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(8 October 2015) Euroconsult today announced the hiring of Sima Fishman as Managing Director of Euroconsult USA.

In this role Sima will manage the development of Euroconsult’s services for U.S. customers and Euroconsult’s Washington D.C. office. Sima will work closely with Susan Irwin, Principal Advisor at Euroconsult who has run Euroconsult USA since its debut in 2010.

Sima has a long history of providing strategic and financial analyses to clients in the ICT sector. Her work, primarily in the U.S., Africa, and Asia, has included valuation, due diligence, feasibility analysis, and sector and regulatory structure assessment. She has focused on satellite, space, and government markets since 2009, as a strategy consultant at Futron and later Avascent. Prior to joining Futron, she led consulting teams at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Altman Vilandrie. Sima holds an MBA from Duke University and an undergraduate degree in Mathematical Economics from Temple University.

“We are delighted to have Sima as part of the team and look forward to her contributions to our business,” said Pacome Revillon, CEO of Euroconsult. “Sima’s extensive consulting background and experience in the satellite sector are a great match with our company and a major step in our strategy to expand our capabilities in the U.S. market.”

“This is an exciting time to be part of Euroconsult’s expansion in the U.S.,” said Sima Fishman. “Euroconsult’s strategy and business focus and on-the-ground presence around the world, combined with a U.S.-based analytical team, offers a unique value proposition to American companies, lenders, and investors.”

“I look forward to working with Sima to take Euroconsult USA to the next level,” said Susan Irwin. “We’ve come a long way in the past five years. It is a time of change in the satellite industry, with new players and new ideas. We are ready to support the changing environment in the U.S. market and look forward to making a difference.”

“I’d like to thank Susan for pioneering the U.S. office, she was instrumental in getting us off the ground,” continued Mr. Revillon. “We will continue to collaborate with her moving forward and are excited about the prospects that lie ahead.”

About Euroconsult

Euroconsult is the leading global consulting firm specializing in space markets. As a privately-owned, fully independent firm, we provide first-class strategic consulting, develop comprehensive research and organize executive-level annual summits for the industry. With 30 years of experience, Euroconsult is trusted by 600 clients in over 50 countries. Euroconsult is headquartered in France, with offices in the U.S., Canada and Japan.

(source: Euroconsult)

7 October 2015 – The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) is seeking comments on the OGC OpenSearch Extension for Earth Observation, a candidate OGC standard. This OpenSearch extension provides a simple way to make queries to a repository that contains Earth Observation information and enables syndication of repositories for this purpose. Once approved as a standard and implemented in software products and services, this Standard will make it much easier for users to navigate diverse and expanding collections of Earth observation data.

OpenSearch (www.opensearch.org) provides a set of easily and widely implemented technologies that developers can use to enhance search engines, web servers, and browsers to give users access to more types of content. OpenSearch clients also enable users to customize search requests and aggregate and syndicate search results.

Earth Observation (EO) products have specific characteristics such as: the platform or satellite from which the data originates (e.g. SPOT, ENVISAT), the sensor used to acquire the data (e.g. type, spectral range, wavelengths), the processing centre (including processing date, software used), and specific satellite orbit information (e.g. number, track, frame and direction). The OpenSearch Description document format allows the use of extensions that allow search engines to inform clients about specific and contextual query parameters. This OGC candidate standard specifies an Earth Observation extension to OpenSearch that defines query parameters that allow the filtering of search results with those fields.

This candidate standard is complementary to the OGC OpenSearch Geo and Time Extensions Standard (OGC 10-032).

Download the candidate OGC OpenSearch Extension for Earth Observation Standard here. Comments are due by 2015-11-06.

The OGC® is an international geospatial standards consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services and mainstream IT. Visit the OGC website at www.opengeospatial.org/.

