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This year we shall celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of EARSC. We plan to have a celebration in Brussels in the summer and we hope to see many of you there. So it seems like a time for reflection on where the industry has come in that time and how far EARSC has changed.

In 1989, Landsat had already been operating for 17 years having launched Landsat 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5! SeaSat had been launched (in 1978 and failed 90 days later) and the first European satellite SPOT 1 had been launched just 3 years earlier. Japan had launched MOS-1 just 2 years earlier and there were several Russian satellites orbiting. At that time, I was a young engineer working as the lead radar system designer for the SAR shortly to be launched on ERS-1. It was an exciting time full of technological challenges and new developments. We were learning a lot about how to build space-borne radar.
I recall also the first images we received from the ERS-1 SAR and the time we spent analysing them and trying to understand the rich information they contained. For, at that time, each new satellite was bringing new data and new challenges to the interpretation of the imagery.

Fast forward until today and it is also an exciting time, but rather than addressing the technological challenges of constructing the instruments or understanding the data, the main focus is about how to commercialise the developments. We have moved from a domain driven by technology and research to one that is operational with the need to discover and address new markets; which brings me to EARSC!

I was not there when EARSC was first formed although I do know one or two people who were; notably Bruce Smith and Emile Maes. These two visionaries saw the need for an organisation at European level to help take the industry forward. I became involved about 15 months later and for the first 15 years there was only the effort that the directors themselves gave to the Association; apart from a short period in 1992 when there was an attempt to employ a first secretary general. This ended in disaster as the dramatic increase in fees led very quickly to a situation that, when I became chairman in 1994, I was faced with an Association with 9 directors and 9 members!

For a few years EARSC continued by organising a few high-profile meetings but EARSC only really started to evolve in 2004 with the appointment of an executive secretary – Monica Miguel Lago. This was the first step in transforming EARSC from a club as it then really was, into a true, representative organisation.

The directors of EARSC started planning to appoint a secretary general in 2006/7 but this took more time than expected to find and appoint a secretary general. Congratulations should go to Monica and to then chairman Paul Kamoun who were together fundamental to EARSC development during this time up to the point when I was appointed as SecGen in January 2011.

Today, EARSC continues to develop and we are asking ourselves what more EARSC can do to help its members increase their business. Although the nature of the challenge has changed, the EO services market is still a difficult one. As mentioned in previous editorials, the combination of public and private interests is perhaps unique in this domain. EARSC as the organisation representing the European industry is evolving to meet these new challenges. It is our goal to help the industry develop and we seek to represent the industry in its entirety. Our approach to this is centred around communities of interest and this lies and will remain at the core of our strategy.

One community which we plan to start developing is around research. The EC has just launched its Horizon 2020 programme which is the new Framework Programme. To help our members we have set up a Research Portal where companies and individuals can go to seek partners. It is not yet the final, polished thing, but it is open and we would welcome feedback. It is intended as a sort of virtual coffee bar where people can chat and exchange ideas. There is a library of information and EARSC members can even book a meeting room where they can go and talk about specific ideas for projects with partners.

With thanks to our current chairman Han Wensink and all past chairmen; as well as the many industry champions who have given their time to sit on the board of EARSC during its 25 years of existence, it only remains to wish everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2014.

Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

On 29 December 2013, UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that the UAE will launch the first satellite fully built and manufactured in 2017 launching its executive phase.

Khalifa Sat will be build under the responsibility of the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST).

The website Emirate 247 quoted Sheikh Mohammed saying: ‘‘Khalifa Sat is a message to all Arabs that Arab ushering into the space era is neither out of reach nor impossible and our State will be a leader in this industry as long as we have the confidence and courage to enter into competition with major countries in this field.”

At EIAST, a powerful integrated national team of 45 high caliber engineers and experts are currently establishing advanced facilities and high-tech laboratories for building the satellite. EIAST has previously launched two satellites, DubaiSat 1 and DubaiSat 2, which marked a national milestone as they were the first remote sensing satellites to be fully-owned by a UAE entity.

Read more Emirate247

(09th of January) The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), host to one of UN-SPIDER’s Regional Support Offices, announced that it will set up a new space monitoring station for prevention and prediction of emergency situations in the Urals.

The station will be established in the new Emergency Center in Sverdlovsk and will cover the northern part of the Arctic Zone, the Urals and Volga Region.

