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(03.06.2013) SMOS-Box version 2.3. released

This software adds a new processing-tool to the BEAM SMOS-Box that allows for converison of native SMOS data products to NetCDF 4.
In addition, the BEAM SMOS Reader Plug-in has been updated to handle SMOS-schemas up to version v05-02-01.

The installer for SMOS-Box 2.3 can be downloaded from the Beam download page

(03.06.2013) BEAM 4.11 released

The BEAM team is happy to announce that we have released BEAM 4.11 on June 03rd, 2013.

BEAM 4.11 is shipped with a number of new features, of which the most prominent are:

  • the Time Series Tool has been included into BEAM, allowing users to create, visualise, inspect, and analyse time series of EO data
  • the new Temporal Percentile Operator has been introduced; it allows users to perform multiple kinds of gap-filled, spatiotemporal percentile computations
  • a dedicated OPeNDAP client which provides an easy interface to arbitrary OPeNDAP servers has been added
  • NetCDF4 data export, allowing users to write compressed data in HDF5-based NetCDF4 format

Additionally, we have dropped and replaced some outdated parts of BEAM in order to keep it lean. It goes without saying that the new release also encloses a number of bug fixes, which can be inspected at our BEAM issue tracker

For a complete list of changes please refer to the changelog

The installers for BEAM 4.11 can be downloaded from the BEAM download page

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Presentation of recent results of the CoastColour and SeaSWIR projects at the CoastColour and SeaSWIR User Consultation Meeting.


CoastColour and SeaSWIR User Consultation Meeting successfully conducted

From the 09th – 10th of May 2013, the CoastColour and SeaSWIR User Consultation Meeting – co-organized by Brockmann Consult and belspo – was held at the EUMETSAT premises in Darmstadt.

The recent results of the CoastColour and SeaSWIR projects were communicated to the scientific and broader coastal user community.

About 50 participants have contributed to vital discussions and have given valuable input for gathering recommendations for future scientific work, the requirements for new sensors and for the exploitation of Earth Observation data for coastal zones.

We would like to thank all attendees for their interest and active participation.

Presentation of recent results of the CoastColour and SeaSWIR projects at the CoastColour and SeaSWIR User Consultation Meeting.

The meeting co-organised by Brockmann Consult and belspo takes place from 09th – 10th May, 2013 at the EUMETSAT premises in Darmstadt.

The recent results of the CoastColour and SeaSWIR projects will be communicated to the scientific and broader coastal user community. Feedback from coastal scientists, managers and other stakeholder will be gathered, and future possibilities with the upcoming Sentinels will be discussed. Recommendations for further scientific work, requirements for new sensors and for exploitation of Earth Observation data for coastal zones will be formulated. These will be addressed to the Space Agencies and research funding organisations.
Source: EUMETSAT

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The staff of BMT ARGOSS in Atyrau, Kazakhstan have been recognised by their customer, Agip KCO, for their delivery of HSE activity, and in particular, the prompt reporting of SAFE-R cards/reports. Agip KCO is committed to ensuring safer working practices for their staff and partners.

Each month, the company awards prizes to those companies that have helped the company achieve its safety goals. This is the second time that BMT ARGOSS has been recognised by Agip KCO for their positive contribution to the scheme whilst providing them with metocean expertise.

Almagul Berkumbayeva (BMT ARGOSS administrator in Atyrau) is in charge of HSE policy within the Atryau office, due to here efforts BMT was awarded this prize for the best SAFE-R card.

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Industry Survey Ending June we presented the industry survey results to an audience of EARSC members and invited guests. The final report is expected to be published in September. The study has identified a population of 319 EO service companies in Europe and Canada and the sector is employing about 5087 people with estimated revenues of 762Mio€ in 2012.

AGM We have had a very successful working day during this year’s EARSC AGM, sharing information about the status of Copernicus, GEO and discussing future opportunities for the Service Industry within export market and ESA initiatives to approach International Financial Institutions.

It was agreed that the next board meeting will be dedicated to a review of EARSC strategy.

Export markets and finding the best way of accessing them were the main topics under discussion at our afternoonworkshop during the EARSC AGM. Following the workshop on Export markets, EARSC will start a process to develop an export plan and activities for the industry.

Info on EARSC activities


Regio in Estonia is mainly working on four fields of activity: mapping, geospatial data, geographical information systems (GIS) and mobile positioning. Earth Observation (EO) developments started in 2010 when Estonia became ESA’s cooperating state.

TAKT is a spin off from the project “Establishment of Office for Aerospace Technologies for Crisis Management and Disaster response” – a joint project of the Bulgarian Space Research and Technologies Institute and the Bulgarian Centre (SRTI) for National Security and Defence Research.

