would take 3.5 years to build once construction started.

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ESA and Australia’s national geological survey, Geoscience Australia, today agreed to cooperate to ensure data from the EU’s Sentinel satellites are accessible in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

The agreement supports the Australian government and European Commission’s partnership to ensure the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme benefits their citizens and the broader international community.

A key component of the cooperation will be the establishment of a regional data access and analysis hub managed by Geoscience Australia (GA). This hub will greatly improve access to Copernicus data in a region which is densely populated and experiencing high rates of economic growth, but which faces significant challenges in areas where Earth observation can help. These challenges include the protection of environmental assets, promotion of sustainable natural resource development and risk reduction from natural disasters.

ESA will supply GA with high-speed access to data from the Sentinel satellites through its Copernicus data access infrastructure. Through a consortium with Australia’s CSIRO national research organisation and Australian state governments, GA will make the data hub available to users in the Southeast Asia and the South Pacific region.

The hub is projected to provide access to over 12 Petabytes of data by 2025, and is expected to go beyond simply providing users with the ability to download Copernicus data.

“The regional data hub will also provide a high-performance environment in which all the data can be analysed and applied at full scale to big regional challenges like the blue economy, sustainable livelihoods and climate change adaptation,” said GA’s head of Earth and Marine Observations, Dr Adam Lewis.

“By enabling multiple user groups, from multiple countries, to come together and ‘work around’ such a comprehensive set of data, we are helping to make sure the full potential of the EU’s amazing programme is realised and that regional partners can find regional solutions to regional challenges.”

The data access hub will be established at Australia’s National Computational Infrastructure, the largest facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere, taking advantage of the Australian government’s investments in science and research infrastructure to support the region.

The cooperation will also make it easier for European and Australian experts to collaborate on the calibration and validation activities that are fundamental to ensuring that users have access to high-quality satellite data and value-added products they can trust.

“Through GA, CSIRO and many other players, Australia has long made a valued contribution to our calibration and validation activities. Its technical expertise, world-class facilities and the diversity of geographies they have access to makes them a key player,” said Pier Bargellini from ESA’s Copernicus Space Component Mission Management and Ground Segment Division.

“Through this arrangement, we expect to see this grow even further, with Australia making a particular contribution to ensuring Copernicus data satisfies local and regional requirements.”

Under the arrangement, GA will also act as a coordinating point for European partners to obtain access to Australian in-situ data, which is made available through the efforts of many Australian government agencies, research partnerships and universities.

“The EU’s Copernicus programme is about applications and services, and these applications and services are most useful when satellite and in-situ data are integrated,” said Andreas Veispak, the European Commission’s Head of Unit for Space Data for Societal Challenges and Growth.

“We welcome GA’s commitment to act as a coordination point for access to in-situ data. Australia has a record of providing outstanding data, including through programmes like the integrated marine observing system and terrestrial ecosystem research network. We are looking at linking Copernicus more closely to these efforts.”

The regional data hub will become operational on 1 July.

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Subject matter expert on Earth Observation in the oil & gas industry and Chief Scientist Dr. Peter Hausknecht from Earth-i comments on the trends and benefits high-resolution imaging and data services offer to the oil & gas industry

The use of advanced technology can help improve planning, efficiency, safety and profitability for oil companies, and through its effective use significant competitive benefits can be achieved. Earth Observation (EO) data in general and images from remote sensing satellites in particular have been used for geological and environmental mapping since the 70 ́s. Today, ever-higher resolution images and derived data sets are available on a more frequent and dependable basis.

The pace of growth in EO is accelerating. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), in January 2014 there were 192 EO satellites in space. China and the USA account for approximately half of the satellites deployed with the remaining satellites belonging to a total of 43 nations including India, France, Germany and Russia.

Over 80% are deployed for government or military use, while around 10% are listed as being for civil or commercial purposes. The remaining 10% have dual use.

Since the list was updated, the numbers have grown dramatically. A significant proportion of the growth is attributed to nanosatellites often also called ‘Cubesats’. Cubesats are lower-cost miniature spacecraft and the significantly lower cost of this class of satellite is shrinking the barriers to entry and allowing more countries and commercial organisations to enter space. It’s inevitable that this will result in dedicated applications for particular industries and specific issues, which the oil & gas industry and for example oil spill response is one of many.

The 2012 World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that primary energy demand will more than treble in the next 20 years with oil and gas remaining dominant at around 50% of the world’s energy supply. Even though energy prices have fallen considerably, the worldwide demand is still high but maybe at a slightly lower growth rate. Intense exploration efforts to find new oil & gas reserves are still being pursued on a global scale to meet future demands. In general the oil & gas industry is not cutting exploration budgets, but looking for more efficient ways to spend their exploration dollars. Hence they are looking to EO as a means of supplementing other data sources, or pre-qualifying an area of interest before traditional and very expensive methods such as seismic are utilised for locating new reserves. One day of seismic surveys saved could finance the entire EO programme for a medium sized oil and gas company. Hence using EO data in an intelligent way will save valuable exploration expenses. The oil & gas industry is already a significant user of satellite technology for EO across their entire business portfolio and the acceptance of EO as a beneficial technology is continuing at a fast pace. As existing reserves are reducing oil & gas companies are continuing their search in extreme and ever more remote areas. Exploration in such areas will often be hampered by extreme temperatures and weather conditions.

