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A clear and common description of EO products and services will help suppliers and customers arrive at a common understanding of what can be offered

A clear and common description of EO products and services will help suppliers and customers arrive at a common understanding of what can be offered. By proposing a common language, the taxonomy should also provide a translation between the world of EO services and the world(s) of their customers.

The aim is to present and explain the rationale for the EO taxonomy that is proposed and to address the common products and services from two perspectives:
(1) A market segmentation will provide a tool to help classify and understand the markets for EO services as well as to define the type of customer
(2) A thematic segmentation provides a tool to help describe and classify the products that are offered by the service providers.

Taxonomy for EO services market.pdf

A market place between Earth Observation industry and users

The Earth Observation value added Industry is quickly evolving. It has a pool of resources and services which must be organized, catalogued and presented in a unified tool. eopages.eu has been designed for this purpose. EOpages is a brokerage platform to help potential customers find suppliers whilst service providers will be able to promote their products.

EOpages also included a section on success stories and a photo gallery for you to illustrate possible services to different market sectors; agriculture, forestry, oil & gas, infrastructure, environment, emergency, transport, urban planning, etc. The success stories demonstrate that service companies have the resources, capabilities, knowledge and ability to address and contribute to the goals of different communities.

Earth observation (EO) technologies are exceptionally useful in monitoring polar regions: EO can capture imagery over a broad geographic area as well as revisit the same areas at reliable intervals for frequent repeat captures.

Summary

The technology provides tools for operations in ice-prone waters: a large number of current satellites have the ability to map and characterise sea ice and icebergs. Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in particular is a natural fit for this task, as it can provide images day or night, through cloud or fog, and in various meteorological conditions. SAR data can be supplemented with low and high resolution electro-optical data to fill in gaps and aid interpretation.

Project Background

More than four decades of earth observation has accumulated a very significant archive of satellite data that can be used to assist characterisation of the ice environment. Since 1995 C-CORE has been analysing the value that EO technologies and derived data can bring to its oil and gas clients and has evolved a suite of EO-based services. With the industry’s increased focus on Arctic resources, C-CORE has seen a significant increase in uptake of these services, resulting in increased understanding of Arctic environments, increased confidence and reduced risk for clients operating in ice-prone waters.

Issues and Needs

More than four decades of earth observation has accumulated a very significant archive of satellite data that can be used to assist characterisation of the ice environment. Since 1995 C-CORE has been analysing the value that EO technologies and derived data can bring to its oil and gas clients and has evolved a suite of EO-based services. With the industry’s increased focus on Arctic resources, C-CORE has seen a significant increase in uptake of these services, resulting in increased understanding of Arctic environments, increased confidence and reduced risk for clients operating in ice-prone waters.

Solution

Satellite SAR mapping of ice has been available since the 1970s, although routine satellite SAR monitoring of ice has only been possible since 1992, with the launch of the European satellite ERS-1. This satellite also heralded an era of large-scale archiving of radar data. In addition to information available through various national ice centres, an archive of almost 20 years of raw SAR data can be used to create highly detailed historical maps of ice and icebergs to aid in the design process.

Many existing and almost all of the new SAR satellites are ‘operational’, in that they provide data in near-real-time, with imagery available via the internet within hours of acquisition. In the near term, the latest generation of SARs (scheduled for launch within the next few years) are specifying imagery delivery times of less than one hour; an investment in a ground station facility can allow data provision within minutes of acquisition.

With these capabilities, SAR can be used effectively by the oil and gas industry to facilitate Arctic resource development. The increasing prevalence of SAR, along with decreasing data costs and more flexible data policies, will lead to increased use of EO technologies and derived data by this sector into the future.


ice and iceberg chart from West Greenland based on an ENVISAT ASAR Image. Analysis © C-CORE (2010)

Results and Perspectives

Over the last four years, C-CORE has conducted sea-ice and iceberg studies for clients in the Barents Sea, the Beaufort Sea, West Greenland, South Greenland, Baffin Bay, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Falkland Islands. These studies have been conducted using archives and new acquisitions from RADARSAT-2, ENVISAT, Landsat, TerraSAR-X and Cosmo Skymed. These studies have been conducted in regions where little to no knowledge existed about sea ice and iceberg conditions. The availability of satellite data for these regions has provided a reliable, cost-effective alternative to the difficult and expensive gathering of equivalent information from ground or airborne-based sensors. Ice surveys using vessels and aircraft over extended periods can cost millions of dollars, while satellite studies cost one or two orders of magnitude less. Furthermore, satellite data archives provide ice information over long periods, yielding statistically relevant information. Confidence regarding ice conditions is increased, freeing E&P operators from the need to be overly conservative in structural design and operational resource planning. The cost savings realized using satellites facilitates accelerated exploration plans and improved structure design.

