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The European Space Agency (ESA) magnetic field mission Swarm is being prepared for a November launch from Plesetsk cosmodrome. The Swarm mission comprises a three satellite constellation, and is unique within ESA’s growing in orbit fleet of Earth Explorer missions (GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat satellites presently in operation).

Earth’s magnetosphere is an invisible shield, protecting our planet from harmful solar radiation. Many living organisms – from bacteria to insects or birds – seem to rely on Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. Yet fundamentally we still know remarkably little about the processes which contribute to the observed field and its variability in time and space.

Humans have been navigating for a thousand years since the invention of the compass. But current research shows the magnetic field is weakening and scientists are trying to understand why. Some believe it signals a pole reversal in progress, not an uncommon phenomenon in the history of our planet.

As ground observatories fail to grasp the whole picture, we are sending magnetometers into orbit to try to measure the magnitude and the direction of the magnetic field.

Find out more about Swarm here

and about the Plesetsk launch preparations at the day-to-day weblog here

ESA Euronews: Measuring Earth’s vital magnetic field#!

post by Mark Drinkwater, Head, Mission Science Division at European Space Agency at LinkedIn

By Peter B. de Selding | Oct. 4, 2013. BEIJING — The Kazakh government is on track to leverage its contract with Astrium of Europe into an ability to build and operate optical Earth observation satellites, according to the company managing the work.

Vladimir V. Ten, deputy director for Earth observation systems of Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary, said the two satellites the company ordered from Astrium of France and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Britain are both scheduled for launch, on different rockets, in the first half of 2014.

The satellites and a major technology-transfer program under which around 40 Kazakh engineers are trained by Astrium in building and operating Earth observation spacecraft were part of an October 2009 contract valued at around $336 million that was endorsed by the Kazakh and French governments.

In a Sept. 24 presentation to the 64th International Astronautical Congress here, Ten said the two satellites — Astrium’s with a 1-meter imager, SSTL’s with a 6.5-meter resolution, a wider swath and several multispectral bands — are mainly to be used to survey Kazakh territory. A secondary function is to jump-start Kazakhstan’s domestic space-engineering industrial base.

Kazakhstan’s space presence up to now has been mainly limited to its ownership of the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome.

But Ten said the two Earth observation satellites also could be used to enter the commercial market for satellite data as a partner to Astrium Geo-Information Services, which in addition to its own Spot 6 and future Spot 7 satellites has commercial partnerships with national satellite systems in several nations.

The SSTL satellite is being built to permit its entry into the image distribution chain of the German-Canadian RapidEye constellation of commercial imaging spacecraft, which were also built by SSTL.

Ten said the Astrium-built high-resolution satellite — a 1-meter ground sampling distance was a contract requirement — uses the same basic satellite skeletal structure as Astrium satellites built for Algeria, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan in addition to Astrium’s Spot spacecraft.

Source

On 1 October 2013, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) signed a memorandum of agreement to develop an instrument for the Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), which will be mounted on the International Space Station (ISS).


“Aerospace has no greater task than to observe Earth and its ecosystems from space. It is effective to use existing platforms, such as the ISS, as carriers of Earth observation instruments,” explained Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the DLR Executive Board. “We are delighted at the formation of this partnership between science and industry, which through its very existence will be a catalyst in the ongoing development of new Earth observation systems.”

A flexible view of Earth

MUSES, the first commercial Earth-sensing platform on the ISS, will further increase the Space Station’s research capabilities. The instruments installed on the platform – including high-resolution digital cameras – are oriented towards Earth. The platform can host up to four Earth observation instruments and offers the ability to change, upgrade, and robotically service those instruments.

DLR will develop and deliver a Visual/Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to be integrated with Teledyne’s MUSES platform, currently being developed under a cooperative agreement with NASA. In future and among many other tasks, the spectrometer will provide valuable information on the atmospheres over oceans and their bio-geophysical composition. The instrument will occupy one of the four Earth-looking instrument sites on MUSES.

Using the collected data

The data collected from space can be used in scientific, commercial, educational and humanitarian fields. Its high spectral quality allows for the detection of changes in land surfaces, oceans and the atmosphere, and hence the development of measures to protect the environment and climate.

Operating in the wavelength range from visible through the near infrared, the instrument will enable precise data acquisition from Earth’s surface for applications including fire-detection, change detection, maritime domain awareness, and atmospheric research. Teledyne will be responsible for integrating and operating the instrument, and will collaborate with DLR in several areas, including basic and applied research for use of data. Teledyne Brown will finalise the design and construct, integrate and test the platform before delivering it to NASA by the end of 2014. The Earth observation instrument is expected to be operational on MUSES by late 2015.

Background

Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defence electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne Technologies’ operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico. In 2012, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Alabama was awarded a Cooperative Agreement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to foster the commercial use of the ISS.

