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Tuesday 20th November 2012, Watson-Watt Conference Centre, Rutherford Appleton Laboratories

The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) will be holding its next Challenge Workshop – Current and Future Challenges for EO Instrumentation Calibration on Tuesday 20th November 2012 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, Oxfordshire.

Accurate calibration both pre- and post-launch and on board the spacecraft is fundamental to physical measurement from EO sensors.  Inadequacies and variability in end-to-end calibration quality and traceability can compromise the utility of long-term measurement series for climate research. Both climate research and science missions require stable, consistent, repeatable, accurate calibration of sensors, preferably referenced to SI standards.

This CEOI Challenge Workshop will explore ways of addressing these problems by identifying calibration issues of sensors currently in development or scheduled for imminent launch, as well as issues which we anticipate will be important for future missions and instruments. Areas such as laboratory, in-orbit, and field cal/val will be covered. We expect a good mix of attendees from the science, government, industry and other stakeholder communities.

Further information on this Workshop and a draft agenda are available on the CEOI website via the following link

To register contact Niki Legge at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: email niki.legge@stfc.ac.uk or telephone 01235-445621. If you require overnight accommodation please inform Niki, who should be able to arrange rooms at the nearby Cosener’s House (in Abingdon ~8 miles) on a first-come, first-served basis. Details of Cosener’s House can be found at http://www.scitech.ac.uk/About/Find/Coseners/Introduction.aspx

Rather than fight the laws, the Mayor of Paragominas, Adnan Demachki, wanted to develop a plan to turn his county in to a national example for green conservation. He turned to people across different societal sectors to create alliances which developed into a solid plan to ensure that the farmers in his county can coexist with the forest.

Introduction

The RapidEye satellite constellation has proven invaluable within the scientific and governmental arenas since the first images were taken over four years ago. Its five meter multi-spectral imagery can be used for a wide range of purposes from assisting farmers in monitoring their crops to helping foresters manage beetle infestations killing their trees. In addition, RapidEye imagery has proven well-suited for projects that are important for the environment and meaningful for future generations.

RapidEye has secured a continuing role in environmental monitoring because of its high revisit capability, spatial resolution, and five spectral bands including the Red Edge band. As an added bonus, collection capabilities have recently increased from four million km² to an astonishing five million km² of data every day. RapidEye’s five satellites, capable of returning to any point on earth daily and featuring a seventy-seven (77) kilometer imagery swath width, makes the RapidEye system a leader in providing large area coverages within short time frames.

Currently, RapidEye imagery is used as a key component in important environmental programs including MALAREO (www.malareo.net), aimed at the elimination of Malaria in southern Africa; supporting the UN REDD initiative in Guyana, and helping to stem the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.

John Ahlrichs from RapidEye and Carlos Souza Jr. of Imazon recently sat down in Brazil to discuss the background and history of the Green Municipality Program, which relies on RapidEye imagery for its solution to control deforestation in the Amazon.

CARs’ Can Save a Forest:
How Imazon and Santiago & Cintra Consultoria are Helping to Decrease Degradation in the Amazon With a Solution Incorporating RapidEye Satellite Imagery

Drawing the Line

Putting an end to illegal deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon has become a priority in Brazil, and over the years, laws have been implemented which require a certain percentage of each rural property be set aside as a Legal Forest Reserve.

The Rural and Environmental Cadastre system (CAR in Portuguese), is a federal program that contemplates the needs of environmental sustainability as well as of agricultural production and is responsible for managing and tracking more than five million individual properties and owner compliance with the forest reserve’s rules.

While CAR has been in existence since the late 1990s, only a small percentage of properties have been registered under this system. The expectation is that the program will eventually produce a CAR certificate for each landowner.

The Economic Impact of Law Enforcement

Brazil passed a law in 2008 that placed individual municipalities with above average deforestation and degradation rates on an environmental blacklist. Just one year later, 43 of the over 900 municipalities (counties) in the Amazon basin had been blacklisted. Once on the blacklist, counties are no longer eligible for any state environmental development aid, nor are banks able to provide farmers operating loans until it can be proven that their land use is abiding by preserve regulations.

Greenpeace Brazil also became involved and insisted that the market play a role in reducing deforestation. In response to the pressure, an industry association called ABIOVE began preventing these same ranchers and farmers from selling cattle or soybeans for noncompliance with the law, which caused an immediate economic impact in the affected counties. This action by ABIOVE became known as The Soybean Moratorium.