About C-CORE
C-CORE’s mission is to be a world leader in the development and application of advanced engineering principles to solve operational challenges in the natural resource sectors and other target markets. Through responsiveness, excellence in service, continuously advancing technology, and understanding clients’ needs, C-CORE will be the organization of choice for providing innovative services and products. C-CORE will conduct applied research and development with a motivated, highly qualified team working in a framework of sound business principles.
Contact: Desmond Power.
Captain Robert A. Bartlett Building, Morrissey Road, St. John’s, NL, Canada A1B 3X5
T: 709-864-8354 / F: 709-864-4706 / e-mail: info@c-core.ca

Why does it matter?
From environmental monitoring to environmental assessments

The Luxembourg-based company GeoVille Environmental Services was established in 2007 with the objective to add the environmental dimension to Earth Observation (EO) data. At GeoVille Environmental Services we recognise that the needs of our customers go beyond land mapping and monitoring towards environmental assessments. We help our customers to understand the processes behind land changes and their impact on ecosystems and society. Our environmental services provide the bridge from technical know-how in merging geospatial explicit data with statistics to supporting environmental analyses of what this information means for the environment.

As a member of the European Topic Centre on Spatial Information and Analysis, GeoVille Environmental Services has supported the European Environment Agency State of Environment Report 2010 (SOER 2010) as well as several technical reports with environmental analyses and policy assessments.
For the SOER 2010 GeoVille Environmental Services analysed the quality of life for more than 170 European cities. By assessing the relation of the urban green within the city and green areas in the urban hinterland an indicator for access to recreational services for city residents was established. Figure 1 illustrates the combination of “green” or “brown” cities in their respective “green” or “brown” hinterland.


Figure 1: Level of green areas inside and around European cities

As a contribution to the discussion on Green Infrastructure GeoVille Environmental Services developed a characterisation of European regions based on their environmental assets. This map characterises European landscapes according to their degree of naturalness, expressed by factors such as presence of high nature value farmlands, air quality and proximity to natural areas or rural typology.


Figure 2: Regional characterisation of environmental assets

Working tools

At GeoVille Environmental Services we certainly know our basic utensils: EO images and their processing – GIS based data analyses integrating EO derived information with other survey, statistical or thematic data – open source based data access for the client and the wider public.

We have carried out land cover mapping projects from global to local scale, working with EO data image resolutions from 300m to aerial photographs with less than 1m resolution. Amongst others we have supervised, trained and managed the implementation of Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2006 in the West Balkan Countries and carried out the CLC2000 – 2006 change mapping for such different landscapes such as Albania and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.


Figure 3: Capacity building and CLC2006 Albania

For our local customers we have mapped building footprints, artificial surfaces and other surfaces in Luxembourg for the years 2001, 2004, 2007 and most recently also for 2010. The information is used to calculate the actual surface occupied by buildings and roads compared to more general land cover maps, which often do not differentiate between built-up and non built-up surfaces within individual plots.


Figure 4: Building footprint mapping

To make our information accessible for our clients and the wider public, GeoVille Environmental Services uses proven open source technology which avoids the client’s dependency on costly licence policies.

The crop yield estimation and forecast tool (CROPSIM) has been developed in the context of a national research project. CROPSIM compares the current status with long-term averages and provides the user with information on deviation from the average for soil moisture, temperature, precipitation and plant development.


Figure 5: CROPSIM online information system

Client support & validation

Apart from land cover / use mapping and targeted environmental assessments, GeoVille Environmental Services has established a strong foothold in a third area – customer support. Through the long-term work of its managing director at the interface of service providers and user community, GeoVille Environmental Services is able to understand and translate user needs and requirements into technical specifications and vice versa.

Making use of its recognition as independent authority by many service providers and users, GeoVille Environmental Services provides independent quality assessments of land cover mapping products. For us product validation and service certification are two important components towards user satisfaction and confidence building. In our understanding quality is not only “accuracy” as the illustration from the GNU (GMES Network of Users) project shows – quality is a multi-criteria phenomenon which can take different priorities for different users and at different moments in time.


Figure 6: Quality criteria for a good EO-based (GMES) product (Source: GNU)

Contact:
GeoVille Environmental Services Sàrl
Stefan Kleeschulte
3, Zone Industrielle Bombicht
L-6947 Niederanven (Luxembourg)
Tel: +352 26 71 41 35
Kleeschulte@geoville.com
www.geoville.com

Eomag!29_Geoville Environmental Services.pdf

GIS/Geospatial industry worldwide growth is forecast to slow to 1%, down from 11% in 2008 and a whopping 17.4% in 2007 according to a just released study by Daratech, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts market research firm.