Hydrocarbon-storage-near-Istanbul-overview.jpg. DMC3/Triplesat satellite data over a hydrocarbon storage facility near Istanbul, Turkey. Displayed is a 4m multispectral image; RGB = ch 3,2,1

Initially, the uptake of applications for EO in oil and gas exploration was fairly limited and mainly supported the traditional data. As the data is becoming more available, the industry is finding more and more new ways to use this data, not only in the exploration phase but also through the entire operation of an oil/gas field from development to production and finally abandonment.

  • Environmental baseline mapping and subsequent monitoring (including change detection analysis)
  • Asset monitoring (including shipping, pipelines, production facilities)
  • Infrastructure development mapping and monitoring (onshore and offshore)
  • Operational environmental impact assessment
  • Remote area intelligence compilation
  • Security assessment and monitoring
  • Supporting social licence to operate
  • Routine and on-demand ocean monitoring services
  • Statistical analysis and historical comparison of areas of interest
  • Corporate assessments and insurance verification
  • Health and safety assessment for staff deployed
  • Oil spill response and preparedness
  • Disaster prevention, event assessment and general situational awareness
  • Ice and polar monitoring for safe and sustainable developments
  • Exploration (marine and terrestrial) including mapping in support of survey planning and site evaluation

Clearly there are many ways EO can support the oil & gas industry. The real drivers behind this fast adoption are the key benefits EO brings.

When identifying new reservoirs, EO facilitates improved geological studies over wide areas and especially in harsh or difficult-to-access regions allowing costs and potential negative impacts to be reduced. Examples include reducing risk of unexpected reservoir compaction and monitoring reservoir pressure through ground motion monitoring, or minimising risk of accidents in natural gas storage sites by monitoring uplift and subsidence. All of this allows for improved quality and safety procedures with lower operational costs. Managing assets, understanding and monitoring any environmental impact are very important factors for the facility operators and EO has a significant role to play here too. It can be used to support offshore platforms by monitoring sea levels, forecasting extreme weather, ocean wave height and direction and even spotting icebergs.

Hydrocarbon-storage-near-Istanbul-fullres-subset.jpg. Subset of the image above showing the close proximity of the storage tanks to a bordering nature strip. Displayed is a 1m pan-sharpened multispectral image; RGB = ch 3,2,1

EO derived products also allow companies to develop mapping and models of spills before they happen. This enables them to understand and mitigate the impact on vulnerable or sensitive areas. Should the worst ever happen, continuous oil spill monitoring and guidance of any response activity is readily supported by EO.
Although the applications are growing rapidly, during this early technology adoption stage, the methods of use of EO data remain somewhat fragmented and, due to the commercially-sensitive nature of this information, very little has been shared within the industry.

As an example, there are several different methods of data management within the service providers. Some companies have a single team that manages the process from the initial ‘Can EO help?’ and determining what data could or should be used, right the way through to managing the collection request, data storage and application supervision. Other companies manage this on a ‘by project’ basis and data is infrequently shared between projects. There is also a model whereby the whole process is outsourced and then the data is provided to support decision-making in one particular area of the company.

However, through the establishment of some fairly informal industry groups (notably the Oil & Gas Earth Observation interest group – OGEO) this ‘silo’ mentality is shifting. We are seeing better communication between oil & gas companies and service providers, especially the sharing of success stories and cross-application data exchange, which will benefit the industry as a whole.

Iceberg and coastal monitoring-Greenland—overview.jpg. DMC3/Triplesat satellite data over a coastal area for iceberg monitoring and coastal mapping in Greenland. Displayed is a 4m multispectral image; RGB = ch 4,3,2

One of the leading companies in the EO industry is the UK satellite data company Earth-i , which is utilising the recently launched DMC3 TripleSat constellation to offer previously unachievable levels of imaging opportunity frequency with sector-leading levels of resolution. This unique set of 3 identical high resolution optical satellites, each with four multispectral (4 metre) and one panchromatic (1 metre) sensors, has the capability to image any location on Earth every day. Highly dynamic tasking capabilities and fast delivery options make it an ideal sensor for not only emergency response activities, but also larger scale monitoring projects, where regular coverage and reliable data supply is essential.

One of the main challenges for Earth-i is to ensure that the data quality and product reliability is sustained and new products and applications can be supported with this new satellite constellation.

In summary, it is an exciting and fast moving time for the EO sector which is already delivering valuable information and benefits to the oil & gas industry with speed and accuracy of providing data over a wide area. This will potentially allow companies to develop new reservoirs faster, and the convenience of obtaining data in remote areas without deploying personnel will increase safety as large areas can be continuously monitored for small changes and corrective actions taken. Overall operational cost reductions in many areas of the exploration and production processes, alongside reduced HSE risks for the companies, will justify any sensible expenditure on EO data and its applications.

