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Globesar AS is a Norwegian remote sensing company, providing mapping and monitoring solutions to clients worldwide. The company’s aim is to provide new and better geospatial data to facilitate decision making across industries. By collaborating with leading research institutions in their field, the company offers high quality services using the latest technology available.

The start of something new

In 2010, former students at Tromsø University and Chalmers University of Technology and researchers at Norut in Tromsø saw a general industry problem; Decision makers across industries were lacking accurate geospatial data, both in space and time, to be able to do good decisions as regards to safety, maintenance, investments and production.

Existing equipment or methods used were either, inaccurate or too expensive, to continuously track the dynamics of our environment. Decisions are being made, however with a good degree of uncertainty or with vast amounts of resources spent on various measurements and equipment.

Eager to take on the challenge, and to provide better geospatial data, the company Globesar was formed, backed by the research institution Norut with decades of research and development in remote sensing technologies.

A couple of years down the road, the company has grown in size, and developed into a global service provider with customers on several continents. The cross-disciplinary team has more than 15 years of experience in analysing satellite data, primarily data from radar and optical sensors, and is providing high quality mapping and monitoring solutions to its clients.

As of today the company offers two satellite services to its clients;

Assisting decisions makers with new surface deformation data

As surface deformations occurs from natural or man-made reasons it is very important to identify and track the deformations in order to better understand which impact the deformations can have on for instance safety and maintenance.

Existing and more traditional geodetic measurement systems, such as levelling and GNSS, are limited as regards to spatial coverage and can in addition, have limitations as regards to accuracy, making it challenging to understand and analyse the deformation measurements.

With the application of a series of radar satellite measurements and the InSAR methodology Globesar can provide mm-accurate deformation data without any ground equipment installed. As radar satellite measurements cover large areas it is possible to produce a large network of measurements points to a fraction of the cost, compared to existing geodetic methods. Companies and organizations can benefit from continuously updated deformation data to better understand the stability dynamics in their areas of interest. In addition, as radar satellites have been acquiring data since the early 1990’s, it is possible to reproduce historical deformation trends. The company has clients within application areas such as; natural hazards, infrastructure, Oil and Gas, hydropower.

Image below illustrate an example of Globesar’s surface deformation product covering a city in Europe. Both images show the same area. The colour scale in the image to the right illustrate the stability of the area monitored, covering a period of approximately 12 months. Blue/green colour means no or little deformation, while yellow/red areas show deformation of up to 40mm.

Click for large view

Figure 1. The two images show same area. Image to the right illustrate deformation data provided using the InSAR technique together with radar measurements from the TerraSAR/TanDEM-X satellite provided by Airbus. Red/yellow areas illustrate subsidence whilst green/blue areas are stable.

Improving water resource management

Water resource management is important to efficiently plan, develop, distribute and manage our water resources. In cold regions, where water is being accumulated in form of snow, it is important to track the snow cover and its characteristics to potentially prevent and warn for any flooding situations that may arise or to better plan the production of electricity.

Globesar offers mapping and monitoring services on snow cover using optical and radar satellite sensors. Clients across the globe can benefit from daily delivered snow maps together with historical statistics dating back from early 2000.


Click for large view

Figure 2. Image show an example of Globesar’s daily snow cover product.

Contact information
Globesar AS
Oslo Innovation Park
Gaustadalleen 21
0349 Oslo, Norway
+47 406 01 994
info@globesar.com
www.globesar.com

In 2015, EUMETSAT will support the commissioning of the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite by ESA, following its expected launch in October.

EUMETSAT will also start to extract marine products at its multi-mission facilities in Darmstadt and to deliver these, as well as other products from Jason-3, EUMETSAT and other third party missions from the US, China, India, in a unique data stream available across the EU and EUMETSAT’s Member States. To find out more about EUMETSAT’s activities in oceanography, please take a look at the new oceanographic brochure here

To prepare users to access this unique and integrated Marine data stream, the European Commission and EUMETSAT are pleased to invite you to attend a “Copernicus Users Information Day”, planned to take place at EUMETSAT headquarters (Darmstadt, Germany) on 11 September 2015. For interested users, EUMETSAT will also host a WebEx Meeting for the plenary sessions only. A 1-pager presenting the Information Day and its programme is enclosed.

Please note that participation on site will be limited to 120 Pax. Therefore, early registration is important.

