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C-CORE, a Canadian applied R&D company with expertise in adapting space technologies for use in harsh terrestrial environments, is taking advantage of new capabilities offered by ESA’s Sentinel-1 mission to improve its EO-based maritime monitoring service.

The service, which provides day/night, all-weather, large-area reconnaissance specifically to detect and classify icebergs and to distinguish icebergs from seagoing vessels, helps mitigate risk for oil and gas operations in ice-prone oceans: once detected, icebergs approaching operational areas can be pushed or pulled off course, preventing potentially damaging contact with fixed structures and reducing downtime due to disconnection for floating platforms.

The process is automated using C‑CORE’s proprietary Iceberg Detection Software (IDS), with 24/7 quality control provided by C-CORE’s team of EO specialists, so that clients get near-real-time information in a format customized to their specifications. Surveillance plans for regions of interest are also developed specifically for each client. C-CORE is now upgrading its IDS to handle Sentinel-1 imagery; testing of this new capability has been ongoing during the 2015 iceberg season, and the results have been posted to Icebergfinder.com, a website developed by C-CORE to show the locations of icebergs that can be viewed from shore. C-CORE is further enhancing IDS to automatically download and process imagery to handle the large volume of Sentinel-1 data, as well as to alert analysts to review the imagery more quickly.

Figure Caption: Sentinel-1A IW Swath image (right) used to locate icebergs for the tourism website Icebergfinder.com (left) in Northern Newfoundland. The location of the icebergs on the Iceberg Map were extracted from detections taken from the Sentinel-1 image. The icebergs are located with IDS after the land and islands are masked out of the SAR image.

GISAT has been awarded by the ESA contract to explore the applicability of selected advanced image processing technologies for the use in continuous urban change monitoring.

Earth Observation based information about the land cover / land use change is currently mostly supported by monitoring programmes working with the period of several years. Such update cycle may be considered sufficient for the back-casting application, but has apparent limitations supporting now-casting or even forecasting ones. At the same time new satellite systems, e.g. Sentinel-2 or Landsat 8, start to provide EO datasets with high density temporal coverage. More, the industry access to the Sentinel and Landsat data is open and free, which creates new opportunities in the use of the full capacity of the satellites without financial constraints. This allows paradigm shift from EO based periodical mapping to continuous monitoring providing richer trend analysis, more detailed insight into the analysed processes and great potential for Near Real Time processing and forecasting. To efficiently use the upcoming databases of satellite images huge amount of data shall be processed and new generation of EO processing tools needs to be developed.

The specific goal of the project is to explore the applicability of selected advanced image processing technologies for the use within continuous urban expansion monitoring. Up to now, change detection approaches in EO are limited to typically bi-temporal analysis for two points in time. Another approach, the temporal trajectory concept is highly relevant for vegetated land covers as it assumes continuous seasonal development. Urban expansion monitoring needs different algorithms. Continuous image acquisition opens potential for reduction of the false change detection as well as potential of high automation in operational use. It is a challenge to separate variation between consequent images that represents changes of interest, which are typically fragments of the total area. The selected approaches keep high potential of solving the currently existing constraints that are objective reasons for low automation of the change detection procedure (besides the temporal limits). The proposed advanced technologies of image processing proved to be highly successful in other application domains (such as bioinformatics, medicine, real-time tracking, document classification, gaming, etc.).

The basic concept of the continuous urban expansion monitoring reflects the current status of operational application enhanced by the new satellite systems. The crucial aspect of the “Urban Monitor processor” is to provide robust change detection in continuous image acquisition environment. The robustness of the processor can be measured by the accuracy assessment, while the challenging aspect is full transferability without the need of modification. The project builds on three different approaches to modeling and detecting temporal changes of urban land cover.
The combination of these approaches will allow to (i) account for priors of possible changes between the types of land-covers, (ii) include spatial coherence of land-cover classes, and (iii) locally model the variation of appearance due to external conditions (atmospheric, sun illumination, seasonal changes and others).

