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In the field

JRC presents the progress of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service to Commissioner Georgieva
The Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been presented in the 4th European Civil Protection Forum, that took place in Brussels on the 15th and 16th of May 2013.

The regional dimension of Copernicus: actions and benefits
The Copernicus Programme is characterised by successful technological development, and has demonstrated its capacities for application in many different sectors, creating a wide range of benefits for Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) as well as for SMEs and Entrepreneurs.

The European Space Agency promotes discussion on how to handle significant volumes of EO data
By the end of next year the first of the Copernicus Sentinels will be in orbit and will be providing large volumes of Earth Observation (EO) data. Once this satellite is in place, the user community will have access to an unprecedented amount of EO data. Actors involved in its use and delivery will have to face the significant challenges in relation to the processing, storage and distribution of data.

New Copernicus mapping products support emergency response to floods in central Europe
Since the beginning of June, surging rivers have caused extensive flooding in Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Heavy rain in late May and early June caused the banks of the Elbe and the Danube rivers to swell, causing extensive damage and leaving at least 19 people dead in the affected area. Reference and flood extent maps have been produced by the EMS to support emergency management and civil protection authorities in their planning and rescue operations.

European Space Expo visitors reach 185,000!
The European Space Expo in Dublin closed its doors with record attendance figures reaching almost 30,000 people during the six-day period it was open to the public, ‘beating’ the visitor numbers of any previous Expo. With this record, the number of visitors to the European Space Expo has reached 185,000 since its first deployment.

In motion

Towards the European Copernicus Marine Service.
MyOcean, the precursor of the Copernicus Marine Service provides free access to worldwide oceanographic core products to support a range of applications in the public, private and scientific domains, at a pre-operational level. Up to now, MyOcean has been serving more than 2,200 users worldwide.

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, visits the European Union Satellite Centre
During her visit to the European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen), the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, was briefed on Copernicus services for Security Applications developed by the EU SatCen.

MEP Vittorio Prodi: “Copernicus is becoming a key cornerstone for our local decision makers
Vittorio Prodi, Member of the European Parliament (EP) and Chair of the EP’s Sky and Space Intergroup, has shared with readers of the Copernicus Observer his reasons for becoming one of the most high-profile supporters of the Copernicus Programme.

A workshop to showcase Copernicus progress in the area of Maritime Surveillance
On the occasion of the 6th edition of the European Maritime Day (EMD), held in Valetta (Malta) on the 21st and 22nd of May 2013, three R&D (FP7) projects presented the benefits and achievements of the Copernicus support to Maritime Surveillance.

‘International Innovation’ interviews Dr. Reinhard Schulte-Braucks, Head of the GMES/Copernicus Unit
The ‘International Innovation’ scientific magazine has published an in-depth interview with the Head of the GMES/Copernicus Unit, Reinhard Schulte-Braucks, who has shared his vision on how the Copernicus Programme will provide sustained and reliable Earth Observation information, enabling European public authorities, commercial businesses and the scientific community to get a continuous picture of our ever-evolving world.

The upcoming Lithuanian Presidency of the EU will place emphasis on the Copernicus Programme Regulation
In the forthcoming days, Lithuania will take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, which has been in Irish hands since January 2013. Lithuania forms part of the current Presidency Trio, along with Ireland and Greece, which is ensuring the consistency of the work of the Council of the EU until July 2014.

Copernicus and Eastern Europe: the way ahead
To ensure that the uptake of Copernicus services by users of Eastern European Member States (formerly known as ‘New Member States’) is smooth and efficient, the European Commission worked collaboratively with the European Space Agency, the Romanian Space Agency and the Eurisy network to organise the ‘The European Earth Monitoring Programme Copernicus: its benefits for the citizens of Eastern Europe’ conference in Bucharest on the 21th and 22nd of May 2013.

Business Corner

Copernicus on the global stage: the Geospatial World Forum 2013
The Geospatial World Forum is an annual international conference bringing together business leaders, policy-makers, industrialists, academics and users in the field of geospatial technologies. The benefits of Copernicus were highlighted during the conference by stakeholders from across the Copernicus community.

