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By combining technologies from immersive 3D, financial services, television and earth observation, 3DEO have developed a new approach to the interaction with and presentation of diverse data, from space to smart phones. 3DEO think and inform visually revealing much more than can be seen from traditional perspectives. 3DEO solutions have widespread application, from defense to disaster risk management, estate management and financial markets insight.

3DEO deliver solutions along the chain from the sensor to information, including on board technology, RF links, and full scope ground processing, including atmospheric and geometric processing, analytics, and visualization. We have partnered with the organizations we feel are most suited to enabling us to reach of goals, including First Derivatives, Ghalam, and Spacemetric.

3DEO are based in the Scottish Provident Building by the City Hall in Belfast. There are 15 of us currently, and we are always recruiting talented and enthusiastic engineers, developers and data scientists.

Our goal is the elimination of time between sensor and information, to this end we work with the best in class technology providers from the sensor developers through to the data visualisation and immersive technology providers.

From our work on sensor to information, we determined a need to improve the RF links available for a small, micro and nano satellites. The costs of the RF links and ground processing exceeding the costs of the satellites in some cases.

3DEO NI Limited have partnered with Ghalam to introduce the software defined radio RF link for flexibility, multi satellite utility, and significant hardware, and subsequent ongoing operating costs reduction.

We have found RF Links and Ground Processing tended to be a significant, but usually under specified element of the development programmes for satellite EO missions.

Many EO small satellite missions are using dedicated RF and ground processing systems with little flexibility in the capability of the hardware, and subsequent software, which had to be developed or bought, tested and dedicated to the mission.

The aim of 3DEO has been to introduce a solution to increase the application of payload data from the satellite, by providing a software defined RF link, for transmission and reception of payload and platform data, to reduce the hardware costs for initial capital outlay, and to enable scale for multiple satellites and rapid deployment for shorter missions.

3DEO have developed an SDR based RF link, for full duplex communications, proven to work well with EO satellites, and capable of handing the data needs for UAV’s, HAPS, Live Video, as well as meeting other, typically time critical communications needs.

The solution developed has been under test since early 2017, and has demonstrated capability beyond expectations in surety of reception and transmission, and in the volume and veracity of the variation of applications for rapid re-configuration tests.

The hardware requirements have gone from a dedicated 6U rack space to an ‘RF link in your pocket’, with substantial cost savings on comparable products, but with the fully duplex solution only available from 3DEO.

The SDR will be deployed for the KazSTSAT satellite in the Summer, when 3DEO will have its first fully operating demonstrable solution.

3DEO are also in dialogue with a number of additional organisations looking at the full ground processing solution, built around the reception capabilities of the SDR RF link.

The SDR RF Link is the first development from 3DEO into the market is at one end of the full sensor to information scope we offer. The ongoing development of the ground processing, including analytics and visualisation, continue at pace, with the benefits of full turn-key solutions in data reception, processing, analysis and visualisation being particularly well suited to those customers with time critical data needs, from a wide variety of data sources and the need to gain decision support insight in a timely manner.

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A scheme to use satellites to support the roll out of charging points for Electric Vehicles is one of eight new projects announced by the Science Minister Sam Gyimah today.

The electric vehicle charging point project, led by Energeo Ltd working with Bournemouth Borough Council, will combine satellite imagery, Open Data, and Machine Learning to deliver an interactive map based user interface. This will help the council identify charge point requirements via visualisation of different features and influences on EV roll out, such as existing charge points, residential driveway availability and size, and footpath width and potential obstructions.

The eight new projects are part of the UK Space Agency’s Space for Smarter Government Programme, which demonstrates the potential of using satellite technology to solve challenges faced by the public sector.

Satellite data and applications which use space have the potential to change the way the public sector works, leading to better services and lower costs. This in turn could help boost the growth of the UK space sector, which is already worth £13.7 billion to the economy and provides around 40,000 jobs.