GISAT has been selected by the World Bank as the consultant providing services for the development of web based geospatial software Platform for Urban Management and Analysis (PUMA). The first generation of the PUMA platform consists mainly of the analytical tools based on the pre-processed bi-temporal change layers. It is intended to enhance the capability of the platform by automated continuous change detection using the time series of Sentinel-2 / Landsat 8 images. The developed “Urban Monitor processor” will be ingested into PUMA platform, which enhances the capability of the whole concept by rapid operational urban expansion monitoring. Successful implementation of the processor would significantly contribute to the demonstration of effectiveness of EO data inclusion into regular World Bank urban related internal work-flow by providing flexible, on-demand and cost-effective city monitoring capacity with the potential of large number of cities to be mapped around the world.

Urban Dynamic Monitor project is funded by the ESA Innovation Triangle Initiative (ITI) Programme. The project is based on collaboration of GISAT s.r.o. (Developer) and Czech Technical University in Prague (Inventor).

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

GISAT is a member of the consortia contracted by ESA to prove and establish a mechanism to reduce technical risks in the development of the Earth Observation Ground Segment by means of rapid prototyping for new concept and technology assessment.

Earlier this year, ESA released an open invitation to tender for an activity encompassing software prototyping and mobile app development. The contract was awarded to an international consortium led by Solenix Deutschland GmbH (DE) with TERRASIGNA Srl (RO), GISAT s.r.o. (CZ), Progressive Systems Srl (IT) and Qualteh JR Srl (RO) as subcontractors. The framework contract will span over three years and host multiple individual projects.

The aim of the project is to enable fast development of small applications and to support the modernization of infrastructure elements. It establishes a practical innovation process using software prototyping as a way to evaluate new technologies and concepts, and assess possible solutions under real conditions. In complement to innovation, this contract also pursues a public relations and educational goal. The purpose of the contract is also to promote ESA’s activities, and products in the Earth Observation domain to users, scientists and the general public in order to increase awareness and facilitate exploitation of the Earth Observation data. The general public has a limited view and knowledge of the systems behind, their capabilities and the data they produce. Intuitive and attractive applications, especially mobile and connected to social platforms, can bridge the gap between non-scientists and advanced technologies such as satellites and ground segments.

In both areas presented above and following a well-established process, the consortium collects ideas from different stakeholders into a backlog. With the involvement of the Technical Officer, the items in this backlog are then prioritized and further refined for implementation. The selected applications and prototypes are implemented and proposed to their target audience.

A set of initial applications/prototypes has been defined and included in the first Work Order of the contract:

  • Sentinels App (for promotion purposes only)
  • Educational App for EO
  • Near-real-time Image Viewing App for third-party optical missions
  • ESA EO Datasets App (Demonstration of OpenSearch to access ESA catalogues)
  • PDGS Video App
  • SAR False Color prototype

More information about the project can be found on ESA website

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

India has prepared a concept note of the new SAARC satellite (tentatively called SAARC SAT) to the other members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in preparation of a special meeting this week. SAARC is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries that are primarily located in South Asia or Indian subcontinent.

The main areas of application for SAARC SAT include telemedicine, emergency communication in disaster situations, intergovernmental and business networks, online skill development and even television broadcasting.

SAARC SAT was proposed by the Indian PM Norendra Modu last year and will be a two ton communication satellite for the whole region. It will be funded by India and launched using the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) launch vehicle at the spaceport of Sriharikota.

Source UN-Spider

and The economic times

(1 July 2015) For the first time ever, two of ESA’s flagship space missions – Cluster and Swarm – have joined forces to simultaneously measure the properties of Earth’s magnetic field at two different altitudes.

This is the first time that multiple spacecraft have simultaneously and directly measured the current density of the magnetic field surrounding our planet at each location. Their results not only explore and characterise the magnetic behaviour in the space around our planet, but also directly show a clear link between field-aligned currents flowing at different altitudes around the Earth.

One of the key aims of ESA’s Swarm mission, consisting of three satellites launched in November 2013 into low Earth orbit, is to probe and explore the strength, properties, and dynamics of Earth’s internal magnetic field in greater detail than ever before.