As of today, 85 percent of the whole Russian Federation territory are already covered by such space monitoring stations. After the launch of the new system, the area will be cover 95 percent of the country.

Read more EMERCOM

“The Arab Region: Atlas of Our Changing Environment” recently released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) shows through satellite images the growing impact of Climate Change in the Arab region.

The comparative satellite images used in the atlas clearly show the changes caused by the growing population and environmental pressures that have been going on in the region – in land use, urban growth, degradation of marine and coastal areas, shrinking water bodies and loss of habitats. The atlas comes to show which challenges the region will be facing in the next years – limited freshwater resources, rapid urbanization, depletion of natural resources and increased vulnerability to environmental risks and natural disasters.

Furthermore, the satellite images shed light not just onto recent developments in the region and the role humans played in forming the environment, but they also offer an insight into the opportunities and the innovative responses that could be implemented in the region. Many of the countries established environmental agencies in order to mitigate the climate change impacts and their efforts in sustainable development can be seen in the atlas.

The main article published on the website of UNEP gives further information about some of the changes in the countries captured by satellites and gives a small introductory of the Abu Dhabi environmental agency.

CASIS, the nonprofit organization managing research in the U.S. National Laboratory aboard the International Space Station (ISS), has issued a request for proposals in the field of remote sensing until 21 February 2014.


The request specifies: “CASIS is confident that this Request for Proposals will attract both experienced and new-to-space investigators for the development and deployment for testing (for 90 days or less) of sensors or instrumentation for remote sensing or for the utilization of existing hardware for remote sensing on the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. Proposals should seek to use the National Lab for development of sensors and/or use of existing hardware for studies of Earth, Earth’s atmosphere, and astronomy and planetary science with the goal of benefiting life on Earth. CASIS will support this process through grant funding, facilitation of service-provider interactions and flight coordination to and from the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory.”

The U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS is part of the U.S. segment of the Space Station and was created to increase the utilization of this unique research environment by other U.S. Federal entities and the private sector. As the ISS is orbiting Earth in a relatively low altitude of 140 miles or 400 km, it is in an ideal position to provide remote sensing services for the benefit of humankind. It covers 90% of the Earth’s population and can provide improved spatial resolution and variable lighting conditions compared to the sun-synchronous orbits of typical Earth remote-sensing satellites.

Read more at CASIS

Source

The JRC recently presented the new developments of its eStation, a processing server for the environmental monitoring of land condition in Africa.

Developed by the JRC, the eStation is a system designed to automatically deal with the reception, processing, analysis and dissemination of key environmental parameters derived from remotely sensed data. Initially created as a stand-alone system – not connected to the internet – using an open source tool, the eStation has recently been further developed as a web processing service to allow a broader range of end-users, mainly policy-makers and governmental agencies, to access the data and services over the internet.

The eStation has been successfully deployed in 47 sub-Saharan countries in the context of the African Monitoring of Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) project.

Read more

(Source JRC nad Copernicus.info)

The S2G2M2 project is launching a call for Expression of Interest for “Copernicus and GNSS Business and innovation” experts and for Innovative Mobile Service Companies.

Interest parties can register online through the following link

S2G2M2 stands for Sustainable Services for GMES (now named Copernicus) and GNSS in Mobile and Mobility. This EU-funded project aims at supporting innovative mobile service providers to benefit from the European satellite navigation systems (Galileo and EGNOS) and data derived from the European Earth observation programme Copernicus.

Read more about the S2G2M2 project

Source EBN and Copernicus.info

Directional & Hemispherical Albedo, Canopy Reflectances, Leaf Area Index, …


  • Directional Albedo (version 1), ALDH
  • Hemispherical Albedo (version 1), ALBH
  • Top-of-Canopy Reflectances (version 1), TOC-R
  • Leaf Area Index (version 1), LAI
  • Fraction of Green Vegetation Cover (version 1), FCover
  • Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (version 1), FAPAR

These products are derived from the SPOT-VEGETATION sensor. They are delivered three times per month and cover South America.