However, industry CEOs interviewed by Daratech were unanimous in their belief that growth consistent with the robust 11% compound annual growth rate of the past six years would return in 2010. North America has not been as adversely affected by the downturn as the rest of the world due to the on-going needs of homeland security and continuing investment in GIS, by the public sector. Growth in North America is forecast by Daratech to top 2.1%, more than twice the growth in Asia Pacific and five times the growth in Europe where investment in GIS/Geospatial technology has been hurt more severely by the current downturn as many European governments have cut back their geospatial technology purchases in anticipation of lower tax collections.

Perhaps the most dramatic slowdown in 2009 was in the private sector, which is forecast to shrink to $1.4 billion, down 0.7% from 2008. This downturn echoes the general pull back of the private sector from major additional investments in new IT technologies. At the same time public sector sales are expected to grow 4.1% to almost $957 million in 2009 reflecting this sectors continuing deployment of GIS technologies to all the services it offers. In the Traditional GIS segment ESRI continues to have a dominant 30% market share, up from 29% in 2008 according to Daratech.

Lead by its iconic president Jack Dangermond, ESRI has been a benchmark for new GIS technologies, philosophies and direction for the entire industry for more than 20 years, and indications are that it will continue to be so, says Daratech. Intergraph, the second largest player in the traditional segment is forecast by Daratech to have a 16% market share in 2009, up from 15% in 2008. Intergraph is remaking its entire business around a GIS philosophy, and as a GIS service provider Intergraph is likely to become even stronger in the years ahead. Third ranked is GE Energy, which is the market leader in the utilities market where it is forecast to have a 24% market share. In the larger GIS/Geospatial market that includes data, geo-enabled engineering, GPS, photogrammetry and remote sensing MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has a leading 21.8% share of the market. MDA’s strength in the GIS/Geospatial markets is in geospatial data and engineering services for imaging, GIS, geology, weather and defense. ESRI, is second with a 15.7% share and Bentley Systems, the leading supplier of GIS/Geospatial AEC market software and services (where it has a 42.1% market share) is third. Bentley has frequently made the running in the geo-enabled engineering applications market and continues to demonstrate strong leadership in this area.

However, Bentley can expect stronger competition from Autodesk, Intergraph and ESRI in the coming years, as this segment of the market may show greater than average growth.

Source

(5 January 2012) MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., a provider of essential information solutions, announced today that it has signed an agreement valued at Cdn$ 3 million with EarthView Image Inc., for the provision of RADARSAT distribution rights for three years.

RADARSAT products and services will be available to support government and commercial users in China in areas such as land use management, environmental monitoring, subsidence monitoring, and disaster response.

About MDA

MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.

Focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of information solutions, ranging from complex operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic information products.

About EV-Image

EV-Image specializes in 3 D visualization software and satellite and aerial image processing services. EV-Image was established in 2004 by SuperMap Software Co., Ltd., the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other investors. The company currently has 270 employees.

(source: MDA)

(13 January 2012) After a year in service, the German Earth observation satellite TanDEM-X, together with its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X, have completely mapped the entire land surface of Earth for the first time.

The data is being used to create the world’s first single-source, high-precision, 3D digital elevation model of Earth. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) controls both radar satellites, generates the elevation model and is responsible for the scientific use of TanDEM-X data.

The TanDEM-X mission – running like clockwork

It is reminiscent of ballet on ice; throughout the last year, Germany’s radar satellites, TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X, have been moving through space in close formation, at times just a few hundred metres apart. Strip by strip, they have recorded Earth from different angles and transmitted high-resolution radar data from their orbit at an altitude of 514 kilometres down to the three ground stations – Kiruna (Sweden), Inuvik (Canada) and O’Higgins (Antarctica). “The mission is running better than expected and there have been no unscheduled interruptions in the programmed formation flight of the two satellites. All safety mechanisms are functioning robustly and in a stable manner,” enthuses Manfred Zink, project manager for the TanDEM-X ground segment at DLR. Over the course of 2011, the distance between the satellites was progressively reduced down to the minimum permitted value of 150 metres.

‘Radar eyes’ working with millimetric accuracy

This satellite mission is the first of its kind; it remains unique and is highly complex, even for experienced engineers. “Following the launch of TanDEM-X on 21 June 2010, there was a six-month test phase, during which we subjected the satellite and its behaviour in near-Earth orbit to intense scrutiny and carried out our calibration work,” Zink recalls. During this time, TanDEM-X commenced formation flying with its identical partner satellite, TerraSAR-X, which was launched in 2007. On 14 December 2010, the operational part of its mission began, collecting data for the high-precision elevation model.