To register for the Information day, or to register for the WebEx Meeting, please visit the dedicated website

EARSC workshop Procuring Copernicus Services-a public-private effort (17June2015, Brussels) final.pdf
Copernicus Users Information Day – 2nd announcement.pdf

(by Xu Hong) In the past week, streams of favorable news come from geo-information industry. First, the State Council approved the medium- and long-term plan for nationwide basic surveying and mapping, putting forward to construct new basic surveying and mapping system and comprehensively promoting service capability of surveying and mapping geo-information.

From 10 to 11, June, WGDC 2015 was held in Beijing and proposed to “build new ecological geo-information” and proactively propel “Geo-information+” strategy so as to make geo-information industry a new growth point driving economic development of the state. Insiders believe that the geo-information industry undergoing constant innovation and development enjoys tremendous potential and is likely to create millions of production value in the future.

Satisfactory industrial development

Ku Rexi, Director General of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information said that though pressure of macroeconomic downturn has certain influence on geo-information industry, the industry maintains relatively higher growth rate in general. 2014 financial statements of the related listed companies show that annual gross revenue of 23 listed companies totals RMB 15.011 billion yuan, an increase of 35.31 percent on a year-on-year basis; the net profits totals RMB 1.687 billion yuan, an increase of 31.61 percent year-on-year, promising favorable development tendency.

At present, the relevant ministries and commissions have strengthened support for geo-information industry. According to incomplete statistics, government departments at each level have invested in about RMB 8 billion yuan in total in general survey of national geographic conditions, in about RMB 10 billion yuan in confirmation of rural land right and in about RMB 12 billion yuan in cyber-city construction. Driven by these favorable conditions, the geo-information industry, seizing the opportunities, maintains high growth.

Xu Yanying, Senior Vice Chairman and Secretary-general of China Association for Geographic Information Society said that geo-information sources are a precise national treasury and forms numerous new business models and new product and service modes in terms of comprehensive analysis and development and utilization. In addition, development of intelligent hardware in geo-information industry, including new radar technologies and laser scanner is expected to be investment hot spot in the future, it is noticeable that the proposal of such strategies as “one belt and one road” and “Internet+” is hard-won development opportunities for geo-information industry.

Traditional companies striving for transformation

2015 have witnessed that many traditional surveying and mapping geo-information enterprises are transforming from surveying and mapping production to services. For example, China Survey is proactively carrying out comprehensive networking service businesses of passenger and commercial vehicles based on Beidou Navigation Satellite System; Beidou chips independently developed by BDStar Navigation has realized multiple ten thousand-level applications; South is progressing from traditional surveying and mapping field to integration of hardware and software services. Successful transformation of numerous enterprises further promotes the in-depth application of geo-information industry.

However, though geo-information industry is undergoing rapid development, enterprises engaged in traditional geo-information data collection and surveying and mapping technological services see general revenues and some even suffer from losses. According to statistical data of 2014 surveying and mapping qualification units released by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information recently, total service value of surveying and mapping qualification units in the whole country last year is about RMB 68 billion yuan, an increase of 11.93 percent year-on-year, while the growth rate decreases 2.5 percentage points.

Ku Rexi believes that vigorous engagement of such large internet enterprises as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu in geo-information industry brings about huge pressure for traditional small- and medium-sized geo-information enterprises, aggregating competition among enterprises, but also accelerating quality and efficiency improvement of the industry and providing strong power for transformation and upgrading for geo-information enterprises. “In the future, industry development should be quality and efficient innovative development driven by ‘Internet+’,” said Ku.

Multi-industry integration of “Geo-information+”

“Geo-information industry is a kind of producer services and needs to be integrated with other industries to play a role jointly for growth.” Min Yishi, Deputy Director General of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information believes that accelerated integration of geo-information industry with such emerging industries as internet and big data expedites the arising of business models and services modes constantly. Meanwhile, with rapid demand growth of geo-information resources by the economic society, it is in urgent need for geo-information industry to make multi-industry integration to open new market space.

Yu Yongfu, President of Amap, believes that geo-information industry needs to make multi-industry integration by making use of internet thinking and committing to users’ demands to promote in-depth application of geo-information. “Recently, Amap has made data docking with traffic management departments of 8 cities according to “traffic big data” and launched traffic information public service platform to the society, embodying the integration of geo-information resources with intelligent traffic system” said Yu Fuyong. Wang Jianning, General Manager of Platform Department of SOSO Map also believes that it is necessary to tap intelligent application of location-based service on the basis of geographic big data to further approach to users’ demands. “Tencent has tapped such added-value information services as location electronic eye and speed limit based on big data of street view, which is also one multi-industry attempt to improve users’ navigation experience.”

