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Through the acquisition of EXEO, a company based in the French Basque Country, CLS’s subsidiary Novacom Services has become the French market leader in geolocation services for vehicles in the cleaning sector.

CLS’s subsidiary Novacom Services specializes in geolocation services for terrestrial mobile units in the road transport, cleaning, humanitarian and building sectors. Through the acquisition of EXEO, which specializes in software publishing, route optimization and the geolocation of household waste trucks, Novacom Services has not only made an immediate technological leap forward but has also bolstered its essentially private customer portfolio (SITA, PAPREC, etc.) through the addition of EXEO’s public-sector customers (local authorities such as Strasbourg, Oléron, Perpignan and Lorient). As a Group now tracks more than 36,000 vehicles around the world in real time and processes more than 3 million messages a day. Despite the difficult economic context, CLS has again carried through a successful operation for external growth, in line with its strategy to position its subsidiary as the European geolocation leader in its target markets.

CLS, which is a subsidiary of CNES and IFREMER, is a global provider of services in the fields of locat and environmental data collection, as well as ocean surveillance and observation.

It is best known as the operator of the ARGOS system and currently employs 470 people in its 17 offices and subsidiaries.

The company operates in more than 100 countries. It processes the data from approximately 22,000 Argos transmitters, determines and publishes ocean topography to within a few centimeters in 48 hours, and processes 15,000 radar images a year, mainly for maritime safety. In 2012, CLS had a turnover of €79M, an increase of more than 8% compared to 2011, and an operating margin of more than 9%.

CLS set up Novacom Services in 2002 to specialize in geolocation and data collection (CLS’s core business) for industrial vehicles (goods transport, public works, services to local authorities, management of fleets, energy and waste, etc.). In 2008, to help develop its new subsidiary, CLS invited the Italian company Téléspazio, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica and Thalès, to take a 40% share in the capital of Novacom Services. In 2009, Novacom Services became European eader in the trailer geolocation sector
y purchasing General Electric’s onboard telematics activity, TIP Trailer Services. In 11 years, thanks to carefully-planned and controlled growth, Novacom Services has developed strongly.

With the addition of its new subsidiary, EXEO, Novacom Services expects to achieve a turnover in excess of €15.3M in 2013, with a staff of 35 working in Toulouse, France (the Group’s headquarters), 25 in the Netherlands and 15 in Bidart (headquarters of EXEO) on the French Atlantic coast.

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In June the USGS announced the availability of Landsat 8 data.

Today we are happy to announce the support of the new (meta)data format introduced with Landsat 8 by BEAM. This enables the user now to open and work with Landsat 4/5 ™, Landsat 7 (ETM+) and Landsat 8 (OLI/TIRS) in GeoTIFF format; while Landsat 5 ™ is also supported in FAST format. You can get the latest version (1.4) of the reader by means of the module manager found in VISAT’s help menu.

more info

(September 2013) CGIAR Research Programs on Water, Land & Ecosystems (WLE) and Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are conducting a project focusing on flood impact mitigation using geospatial flood inundation mapping.

The objective is to provide regional and national decision-makers with accurate information to understand the benefits of inundation as well as the need to provide protection from the damaging impacts of floods, to help farmers in selected areas to optimize the use of floodwaters for growing crops and to assist insurance companies to assess/monitor risks when floods damage agricultural land.

A number of products and services that are relevant to floods will be provided. Data provided by optical and radar satellites are used to generate maps of flood inundation in a short period of time. Optical satellites such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), LANDSAT, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite, etc., are easy to use and generally preferred to map floodrisk areas, damage and impact assessment. The advantage of radar images can be used in all weather conditions, and is highly suitable for flood mapping and ideal for flood monitoring, particularly in complex hydrologic.

Read more at CIGAR WLE

Source UN-Spider

(26 September 2013) In the context of its climate change adaptation efforts, the Philippine government has begun producing 3D flood hazard maps to help make better planning decisions about flood risks, as trust.org reported.

The Philippines are a country heavily affected by devastating floods and strong precipitation.

“We consider this new map as relevant especially as a tool to make local land use plans truly based on risk – not only historical risks but future risks based on rainfall scenarios. We cannot be planning long term development based on yesterday’s event, but must factor in future climate risks,” said Mary Ann Lucille Sering, secretary of the country’s Climate Change Commission.