The radar system views the ground from two different points in space, achieving ‘depth perception’ in a manner similar to binocular vision in humans. “The generation of accurate elevation data calls for precise coordination of data from and between both satellites,” explains Gerhard Krieger, systems engineer for the TanDEM-X mission. Differences, for example in the cable lengths on the two radar instruments, as well as the distance between the two satellites, need to be calibrated very precisely. “This is a truly enormous challenge when you consider that a millimetre of variation can cause up to one metre of elevation error,” says Krieger.

The strips of terrain recorded by the satellites are processed into elevation models measuring 50 by 30 kilometres. Due to the ultra-precise calibration, when this ‘basic data’ is compiled at the end of the process to generate a global 3D map, it is already of very high quality. By mid-2013, TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X will have imaged the complete land surface area of Earth – roughly 150 million square kilometres – several times. The intention is to create an exceptionally accurate, global and homogeneous 3D elevation model that promises to be of equal interest for commercial and scientific purposes.

Data quality depends on ground reflectance

Initially, at least two complete coverage cycles of Earth’s land surface were planned. Some parts, one example being the vast majority of Australia’s landmass, were recorded by the satellite duo with sufficient quality during the first overflight. “The level of precision depends on how well the ground reflects the radar pulses transmitted – and subsequently received – by the satellites,” states Manfred Zink. For example, the Sahara is more difficult to image because the signal literally ‘sinks into the sand’ and is lost. For regions of dense vegetation, such as rain forests, additional imagery and careful adjustment of the distance between the satellites are necessary. “We are going to be left with a few blank areas on the map, but we do of course seek to minimise these gaps,” states Zink as he thinks about the coming months.

Better understanding Earth as a system

“We want to gain a better understanding of Earth as a system and to employ the data for climate and traffic research, for example,” says Irena Hajnsek, scientific coordinator for the TanDEM-X mission. In 2011, she gave the ‘green light’ for 166 of the research applications submitted to DLR. “Most of these originated in the USA and Germany. The TanDEM-X capabilities are to be used to address questions of land usage and vegetation, hydrology, geology and glaciology,” explains Hajnsek. The two Earth observation satellites can also generate information about the height of the snowline or the change in ice masses of the two polar regions, as well as provide geological maps of regions subject to volcanic and/or earthquake activity. The speed of ships or road vehicles can be measured, as can changes in the natural world. The work performed by these two radar satellites is also valuable for agriculture. “Based on the height and structure of a plant – such as rapeseed, for example – it is possible to draw conclusions about its quality and biomass,” states Hajnsek.

About the mission

TanDEM-X is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with funds from the German Ministry of Economics and Technology in the form of a public-private partnership with Astrium GmbH. DLR is responsible for the scientific use of TanDEM-X data, planning and implementiation of the mission as well as controlling the two satellites and generating the digital elevation model. Astrium built the satellite and shares the costs for the development and use. Commercial marketing of TanDEM-X data is managed by Astrium Services’ GEO-Information Division (formerly Infoterra GmbH), a subsidiary of Astrium.

Source DLR and Spacenews

[HANOI] Japanese experts are to help Vietnam build its first earth-observation satellites in an effort to help the South-East Asian country plan for the effects of climate change and natural disasters.

Last November, Japan announced that it will provide a 40-year loan of about US$93 million (7.2 billion Japanese Yen) to Vietnam for equipment and capacity development connected to the bilateral satellite initiative.

The first two satellites are due to be launched in 2017 and 2020, according to Shohei Matsuura, senior advisor with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Hanoi.

Matsuura said the satellites will track data that will provide background information for future industrial development and land-use planning, as well as support Vietnam’s national efforts to prepare for climate change and natural disasters.

“Climate change is one of the biggest obstacles to development in South-East Asia,” Matsuura told SciDev.Net. “We want to assist Vietnam to take measures against climate change and natural disasters, and this will also be helpful to the surrounding countries.”

Last year, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand were ravaged by heavy flooding that claimed hundreds of lives and caused millions of dollars in damages.

Vietnam is believed to be one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. It experiences heavy rainfall and has a low-lying coastline. Nearly four in five Vietnamese people live within 100 kilometres of the coast, and natural disasters kill more than 450 people each year, the UN says.

The satellites are just one component of Vietnam’s preparation to become a regional leader in space technology. State media reported in November that a National Space Centre will be built outside Hanoi, at a cost of more than US$600 million, with the goal of providing a research facility for communications, weather forecasting and search and rescue activities

Reached by phone last week, officials at the state-run Space Technology Institute in Vietnam declined SciDev.Net’s request for comment.