for Typical names and sizes visit

Source

Events Winter 2013/2014


Start Date End Date Event Web Venue
13-jan-14 15-jan-14 Least Squares Adjustment for Offshore Survey web Newcastle, U.K.
13-jan-14 17-jan-14 GEO Summit web Geneve, Switzerland
16-jan-14 16-jan-14 Disasters Risk Reduction and Earth observations: a GEO perspective web Geneve, Switzerland
16-jan-14 16-jan-14 Copernicus Today and Tomorrow web Athens,Greece
24-jan-14 24-jan-14 Spatial Analysis using ArcGIS web Newcastle, U.K.
27-jan-14 30-jan-14 MACC-II Open Science Conference web Brussels, Belgium
28-jan-14 29-jan-14 6th Edition of the high-level Conference on EU Space Policy web Brussels, Belgium
28-jan-14 29-jan-14 GeoUtilities Conference web London, UK
29-jan-14 30-jan-14 Esri Geodesign Summit web Redlands, CA, U.S.A.
02-feb-14 04-feb-14 Middle East Geospatial Forum web Dubai, UAE
03-feb-14 06-feb-14 7th EARSeL Workshop on Land Ice and Snow web Bernn, Switzerland
03-feb-14 07-feb-14 Global Vegetation Monitoring and Modelling web Avignon, France
11-feb-14 12-feb-14 GeoInsurance Conference web London, U.K.
12-feb-14 13-feb-14 Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe web London, U.K.
12-feb-14 14-feb-14 EuroCOW 2014: the Calibration and Orientation Workshop web Barcelona, Spain
13-feb-14 14-feb-14 ICOIA 2014 – International Conference on Intelligent Agriculture web Hong Kong, China
13-feb-14 14-feb-14 Copernicus User Awareness & Training Event
Copernicus User Awareness & Training Event
web Lisbon, Portugal
17-feb-14 19-feb-14 International LiDAR Forum web CO, U.S.A.
18-feb-14 19-feb-14 NetSpace workshop web Athens, Greece
18-feb-14 19-feb-14 The European Information Security Summit web London,UK
19-feb-14 20-feb-14 ICESD 2014 – 5th International Conference on Environmental Science and Development web Singapore, Singapore
20-feb-14 20-feb-14 European GNSS Conference web Brussels, Belgium
24-feb-14 25-feb-14 CLARR 2014 – International conference towards climate adapted and resilient regions web Bremen, Germany
24-feb-14 26-feb-14 C4ISR Summit Middle East web Abu Dhabi,UAE
25-feb-14 25-feb-14 SSSI NSW Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Fields Seminar web Sydney, Australia
27-feb-14 28-feb-14 NEREUS INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP SPACE4YOU “Space, a driver for competitiveness and growth” web Bremen, Germany
03-mar-14 04-mar-14 HOPE Conference – Healthy Oceans, Productive Ecosystems web Brussels, Belgium
05-mar-14 07-mar-14 Image Information Mining Conference: The Sentinels Era web Bucharest Romania
07-mar-14 18-mar-14 Ninth Conference on Image Information Mining web Bucharest Romania
10-mar-14 11-mar-14 European Smart Grid Cyber & SCAD Security web London, UK
10-mar-14 12-mar-14 CIRCLE-2 final conference – Frontiers in European climate change adaptation research and practice web Lisbon, Portugal
10-mar-14 13-mar-14 Esri International Developer Summit web Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
10-mar-14 13-mar-14 Satellite 2014 web Washington, USA
12-mar-14 12-mar-14 Seventh International Conference on Waste Management and the Environment web Ancona, Italy
12-mar-14 12-mar-14 Copernicus Big Data Workshop web Brussels, Belgium
17-mar-14 18-mar-14 5th Workshop of SIG Land Use/Land Cover web Postdam, Germany
18-mar-14 19-mar-14 GeoEvent web Houten, The Netherlands
19-mar-14 19-mar-14 Nanosatellite´s contribution to the European Space Policy” Workshop and Policy Roundtable web Bremen, Germany
19-mar-14 21-mar-14 2014 Global Land Project Open Science Meeting web Berlin, Germany
23-mar-14 27-mar-14 ASPRS 2014 Annual Conference web Louisville, KY, U.S.A.
24-mar-14 25-mar-14 ICT-DM’2014 – First international conference on information and communication technologies for disaster management web Algiers, Algeria
25-mar-14 27-mar-14 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2014 web Munich, Germany
27-mar-14 28-mar-14 IEEA 2014 – 3rd International Conference on Informatics, Environment, Energy and Applications web Shanghai, China
01-apr-14 04-apr-14 3rd International Conference on the Use of Space Technology for Water Management web Rabat, Morocco
02-apr-14 04-apr-14 Forest Change 2014 web Freising, Germany
04-apr-14 04-apr-14 Food and Agriculture Futures: Response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) web London, United Kingdom
03-apr-14 04-apr-14 Network Analysis using GIS web Newcastle, U.K.
04-apr-14 04-apr-14 Food and Agriculture Futures: Response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) web London, United Kingdom
