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(26 March 2012) DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced two licensing agreements with Microsoft.

The first agreement more than doubles the volume of high-resolution imagery DigitalGlobe delivers to Microsoft for use in its Bing Maps service. The imagery, delivered on a quarterly basis, will provide refreshed content covering millions of square kilometers of the earth’s surface, including up-to-date imagery for the world’s highest-density urban areas.

“We’ve chosen to expand the use of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery to provide broader global coverage in Bing Maps,” said Steve Stanzel, general manager at Microsoft. “With this increase and our continued work with DigitalGlobe for the collection of high-definition aerial imagery, we are improving our maps worldwide to offer a more comprehensive, consistent and functional mapping experience.”

The second agreement enabled Microsoft Studios to extensively feature DigitalGlobe imagery in the recently launched Forza Motorsport 4 racing game for the Xbox 360. The Forza Motorsport series is one of the world’s most realistic and successful racing franchises. The latest installment, Forza Motorsport 4, features the first-ever combination of DigitalGlobe satellite and Microsoft aerial imagery into a seamless gaming experience, resulting in unprecedented, true-to-life detail.

Forza 4 game designers selected many high altitude and low altitude images for each track region featured in the game and combined them into a seamless animation sequence, using advanced memory management techniques. The result gives players the experience of travelling across the globe in Forza Motorsport 4’s World Tour mode.

Both agreements took effect in the fourth quarter of 2011.

“We are proud to know that DigitalGlobe content plays a valuable role in helping Microsoft achieve its business objectives and deliver a superior, photo-realistic experience for its end-users,” said Rafay Kahn, senior vice president at DigitalGlobe. “We look forward to a successful, ongoing relationship with Microsoft in order to support the millions who use their products and services every day for insight, understanding and entertainment.”

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, Internet portals and navigation technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive ImageLibrary (containing more than two billion square kilometers of earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and off-line products and services designed to enable customers to easily access and integrate our imagery into their business operations and applications.

(source: DigitalGlobe)

(23 March 2012) For decades, working as an archaeologist meant being, as Jason Ur, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, puts it, “the guy with the muddy boots.”

Ur and researchers like him may soon be able to avoid some of that mud, however, thanks to a system he developed that uses computers to scour satellite images for telltale clues of human habitation. Already, he said, the system has uncovered thousands of potential ancient settlements that might reveal clues to the earliest complex human societies.

As described in a paper published March 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ur worked with Bjoern Menze, a research affiliate in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, to create software that uses a series of factors — including soil discolorations and the distinctive mounding that results from the collapse of mud-brick homes — to identify ancient settlements.

Armed with that profile, Ur examined satellite images of a 23,000-square-kilometer area of northeastern Syria, and turned up approximately 9,000 possible settlements, an increase of “at least an order of magnitude” over what had previously been identified.

A comparison of the results of the ASTER classification (top) and the distribution of surface artifacts (bottom) at Tell Brak, northeastern Syria. The analyses show a remarkably close correspondence. (courtesy: Bjoern Menze and Jason Ur)

“I could do this on the ground,” Ur said, of the results of the computer-aided survey. “But it would probably take me the rest of my life to study an area this size. With these computer science techniques, however, we can immediately come up with an enormous map which is methodologically very interesting, but which also shows the staggering amount of human occupation over the last 7,000 or 8,000 years.

“Working in this area is particularly important,” Ur added, “because these parts of northern Iraq and northeast Syria were home to some of the earliest complex societies in the world. We are extremely interested in these places because they can help us answer questions about the origins of urbanism, settlement patterns and demographic shifts, and how people exploited their landscape.”

Though traditional archaeology does an excellent job of describing how people lived in the past, it is simply too small-scale to address issues that demand a wider area of focus, Ur said.