The United States has also expressed an interest in helping Vietnam to develop its space programme. In December, Michael O’Brien, associate administrator for international and interagency relations for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), visited Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the first senior NASA official to have done so.

During his visit, O’Brien signed a statement of intent with Vietnamese officials affirming “strong bilateral interest in cooperation on space-based research, including Earth science, weather research, remote sensing, and educational activities”, according to the US Embassy in Vietnam.

Source

Tromsø (Norway), January 11, 2012Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) ConocoPhillips Company [NYSE:COP] and e-GEOS (ASI/Telespazio) have signed a contract for monitoring ice formation and movement throughout the 2011-12 winter season.

The effort will make exclusive use of the unique capabilities of the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation of four VHR SAR satellites, owned by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and exploited commercially by e-GEOS, to provide coverage over the area of interest for the entirety of the season. The frequency and duration of the coverage will allow unprecedented detail on the evolution of sea ice conditions using high-resolution, X-band (9.6 GHz) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology.

By acquiring coverage for a full season with hundreds of SAR images, it will be possible for the first time to thoroughly analyze the patterns of ice formation, the characteristics of the ice under winter conditions, and the progression of the spring melt: how rapidly it occurs and the size and prevailing direction of the ice fragments.

The collaboration of KSAT, ConocoPhillips, and e-GEOS further exemplifies each company’s commitment to creating efficiencies and developing technologies to improve ice services in the Arctic.

“Satellite imagery with X-band SAR of ice in Arctic waters allows us to better detect, measure and track ice floes on a daily basis. In turn, it gives us better information of the size and movement of potential ice features, as well as increases our capability to forecast their trajectory”, say Khalid Soofi, Science Fellow, Remote Sensing, and Dom Berta, Manager Harsh Environment Technology, of ConocoPhillips Company.

“This new contract supports the position of KSAT as the lead provider of satellite-based services in the circumpolar Arctic region, where updated and reliable information about ice and ice conditions will become more and more important in the coming years”, says Jan Petter Pedersen, Vice President of KSAT.

“COSMO-SkyMed is showing all its potential in this highly demanding context of professional ice charting over the Arctic. The system is now adopted by industrial users that need reliable operational services in support of their field activities. Its unique revisit capability has demonstrated to be of paramount importance for surveillance operations, over marine areas as well as over land” says Marcello MARANESI, Chief Executive Officer of e-GEOS.

Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) is a world leading commercial satellite centre. Situated in Tromsø, Norway with ground stations in Tromsø, Svalbard, Dubai, Singapore, South Africa and the Antarctic, KSAT is ideally located for both Ground Network support and near real-time Earth Observation services. KSAT supports most of the commercial satellites in orbit and can provide timely imagery and derived information independent of satellite ownership. With a unique ground station network and experienced analysts, ‘near-real-time’ operational information can be provided within 30 minutes. KSAT’s multi-mission maritime monitoring services have been provided to coastguards, pollution-control authorities and oil companies since 1998. For more information, go to: www.ksat.no

ConocoPhillips is an integrated energy company with interests around the world. Headquartered in Houston, the company had approximately 29,700 employees, $155 billion of assets, and $247 billion of annualized revenues as of September 30, 2011. For more information, go to www.conocophillips.com.

e-GEOS is a joint venture of the Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%), a Finmeccanica/Thales company. With an overall revenue of about 80m€, and staff of 250 people, it provides a wide range of Geo-Information products, applications and services on the world-wide market, combining the unique capabilities of COSMO-SkyMed Constellation with other optical/radar satellite and aerial survey data. The COSMO-SkyMed Earth Observation Program of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of Defence, based on a constellation of four VHR SAR satellites, provides all-weather, day and night, world-wide radar data acquisitions.

Contacts:
KSAT: Paul Whitaker – paul@ksat.no ; Richard Hall – richard@ksat.no
e-GEOS: Giorgio APPONI – giorgio.apponi@e-geos.it ; Rémi ALQUIER – remi.alquier@e-geos.it

Press Release
Source

Flyby is an independent Italian SME company, devoted to applied research and innovative technology development in remote sensing. Interdisciplinary background and expertise in various fields allow Flyby to face complex challenges in applied research and to develop innovative products that bring a high added value to the many Institutional and Private customers.

The company conducts two lines of business: the first is represented by the constant involvement in various R&D projects funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the European Commission (EC) and by other regional agencies; the second line consists in selling the commercial products that derive from prototype applications developed in the former R&D projects.

In the following are described two sample experiences of the company:

  • Flyby’s involvement in research project FISHSAT
  • The success story of the product SOLARSAT.

