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Rome, May 23 & 24

e- GEOS announces its annual International Conference will be held in Rome, Italy on May 23 and 24 – 2012.

Last year the event attracted 400 attendees from 40 countries and 5 continents.

“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”


Niger River Delta, Nigeria. Mosaic of COSMO-SkyMed images © ASI, processed by e-GEOS

Announcement.pdf

The 2nd OGEO workshop was organised following on from the success of the first conference in 2010.It was hosted for the 2nd year running by ESA in Frascati but this time as part of the Geological Remote Sensing Group’s (GRSG) annual meeting.

This meant that for the first time we had 3 Communities all coming together; oil and gas companies, EO service companies, geological researchers. Many of the attendees expressed their pleasure at the unique opportunity this presented to interact.

Over 200 persons were registered for the 3 day meeting. The GRSG met on the 1st and 3rd days with the middle day devoted to the OGEO workshop which was opened by the OGEO chair Peter Hausknecht (Woodside). The first session dealt with the setting up of the OGEO and the progress that had been made in the year. Colin Grant (BP) explained the Joint Industry Project (JIP) run under the Oil and Gas Producers Association (OGP) and Geoff Sawyer (EARSC) explained the OGEO-Portal and how people could have access and use it.

Technical sessions were then presented on Oil Spills and general applications of EO for the O&G industry. Thomas Heege (EOMAP), Charlotte Bishop (NPA-Fugro) and Jerry Helfand (Exxon) chaired the 3 sessions.

Full details of the workshop and a report will shortly be available on the ESA web-site.

The OGEO working group met afterwards to assess the results of the workshop and to decide on follow-up actions. It was agreed to consolidate the activities with an agreement between the main parties; OGP, EARSC, and ESA. Given the welcome boost from association with the GRSG it was agreed that the chair of the GRSG should also participate to enable links with the geological research community. It was then agreed to continue to develop the OGEO-Portal as well as publicising the results of OGEO. An early action will be to consolidate all the standards available and used for EO products relevant to the O&G sector. A third workshop will be organised in 2012.

Thanks were expressed to ESA (Stephen Coulson and Ola Grabak as well as many others) for organising and hosting the event so successfully.

Workshop 2011 Presentations

September 2010 event.

GeoSUR, a Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) open access and web-based initiative for geospatial data-sharing, has received a boost at the Eye on Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi (12-15 December).

The conference “Networks of Networks” working group accepted GeoSUR – one of the first such regional networks in the developing world – as a “case model”. “This could help to use the lessons we learned as a starting point to build similar networks in other developing regions,” Eric Van Praag, coordinator of GeoSUR, told SciDev.Net.“We can help kickstart a network like this in other parts of the world and probably get some funding or support,” explained Van Praag.

Established in 2007 by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) — a multilateral financial institution that supports sustainable development and comprises 16 LAC countries, Spain and Portugal and 14 private regional banks — the initiative is the first portal to offer access to spatial information for all the countries of the region in one place. The information is generated by more than 60 participating LAC agencies from — ministries, research centres, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), geographical institutes and private companies — and includes regional base maps; infrastructure, land use, land cover and protected area maps; and aerial imagery.

Presenting its five-year report to the Abu Dhabi meeting, the initiative said that 80 per cent of institutions using GeoSUR searched and accessed data, and between 30 and 40 per cent consulted it to support government and institutional decision-making and to download data. Examples of uses for which the system had been used included locating suitable areas to build shelters in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, visualisation of Peru-Bolivia border maps to evaluate the feasibility of undertaking cross-border projects, assessment of the impact on infrastructure projects on protected areas and indigenous communities in Colombia, updating drainage network maps in Ecuador, and development of a flood and landslide hazard map in Venezuela.

“This is an evolving network, and we are putting more and more information into it,” said Van Praag.“GeoSUR is a public tool, so if you have your own GIS system and you want to do some analysis you can actually download it to your computer,” he said. “This could give scientists the chance to collaborate and hopefully build things from the information they download and give the result of their work back to GeoSUR so it can be shared with other users.”

Original article Published by: Science and Development Network

OrbView-3 satellite images collected around the world between 2003 and 2007 by Orbital Imaging Corporation (now GeoEye) at up to one-meter resolution can now be downloaded at no cost through USGS EarthExplorer.