Start-up founder sees Sentinels as boost to geo-marketplace
CloudEO is a German start-up company looking to make it easier for Earth Observation (EO) data providers, software developers and potential customers to come together. The company’s innovative platform will incorporate data from the Copernicus Sentinels, which the founder says will stimulate demand for commercial EO data and services.

Become the 2013 Copernicus Master!
The Copernicus Masters Competition opens once again to award prizes for innovative solutions for business and society based on Earth Observation data.

Contact

13-17 October 2014, Darmstadt, Germany

Background

Satellite observations are a key element in an integrated and sustained climate observing system and have been critically important for monitoring and understanding the Earth’s climate system during the past several decades. The expected completion of the IPCC Fifth Assessment (AR5) in 2013- 2014 makes it timely to discuss these achievements, to assess future opportunities and challenges with satellite derived climate information, and to provide guidance on future priorities.

The symposium will be an important step towards defining requirements, and the further development of an efficient and sustained international space-based Earth observing system.

This symposium is intended to bring together the international experts in climate observations, research, analysis and modeling to present and discuss results from their studies, with a particular emphasis on the role of space-based Earth observations in improving our knowledge of the current climate at global and regional scales, and in the assessment of models used for climate projections.

Main Goal of the symposium
The main goal of the symposium is to provide a forum for discussing the current state of climate science and climate observations in order to evaluate recent achieve- ments, ascertain critical objectives to be achieved with satellite-based climate information, and identify gaps in the current space-based climate observing system. A major topic that will be discussed is the proposed Archi- tecture for sustained Climate Monitoring from Space that has been developed under the auspices of the Commit- tee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), the Coordi- nation Group of Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) and WMO. Beyond the monitoring of the current state of the Climate System, the conference will also consider how Earth observation contributes to future developments in climate prediction and climate change projection.

Symposium participants

• Climate scientists primarily interested in satellite observations and their use for climate research, modelling and prediction.
• Experts from space agencies engaged in the development of climate missions, and the development and provision of corresponding data and information services.
• Private sector, non-governmental organisations, and organisations that are involved in the develop- ment of Earth observing and information systems, and / or dependent on science-based climate information for decision-making.

Symposium themes

• Satellite observations for monitoring of the climate system.
• Satellite observations for earth system modelling and prediction.
• Challenges and opportunities in sustaining and expanding Earth observing systems, including the role of new and emerging observing techniques.
• Processing, re-processing and analysis of Earth observations for climate applications.
• Archiving, distribution and access to Earth observa- tions and information derived from the observations.
• Results from the use of satellite observations for climate analyses and climate model validation.
• The Scientific Organising Committee will be respon- sible for the further development of the suggested themes, subsidiary sessions, topics and speakers list. They will also oversee the evaluation and selection of the abstracts for submitted papers and posters to the symposium.

Expected outcomes of the symposium

The symposium and the follow-on activities are expected to benefit climate-related risk management, and help to underpin the development of responsible and affordable climate change mitigation and adaptation options. A key aspect will be the detection and attribution of climate change beyond the basic variables.

The symposium will also benefit climate science by putting in motion a process for creating a joint action plan for the planning and development of an interna- tional space-based climate observing system that will be responsive to the current and emerging needs in the areas of climate research, modelling and services (in the context of the Global Framework for Climate Services in the latter case).