Promoting “Geo-information+” by “Internet+” will facilitate numerous new products, services and new growth points. “Objectively speaking, current promotion force, breadth and depth of surveying and mapping geo-information achievements and technologies is far enough. Neglecting achievements still exists and conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements is very poor” Ku said. It is expected to make bold reform and innovation, capture the right path for flourishing of geo-information, grasp the advantages, build brand and accelerate development.

Source

(17th June 2015, Brussels). Each year, EARSC organizes a workshop alongside its General assembly meeting. As the association published several position papers and made numerous presentations explaining its concern about adequate industrial participation in the supply of Copernicus services, this year’s workshop focused on “Working together on Copernicus”.

The workshop aimed at fostering the dialogue between all the European Entrusted Entities (EEE’s) and the European private sector. The objective was to find a way forward for industry and the EEE’s to maximize the exploitation of Copernicus Services.

Around 50 people from the private sector, EC and representatives of each of the 7 EEE’s joined the discussion.

EARSC workshop Procuring Copernicus Services-a public-private effort (17June2015, Brussels) final.pdf

(Munich / New York, 02 July 2015) What ́s really new and hot in cloud computing? Here is the answer from the expert jury of the 2nd Cloud Innovation World Cup. After an intense and exciting evaluation phase, more than 300 nominations were filtered to 24 finalist chosen by jury members.

The Cloud Heroes 2015 are now competing against each other to become the next “Cloud Innovators of the Year 2015.” The categories include “ICT Business Services”, “Industry 4.0”, “Mobility”, “Smart Living”, and the special prize “GEO Award.”

CloudEO is seeking solutions that integrate geospatial information, and provide additional benefit to the cloud based service offered. Here are the selected finalists that are nominated for the GEO Award:

 The Avacar API by CarKnow LLC, USA
 Matrix Booking by Keytree Ltd., UK
 ParknCloud by Mylaensys LLC, USA
 MECH5 by Nebula Systems Ltd., UK
 Parkpocket by Parkplatz-gesucht UG, Germany
 TotEat by TotEat S.A., Chile

The winner of the GEO Award and the Cloud Innovators of the Year 2015 will be revealed at the official Cloud Innovation World Cup Award Ceremony. This will take place at Google ́s Headquarter in New York on July 8th will present their solutions live on stage. Dr. Ursula Benz, COO of CloudEO states “I am already excited to welcome our finalists in New York City for the elevator pitch. I am sure that some of them will become our cooperation partners very soon”.

If you want to take part at this exciting event please register for free at www.innovationworldcup.com/event

About Cloud Innovation World Cup

Initiated by Navispace, the Innovation World Cup Series was first launched in 2009. The Cloud Innovation World Cup aims to foster cutting-edge solutions and applications for cloud computing.

Since the first Cloud Innovation World Cup edition, hundreds of contestants from over 60 countries have submitted their innovative cloud-based solutions, making the Cloud Innovation World Cup one of the leading competitions in the field. Submissions have been made in the categories “ICT Business Services”, “Industry 4.0”, “Mobility”, “Smart Living” and in the special category “GEO Award” – powered by CloudEO.

Partners of the Cloud Innovation World Cup are Google Cloud Platform, CloudEO, EuroCloud, SIIA, Cloud World Forum, Continua Health Alliance, Wearable Technologies, and MEDICA. Regional partners include, Taitra, Team Cote d’Azur, Comm4Innov, Innovative City Convention 2015, Paris Region Entreprises, CSEM, Alp ICT, IT2Industry, Business Oulu, Takomo, Invest in Skane, Plug and Play Tech Center, Engerati, Medical Valley, Blogs Release and Clúster Digital Barcelona. For further information visit: www.innovationworldcup.com/cloud/.

About CloudEO

CloudEO – the unique portal for all those who create, interpret and use geodata. CloudEO offers to its customers a secure and highly scalable geo infrastructure to develop, produce and market geo services. It brings data, software and processing power together within a private cloud service and a certified hosting environment. Within CloudEO’s geo collaboration platform content providers, software developers, service providers and geodata users become partners within one ecosystem providing affordable geo services for commercial applications.

www.cloudeo-ag.com
http://store.cloudeo-ag.com/

Press Contact:

Dr. Sonja Sulzmaier
press@cloudeo-ag.com

The United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a cooperation agreement with Israel to use the country’s satellite technology to save lives following natural disasters and in space emergencies.

The agreement was signed during the 58th session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna, Austria. According to the agreement, Israel will apply its satellite technology, namely the Earth observation satellite ‘OPTSAT 2000’, to gather information on issues of environmental protection, water management, urban planning, humanitarian assistance following natural disasters and more.

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Collaborative research deal emerges during wider EU-China summit held in Brussels.

