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They will end our reliance on other countries’ satellites and provide useful data in key areas.

They will end our reliance on other countries’ satellites and provide useful data in key areas.

South Africa will launch its latest earth observation satellite in 2019, Sandile Malinga, chief executive of the South African National Space Agency (Sansa), told the Mail & Guardian last month.

At the moment, the country is reliant on international satellites for information about its 1.2-million km² area, excluding its oceans. Reliance on foreign satellites also means that South African satellite-data users, which include about 40 national and provincial government departments, have no control over what images they are sent, what the images focus on and when they will get them.

Jane Olwoch, the head of Sansa’s earth observation directorate, says the space agency buys the Spot-6 and Spot-7 data – used by entities such as the departments of human settlements, agriculture, forestry and fisheries and Statistics South Africa – for about R35-million a year.

Spot is a satellite and stands for Système Pour l’Observation de la Terre. Each year, the South African space agency distributes a Spot mosaic, a collection of 485 images.

With about R292-million earmarked for its design, manufacture and launch, EO-Sat1 will add not only to the country’s ability to monitor its water, agriculture, natural forests and human settlements, but also the continent’s.

Network constellation

It will form part of the African Resource Management Constellation, a group of African countries that plan to launch a network of earth observation satellites. In 2009, four African countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya – committed to contributing at least one satellite to the constellation, which will focus on earth observation and natural resource management. Nigeria already has two satellites, one of which is part of the constellation.

Unlike other African countries, South Africa has experience in building satellites. The R25-million low-earth-orbit satellite, Sumbandila, was launched in 2009, but was beleaguered with technical problems throughout the two years that it was in operation.

A solar storm in 2011 is blamed for damaging its circuitry, culminating in power and communications failure. “Sumbandila was a prototype,” says Malinga. “[It was there for us] to learn how it works.”

During its two-year lifespan, the satellite collected more than a thousand images, Sansa said at the time.

But the goal is not just to collect images of the country’s natural resources. Malinga says that “the key thing we want to achieve, aside from the applications [of the satellite’s data], is to stimulate our industry. We are working with Denel [South Africa’s state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer] to ensure that they outsource work to our private industry. In terms of local content, we want a minimum threshold of 50%.”

The ultimate goal is to have a number of South African satellites, Malinga says.

Initially too ambitious

“Our desire [for EO-Sat1] is to meet as many of the user requirements as possible, but it is impossible to meet them all,” he says. A satellite is built – in terms of its design, size and payload – to address certain user requirements, and Sansa started engaging with stakeholders, soon after it was established in 2010, to determine what they want on a satellite. Their initial hopes for EO-Sat1 were “too ambitious; we had to narrow them”, says Malinga. “The only way we can achieve the broad suite of user requirements is [to have] a number of satellites, and that’s ultimately a government decision.”

But his rationale is, “If you have a steady national pipeline of satellites, that allows [manufacturers] to outsource [other] contracts … a national programme cannot sustain a commercial build of satellites [alone].”

Satellite production has been touted by both the departments of science and technology, and trade and industry, as a high-technology manufacturing niche that South Africa could exploit. However, the industry has not been particularly kind to our home-grown satellite companies.

The best known example is SunSpace, which was started by a group of Stellenbosch University graduates. Although the company was responsible for South Africa’s pathfinder satellite, Sumbandila, it did not have enough contracts to sustain its business.

After a number of years of uncertainty, during which promised contracts failed to materialise and the government prevaricated about buying equity in the company, it was finally absorbed into Denel Dynamics in 2013, with the department of science and technology paying R55-million for its intellectual property and tangible assets.

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Improving the performance of Earth Observation software processing using the capacity of GPU

We have launched “GPU4EO Challenge” an initiative which involves students, researchers and professionals in a challenge aimed to improving the performance of EO processing using the capacity of GPUs (graphics processing units).
Teams are asked to use and process EO data (tipically satellite data) in NVIDIA k40 GPU by DORIS, an open source software, to obtain the best performances (fast processing time).
A global amount of € 5,000, as well as other awards and honors, will be assigned to winner teams.

The subscription is open until June 2, 2015.
The full Challenge announcement is available in PDF here

(Rome, 20 February 2015) e-GEOS, a company established by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), has been awarded a contract from the European Commission worth 12 million euros, to provide satellite maps for emergency management. The contract, identified as Copernicus Emergency Management Service – Rapid Mapping, will be active in the period 2015- 2019.