This will be achieved by:
• Presenting recent scientific achievements related to the development and use of high-quality and innova- tive space-based observational datasets for climate research, assessments and evaluation of climate mod- els that provide future climate projections. The impor- tance of bringing together models and observations cannot be over-emphasised; while Earth observation provides evidence of variability and change now, the causality of those variations and changes and their future evolution can only be identified through the use of climate models.
• Identifying future research and observations needed to enhance the value, and improve the sustainability of, high-impact science-based climate information obtained from space-based observations. The focus will be on Climate Data Records, including those resulting from the reprocessing of historical observations. These can help us understand past variations and change in the climate system. The use of multiple streams of observations can also help in identifying processes and interactions within the climate system, especially when used in combination with theory
and models.
• Identifying pathways for productive international collaborations for the development of satellite-based climate observations in support of climate research, prediction and services.
• Presenting innovative methods applied to satellite data to provide better science-based applications and information to support climate decisions at all levels.
• Discussing how to best quantify the inherent uncertainties associated with satellite observations and how to best use these uncertainty estimates in data assimilation, climate modelling and re-analyses.
• Presenting new approaches for assimilating satellite observations, and related use, in Observing System Simulation Experiments with a view to improving cli- mate observations and climate observing systems.

Format of the symposium

The symposium will consist of two segments. The first day/segment will focus on findings from the Fifth Assessment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the necessary dialogue between information providers and users of science-based climate information for decision-making. The second segment of the symposium will be organised over the following three days around the key scientific themes presented above.

The scientific and technical oral and poster presentations for each daily theme will be organised in the form of a morning plenary session, including dialogue and discussion with participants, followed by a poster session with dedicated viewing time and one-on-one discussions with authors, and parallel sessions in the afternoon to allow more in-depth presentations and discussions on some major topics associated with each daily theme.

The Climate Symposium
Registration & More information

The recent conference organised by ESA on big data proved to be a useful and interesting event. The term “big data” belongs more to the marketing than to the technical world but it proved a strong enough pull to get around 200 people at the 3 day workshop to exchange on what it means for the world of Earth Observation. “Big data” embraces a number of other terms which are entering the everyday language alongside GIS such as the cloud and crowd-sourcing and which have relevance to EO service providers. Behind the marketing lie some very serious subjects which were discussed during the workshop.

The means to access data from Sentinel satellites was one such subject along with the means to combine with other data sources not just other satellite data but also a variety of others. We have been and are still concerned about how industry will gain access to the large volumes of Sentinel data that will start pouring down to Earth starting in the next 12 months. It seems that it will remain under the responsibility of national authorities to provide suitable portals which is strange for a European programme. ESA will provide a central Portal to serve the GMES/Copernicus services so assuring the primary mission of the programme but the second mission is not being given enough attention.

I say the second mission because in the recently published Copernicus regulation from the European Commission, it is declared that the Copernicus programme shall contribute to the following general objectives:

  • protection of the environment and provision of support to civil protection and security efforts;
  • support of the Europe 2020 growth strategy by contributing to the objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; in particular, it shall contribute to economic stability and growth by boosting commercial applications.

Furthermore, these shall be monitored through 2 indicators:

  • data and information made available in accordance with the respective service-level delivery requirements for environment, civil protection and security;
  • market penetration and competitiveness of the European downstream operators.

We really welcome this focus on developing economic benefit through the downstream industry but to achieve this second goal means that European industry must have not just good but excellent access to the data. Hence it is frustrating that this has not been given more attention earlier, but we are now in discussion over this issue and a second meeting to address the industry concerns is planned for late September.

Overall, I am delighted that the messages from EARSC have been heard and reflected into the EC regulation. We have been continually pushing the message that the European industry is anticipating benefits from the Copernicus programme, not through the programme directly (ie participation in the Copernicus services) but through being able to develop and exploit the skills and knowledge that will come as a result. Of course, for each company, participation in the provision of Copernicus services will be an important step, but we believe that the major benefit will come from taking the data and products into other markets such as commercial customers and government customers outside of Europe. This was borne out in our recent industry survey which showed that the industry expects to derive most benefit from the Copernicus programme as a result of free access to Sentinel data.

This is a major finding and a big step forward from what might have been found in earlier years and a major finding demonstrating that the industry is moving away from a focus on research to that of operational business.

