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USD $250 Mio project will be under the Republic of Ghana flag. In a historical step for the Republic of Ghana entering the space domain,

Today Wednesday December 17(th) 2014, MENASAT entered into a Joint Venture Company with “Ghana Space Science And Technology Institute (GSSTI)” to develop a high resolution Earth Observation SAR satellite program aiming at the building a of Ghana`s first SAR high-resolution earth observation satellite to be launched by the year 2020.

The GHANA SAT 1 five year program will be implemented in three phases:
(1) Establishing a data center for the processing and analysis of Earth Observation SAR and optical satellite imagery,
(2) Building a Direct receiving ground station (Ground Segment)
(3) building and launching the GHANA SAT 1 satellite.

GHANA SAT 1 foot print is mainly in Africa and is expected to cost USD $250 Mio. It will be part of the MENASAT GULF SATELLITE Program, which consists of high-resolution earth observation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellation in a low inclination orbit.

The JV company named “GHANA SAT LTD” will be active within the first quarter of 2015 and in full operation out of GSSTI allocated facilities with a joint team from MENASAT and GSSTI and is expected to generate revenues out of imagery sales and Value added service to various government and institution clients in Ghana and West Africa.

“MENASAT`s objective is to design, build and launch four SAR earth observation satellites dedicated for Africa within the coming five years. GHANA SAT1 is a very important Mile Stone”, says Hani Salem, company CEO and Chairman. “There is an increasing awareness by several governments in Africa about the importance of the Satellite technology and applications for the economic and social developments of their nations. We are here in just the right time”, adds Mr. Salem.

“During our first work shop and conference which was held in Accra and attended by key potential clients, I recognized the eagerness of participants to use the SAR satellite applications as tool to either improve or develop many sectors in the country, says Prof Riccardo

Maggiora, MENASAT chief technology officer and Board Director, “This project when completed will add a great value to our share holders and our partners in the republic of Ghana. The company is aiming to be a dominant player in Africa and Middle East as a supplier of High-resolution SAR satellites and Data provision .I am confident this will happen, Says Mr.Mervyn Clarke, Board Director and CFO.

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The Fisheries minister, Mass Axi Gye, has disclosed that more than 200,000 Gambians are directly or indirectly employed by the nation’s fisheries sector.

Speaking recently at the launching of the regional fisheries project on Monitoring the Environment and Security in Africa (MESA), Gye acknowledged that fish as a significant protein; its benefits are threatened as a result of poor management practices and the ever increasing challenges from the Illegal Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing practices. He added that the main challenges to fisheries resources in the world today, are due to inadequate or lack of requisite information and data.

The MESA project, he explained, seeks to increase the information management, decision-making and planning capacity of African continent, regional and national institutions mandated for environment, climate, food security and related responsibilities, by enhancing access to and exploitation of relevant earth observation applications in Africa.

The project is expected to be boosted by the use of technology such as the use of earth observation through satellites, he added. Minister Gye informed that an art observation using satellite technology is presently providing continued data for monitoring the environment and its resources.

The Fisheries minister described this ECOWAS project as the first of its kind launched by his Ministry.

He added: “The objective of this project is to increase the information management, decision-making and planning capacity of ECOWAS institutions responsible for the coastal and marine resource management by entrenched action through an exploitation of relevant earth observation data. This project came at a time when the government, under the leadership of President Jammeh, is making all the necessary efforts and working very hard to improving the management and the deployment of the fisheries resources with the aim of achieving the national policy objectives for the fisheries sector.

“As the minister responsible for fisheries, I am very much aware of the role that the fisheries contribute to our economy. Fisheries resources contribute significantly to the socio-cultural and economic wellbeing of the coastal communities in The Gambia”.

The Fisheries minister said the project is expected, among other things, to build the capacity of fisheries officers, scientists and key stakeholders and enable them to have better access to art observation, data and services related to managing the coastal and marine environment and its resources.

“It will also provide information on potential fishing zones map, monitoring and forecasting of the ocean conditions to ensure safety in any marine activities in the country. Therefore, the provision of the timely information on ocean surface waves and current can help prevent some of the negative impact that might be caused to the users of the marine and coastal environment. Another benefit of the project is to improve networking among institutions,” he noted.

The representative from the ECOWAS Commission, Samuel Medu at the launching, congratulated The Gambia government for launching this new project, which he said, was first proposed through the Ouagadougou Declaration, signed in September 2010 by the African Union Commission, the ACP Secretariat and the African Regional Economic Communities. The Declaration, he said, aims to ensure continuity of past investments on the use of earth observation data in Africa.

The project duration, he said, is 36 months and that at the end, five major outcomes are expected.

