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During late May and early June 2013, heavy rainfall hit Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Many rivers (Danube, Inn, Vltava, Elbe …) have caused severe flood damage across Central Europe. SERTIT has been producing rapid flood snapshot footprints over this large flood event using numerous Earth Observation satellite images for the insurance and re-insurance industries. For more information, please contact us.

(Zurich, 10 June 2013) PERILS AG, the independent Zurich based company providing industry wide catastrophe insurance data, has today announced the release of satellite based flood footprints for the ongoing floods in Central Europe which are affecting mainly Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic

The images, which PERILS will update over the duration of the floods, are based on radar and optical satellite data , and cover the Danube and Vltava – Elbe river basins.

Daily flood snapshots will be produced to facilitate the immediate assessment of the possible impact of the events. In addition, after the floods, a map showing the maximum extent of the flooding will be produced.

The flood footprints are in a geo-coded format and can be easily combined with other geo-coded data such as insured exposure information.

The images are part of the trial phase of a project to provide satellite -based flood footprints to the insurance industry and are sponsored by the European Space Agency. The map data are produced by SERTIT and Vista, companies offering Remote Sensing services. PERILS acts as the distribution platform for the data.

The satellite-based flood footprints can be viewed and down loaded free of charge from the PERILS website at www.perils.org/web/products/earth-observation

Commenting on the release of the images,Eduard Held, Head of Products at PERILS, said:“ We sincerely hope that the flood footprint information provided by PERILS will assist the industry in managing the consequences of the flood events currently impacting Central Europe. Our aim is to provide data which is of high relevance to the industry as a whole and which contributes to the better management and understanding of natural catastrophe risk.”

More information can be found on www.perils.org
PR Contact: Nigel Allen / +44 7988 478824/ nigel.allen@perils.org

July news on geospatial conference, meteorological support, wildfires, agro-control, …

Global Geospatial Conference 2013 – the joint GSDI 14 World Conference and AfricaGIS 2013 Conference – is being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN ECA) Conference Center, 4-8 November 2013. The conference theme is “Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction”. “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions” magazine is the media partner of the conference.

The early-bird registration for the participants of the forthcoming 6th International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions” will be over on July 20. Please be reminded that paying your registration fees within the early-bird registration period, you save more than 15%. Participation terms are available at the conference website.

There are only eight days left to the XXVII World Summer Student Games in Kazan. Weather forecasting services seriously prepare for this event too along with the athletes. They will have to provide very short-range weather forecasts for all of the sites, which will host the event. ScanEx RDC has developed and launched a new service specially for the Student Games in Kazan that streamlines access to images from weather satellites.

The western U.S. has been suffering from a series of wildfires in the last few months. The Black Forest Fire, the most destructive fire on record in Colorado, destroyed over 500 homes and charred more than 14,000 acres during a 10-day period. California has also been subject to a spate of wildfires with over 680 incidents in the state so far this year.

The geo-analytic system “AgroUpravlenie” (agro-control) for inventory and monitoring of agricultural lands has started to operate in the Tambov Region. This was made possible due to a long-term and fruitful partnership between “CentrProgrammSystem” LLC and ScanEx RDC, whose experience in creating highly detailed maps was used in “AgroUpravlenie” geo-analytic system.

“Nothing is impossible for a person with intelligence,” – quoted the well-known film Natalia Polyakova, Head of Institutional Initiatives Department of the “Russian Venture Company”, speaking about the features of the contract system in public procurement: – “We can cope with it too. However, I think it will be difficult.”

ScanEx RDC specialists held master-classes on field interpretation of space images in Arkhangelsk. Training was arranged within the framework of Youth School “Space Methods of Studying the Arctic Region”, organized by the Institute of Mathematics, Information and Space Technologies of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University.

Source

Born from the initiative of Planetek Italia in 2005, Planetek Hellas is now a well established company that moves from Greece and operates throughout Europe.

The company specializes in E.O. value added services, geospatial data infrstructures and research projects, also in Space sector, working for clients such as European Space Agency (ESA), European Commission and European Environment Agency (EEA).

On going projects are: GIO Land (EEA), ESA Science Archives Publication System (ESA), EO for UN, Dutch & Greek Police (ESA), Coastal Infrastructure Monitoring (ESA), Waste Management (ESA), eENVplus (EC FP7), G-NEXT (EC FP7), NFOFRAS & ISCM (Space Cluster).

See more at

(10 June 2013) Organised and hosted by ESA with the support of the UK Space Agency, the Living Planet Symposium on 9–13 September in Edinburgh, UK brings together scientists and users to present their latest findings on Earth’s environment and climate derived from satellite data.