07-apr-14 08-apr-14 GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference web Geneva, Switzerland
07-apr-14 10-apr-14 Second International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geo-information of Environment, RSCy2014 web Paphos, Cyprus,
08-apr-14 08-apr-14 Climate Change Adaptation: Highlighting Environmental Science, Law and Policy web London, UK
08-apr-14 09-apr-14 CIWEM’s annual conference – Water and environment 2014 web London, UK
08-apr-14 09-apr-14 GeoMaritime web London, UK
09-apr-14 10-apr-14 Copernicus User Awareness & Training Event
Copernicus User Awareness & Training Event
web Tallinn, Estonia
09-apr-14 10-apr-14 AeroSpace Days web Paris, France
10-apr-14 11-apr-14 International Conference on Applied Science “Earth Remote Sensing Tools and Technologies in Science, Education and Business” web Saint-Petersburg, Russia
14-apr-14 16-apr-14 Wavelength 2014 web Great Malvern, United Kingdom
14-apr-14 17-apr-14 GISWORX 2014 web Dubai, Abu Dhabi
14-apr-14 17-apr-14 European Navigation Conference – ENC-GNSS 2014 web Rotterdam, The Netherlands
14-apr-14 17-apr-14 Geoint web Tampa, Florida
22-apr-14 24-apr-14 5th International Workshop on Remote Sensing of Vegetation Fluorescence web Paris, France
23-apr-14 24-apr-14 AIDF Water Security Summit: Asia 2014 web Bangkok, Thailand
25-apr-14 27-apr-14 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit web Munich, Germany
27-apr-14 02-may-14 EGU General Assembly 2014 web Vienna, Austria
27-apr-14 29-apr-14 Intergeo Eurasia 2014 web Istanbul, Turkey
27-apr-14 02-may-14 EGU General Assembly 2014 web Vienna, Austria
28-apr-14 29-apr-14 Small Water Systems Conference web London, UK
29-apr-14 30-apr-14 ARTES Applications workshop (IAP) web Luxemburg, Luxemburg
04-may-14 12-may-14 Space App Camp 2014 web Noordwijk, The Netherlands
05-may-14 07-may-14 IWGGMS-10 – 10th International Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Measurements from space web Noordwijk, The Netherlands
05-may-14 08-may-14 IOSC 2014 – International Oil Spill Conference web Savannah, USA
05-may-14 09-may-14 6th Geospatial World Forum web Geneva, Switzerland
05-may-14 09-may-14 II International conference “Geoinformation Sciences and Environmental Development: New Approaches, Methods, Technologies” (GeoiD 2014) web Limassol, Cyprus
07-may-14 07-may-14 ICERE 2014 – International Conference on Environment and Renewable Energy web Paris, France
12-may-14 12-may-14 Seventh International Conference on Waste Management and the Environment web Ancona, Italy
12-may-14 13-may-14 Copernicus Conference – Sentinels Serving Society and the Environment web Athens, Greece
12-may-14 15-may-14 9th Annual International Symposium on Environment web Athens, Greece
12-may-14 16-may-14 ECSA54 – Coastal systems under change: tuning assessment and management tools web Sesimbra, Portugal
14-may-14 16-may-14 CEM 2014 – 11th International Conference & Exhibition on Emissions Monitoring web Istanbul, Turkey
14-may-14 16-may-14 Environmental Impact 2014 web Ancona, Italy
15-may-14 16-may-14 Baltic Applied Astroinformatics and Space data Processing web Ventspils, Latvia
15-may-14 17-may-14 EUROGEO 2014 – The Power of Geography and the Role of Spatial Information web Valetta, Malta
19-may-14 2o-may-14 European Maritime Day web Bremen, Germany
20-may-14 22-may-14 Sentinel-2 for Science Workshop web Frascati, Italy
21-may-14 23-may-14 Remote Sensing Summer School (SplitRS 2014) GEOBIA 2014) web Thessaloniki, Greece
22-may-14 23-may-14 Symposium: Remote Sensing for Conservation – ZSL 2014 web London, UK
25-may-14 30-may-14 First International Summit on Tornadoes and Climate Change web Chaina, Crete, Greece
26-may-14 27-may-14 UAS event web Madrid, Spain
26-may-14 28-may-14 Water Pollution 2014 – 12th International conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Water Pollution web Alvor, Portugal
26-may-14 30-may-14 Fourth International Conference on Earth Observations for sustainable Development and Security GEO-UA 2014 web Kiev, Ucrania
27-may-14 28-may-14 DG CONNECT & ETSI Workshop on Smart M2M Appliances web Brussels, Belgium
28-may-14 29-may-14 20th International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment web Algarve, Portugal
28-may-14 29-may-14 GEO Business 2014 web London, U.K.
02-jun-14 04-jun-14 GLAC 2014-Global Space Applications Conference web Paris, France
02-jun-14 04-jun-14 Ecological Basis of Risk Analysis for Marine Ecosystems web Beijing, China
02-jun-14 06-jun-14 10th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar web Berlin, Germany
02-jun-14 06-jun-14 Global Space Applications Conference web Paris, France