In the impact assessment supporting the EC regulation, it is estimated that more than 9000 direct jobs in the downstream services sector will be created or maintained as a result of the programme. In our survey, we find that there are some 5000 highly skilled employees in the sector today. This only accounts for those in industry and not those in the public sector so the goals seem realistic. Nevertheless, as the big data conference showed, there are many pressures on the industry and competing technologies as well as international competition is going to keep us on our toes.

In particular, new and innovative ways of distributing and accessing data are shown to be very important. Google presented their ideas in this respect which could transform the way in which companies and individuals are able to manipulate, process and combine data from as many and as diverse sources as we can imagine. The cloud, social networking and non-space observation platforms will all contribute to this transformation in which European companies are also playing leading roles. It is therefore critical that we can take advantage of the Sentinel data to create more change and more innovation. This is behind our support for a free and open data policy but nevertheless, the challenge is enormous as we seek to ensure that the European investment into the Copernicus programme is able to deliver on its objectives.

Best wishes,
Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

(July 2013) U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observatory (NASA’s Earth Observatory) today announced a model diagram, showing the launch of its Earth observation satellites over the years.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 5 news, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observatory (NASA’s Earth Observatory) today announced a model diagram, showing its Earth observation satellites launched over the years.

In most people’s imagination, NASA is an observation and exploration of outer space for the target organization. However, many have found that astronauts into outer space, the earth is they see the most beautiful and amazing planet’s I(http://www.best-news(Technology News http://www.best-news.us/).us/). Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders (William Anders) when he said: ‘Our aim is to explore the moon, but the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.

In the Apollo moon landing spacecraft nearly a half century later, to study the Earth from space has become one of the important mission of NASA. Currently, there are 16 NASA Earth observation satellite launched around the Earth.‘s First Earth observation satellites 1997 launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring mission satellite (TRMM), the youngest was in February 2013 launch of Landsat 8 (Landsat 8).

NASA’s satellite fleet monitoring Zhezhi wide range, each one monitoring are directly related to the global environment, including climate change, weather forecasting, fire monitoring, vegetation health. NASA Secretary Charles Bolden (Charles Bolden) in 2013 June published a blog post talking about the important mission of these satellites shoulder his outlook for the future of the team by satellite fleet.

Source

Esri International User Conference, San Diego, 8th July 2013: Satellite imagery from DMCii is now fully supported within Esri’s popular ArcGIS software, making it easier for customers to work with the large multi-spectral images.

Launched at Esri UC today, ArcGIS 10.2 provides built-in support to help users get the most out of DMC 22m multispectral imagery. The new built-in support enables users to import this satellite imagery into their projects whilst preserving information such as location, time, and spectral bands and making it easily accessible by the user.

DMC satellites provide 48 state coverage of the United States on a cloud-optimised 15 day repeat. The new built-in support streamlines the process of grouping images and building catalogues allowing, for example, forestry users to easily compare changes in forest canopy or agricultural users to easily identify in-field variability of crops over time.

Paul Stephens, Director of Sales and Marketing at DMCii, explains “The additional support for DMCii imagery in ArcGIS 10.2 means it’s now easier than ever for over a million ArcGIS users to build our satellite imagery into their GIS.”

Lawrie Jordan, Director of Imagery at Esri adds, “Satellite imagery is an authoritative source of information for many applications. DMC satellite imagery has many unique attributes such as very large area coverage, and rapid revisit to a given area and we are pleased to work with DMCii to enhance our user’s experience working with this dataset within ArcGIS 10.2.”

Data processing chains can also be shortened with built-in support for DMCii imagery reducing the need for extensive processing. This, combined with real-time processing in ArcGIS 10.2, means images can be analysed and put to use more quickly than ever before.

To find out more, visit DMCii at booth #1700 at the Esri International User Conference.

About DMCii
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.