As a result of these actions, the county of Paragominas was placed on the blacklist. Paragominas, located in the eastern Amazon, is home to more than 100,000 people and is 20,000 km² or twice the size of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States.

Rather than fight the laws, the Mayor of Paragominas, Adnan Demachki, wanted to develop a plan to turn his county in to a national example for green conservation. He turned to people across different societal sectors to create alliances which developed into a solid plan to ensure the farmers in his county could coexist with the forest.

In his search for resources, Mr. Demachki approached Imazon, one of the key regional NGOs working toward ending deforestation in the Amazon, to find a solution. Carlos Souza Jr., formerly the Director, now Senior Researcher and Coordinator of the Forest Monitoring Program at Imazon, has a strong GIS and image analysis unit located in Belem, in the state of Pará. Mr. Souza and his team promised to help the mayor find some answers.

A solution eventually emerged to develop a rural cadaster process for each farmer or rancher to register his land using recently-collected five meter RapidEye imagery as a background and to verify ongoing compliance with annual image collections.

As the preliminary solution went outside the funding and organizational scope of the NGO, Imazon entered into a strategic partnership with Santiago & Cintra Consultoria (SCCON), RapidEye’s sales partner in Brazil, to assist in the development.

The resulting partnership then prompted the Paragominas municipal government to implement the first county-wide land registration system in March of 2010.

What is now known as a CAR certificate can be produced to authenticate compliance with the new Forest Code. The certificate shows that the landowner has filed a map of his property and outlines the boundaries of his Forest Reserve Lands. Once the CAR certificate showing compliance can be produced, farmers and ranchers are able to have these restrictions lifted and resume their day-to-day farming operations.

How It Was Done

Recognizing the significant time pressure (as investment and agricultural sales in the country were effectively being embargoed), SCCON and the consulting company Eco-Lógica created a straightforward rural land registration solution for Paragominas.

The land registration database was built around a new series of 1:50,000 scale maps produced by Imazon using RapidEye imagery of Paragominas imaged over three months in 2010.

With five meter resolution RapidEye data, the farmers and ranchers were able to quickly and clearly validate their land holdings and the status of all of the forests on their lands. Compliance, or lack thereof, was clear and transparent. As each land holding was mapped, individual CAR certificates were issued to landowners.

As a result of these new processes, illegal deforestation has effectively been stopped in Mr. Demachki’s county, and the state removed Paragominas from the environmental blacklist. This enabled the county, which is only one of two counties to be removed from the blacklist so far, to access federal rural development funding again. In addition, growers with CAR certificates in-hand can once again receive operating loans from banks and sell their commodities.

Ten additional counties, including Ulianópolis and Dom Eliseu, both due south of Paragominas, have signed on for the program in the state of Pará. All have requested quick implementation of the same solution and are in the process of working with Imazon and SCCON. The Imazon-SCCON solution, now known as the Green Municipality Program, is expected to quickly extend to many of the other 41 remaining municipalities on the environmental blacklist.

The benefits which make this solution scalable are its simple design and built-in transparency. RapidEye’s five meter imagery provides the necessary information and positional accuracy which give landowners the ability to quickly and easily see their land holdings at an appropriate resolution for their large rural tracts.
Getting the base CAR system installed in such short time-frame took incredible effort. Now there are numerous demands to expand the system country-wide.

Automating the change detection and monitoring system which is currently a time-consuming and manual task, is the next priority for Imazon and SCCON. They’re now devising a classification-based, automated change monitoring system that would incorporate an annual coverage using RapidEye imagery.

While the bad news is that nearly 20% of the Amazon has been lost, the good news is that the expanded CAR system will help Brazil keep a firm grip on what is left. These quantifiable efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation not only benefit Brazil, but contribute to the betterment of the planet, now and far into the future.


Property boundary map of an area in Paragominas incorporating RapidEye imagery


Cartographic reference map of the same area in Paragominas derived from RapidEye imagery

About RapidEye

RapidEye is a leading provider of quality high-resolution satellite imagery and derived geo-information products. With a constellation of five EO satellites, RapidEye images over 5 million square kilometers of Earth every day and its archive of imagery grows by over one billion square kilometers every year. With an unprecedented combination of wide area repetitive coverage and five meter pixel size multi spectral imagery, RapidEye is a natural choice for many industries and government agencies.