The director, Administration and Finance at the National Environment Agency (NEA), Muhammed Denton, recalled when the MESA was first initiated by ECOWAS with a slogan: ‘Water management for Agricultural and Pastoral Land.’ He underscored that the importance of earth observation to monitor the environment is overwhelmingly taking into consideration.

The permanent secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Dr. Bamba Banja, who chaired the meeting, called for knowledge sharing with a view to making the project sustainable and vibrant.

Author: Bekai Njie & Fatou Gassama
Source

Satellite Industry Plans For Africa’s Future… Improving The Quality Of Life To Remotest Regions

The satellite industry is destined to become an essential element in bolstering Africa’s future economic growth and the social wellbeing of its inhabitants in areas such as education, improved living standards, food security, and health.

New technologies and continual miniaturization in the field of satellite engineering have made satellites progressively more capable of putting even the remotest African village in direct contact with quality information. Improved government services, the management of natural resources, the monitoring of natural disasters, ecological threats and the status of infrastructure are all now possible irrespective of location thanks to satellites.

According to Dr. Sias Mostert CEO of the South African Space Commercial Services Aerospace Group (SCS AG), this new technology applied with lightweight small Earth observation satellites, is effective for the management of natural resources, in particular agriculture in addition to the monitoring of natural threats such as floods, severe storms and large fires. Physical infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, bridges, pipelines, dams, and antennas, which are exposed to inclement weather and deterioration, can also be accurately monitored to detect minute changes and institute preventative action. This all combines to enable authorities to make informed decisions not only to improve living conditions and social wellbeing but to save lives as well.

“The backbone of this new advanced remote sensing system is based on two technological developments. The first is an optical hyperspectral sensor that is able to break up images into many different spectral bands to unveil more details about the Earth’s surface. The second solution is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging sensor an advanced remote sensing system which can provide continuous updates irrespective of whether it is day or night, and independent of weather and cloud obscuration. Ultimately it can be used for detecting changes in the surface of the earth of only a few millimeters over time,” says Dr. Mostert.

“Monitoring from space has many practical uses such as sensing the health of agriculture crops for food security, forest canopies to prevent diseases, soils and vegetation for restoration after mining operations, aquatic ecosystems for future water resource, mapping of natural vegetation, shoreline changes, the effect of climate change and monitoring for the onset of natural disasters,” he says.

Phoenix Team-Some members of the South African Phoenix-20 HS micro-satellite design team with an artist’s impression of the product. From left are Duncan Stanton project manager, Hendrik Burger chief technical officer, and Marcello Bartolini systems engineer.

At the same time, there are also moves afoot by big players in the satellite industry such as South African born billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is set to challenge the cable-dependent broadband industry. SpaceX plans to launch a constellation of up to 700 satellites which will deliver Internet services anywhere on Earth without the use of cables.

All the while, companies such as Google, Facebook and Outernet are also hard at work making the delivery of information through the Internet possible in even the remotest regions on Earth. A solar powered antenna providing Wi-Fi to all the inhabitants of a remote African village is no longer just a dream.

The Somerset West-based SCS Aerospace Group is South Africa’s leading private small satellite contractor, with business interests and ongoing contracts in numerous countries around the world. They recently launched a new product the Phoenix 20-Hyperspectral Satellite, which employs the hyperspectral remote sensing system.

The group operates in partnership with a number of companies specializing in various fields of satellite applications and satellite engineering. The applications include Geo-Risk Management, Geo Information Systems, and Social Development.

Source

Nicolaus, you took charge of the EO mission and Ground Segment activities in ESA last March, what are your impressions 10 months into the post?

Coming from ESA’s mandatory Science Programme the most notable difference is the high level of coordination and reflection with our Member States and other stakeholders on all activities. One of my former responsibilities was the development of the Rosetta Science Ground Segment, which constituted a significant operational and technological challenge. Now, the development and implementation of new EO Ground Segments and their operations, e.g. for the Copernicus Sentinel satellites means transcending deeply into the realm of Big Data and Information Technology, which are revolutionising Earth Observation. Everybody is mesmerized by the great prospects.

Could you briefly explain your daily activities? What exactly is the role of your team?

Most activities revolve around organising the typical Ground Segment functions, such as instrument planning, tasking & calibration, data reception, processing, distribution and archiving. But the way we do these things is constantly evolving. The teams, jointly with our partners, always assure robust and efficient mission operations while simultaneously defining new Ground Segment architectures for future missions. In particular, our Earth Explorer missions keep us continuously on the watch to utilize new technologies and to generate new spectacular science. This requires a high level of dedication and ingenuity from our mission managers and operations experts. On a different level and in order to meet our obligations within the ESA Earth Observation programme we are continuously considering aspects, such as the involvement of the new Member States and how to leverage ESA geo-return aspects.