“This is a significant addition to the USGS archive and a valuable resource for the global science community,” said Matthew Larsen, Associate Director, Climate and Land Use Change. “Free access through the USGS archive amplifies the utility of the data, making it feasible for many researchers to study large areas at this level of accuracy.” “Partnering with GeoEye brings forward an important commercial resource in response to the need for authoritative, information-rich data about the land surface of the planet,” said Bruce Quirk, USGS Land Remote Sensing Program manager.

The OrbView-3 dataset includes 180,000 scenes of one meter resolution panchromatic, black and white, and four meter resolution multi-spectral (color and infrared) data, providing high resolution data useful for a wide range of science applications.“The Land Cover Office of the Netherlands is already using this OrbView-3 data as a critical input to developing a global land cover data file,” Quirk continued. “In addition, the high resolution of this data permits validation of land cover categories produced by moderate resolution data.”

The initial data format available is GeoEye’s Basic Enhanced (L1B) product. However, processing to a systematically terrain corrected (L1Gst) product is also available on demand. Eventually, the entire data set will be processed to the L1Gst level.The OrbView-3 dataset joins over 170 separate collections of aerial photography and space-based data cataloged in the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive and available through USGS EarthExplorer.

Original article Published by: U.S. Geological Survey

The Ziyuan III satellite has sent back its first set of visual data days after the orbiter was successfully launched on Jan. 9 to produce high-resolution imagery for civilian use.

According to a statement released Thursday by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, the administration has made hi-res imagery based on analysis of the data and posted it on tianditu.cn, a map website made by the administration with independent intellectual property rights.

The visual data covered an area of 210,000 square kilometers that included the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, said the statement.

The image quality produced from this data is even higher than that achieved by overseas satellites with the same resolution, said the statement, adding that ongoing tests on the satellite might further improve its image quality.

The satellite is expected to compete with its foreign counterparts that currently dominate the country’s hi-res remote-sensing and mapping market.

According to the center, the satellite is tasked with offering services to aid the country’s land-resources surveys, natural-disaster prevention, agriculture development, water-resources management, and urban planning.

The orbiter was developed and produced by the China Academy of Space Technology, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) is maintaining its position that it will cancel the planned 2013 launching of a series of Earth observation satellites co-financed with the European Commission unless the commission commits to financing their operation beyond 2014, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Jan. 9.

At a press conference at ESA headquarters here and in a subsequent interview, Dordain said the agency has retained legal ownership of the Sentinel 1A, Sentinel 2A and Sentinel 3A satellites until they are in their operating orbits. As the sole owner, he said, ESA has no need to seek European Commission approval to leave the spacecraft on the ground.

The Sentinel satellites are part of Europe’s multibillion-dollar Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program, on which ESA and the Brussels-based commission of the 27-nation European Union (EU) have together spent some 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion).

ESA was charged with designing and launching the satellites, with the commission to take over the program, and finance its operations and future development. The commission has estimated that it will cost some 5.8 billion euros to maintain and operate GMES between 2014 and 2020.

That plan came unhinged in mid-2011 when the commission decided to remove GMES from the multiyear budget it is preparing for 2014 to 2020. In November, the commission proposed that the 27 European Union nations agree among themselves to fund GMES, with contributions based on each nation’s gross domestic product.

ESA and individual European Union governments, as well as prospective GMES users, have been sharply critical of this scenario. They say that by making GMES an intergovernmental program requiring a fresh set of agreements among nations, the program’s future has been cast into doubt.

ESA’s 19 member governments and the European Council, representing the EU’s 27 government members, reiterated these concerns in a Dec. 6 resolution.

GMES, the resolution says, is “under the responsibility and management of the European Commission.” The resolution also acknowledges that, unlike Europe’s Galileo navigation satellite system, no one as yet has assumed formal ownership of GMES. Galileo is owned by the European Union.

The resolution calls for ESA and the European Commission to “complete an assessment” of GMES ownership as soon as possible, and “urges the European Commission to take the necessary and timely actions to secure the continuity of the programme and reassure GMES users and stakeholders of its commitment to the GMES programme.”

The resolution came six weeks after ESA’s ruling council wrote the European Commission saying ESA could not finance GMES in the place of the commission.

“The decision on the launch of the first GMES Sentinel satellites is in 2012,” the letter, dated Oct. 27, says. “In the absence at that time of EU commitments for the availability of operational funding beyond mid-2014 we will instruct ESA not to launch the satellites.”

