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ABU DHABI, UAE, and BRISTOL, UK, 19 March 2015 – Proteus FZC, a provider of satellite-derived mapping and classification services, has delivered marine habitat maps for four Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).


Proteus completed the mapping components of the EIAs on behalf of oil & gas companies and engineering consulting firms. “The clients turned to us to provide maps of fragile habitats because multispectral-imaging satellites can derive this information faster, more accurately and at finer resolution than other mapping methods,” said Proteus CEO David Critchley.

Proteus will be discussing these projects in Stand W37 at the 2015 Ocean Business Conference being held April 14-16 at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK.

For the four projects, Proteus delivered classification maps of offshore marine habitats along with bathymetric data, all derived from high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. Two of the EIAs also required production of satellite-derived land use/land cover maps for terrestrial ecosystems. To create the classification maps, Proteus processed WorldView-2 imagery from DigitalGlobe and Pléiades data from Airbus Defence & Space.

“We classified protected habitats such as sea grasses and coral reefs to a grid resolution of two to five meters in size,” said Critchley. “The best classification resolution these clients had ever achieved before with offshore divers was 100 meters.”

The satellite captures habitat details continuously and consistently across the area of interest, whereas divers can only collect ground truth data at locations often separated by large distances, leaving interpolation to fill in the blanks, explained Critchley. Compared with the common method of dispatching scuba divers on boats, satellite image classification is far less expensive and safer. In addition, imaging satellites require no special permits to access sensitive areas the way dive boats do.

“Clients are amazed at the resolution and accuracy of the information that can be quickly and cost-effectively extracted from multispectral satellite imagery,” said Critchley. “The habitat maps we created for these environmental projects scored an average classification accuracy of 90 percent.”

Proteus is rapidly carving a niche as a worldwide provider of satellite-derived marine habitat classification maps and bathymetric data. Few value-added geospatial firms have developed the specialized expertise needed for generation of subsurface marine information.

About Proteus

Based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Bristol, UK, Proteus FZC offers full turnkey global mapping solutions produced from satellite imagery. It provides customers with cutting edge products for environment, oil & gas, engineering, agriculture, forestry and marine use. Proteus has completed projects in Europe, the Middle East, Caribbean and United States. The Proteus management team is comprised of seasoned professionals and provides customers with expert independent advice on derived geospatial products whether for land or sea. For more information on Proteus products, see www.proteusgeo.com or email info@proteusgeo.com for further details or to discuss individual requirements.

(25 March 2015) PhotoSat has announced that the elevation data processed from DigitalGlobe’s new 30 centimeter resolution satellite, WorldView-3, has been verified as accurate to within 15 centimeters.

DigitalGlobe is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services, and is the first company to offer 30 cm resolution satellite imagery commercially.

For the study, PhotoSat produced a 50 cm grid of elevations using its proprietary geophysical processing technology with stereo satellite images taken by WorldView-3. The resulting elevations were then compared to a 50 cm LiDAR elevation grid in Southeast California, accurate to approximately 5 cm in elevation and available on the OpenTopography website. The size of the comparison area was 88 square kilometers. The resulting 15 cm RMSE elevation accuracy was impressively achieved using a single ground reference point.

PhotoSat’s highly accurate elevation grids have been used for years by oil and gas and mining engineers as a cost-effective alternative to ground surveying and airborne LiDAR mapping. The satellite imagery from WorldView-3 will allow PhotoSat to deliver the highest quality topographic data yet.

“The DigitalGlobe WorldView-3 satellite data is the highest quality satellite photo data that PhotoSat has ever processed,” said Gerry Mitchell, President of PhotoSat. “In this test, an elevation grid extracted from stereo WorldView-3 satellite photos matches a highly accurate LiDAR elevation grid to better than 15 cm in elevation. This result takes satellite elevation mapping into the engineering design and construction markets and directly competes with LiDAR and high resolution air photo mapping for applications like flood plain monitoring.”

