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Over 150 entrepreneurs and policy-makers gathered at this successful conference to learn more about the concrete benefits of using satellite information and services to inform decisions and manage businesses, and the positive impact they have on SMEs’ growth and competitiveness.

Pioneering SMEs in the use of satellite-derived information and satellite applications in their business activities shared their feedback on the economic challenges they faced in agriculture, construction, renewable energy production, manufacturing and tourism and how innovative solutions enabled them to make their business processes more efficient, to take better informed management decisions or to tap into new markets.

The conference provided SMEs with leads on where to find appropriate support mechanisms to accompany them in the implementation of innovative technologies, through access to public funds, the benchmarking of innovation management strategies or closer cooperation between entrepreneurs, universities and research centres.

SMEs and their representatives were very interested in learning about the successful business cases behind the good practices presented by entrepreneurs, while policy makers and representatives of the space community learned about SMEs’ needs as end-users and potential avenues for better targeted support. All participants agreed that more awareness raising about the benefits of satellite information and services for SMEs is needed.

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Notice of call for expressions of interest concerning technical assistance in evaluating, monitoring and validating GMES projects and services.

GMES gradually moves towards operations. This materialises through the launch an increasing number of projects by DG Enterprise and Industry on this theme. The concerned projects will provide, using earth observation data processed at different stages, value-added services and products in the all GMES areas. The purpose of this call is to establish a reserve list of experts whose role is to assist the Commission Services in the evaluation and monitoring of projects in the frame of the GMES initiative, and/or the assessment/validation of products/services offered by those projects. The list of experts will be valid for 3 years from the date of publication of this notice. Any interested candidate may submit an application at any time up to 3 months before the end of its period of validity.

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Health, Safety and Environment – Industries across the globe are needing to place a larger focus on the health, safety and environmental impacts of their operations because of increasing accountability. Greater sensors and system integration provide the means to understand operations in a whole new light, and these same sensored systems are also responsible for closer scrutiny of the detrimental impacts of operations as usual. We can expect to see the proliferation of localized sensored systems for individual vertical market applications in the years to come. The need for ongoing calibration and tuning of these systems will make the delivery of systems as services a promising business opportunity with ongoing revenue streams for enterprising integrators.

Personalized Navigation Continues – the number of applications that combine location with social media and web preferences to deliver personalized navigation will continue. We saw this trend most clearly with Google’s purchase of Clever Sense, but interest in this area is increasing with such developments as Facebook’s purchase of site check-in site Gowalla. Discovering places you love, and that are the world’s most loved, is the aim of these applications. The increasing socialization of place portends a future of concentrated development and more highly considered place making.

Emphasis on Efficiency – Given the global economic struggles in much of the world, there will be an ongoing emphasis on technologies that improve efficiency and reduce costs. Geospatial technology is well poised to aid in efficiency efforts, and will continued to be relied upon. With that said, individual geospatial workers will be called upon to do increasingly more with less as hiring freezes mean that fewer workers will be supported to do this work. With this trend in place, a greater reliance on contractors and service companies can be expected.

Open Source Increase – With one of the largest geospatial technology investors in the world, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, indicating an interest in moving toward open source geospatial tools, we can expect a great deal of activity in open source software development for geospatial applications. The increased investment in this area may be at the detriment of traditional geospatial vendors and contractors, but will reward those that can adapt skills and toolsets toward a more open and interoperable platform. This concentrated R&D effort in this area will push along innovation that may be capitalized for platform enhancements as well as targeted industry solutions.

Landscape-Level Modeling – The ongoing convergence of BIM, GIS and CAD takes on many forms, from city-scale planning packages to all new large-scale and interactive visualization environments. While these trends have been ongoing for some time, new pressures on planning and development for more livable and efficient urban areas mean that greater emphasis will be placed on integrating technologies in the year to come. This trend is best illustrated with the awarding of the TED 2012 prize to the concept of Cities 2.0. The role of cities to drive down impacts, and the increasing understanding that technology plays a big role in our understanding of a complex cities interactions, provides an excellent opportunity for greater technology integration.

Keep An Eye On Trimble – This company has acquired many other companies in recent years. It is the most integrated company in the entire spatial industry – offering high quality surveying instruments, remote sensing software (Definiens), building construction (Tekla), fleet and mobility technology etc. This company has the ability and agility to tackle global spatial data solutions from all angles. Ready for investment and ready for the future.

European INSPIRE Debates – Mounting budget deficits in Member countries and discord between Members will push INSPIRE from the sunlight into the shade. How can a trans-boundary project operate effectively if the foundation of the union is not certain? This will similarly impact the GALILEO satellite system, which will require more funding as time passes, and resulting in more debates in 2012.