FISHSAT is a project funded by ESA in the framework of IAP program, with Flyby acting as Prime Contractor and UK and Italian SMEs as Subcontractors.

The goal of the project is to define the technical feasibility and the viability of a new integrated system capable to assist fisheries in their fishing and marketing operations and, at the same time, to permit a better control of the fishing activities by the sea authorities.

The second experience regards the success story of Flyby’s product SOLARSAT.

SolarSAT system uses weather satellite data to estimate the productivity of potential solar power plants and to monitor the performance of existing ones. The approach helps to give a faster return on investments in clean solar energy.

FISHSAT

Project Objectives:The Project addresses the needs of two main stakeholders: Fisheries and Sea Authorities (enforcement). Fisheries involved so far are those making coastal fishing with small-size boats.Such fleets of relatively small vessels are recognized by the Common Fisheries Policies as the best suited to perform fishing in a sustainable manner, because of their limited impact on the sea environment.

The need for better product traceability, better market prices, lower operational cost and reduction of illegal an unregulated fishing represents therefore a common ground between both stakeholders. FISHSAT can build on this, through an innovative integration of space assets with conventional information and communication technologies.

The FISHSAT feasibility study aims at designing, developing and validating a first basic prototype of a distributed system (onboard & onshore) that provides information services for more efficient, more compliant and more sustainable fishing. The study will also identify the viability (incl. legal, political, financial, technical, operational aspects) and define the business roadmap for the implementation of the FISHSAT system and its associated services towards acceptance and commercialization.

Needs:

Fisheries need to secure the long term health of fish resources and the livelihoods of the fishermen who depend on them. There is a need for lower cost, e.g. by reducing fuel consumption per catch, better prices for the fish, e.g. by better connection to market demand. Fisheries will benefit from a sustainable use of the sea’s resources, fair competition, and reliable stock estimation and quota setting. Sea Authority aim to effectively enforce law by monitoring fishing activities and by repressing illegal fishing practices.

Features:

FISHSAT is conceived as an innovative system for sustainable fishing. FISHSAT will consist essentially in the provision of information services to both fisheries and Sea Authorities by the integration of space, airborne and terrestrial technologies (communication, remote sensing, local sensing). Its services are intended to provide Sea Authorities with a more effective law enforcing capability, while providing fisheries with a tool and service that ease their activities, reduce costs and allow for more profitable sales. An appealing Quality Mark on sustainable fishing is to be defined. The Sea Authorities are currently represented by the Italian Coast Guard, the fisheries by Lega Pesca (IT) and National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO).

The project will study user needs and requirements, design, develop and prototype a system and service, that will be validated through an in-field proof of concept involving fishing boats. A financial and non-financial viability will be performed and a roadmap towards commercial deployment, possibly via an IAP Demonstration Project, will be laid out.

Expected Main Benefits:

In the medium term, FISHSAT aims to:

  • Avoid overfishing in depleted areas
  • Ease the submission of catch reports for legal purposes, thus avoiding errors and penalties
  • Collect proof of illegal practices (for use by the Sea Authority), thus giving compliant vessels a fairer chance
  • Save cost of the Sea Authority patrol boat intervention
    In the longer term, the following benefits are targeted:
  • Reduction of fishing effort per catch
  • Improve catch strategy and market strategy, to better match market demand, obtain better prices and reduce bycatch.
  • Increase of product appeal by introducing a quality mark based on traceability and sustainability data.
  • Reduction of illegal and unregulated fishing due to more effective control by the Sea Authority.

Service Concept:

Support to Fisheries

  • Improve fishing capability.

- Biological and physical sea parameters derived from EO imagery will be used to assess the presence of fish in the permitted areas. The suggestion of most productive zones should contribute to reduce the fishing effort.

  • Improve marketing capability.

- Data on catches will be anticipated to fishery ground centre while vessels are still at sea, in order to setup an early marketing strategy. – A quality mark will be devised based on data acquired during the fishing session. Product traceability will account for both its healthiness and sustainability. Products will be labelled with such a mark.

  • Improve crew safety.

- Message exchange between shore and fisheries will be possible in case of critical situations. – Support to the respect of fishing regulation. – The onboard system will include an electronic logbook of catches. The mandatory Catches Report will be submitted automatically to the Sea Authority ensuring compliance.
Sea areas where fishing is forbidden will be displayed to boat crew in real time. A warning will be raised in case some illegal activity is initiated in such areas.

Support to Sea Authorities

  • Improve the Sea Authority monitoring capability.