Authors:

  • Kim Douglass, Marketing Communications Manager, RapidEye
  • John S. Ahlrichs, Ph.D., Vice President of International Sales, RapidEye
  • Carlos Souza Jr., Senior Researcher, Imazon
  • Iara Musse Felix, Director of Business Development, Santiago & Cintra Consultoria

RapidEye AG | Molkenmarkt 30 | 14776 Brandenburg/Havel | Germany | Toll Free (US): +1 800 940 3617
Phone: +49 3381 8904-0 | Fax: +49 3381 8904-101 | info@rapideye.com | www.rapideye.com

New NSR Report Projects Satellite-Based EO Market to Triple and Reach Over $6.2 Billion by 2021

CAMBRIDGE, MA—(Marketwire – Oct 9, 2012) – NSR’s Global Satellite-Based Earth Observation (EO), 4th Edition report points to an industry in transition that is considerably improving its value-proposition. As a direct consequence, the satellite EO industry is progressively moving from growth fed by orders from governmental & military organizations to one based on a more balanced mix of end-users, laying the groundwork for a decade of growth in both data and value-added-services (VAS) segments.

“Despite the budgetary situation of the traditional largest end-users in Europe and North America and the coming cuts to the ‘Enhanced View’ program potentially totaling $130 million, EO satellite operators are rather optimistic, with some reason,” stated Stéphane Gounari, Analyst at NSR and author of the report. “As the use of satellite EO data became more reliable and flexible, commercial organizations now rely on EO for an increasing number of applications in every vertical (Living Resources, Energy & Natural Resources, Industrial and Services). However, revenues from Defense & Intelligence and Public Authorities verticals should not be considered as a lost cause as they are based on solid needs.”

As UAV-based EO rapidly improves its value proposition alongside satellite-based EO, they will increasingly compete in each market. With a developing choice of EO data sources, end-user source-agnosticism is also getting stronger, especially as the satellite EO data value is multiplied when combined with data from other satellites, other sources of EO data and other types of data.

These trends, among others, point to a growth period associated with an intensification of the competition as the industry leaves the emerging phase of its lifecycle. This period of changes makes the identification of the appropriate Key Success Factors more important than ever.

About the Report

NSR’s Global Satellite-Based Earth Observation (EO), 4th Edition provides a meticulous and thorough analysis of the trends affecting the satellite EO data industry and a new segmentation based on end-user vertical markets. The report includes a step-by-step analysis of the industry’s macro-environment, its competitive intensity, the situation in each market (segmented by end-user verticals, regions and instrument-resolution), the major-players and their imaging capabilities currently in-orbit and planned, and a cartography of the value-chain. NSR comprehensively identifies Key Success Factors and forecasts the evolution of the Data and VAS markets over the next 10 years, and presents them segmented by end-user vertical markets (6), regional markets (5) and instrument-resolution (6); the latter is also used to present data price forecasts, one additional innovation offered by NSR’s report.

About NSR

NSR is a leading international market research and consulting firm with a core focus on the satellite sector and related industries. Founded in 2000 and with an experienced group of analysts located in all regions, NSR specializes in analysis of growth opportunities across four core sectors: Satellite Communications, Broadcasting & Digital Media, Hybrid & Emerging Applications and Commercial Space.

(Source NSR)

Marketwire

USpolitics

The second joint science conference of the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) and the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) took place at the University of Nottingham in September, bringing together scientists and technologists over 3 days to discuss recent science findings and the future technology developments for observing the Earth’s climate and environment from space.

The first day of the conference focused on NCEO science highlights and covered a wide range of interesting and challenging areas. Research was presented in a series of talks from leading scientists covering the monitoring, diagnosis and predictions of climate and environmental change. This included presentations of the science resulting from the European Space Agency’s Earth Observation (EO) programme, from the Cryosat, GOCE and SMOS missions, which have provided data on sea-ice thickness, the Earth’s gravity field, ocean salinity and soil moisture. The Conference also looked at the potential science to come from future missions such as Swarm and EarthCARE projects, which will measure the Earth’s magnetic field and the interaction between clouds, aerosols and radiation. Other talks included studies on monitoring and modelling volcanoes from space, ocean carbon cycle models and measuring photosynthesis from space using terrestrial chlorophyll fluorescence.