The announcement comes on the day the Space Industry Act received Royal Assent, which will unlock an exciting era of British space innovation, exploration and investment. The Act will enable the first commercial space launch from UK soil in history, creating the potential for hundreds of highly-skilled jobs and bringing in billions of pounds for the economy.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:
“These projects demonstrate the potential of satellite technology to benefit life on Earth with innovative solutions to challenges ranging from monitoring plastic waste in the sea to supporting the roll out of charge points for electric cars.

“As set out in our Industrial Strategy, the UK Space Agency is working together with industry to ensure the UK thrives in the commercial space age. The Space for Smarter Government Programme is transforming the way the public sector works. It will stimulate innovation and growth, while helping the public sector save money and improve decision making.”

The Environment Agency will collaborate on two projects, one of which deploys satellites and drones in the battle against marine waste and the other will use satellite data to monitor flood defences in the Thames Estuary.

Dr John Kupiec, Environment Agency’s Innovation Manager, said:

“The Environment Agency is delighted to support the development of these innovative projects that will help us work towards protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.

“The Government’s 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment highlighted the problem of plastics in the environment – particularly in marine and coastal environments. By using Earth Observation and other novel technologies we hope to accomplish our common goals in reducing plastic and other waste pollution.”

The UK Space Agency is providing training to policymakers as well as access to data, wider expertise and market capability as part of the programme. Working alongside public sector partners, academia and industry can help bring new satellite applications to market to meet UK needs.

The full list of projects, which have received a combined total of more than £700,000 in funding, can be found here.

The millions of tonnes of plastic ending up in the oceans every year are a global challenge. ESA is responding by looking at the detection of marine plastic litter from space, potentially charting its highest concentrations and understanding the gigantic scale of the problem.

We dump around 10 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans annually. Though most conspicuous along coastlines, plastic litter is also found out in the open ocean and from the equator to the pole – even frozen in polar ice.

Gradually broken down into micro-fragments by weathering and waves, it is not only endangering marine animals but it is also entering the global food chain, with unknown long-term consequences for animal life and our own health.

“Indirect measurements from space are already used to get to grips with the marine plastic litter problem,” explains ESA’s Paolo Corradi, overseeing the project.

“For instance, satellite maps of ocean currents let us simulate accumulation of litter in vast ‘gyres’ within the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

“What we are now looking at in this new project is to assess the feasibility of direct optical measurement of seaborne plastic waste from satellites. This might sound like mission impossible, but there are reasons to believe it might be indeed doable, at least for certain concentrations.

“We’re not talking about actually spotting floating litter items but instead to identify a distinct spectral signature of plastic picked up from orbit, in the same way that processing software can today pick out concentrations of phytoplankton, suspended sediments and water-borne pollution.

“In particular, plastic has specific infrared fingerprints that are sometimes used in the recycling industry to sort plastic items from other refuse on a conveyor belt.”

Supported by ESA’s Basic Activities, two teams are working in parallel, led by Argans Limited and Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK. Their work began last September with an initial assessment of requirements and technologies, along with a workshop bringing together marine litter experts with remote sensing specialists.

Satellite images from missions such the Copernicus Sentinels are being checked against aerial coverage plus ground surveys where drifting plastic is collected from the sea to be assessed in close-up. Initial results were presented last week at the International Marine Debris Conference in San Diego, USA.

Paolo adds, “We hope to get an idea of what kind of concentration of marine litter is viewable from the top of the atmosphere using current technology, or if we’d have to operate from the middle of the atmosphere using aircraft or drones. Or would we have to improve the technology?”

The project will deliver a preliminary set of requirements for a satellite to detect marine plastic litter in the shortwave infrared.

The ultimate goal might be an actual global map showing litter concentrations, concludes Paolo: “Simulations are all well and good, but an image based on actual measurements would provide important insights to scientists and would hold greater power for the public and policymakers alike.

“Monitoring is not a goal in itself, but a means to show the scale of the problem, and start to try and solve it.”

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The Copernicus programme launched in 1998 under the name GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is the European flagship Earth observation programme, created with the objective of collecting Earth observation data to support, mainly, policy making.