However, the satellites’ delicate sensors also pick up the natural and powerful electric currents flowing throughout our planet’s ionosphere and magnetosphere, driven by the wind of charged particles streaming from the Sun. The ionosphere is an ionised region of Earth’s upper atmosphere extending upwards to about 1000 km, with the magnetosphere, the region in which Earth’s magnetic field dominates, sitting above it and stretching much further out into space.

Ionospheric currents are thought to be connected to those in the magnetosphere via FACs. Understanding and separating the various magnetic sources and streams is vital so that missions like Swarm can isolate Earth’s more subtle interior dynamics – FACs in particular are known to disturb such measurements in the planet’s polar regions.

“Swarm and Cluster took readings at altitudes of 500 and 15 000 kilometres respectively,” explained Malcolm Dunlop, lead author of the new study. Dunlop is a professor at Beihang University in Beijing, China, a visiting professor at Imperial College London, UK, the PI institute for Cluster’s magnetometer, and a space environment scientist at RAL (STFC), UK.

“The Swarm spacecraft are orbiting just within the ionosphere, whereas Cluster is in the magnetosphere, so they’re in very different regions of space,” he added. “The data sent back by both missions show that large-scale FACs in the measured regions have clearly matching behaviour and structure – the first time this has been seen directly from local magnetic gradients.”

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Seventeen years ago the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA) adopted the Baveno Manifesto laying the ground for a European Earth Observation (EO) system – the Copernicus Programme.

The first of the “Sentinel” satellites dedicated to this programme started to transmit data last autumn. The deployment of the first Sentinel, alongside the US Landsat, marks a step change in the volumes of data available. The dizzying growth of data availability will continue as the Sentinel programme progresses. When fully operational eight terabytes of new data per day will be available from the Copernicus programme, equivalent to eight computer hard drives worth, and all of it free to all for download.

The European Earth Observation Industry’s representative body, EARSC, found in 2013 that access to Sentinel data was seen as the biggest benefit of Copernicus. Nevertheless the priority of ESA and the European Commission has been to support the provision of six facilities providing information services in specific environmental areas. This has meant that ESA’s downloading and processing capacity is making available only a limited amount of Sentinel data, and that it archives material for only a short period. Realisation of the enormity of the task of managing the newly-available data, of the potential for application development built on these data, and dissatisfaction with current arrangements, have emerged as serious issues only quite slowly.

As in other sectors, the emergence of Big Data from satellite EO implies not just more of the same approach to data management, but rather the need to apply more sophisticated techniques both to deal with massively greater data volumes and to exploit them in order to develop new products. Furthermore Copernicus data are available free, so the quantities used are less constrained than from other sources, and this will promote greater usage. These factors will promote a shift of focus away from individual scenes towards the use of “image stacks” and “data cubes” based on a continuous flow of data, permitting dynamic analysis using observations at pixel level rather than whole images. This in turn implies more automatic processing, and a requirement for a high standard of pre-processing. Such tasks can most efficiently be done by central data hubs rather than requiring users to do the job themselves.

ESA’s response has been to develop the Collaborative Ground Segment concept, providing ESA member states with direct access to Sentinel data which they can process and archive themselves. So far, Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Italy and UK have signed agreements providing access to this facility. The UK is in a particularly strong position because of the infrastructure which it has created to make data available to both commercial and academic users through its Satellite Data Hub. While many of our European competitors have plans to develop their own facilities, they acknowledge that at this stage the UK is in the lead.
The ESA approach is “bottom-up” – seeking to help member states to meet their own needs, rather than promoting a broad strategic approach, and exploitation of the new data flows has been uncoordinated. The European Commission has since the start of the year started (perhaps belatedly) to take an active approach, aimed at promoting European leadership – characterised as meeting the “Google Challenge” – and ensuring a level playing field for European operators. Commission thinking is becoming clearer, and they are likely to promote a joint process to integrate their approach and ESA’s. The period between now and 2017 is likely to be crucial in developing the solution to these issues.