On the second day, the CEOI highlighted several of the EO instruments and technologies projects currently being funded, as well as the priorities for future UK-led EO missions. Daniel Gerber from STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory presented the continuing work on the passive microwave project which will make measurements of trace gases in the atmosphere important to the climate and to meteorology, involving high level system integration of UK receiver technology. There were also talks on some of the technologies nearing commercialisation – a remote sensing instrument for estimating the sea-surface wave height, a fully integrated miniaturised quantum cascade Laser heterodyne radiometer to measure trace gases at high resolution, and the University of Leicester’s CompAQS/CityScan air quality spectrometer.

The mixture of plenary and parallel sessions ensured a full and varied programme and included talks from NCEO young scientists. The final day included four EO applications sessions, highlighting the following areas:

Hazards and risk – the session featured presentations from a broad range of the EO fields, including representatives from data suppliers, academia, researchers, value-adders and the insurance industry ‘downstream users’. The challenges involved in supplying timely and appropriate data was discussed, particularly in relation to rapid and major disasters (such as volcanoes), compared to the issues involved in monitoring non catastrophic events such as compressible ground over large regions. There was also consideration of the analysis options available, from large infrastructures such as CEMS and OpenSource systems that are still the only affordable option in developing countries, which are sometimes hardest hit by hazards.

Climate and carbon – the session acknowledged the huge potential that exists for development of commercial applications and services. Scientific credibility of such services is likely to become a key consideration, and the UK is well placed to differentiate itself through strengths in ensuring integrity of climate data and in quantifying underlying uncertainties. Stronger partnerships between the EO community and the end-users of climate services are required to help express the benefits of EO services in the business language of the users.

Maritime and marine services – areas explored in this session included polar applications, oceanography, oil and gas and environmental protection. EO data is widely used, often fused with other data sets as part of a product. A critical issue identified, is the need to develop sustainable services with a reliable supply of robust and validated EO data from the types of sensors already flown; Thermal IR, SAR, scatterometers, radar altimeters, ocean colour sensors. It was suggested that some EO services face threats from institutional organisations offering subsidised services and that a way to work with these organisations is needed.

Future concepts of land resources – focused on three areas: mapping eco systems and habitats, agriculture and forestry. Use of remote sensing in these areas is advancing rapidly and reaching a wider sphere of users than ever before. More growth in demand is expected in light of new public (GMES) and commercial systems (such as Daily Planet). It was deemed that in order to support this, there should be greater coordination at the national level in the UK and practical steps could be taken to support novel mission proposals, demonstrate the wide availability of existing products and services and coordinate data access to stimulate further multi-source, multi-scale applications.

The annual joint conference plays a crucial role in developing the next generation of EO instrumentation by bringing together NCEO’s core activity of fundamental science with the CEOIs expertise in instrumentation. Academia and industry were able to benefit from a diverse and exciting programme and overall the conference attracted nearly 200 people over three days and presented a great opportunity to continue to forge a vision for the future success of EO in the UK.

Presentations from the CEOI sessions are now available via this link and those from the NCEO sessions will be available from the NCEO website soon http://www.nceo.ac.uk/

The National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)

Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the mission of NCEO is to unlock the full potential of Earth Observation (EO) to monitor, diagnose and predict climate and environmental change. The NCEO is a multidisciplinary partnership of more than 100 scientists from 26 institutions providing vital national capability and engaging with key stakeholders from space agencies, industry, government and academia across the globe. NCEO is also a founding partner of the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) at Harwell, seeking to accelerate the exploitation of EO for maximum economic and societal benefit. www.nceo.ac.uk

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

As most of you will know, I am convinced that a free and open data policy for GMES will be the best way to help develop the geo-information services industry and hence the right and best way to gather the maximum economic benefits for Europe This conviction is based on two premises: firstly that making data available at zero cost leads to increased use and more business revenues and secondly, that the economic value to the government is high to fully justify the public sector investment in the first case.

The study we are currently finishing aims to make the first point by drawing comparison with other domains where information gathered by a public-sector body (PSB) has been made available for re-use. There is growing evidence that such a PSI free re-use policy will give greater returns to public treasuries through taxation than charging for the data in the first place (as is often the case today). Nevertheless, firm figures are hard to find and the arguments still rest largely on other considerations.