The programme outlines over 1700 presentations during nine daily parallel sessions and three poster sessions.

The presentations will cover the scientific themes of oceanography, solid Earth and geodesy, atmosphere, climate and meteorology, cryosphere, hazards, methodologies and products, near-Earth environment and land applications.

On the first morning of the symposium, parallel tutorial sessions on state-of-the-art observation techniques of Earth’s land, oceans, ice and atmosphere from space will be given by lead scientists from Europe.

The tutorials will be followed by the opening plenary session, and media will later be invited for a press briefing and a question-and-answer session before the parallel sessions get into full swing.

Special sessions will be dedicated to ESA programmes and initiatives, including the Climate Change Initiative and other international cooperation initiatives, as well as Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme, being renamed ‘Copernicus’.

Exhibitions about ESA, the UK Space Agency and many other partners from research and industry will complement the event.

ESA’s current and future Earth Explorer missions will also come into focus. The next mission, Swarm, is due for launch later this year to map Earth’s magnetic field.

At the beginning of May, Biomass was selected to become the seventh Earth Explorer. The satellite will be designed to provide, for the first time from space, radar measurements that are optimised to determine the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the world’s forests with greater accuracy than ever before.

Grants from ESA and the EU will financially support the attendance of over 100 European students at the symposium.

(source: ESA)

Interview by By Matt Ball for Sensors&Systems. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is working to build the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by coordinating collaborative capacity across Member nations. Sensors & Systems (S&S) editor Matt Ball spoke with Barbara J. Ryan, GEO secretariat director, at the recent Geospatial World Forum in Rotterdam. The conversation covered the mission and outlook for the group, as well as a new directive for broader outreach to the public and the private sector.

S&S: We first met when you were at the U.S. Geological Survey and were promoting the National Map. What has been your path to the international role as secretariat director at GEO?

Ryan: Well, Matt, I joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) right out of college and never did I expect to spend the majority of my career (34 years) there. It was during my last eight years there, from 2000 to 2008, that I was associate director for geography. It was in that capacity that I managed remote sensing, the topographic mapping program (The National Map), and the USGS geographic analysis and monitoring research functions.

While The National Map had a domestic focus, we would interact internationally, much like this meeting, with other national mapping agencies around the world to see their technological and policy developments. We were all facing the same challenges, primarily how to move all this information from paper into a digital arena, and how to share the information more broadly.

The remote sensing part of the job also allowed us to establish international partnerships, largely based on the Landsat program. When the USGS assumed flight operational responsibilities for Landsat back in 1999, with NASA building and launching the satellites, and the USGS handling operations for Landsats 5 and 7, we became a full member on the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). It was several years later that CEOS stepped up to become the space coordination arm of GEO. So, that’s generally how I became familiar with GEO, and then about five years later I moved into the director’s position here.

S&S: Is the primary goal of GEO around monitoring global change?

Ryan: The primary goal is the assurance of Earth observations so that we can address society’s environmental problems. While many of our activities are targeted toward monitoring global change, we’re actually more concerned about the assurance, continuity, sustainability and interoperability of observing systems, so that monitoring across multiple domains can be done. .Governments, research organizations and others actually do the monitoring, we just want to make sure that the assets are in place, and that the data from these monitoring efforts is shared broadly. One of GEO’s primary objectives is to advocate broad, open data sharing, particularly if the data was collected at taxpayer expense — the citizens of the world should have access to that information.

S&S: So, gaps in Earth observation is part of the mission, along with cataloging what is in place and knowing what is planned?

Ryan: Yes, there are several targeted gaps in observing systems, either temporal or spatial gaps in key data sets, as well as inadequate access to information in different areas of the world.

S&S: One of the things that has fascinated me about the history of Landsat is the ongoing need to get data back from ground stations around the world in order to create an archive. Because, given its longevity, there simply wasn’t the technology to archive all the information centrally when the program began.

Ryan: Yes, you are right, and that’s actually an interesting story because the on-board capabilities were not robust enough with the early satellites to have on-board storage recorders. The program had to use international ground stations to download data so that storage space for the next collect could be made available.

So, while the United States needed those ground stations around the world to store data, the funny thing about the approach is that it built an international network that has survived and actually thrived over the last 40 years. I am convinced that the reason Landsat is so popular and used more around the world than almost any other satellite is because of the roots of the international ground station network.

While the USGS continues to interact with the international ground stations to ensure a copy of all the historic data is stored in the USGS archive, I think there’s still a fair amount that is not back in a centralized archive, so that effort is ongoing.