  • Annually renewable contract of maximum four year duration is worth 12 million Euros
  • The company will lead an international consortium formed by GAF, Ithaca, Sirs, Sertit and DLR

This is the operational service of the European Copernicus programme for Earth observation and is unique at a global level in the field of emergency.

Already in 2012 e-GEOS was awarded a contract by the European Commission for the provision of such services during 2012-2014.

In this period, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service was activated in more than 100 events, and produced over 1,000 satellite maps relating to 46 countries in Europe and worldwide.
Under the new contract, the consortium will prepare and make available to the European Commission, in a short time after the activation of the service by the authorized user, satellite maps of areas affected by a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service – Rapid Mapping, active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is operated by a consortium led by e-GEOS and composed of the German subsidiary GAF, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Italian company Ithaca and the French partners Sirs and Sertit. To provide the service on a global scale, the consortium uses a dedicated access to multi-mission satellite data activated between the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The European Commission makes available satellite maps, free of charge, to all users operating in Europe in the field of civil protection, emergency and land management, facilitating the damage assessment and the assistance intervention management. The Copernicus programme also assists international humanitarian relief operations, in collaboration with the United Nations, the World Bank and NGOs.

The results of the service in near real time are published on the Copernicus portal, directly managed by the European Commission and are made publicly available in accordance with the Copernicus policy on free and open data.

Notes:
The address of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service portal: emergency.copernicus.eu

The latest activation of the service for the flooding of the river Ebro in the province of Zaragoza

The members of the consortium led by e-GEOS are:

  • e-GEOS , an ASI (20%) / Telespazio (80%) company, is a leading international player in the Earth Observation and Geo-Spatial Information business. The company offers a unique portfolio of application services, also thanks to the superior monitoring capabilities of COSMO- SkyMed constellation, and has acquired a leading position within European Copernicus Program. In support to its operational applications e-GEOS, based in Rome, operates the Matera Space Centre for acquisition, archiving and processing of multi-mission satellite data including COSMO-SkyMed and ESA Sentinels.
  • DLR, German Space Agency. German Aerospace Center – Cologne
    DLR is a research establishment for engineering sciences in Germany in five main research areas: aerospace, aeronautics, energy, transport and security. DLR operates the “Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information” (ZKI) which provides a 24/7 service for the rapid provision, processing and analysis of satellite imagery during natural and environmental disasters, for humanitarian relief activities and civil security issues worldwide.
  • GAF – Munich
    GAF, a subsidiary of e-GEOS, is one of the major Earth observation service provider with a European and Global footprint, and leader in geo-information technology and technical assistance consultancy.
  • ITHACA – Torino
    The non-profit association ITHACA is a center of applied research devoted to support humanitarian activities in response to natural disasters by means of remote sensing techniques.
  • SERTIT – Strasbourg
    SERTIT, a 24/7 provider of rapid mapping since 1999 within the International Charter and multiple projects, is a service of the University of Strasbourg developing EO applications covering the full crisis cycle, carrying out R&D in many other 3D and environmental domains.
  • SIRS – Villeneuve-d’Ascq
    SIRS is an independent consulting and GIS engineering company and specialist in the production of geographic data from satellite or aerial images

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DMCii have gone back to Japan after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake.

The powerful Earthquake took place on March 11th 2011, this triggered the powerful Tsunami that devastated so many coastal areas of the country.

The top image was acquired two days after the Tsunami struck the Oil refinery in the Miyagi prefecture. The fire raged for nearly four days. The bottom image is a revisit nearly 4 years later after the devastation took place.

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(06/03/2015)Over the last few days, the DEIMOS-2 Earth Observation satellite, launched by Elecnor Deimos in June 2014, has monitored the evolution of river Ebro’s flooding affecting the Aragón region in Spain.

Elecnor Deimos, the technological branch of Elecnor, developed and operated DEIMOS-2. The highest-resolution fully private satellite in Europe, and one of the very few privately-owned sub-metric satellites in the world.

The DEIMOS-2 satellite is the latest addition to Elecnor Deimos’ Earth Observation System. DEIMOS-2 is a Very High Resolution (VHR), Multispectral, agile satellite capable of providing 75-cm pan-sharpened imagery.