“The way we get at these issues is not through excavation,” he explained. “We do this by surveying. The traditional way of doing that has been to go out and walk around. We can find these locations based on surface manifestations. In the Middle East they have a different colored soil, the result of the decay of centuries of mud brick houses, as well as people burning things and people going to the bathroom. But the real kicker is that you can see these soil discolorations — you don’t have to walk across it, you don’t even have to get close to it — you can see it from space.”

To get that view from space, Ur until recently relied on hundreds of declassified 1960s-era spy satellite photographs. As a research tool, however, the images are less than perfect. Because they predate digital photography, Ur was forced to study each image by hand — a painstaking process ultimately dependent on his subjective view of what is or isn’t an ancient settlement. In addition, he said, the images are in black and white, making the identification of sites even more challenging.

Ur’s latest project, however, takes advantage of far newer images, produced by NASA’s ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite.

“The innovation of this project has been to take advantage of satellite imagery that sees beyond what the human eye can see,” Ur said. “ASTER can see red and green, but it can also detect the near-infrared and a number of subsequent wavelengths.

“In addition, ASTER images are born digital,” Ur continued. “That allows us to develop a profile based on places that we know are archaeological sites, then use software to identify places that have similar signatures.”

Working with Menze, Ur used approximately 160 images of a region he’d previously surveyed in precise detail to develop a program that can scour digital images and produce a probability map that identifies areas likely to be ancient sites. Neither, however, expected the software to come up with some 9,000 possible sites.

“It’s a bit breathtaking to think of those numbers,” Ur said. “It instantly makes this area one of the best-known archaeological areas in the world.”

Though the software does appear to be a quantum leap forward in finding ancient sites, Ur said its results do come with one major caveat.

“This process can tell us what is likely to be an archaeological site, but what it cannot tell us is when that site was occupied by humans,” he said. “For that, we have to visit these places and find artifacts that allow us to date the site. The satellite cannot do that for us.”

In his next project, Ur plans to use the technology to study settlements in northern Iraq, but said he hopes other researchers will also take advantage of the technique as a way to make their fieldwork more effective by reducing the time needed to find sites worth studying.

“This doesn’t replace me, but it makes my job easier, and it makes my results a lot better,” he said. “Field work is expensive – we have limited time, and this allows us to focus our work so we can begin to recover these places and do the collection of artifacts that allows us to say when people were here. What’s more, anyone who comes back to this area for any future survey would already know where to go. There’s no need to do the initial reconnaissance to find sites. This allows us to do targeted work, so it maximizes the time we have on the ground.”

(source: Harvard University)

(22 March 2012) The second Continuous Development and Operations Phase (CDOP-2) for Eumetsat’s Satellite Application Facility (SAF) network which began this month will improve and expand the portfolio of SAF products and services over the next five years.

CDOP-2 follows the successful CDOP-1 over the last five years, during which the eight SAFs developed high-quality products and distributed them to users, benefitting Eumetsat Member and Cooperating States and a worldwide user community.

Among the achievements of the entire SAF network, the following examples can be highlighted: the SAF on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP SAF) and SAF on Radio-Occultation Meteorology (ROM SAF) have developed software for users and NWP centres, allowing the assimilation of satellite data products to support improvements in forecasts. The SAF on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF), as well as the SAF on Ocean and Sea Ice (OSI SAF) and the SAF on Ozone and Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring (O3M SAF) have generated long-term homogeneous time series to support the analysis of climate variability over the past decades. The SAF on Support to Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (NWC SAF) and the SAF on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H SAF) have developed software packages and data products with high relevance for forecasting weather and its impact on the hydrological system, which are helpful in particular in severe meteorological situations. Finally, the SAF on Land Surface Analysis (LSA SAF) has developed products and services related to vegetation and land surface parameters, not only for users in Europe, but also in Africa and South America.

During CDOP-2, the eight SAFs will continue the operation and data products developed during CDOP-1 and will also conduct the necessary improvements. In addition, new products will respond to the evolving needs of the European Meteorological Services and other users.