The Guyana Forestry Commission together with Indufor Asia Pacific Ltd aimed at creating a REDD+ MRV system for the detection and reporting of national forest change in Guyana mainly based on RapidEye high-resolution imagery. AAM, RapidEye’s distributor in Australia and New Zealand, managed the supply of the imagery for this project.

History:

Guyana possesses one of the largest tracts of untouched rainforest in South America. In 2009, the Governments of Norway and Guyana embarked on one of the first national-scale REDD+ initiatives to preserve Guyana’s forests. The bilateral agreement sets out how the two countries would work together to achieve the objective of Guyana conserving its forest stocks and helping reduce global carbon emissions.

The aim was to create a REDD+ MRV system with a solid methodology for the detection and reporting of national forest change. Potentially, the methods employed could serve as model that could assist other countries to progress their REDD+ MRV initiatives off the ground. Initially, the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) found the wall-to-wall mapping and monitoring program to be a major undertaking, due to the size of the country (~215,000 km2). It has since found a way to effectively establish processes to streamline operations and standardize outputs that enables annual reporting of forest change.

The Challenge:

Until 2009, the only cost-effective and reliable source of imagery to accomplish the goals of this project was Landsat. Forest degradation was impossible to assess from the first year dataset due to the low resolution of the Landsat imagery. As a result, the degradation estimates for the first measurement year (2010) were based on the assumption that forest degradation radiates from deforested sites for a distance of 500 meters. In order to maintain continuity and improve the quality of the detection the GFC and Indufor team considered using RapidEye imagery.

The GFC and Indufor team decided that high resolution imagery was required to improve the detection of small-scale degradation events. A methodology was developed using five meter RapidEye imagery. The method adopted considered the visual characteristics of degradation including, size, proximity and its spectral characteristics. In 2011, RapidEye imaged 60% of Guyana over a four month period. In 2012, this was expanded to the entire country.

An Eye on Results

Guyana has established an annual, nation-wide MRV system. The historical analysis (1990-2009) has shown that the country lost about 0.02% of its forest area every year. The incorporation of RapidEye and improved forest change routines into the MRV system have resulted in improved detection and classification of both deforestation and degradation events.

In 2011, the RapidEye constellation was tasked over a four month period to collect approximately 12 million hectares (120,000 km2) of new imagery over all previously identified year one (2009-2010) forest loss areas. Using the higher resolution RapidEye imagery as opposed to strictly Landsat, a higher level of accuracy in the mapping was achieved. This is particularly apparent in determining the cause and the extent of both forest loss and degradation.

While the overall change identification process was consistent from year 1 to year 2, modifications were made to accommodate the shift from 30 m Landsat to 5 m RapidEye imagery. The most notable change was the two stage evaluation approach that was implemented for year two.

For the first stage, a grid the size of a RapidEye tile (25 × 25 km) was used to manually screen for change. The second stage used a combination of automated and manual processes to detect change. Each change event was systematically evaluated by casting a 1 × 1 km grid over the image. The outcome showed that changes could easily be identified in stage one, while accurately quantifying and attributing a cause to the change was carried out in stage two.

Proven Results

Since 2010 an independent in-country validation of the forest change estimates has been conducted by the University of Durham, England. The review process evaluates the accuracy of the mapping by scrutinizing the methodology and developing a statistical sampling approach to verify the results. Their audit concluded that the estimation of the 2011 forest loss was the same as reported by the GFC and Indufor team’s analysis. The overall map accuracy (for both deforestation and forest degradation) was 99.2%.

The University of Durham attributed the extremely high accuracy rate to the manual multi-stage methods when validating forest loss, the five meter high resolution RapidEye imagery and the meticulous work of the GFC and Indufor team.

In the University’s recommendations and comments, they strongly suggested that RapidEye data be used to image the entire country of Guyana in future years, as it is “of excellent quality and ideally suited for the task”. They also stated that RapidEye data was “…of sufficient spatial resolution to identify deforestation and the main drivers of deforestation.”

The Guyana Forestry Commission and Indufor team have already received RapidEye coverage over all of Guyana for 2012. This data will also be used to continue the REDD+ MRV assessment of forest loss and degradation. These measurements are used to prove that Guyana has met or exceeded the forest management benchmarks established with the government of Norway that trigger incentive payments.


Figure 1. RapidEye Imagery of Guyana

About RapidEye for REDD+
As part of its effort to assist participating countries in becoming “REDD-ready”, RapidEye offers an extensive and very recent archive of imagery, which can provide users with a wealth of information. Maps can be created showing current land use or land cover in regions, while multiple coverages can show changes that have happened to an area over time.
Whether identifying which areas are forested or tracking the change of forested land over multiple years, RapidEye is the perfect partner. Wall-to-wall coverages of most REDD countries are available in the RapidEye archive for National REDD+ initiatives. Contact redd@rapideye.com for more information.