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The management of the Copernicus programme falls under the competence of the European Commission, while the development of the observation infrastructure is performed by ESA (European Space Agency), – the latter being responsible for the deployment of the “space component” of the programme. The in-situ component is itself managed by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which coordinates Member-States in-situ generated data. According the Copernicus Market Report issued in November 2016, the investment in the Copernicus programme is EUR 7.4 bn and the cumulated monetary benefits after 1 year of operations is estimated to be EUR 13.5 bn for the added-value created in the upstream space industry, the sales of Copernicus-based applications by downstream service suppliers and the exploitation of Copernicus-enabled products by end-users in various economic sectors. Among others, non-monetary benefits include 12,450 job years supported in the downstream markets and 15,580 job years supported in the upstream. The free and open data policy of the Copernicus programme enabled the creation of new business model and strengthen the Earth observation markets in Europe, in particular the downstream sector. Concrete examples of operational benefits thanks to Copernicus include an improved safety at sea thanks to risk forecasts, an improved air quality monitoring or the support to marine renewable energy thanks to tidal predictions.

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There has been a significant growth in the availability of satellite data in recent years, providing access to information on air quality, soil composition, ocean currents, and seismic activity.

Satellite images offer a 3D view of the earth and a close to real time analysis.

Experts argue that sustainable agriculture and food security processes are limited by a lack of information. Satellite data fills this gap while also offering the potential to map deforestation, urbanisation and flooding.

Satellite technologies provide a new solution to the world’s rapidly increasing population and food demands.

Nagaraja Rao Harshadeep, lead environmental specialist and global lead for watersheds at the World Bank commented:

“There’s an opportunity to try and do things in a way we couldn’t even dream of just a few years ago. A real paradigm shift is happening in terms of the kinds of activities that we can support now using a lot of these new technologies.”

For agriculture, satellite technology could be critical, farmers and agricultural organisations will be able to make informed decisions based on historic patterns and a better understanding of present day issues.

A new satellite technology has been launched today that harnesses the latest earth observation and satellite technology to help Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Tanzania address food security, agriculture issues, deforestation and water access.

The ‘African Regional Data Cube’ was developed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS) alongside the Group on Earth Observations, Amazon Web Services and Strathmore University in Kenya.

The Deputy President of Kenya, H.E William Ruto said Kenya will use the data cube to inform food security processes, a pillar of its ‘Big Four’ priorities alongside manufacturing, healthcare and affordable housing.

Thanks to the data cube, the government will gain a better understanding of crop distribution, seasonality and use of agricultural land in rural areas.

H.E William Ruto added:

“This technology will help us understand month by month how our land is being used so that we can target interventions aimed at improving our actions against climate change, help smallholder farmers and secure sustainable food and water for our citizens”

Although satellite data has existed for many years, the recent growth in its availability and ease of use has provided governments with a new tool to meet key development challenges.

Vast quantities of freely available satellite data offers a key opportunity to improve agricultural production, food security and access to water.

Our sister community, Aid & International Development Forum, is hosting its inaugural Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Summit on 15-16th May 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. The summit will discuss innovations and challenges in Climate Smart Agriculture practices, increasing cross industry collaboration and financial investment for Climate Smart Agriculture and more.

Know an innovative project that hopes to establish or further Climate Smart Agriculture initiatives? Nominate it for our CSA Project of the Year Award.

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The African Regional Data Cube has been launched at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data’s inaugural Data for Development Festival in the United Kingdom. This new tool harnesses the latest Earth observation and satellite technology to help Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Tanzania address food security as well as issues relating to agriculture, deforestation, and water access. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS) in partnership with the Group on Earth Observations, Amazon Web Services, and Strathmore University in Kenya developed the data cube.

Data Cube example. Photo: Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data

While satellite data is not new, it has traditionally been difficult to access and use, limiting its potential to help governments meet key development challenges. This new tool will help governments, farmers, and consumers manage the complex challenges they face in trying to navigate the economic, social, and environmental systems on which they depend. Vast quantities of freely available satellite data offer real opportunity to improve agricultural production, food security, and access to water.

