Skip to content

Gisat has successfully implemented the development project focusing on introduction of InSAR services to support monitoring of risk phenomena in the transportation domain.

In the frame of this research project Gisat has introduced the methodology aiming at provision of common framework for selection of interferometric data and methods in support of subsidence and deformation risk monitoring within the transportation sector by means of persistent scatterers interferometry.

Movements due to slope instabilities or undermining, deformation of bridges as well as applicability of installation of artificial corner reflectors were covered. The project presents InSAR methods and data, their feasibility, precision and interpretability as well as cost of the solution to responsible authorities in the Czech Republic.

A couple of demonstrational use cases have been carried out utilizing time series of both newly acquired very high resolution commercial SAR data and archive high resolution data from ENVISAT ASAR. The later shall demonstrate the potential of Sentinel-1 imagery for future applications. Utilization of advanced EO based technology for deformation monitoring should supplement traditional geodetic or inclinometric detection methods.

Development of sustainable services based on InSAR shall provide temporally-rich information and cost-effective tools supporting early detection of potential risks and threads related to operation of transportation infrastructure in the Czech Republic.

This project has been funded through the BETA programme of public procurement in research, experimental development and innovation for the government run by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.

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 has started the implementation of an integrated service case within the joint ESA and Asian Development Bank initiative.

Gisat has been awarded as one of the EO information service providers in the frame of ESA and ADB collaboration project EOTAP (Earth Observation Support for Asian Development Bank Activities). The longer-term objective of this activity is to demonstrate the benefits of satellite EO technology as a potentially standard and sustainable operational tool in ADB project planning, implementation and evaluation.

This particular service case aims to provide EO-based products at various scales to support the Bank’s activities in the area of Mandalay city, Myanmar, especially the efficient planning of its investment programs with focus on urban development. The services being provided consist of land cover and land use mapping at local level focusing on the urban structure changes in detail, land cover changes mapping at regional level giving insight into understanding of agricultural and natural processes in the wider rural surroundings of the city, and flood hazard monitoring based on detection of inundation extent during historic flood events and inundation extent modelling.

The service utilizes various EO data: high to very high resolution multispectral optical and SAR imagery necessary to cover the flood peaks during monsoon seasons when extensive cloud coverage occurs in the area. Analysis of archive imagery will reveal the very extreme extents of water level inundation during all major flood events in the last decade. In combination with flood modelling based on precise DTM extracted from EO data and inventory of exposed assets it will provide crucial input into estimation of flood-related risk. The service shall integrate analytical outputs and facilitate assessment of the risk for city development areas and axes.

In this assignment, Gisat capitalizes its long standing worldwide expertise in EO based land cover / land use applications in urban domain as well as previous practical experiences with EO based support of international financial institutions.

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

(January 2015) NASA is set to launch Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite as part of the ESSP (Earth System Science Pathfinder) program. The overall objective of SMAP is to monitor global soil moisture mapping with unprecedented resolution, sensitivity, area coverage, and revisit times of 3days or less.

The radiometer provides more accurate soil moisture but a coarse resolution of about 40 kilometers [25 miles] across,” said JPL’s Eni Njoku, a research scientist with SMAP. “With the radar, you can create very high resolution, but it’s less accurate. To get both an accurate and a high-resolution measurement, we process the two signals together.

The SMAP data will help characterise the relationship between soil moisture, its freeze/thaw state, and the associated environmental constraints to ecosystem processes including land-atmosphere carbon, water and energy exchange, and vegetation productivity.

The instrument’s three main parts are a radar, a radiometer and the largest rotating mesh antenna ever deployed in space.

SMAP’s radar, uses the antenna to transmit microwaves toward Earth and receive the signals that bounce back, called backscatter. The microwaves penetrate a few inches or more into the soil before they rebound. Changes in the electrical properties of the returning microwaves indicate changes in soil moisture, and also tell whether or not the soil is frozen.