Seeking to lower the temperature of the debate, Dordain on Jan. 9 said the council letter should not be seen as a threat to the commission, but rather as a responsible use of expensive satellite assets.

“Launching … the Sentinels without there being a single euro devoted to their exploitation — frankly, it would be a crime,” Dordain said. “It’s not my place to make threats. But I do have to explain to the institutions responsible for GMES that it would be totally unreasonable to launch the satellites … only to switch them off because we don’t have the money to operate them. And it is true that, today, we don’t have the money to operate them.”

ESA has already contracted with the Arianespace launch consortium for a Soyuz launch for the first Sentinel satellite in 2013 and has the necessary funds to commit to this launch and to the launch of the other two “A” models of the Sentinel spacecraft, also planned for 2013.

Given that the European Commission’s preparations for its 2014 to 2020 budget are likely to stretch into 2013, the commission is unlikely to be able to commit to GMES financing in 2012. Dordain said that is OK.

ESA, he said, is not asking for a financial commitment in 2012, but for some kind of “guarantee that there will be someone to finance operations.”

“Where would my credibility be if I launch them and then wash my hands of the program — without knowing who the satellites belong to or who will operate them — and consider that I’ve done my job? No, a satellite costs a certain sum of money so that it will be operated. Not to turn them on in orbit would be even more problematic than to leave them on the ground. That’s our message.”

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by By Peter B. de Selding
Source Spacenews

Following Pléiades 1 successful launch, Astrium GEO-Information Service is gearing up to provide 50 cm products to its customers

Back to origins

It all began back in 2001. The decision about the setting up of the Pléiades programme is the result of an in-depth study about the evolution of user needs. A cooperation programme was initiated between France and Italy, taking advantage of all the CNES Earth observation skills, to develop ORFEO, a dual Earth observation system with veryhigh resolution capacity, in which Pléiades (France) is the optical component and Cosmo-Skymed (Italy) is the radar component.

The French Space Agency, CNES, took over the responsibility of project manager for the Pléiades programme. Astrium was appointed prime contractor for the satellite manufacturing, interacting with Thales Alenia Space, who designed the optical instrument. In an agreement signed in 2008, the CNES appointed Astrium GEO-Information Services (formerly known as Spot Image) as the civilian operator and the exclusive worldwide distributor of Pléiades data.

Astrium GEO-Information Services is already exclusive distributor of the SPOT family data, and currently operates SPOT 4 and SPOT 5. The images taken from the SPOT 5 optical satellite have the benefit of combining a wide swath (60 kilometres) with a spatial resolution of 2.5 metres. This characteristic has made SPOT 5’s mission a huge success, providing users and customers with an excellent trade-off between coverage and resolution, for a right balance between the levelof information obtained and the cost to the user.

However, the needs of commercial and military users have progressively widened. They now also require images with increased resolution. The twin Pléiades satellites tie into this vision, adding local detail to the synoptic picture from SPOT. The system will deliver colour imagery products with a resolution of 50 centimetres combined with a 20-kilometre swath, the widest in their class of optical sub-metric satellites.

On December 17, 2011 UTC, Soyuz successfully launched the Pléiades 1 satellite from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), marking a new success for ESA (European Space Agency), CNES (French Space Agency) and Arianespace, who jointly manage the CSG, after its first flight from the launch base on 21 October 2011. The launcher lifted off at 02:02:30 UTC and satellite separation occurred at 02:58 UTC over Perth, Australia. The satellite’s solar panels deployed 30 seconds later.

Only 3 days after the launch, Pléiades 1 returned its first images. The first image acquired by an Earth observation satellite is also the moment when, for the first time, the instruments on board and the ground segment are activated. The collection capability, which includes satellite tasking, image acquisition, data reception and pre–processing, is checked from end to end.

Athens, Greece (resampled at 1 m).Copyright: CNES 2012 © – Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image

Mid-January, the satellite reached its final orbit. The tasking function was activated bythe civilian operator, Astrium GEO-Information Services. Pléiades is now well positioned to start releasing the first products. The commissioning phase will last until early March, when all parameters and processing elements have been fine-tuned and tested to deliver reliably high-quality images.