Copernicus

The big challenge for ESA at the moment is to be ready for the large volume of data, which will soon be flowing from the Sentinel satellites, how are you preparing for this? How ready do you think you are?

We have just recently expanded our data network to its full scale and we are gradually increasing the load on the system to serve a large variety of user profiles. At the same time we keep the system flexible enough for future expansion. The most visible expression of our steadily increasing capacity is the Sentinel-1 data hub, which already enables the access to thousands of new data products every week to all users in addition to providing data to the six Copernicus Services. Our ambition is not only to fulfil but to exceed the obligations as stipulated in our agreement with the European Union who owns the system and the data.


Sentinel-3A antenna covered.Copyright ESA–Anneke Le Floc’h. More info

We are now nearly 9 months into the first Sentinel mission, how would you evaluate the operation of Sentinel-1 so far?

We had a very successful Launch and Early Orbit and Commissioning phase during which the overall system, including the Space and Ground Segment, demonstrated full compliance to the design requirements and excellent performance. During this phase we were even able to provide early demonstrations of the operational capability, for example, by responding quickly to calls for disaster management support. Nevertheless, the commissioning was also characterized by numerous challenges: certainly the most prominent was the achievement of the nominal orbit from a lower then expected injection orbit. This required some extra planning effort by the various operations teams and the final orbit was reached in early August this year. The commissioning was declared officially completed on the 23rd of September. Since the beginning of October we are operational, with data access open to all users. The overall Copernicus Space Component is now in its ramp-up phase with the key aim to gradually include the subsequent Sentinels (e.g. Sentinel 2 now scheduled to be launched in May 2015).

What challenges will the ESA team have to deal with the new instruments in terms of data processing and distribution?

Our Ground Segments are typically comprised of highly distributed functional components all of which need to be orchestrated. Scaling and introducing new schemes of data access is clearly one of the key challenges. In addition, the Sentinel missions adopt a new and innovative operations concept based on pre-defined background observation plans, so called ‘carpet mapping’. All data acquired on-board is downlinked to our core receiving stations and systematically processed to generate a set of core products. These are quality checked, archived and disseminated to the users, all within 3 to 24 hours from on-board sensing.

Some Member States will share the task of archiving the data, can you explain how this is co-ordinated e.g. on a geographic and thematic basis?

Besides the Copernicus Space Component Ground Segment, funded by the EU and managed by ESA, the operations concept foresees the deployment of Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segments across Europe. These are initiatives, funded by Member States, whose main objective is to provide supplementary access to Sentinel data as well as to generate additional higher-level products.

The areas of collaboration go well beyond archiving the data and include:

  • Sentinels data acquisition and quasi real time production
  • Complementary collaborative data products and algorithms definition
  • Sentinels core product dissemination and access
  • Development of innovative tools and applications
  • Complementary external validation support activities

The collaboration framework foresees bilateral agreements between ESA and its Member States. So far four such agreements have already been signed, with Greece, Norway, Italy and Germany. Several other agreements are currently being finalised and will be put in place in early 2015. Coordination is carried out in many different ways e.g. through the various Collaborative Ground Segment agreements or by providing engineering support to the Member States for the definition and implementation. In addition, ESA organizes regular workshops twice a year gathering all partners and allowing coordination of the various initiatives.

By the way, the future use of EDRS will also have a strong potential to increase the impact of many of these activities.

We understand that there will be a “rolling archive” for Sentinel data, can you expand on what this means for the users and maybe describe the policy, which will determine the archive?

As concerns access to Sentinel data, ESA has deployed specific data access infrastructure solutions, tailored to the needs of the various use typologies. In principle four Sentinel data hub types are available to users:

The central Copernicus Services data access, providing access to Sentinel data as well as Copernicus Contributing Missions data. This access point, referred to as Coordinated Data System (CDS), is operational since 2008 and accessible online. Secondly, the open (‘Science and Other Use’) data access hub is also providing access to the Sentinel products. To ensure good performance for all users, the data access is configured in such a way as to avoid resource saturation. Consequently, the system is implemented as a rolling online archive, covering the last few months of acquisitions. Users can self-register without any restriction. To date more than 4000 users have already registered with approximately 200 new users registering per week. More than 50000 products have been downloaded, corresponding to more than 90TB worth of data. Finally, the Collaborative Ground Segments and International Agreements data hubs, which provide access to the Sentinels products and whose logic I have just described. The corresponding systems are also implemented with rolling online archives. In this case ESA is providing the user credentials to the Member States, and therefore no resource saturation filter is required.

