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After the service release that took place in April 2014, a new service release was delivered on 26 June 2014 by MyOcean 2

This new service release concerns both products and services:

  • Products: new and updated reanalysis and reprocessing products have been added to the catalogue as well as the integration of data coming from the Chinese satellite HY-2A (Haiyang-2A)
  • Services: advanced search functions in the catalogue have been implemented, navigation on the web portal has been improved as well as the viewing functionality and an authenticated MyOcean FTP download mechanism is now available for all ARCTIC, NORTHWESTSHELF and SEAICE products.

The release also includes a brand new version of the web portal. Visit http://marine.copernicus.eu/ to discover it.

MyOcean 2 is the EU-funded project responsible for the implementation of the pre-operational version of the Copernicus marine environment monitoring service.

The Climate Symposium 2014 will take place in Darmstadt, Germany from 13 to 17 October 2014.

The symposium will be an important step towards defining requirements, and the further development of an efficient and sustained international space-based Earth observing system. This symposium is intended to bring together the international experts in climate observations, research, analysis and modelling to present and discuss results from their studies, with a particular emphasis on the role of space-based Earth observations in improving our knowledge of the current climate at global and regional scales, and in the assessment of models used for climate projections.

The detailed programme of the symposium is now available on the event website. Registration is open.

Visit the syposium website

LONGMONT, CO, Jun 11, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — DigitalGlobe, Inc. DGI +3.27% , the leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions, today announced that it received notice from the U.S. Department of Commerce on its application to allow the company to sell its highest-quality and industry-leading commercial satellite imagery.

Effective immediately, DigitalGlobe will be permitted to offer customers the highest resolution imagery available from their current constellation. Additionally, the updated approvals will permit DigitalGlobe to sell imagery to all of its customers at up to 0.25m panchromatic and 1.0m multispectral ground sample distance (GSD) beginning six months after its next satellite WorldView-3 is operational. WorldView-3 is scheduled to launch, August 13 or 14, 2014 from Vandenberg Air Force base.

With the launch of WorldView-3, the DigitalGlobe constellation will set a new technological bar for commercial satellite imagery, offering customers the highest available resolution, revisit rate, capacity, and spectral diversity. The company currently operates a fleet of five high-resolution earth imaging satellites. Two of those satellites — GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 — collect imagery sharper than 0.50m, and all customers will have access to that imagery at the highest native resolution. WorldView-3 will provide even higher resolution at 0.31m, and the GeoEye-2 satellite, which is substantially complete, will capture similarly sharp images when it is launched to replace a satellite currently in service or as an expansion to the constellation once warranted by market demand.

“We are very pleased and appreciative that the U.S. Department of Commerce under the leadership of Secretary Penny Pritzker, with support from the U.S. Departments of Defense and State and the Intelligence Community, has made this forward-leaning change to our nation’s policy that will fuel innovation, create new high-tech jobs, and advance the nation’s commanding lead in this strategically important industry,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe CEO. “Our customers will immediately realize the benefits of this updated regulation, as for the first time, we will be able to make our very best imagery available to the commercial market. As a result of this policy update and the forthcoming addition of WorldView-3 to our constellation, DigitalGlobe will further differentiate itself from foreign competition and expand our addressable market.”

Additionally, DigitalGlobe announced today that it plans to shift the WorldView-1 satellite into a different orbit, in which it will image the earth in the afternoon local time each day. This shift will optimize the DigitalGlobe constellation to monitor changes on the earth at various times during the day. Customers will be able to image a particular area with multiple satellites in the morning and again with WorldView-1 in the afternoon thus providing consistent views of Earth over much of the day.

“As our constellation has grown, we have pioneered new capabilities for satellite imaging in every successive generation to deliver new and unique value to our customers in the growing and dynamic geospatial market. The combination of additional spectral bands, higher resolution products, morning and afternoon collection times, and increased collection capacity all enable DigitalGlobe to provide its customers with dramatically more information in every image collected,” said Walter Scott, DigitalGlobe’s founder and Chief Technology Officer.

DigitalGlobe supports customers’ critical decisions with the highest resolution commercial satellite imagery available anywhere. To see visual examples of how better resolution can enable better decision making for Civil Governments, Location Based Services and Energy, visit http://www.digitalglobe.com/imagery-completeness #completeness-as-a-component-of-quality.