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Geospatial technology is essential to the operation of Portuguese Hydrographic Institute. Its Director General shares his views on marine technology evolution, current trends and how the Institute is keeping up. – See more at: http://geospatialworld.net/Interview/ViewInterview.aspx?id=31527#sthash.Bs6e86BQ.dpuf

What is the mission and mandate of Hydrographic Institute? How has it evolved over the years with the continuous evolution of marine technology?

The Hydrographic Institute (IPTH) is an organ of the Portuguese Navy and a National State Laboratory with assignments in the study and research in the field of Marine Sciences, particularly with regard to Hydrography, Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography, Marine Geology and Safety of Maritime Navigation.

The Hydrographic Institute fundamental mission is to ensure most activities related to marine science and technology, offering support to the Portuguese Navy and to pursue the public strategic orientations for the sea, and contribute to the country’s development in the fields of science and protection of the marine environment.

The evolution of marine technology has always been a challenge to the Hydrographic Institute. A major effort is being done on following up with the new techniques and methods and on qualifying personnel with technical courses, master’s and PhD degrees. Technology is the major drive for enhancing the quality and the reliability of our products and services.

Geospatial data is becoming a commodity in our everyday lives. As one of the important geospatial data providers in Portugal, how do you ensure Hydrographic Institute continues to be on top of its game?

The current trend of conducting multidisciplinary research, multi-organisational and multi-national, where the access to technical and scientific data is crucial to the success of many projects stresses the importance and value of data availability. In the particular case of Hydrographic Institute, the availability of data aims to contribute to the mission of the organisations and to the scientific community within the area of Marine Sciences.

IHPT portal is the main tool for data access and data request. This web page provides a metadata catalogue, created under the institutional responsibility of the INSPIRE directive. In addition to free data download, there is also a form for requesting non-standard data. The data transfer policy is also published on the Internet.

How does geospatial technology contribute to the everyday operation of Hydrographic Institute?

Geospatial technology is essential to the operation of the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute. Most of the data acquired in the main activities of this institute needs to have a geographic, temporal and spatial context provided by the geospatial technology. Also, all phases of that data preparation are performed with the support of geospatial technology, such as the planning, acquisition, processing, quality control and data transfer. Moreover, the majority of our most relevant products are based in geo-referenced information such as the nautical charts.

The more relevant geospatial technologies to our mission are: GIS – in supporting projects development (planning hydrographic surveys and production of nautical charts) and GNSS – in all the surveys we use GNSS technology for hydrographic surveys and topography.

Is there any new area within marine science where you think geospatial technology could be of more use?

Besides the traditional technology used in marine sciences, there are emerging technologies, such as the HF radars for measuring surface currents, topo-bathymetric LiDAR and the exploitation of satellite images for deriving shallow water bathymetry. These three examples are part of our research interests at the Hydrographic Institute.

With the advancement of technology, the amount of data being generated has also multiplied. Does Hydrographic Institute face any challenge in managing the overflow of data?

Most of our Hydrographic Offices faced this issue since several years ago. We have started working on the solution and put more investment in spatial databases to manage data. We also try to keep track of the latest technological developments, not only on their application to our activities, but also in terms of their requirements on data processing and management. As a result, recently we purchased both a new scientific cluster, to speed up the several ocean forecast models we run every day; and a new spatial hydrographic database, more appropriate to manage big volume of data acquired in the hydrographic surveys. The challenges now are more related to data migration from the old database to the new one, especially due to the different sources, geodetic reference systems, age and data formats. Additionally, the storage and management of geo-referenced data require careful planning in hardware and software upgrades.

Many geospatial technologies available in the market today are focusing on terrestrial application, compared to the ocean. Do you find this a challenge?

Of course. The marine geospatial technologies have had an evolution such in a way that it is much easier to execute and develop the activities related with our responsibilities. Now that most coastal states are concerned with the blue economy, in my opinion it will be necessary to put ourselves on the users’ shoes in order to identify their needs. For example there are more geospatial technologies to support agriculture than fishery, in terrestrial fleet management than in maritime, etc. So there is a challenge to the industry to respond to the needs of maritime users.