The Sentinel data access infrastructure managed by ESA is in continuous evolution in order to meet the evolving users needs and to adapt to the latest technologies. In particular, ESA is working in close coordination with the European Commission with the aim to enlarge the online access to the complete Sentinel long term data archive for all users. Considering the large data volumes involved, this transformation of the rolling archives will require the adoption of innovative concepts and tools including those of cloud-based exploitation platforms and hosted processing. ESA has gained considerable experience in these concepts through its Ground Segment R&D programme, and most recently through the Thematic Exploitation Platform initiative.


Iceberg on Sentinel-1A’s radar.Copyright Copernicus data (2014)/ESA/e-GEOS. More info

Ground Segment & Registration

ESA distributes data from ESA EO Missions, ESA Campaigns, the Sentinels, Copernicus Contributing Missions and Third Party Missions (TPMs)- what are the main differences between the distribution of these different types of data?

ESA strives to adopt a similar data access strategy across all mission types. In particular, over the past couple of years activities have focused on ensuring all data holdings are easily accessible online by all users. We have also made major improvements in the user registration process with the introduction of Single Sign On and specific work is being done in the area of Federated User Management. Obviously our systems need to be able to handle the specificities of each mission, in particular as concerns data policy and licensing from non-ESA missions. This is the case for Third Party and Copernicus Contributing Missions. On the other hand we will continue strive to make data access ever more transparent in terms of the data sources. Ideally, the user would not even have to consider where the data is coming from.

How will 3rd party users i.e. those not part of the supply chain for Copernicus services access the data from Copernicus?

Any user can access Sentinel data from at least one of the various data hubs deployed by ESA. In particular, any user can self register in the Open Access data hub by logging into sentinel.esa.int. The process of registration is straightforward and is not subject to an explicit approval by ESA.

Will you track who is accessing what data and from where? Will there be means in place to balance the data flow from the different nodes?

Our data access system includes specific monitoring functionality, which allows to monitor the access to the data for reporting as well as troubleshooting purposes. In addition our data access enhancement plan already foresees deployment of a federated network of data hub relays, allowing to balance the data traffic depending on the user requests.

What role will the mirror sites play in the data supply? Can a user in country X gain access to data covering country Y from a site or node in Country Z?

The role of mirror sites and the access options depends on the specific layout and purpose foreseen by a Member State e.g. in the case of Collaborative Ground Segment mirror site. We are seeing an impressive spectrum of potential mirror site scenarios evolving vastly expanding the accessibility and usability of the data by commercial and scientific users.


Sentinel-1 maps Fogo eruption. Copernicus data (2014)/ESA/Norut-PPO.labs–COMET-SEOM InSARap study. More info

Will all users (and thinking particularly of European companies compared to those users outside of Europe) have the same level of data access?

With the establishment of the Open (‘Science and Other Use’) access we have generated a level playing field for all users. The Collaborative Ground Segment accesses will provide a spectrum of additional and appealing options for European companies. As explained before we are constantly in contact with the European Commission to prepare the most effective and practical next evolutionary steps for the Open access.

How can users place requests for data where satellite acquisition programming is required? Will all users have the same level of priority?

It is important to keep in mind that with ‘carpet mapping’ missions the concept of acquisition programming takes a very secondary role. For example, Sentinel-2 will systematically acquire all land masses within a certain latitude range as part of its observation planning scenario. The priority on what remains of the concept revolves largely around the Copernicus Services with some exceptions, which are handled as part of the Mission Management.

EO Distribution

What is the level of access to Sentinel 1 data? If a company wishes to download a large amount of data for a specific application, will that be possible? Which limits are established for downloading?

All this information is available but also continuously evolving – therefore, for the current status, I would like to refer you to: sentinel.esa.int

Information & Communication Technology

Many European players are now offering services in cloud computing and management of “big data”.(e.g. ATOS, T- Systems, CloudSigma, Interoute etc) but how is ESA evaluating that large non-European information management companies (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Amazon) are also taking an active interest in Europe and EO?

We are convinced that European companies are positioning themselves quite consciously and skillfully to become also players in this context. In this sense we see the big US information companies as an inspiration and challenge for a potentially wide range of European initiatives rather than a monolithic European response. Our role is to make sure that the EO data are available for these initiatives and to provide technological know-how in terms of what we have learned over 30 years in view of facilitating EO data exploitation. After finalising the EU-ESA Copernicus Agreement we can now put even more emphasis on iterating potential next steps for optimising our support for such initiatives jointly with the European Commission.


The gold standard for EDRS.Copyright Airbus Defence and Space SAS 2014. More info

The thematic exploitation platforms (TEPs) provide a complete work environment for their users performing data-intensive research by running dedicated processing software close to the data. How have those platforms been evaluated for potential users?