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

Notes to editor:
This press release can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/dmciipr

Press contacts:

  • Robin Wolstenholme, bcm public relations, www.bcmpublicrelations.com
    Tel: +44 (0)1306 882288 Email: r.wolstenholme@bcmpublicrelations.com
  • Paul Stephens, Sales & Marketing Director, DMCii, www.dmcii.com
    Tel: +44 (0)1483 804299 Email: p.stephens@dmcii.com

(03July2013) By PHILIP A. JANQUART , WASHINGTON (CN) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks comments on a proposed regulation involving integrating regional information entities into a federal marine monitoring system.

These Regional Information Coordination Entities (RICEs) coordinate regional observing efforts; manage and operate observing assets; manage and distribute data; and engage user groups in product development,” according to NOAA.

The proposed action is meant to integrate some of the regional entities into the federal Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System (ICOOS).

The ICOOS Act of 2009, which the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Program Office is to implement, is aimed at “the development and sustainability of a national and international integrated ocean observing system designed to collect, monitor and disseminate marine environment data in an interoperable, reliable, timely and user-specified manner by leveraging federal, regional and private-sector partnerships,” according to the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance. The office helps entities interested in federal programs wade through the application process.

The NOAA said the data is used to “support national defense, marine commerce, navigation safety, weather, climate and marine forecasting, energy siting and production, economic development, ecosystem-based marine, coastal and Great Lakes resource management, public safety, and public outreach training and education.”

A big part of accomplishing that goal is integrating non-federal entities into ICOOS. The proposed action, if approved, would solidify criteria and certain requirements outlined by the Interagency Ocean Observation Committee for RICEs acceptance into the federal system.

The RICEs, however, would not be government funded once accepted and would be obligated to report their respective financial statuses while outlining “plans and strategies to diversify funding sources and opportunities,” according to the NOAA’s action.

Another purpose of the system is to “fulfill the nation’s international obligations to contribute to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS),” the NOAA said in its action. Both systems are ICOOS’s international counterparts. The GEOSS observes the earth as a complete system while the GOOS observes the ocean as a separate system.

“Earth observations include measurements and monitoring of the Earth under water, on the land surface and beneath, air and water quality, of atmospheric conditions, and measures of the health of humans, plants and animals. Measurements can be made directly or by sensors in contact or remotely, and all these observations support modeling or other tools that create information for environmental decision-making, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The proposed action makes certified RISE entities a part of the NOAA and its government employees “for the purpose of determining liability arising from the collection, dissemination and use of observation data,” the NOAA said in its action.

Comments are due by Aug. 1.

Source

(05 July 2013, Written by Matt Ball) Today, China signed an agreement to provide earth observation satellite data to members of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO). The China National space Administration (CNSA) and APSCO signed a memorandum of understanding at a meeting in Beijing to provide the data for use in natural disaster reduction and relief.


APSCO is an inter-governmental organization established in 2005, with China as its host and one of its nine member states. Members include agencies from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey. The APSCO convention promotes collaborative space technology development in member countries, with research, training, and peaceful applications. The organization has defined projects on designing, building and launching light satellites, middle class satellites weighing 500–600 kg, research satellites, remote-sensing and telecommunications satellites.

China’s remote sensing capacity has been expanding rapidly, with the Gaofen-1 high-definition Earth observation satellite launched this year. The The the third satellite of its Environmental Protection & Disaster Monitoring Constellation, Huanjing-1C was launched in November 2012. These satellites are owned by the National Committee for Disaster Reduction and State Environmental Protection Administration of China, with the objective to establish an operational Earth observing system for disaster monitoring and mitigation using remote sensing technology and to improve the efficiency of disaster mitigation and relief. This series of satellites, and their corresponding data, will be a large contributor to meet the new international agreement.

The APSCO Data Sharing Service Platform is designed for managing and storing remote sensing data and providing data retrieval facilities.

Sources: Xinhua, APSCO
Source


BMT ARGOSS

Q: Thank you Mr Wensink for your time, firstly, tell us a bit about your company BMT-Argoss, what it does and how it has grown over the years

We are a global operating company with offices mainly in Europe, Asia and former USSR. We provide support to clients where their activities are being hampered by environmental conditions and where their activities might have impact on the environment.