03-jun-14 03-jun-14 Renewable energy in European regions: best practices web Lyon, France
03-jun-14 04-jun-14 Oil and Gas Cyber Security web Oslo, Norway
03-jun-14 04-jun-14 Global Connected Aircraft Summit web Long Beach, CA, USA
03-jun-14 05-jun-14 GEOSummit 2014 web Berne, Switzerland
03-jun-14 06-jun-14 AGILE 204 web Castellon, Spain
05-jun-14 06-jun-14 United Nations/Germany Expert Meeting on Space Technologies for Flood and Drought Risk Management web Bonn, Germany
10-jun-14 11-jun-14 Smarter Cities 2014 web Vienna, Austria
10-jun-14 12-jun-14 Adaptation Strategies to Global Environmental Change in the Mediterranean City – The role of Global Earth Observations web Athens, Greece
11-jun-14 13-jun-14 European Space Solutions-Discover what Space brings to your life web Prague, Czech Republic
12-jun-14 12-jun-14 Digital Society and Satellite Applications web Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
12-jun-14 12-jun-14 8th GEO European Projects Workshop web Athens, Greece
16-jun-14 20-jun-14 ICC&GIS Conference 2014 web Riviera, Bulgaria
16-jun-14 20-jun-14 INSPIRE Conference 2014 web tbc,Denmark
16-jun-14 20-jun-14 EARSeL 34th Annual Symposium web Warsaw, Poland
16-jun-14 21-jun-14 5th Jubilee International Conference on Cartography & GIS & Seminar with EU cooperation on Early Warning and Disaster/Crisis Management web Riviera, Bulgaria
17-jun-14 26-jun-14 14th INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC GEOCONFERENCE & EXPO SGEM2014 web Albena, Bulgaria
18-jun-14 20-jun-14 FRIAR 2014 – 4th International Conference on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response web Poznan, Poland
19-jun-14 20-jun-14 MyOcean2 User Workshop web Lisbon, Portugal
20-jun-14 21-jun-14 2nd SPACE Conference web Orlando, Florida, USA
25-jun-14 27-jun-14 Space and Security Conference web Athens, Greece
27-jun-14 28-jun-14 Sixth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses web Reykjavik, Iceland
30-jun-14 02-jul-14 Toulouse Space Show 2014 web Toulouse, France
01-jul-14 04-jul-14 GI_Forum 2014 – Geospatial Innovation for Society web Salzburg, Austria
01-jul-14 07-jul-14 AfricaGEO 2014 web Cape Town, South Africa
03-jul-14 04-jul-14 Coastal Risks: Hazards, Stakes, Representations, Management web Brest, France
06-jul-14 12-jul-14 European Summer School on the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change web Venice, Italy
07-jul-14 09-jul-14 Air Pollution 2014 web Opatija, Croatia
15-jul-14 17-jul-14 FOSS4G Europe Conference 2014 web Bremen, Germany
04-aug-14 14-aug-14 Earth Observation Summer School – Earth System Monitoring and Modelling web Frascati, Italy
24-aug-14 28-aug-14 IDRC Davos 2014: 5th International disaster and risk conference web Davos, Switzerland
30-aug-14 07-sep-14 White Sea Student Workshop on optics of coastal waters web Primorskiy, Russia
02-sep-14 05-sep-14 Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society Conference 2014 web Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, U.K.
08-sep-14 11-sep-14 Geomapplica web Skiathos Island, Greece
08-sep-14 12-sep-14 5th ESA Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing 2014 web Valencia, Spain
15-sep-14 16-sep-14 3rd International Space Research Conference web Rome, Italy
16-sep-14 18-sep-14 ICFM6 – 6th international conference on flood management web São Paulo, Brazil
20-sep-14 27-sep-14 ISSI Autumn School on Data Assimilation in Biogeochemical Cycles web Trieste, Italy
22-sep-14 25-sep-14 SPIE 2014 web Dresden, Germany
22-sep-14 26-sep-14 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference web Geneva, Switzerland
05-oct-14 08-sep-14 Global Risk Forum GRF Davos, from thoughts to Action web Davos, Switzerland
07-oct-14 09-oct-14 imaGIne-2 CONFERENCE web Berlin, Germany
07-oct-14 09-oct-14 INTERGEO 2014 web Berlin, Germany
13-oct-14 17-oct-14 Climate Research and Earth Observations from Space: Climate Information for Decision Making web Darmstadt, Germany
13-oct-14 17-oct-14 Radar 2014 web Lille, France
14-oct-14 16-oct-14 9th International Soil Science Congress on The Soul of Soil and Civilization web Antalya, Turkey
17-oct-14 20-oct-14 Mathematical Morphology in Geosciences and Geoinformatics web New Delhi, India
28-oct-14 30-oct-14 7th EuroGOOS conference web Lisbon, Portugal
03-nov-14 05-nov-14 Trimble Dimensions 2014 web Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
04-nov-14 07-nov-14 2014 ForestSAT conference web Riva del Garda (TN), Italy
05-nov-14 06-nov-14 WWEM 2014 web Telford, UK
19-jan-15 21-jan-15 DGI2015 web London, UK