The Deputy President of Kenya, H.E. William Ruto said his government will use the data cube to underpin the success of food security, a pillar of its “Big Four” priorities alongside manufacturing, universal healthcare, and affordable housing. The data cube will allow the government to understand crop distribution, changing seasons, and use of agricultural land in rural areas; as well as better protect its forests and water towers. T“This technology will help us understand month by month how our land is being used so that we can target interventions aimed at improving our actions against climate change, help smallholder farmers, and secure sustainable food and water for our citizens,” said Ruto.

“These five countries are in the vanguard of data for sustainable development. With their example, we hope that we can broaden access to the data cube across the continent,” said Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. “The sky really is the limit when it comes to how data from satellites can help drive sustainable development.”

Government ministries, national statistical agencies, geographic institutes, research scientists, and civil society all stand to benefit from this new technology and training and capacity building will soon commence across countries to help national representatives utilize, contribute to, and ultimately benefit from the data cube.

“Over half of our labor force is made up of agricultural labor. This innovation has the potential to boost our economy, help enhance agricultural production and our efforts to tackle malnutrition in Ghana,” Mahamudu Bawumia, vice president of Ghana.

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Radiant Solutions has signed a follow-on contract with the Army Geospatial Center (AGC) valued at $2.6 million for its Remote Ground Terminal (RGT) program. AGC exercised an option extending Radiant Solutions’ provision of systems engineering and software development to enhance the RGT program, which mission is to provide timely access to high resolution commercial imagery for the military and humanitarian aid/disaster relief.

U.S. Army geospatial engineers prepare maps for a humanitarian mission in Liberia, where the Army is assisting in Ebola outbreak relief efforts.Photo: U.S. Army.

Developed by Radiant Solutions in partnership with AGC, the RGT is a transportable ground receiving and processing solution for commercial satellite remote sensing data, receiving both optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. According to Radiant Solutions, RGT provides the high performance of larger systems but in a compact package that can be delivered in-theatre by air or land. This capability allows the U.S. Army to access timely geospatial data from multiple sources in locations with limited infrastructure anywhere in the world and within hours of an event.

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Competition set to culminate in conference and awards ceremony on 05 June 2018 in Berlin

The winners of the INNOspace Masters competition will be announced at a festive awards ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on 05 June 2018 in Berlin alongside a conference devoted to the competition’s theme, “Space Moves!”.

When: 05 June 2018
Where: Humboldt Carré, Behrenstraße 42, 10117 Berlin
What: Networking, innovation tracking and leading “Space Moves!” representatives from politics and business,
The latest trends in technology transfer, innovative solutions and new business models

While the conference and awards ceremony are free to attend, those interested are asked to register as soon as possible as the number of participants is limited.

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New Space movement in Europe ramps up with the aim of improving access to crucial satellite imaging data

In this preliminary flood analysis exercise image, ICEYE has combined and processed ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellite data with ICEYE-X1 satellite data to visualize potential change detection capabilities. The image features Seine river and Orly, Paris airport at the start of the year 2018. (PRNewsfoto/ICEYE)

ICEYE, a New Space satellite manufacturer active in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology, today announced a cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) to mutually explore opportunities provided by ICEYE’s technology. By using ICEYE’s SAR satellite technology and imagery, this new agreement demonstrates ESA’s interest in taking advantage of recent innovative New Space developments to foster business.

The cooperation encompasses activities that focus the design of the ICEYE microsatellite and its X-band SAR instrument, as well as identifying the most promising applications for the data collected by such a microsatellite constellation.

“The collaboration with ICEYE in this endeavour is helping us move distinct steps closer to our goals as we explore the potential in the New Space industry,” said ESA’s Director of Earth Observation, Josef Aschbacher.

By empowering ESA with ICEYE data, the constellation is helping to shape the future of observing our planet from space. Data collected by ICEYE benefits both researchers and a wide range of commercial industries. Challenging issues such as natural disaster response and climate change research, oil spill and illegal fishing detection all require repeated and timely imaging, regardless of the weather conditions or time of day. This shared effort to gain vast SAR imaging capabilities from new technological developments impacts the whole Earth observation industry and its end users.