In this respect I was especially interested to see a new paper published by the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) – Landsat Advisory Group. This makes a statement on Landsat data use and charges with the overarching recommendation that Landsat data must continue to be distributed at no cost. It puts forward 9 reasons why Landsat data should continue to be freely available of which 7 of these are equally applicable to GMES as to Landsat.

The same group has also published another paper which addresses the second point by looking at the economic value of certain services enabled by Landsat. This shows between $178m and $235m savings to government departments through use of the data for 10 EO services. As we know this represents just a small fraction of the uses for which EO services may be applied and hence the total benefits that may be expected and the total annual economic value of Landsat data has been estimated separately as $1,7b.

At a time when Europe’s policy makers are yet again hesitating about the funding with arguments going back and forth about EU funding or intercommunity funding. They must not lose sight of the enormous benefits that GMES will bring to Europe. Firstly, the straightforward economic benefit is huge; up to €50b estimated by Booz & Co. Secondly, the growth in high-value jobs and the spin-off these provide into other sectors. Thirdly, and most importantly, foreign policy, industrial policy, security policy will all be enhanced by the availability of regular and timely information not to mention the regular observations that are essential to monitor the impacts of climate change and to determine many environmental policies.

There seems a risk that GMES will falter due to complex political negotiations surrounding EU budgets against inter-governmental ones, about priorities for economic growth versus austerity and even about priorities between research and operational data gathering. Understanding what is going on around the world is of vital importance to our decision makers. As the US report shows the economic benefits are high in many diverse policy-linked areas.

There are arguments being made about technology such as crowd-sourcing and local measurements such as aircraft or UAV’s replacing satellite observations. Whilst they may complement a satellite system, none can provide regular, reliable, global-scale observations that only a fleet of satellites can deliver. Other technologies are important but the Sentinel satellites are at the heart of GMES. I suggest that all EARSC members and supporters remind their national representatives that this is the case and to urge that GMES funding is approved urgently as a European Union programme.

Finally, just a brief word and reminder about the survey that we are about to launch – see elsewhere in the magazine. It is over 5 years since a comprehensive analysis has been made on the EO services industry. It is vital that we have up-to-date information on the industry in Europe. It is important for us and it is important for the decision makers. If you work for a company in Europe it is most likely that you will receive an invitation to participate in the next few weeks. Please let us know if you do not or in any case let us know that you do wish to participate and tell us who the company contact should be. We look forward to hearing from you.

Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

(*) Ref. Landsat articles
NGAC Paper: Statement on Landsat Data Use and Charges
NGAC Paper: The Value Proposition for Ten Landsat Applications