Eomag launched 15January2014

Founded in May 2004, VisioTerra is oriented towards Science Consulting for Earth Observation. This includes not only expert support, training and communication for EO programs, technical studies, software development of applications using virtual globes, scientific documentation editing, quality control assessment and reporting, instruments and products verification/control, new products and instruments specification and prototyping, audits, but also production of cartographic products to be ingested by GIS.

The list hereinafter describes some of the projects carried out by VisioTerra:

Software development

  • Whale Web portal – Leading a consortium of research institutes for “Assessing cetacean populations and important cetacean habitats in Bay of Bengal and Icelandic shelf large marine ecosystems”. Production of a virtual globe for this project.
  • VTGoce: Virtual globe to compare and combine surfaces – Tool enabling to compare and combine altimetry surfaces. Application to the geoids produced by the GOCE satellite.
  • VTAOIWatcher: Near real-time monitoring – Tool monitoring areas of interest and providing with near real-time images that are processed on the flight.
  • VTGeomorpho: Morpho-structural analysis – Production of serial profiles and wrapping surfaces from various altimetry models.

Fig. 1 – Windows used for profile edition in VTGeomorpho and Fig.2. – Windows used in the wrapping surfaces generation

  • VTExpotKMZ: Export of “super-layers” – Production of KMZ “super-layers” for the Google Earth display of for an e-mail controlling the size of the product.
  • VTEscape: Surface parameters – Tool producing spacemaps containing physical parameters of the Earth surface: ‑atmosphere (wind fields, pressures, clouds…), ‑ocean (sea surface temperatures, currents, salinity…), ‑lands (reflectance, land-use, moisture…).


Fig. 3 – ECMWF pressure displayed on Google Earth.

  • VTAOIBuilder: Area Of Interest builder – Development of a tool to create areas of interest of various types: –bounding box, ‑disk, ‑corridor, ‑polygon.
  • VTAOICatcher: Acquisition prediction – Development of a tool enabling to select the missions / instruments observing a particular area of interest for a given period.


Fig.4 : Results of a search performed on Gabon boundaries

  • VTTileGrabber: Virtual Globe Capture – Development of a tool enabling the capture of the layers displayed along a session of navigation in a virtual globe. Production of a geocoded mosaic of the observed tiles.
  • VTSatelliteTracker: Orbit propagation and virtual globes– Development of a Web tool to display in virtual globes the satellite models, propagated orbits, instrument viewing vectors, and on-ground swaths.