As the SAFs are an integral component of the overall Eumetsat application ground segment, during CDOP-2, they will prepare for the exploitation of the potential of the next generation of Eumetsat satellites, Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and the Eumetsat Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG), taking advantage of enhanced and completely new sensors. They will begin the scientific definition and development of MTG and EPS-SG products, work which will be finalised during CDOP-3 between 2017 and 2022, when these satellites become operational.

CDOP-2 activities and the expansion of product portfolios will contribute to relevant international initiatives. This includes Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) and the World Meteorological Organization’s Sustained, Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) initiative.

About Eumetsat

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 27 European Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia (pending ratification), Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and four Cooperating States (Bulgaria, Iceland, Lithuania, and Serbia).

Eumetsat operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8 and -9 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.

Metop-A, the first European polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, was launched in October 2006 and has been delivering operational data since 15 May 2007.

The Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite, launched on 20 June 2008, added monitoring of sea state, ocean currents and sea level change to the missions Eumetsat conducts.

The data and products from Eumetsat’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and the global climate.

(source: Eumetsat)

(21 March 2012) Recent studies show that satellite radar data can be exploited to map forest height, 3D forest structure and their natural or anthropogenic disturbance with high spatial resolution and accuracy.

Since forests assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this could prove to be an important tool for assessing carbon stocks and monitoring our planet’s resources.

Polarimetric InSAR – or Pol-InSAR – is a remote sensing technique based on polarimetric information in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images.

With this technique, a radar sends polarised pulses towards the target, and the information in the signals backscattered from Earth can be used to infer properties of the target area.

By using two polarimetric SAR images over the same area, acquired from slightly different angles, information on the 3D structure of the area can be extracted.

By deriving information on the tree canopy height and vertical structure, forest biomass can be estimated. The biomass of places like tropical forests are crucial for storing carbon, and large areas could be mapped very accurately using this technology.

In recent years, the potential of Pol-InSAR techniques for the estimation of forest structures has been addressed, developed and matured through various ESA-funded research and development studies.

In the Pol-InSAR Mission and Applications Study, scientists addressed the performance issues critical to the evolution of forest product generation to a pre-operational level using Pol-InSAR.

Scientists first assessed the performance of Pol-InSAR over tropical forest environments on the Indonesian island of Borneo.

Tropical ecosystems have enormous ecological importance owing to their ability to store carbon and subsequent effect on the carbon cycle. Mapping these forests in 3D is important for assessing carbon stocks and monitoring our planet’s resources.

By comparing tree height calculations derived using Pol-InSAR techniques to the results from ground measurements, the scientists found that the former technique can provide estimations within 90% of a given area’s biomass.

Another result of the study was the validation of the Pol-InSAR technique’s ability to estimate a forest’s top height at high spatial resolutions.

Forest height maps of southern Germany’s Traunstein forest were produced using Pol-InSAR data from both 2003 and 2008. Comparing the two maps, changes were evident. The maps clearly showed areas where the logging of individual tall trees occurred, while damage caused in January 2007 by the hurricane Kyrill, which blew down large parts of the forest, were visible. Forest growth was also evident.

(source: ESA)

(19 March 2012) DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced that China’s most influential internet search portal, Baidu.com, has signed a subscription for DigitalGlobe high-resolution imagery covering 344 cities in China.

This agreement will enable Baidu to provide its end-users with a more robust online mapping experience in Baidu Maps and its third-party developers with increased functionality in its Baidu Maps application programming interface (API) for location-based services.

Baidu is the world’s largest Chinese search engine and is China’s largest online advertiser, with 80 percent market share and over 50 percent year-over-year growth.

“Baidu is excited to enter into a new relationship for DigitalGlobe imagery as we continue to grow and expand our online location-based services,” said Dongchen Zhang, head of business development at Baidu. “With this agreement, Baidu can offer new ways for users to engage with the Internet while continuing to solidify Baidu’s presence at the heart of China’s Internet ecosystem.”