Q: Explain to us what does your company does and how it operates?

We provide high quality Metocean data, Metocean forecasting, design and operability services, and vessel performance consultancy mainly to the oil and gas and maritime transport markets.

Q: What are the most important competences of BMT- Argoss that help you succeed in the market? What are your main competences?

Amongst others, we have core competences on meteorology, oceanography, modeling, data assimilation, satellite observations and processing and naval architecture.

For us satellite data are an important almost essential source to calibrate and validate our models on which we build and provide our services. We have built up in house a huge quality checked archives of satellite data of wind, waves, currents, sea level and water quality parameters over the last 25 years on which value added services are build upon and around. One of those services are maneuvering and towing of platforms but also the mooring and berthing of vessels in ports.

MARKET VIEWS

Q: What are the key markets that you address? and If you look beyond 2013 where do you see the industry greatest prospects for growth coming from? How will the commercial market evolve or if you perceive emerging markets as an area for expansion?

As a company we are addressing the energy and maritime transport markets. These are interesting and steadily growing markets where environmental data are essential and where solutions are required on a day to day basis.

Q: How do you perceive emerging markets as an area for expansion? Does that type of geographical expansion and diversification change a significant step for the industry?

Our company’s energy market business at the moment is principally in the oil and gas sector, but also the renewable energy sector is steadily emerging. We are focusing on the markets in Asia, West Africa, Russia and to some extent Brazil and the Mediterranean. Important are services related to harsh environments (e.g. deep water, strong currents, high waves, ice) where specific information services are needed for planning and design as well as to support day to day operations. Although the market in the North Sea is declining, many opportunities still exist because the oil majors are leaving the North Sea and smaller oil companies are entering the market and looking for specialist services.

Q: How confident of growth are you in the current environment?

Within the oil and gas sector there is a tendency to move towards managed service contracts. These are turnkey, long-term, framework contracts providing full 24/7 services and usually includes delivery of data, staff, in situ measurements, high-tech back office systems and resources for operational processing of data. We are running major projects with some of the big oil companies and we are heading for more contracts of this kind.

The market size is quite considerable (>>€50m/year) and growing. Despite the current economic downsize and some delays in major projects, it is anticipated that opportunities in the energy market will steadily grow.

On the Maritime transport markets we provide niche services and products related to safety and efficiency associated with Metocean information such as weather forecasting and routing services. However, most of these services are given in near isolation, whilst the market is looking for full turn-key integrated solutions.

We continue to observe that safe navigation and weather avoidance (routing) is still a weak crutch. We see many opportunities in this area (e.g. shipping, environment, Metocean, safety at sea) and satellite data is and will play an important role into this for the next decade.

Regarding the earth observation sector, the major income is still coming from governments. However, I have seen and I expect that the importance of private markets will increase further and significantly in the coming years. For our industry major opportunities exist in geographical areas outside Europe where the infrastructure is less developed than in Europe and where satellites play a crucial role in observing and understanding our environment we operate in.

Q: How do you perceive emerging markets as an area for expansion? Does that type of geographical expansion and diversification change a significant step for the industry?

I have already seen an uptake of the oil and gas sector in certain regions and I am convinced that many opportunities will appear for our members in the oil and gas sector. As chairman of EARSC I have therefore taken initiatives already a couple of years ago to create awareness within our EO sector of opportunities in the energy markets by providing market intelligence to our members, by supporting joint conferences, by establishing working groups and as you are probably aware of one our working group on Geomatics (OGEO) is currently fully integrated in OGP, the Association of Oil and Gas producers.

Q: Can you talk further about how the attractiveness of different countries and different regions is changing?

For our sector the markets outside Europe will become very important and this will require companies to understand these foreign markets, to qualify for these markets and to position for these markets. Hereto, organizations such as ESA and the EU, as well as national bodies are playing an important role for our sector to prepare for this future business.