SMAP’s radiometer detects differences in Earth’s natural emissions of microwaves that are caused by water in soil. The mission also tries to address the problems radio frequency interference. The microwave wavelengths that SMAP uses are officially reserved for scientific use, but signals at nearby wavelengths that are used for air traffic control, cell phones and other purposes spill over into SMAP’s wavelengths unpredictably. NASA Goddard engineers devised a new way to delete only the small segments of actual interference, leaving much more of the observations untouched.

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab

See more at

Come and visit Spacemetric at Defence Geospatial Intelligence, DGI 2015 where we’ll be showcasing capabilities of the new Keystone 4, including 3D point-cloud generation, updated video capabilities and compatibility with MAJIIC2.

DGI takes place at the QEII Conference Centre, London on the 20th and 21st January, 2015. We’re at Stand 2 just by the lifts so you can’t miss us!. DGI is Europe’s most significant event focusing on how key decisions are supported in security and defence through provision of location-based intelligence. It is attended by government and industry leaders from across NATO, Europe and international partners.

Source

(January 09, 2015 / Ian Spence). Spacemetric is taking part in a cubesat innovation study for the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of a consortium led by Innovative Solutions In Space (ISIS) of Delft, The Netherlands.

The study is funded by the SysNova programme and is investigating multi-platform constellation concepts for a high-revisit optical imaging satellite constellation for land applications.

The SysNova initiative is a space systems programme for exploratory studies that uses “technology challenges” and competitions that encourage joint efforts by both academic and industrial institutions. The programme is managed by the ESA technical facility ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Spacemetric’s specific responsibility in the project is the payload sensor image data processing and how effective and timely data access can be facilitated through innovations in data cataloguing, a service-based architecture and on-demand product processing. Another area of innovation is the potential to transfer some or all elements of this workflow to the increasingly capable onboard hardware and software environment.

Source

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus Defence and Space as the prime contractor to develop and construct the first Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 satellite.

Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 is a mission to carry out high-precision measurements of ocean surface topography.

The Jason-CS (Jason Continuity of Service) or Sentinel 6 radar altimeter mission is a continuation of the existing partnership for Jason-3 between the US (NOAA and NASA) and Europe (EUMETSAT, ESA, CNES) and industry.

The satellite will measure its distance to the ocean surface with an accuracy of a few centimetres and use this data to map the topography globally, repeating the cycle every ten days. Observing changes in sea-surface height using such a high level of accuracy provides insights into global sea levels, the speed and direction of ocean currents, and ocean heat storage. The measurements made are vital for modelling the oceans and predicting rises in sea levels.

The Sentinel-6 mission is part of the European Earth observation programme Copernicus, and is a continuation of a programme of global ocean-surface measurements made by satellites that began in 1992. Weighing around 1 tonne and flying at an altitude of around 1,300 kilometres, the Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 satellite will ensure that measurements are carried out on a continuous basis from 2020. The satellite is designed to orbit for five and a half years, and operations will be overseen and managed by EUMETSAT in Darmstadt, Germany. Development of the satellite will be based on the highly successful CryoSat programme.

“For this project we will rely not only upon the proven and efficient designs and processes applied to numerous Earth observation missions, but also, of course, upon the experienced Cryosat team of experts,” said François Auque, Head of Space Systems.

As with CryoSat, Airbus Defence and Space in Friedrichshafen will be the prime contractor for the space segment and heads the industry consortium on behalf of ESA. Thales Alenia Space France will construct the main instrument, a radar altimeter, whose predecessor is already being used on CryoSat-2. Further instruments are being constructed by NASA/JPL in the USA and provided by the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 mission.

Source: Airbus Defence and Space

See more at

The second remote sensing satellite of the Resource-P series was put in to orbit on 31 December 2014. The satellite was launched from the Baikonur space centre on December 26 by rocket carrier Soyuz-2.1b.