Events Autumn 2012


Start Date End Date Event Web Venue
12-oct-12 16-oct-12 6th URISA Caribbean GIS Conference web Montego Bay, Jamaica
15-oct-12 17-oct-12 Esri European User Conference web Oslo, Norway
15-oct-12 18-oct-12 10th Seminar on Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Forestry web Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
15-oct-12 19-oct-12 MERIS/AATSR and Sentinel-3 (OLCI/SLSTR) Workshop web Frascati, Italy
15-oct-12 19-oct-12 3rd MERIS/(A)ATSR & OLCI/SLSTR Preparatory Workshop web Frascati, Italy
16-oct-12 17-oct-12 International Symposium on Assessing the Interplay: Climate Change, Development and Human Rights web Bergen, Norway
16-oct-12 17-oct-12 GOCE Solid Earth Workshop web Enschede, The Netherlands
17-oct-12 19-oct-12 EUROPE-INBO 2012 web Istanbul, Turkey
18-oct-12 18-oct-12 Valuing and managing biodiversity: how satellite applications can help web Lille, France
19-oct-12 19-oct-12 geoland Forum web Copenhagen, Denmark
22-oct-12 26-oct-12 ITS Vienna 2012 web Vienna, Austria
22-oct-12 26-oct-12 European Space Expo in Vienna web Vienna, Austria
24-oct-12 26-oct-12 IIM Conference: Knowledge Discovery from Earth Observation Data web DLR-Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
29-oct-12 02-nov-12 9th AARSE Conference web El Jadida, Morocco
01-nov-12 02-nov-12 Sixth Irish EO Symposium 2012 web Dublin, Ireland
07-nov-12 09-nov-12 United Nations International Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster
Management: “Risk Assessment in the Context of Climate Change”
web Beijing, China
08-nov-12 09-nov-12 Workshop on Multi-Sensor Systems and Networks for Fire Detection and Management web Antalya, Turkey
12-nov-12 16-nov-12 European Space Expo in Cyprus web Larnaca, Cyprus
13-nov-12 13-nov-12 Earth Observation and Cryosphere Science web Frascati, Italy
15-nov-12 16-nov-12 FP7 Space Conference:Let´s embrace the Space web Larnaca, Cyprus
19-nov-12 23-nov-12 XV Symposium SELPER web Cayenne, France
26-nov-12 30-nov-12 33rd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS 2012). web Pattaya City, Thailand
20-nov-12 20-nov-12 Challenge Workshop – Challenges in Calibration of EO Instrumentation web Oxford, UK
28-nov-12 28-nov-12 SEMWO 2012 – Space Economy in the Multipolar World Third international conference web Vilnius,Lithuania
01-dec-12 06-dec-12 European Space Expo in London web London, UK
03-dec-12 05-dec-12 European Space Solutions web London, UK
04-dec-12 05-dec-12 ELMF European Lidar Mapping Forum web Salzburg, Austria
11-dec-12 13-dec-12 GRSG AGM 2012: Monitoring and Managing the Earth’s Resources web London, UK
13-dec-12 16-dec-12 8th International Conference on Geo-Information for Disaster Management web Enschede, Netherlands
16-dec-12 18-dec-12 Computer Vision in Remote Sensing web Xiamen, China
17-dec-12 19-dec-12 Paris Space Week web Paris, France
07-jan-13 09-jan-13 IPWE 2013 web Izmir, Turkey
21-jan-13 23-jan-13 DGI 2013 web London, UK
21-jan-13 25-jan-13 2nd Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry web Frascati, Italy
23-jan-13 23-jan-13 Innovations in Remote Sensing Event web London,UK
28-jan-13 01-feb-13 POLinSAR 2013 web Frascati, Italy
29-jan-13 30-jan-13 European Space Conference web Brussels, Belgium
24-feb-13 25-feb-13 ICCCH 2013 – 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and Humanity web Rome, Italy
24-feb-13 01-mar-13 GEOProcessing 2013, The Fifth International Conference on Advanced
Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services
web Nice, France
25-feb-13 25-feb-13 Urban Climate web Florence, Italy
25-feb-13 27-feb-13 SMOS workshop for applications over land web Frascati, Italy
26-feb-13 28-feb-13 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2013 web Munich, Germany
03-mar-13 08-mar-13 7th Dresden Symposium on Hazard, Detection and Management web Dresden, Germany
04-mar-13 05-mar-13 Safety, Mobility, Sustainability Powered by INSPIRE web Brussels, Belgium
05-mar-13 07-mar-13 ISU 17th Annual International Symposium:‘Space Technology And Tele-Reach:Benefiting Humanity on Earth and Beyond’ web Strasbourg, France
07-mar-13 08-mar-13 EUROGI Conference “imaGIne: Opportunities Everywhere!” web Dublin, Ireland
11-mar-13 15-mar-13 High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) – Towards More Drought Resilient Societies web Geneva, Switzerland
11-mar-13 15-mar-13 United Nations/Pakistan International Workshop on Integrated Use of Space Technologies for Food and Water Security web Islamabad, Pakistan