S&S: Doesn’t the depth and completeness of the archive become critical when wanting to explore global change?

Ryan: Absolutely. I would argue that one needs 20, 30 and 40-year views on how the landscape is changing to truly study the impact humans are having on the landscape, including, agricultural practices, urban growth, glacial loss, climate change, and the list goes on.

S&S: One observation approach that I’m really excited about is the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) that incorporates both ground-based and aerial observation, with a view toward a 20-year consistent record to understand climate change.

Ryan: NEON was just getting its start when I left the USGS, and we are now working at GEO to strengthen our relationship with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US, and similar organizations around the world. From a US perspective, the federal agencies that are most involved in GEO are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, USGS, the Smithsonian, USEPA, and increasingly the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A best practice here in Europe that we are trying to encourage globally is that of the European Commission’s Framework Programme. The Commission earmarks research, science and technology resources for GEOSS implementation. So, the calls for proposals that go out to European researchers requests that the proposers articulate how their project will advance GEOSS implementation. It has been a good way of advancing GEO goals through the European Commission, and we would love to see the same kind of agreement with the research funding agencies of China, Japan, the United States, and many others.

S&S: I was excited to see that the European Space Agency (ESA) selected the biomass mission as the next satellite to be developed to better understand the Earth. The peer review of Earth Explorer missions seems a novel approach to prioritize and define the next earth observation missions.

Ryan: We’ve started to hear from some of the other communities about missions that they would have liked to see funded… What I find interesting about the approach is that more users are becoming engaged in the process. In many instances, science, cadastral and space agencies, are about pushing information out to potential users. We are trying to create more of a pull for this information – i.e. transitioning from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach. Actions like the ESA peer review process start to create a demand-driven process as compared to a supply-driven approach, ultimately resulting in a prioritization of user needs.

S&S: I like the fact that in a constrained economic time, it still values those that define missions, and doesn’t dismiss outright, but prioritizes funding. With Europe’s Copernicus program that used to be known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), that’s another exciting effort that fills in gaps and takes a world-leading Earth observation approach.

Ryan: When one looks at the Copernicus Sentinel series of satellites, there is a tremendous opportunity, in collaboration with the Landsat series of satellites to have more frequent global coverage of the Earth’s land masses. In other words, when you have two Landsat satellites, you get a recurrence interval every eight days, but with the Sentinel Series in the 2016 or 2018 timeframe, you could get a recurrence interval every three days. With that frequency, one could start routinely monitoring crops from space, and not just one or two collections during the growing season, but weekly observations of the agricultural areas, and forested areas as well.

S&S: The idea of NASA’s A-Train, with a persistent string of observations with different sensors, is that something that we’re likely to see more of?

Ryan: The interplay between and among the satellites is important. Even though we have these satellites collecting data in different frequencies over the same part of the Earth, we still need in-situ monitoring for verification of what is being observed from space. We need to tie-in the ground observations with what the satellites are sensing, and this gets us back to GEO. We’re interested in integrating Earth observations, whether they are collected from a satellite, from an airplane, from a train, a ship or from a person on the ground. We are interested in bringing whatever assets there are together to answer society’s problems.

S&S: Part of the challenge is in the catalog of all the observation platforms, identifying gaps, but also collaborating to fill those gaps.

Ryan: In this regard, during the first part of GEO, from 2004 to 2009, we looked at the GEO mission as a massive cataloging effort. Then, about two years ago, we changed strategies. We transitioned to a brokering approach whereby interoperability agreements were established with institutions that have data sets and/or databases, rather than us seeking out individual data sets.

An example of this approach is illustrated with our agreement with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO Members have generally registered their data in the WMO Information System (WIS). So we worked on an interoperability arrangement between GEOSS and the WIS resulting in data from one system being discovered by the other system. We are now hearing, particularly from some Members in the developing world that they are getting access to information that they didn’t know existed. WMO Members are getting biodiversity and ecosystem information that wouldn’t normally be delivered through the WIS that focuses on weather, climate and water, and GEO Members are gaining increased visibility to information in the WIS. It’s a win-win story, and we’d like to have interoperability brokering agreements with any institution that wants its environmental information broadly viewed and accessible throughout the world.

S&S: Does that tie into your outreach into the private sector, to both private satellite companies and to practitioners that are interested in the spatial analysis of this data.

Ryan: Private companies generally still sell their data, though in some instances they share it more broadly in humanitarian and disaster arenas. We aren’t advocating that every private company has to subscribe to our data sharing practices,, but if they’re a value-added provider or have additional information and/or services, we’d like to create a marketplace on our website for increased visibility and access to their products and services.