DigitalGlobe’s industry-leading ImageLibrary offers customers over 85 million square kilometers (km2) of highly accurate imagery in China, and over two billion km2 of imagery worldwide.

“China is one of DigitalGlobe’s most strategic geographic markets, and establishing this relationship with Baidu is an important step in strengthening our position in the Chinese consumer segment,” said Rafay Khan, senior vice president at DigitalGlobe. “Our ever-growing ImageLibrary continues to outpace our competition, and gives us a considerable edge in rapidly changing countries like China.”

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, Internet portals and navigation technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive ImageLibrary (containing more than two billion square kilometers of earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and off-line products and services designed to enable customers to easily access and integrate our imagery into their business operations and applications. In China, DigitalGlobe imagery is distributed through Siwei WorldView Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

About Baidu

Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best way for people to find information. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu’s ADSs, each of which represents one Class A ordinary share, are currently trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “BIDU.”

(source: DigitalGlobe)

Remote sensing solutions provider DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) has today launched its New Year sale during which customers can purchase its high quality, ready-to-use country image packs half price.

DMCii imaging specialists have produced complete, high quality 22m multi-spectral satellite imagery of many countries in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The image packs are compiled using the best available imagery from 2011 resulting in exceptionally low cloud cover even in tropical regions. The 650km satellite swath ensures that very large areas are covered within consistent time windows and with an easily manageable number of image tiles, offering significant advantages to the end user.


The Pearl- Qatar in Doha, Qatar. UK-DMC2 Image © DMCii 2011

Images are delivered in half-swath 320km by 300km tiles and ortho-rectified so that they are ready to process in a broad range of GIS systems. The multi-spectral data is radiometrically cross-calibrated to within 1% of Landsat core bands (Red, Green, NIR) and is commonly used for government surveys and scientific research for water management, agricultural planning, forest cover and land use mapping.

The New Year image pack sale begins today until 29th of February 2012. For more details visit DMCii

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 used extensively in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation 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 Disaster Monitoring Constellation with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation 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 trade mark DMC.

Notes to editor:
Press release
High resolution image available upon request.
Image caption: The Pearl- Qatar in Doha, Qatar.
Image credit: UK-DMC2 Image © DMCii 2011.

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, DMC International Imaging Ltd., www.dmcii.com
Tel: +44 (0)1483 804299 Email: p.stephens@dmcii.com

(Munich, 26 March 2012) European Space Imaging announces its support for the upcoming GMES Masters 2012 through the addition of a new challenge centered on the use of new applications for very high-resolution satellite imagery.

During this years’ competition kick-off in Munich European Space Imaging GmbH (EUSI) announced its support of the GMES Masters competition established by the Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO). European Space Imaging is pleased to expand the contest by contributing the new ‘European Space Imaging High-Res Challenge’.

“We are very happy to have European Space Imaging on board for this year’s GMES Masters. As Europe’s leading provider of VHR data they bring a new and exciting challenge to the program” says Thorsten Rudolph, CEO, AZO.

“Through participating in the GMES Masters we hope to encourage creativity and find new, innovative ideas for the use of very high resolution satellite imagery in support of monitoring global environment and security” explains Michaela Weber, Sales and Marketing Director, European Space Imaging.

The European Earth Monitoring Competition GMES Masters takes place on an annual basis and calls for new ideas and services making the best use of earth observation data from Europe’s flagship program on Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES). Initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and T-Systems and supported by the European Commission and European Space Imaging GmbH, the GMES Masters 2012 will call for submissions between 1 June and 16 September 2012 in six categories.