More than one billion people are dependent on forests for their livelihood and forests play a vital role in regulating our climate. Forests are under threat from degradation caused by expanding agriculture and illegal logging, which costs governments $10 billion a year in lost revenues. Protecting forests is a global priority and the subject of the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP-19).

REDD+, the UN’s programme to reduce carbon emissions from forest degradation, aims to do just that but requires accurate, regular and reliable information about the World’s forests in order to succeed. Satellites are the only way to accurately and regularly monitor the vast areas involved– the tropics alone make up half of the Earth’s land area, and many areas cannot be reached on foot.

DMCii’s Director of Forestry, Jim Lynch, speaks in April’s Nature science journal about the need for a new system of satellites to monitor forest degradation as part of the REDD+ programme. The article, ‘Choose satellites to monitor deforestation’ was written with Sir Martin Sweeting, Director of the Surrey Space Centre and Executive Chairman of DMCii, Professor Heiko Balzter from the University of Leicester and Professor Mark Maslin from University College London.

The authors argue that current mapping strategies are too slow and sparse, often taking the form of annual audits that fail to provide the timely information needed. They recommend two Earth Observation systems to supply the resolutions and timescales required to create an early warning system that will empower authorities with the information they need to tackle illegal logging as it happens and curb deforestation:

  • A constellation of five tropical orbiting radar satellites (such as the UK’s low-cost NovaSAR) that would provide daily monitoring through cloud – common in the tropics – and darkness.
  • The operation of a network of optical satellites (including existing ones like Landsat and the DMCii-operated DMC constellation) to carry out weekly or monthly monitoring of forests to detect seasonal changes to carbon stocks.

To read the article visit the Nature website

MC International Imaging (DMCii) has signed an agreement with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) that will increase the volume of imagery acquired and the speed in which it can be delivered. The new facilities in Svalbard have allowed DMCii to receive 30% more data from day one, with the scope for significant further expansion in the future.

Under this agreement, KSAT will deliver a complete ground station service to DMCii, including the provision of hardware, and delivery of data to DMCii’s headquarters in the UK. The Svalbard ground station is uniquely placed near the North Pole to provide maximum downlink opportunities from polar-orbiting satellites, such as those operated by DMCii. Whilst an antenna near the equator might get 2 or 3 passes of a satellite over it in a day, antennas at Svalbard get 14 passes a day so satellite data can be downlinked every 90 minutes. A high speed data link between Svalbard and DMCii headquarters will speed up the delivery time of satellite imagery.

Dave Hodgson, Managing Director of DMCii, said: “Timeliness of information is of vital importance to our customers and is a key differentiator of our imagery services. The improved downlink has significantly upgraded data delivery times and has already made 30% more imagery available, further improving capability for change detection applications. This will become more important as the capacity of our satellites to acquire data expands in the near future.”

Rolf Skatteboe, President of KSAT, said: “Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) is pleased with the opportunity to work together with DMCii and deliver an efficient and flexible ground segment for DMC series of satellites; reducing the latency for DMCii customers from the largest ground station in the world for polar orbiting satellites.”

“This is a strong Anglo-Norwegian partnership that we expect to continue with future missions such as the UK’s forthcoming NovaSAR mission. The combination of timely deliveries of Earth Observation data and operational marine monitoring services is important for KSAT marine situational awareness services.”


Svalbard Ground Station, SvalSat © KSAT- Kongsberg Satellite Services

About DMC International Imaging Ltd

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK-based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is primarily used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping, which benefit from reliable high temporal resolution optical imagery.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other DMC member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.

DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the DMC with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other DMC Consortium member nations listed above.

DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trademark DMC.

About Kongsberg Satellite Services AS

Kongsberg Satellite Services AS (KSAT) is a commercial Norwegian enterprise, uniquely positioned to provide ground station and earth observation services for Low Earth and polar orbiting satellites. Locations in Tromsø at 69°N, Svalbard at 78°N and Antarctic TrollSat Station at 72°S furthermore owned and operated stations in Hartebeesthoek, Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, Grimstad and Jan Mayen. KSAT operates over 60 antennas optimally positioned and support more than 75 satellites.

The Tromsø Network Operations Centre is staffed 24/7-365 days, and remotely operating facilities around the world as one single interconnected network.

DMCii and long-term partner Spacemetric, have successfully delivered an image from satellite to end-user in just 11 minutes, as part of a demonstration at the European Space Agency’s ‘Big Data from Space’ conference, where industry experts discuss how to distribute large volumes of data from space to the people that need it.

An image of Rome (where the event is being held) was acquired at 09:17 UTC on Wednesday the 5th June and it was processed and made available by 09:28 UTC the same morning.