“The fact that PhotoSat has validated our elevation data to within 15 cm is amazing and even exceeds our initial expectations,” said Kenyon Waugh, DigitalGlobe’s senior director of vertical segment products. “With these elevation products, customers in the oil, gas, and mining sectors can leverage our truly global reach and realize cost savings on the order of 50 percent.”

About PhotoSat

PhotoSat has invented a new technology that generates the world’s most accurate satellite topographic mapping. This engineering quality data shortens timelines and eliminates surveying delays in all phases of resource and engineering projects. We have delivered over 500 highly accurate elevation mapping projects, and have published a number of accuracy studies which are available on our website.

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a leading provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions that help decision makers better understand our changing planet in order to save lives, resources and time. Sourced from the world’s leading constellation, our imagery solutions deliver unmatched coverage and capacity to meet our customers’ most demanding mission requirements.

(source: PhotoSat Information and spacenews

Officials from several departments and agencies of the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency met in Washington, D.C., during the week of March 16-20, 2015, to review a broad list of potential areas of space cooperation.

The United States and the United Arab Emirates officials discussed strengthening civil and national security space collaboration. They agreed on developing a strategic approach that would focus on building mutual confidence and understanding of space systems on which both countries rely for economic, environmental, security, and social well-being.

Initial discussions focused on space policy and regulatory developments, long term sustainability of space activities, space security, space exploration, bilateral space science cooperation, weather monitoring, the use of satellite-based applications, and exchanges of best practices.

Areas of future conversations and collaboration may focus on important uses of satellite-based data and value-added applications such as: land and sea resource management; space situational awareness; earth observation; climate change research; meteorology; positioning, navigation, and timing; satellite communications; early warning; earth observation; space weather monitoring and opportunities for early discussions on new systems and future space-related missions.

Additionally, discussions may explore opportunities for fair and open global trade and commerce for commercial space systems, ground-based capabilities, and managing the space environment to contribute to space flight safety by reducing the risks of collisions and damage by space debris.

Relevant agencies from the United States and United Arab Emirates will consult periodically to continue discussions on current and future space cooperation.

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(March 25, 2015) Scientists are making advances in the use of satellite radar data – such as those from the Sentinel-1 mission – to monitor Earth’s changing surface. Italy’s Phlegraean Fields – or Campi Flegrei – is a large, active volcanic area near the city of Naples near Mount Vesuvius. Since the 1970s, the ground has been rising owing to the volcanic nature of this area.


“In 2012, deformation rates up to 3 cm a month prompted the Italian Civil Protection Department to move from the base (green) alert level of the Campi Flegrei Emergency Plan to the attention (yellow) level,” said Sven Borgstrom from Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology.

“The uplift continues today: radar imagery from the Sentinel-1A satellite captured over the area between October 2014 and March 2015 show that the ground is rising by about 0.5 cm per month.”

This is just one of the many findings being presented this week at the Fringe Workshop on advances in the science and applications of ‘SAR interferometry’ held at ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth observation, in Frascati, Italy. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, or InSAR, is a remote sensing technique where two or more images of the same area are combined to detect slight changes occurring between acquisitions.

Tiny changes on the ground cause changes in the radar signal and lead to rainbow-coloured interference patterns in the combined image, known as an ‘interferogram’. The Fringe Workshop takes its name from these coloured fringes seen in the interferograms.

Small movements – down to a scale of a few millimetres – can be detected across wide areas. Tectonic plates grinding past one another, the slow ‘breathing’ of active volcanoes, the slight sagging of a city street through groundwater extraction, and even the thermal expansion of a building on a sunny day.

This year, the workshop is paying particular attention to new results from the Sentinel-1 mission. Launched in April of last year, Sentinel-1A became the first satellite in orbit for Europe’s Copernicus programme, and has been delivering important data for an array of operational and scientific applications.

In Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, Sentinel-1 data are being used to monitor ice loss from the Austfonna ice cap. Earlier this year, the satellite captured the ice cap’s outlet glacier flowing at 3 cm per day.