The other big European space players often seem less concerned with exploiting space assets to promote economic growth and government efficiency than is the UK, and it will be important for the UK to ensure that the needs of real users are prioritised.

Beta Technology, with its experience in the management of European activity, its familiarity with a wide range of UK and international business, and a strong space background, is in a good position to help exploit the enormous new opportunities in this area.

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Berlin, June 2, 2015 — BlackBridge announced today that it has entered into a sole distribution agreement with EarthSTAR Inc. to provide RapidEye imagery and solutions in the People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

EarthSTAR Inc., a subsidiary of EarthView Image Inc. based in Beijing, is expanding the market in China for earth-observation satellite technologies. EarthSTAR dedicates itself to research and development of advanced technology in order to provide high-end professional information products and application services to users, with a particular focus on government agencies and organizations.

Philippe Campenon, BlackBridge vice president of sales, is delighted to enter into cooperation with such a young and dynamic company. “EarthSTAR Inc. and BlackBridge share the view that BlackBridge solutions must be customized to the specific needs of the Chinese market. EarthSTAR Inc. teams are perfectly skilled to play such a key role in this adaptation, thanks to their understanding of the market and their proximity to their customers. This association will bring great value to the end-users.”

EarthSTAR Inc. founder and president, Wu Qiuhua, emphasized the value of high-quality RapidEye satellite data as part of the company’s portfolio. “RapidEye imagery will be a foundational information source for the development of our application products and services. In particular, the RapidEye system is well known for vegetation analysis through its spectral sensitivity and daily revisit capabilities. Based on these advantages, EarthStar will expand RapidEye imagery use throughout China in the fields of agriculture, mapping, and environmental monitoring.”

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge provides end-to-end solutions for the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, groundstation services, data center and geocloud solutions, worldwide distribution through over one hundred BlackBridge partners, and the creation of value added products and services. For more information, please visit blackbridge.com or follow the company on Twitter @BlackBridgeCorp.

About EarthSTAR Inc.
EarthSTAR, a subsidiary of EarthView Image Inc., was founded to focus on the business of professional remote sensing application technologies in China. EarthSTAR provides professional information products and technology services to users in fields like agriculture, forestry, environment, disaster and emergency, mapping, and surveying.
EarthSTAR emphasizes the value of RapidEye and RADARSAT satellite data based on their distinctive advantages and capabilities. RapidEye and RADARSAT imagery are the foundational information sources for the development of EarthSTAR’s application products and services.

Contact
BlackBridge AG
Kurfürstendamm 22
10719 Berlin
Germany
press@blackbridge.com
www.blackbridge.com

Arlington, VA, May 5, 2015 — BlackBridge announced today that it has entered into an agreement with The Climate Corporation to provide RapidEye imagery of the major agricultural areas across the U.S. for use in The Climate Corporation’s products and services for farmers.

This imagery is part of the BlackBridge Monitoring Program for Agriculture that has been running in North America since 2013. BlackBridge uses the RapidEye constellation of five identical satellites to regularly collect high-resolution imagery over the major North American agricultural areas throughout the growing season. The Climate Corporation uses this imagery, along with imagery from previous seasons, to extract in-season and historical field information for farmers to evaluate crop health and identify issues before they impact yield.

Clint Graumann, director of North America, the U.K., and Ireland at BlackBridge, is glad to see the company’s high-resolution imagery being used to help farmers through The Climate Corporation’s products and services. “It’s exciting to see the work that The Climate Corporation is doing with our imagery,” said Graumann. “The company’s decision-making tools put an incredible amount of information extracted from our imagery into the hands of the farmer.”

The Climate Corporation’s director of product management, Evin Levey, reinforced the value of high-quality satellite imagery in the company’s services. “We use satellite imagery as an essential foundation for our predictive models and are pleased to be working now with BlackBridge as a provider of that imagery,” said Levey. “By combining agronomic data with RapidEye satellite imagery, we can produce field information to help farmers better understand how their crop is performing through the season. With that better understanding, farmers can make decisions to address issues early and maximize their crop production.”