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[Via Satellite 06-10-2014] Months of rumored interest have proven true: Internet giant Google has officially entered into an agreement to purchase Skybox Imaging. The $500 million price tag falls shy of the estimated $1 billion that the imaging company was speculated to go for, but still represents Google’s high level of interest in the company.

In a statement, Google said the Skybox satellites will assist in keeping Google Maps accurate with more up to date imagery, which Google currently purchases from DigitalGlobe. The acquisition means Google would no longer need to buy the imagery from an outside source. The Skybox team, which until now stayed very quiet about the acquisition gossip, said that they felt it was the right time to pursue even bigger projects.

“Skybox and Google share more than just a zip code,” the Skybox team said in a statement. “We both believe in making information (especially accurate geospatial information) accessible and useful. And to do this, we’re both willing to tackle problems head on — whether it’s building cars that drive themselves or designing our own satellites from scratch.”

Skybox is in the process of building and orbiting a constellation of 15 satellites, a reduction from the originally planned 24. SkySat 1, the company’s first satellite, has been in orbit since 2013. SkySat 2 is slated to launch on a Soyuz rocket later this month, and SkySat 3 — the first propulsive SkySat — is planned for liftoff later this year. The next six are scheduled to launch aboard an Orbital Sciences-built Minotaur C dedicated small satellite launcher in 2015. SSL is on contract to build the 13 yet-to-be-orbited satellites from SkySat 3 up.

The acquisition news struck DigitalGlobe’s stock, which quickly dipped, though the company’s upcoming WorldView 3 satellite is expected to provide a strong revenue boost. Most of DigitalGlobe’s business comes from the government, but rising imagery start-ups have brought attention to the commercial side. The entrance of WorldView 3 could allow a DigitalGlobe to sell very high-resolution imagery to the government while pivoting to address the low end of the company’s market by using older satellites. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services is scheduled to launch the satellite in August 2014.

“Revenues from Google, we believe, is about 3 percent of current revenues and much less when WorldView 3 launches and achieves operational capability,” Jim McIlree wrote in a research note prior to Skybox’s acquisition. “When WorldView 3 is launched, much of its capacity will be devoted to the U.S. Government, but imagery from the company’s older satellites could become available to compete more effectively against the lower resolution offerings of Skybox, Planet Labs and Urthecast.”

Google hopes that Skybox will be able to do more than just provide imagery, however. The purchase is also part of the company’s plan to expand the reach of Internet access. Google said it wants Skybox to “help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in.” The acquisition of drone builder Titan Aerospace fits well with a possible joint satellite-atmospheric Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to provide Internet access to the world.

Google’s acquisition of Skybox has not yet fully closed. Until customary approvals and closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals are met, Skybox will continue to operate as a separate entity.

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On June 10, the meteorological satellite Fengyun-3C has been put into operation officially which replaced FY-3A to observe in a morning orbit with FY-2B in an afternoon orbit.

The operation of FY-3C will realize all-weather, multispectral, quantitative and 3D observation of global atmosphere and Geophysical factors to insure stable operation of polar-orbit meteorological satellites, provide better observation data for monitoring disasters, environment and addressing climate change, and further improve the monitoring capabilities.

As FY-3C started to operate, the four ground stations in Guangzhou, Urumqi, Jiamusi of China and Kiruma of Swden have began to accept observing data and Beijing station became to backup. Meanwhile, the FY-3C will provide users with various data products, such as global atmosphere and Geophysical data on atmosphere, clouds, earth surface, sea surface and space environment, grid data of climate and so on. In addition, it will disseminate products automatically to CMACast network, FTP real-time data areas or other special service lines, and offer data services for users in many ways.

If the satellite platform, payload on board FY-3C and others run normally, the standards for success rate of data accepting, data processing, products disseminating and data archiving will be defined as 99.5%, 99.5%, 99%, 100% to check FY-3C ground application system and insure quality of data.

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PRAGUE — The European Space Agency has modified the frequencies used by some of its radar Earth observation satellites to reduce the signal interference from ground-based wireless communications systems that are often operating illegally, ESA Earth Observation Director Volker Liebig said June 13.

Liebig said the interference is one reason the 20-nation ESA and other space agencies are joining operators of telecommunications satellites in fighting attempts by wireless broadband network operators to be granted use of spectrum now reserved for satellites.