Very-high resolution and reactivity

Pléiades 1 is the first of a two-satellite constellation. It will later be joined by Pléiades 2 (around twelve months after the first), operating on the same orbit but phased 180° from its twin. Added to their oblique viewing capability and exceptional agility, this orbit phasing allows the satellites to revisit any point on the globe daily—ideal for anticipating risks and managing crises effectively.

The Pléiades satellites’ gyros enable them to tilt very quickly along and across track to image different areas of interest. Each satellite will be able to collect imagery anywhere within an 800-km-wide ground strip, covering 200 kilometres in 11 seconds or 800 kilometres in 25 seconds, including stabilization time. That kind of performance results in a reduced average acquisition window for the users, allowing more images to be collected during the same pass: collection opportunities are more numerous, conflicts between contiguous requests are minimized.

The agility will also make it possible to image multiple targets (typically 15 targets over 1,000 km within a corridor of +/-30 degrees), collect large mosaics in a single pass (up to 100 × 100 km in the same pass), conduct stereo and tri-stereo viewing for accurate 3D applications, and support coastal, border or corridor surveillance to closely match any user’s needs.

The ground operations component is also organized with maximum responsiveness in mind. Work plans are uploaded to the satellite three times a day by three stations around the globe, making it possible to task requests up to two hours before satellite pass. This reduces the lead time between tasking requests and image acquisition to a minimum. Customers with receiving stations configured for direct tasking will be able to refine tasking plans at the last moment (30 minutes prior to satellite arrival above the cone) according to the latest weather forecasts or emergency requests.

Dubai, UAE (resampled at 5 m).Copyright: CNES 2012 © – Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image

A lot of work has gone into designing image production systems. The fully automatic orthorectification process is capable of generating a 20 km x 20 km colour image in less than 30 minutes and a single-pass mosaic of 60 km x 60 km in two to three hours.
On the user side, everything from ordering through to data delivery has been made as flexible and easy as possible. New acquisitions, catalogue data, subscription offers, online monitoring services and more mean that imagery is just a click away, ready to use.

Next steps

The first of a new generation of satellites operated by Astrium Services, Pléiades 1 will be followed between 2012 and 2014 by SPOT 6, its twin Pléiades 2 and finally SPOT 7. As the end of SPOT 5 is now scheduled for mid-2015, the question was raised about how to continue delivering the service SPOT 5’s users have come to expect. This was the brief underpinning the design of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7. An in-depth market survey and careful canvassing to ascertain users’ expectations were conducted. Conclusions led to keep the best features of SPOT 5, retaining a 60-kilometre swath, while improving agility and product resolution (1.5 meters).

Astrium Services CEO Eric Beranger officially announced funding for the SPOT 6 & 7 programme in June 2009. This is the first time in the remote-sensing industry that a satellite has been built with entirely private funds, proving Astrium GEO-Information Services’ confidence in this market.

The two satellites are currently under development: the SPOT 6 optical instrument is now coupled with the satellite platform. After a phase of mechanical and environmental testing, SPOT 6 launch is scheduled for September 2012. SPOT 7integration has also started and will be ready for a launch in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Built around a similar architecture and phased on the same orbit, this constellation of 4 satellites, composed of Pléiades 1, Pléiades 2, SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will ensure even better responsiveness and availability of 50-centimetre-to-1.5-metre products through to 2023. 

Casablanca, Morocco (full resolution). Copyright: CNES 2012 © – Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image

More information at
Charlotte GABRIEL-ROBEZ
VHR product manager
GEO-Information Services
Astrium Services
5 rue des Satellites, BP 14359
F-31030 Toulouse Cedex 4 – France
Tel: +33 (0)5 62 19 40 40
www.astrium-geo.com

January 2012

GeoEye and ScanEx to Provide High-resolution Satellite Data for Russia’s Countrywide Cadastral Project

December 2011

Results of the 5th International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”

RS technologies for agriculture and agro-insurance: “Earth from Space…” issue #9 materials in free access

Pleiades 1 satellite launched. EADS-Astrium consortium will be another submeter resolution images supplier

“Earth from Space” association entitled to organize the next 6th International EFS Conference

Tropical Intact Forest Landscapes on Earth Occupy Less Than 4 mln sq. km.