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge provides end-to-end solutions for the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, groundstation services, data center and geocloud solutions, worldwide distribution through over one hundred BlackBridge partners, and the creation of value added products and services. For more information, please visit blackbridge.com or follow the company on Twitter @BlackBridgeCorp.

About The Climate Corporation
The Climage Corporation, a division of Monsanto Company, aims to help farmers around the world protect and improve their farming operations with uniquely powerful software, hardware, and insurance products. The company’s proprietary Climate Technology Platform combines hyper-local weather monitoring, agronomic modeling, and high-resolution weather simulations to deliver Climate Basic™ and Climate Pro™, online and mobile SaaS solutions that help farmers improve profitability by making better informed operating and financing decisions. Through its exclusive relationship with OneBeacon the company is also an authorized provider of the U.S. Federal crop insurance program, enabling authorized independent crop insurance agents to provide farmers with the industry’s most powerful full-stack risk management solution. The company’s unique technologies help the global agriculture industry to stabilize and improve profits and, ultimately, help feed the world. For more information, please visit www.climate.com or follow the company on Twitter @climatecorp. Climate Crop Insurance Agency LLC is an equal opportunity provider. Learn more at www.climagepro2015.com

Contact
BlackBridge AG
Kurfürstendamm 22
10719 Berlin
Germany
press@blackbridge.com
www.blackbridge.com

(May 2015) Airbus Defense and Space and Hexagon Geospatial have partnered in a new content-sharing program that will enable end-users to have access to Earth Observation data and software through smart applications offered by Hexagon Geospatial.

The content provided by Airbus Defense and Space will combine very-high and high resolution optical imagery from Pléiades and SPOT satellites with the Hexagon Geospatial offering. This partnership will fuel the creation of new smart applications, which will provide end-users with easy access to fresh data and powerful technology to transform this data into useful information across all market segments – government, commercial, utilities, natural resources, and more.

Hexagon Geospatial has changed the game by offering a platform to build and deliver smart applications to our customers. Now, with this new offering from Hexagon Geospatial, our data can be a part of localized, vertical market applications that improve customer accessibility to the technology they need.”
Greg Buckman. Head of Airbus Defense and Space’s Geo-Intelligence Programme Line in North America

The Hexagon Geospatial Power Portfolio provides geospatial and industrial enterprise solutions to organizations across the globe. These solutions harness the power of information with tools and techniques for managing, manipulating and visualizing big data and integrate them with sensors, software, knowledge and customer workflows.

Today’s sophisticated end-users want customized analytics that meet their dynamic and unique workflows – providing them with a quick snapshot to support faster and more effective decision-making. Our new partnership with Airbus Defense and Space satisfies this need by empowering the creation of smart applications that leverage both enhanced imagery and our software solutions.”
Mladen Stojic. President of Hexagon Geospatial

Initially, the partnership will provide users with access to content from Airbus Defense and Space’s Pléiades and SPOT satellites. In the future, the plan is to make available the powerful radar data from the TerraSAR-X satellite and a range of digital elevation models for Hexagon Geospatial smart applications as well.

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(May 2015) Airbus Defence and Space and seismic multi-client acquisition and imaging specialist Spectrum Geo have launched a 2D seismic and seep study programme for the Porcupine Basin, just ahead of the Irish Licensing Round.

This joint analysis correlates natural oil seeps identified from radar satellites with 2D seismic data to assist hydrocarbon exploration in this region and is set to provide additional insight into the prospectivity of Irish waters. The analysis draws on the expertise of the individual partners, combining Spectrum Geo’s sub-surface seismic information with Airbus Defence and Space’s surface seeps data.

Spectrum has reprocessed 14,000km of regional 2D seismic data, complementing preceding surveys and integrating gravity, magnetics and well data. An updated extract from the Airbus Defence and Space Global Seeps Database provides sea surface slick locations together with confidence levels based on the analysis of multi-temporal satellite radar data. Results are encouraging with a strong correlation between higher confidence slicks and seismic features.

These results will offer a new perspective on the hydrocarbon potential in the region, supporting both the ongoing licensing round and future exploration.

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