Addressing a briefing at London’s Royal Society to discuss results from ESA satellites studying climate change, Liebig said many users of wireless communications are violating the regulatory terms of use for their devices — for example, operating them outside when only indoor use has been given regulatory approval.

ESA has protested against ground users, some of them military, of radars that should not be in the frequencies used by radar Earth observation spacecraft. The agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite regularly encounters signal interference.

A similar satellite being designed for NASA, the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite to launch late this year, has been specifically designed to be able to separate environment signals from the interference it is certain to encounter from terrestrial networks.

Liebig said ESA will be active at the World Radiocommunications Conference organized by the International Telecommunication Union and scheduled for 2015, at which terrestrial wireless network operators are expected to seek additional bandwidth, some of it now reserved for satellite telecommunications and Earth observation systems.

Europe’s Sentinel satellites are among those whose frequencies have been modified to get around interference. The Sentinel spacecraft, with a variety of payloads and sensors including radar, are part of the European Commission-owned Copernicus Earth observation program.

The first of these spacecraft, the radar-equipped Sentinel-1A, was launched in April aboard a European version of Russia’s Soyuz rocket.

Liebig said the Soyuz rocket left Sentinel-1A in an orbit that was about 8 kilometers lower than planned — but still within the contracted orbital parameters agreed to with launch services provider Arianespace of Evry, France.

As a result, it will take ground controllers about four weeks longer than planned to raise the orbit and complete verifications before declaring it fully operational.

As Sentinel satellites are launched and begin adding to the Copernicus data bank they will increase the already huge volume of satellite data that need to be stored and analyzed.

To do this, ESA in 2009 persuaded its member governments to fund what then was considered an odd agency program called the Climate Change Initiative (CCI). The British government is paying about one-quarter of CCI’s 75 million euros ($100 million) in cost between 2009 and 2016.

British Science Minister David Willetts, who is responsible for space policy, said Britain is making further investments in computing power for the U.K. Met Office to aid it in producing data on climate change, and in climate-change analysis by the British National Physical Laboratory.

Liebig said that ESA’s CCI proposal met so much resistance from the agency’s governments that it was easier for him to win backing for a billion-euro satellite infrastructure than for the 75 million-euro CCI program.

Several governments at the time said ESA’s job as a research and development agency should not extend to taking responsibility for the long-term storage of environmental data, just as ESA will be transferring the Sentinel satellites to the European Commission for operations in Copernicus.

“I think this is one of the best investments ESA ever made,” Liebig said, referring to CCI. Whether ESA governments will agree when they will be asked to renew the program in 2016 is not clear, he said.

Especially through its Cryosat satellite, ESA has made monitoring of polar ice sheets one of its specialties among the 50 essential climate variables that have been identified by the Global Climate Observing System, part of the World Meteorological Organization, as important indicators.

ESA and NASA joined forces on the IceBridge program that has culled several decades of data from 10 satellites to examine polar ice. The data from the program, which is ongoing, show that the net amount of ice in the polar regions is reducing despite regional variations and is a contributor to the global rise in sea levels.

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News broke this past week that Google will by Skybox, the Mountain View, California-based earth observation satellite company that offers high definition video, for $500 Million.

In addition, the FAA approved a certificate of authorization for commercial flight for drones in Alaska and DigitalGlobe received approval from the Department of Commerce to deliver .25 meter spatial resolution imagery, a move necessary to compete against international providers of earth observation satellite data.

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In a joint venture with Elecnor Deimos, Dauria Aerospace is looking to “bring to commercial markets the capability of providing imagery of the entire arable surface of the Earth, utilizing cloud-based technologies, for the most efficient use of an unprecedented daily revisit time,” according to Mikhail Kokorich, founder and president of Dauria Aerospace. In this conversation with Editor in Chief Joe Francica, Kokorich provides more details on the technical specifications of the satellite constellation the venture will launch and the market strategy for delivering daily coverage to consumers.

Directions Magazine(DM): Is the announcement between Dauria and Elecnor a joint venture with staff and resources contributed by both companies, or will the two companies simply be providing components to each other’s constellations? Please explain further. [See also background information provided in this press release.]