3D – A continued shift to 3D is underway. Several companies are involved in 3D ranging from data creation to 3D visualization and simulation – including our new Vector1 Media publication (www.3dvisworld.com). We can expect 3D viewing technologies to drop in price and new options and business models for purchasing lidar, radar and other 3D data products for them. The world’s first city requiring 3D data for utilities will emerge – followed by others. 3D GIS will be discussed and applied more widely in 2012.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Everywhere – The last INTERGEO conference saw no less than 10 models of these flying machines. Now the software for them is being enhanced and improved, thereby paving the way for specialized services based on these platforms. At the same time, discussions about safety and privacy for these devices will rise.

Geospatial Health CareGIS and location intelligence tools can already be found in the health care sector. A growing older population globally aligned with tight budgets will put pressure on health care – the largest cost item in most places. Increasingly, geospatial tools will be applied to reduce costs, increase effectiveness and to streamline health care processes. Many of these will be simple, but focused on interoperability and adding location to processes. The market here is potentially the largest of all geospatial sectors.

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China will launch its first-ever high-resolution geological mapping satellite for civil purposes next January, according to official sources.

The Ziyuan III satellite will be launched aboard a Long March 4B carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China’s Shanxi province, according to a conference held on Monday for the directors of surveying, mapping and geoinformation administrations across the nation.

The Ziyuan III’s surveying covers the entire area between 84 degrees north latitude and 84 degrees south latitude.

The satellite will be used to conduct geological mapping, carry out surveys on land resources, help with natural disaster-reduction and prevention, and lend assistance to farming, water conservation, urban planning and other sectors.

The Ziyuan III satellite project was inaugurated on March 2008, and also includes gravity satellites, radar satellites and follow-up satellites for the Ziyuan III, so as to obtain geoinformation under all kinds of meteorological conditions.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

A little water is needed to make wine, but how do you know when enough is enough? ESA’s GrapeLook service can give you the answer.


GrapeLook uses satellites to help decide how much to water vineyards, and when. The service uses technology that combines Earth observation data and field measurements. Moisture readings are sent in real time to a processing centre via a satellite link. To use the water most efficiently, growers need information on crop production and water consumption. GrapeLook uses satellite remote sensing to monitor how much water is released from the plants, how much biomass is grown and how efficiently the water is being used overall.

Once the information is processed, the maps are put online for the grape growers and water managers through a Google Maps-based website.

GrapeLook was tested this year with selected grape growers in South Africa. The growers connected regularly to the website to check the status of their vineyards.

The group also received forecasts on soil moisture and irrigation requirements for their farms.

Participants agreed that GrapeLook was useful for monitoring water stress, crop growth and identifying irrigation problems. It helped to identify more efficient practices and would help in reducing labor and other costs.

The system should increase the amount of grapes being harvested while raising the quality of the wine – all the while using less water.

“The trial period of this project showed that the farmers and water authorities were supportive of such a service,” explains Olivier Becu, ESA technical officer.

“While it may take a few years to strengthen trust and awareness with these user communities, the South African authorities are willing to support a freely available GrapeLook service for another season.”

Annemarie Klaasse, land and water use specialist at WaterWatch, explains: “The GrapeLook service shows how satellite technology benefits farmers.

“It not only helps farmers to reduce water usage, it also increases sustainability and production. Next steps are to expand the service to other crops and areas.”

The service was developed by WaterWatch (NL), supported by ESA’s Integrated Applications Programme and co-funded by the Department of Agriculture of Western Cape in South Africa, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and with support of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Dutch Embassy.

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Grapelook
Grapelook user page

For further details and information on abstract submission and registration please visit Earsel

Aims and scope

After the overview provided by the Rome meeting in 2008, the Gent workshop will be focused on strategical issues which involve not only the knowledge improvement but also the contribution of Remote Sensing for a sustainable management of cultural resources not only in Europe but also and mainly in emerging and developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The cultural and practical interconnections between Environment, Culture and Territory are the framework of the third EARSeL Workshop in Gent. The scientific committee selected some priority themes related to:

  • fields of application such as the use of Remote Sensing for risk management and cultural and natural heritage, interconnection between environmental, climatic changes and dynamics of human frequentation, the aware fruition of material and immaterial witnesses of ancient civilizations;
  • methodologies such as development of ad hoc semiautomatic and automatic approach for extracting cultural information, integration and fusion of passive and active remotely sensed data, remote sensing and geospatial analysis for preventive archaeology, palaeoenvironmental investigation and risk management; and
  • cooperation strategies for the creation of a permanent platform for data and knowledge sharing.

Topics for the conference include but are not limited to:

  • From aerial photo to declassified satellite images: the study of landscape over time by means of historical data source
  • From visual data interpretation to semiautomatic and automatic procedures in an archaeological perspective
  • Remote Sensing, GIS and Geospatial analysis for the risk monitoring and management of cultural resources
  • Integration of space/air borne and ground remote sensing in Archaeogeophysics
  • The “LiDAR revolution” for site discovery and the reconstruction of historical landscapes
  • SAR and high resolution optical satellite imagery for palaeoenvironmental applications
  • Interactions between Environment and Human civilizations in the past: which approach by using Remote Sensing?
  • Geographic Information and Earth observation technologies for the protection and management of cultural resources in emerging countries of Asia and Latin America
  • Tools and ideas for creating a platform to share knowledge and data.