The “Resource-P” Series forms the basis of the Russian system vysokoperiodicheskogo remote sensing (RS), which provides consumers in Russia and other countries highly detailed pictures super high, medium and high resolution. The satellite would be providing 1 meter panchromatic imagery, and multispectral imager at a resolution of 2 to 3 meters from a height of 475 kilometers.

As on per the new published by the Russian News Agency (TASS), the Equipment for taking Earth surface imagery is being adjusted. The satellite operating parameters are normal and there are no remarks to the operation of onboard equipment.

The launch of third satellite Resource-P is expected in 2015 to finalise the shaping of the orbital system for high-definition recording of around 90 million square kilometres of territories annually.

Source: TASS & spaceflight101

See more at

Last year, 2014, was a very exciting year for Earth Observation companies. We saw some massive changes in the market including the arrival of Skybox 1 & 2 data, the entry of Google via the purchase of Skybox Imaging, Worldview 3 being launched, the authorisation for the sale of satellite imagery with resolutions down to 25cm and the launch of several other initiatives aimed at putting more commercial imagery on the market.
In Europe, Astrium launched SPOT 7, Deimos II was launched, Blackbridge and E-geos announced next generation systems and the first Copernicus satellite – Sentinel 1 – was launched. The last of these, marking the start of the operational phase of Copernicus, promises further change as large volumes of data become freely available and available for free. 2015 should see the launch of Sentinels 2 & 3 further increasing the free data available.

When I was a young engineer in the 1980’s responsible for the design of the Europe’s first radar to be launched on the European ERS-1 we used to think ESA was the market for satellites. At the time, the space agencies were essentially the only customers and so naturally everything was focused around their needs. These were in turn largely determined by science and research. This attitude exists even today even if it has been largely changed by an appreciation of addressing a commercial market.

The telecommunications market was the first to emerge and indeed was already starting to do so with commercial companies buying satellites and selling communication services. In EO some early efforts were being made to sell imagery and companies were being set up to do so; but we were a long way from the point where a private company would build and launch a satellite on its own resources. Indeed, even today a fully commercial business model is quite rare.

So understanding the market is a fundamental requirement for commercial companies trying to do business. Similarly for policy makers, it is fundamental to understand the impacts of their actions; their policy decisions. The former requires a detailed survey of the market, the latter requires a detailed survey of the industry.

Two years ago, we conducted our industry survey 2013 which provided a more detailed picture of the EO services industry than we had before. Since then, many things have changed as described earlier and we have just launched our 2015 survey which will update the industry view and develop it further. In particular, we wish to be in a position to understand the impact of Copernicus on the industry and on the market and so this is a focus of our survey this time. We have already launched what we call the core survey to over 500 companies in Europe and Canada to gather specific data on their business. This will shortly be followed up with phone interviews for what we call the “full survey” which will explore some of the softer factors and strategic issues through a conversation.

But this time, we have decided to go further again.

According to the Impact Assessment published by the European Commission in 2013, Copernicus will create 9,000 direct jobs in the downstream sector. The EARSC survey will show the impact on the private sector but Copernicus is primarily a public programme with its first objective to provide public policy makers with information. Consequently, we are extending our survey to look at the benefits which Copernicus will bring to the public sector in terms of access to information, effectiveness and of course employment. In the next few weeks we shall launch a second survey questionnaire which will be sent to public bodies in Europe with questions on their involvement in Copernicus and the benefits they have seen or anticipate.

But, this is a global industry and European policy is that Sentinel data will be available on a free and open basis, not limited to European companies. Hence the 4th part of our survey will address companies world-wide to try to understand how much they benefit from access to these data. This is quite a challenge, not least because of language! The survey is in English as we think that most companies operating in the domain of EO services, as in the scientific field, will frequently use English. But a questionnaire in English can be quite complex and we are trying to restrict it to essentials as far we can consistent with gathering a good picture of the industry and how it is evolving.

We are happy to have some international partners to help us with this global survey including the GEO secretariat in Geneva, which will help distribute the link through their networks and maybe help gather some of the responses. It is too early to acknowledge everyone but I’ll write again on that once the results are complete.