Its advanced imaging camera acquires panchromatic and 4-band (R, G, B and NIR) multispectral images simultaneously over a 12-km swath (which can be increased to 24 km in its wide-area imaging mode), covering more than 150,000 km2/day. DEIMOS-2 is also capable of acquiring single-pass stereo-pair images, which allows creating 3D models of the imaged area.

DEIMOS-2 acquisitions are expected to contribute to various fields and applications including environmental and climate change monitoring, emergency services and borders surveillance. The satellite will join the fleet of Copernicus Contributing Missions in the new Datawarehouse phase starting on 1st April 2015.

DEIMOS-2, among other tasks, is monitoring the evolution of severe flooding events caused by Ebro’s river in Spain. The following images show the flooded areas along the river close to the towns of Zaragoza and of Burgo de Ebro, in the Aragón region.


SOURCE: Elecnor Deimos Imaging

Eurisy has been working with public authorities since the start of its User Programme, in 2007. Based on this work, we built the largest database of operational good practice examples in Europe. It is a collection of testimonials from public authorities and SMEs who use satellite services routinely. Over 100 examples are available online to inspire potential end-users to follow suit.

In January 2015, Eurisy took this research one step further by publishing a report analysing detailed information on the benefits, obstacles and lessons learned from 10 use cases.

In the upcoming months, this analysis will be extended via an online survey, currently available in nine languages. You are kindly invited to fill in the survey and to promote it!

In the meantime, Eurisy also continues to raise awareness and accompany potential users with many events and activities around Europe.

Find out more details in this newsletter, on our website and on our social media channels!

Stefaan De Mey, Eurisy Secretary General

The Center aims primarily at setting up leading edge integrated observational solutions to operate space-borne and ground- based monitoring networks in a complementary, unified and coordinated manner.

The research portfolio covers a broad spectrum of phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, extreme weather events, fires, fire smoke and toxic gasses, emission concentrations, manmade hazards, dust storms, air quality and impacts to human health.

The focus of BEYOND is to assemble technological expertise, know-how and research capacity to seamlessly design innovative processing chains, generate added-value products and develop end-to-end services for disaster management, environmental monitoring and climate change analyses, to serve institutional stakeholders, the scientific community, end-users and the general public, for the benefit of the environment and the society.

BEYOND WEB site

Lethbridge, Alberta, February 10, 2015 – BlackBridge is pleased to announce an agreement to expand the use of RapidEye high-resolution satellite imagery within the Farmers Edge precision agriculture platform.

BlackBridge and Farmers Edge, a leader in precision agriculture and data management solutions, have entered into a long-term contract, which grants Farmers Edge access to historical and cropping season imagery of North America, South America, Australia, and Eastern Europe through BlackBridge’s Monitoring Program for Agriculture

BlackBridge provides broad-area coverage and multitemporal imaging delivered frequently throughout the growing season, which is used to give growers recommendations to monitor and manage their cropland more effectively, reducing costs and optimizing yields. In addition to multitemporal, in-season imagery, BlackBridge offers its partners and customers a unique opportunity to access archive imagery from previous years for a more complete analysis and characterization of fields.

Through its Precision Edge platform and custom Precision Solutions packages, Farmers Edge can now provide quick access to high-resolution RapidEye imagery for the major precision agriculture practicing areas of the world.

”Farmers Edge has been a BlackBridge partner for a number of years. Our ability to monitor agricultural areas worldwide, combined with Farmers Edge’s knowledge at the field level, will raise the bar in precision agriculture,” states Clint Graumann, director – North America, UK & Ireland at BlackBrige.

”This is among the first global commercial RapidEye imagery agreements, and as one of the largest precision agriculture services providers in the world, we are fortunate to be offering near real-time geospatial information to our customers in four continents. Our customers will benefit from this distinctive service in Precision Edge with accurate and timely information on crop variables,” says Chacko Jacob, vice president of global technology and business development at Farmers Edge.

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge provides end-to-end solutions across the geospatial value chain. These include satellite operations, ground station services, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value-added products and geo-service solutions. For more inforamtion on BlackBridge, please visit www.blackbridge.com.

About Farmers Edge
with over 4 million acres of farmland under management, Farmers Edge provides global agribusinesses with the precision tools and services growers need to identify, map and manage farmland variability. Leveraging remote satellite imagery and precision technology, its flagship Variable Rate Technology dramatically increases sustainable crop profitability by managing data, measuring results and ultimately, minimizing risk. For more information on Farmers Edge, please visit www.farmersedge.ca.