12-mar-13 14-mar-13 CryoSat Third User Workshop web Dresden, Germany
13-mar-13 14-mar-13 AQE 2013 – The Air Quality and Emissions show web Telford, UK
18-mar-13 20-mar-13 European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2013 web Hamburg, Germany
18-mar-13 20-mar-13 3rd EOS Topical Meeting on Blue Photonics – Optics in the Sea web Texel, Netherlands
07-apr-13 12-apr-13 EGU 2013 web Vienna, Austria
08-apr-13 10-apr-13 RSCy2013: First International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geo-information of Environment web Pafos, Cyprus
08-apr-13 10-apr-13 8th EARSeL IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY WORKSHOP web Nantes, France
09-apr-13 11-apr-13 Ocean Business 2013 Exhibition web Southampton, UK
09-apr-13 11-apr-13 Third International Conference on Physical Coastal Processes, Management and Engineering web Gran Canaria, Spain
10-apr-13 11-apr-13 Water & Environment 2013 (CIWEM’s Annual Conference) web London, UK
10-apr-13 11-apr-13 Monitoring Matters – In-situ coordination in support of GMES/Copernicus operations web Copenhagen, Denmark
15-apr-13 16-apr-13 EO certification scheme web Frascati, Italy
15-apr-13 17-apr-13 SMOS-Aquarius workshop web Brest,France
15-apr-13 19-apr-13 GOFC-GOLD Land Monitoring Symposium announcement web Wageningen, The Netherlands
16-apr-13 19-apr-13 AquaConSoil 2013 – Groundwater-Soil-Systems and Water Resource Management web Barcelona, Spain
21-apr-13 23-apr-13 JURSE 2013 web Sao Paolo, Brazil
22-apr-13 24-apr-13 Food and Environment 2013 web Budapest, Hungary
22-apr-13 26-apr-13 35th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE35) web Bejing, China
24-apr-13 25-apr-13 European Algae Biomass 2013 web Vienna, Austria
07-may-13 08-may-13 Global Space & Satellite Forum, GSSF 2013 web Abu Dhabi, UAE
13-may-13 16-may-13 Geospatial World Forum web Rotterdam, Netherlands
21-may-13 21-may-13 Seventh International Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management web New Forest, UK
22-may-13 24-may-13 7th International conference on river basin management web Southampton, UK
29-may-13 31-may-13 19th International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment web Kos, Greece
03-jun-13 06-jun-13 33rd EARSeL symposium 2013 web Matera, Italy
04-jun-13 04-jun-13 Education&Training web Matera, Italy
06-jun-13 07-jun-13 5th Workshop on Remote Sensing for Developing Countries web Matera, Italy
06-jun-13 07-jun-13 4th Workshop on Cultural and Natural Heritage web Matera, Italy
17-jun-13 21-jun-13 13th Conference on Electromagnetic and Light Scattering web Lille, France
16-jun-13 22-jun-13 13th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference and Expo-SGEM 2013 web Albena, Bulgaria
01-jul-13 03-jul-13 Satellite Soil Moisture Validation and Application Workshop web Frascati, Italy
07-jul-13 11-jul-13 9th European Conference on Precision Farming web Lleida, Spain
09-jul-13 11-jul-13 3rd international conference on disaster management and human health: Reducing risk, improving outcomes web A Coruña, Spain
17-jul-13 19-jul-13 11th International POG Conference: Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Plants web A Warsaw, Poland
21-jul-13 26-jul-13 IGARSS 2013 web Melbourne, Australia
22-jul-13 24-jul-13 COM.Geo 2013 web Silicon Valley, CA, USA
12-aug-13 26-aug-13 Agro-geoinformatics 2013 web Virginia, USA
21-aug-13 22-aug-13 GeoGathering 2013 web Colorado Springs, USA
25-aug-13 30-aug-13 26th International Cartographic Conference web Dresden, Germany
04-sep-13 04-sep-13 Second International Conference on Water and Society web New Forest, UK
05-sep-13 05-sep-13 International Conference on Flood Resilience – Experiences in Asia and Europe web Exeter, UK
09-sep-13 13-sep-13 ESA Living Planet Symposium 2013 web Edinburgh, United Kingdom
16-sep-13 20-sep-13 2013 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference & 19th American Meteorological Society AMS Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology Conference web Vienna, Austria
17-sep-13 20-sep-13 Coast, Marine Structures and Breakwaters 2013 web Edinburgh, UK
22-sep-13 27-sep-13 SDEWES – Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems web Dubrovnik, Croatia
23-sep-13 25-sep-13 International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems web Lucca, Italy
23-sep-13 26-sep-13 SPIE 2013 web Dresden, Germany
01-oct-13 03-oct-13 “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions” web Moscow, Russia