Our goal is to have results available in mid-2015 and to publish a report which will be freely available. We have the support of ESA to conduct the survey and if any reader wishes to learn more, they can contact either EARSC or ESA-ESRIN to do so.

If you are someone from the private sector or from a public body in Europe reading this we very much count on you to complete the relevant part of the survey. Your contribution will be kept absolutely confidential to EARSC and only aggregated, anonymous results will be public. If you do not receive a request to participate and you think you should be included, do not hesitate to contact us

It is going to be quite a challenge to gather and analyse all the data we anticipate receiving but it is fundamental to understanding the sector and the impact of the policy makers actions towards it. It is one of our major projects; but not the only one and I’ll cover more of those in a future eomag editorial. In the meantime, I wish all eomag readers a successful a above all healthy 2015.

Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

The Swedish National Space Board recently received final reports from Spacemetric and Metria containing analyses and recommendations on how Sweden should respond to the Sentinel satellite missions of the EU/ESA Copernicus programme.

In the study, Spacemetric defined the scope and content of a Collaborative Ground Segment for Sweden (CGSS), an infrastructure to enable Swedish users make best of the opportunity and challenges offered by the Sentinel missions.

The Sentinel-1A mission – based around an imaging radar sensor – was launched in April 2014 and provides all-weather, night-and-day imaging of land, oceans and ice. It will be followed in 2015 by Sentinel-2A, an optical remote sensing satellite for land and coastal-area imaging, and then by Sentinel-3A for ocean and regional land imaging. A second B-series satellite of each type will be launched from 2016. All of the satellites have 7-year operational lifetimes.

A Collaborative Ground Segment for Sweden is an important initiative to derive the most benefit from investments made in the Copernicus programme, and specifically the Sentinel satellites. Member States of the European Space Agency have access to a dedicated Data Hub that provides a temporary repository of the latest Sentinel imagery. But the CGSS would ensure that users in Sweden have effective access to imagery over longer time periods and to products and services suiting specific, national requirements, such as images in Swedish coordinate systems.

Source

Remote Sensing Application Center – ReSAC, Bulgaria in a consortium with other organizations won a tender for Mapping flood hazard and flood risk in East Aegean River Basin Directorate (EARBD) in Bulgaria.

The project is a second step in implementation of the Flood Risk Directive in Bulgaria, namely preparation of the flood hazard and risk maps. The territorial scope of the project contains 31 areas with significant potential flood risk with a total length of 1078 km. in the rivers. In addition for 19 reservoirs a scenario for dam break and dam overflow will have to be modeled.

The territory of the EARBD is almost 1/3 from the territory of Bulgaria. The second largest river in the country flows here – Maritsa River which is a transboundary river for Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. The other important rivers also transboundary are Arda River, which takes the water from the East Rhodopy Mountain and Tundzha River – both of them tributaries to Maritsa.


Location of the East Aegean River Basin Directorate

The project is a continuation of the activities and professional expertise ReSAC provides to the specialized governmental authorities in the past several years related with disaster management and especially these related with the Flood Risk Directive. ReSAC as a center of excellence supports the Ministry of Environment and River Basin Directorates in the implementation of the Directive since 2011 with the Preliminary Flood Hazard and Risk Assessment for Danube Region River Basin Directorates (DRRBD), in 2012 with the Determination of the Areas with Significant Potential Flood Risk for DRRBD and participation in the Danube FloodRisk Project with preparation of Flood Hazard and Risk Maps for Bulgarian Sector of Danube River and training of the local users and stakeholders.

The duration of the project is one year and the flood hazard and flood risk maps for the EARBD should be ready until the end of 2015.

For more information

Remote Sensing Application Center (ReSAC)
61, Tzar Assen Str., fl. 2, 1463, Sofia, Bulgaria. Tel: +35929800731 / Fax: +35929818216. 
E-mail