- A SatCom based AIS forwarding system installed on the fishing vessels will let the Sea Authority know also about the position of some boats whose AIS signal would be beyond reach from coast. – Data sensed onboard about e.g. the status of net and line deployment will allow the Sea Authority to know about fishing boat behaviour. Sea temperature and other data for statistic analysis can be collected through the fishing vessels. – Catches data recorded onboard will allow the Sea Authority to know about catch amount and type

  • Improve the Sea Authority capability to fight illegal fishing practices.

-In case some specific illegal practices are initiated by the boat, the Sea Authority would be informed immediately and could rely on the recorded data as a proof of crime.
-An unmanned helicopter UAV, launched from a coast guard vessel could be used to identity an unrecognized boat.

Space added value:

EO satellite data will be used to estimate several sea parameters and to derive meteorological information in support to conventional forecasts. Such data will support the identification of most productive regions, thus allowing a more effective catches strategy.

Satellite communication will be used to complement terrestrial wireless technology in offshore areas, where the latter is not effective.

GNSS – The Global Positioning Systems (possibly the future Galileo system) will be used to track vessels and to collect the geo-references for catches traceability.

FishSat service concept

Current Status:

The project has kicked off in September 2011 and is currently in the stage of detailed interaction with the users to map user needs and requirements.

SOLARSAT: Flyby’s SolarSAT system uses weather satellite data to estimate the productivity of potential solar power plants and to monitor the performance of existing ones. The approach helps to give a faster return on investments in clean solar energy.

Background Project. Making the EO satellite information available to photovoltaic plant design & monitoring is a result of the ENVISOLAR project, funded by ESA within the framework of its Earth Observation Market Development Programme and supported by the German Space Agency DLR. ENVISOLAR project gave birth to a suite of commercial products whose brand is ‘SolarSAT’. ESA’s technology transfer broker D’Appolonia then helped Sonepar Immobiliare e Servizi (SIS) S.p.A., an Italian distributor of photovoltaic (PV) plants, to integrate Flyby’s SolarSAT solution in their systems, with successful result for several plants in Italy.

Market needs

Since solar power is one of the cleanest methods of energy production, the worldwide interest has pushed the research and development of innovative tools capable of improving the reliability and efficiency of plant design and monitoring. EO satellite imagery represent one powerful source of data to assess the amount of solar energy reaching the earth and hence the PV panels.

PV Plant design

Most people willing to setup a photovoltaic plant in a specific locality have this main concern: how long will it take to return from the investment? Of course this depends mainly on two factors: the solar energy typically available for that locality and the plant efficiency in exploiting it. The latter factor can be described by modelling the plant in terms of cells technology, panel orientation w.r.t. the sun, efficiency of the various components, etc. Instead, the typical local solar energy, depending also on meteorological conditions, is not so straightforward to obtain, unless dedicated in-situ measurement campaigns have been performed during several years, which is unlikely to have happened in most cases.

PV Plant monitoring

Photovoltaic plants do not always operate optimally due to accidents like malfunctions affecting some plant parts or environmental events that degrade the collection of light (e.g. panel shadowing, panel coverage by dust, snow, leaves, etc.). Getting production data by logging to the inverters does not always allow to detect a malfunction (e.g. a broken panel). Also the plant system cannot recognize by itself the occurrence of any environmental drawback. Generally speaking, the only easy way to assess that some trouble is affecting the energy production is to compare it with the producible energy. The most common way to calculate the producible energy is to measure it by means of a separate system of local sensor, typically made of irradiance, wind and temperature sensors. Apart from their cost, local sensors require maintenance (e.g. calibration). Moreover, irradiance sensors may be subject to same environmental drawbacks affecting solar cells.

The proposed Solution

The amount of solar energy reaching the earth (i.e. the irradiance) can be calculated by feeding EO data into an algorithm that takes into account the interaction between solar light and atmosphere, soil and sea. One of such algorithms was developed by Flyby and is applied to available EO data, i.e. data that are collected directly at Flyby’s premises, via a satellite link. Irradiances of areas whose EO data are not directly available to Flyby are supplied to Flyby by major European institutions through commercial agreements.

Both historical irradiances and current irradiances are exploited: the former are used to define the energy typically available for the location, by averaging data along 10 or 20 years; the latter are used to define the reference producible energy to which the actual production must be compared.

Upon Envisolar project completion in 2007, Flyby came up with a solution where weather information from satellites is used first to plan investments in future installations and then to check if the solar cells in a photovoltaic plant are working well and producing the expected amount of electricity.

During the phase of planning new photovoltaic installation Flyby’s SolarSAT PV-Planner allows customers to design their PV plants using a simulation tool that exploits historical satellite irradiances for any given location. It estimates the potential of the electricity production and helps identifying the optimal size and position of the solar panels, information needed for the economic analysis and evaluation of a new installation.