The entities for the implementation of the TEPs have been selected and will provide a range of new approaches to push the concept forward. A key criterion in the evaluation was the user perspective with which we are traditionally quite familiar by having served these thematic communities in the past. I would like to stress that this type of exploitation platform is only one, although a potent one, of several ways to organise such platforms. Within ESA but also in our Member States there is an entire eco-system of different exploitation platform initiatives evolving, some through stimulus projects, some by the expansion of well-established exploitation systems.

What is your opinion around the Data Innovation and Science Centres (DISCs) bringing together scientists and service providers? Will they carry out functions related to processing algorithm evolution/maintenance, as well as instrument calibration / product validation / routine quality control?

It is still too early to pick one specific concept, such as the DISC concept, which we are currently discussing with our Members States, to have a final opinion about them. We are using these concepts to trigger discussions and to provide incentives for envisioning new scenarios. In this sense the concept of the DISCs has been already very useful.

Future

In the next few years, how do you see the activities of your department changing?

This is a very dynamic environment, which will require flexibility and adaptation regarding many of our tasks. The increasing fusion of the classical engineering of Ground Segments with activities and skills coming straight out of the information service sector will be one such change. A renewed focus on key competences concerning the data content, data integrity and data cross-discipline utilisation potential is another example. Finally, changes will derive from the new ESA EO Strategy and EO Science Strategy.

At the end of the interview, here is the opportunity for your final thoughts on how your activities could contribute to the future development of the EO geo-information service sector.

One of the keys for pro-actively and successfully contributing to this sector is generating a common frame o reference, not the least, for facilitating communication about this highly complex subject. There is a huge range of diverse experiences and interpretations about possible future scenarios. I hope that, together with our Member States, we can help to identify and work along common concepts and approaches toward success in terms of broadening the user base and maximising user satisfaction.

Biography

More information about his biography at the following link

HERMESS is a privately owned and in 2013 established company developing and providing innovative solutions on environmental issues related to the oil & gas and wind energy market, maritime transport and coastal engineering sector. Close links with research institutes, universities and being backed up by the maritime industry ensures that the latest techniques and services are available for our clients.

Our current solutions include:

  • Coastal and offshore site-specific design criteria studies.
  • Planning & design of Operations.
  • Integrated Services for Port Operations.
  • Environmental Assessment Studies.

Hereto we use:

  • Numerical modelling of weather, currents and sea surface waves using satellite obsevations.
  • Remote sensing (mapping) services.
  • Coastal mapping and monitoring.
  • Contract research and software development services.
  • State of the art IT technologies.

Our staff includes highly qualified physicists, mathematicians, information technology engineers and coastal engineers, all having 20 years of experience in the coastal and oceanographic sector.

Projects HERMESS is currently involved in include:

Open Data exploitation services. HERMESS focus is on developing and providing services to improve ocean current forecasts for operations at sea, enabling a dynamic optimization of shipping routes to improve efficiency and reduce fuel consumption (http://www.melodiesproject.eu/node/38)

Commercial satellite mission feasibility studies. HERMESS leads the commercial and technical feasibility of developing a commercial build small space system to provide value-added services related to bathymetry and ice. The technological, operational, commercial and user aspects of a dedicated nano satelliet based system are investigated.

Estimated ship arrival time service

Generally, arrival time assessments are based on the distance to port and the mean speed of the ship. Our service takes into account the wind, wave, and current conditions during the trip and the effects that they have on the speed.

User/Customer
Rotterdam harbour information broker

Background
Upon arrival of a ship in the harbor a quay needs to be free for offloading of for example containers or bulk products. For this purpose a time slot has been requested and hinterland transport arranged by for example barges or trains and trucks. A ship failing to arrive in time results in infra-structure not being used or last minute reallocation of resources.

Issue and needs
To optimize marine transport the current ship position has to be monitored and time to harbour estimated. The latter is influenced by MetOcean conditions along the planned shipping route and requires accurate weather forecasts and ship response parameters.

Proposed solution
To predict ship arrival time the effect of wind, waves and currents on its velocity is determined. Assessment of ship response parameters is based on actual shipping data and MetOcean conditions and does not require a dedicated complex physical model of the ship’s hydrodynamic behaviour. The technology combines near real-time ship data, MetOcean forecasts and the ship response parameters to predict sailing times. Ship position and speed are monitored using AIS technology. Historic AIS data and MetOcean data are analysed to assess ship speed related to ambient waves, wind and currents.

Industry perspective
The technology will increase efficiency in the maritime transport sector and ports. The service enables optimized use of harbour infrastructure and increase throughput capacity including use of hinterland connections.
The service is provided to support the maritime transport sector, ship owners and seaport authorities.