Officials representing the European Union and China have signed a new “collaborative research arrangement” in the area of remote sensing.

The deal, which emerged during the Europe-China summit that is taking place this week in Brussels, involves Europe’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Remote Sensing.

It is intended to build upon a co-operation that began shortly after the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, and which has generated ideas such as “Digital Earth” – a concept combining global communications networks with Earth observation technologies and described as “a global initiative to construct a comprehensive virtual representation of the planet”.

The two parties already organize the International Symposium of Digital Earth, for example, with the next edition in the series scheduled to take place in Halifax, Canada, in October 2015.

JRC announced: “Under this new agreement, the co-operation will be reinforced and extended to promising areas, such as air quality, human settlement detection and characterisation, land and soil mapping, land cover mapping, digital earth sciences and agricultural monitoring.”

Collaborative activities under the new arrangement are set to include the exchange of scientific and technological information, and joint training programs, with optics and photonics technologies on board satellites and other sensor systems likely to play a key role.

Optical satellite imagery

One example of the collaboration is what is known as “Global Human Settlement Layer” (GHSL) technology, used to analyze human settlements through remote sensing imagery captured by Chinese satellites.

China’s CBERS-2B satellite, developed in collaboration with Brazil and launched in 2007, carries a range of optical instruments including a wide-field imager with a ground swath of 890 kilometers, providing a synoptic view with a spatial resolution of 260 meters.

It also carries high-resolution CCD sensors operating in five spectral bands extending from 450 nm in the blue through to 890 nm in the near-infrared, with a swath width of 113 kiometers and a spatial resolution of just 20 meters.

Also on board CBERS-2B is an infrared multispectral scanner working across three short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands and a thermal region from 10.4-12.5 µm.

According to JRC, the satellite’s sensors have been used to map the whole of China, supporting the Digital Earth vision.

IP rights; scientific exchanges

The remote sensing collaborative agreement was just one element of the 17th bilateral summit between the European Union and China, which has been taking place in Brussels this week amid the backdrop of the ongoing financial crisis in Greece.

Also marking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the EU and China, the summit saw a new memorandum of understanding signed on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

In addition Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, launched a new initiative with his counterpart Wan Gang, the Chinese Minister for Science and Technology, which will see young scientists from China join projects funded by the European Research Council. The first exchanges under that agreement are anticipated later this year.

Moedas said: “China has become a major science and technology power. Europe needs to engage with China in the context of our open science, open innovation and open to the world policy. Today’s agreements mark a step towards addressing global societal challenges and developing joint innovative solutions together.”

On top of the remote sensing agreement those measures include setting up a new co-funding mechanism, using cash earmarked for the Horizon2020 program, to support joint research and innovation projects involving China.

According to figures released by the European Commission, China’s spending on research and development activity has now reached 2 per cent of GDP, with the country setting a target of 2.5 per cent by 2020.

The country is already ranked first in terms of the number of people working in research, with some 2.5 million, while the number of graduates in science and technology subjects has grown to more than 1.4 million per year.

Source

This workshop brought together academia, data and service providers and farmers for an extensive overview on the latest technologies for precision agriculture.

Participants concluded that precision agriculture today can no longer ignore remote sensing data any more than it does weather data.

Opinions were divided on the usefulness of UAVs (to be used for wedding photos, some argued) but they are here to stay. Farmers experiment with “intelligent tractors” that sometimes require no more than an off-the-shelf video camera, as one of the speakers showed. Tractors, and farming equipment in general, come better and better equipped to work autonomously, relying on EGNOS and GPS. All these technologies make up the new “farmer’s house” – to use the metaphor that framed our discussions on the day.

Not all these technologies are fully operational, but this makes them all the more an opportunity for innovation. Beyond the technology, closer cooperation between data providers, machine makers and farmers is necessary to integrate all these technologies into easy-to-use tools for farmers.

Today many initiatives to create (open) data sharing platforms exist. New tools should rely on what is already there as much as possible. For instance, ZAMG the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics already provides farmers with crop risk information thanks to a partnership with farming insurance companies. It is conceivable that such a platform could integrate various other sources of information. Such platforms have at least the merit of being a tool that is already used by farmers, so familiar to them.

Universities who work such solutions, such as BOKU, have a role in technology transfer, but also in acting as a broker and a federator of the stakeholders of the “new farmer’s house”. Some suggested that big farming companies should already be involved, but others argued that technology in use needs to reach a critical mass first.

Here you can download the PowerPoint presentations from the event and watch them on YouTube.