Studies

  • ERAIFT Capacity building of the geomatics laboratory:Field survey and reporting for the capacity building of the Geomatics Laboratory of the ERAIFT regional school in Kinshasa, DRC.
  • TOTAL: Cryosat over Arctic – Study of the potential of satellite data to . monitor the environment in very cold areas.
  • TOTAL: Radar / optic coupling – Development and validation of methods to retrieve the optical signature of hydrocarbons from slicks detected by radar.
  • TOTAL: Detection of offshore wind fields from radar images – Development and validation of methods to detect wind fields at the surface of the sea from radar images.
  • TOTAL: Oil seeps detection – Development and validation of methods to detect offshore oil seeps from wide field radar images.
  • TOTAL: E.O. Portal – Edition of Intranet pages specialised in Earth Observation (EO) defining the missions, instruments, programmes, events, agenda, spatial agencies, organisations… together with associated courses.
  • REMA / World Bank: REMA Biodiversity Information System (RBIS) – Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) – Support for the management of the RBIS from the invitation to tender up to the software development, data organization and trainings.
  • TOTAL: Multitemporal study of flooded areas – Analysis of the yearly cycle within the period 2006-2009. Classification of marsh zones and detection of anomalies due to anthropic activities.
  • TOTAL: Coastal erosion of Mandji peninsula – Compilation and accurate geocoding of optic and radar data (satellite and aerial photographs) acquired along the last 35 years. Photo-interpretation of coastal lines and development of tools to quantify erosions / accretions.
  • SIARCE / AIR: Audit of the SIGNE GIS – Assessment of the functionalities, document, manpower and computer resources of the GIS for the management of the Essonne basin. Editing of recommendations for the system extension.
  • ESA-ESRIN: GOCE L1b Products User Handbook – Editing of a second version of the handbook describing the acquisition physics, the algorithms, and the products of the gravimeter and positioning instruments onboard GOCE.


Fig.5 : Trajectory and reference frames.

  • ESA / Brockmann Consult: CAL/VAL Portal – Generic description of missions and instruments using the SensorML language to support Calibration / Validation activities performed by the CEOS group.
  • TOTAL: Study of Google Earth – Study, training and demonstrations of Google Earth for the fulfillment of business requirements in the domains of oil exploration, environment management and infrastructures.
  • ESA-ESRIN: MERIS Product Handbook – Enhancement and correction of the MERIS product handbook introducing FAQ, applications and level 3 descriptions.
  • DGA / Générale d’Infographie: Georeferencing study – Inventory of technical solutions and research actors in the field of georeferencing.
  • ESA-ESTEC: MERIS Geometry handbook – This handbook details the viewing geometry and provides algorithms and programs to orthorectify MERIS images from elevation ancillary data or external DEM.
  • ESA-ESTEC: DEM Quality assessment – Elevations found in ACE (ERS-1/2 Altimetry Corrected Elevations) and in SRTM30 are compared and assessed using external elevation values. Visual inspections results are also reported within a technical note.
  • SPOT IMAGE: Scientific editing of DIMAP format – Enhancement of DIMAP documentation by providing explanations, equations and figures of the viewing model. HTML pages (397 items) are automatically generated from XML schemas and style sheets.
  • ESA-ESRIN / CNES: SPOT Vegetation / Envisat MERIS – Complementarity and comparison – Analysis of radiometry and geometry performances of both instruments. Paper presented on 2nd SPOT Vegetation Workshop (Antwerp, 12-14 March 2004).

Training

  • Douala University (Cameroun): Remote sensing and image processing – Knowledge control and bringing up to standard in the framework of « Open and remote trainings » (project FOAD of AUF).
  • INP (Gabon): Spatial geometry algorithms – Ecole du Cadastre of the Institut National de Cartographie (INC) in Libreville. Reminders of geodesy and spatial mechanics. Detailed presentation of algorithms for the geocoding and orthorectification of optic and radar Earth observation images.
  • UNEP: Remote sensing and GIS for hazard mapping – Advanced training and ArcGIS practice to setup a « Hazard mapping » GIS, to process optical and Radar images, digital elevation models, and to produce thematic maps by the Forestry Department of Myanmar.
  • TOTAL « Image processing » and « Georeferencing » trainings – « Image processing » : physics, instruments, pseudo-color and color compositions, LUT transform, filtering, fusion. – « Georeferencing»: geodesy, referentials, spatial mechanics, image products, optical and Radar orthorectification.
  • Algerian Universities: Geometry of remote sensing images – Communication in the universities of Constantine and M’Sila. Processing of Landsat scenes in the region of Constantine.
  • PDVSA / BEICIP: Remote Sensing Training applied to Oil Exploration – Training of PDVA’s managers for the acquisition, processing and interpretation of Earth observation data.
  • ESA / Palestinian Universities: Remote Sensing Training and GIS in Palestine – In collaboration with the University of Marne-la-Vallée and with the support of the European Space Agency, VisioTerra has built a GIS of Palestine that has been presented to the universities of Al-Quds, Naplouse and Hebron.