We want to show data that can be obtained for free from different organizations, largely government or scientific organizations. But there may be additional data that is not in the public domain that pertains to your area of interest, and we would like to facilitate that link as well.

S&S: Are there other ways that you’re working on engaging the private sector?

Ryan: In November our Members approved a broader stakeholder engagement strategy that would include the private sector, as well as the entire value chain: the providers of data, the value-added providers (those who build and deliver services and information products), and even the downstream representatives of our nine societal benefit areas. For instance, in agriculture it could include John Deere or Cargill; in biodiversity it might be Conservation International. There are downstream private sector providers in biodiversity, agriculture, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, weather, and water. In a GEO context, the private sector would also include the development banks, foundations and non profit organizations.

It’s an ecosystem, and if we really want to bring geospatial information, whether it’s imagery or data, into this century, we’ve got to recognize that everybody has a role to play and those roles, while sometimes competing, can also be complementary.

S&S: Is security part of the language at GEO, relating to global change and perhaps food security?

Ryan: We have an ongoing effort called GEOGLAM — GEO’s Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative. The goal is to use the global environmental monitoring assets to create a more food secure world. In order to do that, one must reduce the volatility of food prices, and the ranges and fluctuations that we currently experience.

Production forecasts should improve from the beginning to the end of the growing season. If we are able to bring more stability to the production forecasts, we should see less volatility in prices. When production forecasts are high; prices are low, and when production forecasts are low, prices are high. If we can flatten out the curves, advances in creating a more food secure world can follow.

Many of the 25 countries that produce 80% of the world’s crops have global forecasting capabilities. GEO is advocating that information from these countries be shared more broadly and openly, and that algorithms be harmonized so that forecasts are improved around the world. Global transparency will help create more stability and a more food-secure world.

A related aspect of the security issue is that governments do not want another government having easy access to what is happening over their domain with the fear that this information will be used against them. While this concern is recognized, most of the information that GEO is interested in transcends national boundaries. Atmospheric, oceanic and many terrestrial processes do not respect national boundaries, and actions in one part of the world often have wide-spread consequences. The benefits of broader data sharing almost always outweigh the risks associated with not sharing data.

Source

Interview by By Matt Ball for Sensors & Systems

the European Earth Monitoring Competition 2013 is now open for submissions – with further industry leaders as partners and a prize pool worth well over EUR 350,000.

The Copernicus Masters innovation competition (previously known as GMES Masters) was initiated 2011 by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and T-Systems with endorsement of the European Commission. It is also supported by European Space Imaging GmbH and Astrium Services. In 2013, the BMW Group Research and Technology and GEO magazine have joined the competition as new supporting partners. The Copernicus Masters invites researchers, developers, entrepreneurs, and students to submit ideas for innovative, market-oriented applications based on the use of GMES based Earth observation data between 1 June and 15 September 2013

All information is also available at the competition website www.copernicus-masters.com. If you have any questions or require any further information please contact lara.schaflinger@anwendungszentrum.de

The first three Earth Explorer satellites have surpassed their original objectives, demonstrating the versatility of these collaborative missions.

The three missions in orbit are CryoSat, GOCE and SMOS. Over the past few years they have been providing new information on Earth’s cryosphere, gravity and soil moisture and ocean salinity, respectively, but there have also been several unexpected achievements.

Some of these were outlined at the Paris Air and Space Show this week by Johnny Johannessen, Director General of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and former Chairman of ESA’s Science Advisory Committee.

While CryoSat continues to measure the thickness of sea ice and continental ice sheets, it has also proven capable of profiling land surfaces and inland water targets. In addition, its radar data are being exploited to monitor sea-level changes and contribute to mapping ocean floor topography.

Earth’s gravity mission, GOCE, has gathered enough data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists further exploited these data to create the first global high-resolution map of the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle – called the Moho.

GOCE went on to become the first seismometer in orbit when it detected sound waves from the massive earthquake that hit Japan on 11 March 2011.

Launched in 2009, ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite, SMOS, has been helping us to understand the water cycle. But the mission is also being used to monitor Arctic sea-ice extent and thickness, and can even determine wind speeds under hurricanes – such as last year’s Hurricane Sandy. Most recently, monitoring wetlands has been added to the mission’s repertoire.

The next Earth Explorer, Swarm, is planned for launch later this year. The three-satellite mission aims to unravel one of the most mysterious aspects of our planet: the magnetic field.