“ICEYE’s successful first SAR mission, ICEYE-X1, and the forward-looking response to New Space from ESA have given rise to an extraordinary opportunity to push forward together,” said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and co-founder of ICEYE.

ICEYE recently announced collaborations with two other European entities, Kongsberg Satellite Service (KSAT) and Aker Arctic, to collect and provide SAR data for maritime and ice monitoring. ICEYE remains on track to launch its next two SAR-enabled satellites, ICEYE-X2 and ICEYE-X3, later this year.

About ICEYE
ICEYE aims to provide democratised access to reliable Earth observation data through developing efficient Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors and microsatellites, enabling better decision to be made. Through an imaging service available around the globe, anytime, and with revisit times of just few hours, ICEYE helps clients resolve challenges in sectors such as maritime, disaster management and security and intelligence. ICEYE is the first organisation in the world to launch SAR microsatellites. For more information, please visit: www.iceye.com.

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Copernicus is Europe’s most ambitious Earth observation (EO) programme and provides full free and open access to data for the development of applications in a wide variety of domains. The Copernicus Masters awards recognise applications and ideas that are using Copernicus data to tackle important challenges faced by business and society. From 1 April to 30 June, Copernicus Masters participants can submit their innovative EO ideas for solving any of the 16 challenges offered by the largest number of world-class partners since the competition started.

It is estimated that investments in the programme will increase to EUR 7.5 billion by 2020, while the economic benefit is expected to double in value. Every euro invested in Copernicus activities by public authorities results in a EUR 1.4 benefit to the whole economy.

The great potential of big data from space

10 Petabytes of free Earth Observation (EO) data is generated by the Copernicus Programme every year. This data enables the Copernicus services to deliver near-real-time data on a global level, contributing toward the sustainable management of the environment. The data is sourced both from the family of Sentinel satellite missions, contributing missions (existing commercial and public satellites) and from a multitude of in situ sensors. Big data from space holds great potential for the development of ideas and solutions in many (non-space) sectors. As these ideas continue to develop into commercially viable solutions, the economic benefits continue to grow.

The Copernicus Masters 2018 – Europe’s leading innovation competition for Earth observation (EO) – is searching for such outstanding ideas, applications, and business concepts from future-oriented SMEs, startups, universities and individuals in the fields of business, research, and higher education.

Socio-economic advantages

The Copernicus Masters has developed into an important innovation driver for Earth observation. Solutions submitted to the competition not only benefit citizens but also bring multiple socio-economic advantages into various economic areas, stated Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes. ESA is an initiating partner of the Copernicus Masters and has set a challenge for participants every year since 2011.

Participants can demonstrate their innovative use of Earth observation data across a wide variety of challenge topics, including the fields of the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, energy, health, sustainable living, smart farming, disaster management, maritime, defence & security, forestry, and smart farming, digital transportation, as well as smart cities.

Additional European challenges

For the second year running, the European Commission (EC) offers six additional European challenges, covering the topics of sustainable development, government, data access, B2B applications, land monitoring and emergency management. Participants also have the unique opportunity to build their solutions with additional satellite data sources offered by the new partners of the competition.

Together with cash prizes, challenge winners will receive access to an international network of leading Earth observation organisations, substantial satellite data quotas, crowd investing platform, and business development support worth more than EUR 600,000 in total. Additionally, the Overall Winner receives a VIP trip to a Satellite launch in Kourou valued at EUR 10,000.

Commercialisation of Earth observation services

One can be very proud of the active role the Copernicus Masters is playing in the commercialisation of Earth observation services, commented Thorsten Rudolph, managing director of AZO, the competition organiser. Since 2011, the competition has selected 87 winners in total. They were chosen out of more than 2700 entrants from 73 different countries, who submitted over 1100 cutting-edge business ideas. This is an excellent demonstration of how the innovation competition functions as a European deal flow pipeline for Earth observation, he added.

In addition, the Copernicus Masters is complemented by the Copernicus Accelerator to empower the transformation of great ideas into commercially viable solutions through a tailored 12-month business coaching service. All winners of the Copernicus Masters 2018 will gain access to the Copernicus Accelerator if eligible.

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