Is Hydrographic Institute involved in skill development or training manpower resources?

Hydrographic Institute assumes its responsibility in contributing to national geo-maritime skills. The Institute has its own training infrastructure, the School of Hydrography and Oceanography, a body dedicated to the training of officers and petty-officers of the Navy and civilian technicians, necessary for the operations of Hydrography and Oceanography, or in connection with these, of interest to the Navy and to the country. Besides the specialised courses, there is modular training to refresh knowledge and to operate new technologies.

See more at

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Explore cutting-edge space applications from 20 – 22 October 2015 in Berlin

After the great success last year, the second edition of the conference will showcase a unique portfolio of innovative applications based on satellite data and infrastructures.

The Satellite Masters Conference is much more than just a networking event: it is a unique marketplace for sharing ideas on space-based innovation and connecting with the world’s leading network for downstream satellite business. The conference will feature an outstanding blend of sessions, solution soundbites, and roundtable discussions centred around leveraging satellite-derived data and other space solutions for business and society in the following fields: _tackling global change with sustainable solutions, managing disasters and security with data from space, big data from space for business in the cloud, small satellites with a big impact on the new space economy, satellite services for European infrastructures, smart cities: sustainable living based on data from space. _

The conference is geared toward all those looking to benefit from the emerging satellite applications market, including start-ups, SMEs, researchers, investors, institutional stakeholders, and industry entities.

The annual Awards Ceremony of Europe’s major innovation competitions for space applications – the Copernicus Masters and the European Satellite Navigation Competition – will cap off the event. The most brilliant awardees will also present their business cases during the conference.

The Satellite Masters Conference and the Awards Ceremony will kick off with a high-level roundtable on the subject ‘Space 4 Digital Business’, opened by Dorothee Bär, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). Don’t miss the opportunity to join the discussion about the impact of space on the digital economy of Matthias Petschke, Director of European Satellite Navigation Programmes, European Commission (EC) ; Philippe Brunet, Director I – Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence, European Commission (EC); Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA); Prof Dr Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA); Dr Hubert Reile, Program Director Space Research and Technology at the German Aerospace Center (DLR); and Thorsten Dirks, President of Bitkom.

On 22 October, the European GNSS R&D Day will showcase success stories on research applications and instruments designed to support entrepreneurs.

The conference is organised by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) in cooperation with the European GNSS Agency and will be hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and

Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) in Berlin from 20 – 22 October 2015.
For further information and registration (free of charge), please visit www.satellit-masters-conference.eu

Related links:
Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen: www.anwendungszentrum.de
Copernicus Masters: www.copernicus-masters.com
European GNSS Agency: www.gsa.europa.eu
European Satellite Navigation Competition: www.esnc.info

Media contact:
Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, Lena Nietbaur, +49 (0) 8105 77277 17 press@satellite-masters-conference.eu

From Friday the 20th of November 2015 till Sunday the 22nd of November 2015, the Flemish Space Days will be held in the Brabanthal at Leuven, Belgium. During this event, the Flemish Space Industry present their products and services during a large exhibition which is open to everyone.

EUROSENSE will be present with a booth at the Flemish Space Days. At our booth, visitors can learn about a variety of services and products which EUROSENSE is able to create based upon space-borne, but also airborne and sea-borne data. Feel free to pass by at our booth!

More information on the event can be found in the following leaflet Dutch only

For more news concerning the EUROSENSE group, click here

Harmful algae blooms threaten drinking water, aquaculture industries and the public welfare. A significant bloom was recently forecasted for Lake Erie: NOAA predicts that this year’s blooms will be “among the most severe in recent years” and will peak in September.

The bloom is now tracked daily on the free algae bloom monitoring program developed by EOMAP for the Great Lakes region. The solution provides an easy online access through EOMAP’s eoApp®-US. EOMAP also tracks the vast number of smaller lakes and coastal waters globally using its multi-satellite monitoring system and displays this data on the eoApp® web application.