With over 420 participants, this year’s Fringe workshop has seen the largest turnout since its inauguration in 1991 – when four specialists met to discuss the early InSAR results from the ERS-1 mission. Radar interferometry has come a long way since, with contributions from satellites such as Envisat and now Sentinel-1A.

spacedaily

(24 March 2015) The UK is to host a world-class data facility, giving scientists full access to Earth observation data from Europe’s Copernicus programme.

Europe’s most ambitious Earth observation (EO) programme to date, Copernicus is launching a family of satellites, called Sentinels, that will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of our environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

The new space data hub will be jointly funded by the UK Space Agency and the Satellite Applications Catapult and will ensure the UK is ready to fully exploit the Sentinels’ operational data as soon as it becomes available.

The agreement to host the data hub was signed by Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, at the European Space Agency last week (18 March 2015) and announced today (23 March) to the UK’s EO community at the UK Earth Observation Applications Conference in London.

Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Europe’s Sentinel satellites are set to live up to their name by watching over our planet and providing us with the vital data we need to solve the climate and environmental problems facing mankind. By hosting a Sentinel data hub and making the satellites’ unique data readily available in the UK, we can continue our leading work in the field of Earth observation whilst opening up new business opportunities from the commercial development of space data.”

Defra Chief Scientist Ian Boyd added: “The information that we get from the Copernicus Satellites has been invaluable in allowing the government to make environmental policy based on robust scientific evidence. This earth observation data has the potential to allow a wide range of organisations to help our environment. This historic agreement will ensure everyone can access this information for free.”

The Copernicus programme will result in a huge increase in the amount of satellite data becoming available. When fully operational 8 terabytes of new data per day will be available for people to access, equivalent to 8 computer hard drives worth, and all of it free to all for download. The new data hub will ensure this wealth of Sentinel product data is easily accessible and available for UK users to access and download; maximising the growth opportunity for the downstream applications market. Users can expect access to Sentinel products within a matter of hours from initial acquisition as well as a full set of archive data and product enhancing applications. The service will be further enhanced for those who require near real time data by the addition of a European Data Relay Service (EDRS) terminal.

The data hub will take advantage of previous funding and build on it. It will link 2 large assets; the Catapult CEMS facility, which offers storage and processing capability to the industrial community and the Academic JASMIN facility which offers the same service to the academic community. The Catapult facility will also be linked in to the Airbus data centre at Farnborough via a high-speed data link. The Airbus facility will offer additional hosted processing facilities to commercial users, negating the need for users to download large amounts of data for further processing. UK government requirements will also be served. The two assets are located at Harwell, which has a dedicated space cluster hosting numerous industrial and SME data application developers. It is envisaged that by centring the community around such facilities this will maximise knowledge sharing and help position Harwell as the international centre of excellence driving the global expansion of space derived climate and environmental services.

(source: UK Space Agency) and spacenewsfeed

AWS released the pics to highlight the urgent need for action on climate change and humanitarian disasters

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has released 85,000 satellite images of Earth into the public domain to draw attention to the growing problems of climate change and humanitarian disasters.

The pictures can be accessed via Amazon’s latest Public Data Set Landsat on AWS and were taken aboard Landsat 8, an American Earth observation satellite that launched in February 2013.

AWS’ Jed Sundwall said in a blog post: “We hope to accelerate innovation in climate research, humanitarian relief, and disaster preparedness efforts around the world by making Landsat data readily available near our flexible computing resources. We have committed to host up to a petabyte of Landsat data as a contribution to the White House’s Climate Data Initiative.”

Researchers and software developers can use the data to analyse the effect of things like global warming on the earth’s surface and to develop new products without having to collect or store the data themselves, reducing bandwidth costs.

A number of companies have already used the data to demonstrate how it can be used. Esri has developed in-browser visualisation and analysis using ArcGIS Online, while MapBox is using the images to show how the surface of Earth is constantly changing with its Landsat Live offering.