EUSI currently provides VHR optical data to GMES program from DigitalGlobe’s satellite constellation consisting of WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and QuickBird. The imagery supports a range of services for monitoring the environment and supporting civil security activities on a European, national and regional level. Especially for GMES emergency services, like SAFER or GMOSAIC, an instant tasking option for VHR optical data is crucial for immediate assessments and can be fully supported through EUSI using their local WorldView groundstation and their close connection with the WorldView Global Alliance partner DigitalGlobe.
For more information: www.gmes-masters.com; www.euspaceimaging.com

Press Contact:
European Space Imaging
Penelope Richardson
Email: prichardson@euspaceimaging.com
Phone: +49 (0)89 130 142
www.euspaceimaging.com

About European Space Imaging

European Space Imaging (EUSI) is Europe’s leading supplier of very high-resolution satellite imagery. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Munich, Germany. EUSI is the only European satellite data provider that operates its own dedicated very high-resolution satellite ground station for direct satellite tasking and local data uplink and downlink.

(14 March 2012) An ESA-funded project to model sea ice dynamics using archived radar data from the Envisat and ERS missions has released its first validated datasets for the Arctic winters of 2004–11. Mapping sea ice displacement is key for climate research.

Sea ice profoundly affects the exchanges of heat, water and momentum between the ocean and atmosphere, and plays an important role in oceanic convection and deep-water formation.

The €1 million GlobIce project, which began in 2005 with a consortium of eight partners led by University College London (UCL), measures sea ice motion for use in climate modelling and research.

In support of the Climate and Cryosphere project of the World Climate Research Programme, GlobIce validates sea ice motion, deformation and ice flux.

Radar images of ice displacement, which is determined at intervals of a few days, are used to generate a large number of high-resolution products useful for climate research, such as sea ice velocity maps.

GlobIce products provide Arctic-wide sea ice dynamics data at more than ten times the resolution of any other wide-area satellite-derived products currently available.

“The data which the GlobIce system can provide is essential to understanding the dynamics of the rapidly changing sea ice cover in the Arctic,” said Dr Seymour Laxon, GlobIce project scientist from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at UCL.

“GlobIce can also be used to interpret other critical data, such as the ice thickness measurements now being provided by CryoSat.”

Although the GlobIce project primarily focused on developing operational products for the Arctic region, it has recently been prototyped to generate products over the Antarctic. Sample products of the Antarctic are now available for August and September 2010.

Owing to the different characteristics of south polar sea ice, which makes it difficult to monitor from many low-resolution sensors, there is very little sea ice dynamics data available. GlobIce could be used to fill this gap in the future.

“The increasing complexity and resolution of climate models lead to a demand for comprehensive datasets against which to test them,” said Dr Jeff Ridley, climate scientist at the UK Met Office.

“With GlobIce, we finally have a sea ice dataset which will endure and provide for model evaluation now and in years to come.”

Source

Developing New Business Relations
e- GEOS announces its annual International Conference will be held in Rome, Italy on May 23 and 24, 2012 at the Ergife Palace Hotel.


e- GEOS announces its annual International Conference will be held in Rome, Italy on May 23 and 24, 2012 at the Ergife Palace Hotel. “Developing new business relations will be our motto this year”, says e-GEOS CEO Marcello Maranesi, “because our attention will be fully focused on making this conference a business development event for our attendees”. The 1st e-GEOS International Conference, in May 2011, was a very successful event over two days, with the presence of more than 350 attendees, more than 40 countries, 38 speakers in 7 sessions, 180 companies, 40 institutions, 80 trainees for 2 training courses.

The conference will bring attendees up to date information on the e-GEOS group offer and third-party testimonials to how they are implemented in many end-user contexts.

The Geo-Spatial Information business is growing and evolving, with many rapid changes in not only products and services but also in the roles and areas of activity of its players, either professional actors or public agencies, no longer confined to the role of end-user or even B2C operators (Google, Microsoft, Apple..)

In addition, the large IT sector is progressively looking with greater interest to the improvement in applications that can be offered by integrating their current offerings with geo-spatial content and geo-spatially enabled services.