The future ADM-Aeolus will be the first space mission to profile the wind on a global scale, and EarthCARE will probe the relationship between clouds, aerosols and radiation.

Biomass was recently selected to become ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer, to measure the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the world’s forests with greater accuracy than ever before.

More details on the Earth Explorer missions and the scientific exploitation of their data will be highlighted at the upcoming Living Planet Symposium, to be held on 9–13 September in Edinburgh, UK.

Source ESA

26 June 2013 – Astrium, Europe’s leading space technology company, and CNES, have achieved a major improvement in Pléiades image quality, including sharper products and enhanced geometry.

Astrium Services will use a new algorithm developed by the French Space Agency (CNES) to automatically sharpen Pléiades’ satellite imagery. All data, archived or newly acquired when processed now will automatically feature this upgrade

A new algorithm, developed by the French Space Agency, provides images with better-drawn, neater contours, with a better understanding of the surface texture. These improvements greatly facilitate the analysis of the image (photo-interpretation) and also improve the accuracy of 3D models resulting from stereo taken images.

These gains encompass:

  • Better pan-sharpening (see examples below)
  • More accurate RPCs (Rational Polynomial Coefficient) improving ortho-rectification and stereoscopic quality
  • An almost perfect focal plane characterization

These modifications have been achieved by upgrading the Pléiades Ground Segment. All Pléiades 1A and 1B images processed now will be of better quality including archived data that is reprocessed.

Astrium Services and CNES work in a continuous partnership to improve the quality of images available. This collaborative approach will continue in order to track possible further improvements, throughout the life of the satellites.

Before and after treatment examples to be seen on Astrium-GEO

About Astrium
Together, pioneering excellence
Astrium is the number one company in Europe for space technologies and the third in the world. It is the only global company that covers the full range of civil and defence space systems, equipment and services.
In 2012, Astrium had a turnover over ?5.8 billion and 18,000 employees worldwide.
Its three business units are: Astrium Space Transportation, the European prime contractor for launchers, orbital systems and space exploration; Astrium Satellites, a leading provider of satellite system solutions, including spacecraft, ground segments, payloads and equipments; Astrium Services, the Space services partner for critical missions, providing comprehensive fixed and mobile solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, and bespoke geo-information services, worldwide.
Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2012, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of ?56.5 billion and employed a workforce of over 140,000.

Press contacts
Jeremy Close (Astrium UK) Tel.: +44 (0)1 438 77 3872
Gregory Gavroy (Astrium FR) Tel.: +33 (0) 1 77 75 80 32
Ralph Heinrich (Astrium GER) Tel.: +49 (0) 89 607 33971
Francisco Lechón (Astrium SP) Tel.: +34 91 586 37 41

Data gathered from the vantage point of space provide critical information to help understand how the Earth works, how its regions undergo complex changes, and what policy-makers can do to mitigate them. Earth observation satellites have been used for years to gather such data, which is then used by agencies and institutions involved in development, aid and relief support.

In natural disasters-prone Asia, countries have high demand for meteorological observation systems to predict threats more precisely. For example, precipitation data gathered by satellites has great potential to be used to warn people living in areas at risk before a flood occurs. In addition, during and after a flood, high resolution images of inundated areas can support rescue and recovery operations.

“Space technology and associated geographic information systems (GIS) applications are highly valued due to the illustrative and easy-to-understand means of presenting complicated calculations and forecasts for policy makers, technical advisers and most especially field personnel,” explains ADB Space Technology Specialist Yusuke Muraki.

For more information click here

Source: Asian Development Bank

During the INSPIRE Conference 2013 Planetek Italia has been assigned the AWARD for Academic Excellence and Innovation in INSPIRE related to the Small & Medium Enterprises (SME’s) for the innovative activities in the field of INSPIRE and SDI development.

This AWARD, promoted by the Technical Committee “Geographic information” of the European Committee for Standardization, CEN/TC 287, has been assigned for innovative parts of the developments made by Planetek Italia and lat/lon in the frame of the “Development of the technical components of the INSPIRE Geoportal at European Level for the Joint Resource Center (JRC) – Institute for Environment and Sustainability.

In particular the introduction of the concept of “anticipative counting” of potential results into the domain of spatial data infrastructures and the implementation of this feature on interface level through extensions of existing OGC protocols and INSPIRE standards have been awarded.

The work has been described and submitted to the CEN/TC 287 in the paper “Anticipative CSW-Counting enhances the Discovery UI” (authors Jens Stutte and Lyn Goltz)

Download here the paper submitted to the committee

Download here the complete Press Release

Go to INSPIRE Conference description page
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