For the next years and mainly outside Europe major investments (multi billions) are scheduled for exploration and production of oil and gas. Together with these investments strict conditions are being enforced on our clients to develop local economies that are transferred to our sector. This will have impact on our sector and require us to adapt and to develop service companies with local staff in the regions where these investments take place.

EO SERVICE DEVELOPMENT & STAKEHOLDERS

Q: One of the most important dialogue´s governments can have with this industry is connected to our entry into a new place to do business…. Beyond economic policies, what’s the one thing governments can do to better support the sector? What can governments do specifically to help and support the industry?

Governments (but also associations like ours to a certain extent) have an important role to play in helping companies in identifying new markets, to help them in qualifying and positioning companies for those new markets, help them in understanding the legal and financial framework the companies need to work in and help them in removing barriers that prevent or make it difficult for companies to operate.

Q: How should be the effective collaboration between government and the private sector?

Governments are playing already an important role in this by gathering intelligence information through for instance their Embassies but also by developing government to government agreements, by technology programs to position companies to provide the services needed in those new markets. However, I notice a shift in legal and financial requirements in countries where governments can play an important extended role by removing certain exceptional liabilities by providing financial export guarantees.

ABOUT EARSC

_EARSC (the European Association for Remote Sensing Companies) is the European trade association dealing with the geospatial services sector, the EARSC mission is to foster the development of the European Geo-Information Services Industry._ 

Q: As Chair of EARSC, could you describe in a generic sentence what is the EO trade association for you? and what for you are the key responsibilities?

EARSC is for me an important association to help growing our sector by identifying, sharing and help developing business but also to help solving issues which form barriers to our members to growth. My key responsibilities are to identify business issues of our members and to assure that our association adds value and allow them to focus on their business and growth.

Q: In your opinion, what are the main benefits of EARSC membership? How is EARSC developing its membership and services? Is this an area for future priority?

The key benefits of being a member of EARSC is that we have a two way communication from the markets to EARSC members and from EARSC members to the markets to create awareness and to identify business. Secondly, we have a strong communication within the EARSC members to help developing partnership to provide business. 

Q: To what extent has the EARSC strategy changed over the past years i.e. evolution, association business model and what are the main objectives for the year 2013? and What are some of the key industry issues currently under review?

Our industry has changed in the last 10 years and will be changing in the next 10 years. Over the last 10 years our industry has grown significantly at around 8% per annum and has become very professional. As an association we are looking forward continuously to identify together with our members what the upcoming challenges will be and develop strategies to anticipate and overcome them. 

Q: What would you say are the most important strategic and operational advantages EARSC need in implementing the current strategy or driving those changes that EARSC is starting to contemplate?

Since it was formed in 1989, nearly 25 years ago, EARSC has operated as a sort of club where the directors have needed to take on actions themselves. This worked very effectively whilst the EO industry was mainly concerned with R&D activities. EARSC took a significant step forward in 2004 with the appointment of our executive secretary and has taken another one with the appointment of our secretary general in 2011. Now we have become more widely recognised as being a serious voice representing the industry it is time to consider the next step again.

As I have described for my own business, today the industry is evolving from this environment of R&D and government led business to one with a much more commercial focus. In my opinion this is as a result of many factors one of which is the much easier access to multiple sources of data; not just multiple satellites but also in-situ data and many others. So, as the industry is evolving so should EARSC. I have encouraged the move to interact with the oil and gas community and look now for us to work with others. ESA’s lead into working with International Financial Institutions can be one path, the insurance industry could be another; we shall have to evaluate this and other possibilities over the next few months. At the same time, I want the association to do more to help companies in the export market.

This comes just at the point when GMES / Copernicus will start to deliver and we should ensure that it is the European industry that reap the benefits of European taxpayer investment – to deliver an economic return to Europe.

Hence one of our key objectives for 2013 is to re-evaluate the strategy for EARSC. We have spent the last few months completing a comprehensive survey of the industry and so we now have a good picture of what it looks like, where it is working and what are the strategic priorities – as well as the difficulties that it is facing.