The two companies are combining their respective space and ground segments in order to get the most frequent imagery of the Earth from the spacecraft in the constellation. To be more precise, the existent capabilities of Deimos-1 satellite will be enhanced by the addition of eight Perseus-O spacecraft in 2015. The ground segment will continue to process data from the existent Deimos-1 satellite and will accommodate the data processing needs of eight Perseus-O satellites. A distribution network along with sales channels will be combined as well by pulling together the resources of the existent Deimos distribution network and the CloudEO platform, which is currently under development by Dauria.

DM: Can you provide more detail on the imaging payload that will be carried aboard the Deimos Perseus constellation? Will the spectral imager be the same on all satellites and which spectral bands will be included? Are you intending to use the imaging technology of Canopus Systems?

Optical payload has been developed by Canopus Systems US – Dauria’s subsidiary located in Mountain View, CA on the premises of NASA Research Park at Ames Research Center.Each Perseus-O satellite is designed with image availability and quality as the number-one priority. The 3-Channel Moderate Resolution Framing Imager utilizes the same spectral bands as Landsat and DMC for data continuity and allows seamless transition of existing applications to the Perseus-O imagery. Spectral channels match Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper bands 2, 3 and 4. Each imager is carefully characterized and calibrated both pre-launch and on-orbit to ensure the high quality and consistent images. The high data rate Mini Ka-band Transmitter provides high data rate downlink of the data for near real-time data availability (payload’s data sheet is available for download here. The payload will be the same on all eight Perseus-O spacecraft and would be compatible with Deimos-1 specifications; the only difference is that the swath of Perseus-O spacecraft will be slightly less than the one of Deimos-1.

DM: Do you anticipate the same ground resolution for each satellite or will the constellation be able to vary the spatial resolution of imagery collected depending on the application and image demand?

Resolution would be the same (medium resolution of 22 m per pixel) across the entire constellation and similar to Deimos-1 and Landsat spacecraft. The main idea of the constellation is to bring to commercial markets the capability of providing imagery of the entire arable surface of the Earth, utilizing cloud-based technologies, for the most efficient use of an unprecedented daily revisit time (frequency) when creating new/cutting edge services and applications.

DM: Do you anticipate adding a high-definition video imager with any future payloads of the Perseus-O satellites?

For Perseus-O satellites, the main task will remain to be the acquisition of static imagery. The constellation from the outset was designed to acquire images of the entire arable surface of the Earth. Although it should be noted, the current optical payload is capable of taking video, but in our case it would be moderate resolution video and we do not see many commercial applications for this type of service at the moment. The next generation of our satellites will be capable of recording high-definition video, which we believe will have many practical applications.

DM: Once you begin to collect satellite data daily, can you deliver the imagery daily or will there be lag time between data capture and delivery?

The entire data processing chain will be set up in such a way as to allow availability of new data on CloudEO platform within hours. The gap between the time the image is taken and its availability to a consumer on CloudEO will be in the range of two to six hours.

DM: What will be your delivery platform to businesses and consumers? Web service or other?

The delivery platform for both businesses and consumers will be Web-based and accessed via CloudEO platform. The customers will be able to purchase just the imagery itself or utilize the data to develop their proprietary applications.

DM: You are targeting environmental applications with your constellation and imagery. What other applications do you foresee utilizing your imagery and what is the growth potential?

We are considering the use of applications that have already been developed for this type of information – agriculture, crop yield analytics, vegetation cycles’ monitoring, forest composition and illegal deforestation monitoring, species migration tracking and other various analyses of natural living resources and of course, disaster monitoring.

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Satellite images have always been a bit fuzzy, thanks to the US government. But now the agency in charge is relaxing its rules, allowing mapping services like Google Maps or Bing Maps bring crystal clear pictures to their users.

DigitalGlobe, currently the only provider of commercial satellite imagery in the US, appealed to the Department of Commerce last year to lift its resolution restriction on satellite imagery that limited objects smaller than 50-centimeter (1.64 feet) from being shown in the photographs, Space News reported.

The US military and national security agencies insisted on the resolution cap in the 1990s, at the dawn of the commercial satellite imaging market, according to the Denver Business Journal. In April, the military, White House and Department of State indicated they were okay with loosening the restrictions, with the Commerce Department having the final word.