The DMC Disaster Monitoring Constellation Augmentation

Application of space imagery data for investigation of economic activity consequences in the basin of the transboundary Argun River

Source

Rapideye contracted to cover China third year running. Rapideye overing Lithuania in Multi-Year contract

RAPIDEYE CONTRACTED TO COVER CHINA THIRD YEAR RUNNING

Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, December 7, 2011 – RapidEye, a leader in wide area, repetitive coverage of Earth through its constellation of satellites announced today that it has signed a contract with China’s Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) to cover almost five million square kilometers of China over the next few months. This is the third consecutive year that RapidEye was a successful bidder to cover China for the MLR.

“With its five satellites and the strongest satellite imagery collection capability to our markets, the RapidEye system performs extremely well when serving clients such as MLR,” commented Mr. Bing Sun, CEO of Beijing Eastdawn Information Technology Co. Ltd.(EDIT). “We strongly believe our partnership with RapidEye brings the best satellite technology available as well as service know-how to the Chinese market.”

“There was a tremendous amount of preparation by our Chinese distributor, EDIT to position us. The competition is getting more severe, but EDIT represented us well,” commented John Ahlrichs, Vice President of International Sales for RapidEye. “Of course, the sales process was made easier because we have proven to the MLR twice before that we are reliable and can deliver high quality data over wide areas on time or ahead of schedule.”

The agreement between RapidEye and the MLR would require a delivery of nearly five million square kilometers of China (more than 50% of the country) with less than 10% cloud cover. Some key areas that will prove a challenge are the traditionally cloudy areas of Tibet and the Southeastern provinces.

“With an order such as this, there’s really no better system than ours to deal with historically cloudy areas,” commented Massimiliano Vitale, RapidEye’s Chief Operating Officer. “We will never get the areas cloud free, but our system will have a better chance because of our quick return capabilities.” In anticipation of the order, RapidEye began imaging the area of interest (AOI) in early August. Currently the imaging campaign is scheduled for completion in later this month, earlier than in previous years.

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RAPIDEYE COVERS LITHUANIA IN MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT

5 Satellites Shine When Given Challenge of Cloudy Regions
Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, November 17, 2011 – RapidEye, a leader in wide area, repetitive coverage of Earth through its constellation of satellites announced today that a second full coverage of Lithuania has been delivered and accepted by the Institute of Aerial Geodesy (AGI) in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This fulfills two-thirds of a multi-year, full coverage contract that was negotiated last year.

“Since Lithuania is above 54 degrees north and experiences quite wet summers, it’s a cloudy region,” commented RapidEye’s Market Manager, Clemens Stromeyer. “This is a situation where our system really shines. It can repeatedly return to an area, which allows for a combination of images to be used for generating full country coverages with very little or no cloud cover during the vegetation season. This is of great benefit to our customers.”

The Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture plans to use RapidEye’s satellite images for monitoring agricultural land use and particularly for detection of abandoned agricultural land.

“Pan-sharpening of RapidEye’s multi-spectral five meter satellite imagery in combination with half meter aerial photography will enable detection of even smallest land cover changes,” commented Gintaras Rumšas, Technical Director of AGI. “This will be an important source of information for institutions responsible for implementation of strict EU requirements related to agricultural subsidies. Lithuanian authorities will implement targeted policy measures towards reduction of abandoned lands by flexible tax-compensation policy, so it is crucial to obtain regular updates on land use changes across the whole country.”

Environmental monitoring by the Environmental Protection Agency and maintenance of nature protection areas network will be yet another priority area for the use of high resolution satellite imagery.

AGI currently takes part in a ICT-PSP project “HLanData”, which – among other activities – is focusing on the development of practical solutions for implementation of an integrated land monitoring system in a trans-boundary pilot area of Latvia and Lithuania.

“Based on experience of the ongoing FP7 project ‘Geoland 2’, we are developing specifications and methodologies for production of a high resolution land cover database along with an interactive on-line analysis and reporting service, which will be presented as a prototype of land monitoring service to public authorities of both countries,” noted Dr. Gediminas Vaitkus, Head of AGI Applied Research Center. “RapidEye imagery will be used as the major source of information in this project, with a potential of becoming key element for a long-term land monitoring program in eastern Baltic.”

The third and final coverage of Lithuania to complete the contract is scheduled for delivery to AGI by this time next year.

To view the full archive of RapidEye imagery, visit EyeFind and discover how many square kilometers of fresh data from around the globe are available from Lithuania or any other country! Enter your parameters and immediately find what you need. http://www.rapideye.de/products/eyefind.htm

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