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

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Berlin, Germany, February 25, 2015 — On Friday, February 13, BlackBridge signed its 111th partner, the Mongolian geospatial company MonMap Engineering Service Co., Ltd.

MonMap is a key player in the Mongolian geospatial industry. With this new partnership, BlackBridge and MonMap plan to service larger projects within the environmental, precision farming, mining, and forestry sectors.

Effectively imaging and monitoring all 1.56 million square kilometers of Mongolia during its short snow-free seasons in the spring and summer requires the high collection capacity and frequent revisit capabilities that BlackBridge’s RapidEye satellite constellation provides. Together, BlackBridge and MonMap will bring cost-effective, wide-scale monitoring solutions to Mongolia.

”We are very pleased to welcome MonMap as our new partner,” states Philippe Campenon, vice president of sales for BlackBridge. ”MonMap brings a solid expertise in remote sensing and application development and implementation. MonMap’s experience in survey, GIS services, and other domains will extend the footprint of RapidEye imagery usage in Mongolia.”

Dr. M. Saandar, director of MonMap adds, ”MonMap is proud to diversify its remote sensing portfolio through close cooperation with BlackBridge. The characteristics of the RapidEye constellation are extremely suitable for a huge country like Mongolia. We hope that, with RapidEye imagery and derived products, we can contribute to the protection of our unique forest and steppe ecosystems, and furthermore foster the agriculture sector, which is extremely important for the country.”

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge provides end-to-end solutions across the geospatial value chain. These include satellite operations, ground station services, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value-added products and geo-service solutions. For more inforamtion on BlackBridge, please visit www.blackbridge.com.

About MonMap
MonMap Engineering Service Co., Ltd.,www.monmap.mn, was incorporated in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in 1992, as first Mongolian private company providing services in geodetic surveying, GIS and remote sensing. Over the years, MonMap has experienced a steady growth and continuously extended its services to new fields, with the goal to introduce state-of-the-art technologies to Mongolia’s markets..

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

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Arlington, Virginia, March 16, 2015 — BlackBridge announced its partnership with FarmLogs, a leading farm management software and data-science company, to use RapidEye imagery of the U.S. in crop health and field performance analysis.

Through the partnership, FarmLogs will leverage BlackBridge’s Monitoring Program for Agriculture over the U.S., with access to five-meter, multi-spectral RapidEye satellite imagery collected on a frequent basis throughout the growing season, as well as more than six years of historical imagery. FarmLogs will then extract and analyze crop-relevant information to help farmers maximize productivity and field profitability.

”We’ve recently introduced FarmLogs Advantage, a new version of FarmLogs that utilizes this satellite imagery data to help our users better understand crop health and performance,” said Jesse Vollmar, CEO and co-founder of FarmLogs. “Building on top of BlackBridge’s world-class imagery collection infrastructure enables us to offer unprecedented field-level intelligence that cannot be found elsewhere.”

”With regard to remote sensing, one of the most significant challenges in the precision agriculture industry during the last two decades has been to deliver sufficient quantities of imagery in a timely manner at a broad scale. We are producing imagery at a scale that has never been available before,”said Clint Graumann, director of North America, U.K. and Ireland at BlackBridge. ”FarmLogs does a great job at analyzing big data and making it meaningful at the field level. With our combined capabilities, we are meeting that challenge head on.”

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge provides end-to-end solutions across the geospatial value chain. These include satellite operations, ground station services, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value-added products and geo-service solutions. For more inforamtion on BlackBridge, please visit www.blackbridge.com.

About FarmLogs
FarmLogs is the leading data science company on a mission to invent the future of farming. Together with farmers from all 50 states and over 130 countries across six continents, FarmLogs is transforming the oldest and most important industry in the world with cutting-edge software and data science that helps over 20 percent of U.S. farms make real-time field-level decisions to maximize productivity and field profitability. The company’s secure web and mobile technology solutions make precision farming easy and accessible for everyone. An alumnus of the winter 2012 batch of Y Combinator, FarmLogs is a farmer-founded, independently owned team in the heart of the Midwest. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., and was founded in 2011 by Jesse Vollmar and Brad Koch. www.farmlogs.com.

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

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