Trust.org reported: “The maps, which will provide up-to-date scientific data and analysis on local-scale flooding and climate risks, are being created using 3D technology as part of the Climate Change Commission’s efforts to adapt the Philippines to the impacts of climate change. The data, laid on top of existing maps, helps highlight areas that could face future flooding. The map identifies areas most vulnerable to flooding with a gradation of colour – the darker the hue, the deeper the water. For instance, the purple colour shows how high water might rise if heavy rainfall occurs.”

Read more at Trust.org

Source UN-Spider

(Sep 30 2013) MyReadingMapped is a website providing interactive maps on historic events and other interesting facts using Google Earth, for example shipwrecks locations, environmental disasters or oceanic trenches and underwater phenomena.

Now, they have launched a series of climate change maps including one called “The rise, fall, and migration of civilization due to climate change“, as Google Earth Blog reported.

The blog quoted the author of the map: “Recently I discovered there is a lot of interest online concerning migration and the collapse civilization due to climate change. Just Google it and see the large volume of articles predicting the short-term future. However, one of the things these articles do not do well is discuss how climate change occurred in the past. Which leave a big opening for the anti-global warming crowd to challenge it. They all to some degree mention specific events but none do so to any great extent. They mainly focus on the future. However, these white papers and articles are less convincing because they don’t emphasize the past enough. So I decided to cover as many as I could find and created a Google Map of The Rise, Fall and Migration of Civilization Due To Climate Change.”

Another map includes “The Geography of the Köppen Climate Classification System” enabling visitors to see whether today’s weather matches the Köppen Climate Classification System of more than 100 years ago if they turn on Google Map’s weather feature.

Read more at Google Earth Blog

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After four years of field research and analytic support provided to the Republic of Haiti and multiple partners there, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has launched the Haiti GeoPortal, as CIESIN reported on their website

CIESIN elaborates: “The Haiti Geoportal is a platform for spatial and environmental data and resources from ongoing research in Haiti as part of the broader Haiti Research and Policy Program at the Earth Institute (EI) at Columbia University.

Featuring an online interactive map component, the Haiti Geoportal is designed to let communities and partners download maps that provide benchmarks for core integrated development indicators, household socio-economic variables, and environmental features. The data covers geographic extents that range from national scale to local communities in Haiti. The Web site contains a data library and a searchable bibliography of materials from the EI and non-EI, including scientific reports and literature and data visualization videos produced to help articulate multi-hazard risk in the watershed of Port-à-Piment

The Haiti Geo-Portal has been supported by numerous partner organizations and funders. The data has been collected from other organizations and generated from field studies conducted by EI teams through the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Haiti Reconstruction Fund via the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Green Family Foundation, and the Earth Institute.”

Read more at Haiti GeoPortal at CIESIN

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(October 2013) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will jointly build and launch an all-weather satellite to support disaster and risk management, understanding movement of tectonic plates to climate change and estimation of crop and tree cover, as reported the Deccan Chronicle


“It is the turning point in India-US relations,” Dr K. Radhakrishnan, the chairman of ISRO, told the newspaper, adding that the new satellite will be the precursor for joint space missions in future. “It is a recognition of our ability to build and launch satellites,” he said.

The satellite will be launched onboard an Indian rocket in 2019 or 2020.

Read more: Deccan Chronicle

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In the field

In motion

Business Corner

Source Copernicus Observer

GEOMATRIX UAB is a small private Lithuanian company, focusing on applied research, development of technological solutions, consultancy in geo-informatics and providing services of automated processing of large amounts of spatial data. It was originally designed to become a GMES Service Provider, focusing on innovative satellite data processing solutions.

The main business idea of the company is development and implementation of “robotic” automated processing work-flows, capable of processing large amounts of data in short time and with low human interaction – therefore with high efficiency and at a low cost – taking advantage of remotely-operated computing systems, or even “external boxes” established for the clients and integrated into their technological work-flows. This is why the company positions itself as the one capable of doing “extreme” geo-computing.