Aside from single, daily products, EOMAP’s eoApp®-US also provides spatially and temporally aggregated data: daily means (D’mean) and moving, weekly means (M’mean).

The eoapp monitoring system allows for tracking blue algae blooms and relevant water quality parameters such as chlorophyll and turbidity. Various US and European satellite sensors are imbedded into this first globally harmonized monitoring system, supporting daily monitoring at continental scales, historical reviews up to 30 years back in time and highest spatial resolutions for ponds, small lakes and rivers.

Matt Bergin, Vice President of business Development at EOMAP states that “EOMAP supports European and US research initiatives to understand and forecast harmful algae blooms. The heavy bloom in 2013 was already well detected and is accessible through eoApp-US. The algorithm developed by EOMAP detects blue algae containing phycocyanin pigments. It is imbedded into the proprietary, state-of-the-art satellite data processors of EOMAP, which already are installed in several satellite receiving and archiving centers to support the most cost efficient and fast production.”

eoApp®-US

(25 September 2015) The launch of Sentinel-5 Precursor is planned for next spring so the satellite is being put through its paces to make sure it is fit for liftoff and life in orbit tracking air pollution. Vibration and acoustic tests are next up.

Sentinel-5 Precursor is the first satellite dedicated to providing information about the atmosphere for Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme.

With air pollution a serious concern, this new satellite carries the Tropomi instrument – an imaging spectrometer that can measure a multitude of trace gases such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide and methane, and aerosols affecting air quality and the climate.

Tropomi was developed as a joint venture between several Dutch institutes and the Netherlands Space Office.

The satellite arrived in Toulouse, France, at the end of July after engineers at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, UK, had equipped and tested the satellite with Tropomi.

Now at Intespace’s facilities in Toulouse, it is going through a rigorous series of environmental checks.

The ‘thermal balance and vacuum’ tests have already been completed – in record time. They simulated the vacuum of space along with the huge swings of temperature the satellite will be exposed to as it orbits Earth.

As its name suggests, Sentinel-5 Precursor is the forerunner of the Sentinel-5 instrument that will be carried on the MetOp Second Generation weather satellites, which are expected to start operations around 2021.

Until then, Sentinel-5 Precursor will play an important role in forecasting air quality and supplying decision-makers with accurate information.

With such an important undertaking ahead, it is vital that the satellite is fully tested before it is delivered to the launch site in Plesetsk, northern Russia.

It has now been removed from the chamber and is being prepared for the vibration and acoustic tests.

This involves placing the satellite on a shaker and simulating the worst possible conditions during transport and launch. The acoustic chamber will replicate the very high sound pressure levels during liftoff and its journey into orbit.

In parallel, the ground team at ESA’s ESOC space operations centre in Germany are ramping up efforts to have everything in place for the launch and commissioning phases.

(source: ESA)

CS, a leading actor in the field of space ground systems in Europe, is actively contributing to the success of the Sentinel-2 mission, which first images have just been acquired and processed. In addition to the satellite Launch and Early Orbit Period support to the control centre in Darmstadt (ESOC), CS provides the European Space Agency with its expertise and solutions in the field of image processing.

The Sentinel-2A satellite was successfully launched during the night of 22-23 June from the Kourou space centre in French Guyana. It is part of the space component of the European Earth observation programme Copernicus. It is the second of a six satellite series which will work together to provide European Union states with a flow of space data for analysing the environment of our planet, including climate change. It will be used for both public service projects and commercial applications.
The mission of Sentinel-2A, and of Sentinel-2B foreseen to be launched in 2016, is to map the Earth continents using high-resolution optical sensors. The observation capacity of the two satellites will enable monitoring the whole planet land cover in only five days. A wide spectrum of monitoring applications is targeted: agriculture, forest studies, lakes and rivers, urban development, natural disaster, observation of glaciers and coastal areas, etc.