About Dr. Peter Hausknecht
Dr. Hausknecht holds a PhD in Geoscience from Munich University. Prior to joining Earth-i, he spent more than eight years at Woodside – Australia’s leading Oil & Gas company. Whilst working for the Perth based, but internationally operating, organisation Peter fulfilled different roles and was the subject matter expert on Earth Observation and remote sensing.
At an international level, Peter Hausknecht was a founding member of the Oil & Gas Earth Observation (OGEO) interest group and also Chairman of the International Association for Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) sub-committee on Earth Observation. In addition to presenting at international conferences and workshops, he has also given regular lectures at different universities and professional organisations, in particular on hyper-spectral remote sensing and the general applications of remote sensing in the Oil & Gas industry.

About Earth-i Ltd:
Earth-i is a British company dedicated to facilitating the distribution of data from the DMC3/TripleSat Constellation. As the master distributor appointed by 21AT, Earth-i provides a portal for data users wishing to take advantage of the advanced data and services made possible by this uniquely capable Earth Observation satellite constellation.
Earth-i is co-located on the Surrey Research Park in the UK with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, the manufacturer of the DMC3/Triplesat constellation. www.earthi.space 
 
For further information, please contact:

  • Richard Blain
    Chief Executive, Earth-i Ltd
    Phone (24hrs): +44 (0)333 433 0015
    7 Huxley Road, Surrey Research Park, Guildford, GU2 7RE, United Kingdom
    E-mail: richard.blain@earthi.co.uk

- Qatar Armed Forces will receive and process satellite data through a multi-mission Direct Receiving Station
- This ground infrastructure will be specifically equipped with all necessary tools to support military operations, crisis monitoring or environment studies

Airbus Defence and Space has been awarded a contract to provide Qatar Armed Forces (QAF) with a multi-mission Direct Receiving Station and image analysis capabilities.

This complete infrastructure will allow QAF to receive and process satellite data and give them the capacity to produce value added data and situation reports for military operations and various government applications. A comprehensive set of services is also part of the agreement, including a comprehensive training and knowledge transfer plan.

QAF will be provided with all the tools and knowledge necessary to satellite data acquisition and derived-products generation, especially in the fields of image analysis, cartography and a range of other applications. Thus, the QAF command and control capabilities will be significantly enhanced.

This success is the result of a long experience in the field of Direct Receiving Stations, cartography and image analysis systems and services, combined to the wide range of Airbus Defence and Space’s satellite imagery.

“This contract is part of the Capability Enhancement that has been approved by His Highness the Commander in Chief. The project shall enhance QAF command and control capability and support to military operations. We have selected Airbus Defence and Space after a rigorous evaluation process which lasted more than one year. We trust the Airbus technical and project management capabilities to ensure the delivery of the project at the highest standard”, said Brigadier Eng. Abdulaziz Falah Al-Dosari, Assistant for Technology to the Minister of State for Defence Affairs.

“This contract is the materialization of a relationship built on mutual trust that has been developed with QAF for a long time. It confirms, once again, the Airbus Defence and Space expertise in ground segment services, through its Direct Receiving Stations and images processing tools tailored for the Defence sector”, said Bernhard Brenner, Head of Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space.

Intelligence is the new Business Cluster within Airbus Defence and Space that brings together two successful and established businesses, Defence Systems and Geo-Intelligence, with strong national & international Defence market synergies.

Contact
Fabienne GRAZZINI + 33 5 62 19 41 19
fabienne.grazzini@eads.astrium.net

Commercial UAV Expo today announced the release of their most recent report, titled “Surveying and Mapping with UAVs.” This free report provides information on the use of UAS technology for surveying and mapping, including key insights into how UAVs are being used today and how they will be utilized in the near future.

The complete report is available for download here

In this report, Commercial UAV News Executive Editor Jeremiah Karpowicz covers topics including: the short and long term effects of FAA implications, the increasing return on investment for utilizing drones due to the lowered costs of UAV technology, and how the industry will be impacted once operators are able to fly beyond visual line-of-sight (BLOS).

Karpowicz spoke with various industry leaders including Lewis Graham, President and Chief Technical Officer of GeoCue Corporation, Jeff Lovin, Senior Vice President and Director of Government Solutions at Woolpert, and Eric Andelin, President and CTO of Vertical Information Services, Inc. (VERTX) to discuss how UAVs are reshaping the way in which surveying and mapping professionals operate.

The free report is available for download here

About Commercial UAV Expo

Commercial UAV Expo is a conference and exhibition exclusively focused on the commercial drone market covering industries including Surveying & Mapping; Civil Infrastructure; Aggregates & Mining; Construction; Process, Power & Utilities; Precision Agriculture; Law Enforcement, Emergency Response and Search & Rescue (SAR). Commercial UAV Expo will take place October 31-November 2, 2016 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Commercial UAV Expo is organized by Diversified Communications, a leading organizer of conferences and trade shows with 15 years in the geospatial arena, including SPAR 3D Expo & Conference and International LiDAR Mapping Forum.

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