This will allow us to examine what we think the Association should be doing for it’s members and to adjust it’s activities and also its governance accordingly. At the same time, we face an increasing need to engage – even more than we have been – with the European Commission and this must be factored into the deliberations about our future set-up.

So it will be an important year for EARSC and I look forward to steering the Association into a position to play this role effectively.

Q: How does EARSC see its relationship with the other major trade organisations developing over the next 5 years?

For EARSC it is important that we don’t operate in isolation but that we are well connected to all stakeholders of our sector, i.e. our members, policy makers and other associations representing our suppliers and clients. Therefore we are in continuous discussion with ESA, the EU and national governments but also with associations representing the customers of our members with the objective to help our members to operate smooth and to grow.

FUTURE

Q: What is your view of the outlook for the sector? What factors are most important to this industry? And how this industry should be moving?

The economic outlook for our sector is very good. Different market intelligence reports show that our sector will grow in the next decade. The most important geographical growth areas for growth are in Asia, Russia, Africa and South America but Europe will still be important to build capabilities for our members. Our sector will offer employment to many people in and outside Europe. However, the competition in the sector from the USA and also from other areas outside Europe will be huge and therefore a European export strategy is needed to position European companies and to foster their growth. These are also the areas where we as an association would like to help our members in developing their business with our motto that a strong sector will both foster and require a strong association.

BMT-ARGOSS

The recent terrorist incidents at the Boston marathon in the US have highlighted once again the real danger to society from chemical attacks and explosive devices in urban settings. The detection of chemicals in the air by remote means is of great importance not only to security agencies globally. In addition, there are also industrial and environmental applications for reliable remote sensing technologies.

Exploiting Novel Space Instrumentation

Researchers at the STFC Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories, funded by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), have developed a novel instrument that could be used for the early warning of chemical or explosive threats. Originally designed for Space missions this laser-based system can detect tiny traces of specific gases in the atmosphere. This high resolution spectrometer uses an infrared laser beam to analyse the spectral properties of atmospheric gases – that is the absorption and emission of light by molecules, all in a very compact package.

This Earth observation instrument has been adapted for terrestrial stand-off detection of volatile chemicals released by threat materials, such as explosives. To tackle this challenge, the instrument has evolved into a new design known as the Active Coherent Laser Spectrometer (ACLaS), which operates by illumination of the target volume with a low-power eye-safe mid-infrared laser beam. This remote sensing technology has already been demonstrated at up to 50 metres, and can provide unambiguous identification and quantification of highly specific chemicals for defence and security applications

Indeed, the ACLaS is well suited for the detection and identification of highly localized releases of chemical at low concentration (sub part per million).

Non-Space Remote Sensing Applications

The detection of threat chemicals has stringent requirements. Safety prevents the use of in-situ detection methods and therefore a stand-off chemical analyzer operating from safe distances is required. An instrument must be able to identify and quantify chemicals at low concentrations (sub part per million), selectivity reduce interference and false alarm rate, with stand-off ranges between a few metres and few hundred metres. The instrument must also provide a rapid response time, must be eye-safe, compact, robust and cost effective. The ACLaS is unique in offering a solution to these requirements and has great potential in the areas of defence and security.

The technology derived from the development of the ACLaS for terrestrial security and defence applications can also now be spun back into terrestrial environmental monitoring. For example, the ACLaS can also be used to remotely monitor highly localized emission of pollutants or greenhouse gases to gather accurate quantitative evidence of release such as those from industrial facilities.

Further information about this technology and others funded by the CEOI can be found at www.ceoi.ac.uk. You can also contact the Project Lead, Dr Damien Weidmann, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: Tel: +44 (0)1235 445804, or email: damien.weidmann@stfc.ac.uk , or the CEOI Director, Professor Mick Johnson: Tel: +44 (0)1438 774421 or email: mick.johnson@astrium.eads.net.

CEOI Article – Space Technology for Remote Detection of Explosives 20130618.pdf