Sundall added: “Because of Landsat’s global purview and long history, it has become a reference point for all Earth observation work and is considered the gold standard of natural resource satellite imagery. It is the basis for research and applications in many global sectors, including agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education. Many of our customers’ work couldn’t be done without Landsat.”
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The recipe for successful InSAR projects also includes satellite data availability and frequency. In a global scenario of an increasing number of Earth-observing satellites, the availability of robust, long-term datasets opens new possibilities for monitoring services.


In just a few years, the number of radar satellites have been dramatically increased and improved. New satellites, launched during 2014 and later in 2015, are in the range of different microwaves (C, X and L band). An example of this is Sentinel-1 A, the latest mission launched in 2014.

An overview of new Earth-observing radar satellites could be found at TRE newsletter

TRE is a commercial company dedicated to the development of InSAR technology, used to monitor surface deformation from space, and the delivery of commercial InSAR products and services.

Since its foundation in March 2000, TRE has always been at the forefront of satellite InSAR.

TRE milestones

  • 1999: PSInSAR™ was patented by the Politecnico di Milano University. It was the first of a family of algorithms now referred to as Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) techniques.
  • 2000: TRE was established in Milan as a POLIMI spin-off company to market PSInSAR™.
  • 2008: TRE founded its subsidiary in North America, TRE Canada.
  • 2010: Continuous investment in research and development led to a new pioneering InSAR algorithm, SqueeSAR™.
  • 2012: CEO, Alessandro Ferretti, and President, prof. Fabio Rocca, were awarded the ENI prize for their outstanding contribution to the oil and gas sector and the potential impact of PSInSAR™.
  • 2014: Prof. Fabio Rocca received the Chinese Government international sci-tech. cooperation awards 2014.
  • 2014: Alessandro Ferretti’s book “Satellite InSAR Data: Reservoir Monitoring from Space” was published by EAGE (the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineering).

InSAR: market applicability

Today, InSAR is internationally penetrating a number of market sectors:

  • It provides oil and gas companies with precise displacement data over producing reservoirs and underground gas storage areas.
  • In open-pit mining and during tunneling works, it offers a synoptic view complementary to in situ observations.
  • In civil protection applications, InSAR is a unique tool to characterize and address areas prone to risk, enabling the monitoring of large areas at a fraction of the cost and time previously required.

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There is a potential treasure trove of scientific knowledge in the variety and amount of data collected through remote Earth observation. But the potential is only half the story – developing ways to effectively use that data is another challenge.

Jack Kaye of NASA spoke to issues surrounding Earth observation by satellites at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held in February in San Jose, California.

Kaye, associate director for research in NASA’s Earth Science Division, emphasised the variety of data that can be collected from space and the multitude of ways that data can be used to learn more about Earth and its population.

For example, something as simple as comparing the relative intensity of lights at night can be fruitful information for those studying the location and development of populations.

“Night lights are a great way of thinking about human geography,” Kaye said. “You can look at where people are. The North Korea-South Korea border is very clear, because there are very few night lights in North Korea.”

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Disasters triggered by natural hazards are an unparalleled threat to sustainable development. In March 2015, experts and representatives of countries from all over the world are gathering in Sendai, Japan, to strengthen disaster risk reduction on a global scale. From this Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) a new international agreement will emerge, the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, aiming to guide national, regional, and international efforts to reduce the vulnerability and the exposure of people, infrastructures and resources to disaster risks.

In doing so, disaster risk managers and decision-makers depend greatly on the detailed and reliable assessment of risks. Satellite-based technologies such as Earth observations provide advanced products and tools that support these efforts. Such products can be used to monitor and measure indicators related to infrastructure and land use (e. g. topography, urbanization, or transportation networks), to measure atmospheric and environmental variables (e. g. soil moisture, precipitation, or temperature) and to detect changes over time caused by both planned development and unforeseen crises.

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