Source

(October 2013) ScanEx, announced the launch of the innovation partnership program “Open Landscape”. The program will officially start on October 1, 2013. Founding members of the “Open Landscape” program include: ScanEx Research and Development Center and NGO “Transparent World” together with the World Bank, the World Resources Institute,members of the Global Forest Watch 2.0 and the Global Tiger Initiative. The program is supported by DigitalGlobe, NASA, and other satellite imagery data providers.

In June 2013, ScanEx RDC and DigitalGlobe signed an agreement under which the Russian and foreign participants of the “Open Landscape” program will be able to view highly detailed archived images acquired from the WorldView-2 satellite. Detailed plans of the first stage of the “Open Landscape” partnership program were presented and discussed with potential users during the 6th International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”.

The “Open Landscape” program will engage local universities and non-profit organizations in Russia. They will also include organizations outside of Russia experienced in land-use monitoring(national parks, other protected natural areas, municipalities, departments of regional planning, local forest subdivisions and hunting farms) who are interested in the responsible management of critical habitat areas.

The “Open Landscape” program will provide:
• Access to the Transparent World portal with sets of high resolution satellite images for the areas of interest with simplified licensing terms;
• User-friendly software for visualization of satellite imagery for monitoring purposes
• Training on the basic use of data, analysis, and interpretation of satellite images, as well as crowd-mapping.

The materials obtained after the first stage of the “Open Landscape” program will be published on the www.openlandscape.info portal. Lessons learned will be used to develop better processes for the distribution and analysis of remote sensing data by the public and non-profit organizations for the purpose of environmental monitoring, also within the framework of the “Space Patrol” public space monitoring system operation.

In June 2013, ScanEx RDC and DigitalGlobe signed an agreement under which the Russian and foreign participants of the “Open Landscape” program will be able to view highly detailed archived images acquired from the WorldView-2 satellite. Detailed plans of the first stage of the “Open Landscape” partnership program were presented and discussed with potential users during the 6th International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”.

Source

The Coastal Water Attribute Monitoring using Satellite data (C-wams) project – funded by ESA under the Value Added Element (VAE) of the EO Envelope Programme – aims at implementing a suite of EO products and data services specifically targeting two growing sectors: Waste Water Treatment plants and Desalination plants.

The coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea hosts some of the largest desalination plants in the world (in 2011 it was the second producer of desalinates sea water, after Saudi Arabia) and their operation is linked in two ways to the status of the water quality near the coast: from one side the water they release could have an impact on the coastal ecosystem and from the other side they can be strongly affected by harmful and not-harmful algae bloom.

In particular, the local phenomenon known as Red Tide in the last 4 years had a relevant impact to desalination plants operation, causing severe damages and stopping the operations for many weeks.

The main objectives of the C-wams projects are:
a) To start from existing assets, define and setup – together with the user(s) – realistic and feasible service and products for supporting their activities in waste waters and desalination plants;
b) To implement and demonstrate those products and services over two test areas chosen together with the user(s);
c) To assess the service performance and the service utility, getting the user(s) feedback for identify issues/solutions and improvements;
d) To elaborate a plan for a wide service uptake within the framework of the international (e.g. European Marine Directive) obligations.

To fulfil its scope the C-wams project, building on existing prototype EO products, aims in implementing and demonstrating a monitoring service able to derive Near Real Time (NRT) WQ parameter and HAB detection from medium resolution sensors like MERIS and MODIS and to detect.

The consortium developing the C-wams project is composed of TechWorks (Prime, IRL) and Planetek Hellas (GR), which leads the study case about Desalination Plants in the UAE.

The study case in UAE is aimed at identifying HAB (in particular Red Tide) events by detecting anomalous values in some water parameters using MERIS data, with the further support of higher resolution images (i.e. RapidEye and Pléiades) to empirically retrieve Chlorophyll concentration (Chl) and Total Suspended Matter (TSM). Moreover, when a HAB alarm is issued, the use of a very high-resolution sensor (like DubaiSat-1 or Pléiades) is considered to be used for a precise determination of the HAB extent, giving a concrete support in preventing and forecasting its effects.

The service trial involves the EAD (Governmental agency committed to protect and manage biodiversity, to provide a clean environment and to promote sustainable development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi) as user and its objective is to demonstrate the capability of EO derived products to support users’ current practices concerning environmental protection by efficaciously monitoring WQ parameters (in particular) with the aim of detecting, in near real time, the occurrence of HABs events, like the Red Tide.


Figure 1. Large Red Tide in the Oman sea and Persian Gulf

From a first analysis of the use of the RI for HAB/Red Tide detection, the following conclusions can be derived:

  • the use of RI, combined with a set of thresholds, appears to be a useful parameter to detect HAB/Red Tides
  • RI proved to be a robust tool, in respect to Chl alone
  • preliminary results show that integrating FLH and/or MCI can improve the detection

From these outcomes, an outline of the next steps to be performed has been made:

  • to investigate the use of other parameters like FLH, MCI, SST and TSM to detect false HAB alarms
  • to perform and evaluate the integration of daily MODIS data
  • use of in situ data to be received by the user

Furthermore, high-resolution products would be implemented and applied to the HAB detection.