As expert of satellite image processing for over 30 years, CS is implementing the following services for the European & French Space Agencies:

  • Development of the Image Processing Facility, a key component of the payload data ground segment, that was ready to produce images since the very first acquisitions (integrating high added-value components promoted by CS: OTB, OREKIT-RUGGED)
  • Implementation of calibration and quality control tools for the satellite instrument as part of the Mission Performance Assessment project
  • Quality control, Calibration and Validation, as well as End-to-End Monitoring for Sentinel-2 images, as the Mission Performance Centre Prime
  • Atmospheric & Cloud Correction software to improve images, based on multi-mission tool: MACCS.

CS is also a leading actor for the processing and dissemination of Copernicus data to end users, in particular thanks to the development of the generic Sentinel-2 Toolbox, and is producing one of the first agriculture applications based on Sentinel-2 data (Sentinel 2 for Agriculture project).

“Involved in Sentinel-2 and also in Sentinel-3, dedicated to ocean surveillance, CS works for European agencies and operators (European Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, European Commission and Eumetsat) and also for Large Space Integrators, supplying sub-systems for their ground segments. CS is therefore a major player in the Copernicus program,” concludes Sylvain D’Hoine, Director of the CS Space and Geo-information Business Unit.

About CS
CS is a leading designer, integrator and operator of critical systems. CS posted revenues of 162.2 M€ in 2014, and employs 1,770 staff in France and abroad. CS is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange – Compartment C (Shares: Euroclear 7896 / ISIN FR 0007317813). For more information: www.c-s.fr

Media contact
Barbara Goarant
Marketing & Communication Director
+33 (0)1 41 28 46 94

Source

Scottish space science and management company, Astrosat, has won a European Space Agency (ESA) contract to develop its ThermCERT application, a thermal and carbon efficiency reporting tool which uses space-derived data to enhance situational awareness and potentially reduce the cost of surveying to local authorities.

ThermCERT supports local authorities in monitoring and reducing thermal waste, particularly over large areas or in sizeable buildings, which is vital to lowering global carbon emissions. It provides a suite of tools for targeting, measuring, reporting on, verifying, communicating and promoting thermal efficiency investments.

Under the ESA contract, Astrosat will partner with location-based services company, Dynamically Loaded, the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, and the National Space Centre Ireland to look for ways to improve urban energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

Astrosat’s CEO and founder Steve Lee said: “We are very pleased to be working in collaboration with the European Space Agency and our partners in this new contract. It is our aim to continue to play a key role at the forefront of the commercialisation of the space sector.”

The Edinburgh-based company, which is now firmly established among the leading UK contenders in the commercialisation of the space sector, is also developing a digital mapping system called Recovery and Protection in Disaster (RAPID) whose aim is to provide invaluable information in disaster situations in countries across the world.

RAPID is designed to provide data layers to evaluate the likes of the aftermath of storms, landslides and coastal erosion. Nation states and their regions, typically in the developing world, can be empowered to “plug the gaps” in their economies by using RAPID to facilitate the monitoring of critical infrastructure such as ports, airports and rail networks to ensure their country remains open, operational and efficient by sourcing satellite data.

It also could provide large cost savings through greater resilience and recovery from disaster, as well as protecting and saving innumerable lives.

RAPID is a technology solution designed to aggregate, manage, analyse and share critical infrastructure data. In addition it provides developing nations with powerful visualisation tools that turn raw data into actionable intelligence.

Astrosat’s RAPID digital maps will allow users to interact and gain near real time data. These provide an overview for clients by taking raw satellite data and translating it into a form that can be accessed and understood by non-technical personnel.

Steve Lee said: “Providing the right data at the right time to the right people can save lives and help preserve a country’s critical infrastructure. RAPID allows smart decisions to be made based on good data by rescue teams in the field both in preparation for, during and after major events.”


Land surface temperature estimation of Riga in Latvia

For further information contact Astrosat on info@astrosat.biz or visit www.astrosat.biz