GIS layers elaborated for the Palestinian Universities

Cartographic production

  • UNEP / OBSCOM: Urban growth in Ivory Coast – Production of LU/LC classification spacemaps and statistics to monitor the urban growth of the cities of Abidjan and Bouake in Ivory Coast.
  • Dobbin International / OBSCOM: LU/LC of Mozambique – Production of LU/LC classification spacemaps of 5 provinces of Mozambique from Landsat scenes and field data. Production of radar scenes. Orthorectification of SPOT scenes.
  • Rio Tinto / OBSCOM: Production of LU/LC maps in Guinea – Geocoding and processing of Landsat, Radar and digital elevation models (DEM) to produce Land Use / Land Cover (LU/LC) maps from field data and supervised classifications.
  • TOTAL: Massive production of radar geocoded data – Geocoding and processing of radar segments and scenes to make easier the photo-interpretation of hydrocarbon slicks over the sea.
  • TOTAL: World / Africa / South Africa posters – Production and processing of three posters (diameter 5m and 7m) displayed on the TOTAL stand at the AAPG 2008 workshop in Cap Town (South Africa).
  • TOTALWorld poster – Production and processing of a 5×10m poster displayed on the TOTAL stand at the EAGE 2008 workshop in Rome.
  • WCS / OBSCOM: Afghanistan eastern complex forest mapping – Production of a SPOT-5 / SPOT-4 mosaic over Afghanistan. Assessment and processing of SRTM defects.
  • UNEP: OPTEC Gaza – Processing, control and preparation of data for the inventory of land cover in Gaza Band.
  • Gaz de France: Landsat ETM+ Libya – Processing, production and restitution of Landsat ETM+ spacemaps for the photo-interpretation of structural geology.
  • TOTAL: JERS Colombia – Geocoding, pre-processing and quality control of 38 JERS-scenes.
  • Morocco Marble Exploration: Envisat ASAR + Landsat ETM+ synthesis – Geocoding and merging of RADAR and optical images to support photo-interpretation for the detection of marble veins in Moroccan Atlas.

Communication

  • Cité des Sciences: « Objectif Earth » – presentation during the « week of the science » of the best-of Earth observation images. Explanation of the acquisition techniques, data processing and applications.
  • Bandit Manchot: E-commerce website setting up – Graphic elaboration, shop window, goods database, shopping basket, special offers, customers accounts, orders, quick browsing… from Oscommerce.
  • ICE: Communication support – Elaboration of the graphic charter, company presentation leaflet and partners business cards.
  • LAPIDEM: Google Earth website – Presentation of the architecture projects within dynamic web pages and display of the projects in the Google Earth virtual globe.

Partners

VisioTerra maintains cooperation with industry, universities and research organisations:

  • GAEL Consultant: a software company specialised in software development for EO data processing. VisioTerra is granted the right to upgrade and maintain the TELIMAGO software owned by GAEL Consultant.
  • University of Marne La Vallée: Image processing, Data fusion, Geodesy, Remote sensing projects courses are given by VisioTerra staff.
  • ENSG (IGN): Supervision of PhDs and DEA students in collaboration with «Geographic Information Sciences» department.
  • University Paris VI: Collaboration with Geology department.
  • VisioTerra is member of the associations OGC, AFIGEO, SFPT, and EARSC

Technical facilities and scientific environment
VisioTerra is located at the high technology pole of Marne-La-Vallée, located around 15 minutes from Paris. The immediate environment includes the University Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée, the school of Ponts-et-Chaussée, the national school of geographic sciences, ESIEE, the school Louis Lumière and many other establishments of training and research
VisioTerra uses its proper computing power and the TELIMAGO image processing software, which is continuously upgraded to better carry out studies and cartographic production.

Visioterra
14 rue Albert Einstein 77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France
Phone:+33 9 6130 6628. Email. Website