Eomag launched 15October2012

Defence Geospatial Intelligence (DGI) 2013 will bring together heads of defence geospatial intelligence, remote sensing, GIS data & mapping, satellite imagery and analysis within the military and governmental sectors.

It attracts professionals who are responsible for using, and integrating, geo based capabilities in their operations and organizations. Attended by over 700 Geo professionals, DGI is where the GeoInt community comes together.
As a member of EARSC you are also entitled to a further 20% discount if you book with booking code EARSC2013. Register today to benefit from the early bird rates.

DGI announcement for EOmag.pdf

These are just some of the highlights for January 2013:

  • Interoperability & Collaboration
  • Lessons learnt from Afghanistan (NATO-limited)
  • Putting GeoInt in the Hands of the Users
  • Big Data & the Cloud

To register:

  • Go to www.dgieurope.com
  • Email me at dgi@wbr.co.uk
  • Call my colleague Amanda Kendall on +44 (0)20 7368 9465

Crowdsource Mapping aims at an improved disaster management: The idea is to collect data from as many on-site sources as possible and translate that real-time data into maps.

Being aware of the surrounding and the infrastructure, locals can render accurate geo-referenced information or comment on existing data and thereby help disaster managers expand the information they need for emergency operations. That is of course not only true for on-going disasters, but also for risk assessment and preparedness efforts.

This Newsletter aims to shed light on the opportunities of Crowdsource Mapping for disaster and risk management, introduces some of its key players and presents lessons learnt from a simulation mapping exercise.

Source

The satellite sector is a huge success story for the EU and a sector with a huge (often invisible) impact on the daily lives of citizens. It is also a major global industry with the top 4 global satellite operators, the 2 largest sat manufacturers and the #1 commercial launch service being European.

Despite the sector’s success, perception of its contribution by the EU is slightly different: policymakers don’t necessarily understand how satellites can help them to achieve their objectives (e.g. digital agenda objectives) and therefore don’t consider satellites in their recommendations, policies and legislation (“lack of technology neutrality”).

The lack of understanding of the true role of satellites may affect the ability of satellite operators to continue to access key satellite spectrum and ultimately threaten other essential satellite services.

The Booz&Co report was commissioned to provide an independent vision of the role of the satellite sector in contributing to the EU 2020 strategy, by reference to the full range of satellite applications.

ESOA took the initiative to launch European Satellite Day to improve awareness of the impact that invisible satellite networks have on the daily lives of citizens, and to make a point of reminding policymakers of the constant contribution of satellites to EU policy objectives from year to year.

Download Report:
> Executive Summary
> Full Report

Related: European Satellite Day 2012

Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have been instrumental in the preparation of a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) regarding the development of the ozone layer in the stratosphere.

Based on estimates, by about the mid 21st century, the ozone layer will have the same thickness as it had in the early eighties. The latest evaluations of space-based measurements acquired by the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute, combined with model computations from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics support the statement that ‘the regeneration of the ozone layer continues’.

“Measurements show that the ozone hole above Antarctica in 2012 is one of the smallest in recent years,” reports Martin Dameris from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. Both the area of expansion and the reduction in ozone concentrations are small this year in comparison to the values observed in past years. “This is a clear indication that the ozone layer is staging a good recovery,” states Dameris.

Based on climate chemistry models

So far, climate chemistry model computations performed by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics have been in line with observations. The models demonstrate that, if this trend continues, the ozone hole will close up and that the ozone layer will regenerate itself. These forecasts are based upon computational models that simulate the physical, dynamic and chemical processes in the atmosphere. The Institute of Atmospheric Physics collaborated on the production of these climate chemistry models. To investigate the ozone layer, long-term simulations, starting, for example, in 1960 and extending beyond the simulation date, were conducted at the DLR Institute.

Computational results for the past are compared against observational data, in part to assess the quality of the results from the model. It is only on the basis of well-evaluated models that it is possible to produce reliable estimates of future developments, such as that of the ozone layer. To understand atmospheric processes, atmospheric researchers use data from the DLR Remote Sensing Data Center. The scientists at this Institute are primarily involved in the provision of data products derived from satellite measurements. These satellite data products are compared against other independent data to achieve the highest possible level of precision.

The reduction in chlorofluorocarbon consumption is having a considerable and positive effect

Since the early eighties, the ozone hole has been observed at the start of the Antarctic spring – from mid-September to mid-October. It is the consequence of high chlorine levels in the stratosphere, and is caused by the emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The drastic reduction of CFC levels in the atmosphere has had a positive impact on the ozone layer. The production and use of CFCs was regulated by the Montreal Protocol in 1987 and in subsequent agreements; since the mid-nineties, the use of CFCs has been almost totally banned. As a result, a decline in the chlorine content of the stratosphere has been observed since the beginning of this century.

Due to meteorological factors, such as the temperature-dependent nature of the ozone-depleting chemical reactions, the ozone layer does not regenerate steadily. This means that the ozone hole shows year-to-year variations, fluctuating between large and small ozone losses, but nonetheless exhibiting a positive trend towards higher ozone levels, and therefore to the restoration of normal levels. The observations carried out this year support this overall positive trend.

Source