A 13-year decline in vegetation in the eastern and southeastern Amazon has been linked to a decade-long rainfall decline in the region, a new NASA-funded study finds.

With global climate models projecting further drying over the Amazon in the future, the potential loss of vegetation and the associated loss of carbon storage may speed up global climate change.

The study was based on a new way to measure the “greenness” of plants and trees using satellites. While one NASA satellite measured up to 25 percent decline in rainfall across two thirds of the Amazon from 2000 to 2012, a set of different satellite instruments observed a 0.8 percent decline in greenness over the Amazon. The study was published on Nov. 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While the decline of green vegetation was small, the area affected was not: 2.1 million square miles (5.4 million square kilometers), equivalent to over half the area of the continental United States. The Amazon’s tropical forests are one of the largest sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide on the planet.

“In other words, if greenness declines, this is an indication that less carbon will be removed from the atmosphere. The carbon storage of the Amazon basin is huge, and losing the ability to take up as much carbon could have global implications for climate change,” said lead author Thomas Hilker, remote sensing specialist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide as part of photosynthesis, the process by which green plants harvest sunlight. The healthier the plants, the greener the forest.

The Amazon basin stores an estimated 120 billion tons of Earth’s carbon – that’s about 3 times more carbon than humans release into the atmosphere each year. If vegetation becomes less green, it would absorb less of that carbon dioxide. As a result, more of human emissions would remain in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect that contributes to global warming and alters Earth’s climate.

Can’t See the Forest for the Clouds

Teasing out changes in vegetation greenness over the Amazon is one of the most challenging problems for satellite remote sensors because there’s no tougher place on Earth to observe the surface.

“The wet season has typically 85 to over 95 percent cloudiness from late morning to early afternoon, when NASA satellites make measurements,” said co-author and remote sensing specialist Alexei Lyapustin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Even during the dry season the average cloudiness can be on the order of 50 to 70 percent.”

Add other atmospheric effects, soot and other particles released from fires during the dryer months, and it’s very difficult for the satellite to pick up a clear signal of the surface, Lyapustin added.

Using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, Hilker, Lyapustin and their colleagues developed a new method to detect and remove clouds and other sources of error in the data.

It looks at the same location on Earth’s surface day after day over time and analysts pick out a pattern that is stable in contrast to the ever-changing clouds and aerosols. This knowledge of what the surface should look like from earlier observations is used later to detect and remove the atmospheric noise caused by clouds and aerosols.

It’s as if the signal from the ground were a song on a static-y radio station, and by listening to it over and over again for long enough, the new method detects and removes the static. By reducing those errors, they increased the accuracy of the greenness measurements over the Amazon.

“We’re much more confident that this is a gap between clouds where we can measure greenness, but standard algorithms would call it a cloud,” said Lyapustin. “We can get more data about the surface, and we can start seeing more subtle changes.”

One of the subtle changes visible in the new data-set is how the Amazon’s greenness corresponds to one of the long-known causes of rainfall or drought to the Amazon basin: changes in sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, called the El Nino Southern Oscillation. During warmer and dryer El Nino years, the Amazon appears browner. During cooler La Nina wet years, the Amazon appears greener.

In the past, with greenness data, “it’s been hard to tell an El Nino year from a non-El Nino year,” said Lyapustin.

The effects of large and more frequent droughts may have lasting impacts that contribute to the long-term decline in vegetation, especially in an increasingly water stressed ecosystem. Many climate models project that in the future, El Nino and La Nina events will become more intense. They also project a northward shift of the main rain belt that provides moisture to the Amazon rainforest, which could further reduce rainfall to the region.

“Our observations are too short to link drying to human causes,” Hilker said. “But if, as global circulation models suggest, drying continues, our results provide evidence that this could degrade the Amazonian forest canopies, which would have cascading effects on global carbon and climate dynamics.”

Limits of Light vs. Water

The researchers found another subtlety in the Amazon’s response to rainfall, which has led to new insights on a question under debate: Are seasonal changes in plant growth more limited by lack of sunlight or lack of water?

The Amazon basin, which consists of grasslands, evergreen forest, and deciduous forest where trees lose their leaves annually, has a wet season and a dry season. Past measurements from satellites have shown either no changes in greening between seasons or increased greening through the end of the dry season, attributed to fewer clouds blocking sunlight from reaching the ground.

Measurements from a handful of field stations across the basin, however, indicated the vegetation greenness due to increased sunlight in the dry season would decline once the water in the soils was used up – especially in drought years.