Today, within a broader IT application, it’s needed to combine and integrate aerial, satellite, street surveys, value adding, thematic layers and other types of information and industrial and/or public GIS applications, in order to produce value in end-user administrative/industrial processes. Different interactions, different relationships and partnerships among the various players are happening and will further change the business environment.

Preliminary Agenda

1st Day – 23rd MAY
9.00: Welcome Coffee
9.30: Conference Opening & Introduction-Welcome addresses from hosts
10.00: Main Session: Developing New Business Relations-Keynotes from key market players
13.00 lunch
14.30 – 18.00: Applications and case histories
• Emergency Response
• Land Application and Services
• Maritime Services
• Europe-wide Services from Geo-information companies
• End-user stories
Training Sessions *
20.30: Social event
2nd Day – 24th May
8.30: Welcome Coffee
9.30-10.30: Application Sessions
Showing real cases of borders, maritime, emergency…
Training Sessions *
11.00: Marketing parallel sessions
13.00 lunch
14.00 – 14.30: e-GEOS Business Model evolution
15.00 – 15.30: Interactive panel discussion
15.30 – 16.00: Conference Closing

* Requests for personalised content can be formulated during the registration process

**Contacts*:conference@e-geos.it
Web site 
Venue: Ergife Palace Hotel / Via Aurelia 619, Aurelio, 00165 Roma
Places are limited so be sure to reply before April 5th.
to register for the conference, complete this Registration Form and press SEND

Accomodation
And book your accommodation at the Ergife Palace Hotel, before April 5th
to obtain a special preferential rate
ergife.booking@ergife.com or prenotazioni.ergife@ergife.com
(include subject: “e-GEOS Conference”)
tel. + 39 06.6644805 / 06.6644809
fax. + 39 06.6632689

Registration & Conference Information
conference@e-geos.it

Conference

e-GEOS, an ASI/Telespazio Company, has been awarded 3 years framework contracts for Emergency Mapping Services in Rush and non-Rush Modes, in support of crisis management, delivering geo information for Civil Protections and other crisis management end-users at European level.

The first contract (Rush), for a maximum amount of 7.6 M€ over 3 years, covers the on-demand and fast provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities immediately following an emergency event. The service provision is based on the processing and analysis, in rush mode, of:

(i) satellite and aerial image sensor data of varying spatial and spectral resolution; and
(ii) other geospatial raster and vector data sources.

The second contract (non-Rush), for a maximum amount of 2 M€ over 3 years, awarded in parallel to several consortium, covers the on-demand provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities during the phases of the emergency management cycle which are not related to the immediate response, i.e. not requiring rush mode delivery. In particular, information provision relates to the prevention, preparedness and reconstruction phases.

Decision makers and End users of these services are :

  • EU Joint Research Center,
  • EU Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (Global Security and Crisis Management Unit),
  • EU Member States,
  • the European Civil Protection Mechanism,
  • the EU Commission’s Directorates-General (DGs)
  • the international humanitarian aid agencies, such as UN World Food Program, UN-OCHA, etc.

e-GEOS Consortium includes e-GEOS (prime contractor, provider of the service infrastructure,), GAF (Germany), SIRS (France), ITHACA (Italy) as partners and INGV (Italy) as subcontractor.

e-GEOS Chief Executive Officer, Marcello MARANESI, commented : “this continuous investment of e-GEOS during 6 years in know-how and technologies has found a great recognition : being selected by the EU as the sole Rush provider. I am proud for the teams, that invested continuously themselves during so many years. They have covered more than 50 crises around the world over the last 2 years, on a 24/7 basis.”


Floods in Veneto, Bovolenta disaster extent map


Tripoli infrastructure and transportation map


Map derived from COSMO-SkyMed imagery ©ASI, processed and distributed by e‑GEOS
Map of flooding in Sendai district – Japan, derived from COSMO-SkyMed radar imagery from March 12, 2011. The floooded areas are in light blue with the COSMO-SkyMed 3m image in the background

More information at e-geos