Further information:

Discover what space brings to your life, 5-7 November , Munich

About

The ‘European Space Solutions’, a major 3-day conference from 5 to 7 November at Alte Kongresshalle in Munich will bring together business and the public-sector with users and developers of space-based solutions. Participants will gather insights about current developments and society needs, learn how space technology can make a real difference to their lives/business, and get informed about business support and finance opportunities for business, SMEs, individuals.

The conference will be accompanied by an interactive public exhibition showcasing the many benefits of the EU space programmes in the new European Space Expo at Bavariapark.

The Venue
Alte Kongresshalle (Old Congress Hall)
Theresienhöhe 15
80339 Munich
Germany
www.altekongresshalle.de/en/information

(September 2013) In the last 6 years, the CEOI has held a range of workshops and round tables meetings with the space community and assembled a portfolio of Earth Observation missions that the UK would like to be involved in. Over that period, ESA programme policy and future mission flight opportunities have evolved, making it timely to revisit this portfolio.

To do this, CEOI held a Challenge Workshop held on Friday 7th June 2013, which surveyed 17 UK mission ideas and invited experts to comment on mission selection, promotion and opportunities in the near term. The main focus was on UK interests in the development and delivery of future missions for Earth Observation, but the meeting also explored the preferred UK approach to the ESA Earth Explorer 9 selection process. The workshop built on discussions at the UK Space Agency Town Meeting (13th May).

For information on each of the 17 potential satellite missions discussed, please visit our website at http://www.ceoi.ac.uk/. If you are interested in discussing further any of these future potential space missions, please contact the CEOI Director, Professor Mick
Johnson: Tel: +44 (0)1438 774421 or email: mick.johnson@astrium.eads.net.

Notes to Editors:

The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) is a catalyst for the development of technologies for environmental and security monitoring from space. The CEOI was created in 2007 and is funded by the UK Space Agency and industry. The Centre has a key aim to develop the next generation of Earth observation instrumentation through the teaming of scientists and industrialists and the funding of leading edge projects. These projects reflect the imperatives associated with monitoring of climate change and the environment – investing in clearly identified gaps in instrumentation requirements, thus maximizing impacts of UK developed technologies in European programmes. The CEOI is led by Astrium Ltd, in partnership with the University of Leicester, Science and Technology Facilities Council / Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and QinetiQ Ltd. www.ceoi.ac.uk

The DMCii team were in the Republic of Namibia’s capital Windhoek this week as sponsors for the UN Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on the 23rd and 24th September.

Paul Stephens, DMCii’s Director of sales and marketing, gave a keynote speech in which he highlighted the benefits of long term Earth monitoring with satellite images.

DMCii’s daily satellite imagery services are used in the rapid detection of the location and extent of changes in land cover, including degradation and desertification. Furthermore, it provides information about vegetation status and health, which can be used to improve agricultural productivity and provide greater food security.

Paul said: “It was a privilege to be invited to participate in the UNCCD Business Forum, and to discuss how DMCii’s satellite imagery can assist in sustainable management of land resources, to ensure food security for the world

A declaration was made by the UN secretariat during the event, which encouraged the involvement of industry in the prevention of desertification if we are to achieve the goal of a degradation neutral world.

DMCii hopes that the conference will encourage governments worldwide to realise the benefits that long-term satellite imaging and monitoring could have on the desertification of places across the world.

Paul and Elena Lobo, a sales and marketing executive at DMCii, had the honour of meeting with around 30 Ministers and senior environmental officers from across the globe over the two-day event.

Opening the Conference, COP11 President and Minister of Environment and Tourism, Uahekwa Herunga, welcomed delegates to the “the land of the Brave, especially at a time when Namibia is experiencing its worst drought in over 30 years.”

Namibia is home to an area of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.

The DMCii team had a fantastic time as sponsors of UNCCD, and we look forward to working to help combat global desertification and land degradation.

Source

We are very pleased to be able to share with you the results coming from the survey we conducted into the state and health of the European EO services industry. To all those who participated, we would like to thank you for your time and effort. The brochure and the full report can be downloaded at www.earsc.org

EARSC has conducted a survey into the state and health of the European EO services industry. The executive summary document containing the principal industry statistics, which have also been prepared as a brochure, is available to download at the following link

The survey was conducted between November 2012 and April 2013. A total of 365 companies were contacted with useful responses coming from 133 of them via an on-line questionnaire which was focused on financial and numerical data.

The responses show that the EO services industry is employing over 5000 highly skilled staff and turns over some 750m Euro per annum. These and many more results are explained in the documents. This brochure is a summary of the survey results; this and the full report can be downloaded at http://earsc.org/eonotes/earsc-activities-news

Download the brochure
Full Report
For more information on the survey, please write to: secretariat@earsc.org