“Our study has helped confirm field-based results across large areas from space,” Hilker said. “With our work, we have shown that there is a dry season greening but that under extended drought we get a decline in vegetation greenness.”

During the dry season of an average year, the evergreen plants tap into groundwater, bask in the sunlight, and become greener.

“They’re deeply rooted so they have plenty of water and they have lots of leaves,” said Compton Tucker, a senior research scientist at Goddard who also contributed to the paper.

“However, when you come up to one of these really dry periods, [like the drought of 2005 or 2010], then there isn’t enough water to take advantage of all the light during the dry season.” Water becomes the limiting factor whose effects can carry over from one year into the next if trees and vegetation die off.

Source

Typhoon Hagupit soaked the Philippines, and a NASA rainfall analysis indicated the storm dropped almost 19 inches in some areas. After Hagupit departed the Philippines as a tropical storm, NASA’s Terra satellite passed over and captured a picture of the storm curled up like a cat waiting to pounce when it landfalls in Vietnam on Dec. 11.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite, managed by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency gathered over a week of rainfall data on Hagupit. That rainfall data along with data from other satellites was compiled into an analysis to determine how much rain fell over various areas of the Philippines and surrounding areas.

On Dec. 8, the TRMM team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland performed a preliminary rainfall analysis and updated it on Dec. 9. The analysis of rainfall from Dec. 1-9, 2014) showed rainfall totals of over 450 mm (17.5 inches) in a few areas in the eastern Philippines near where Hagupit came ashore. Even greater rainfall totals of over 477 mm (18.7 inches) were analyzed over the open waters of the Philippine Sea east of Manila.

Manila received moderate to heavy rainfall but avoided extremely heavy precipitation as Hagupit (Ruby) moved past to the south of the capital. Rainfall amounts of over 200mm (almost 8 inches) were prevalent from southern Luzon through eastern Samar.

On Dec. 10 at 03:10 UTC (Dec. 9 at 10:10 p.m. EST), NASA’s Terra satellite captured a view of Tropical Storm Hagupit in the South China Sea. In the visible image, Hagupit appeared to be curled up as thunderstorms surrounded the center, and extended in a wide band to the northeast of the center. Hagupit’s center was almost in the middle of the South China Sea between the Philippines to the east and Vietnam to the west.

At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST), Hagupit’s maximum sustained winds remained at 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph), the same strength they were on Dec. 9. Hagupit was centered near 13.6 north longitude and 114.7 east latitude, or about 533 nautical miles (613.4 miles/987.1 km) east-northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The storm was moving to the west at 9 knots (10.3 mph/16.6 kph).

Hagupit is now predicted by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to continue weakening and make landfall in southern Vietnam mid-day Dec. 11 (EST) or just after midnight local time in Vietnam. A Severe Tropical Storm Warning is currently in effect for southern Vietnam.

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The European Space Policy is shifting from technology and systems development to services and applications. Space industry is now recognized as a driver for growth and innovation, generating highly qualified jobs and market opportunities.

Growing emphasis is put on the promotion of industrial competitiveness, seeking to secure maximum returns from Europe’s investments in space. New space services and applications shall support a broad range of European policies and serve economic and societal needs. To this end, ESA is seeking an enforced mandate from Member States for stimulating European space services and bridging the gap between technology development and operational services systems. Member States increasingly allocate national space budgets to the development of services and applications.

The utilitarian perspective of European Space Policy strongly impacts on the regulatory framework, giving rise to new questions:

  • Should national legislation for licensing commercial space activities be more streamlined?
  • Is harmonization beneficial to support the commercial provision of earth observation data to European and global markets?
  • Can open data policies stimulate downstream markets or could they even have adverse effects on existing service providers?
  • Is there a need for a sector-specific procurement directive?
  • Can Innovation Procurement be utilized for developing space services?
  • How can Public Private Partnerships be set up effectively to bridge the gap between development and towards operational services systems?
  • Can space industry benefit from the new Concession Directive?
  • Are Service Level Agreements the right tool for guaranteeing performance of space services?
  • What regulatory measures could ensure an adequate role of satellites in the Digital Agenda?
  • How can liability risks from space services be covered by the insurance market?

These questions will be debated at the 2-day conference, bringing together leading policy, legal and economic experts from EU bodies, ESA, national space agencies, industry associations, and academia. The conference will provide a platform for analysing the suitability of existing and the need for future laws and regulations governing the provision of space services and applications in Europe.

The conference is scheduled for the 18th and 19th February 2015 and will take place in the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, at the lakeside of the Starnberger See near Munich, Germany.
Please find all additional information in the attached conference flyer.