GEOMATRIX UAB is an advanced user and passionate advocate of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), trying to develop efficient and competitive industrial geo-computing solutions without using any commercial software. We have established an ergonomic, but highly-productive true 64-bit multi-processing environment, based on Linux OS, GRASS GIS, GDAL/OGR libraries, etc. System re-programming techniques are used to combine Linux shell components and utilities with professional GIS/RS software functions, libraries and tools, binding them into automated data processing work-flows, designed to utilize full computing power down to the last processor core or bit of memory.

The first successful project of the company was development of an operational mapping solution for a Swiss company PASSAM AG for processing and representation of air quality monitoring data collected in Lithuania by using passive sorbents sampling method. Thousands of operational maps were produced by automated scripts and delivered to the clients as digital images via FTP or on-line repositories. Automated operational mapping approach can be used in a broad range of projects for representation, analysis and quality control of large thematic datasets collected in many sampling sites – an ideal solution for large environmental monitoring networks, emergency response services, field data collection and analysis, etc.

Development of automated parallel computing work-flows for processing of large amounts of vector and raster datasets, particularly high and very high resolution satellite imagery, is currently the most important activity of the company. Back in 2011, we developed a series of automated work-flows for extraction of water bodies from IMAGE 2006, which was successfully applied by the Institute of Aerial Geodesy (Lithuania) for the production of GMES Reference Datasets of hydrographic network over 38 European countries. A year later we started the production of high resolution layers of Water and Wetlands from high resolution satellite imagery over the EEA39 territory for the EEA within a GMES Initial Operations (GIO-Land) project . Both projects are coordinated by Spanish company Indra Espacio SA.

The company has developed a series of efficient production work-flows for automated pre-processing of standard satellite imagery products (data format/type conversion, re-projection, ortho-rectification, mosaicking, extraction/manipulation of bands, pan-sharpening, metadata extraction, thumbnailing, renaming, packaging, cloud masking/patching). Although rather simple, such routine operations may require a substantial amount of time and resources, if carried out manually on a larger number of images. Therefore automated pre-processing of satellite imagery has become a standard practice. Experience in this field allowed the company to take part in an FP7 project LAMPRE, currently developing a GMES downstream services on landslide modeling, vulnerability assessment, preparedness and recovery management.

Examples of products

Illustration of the RapidEye image pan-sharpening work-flow: left image – the original RapidEye level 3A product (fragment of Panevėžys town in Lithuania) taken on 2011-08-27 by RE-1 sensor, shown in RGB-542 false color composit; middle image – panchromatic image with 1 m pixel resolution produced of a series of color aerial photo images with 0.5 m pixels; right image – pan-sharpened RapidEye image produced in 1 m pixel resolution and RGB-541 false color composit


A series of accumulative biophysical products of Slovakia made in a full-scale IRS-6 resolution. Source: IMAGE2006/2009/2012

The main projects:

Data processing services:

Contact information:
Address: Technopolis, Europos pr. 121, LT-46339 Kaunas, Lithuania
http://www.geomatrix.lt
e-mail: info@geomatrix.lt
tel.: +370-699-99940
fax.: +370-37-211382|

(30 September 2013) Harris Corporation has delivered a system that will help prepare National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite operators for the new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R (GOES-R) Series weather satellites.

The new Mission Management Capability enables operators to prepare ground-based satellite command and control operations and processes more than two years ahead of the launch of the first GOES-R satellite. A NOAA and NASA team also will use the Harris system to test the command and control procedures with the satellite as it is assembled by mission partner Lockheed Martin.

The Harris system consists of hardware, software, and a graphical user interface; the Harris OS/COMET telemetry, tracking, and command software; as well as tools for customizing mission operations.

“This is a critical milestone in a program that will rely on the effectiveness of a proven ground system and skilled satellite operators to prepare and test procedures that will be used during launch and satellite operations,” said Romy Olaisen, vice president, Civil Programs, Harris Government Communications Systems. “This system will allow NOAA satellite operators to become familiar with how to effectively manage the satellites using new command and control interfaces and the Harris OS/COMET tool suite.”

Harris is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the contract to produce the GOES-R Ground Segment, which will process approximately 40 times more data than is possible today, and deliver weather products to NOAA’s National Weather Service and more than 10,000 other direct users. GOES-R will be a primary tool for detecting and tracking hurricanes and severe weather.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and about 14,000 employees — including 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems and services.

(source: Harris and Spacenewsfeed)