PV plant daily power (simulated Vs. measured) The SolarSAT PV-controller tool is the other Flyby satellite-based solution for monitoring remotely the status and efficiency of PV plants. It retrieves the working status, monitors the produced energy and compares it with the expected one (producible energy), which derives from the available solar radiation at any given moment. Such radiation can be derived from either satellite data or from irradiance sensors installed at the plant. If there is a misalignment between the two producible energies or if the actual produced energy is very different from them, the system sends an alarm to the plant owner so that maintenance can be arranged.

The actual produced energy is read from the plant inverter(s) by a SolarSAT datalogger which can also read the irradiance sensors if any. All acquired data are sent by the datalogger via GPRS wireless link to the central station, where they are processed and displayed on the customer web pages.

The attractiveness of the system

Starting from the prototypal achievements of the ENVISOLAR project, two products have been developed and refined: the ‘PV-Planner’, a simulator tool allowing the design of a PV plant, and the PV-Controller, a monitoring tool allowing the production check of existing plants. Such products are now steadily present in the market and are especially appreciated by companies managing big PV plants or plant farms.PV-Planner attracts new customers by proposing a solution for the potential PV plant, with technical and economic aspects fully characterized.PV-Controller allows a reduction of the PV plant management cost (consisting typically of 1% of plant full cost each year) by giving an early warning on malfunctions and drawbacks and thus allowing a prompt intervention, so that the maximum productivity is not significantly reduced SolarSAT irradiance sensor mounted at solar panel

Plant design

PROS CONS
satellite based lower cost (satellite imagery are acquired systematically and are multipurpose), wide area coverage, historical data retrievable for any zone no HW waste to dispose of lower accuracy (relative error: down to 8% with clear sky, up to 18% with cloudy sky) accuracy degraded by cloud presence (atmospheric modelling issues)
sensor based higher accuracy (5% relative error), accuracy not affected by cloud presence higher cost (setup of measurement campaign), punctual coverage, historical data come only from past measurement campaigns (if any) sensor HW waste disposal required

Plant monitoring

PROS CONS
satellite based lower system cost (0.5% of 50kW plant cost), no maintenance required (e.g. satellite sensor calibration performed by satellite owner), no HW waste to dispose of lower accuracy (relative error: down to 8% with clear sky, up to 18% with cloudy sky), lower sampling rate, accuracy degraded by cloud presence (atmospheric modelling issues)
sensor based higher accuracy (5% relative error), higher sampling rate, accuracy not affected by cloud presence higher system cost (0.7% of 50kW plant cost), sensor maintenance required (e.g. calibration, cleaning), light sensor affected by same problems as solar cells (e.g. dust, snow), sensor HW waste disposal required

Accuracy: little difference between the two systems in clear sky conditions. Satellite system is more competitive if applied to areas characterised by such condition.
Area coverage: satellite system allows worldwide coverage and continuous, so it is the only way to get irradiance maps of any area and for any past period of time.
Availability: satellite acquisition rate, though less than that achievable by a sensor, is quite enough for design and monitoring purposes
Cost: satellite imagery yearly subscription becomes cheaper than the cost of N sensor packages, as soon as N = 33 (assuming Sensor_Package_Cost=300€, Satellite_yearly_subscription = 10 k€). Maintenance costs should be also included: they account for ¼ of sensor cost each three year.
Maintenance: no HW to maintain when exploiting satellite data. Instead local sensors require calibration and cleaning.
Environment friendliness: both systems have no impact on the environment when in use
Sustainability: plant design requires no HW at plant. Plant monitoring requires only a small datalogger to get produced energy. So there is little or no HW waste disposal when system expires. Data retrieval from the datalogger is normally done automatically via GPRS link, otherwise data can be stored in the datalogger and downloaded manually.

The successful Results

After a development phase, with the participation of the Italian energy leader Enel, the SolarSAT PV-Controller system has been installed on several photovoltaic plants in Italy (for example on a 59 KW plant in Rome, on a 49 KW plant in Milan and on a 26 KW plant near Messina).

SolarSat is currently a commercial Product that operates in all Europe and in the southern Mediterranean area.
In all sites a higher production resulted, as malfunctions have been located and corrected faster with the system.

Contact Information
PhD. Eng. Andrea Masini, Remote Sensing Department
Flyby s.r.l. via Puini,97-int 26/26A, 57128 Livorno, Italy
Tel: (+39) 0586-505016 | Fax: (+39) 0586-502770 | Mobile phone: (+39) 329-9175587
www.flyby.it

Eomag!28_Flyby (Italy) (Winter 2011-2012).pdf