DigitalGlobe sells its images to Google for the company’s mapping service, but also provides satellite monitoring for mining and oil companies. Nongovernmental groups use crowdsourcing to analyze satellite images for conflict and human rights monitoring.

“It’s not just the technology, it’s the public’s ability to use the technology that’s important,” Corey Hinderstein, vice president of the international program at the Washington D.C.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, said to the Business Journal.

“This could continue to have a profound, positive benefit on the kind of work we do.”

The company will immediately be able to sell images with a resolution of 40 centimeters, but will be able to sell images of a more-detailed resolution of 25 centimeters within six months, when it launches its WorldView-3 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force base in August. That will allow users to go from being able to identify a car to being able to identify its make, Reuters reported.

“Our customers will immediately realize the benefits of this updated regulation, as for the first time, we will be able to make our very best imagery available to the commercial market,” Jeffrey R. Tarr, DigitalGlobe CEO, said in a statement.

“As a result of this policy update and the forthcoming addition of WorldView-3 to our constellation, DigitalGlobe will further differentiate itself from foreign competition and expand our addressable market.”

The company hopes to see a boost in its financials from the higher-resolution images, though the Motley Fool notes that shareholders shouldn’t expect new customers right away. “Sure, some will bite right away, but it’ll take some time for DigitalGlobe to market its highest-resolution wares to its newest prospective clients,“Steve Symington wrote for the Fool.

DigitalGlobe will also be facing increased competition in the market, as the Commerce Department’s announcement came the same week that Google Inc. said it’s acquiring satellite company Skybox Imaging Inc. for $500 million.

Skybox has designed satellites to capture images and deliver them to customers with details down to less than a meter, and Google is working to bolster its mapping services and improve Internet access. It said the all-cash deal is subject to adjustments.

“Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery,” Google said, according to Bloomberg. “Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief.”

Aerial-imaging companies were previously able to provide higher-resolution images captured by aircraft, which can cost up to $100 to $300 per square kilometer, the Fool reported.

“In the past, collecting sub-50cm resolution required chartering and flying aircraft,” DigitalGlobe said in a blog post. “This is expensive, time-consuming, and can be limited by denied airspace or dangerous conditions.”

Google previously purchased Titan Aerospace, which has designed unmanned aerial systems capable of flying for five years at a time that Google suggested will be used to collect images from high above the planet, aiding initiatives like Google Earth and Google Maps.

Marc Dautlich, a lawyer from Pinsent Masons, told BBC that there could be “repercussions” from people worried about their privacy with the lifting of the resolution cap as well as “national security considerations” that may need to be addressed.

However, national security concerns still prevent satellite imaging companies from selling photos of certain locations, such as military bases. Those restrictions are unaffected by Commerce’s new ruling, according to the Business Journal.

Source Spacedaily and RIA Novosti

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) have signed a collaboration agreement to enhance the development and use of geospatial standards. It is anticipated that this collaboration will enable the JRC to more effectively contribute to the OGC standards process, and facilitate the consideration of European objectives and requirements during the development of international open geospatial standards.

The agreement formalises the partners’ planned collaboration in the field of development, application, maintenance and promotion of international open geospatial standards and best practices in support of European objectives and requirements, in particular in relation to the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive.

“This is an important step forward for both of our organisations,” explained Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC. “OGC benefits from the JRC’s leadership in advancing geospatial information sharing across Europe, enabled by open standards, including those of the OGC. The European Union benefits greatly from open standards that improve discovery, sharing and application of diverse collections of information to address a range of important issues.”

According to Mrs. Maria Betti, Director of the JRC’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability, “During the development and implementation of INSPIRE, the JRC has gathered a lot of experience on the implementation of infrastructures for geospatial and environmental data based on interoperability standards – on an unprecedented scale. The joint activities of the OGC and the JRC will be instrumental in feeding this experience into the international standardisation process.”

About the JRC

As the Commission’s in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre’s mission is to provide EU policies with independent, evidence-based scientific and technical support throughout the whole policy cycle. Working in close cooperation with policy Directorates-General, the JRC addresses key societal challenges while stimulating innovation by developing new methods, tools and standards, and sharing its know-how with the Member States, the scientific community and international partners. Visit the JRC Science Hub at https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/ .

The JRC is the technical coordinator of the Directive establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE – 2007/2/EC).

About the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®)

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 475 companies, government agencies, research organisations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.

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