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By Caleb Henry [Via Satellite 06-30-2015] Several leading small satellite entrepreneurs are confident that the success of their businesses does not hinge on whether or not the U.S. government will be an anchor customer. Earth observation and remote sensing companies at the Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) luncheon on June 25, while acknowledging that the U.S. government is a desirable, high-profile customer, said that their business plans are not contingent upon winning this single client.


“We have already collected a number of not only [letters of] intent, but firm contracts from a wide range of customers, Antoine de Chassy, vice president of Spire said, adding “[The business] has to be sustainable without the government’s money.”

Spire plans to launch a constellation of 20 satellites to collect weather data through GPS-Radio Occultation measurements (GPS-RO), and maritime data through Automatic Identification System (AIS) sensors. The first launch is scheduled for September this year, and Spire intends to grow the constellation up beyond 100 satellites in 2017. The company is also building a global ground-system receiving network with 20 stations around the world, climbing to 50 stations in two years, de Chassy said.

For meteorological events de Chassy said the high cost of weather-related damage is incentive enough for many companies desiring more than government-provided predictions to become customers in order to forecast more effectively.

“That’s a market where the government plays a role, definitely, but we don’t depend on the government’s money to do that, and to grow our business. Otherwise our investors would not come onboard as they do,” he said.

Since forming in 2012, Spire has launched four satellites and with today’s announcement of a $40 million Series B financing round, has secured more than $80 million from investors. Promus Ventures led the company’s latest funding round, with participation from new investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Jump Capital, as well as existing investors RRE Ventures and Lemnos Labs, among others.

Skybox Imaging Product Manager Andy Hock expressed a similar mentality, noting that while governments have largely driven remote sensing and Earth observation demand in the past, Skybox’s strategy is to reach new customers by accelerating access to and the usability of satellite imagery in under-addressed markets.

“Our business model from day one has been focused on the commercial market,” said Hock.

Skybox, which Google acquired in 2014 for approximately $500 million, does sell to government customers, but Hock said the company’s core market consists of buyers that are “awash in data,” who often lack Geographic Information System (GIS) expertise. The company has launched two satellites to date and partnered with Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build an additional 13 satellites. The newer spacecraft will use the environmentally friendly High Performance Green Propellant (HPGP) from Swedish Space Corporation subsidiary ECAPS, enabling the satellites to reach a mission life of six years or more.

“That will enable us not only to grow the number of places we are looking at on a repeat basis, but also to increase the cadence from weekly to daily, and even inter-daily in some cases,” said Hock.

Skybox’s next satellites are scheduled to launch from 2016 to 2017, Hock said. The company has announced contracts so far with Virgin Galactic for LauncherOne and Arianespace for Vega.

GeoOptics, an environmental services company focusing thus-far on GPS-RO for weather data said its business plan calls for both commercial and government customers. Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., CEO of GeoOptics said that the company’s business plan has changed drastically since 2006, and that the amount of data the company’s satellites will be able to provide is more than the government would even need to buy.

“Right now there is no end to the amount of radio occultation data for which people see an improvement in forecasting for weather. And that’s just one start. We plan to go into other services as well,” he said.

Lautenbacher said GeoOptics now intends to have spacecraft in orbit by January or February of 2016.

For OmniEarth, the government has become a significant starting customer. The company’s first two prototype satellites are not slated to launch until 2018 or 2019, but it has made use of sensors from various other platforms to collect data and measurements that can be turned into products and services. OmniEarth rolled out a product during the fourth quarter of 2014 for government customers in California seeking to measure water usage due to a drought. Frank McKenna, president of OmniEarth satellite services division said this product is now going into 400 districts across the state, providing data on water use by aggregating water meter data, integrating it through the cloud, and then delivering it to customers.

“Our strategy is not dependent on getting the satellites up in that timeframe. What we are doing is a lot of collection of data through aerial collects now and drones and other third party information to fuel the business. We’re going to put the satellite constellation up when it’s the right timing,” said McKenna.

Ball Aerospace is building OmniEarth’s constellation of 15 satellites, which include space for hosted payloads. In addition to the government sector, OmniEarth is targeting customers in energy, agriculture, forestry and elsewhere. The company’s goal is to provide data products using a variety of platforms to a variety of customers.

Source

A new Belarusian-Russian satellite for the remote sensing of the Earth will be created within 2-3 years.

The statement was made by Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) Vladimir Gusakov, in the presence of Igor Komarov, Head of the Russian Space Agency. The new satellite will boast higher image resolution — less than one meter — while the present satellite’s resolution stands at two meters. It means that the satellite’s imagery will be more precise. And we believe that it will be used not only for domestic purposes,” stated Gusakov.

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