Adina Gillespie, DMCii’s Product Development Manager said: “Delivering images from space to users usually takes at least a day, so demonstrating that it’s possible to capture Rome, download the image and process it in just 11 minutes is hugely exciting and proves that an age where civil users can tap into near real time data from space is just around the corner.”

DMCii specialises in the fast delivery of images for time-critical applications such as monitoring crop growth and monitoring disasters where imagery has a shelf life of about 24 hours, after which it ceases to be useful. Operating a multi-satellite constellation means that DMCii has more “eyes in the sky”, acquiring huge volumes of data every day. The company has already increased the speed of delivery with its direct downlink service that downlinks data directly to the user, and is planning an ‘always on’ service will cut delivery times for satellite imaging by continuously imaging the Earth without the need to command the satellite and wait for the image to be acquired.

The live demonstration of rapid image access is using the latest capabilities developed within the NGI project (Near Real-Time Geo-annotated Imagery) for the European Space Agency by Spacemetric


Screenshot of the processed UK-DMC2 image of Rome that was delivered in just 11 minutes at the ‘Big Data from Space’ conference in Frascati

About DMC International Imaging Ltd

  • DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK-based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is primarily used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping, which benefit from reliable high temporal resolution optical imagery.
  • In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other DMC member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.
  • DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the DMC with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other DMC Consortium member nations listed above.
  • DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trademark DMC.

Satellite imagery provided by DMCii is helping to plan the attempt to break the land speed record by the BLOODHOUND Project.

BLOODHOUND product sponsor DMCii has provided regular imagery to monitor test track conditions on the Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape of South Africa. During the rainy season (from October to March) the desert pan floods regularly, making it extremely flat and smooth and therefore an ideal surface to run BLOODHOUND’s supersonic car at speeds up to 1,050 mph. However, the track must be completely dry before use, as only then does the surface have the right load-bearing capacity to support the car and ensure a safe run.


UK-DMC2 image of the Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, captured on the 25th April 2013 © DMCii

The rainy season is unpredictable and the pan does not dry consistently across the whole area. DMCii’s 22m multispectral imagery provided an objective and highly accurate means of quantifying the flooding, understanding the drying out process and analysing the surface irregularities, highlighting the areas that require close monitoring before carrying out a test.

The latest image, taken on the 25th April, after heavy flooding in March, showed that the pan will take just weeks to dry out instead of the months previously thought. This information is vital to the team who are planning a wheel test on the pan as early as the beginning of May.

Andy Green, RAF fighter pilot and BLOODHOUND project driver said: “Having used satellite imagery to locate our test site, it was an obvious choice to use it to analyse the conditions on the Hakskeen pan. The 20 million m² area of cleared track roughly equates to an A road from London to Moscow. Once this huge remote area is flooded, it becomes inaccessible from the surface and regular monitoring is virtually impossible.”

“DMCii’s regular imagery has helped us understand more about the environment we are working with, identifying potentially problematic areas in the surface of the pan which we can factor in to ensure all our runs are safe. Our own tests have shown that DMCii imagery gives an exact picture of the conditions on the ground, which will give me great confidence when I step into the driver’s seat of the world’s fastest car.”

Dave Hodgson, Managing Director of DMCii said: “We’re proud to be supporting such an exciting project, that not only sets out to break several world records, but is also helping to encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers through their work with STEM. We’re very excited for Andy and the BLOODHOUND team and wish them the best of luck with their supersonic car.”
“Our 22m wide-area imagery has been perfectly suited to help them analyse their test track and it has been particularly effective at showing how the water is lying when the pan is flooded, allowing the detection of potentially problematic surface topographical issues.”

About DMC International Imaging Ltd

  • DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK-based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is primarily used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping, which benefit from reliable high temporal resolution optical imagery.
  • In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other DMC member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.
  • DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the DMC with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other DMC Consortium member nations listed above.
  • DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trademark DMC.

About BLOODHOUND SSC

  • The world land speed record of 763 mph is held by Thrust SSC, a UK team lead by BLOODHOUND’s Project Director Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green.
  • Components for BLOODHOUND SSC are being manufactured by specialists across the UK and delivered to the BLOODHOUND Technical Centre in Bristol for assembly throughout 2013.
  • The BLOODHOUND team scoured the globe to find the perfect desert to run the car on, it needed to be at least 12 miles long, two miles wide and perfectly flat. The Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa was selected.
  • At full speed BLOODHOUND SSC will cover a mile in 3.6 seconds, that’s 4.5 football pitches laid end to end per second.
  • BLOODHOUND has three power plants, a Rolls Royce EJ200 jet from a Eurofighter Typhoon, a custom designed hybrid rocket and a 750 bhp Cosworth F1 engine that drives the rocket oxidiser pump. Between them they generate 135,000 equivalent hp, equal to 180 F1 cars.