  • BavAIRia International Legal Symposium Flyer151214.pdf
  • Hotelliste.pdf

NASA in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering more than $35,000 in prizes to citizen scientists for ideas that make use of climate data to address vulnerabilities faced by the United States in coping with climate change.

The Climate Resilience Data Challenge, conducted through the NASA Tournament Lab, a partnership with Harvard University hosted on Appirio/Topcoder, kicks off Monday, Dec 15 and runs through March 2015.

The challenge supports the efforts of the White House Climate Data Initiative, a broad effort to leverage the federal government’s extensive, freely available climate-relevant data resources to spur innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship in order to advance awareness of and preparedness for the impacts of climate change. The challenge was announced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Dec. 9.

According to the recent National Climate Assessment produced by more than 300 experts across government and academia, the United States faces a number of current and future challenges as the result of climate change.

Vulnerabilities include coastal flooding and weather-related hazards that threaten lives and property, increased disruptions to agriculture, prolonged drought that adversely affects food security and water availability, and ocean acidification capable of damaging ecosystems and biodiversity. The challenge seeks to unlock the potential of climate data to address these and other climate risks.

“Federal agencies, such as NASA and the USGS, traditionally focus on developing world-class science data to support scientific research, but the rapid growth in the innovation community presents new opportunities to encourage wider usage and application of science data to benefit society,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA program executive for Earth Science Data Systems in Washington. “We need tools that utilize federal data to help our local communities improve climate resilience, protect our ecosystems, and prepare for the effects of climate change.”

“Government science follows the strictest professional protocols because scientific objectivity is what the American people expect from us,” said Virginia Burkett, acting USGS associate director for Climate Change and Land Use. “That systematic approach is fundamental to our mission. With this challenge, however, we are intentionally looking outside the box for transformational ways to apply the data that we have already carefully assembled for the benefit of communities across the nation.”

The challenge begins with an ideation stage for data-driven application pitches, followed by storyboarding and, finally, prototyping of concepts with the greatest potential.

The ideation stage challenges competitors to imagine new applications of climate data to address climate vulnerabilities. This stage is divided into three competitive classes based on data sources: NASA data, federal data from agencies such as the USGS, and any open data. The storyboarding stage allows competitors to conceptualize and design the best ideas, followed by the prototyping stage, which carry the best ideas into implementation.

The Climate Resilience Data Challenge is managed by NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation at NASA Headquarters, Washington. The center was established in coordination with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to advance open innovation efforts for climate-related science and extend that expertise to other federal agencies.

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(Nov 2014) Asean countries should team up and share information gathered from satellite imagery for better and more efficient development in the field of information science infrastructure, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) board said recently.

Board member Vichit Satharanond pointed out that each country in the region had invested in satellite imagery, but the nations had never worked together in the field.

He was speaking at a recent seminar on Geo-Informatics and Space Technology for better Asean cooperation as part of the annual “Geoinfotech 2014” exhibition. The event is aimed at promoting research in information technology and space in the public and private sectors in Thailand.

For instance, he said, using shared satellite images for mapping would help Asean countries be better prepared for disasters because the region shares a similar geography that has been made fragile by climate change.

“These maps can also be used in the tourism industry,” he pointed out.

Vichit said regional countries could turn to Asean+3 countries in terms of science and information development, adding that China – considered one of the most influential countries in the region – should be encouraged to invest in the field and provide training to other countries.

Somchai Tiamboonpresert, deputy permanent secretary of the Science and Technology Ministry, also called on the government to allocate more funds for the development of Thailand’s science and information sector.

At present, only 0.37 per cent of the national budget is earmarked for research and development, but this should rise to 1 per cent or at least Bt100 billion per year, “as this will encourage better research and attract the younger generation to work in this field”, he said.

He also explained that continuity of government policy in relation to this sector had been affected due to the unsteady political situation.

Speaker Somkiet Ornwimon, president of the TV production house Thai Witat, agreed that Thailand should invest more in the fields of science and technology.

At the seminar, he cited a study conducted by Euroconsult, a leading consulting firm that specialises in space markets including satellite communications. The study showed that Vietnam had invested US$93 million (Bt3 billion) on the study of astronomy – the highest in the region – while Laos invested $50 million, Indonesia $38 million and Thailand came in fourth at $20 million.

Somchet Thinaphong, chairman of GISTDA’s board of directors, said geo-informatics and space technology would also have a hand in boosting Thailand’s transportation and agriculture sectors.

Geo-informatics develops and uses information science to address the problems of geography, geo-sciences and related branches of engineering.

“Using this technology in transportation will help improve geo-informatics-based mapping system in the country using satellite imagery. It will also provide better guidance in agriculture planning, for instance, it can be used to pinpoint areas that need fertiliser,” he said.

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