Methodological keywords

Cellular automata spatial modelling; change detection; classification; data fusion; data integration; data mining; edge detection; geomatics; geostatistics; geovisual analytics; image interpretation; image processing; linear and non linear statistical analysis; pansharpening; pattern recognition; segmentation; site catchment analysis ; space-temporal modelling; spatial autocorrelation; spatial extension of fuzzy set; spatial multicriteria decision analysis; spatial statistical models; viewshed analysis; visual exploratory data analysis.

Technologies and data sources

Airborne and spaceborne hypespectral data; LiDAR; multispectral very high and high resolution optical satellite imagery; open data source (Modis, Vegetation, etc..); SAR; thermal imaging; declassified intelligence satellite photographs.

Both papers and posters are welcomed to be presented at the workshop.

-Submission of abstracts: Feb 15, 2012
-Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2012
-Definitive Programme: May 1, 2012
-Early Registration deadline: June 1, 2012

(December 2011) The European Commission is to make public data available, irrespective of whether it is for commercial or non-commercial use, and it is calling national governments to follow this example. The term ‘public data’ covers all the information that public bodies in the European Union produce, collect or pay for. This could include geographical data, statistics, meteorological data, data from publicly funded research projects, and digitised books from libraries.

‘Open’ public data can be readily and easily consulted and re-used by anyone with access to a computer. In the European Commission’s view ‘readily accessible’ means much more than the mere absence of a restriction of access to the public. Access and re-use of data can be made difficult by public authorities – often unintentionally – because of a number of barriers like a lack of information that certain data actually exists and is available; a lack of clarity of which public authority holds the data; a lack of clarity about the terms of re-use; data which is made available only in formats that are difficult or expensive to use; complicated licensing procedures or prohibitive fees; exclusive re-use agreements with one commercial actor or re-use restricted to a government-owned company. Barriers such as these mean that public data cannot be called truly open data.

Data can be integrated into new products and services, which we use on a daily basis, such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts or other useful “apps” on smart phones. Opportunities for re-use have multiplied in recent years as technological developments have spurred advances in data production as well as data analysis, processing and exploitation.

Public sector bodies which have drastically cut their charges for re-use have seen the number of re-users increase by between 1,000% and 10,000%. For instance, in the case of Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority (DECA) the number of re-users went up by 10,000% leading to a re-use market growth of 1,000% over eight years. The additional tax revenue for the government is estimated to be four times the reduction in income from fees.

The lowering of charges brings in new types of users, particularly SMEs. For example SIRCOM (the Communication Service of the French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industry) has been collecting data on fuel prices in France regularly. It introduced a pricing and licensing model for re-use of this data in 2009 (re-use was unregulated before). NAVX, a venture capital company active in the field of location-based services, acquired a licence for commercial re-use right from the very start.

NAVX enriches public data in three ways as it filters out double entries and fuel stations that have gone bankrupt, it adds data for the fuel stations that are exempt from public reporting obligations, and it improves the precision of the geo-localisation. The enriched data is then used for the company’s own GPS and smart phone applications and sold to NAVX’s sub-licensees. NAVX focuses on both the B2C business of selling its applications directly to end-users and on the B2B2C business of providing its enriched location-based content to GPS manufacturers, geo-information companies and mobile operators. Building on its strong home market in France, NAVX has been able to expand further to cover at least eight different European countries.

The market size and growth of the geographic information sector shows the potential of public data as an engine for job creation. The German market for geo-information in 2007 was estimated at EUR1.4 billion, a 50 % increase since 20001. In the Netherlands, the geo-sector accounted for 15,000 full-time employees in 2008. Other areas such as meteorological data, legal information and business information also form the basis of steadily growing markets.

A recent study estimates the total market for public sector information in 2008 at EUR28 billion across the EU. The same study indicates that the overall economic gains from further opening up public sector information by allowing easy access are in the order of EUR40 billion a year for the EU27. However, the total direct and indirect economic gains from easier PSI re-use across the whole EU27 economy would be in the order of EUR140 billion annually.

The EU policy considers information prepared as part of a public sector organisations’ public task has been gathered at the taxpayers’ expense and for their ultimate benefit. As such, it is a public good and the taxpayer has a right to access and re-use that information.

However, it is also reasonable sometimes to expect the re-user, not the taxpayer, to cover the costs of making the information available for re-use. In some special cases some of the costs of gathering that information may therefore be recovered.

The revised Directive is likely to come into effect in 2013. Member States will then have eighteen months to implement it into their national legislation. There is, however, nothing to prevent any public body adopting before this date the types of improvements to access and use which the Directive introduces. Those Member States that have already adopted more open policies on this issue are already benefitting from the growth of new services in this area.

A number of countries, regions and municipalities have already created portal websites on accessible data. These include http://opendata.paris.fr.; www.dati.piemonte.it; www.data.gov.uk, www.data.gouv.fr; www.data.overheid.nl.

In 2012, the Commission will set up an Internet portal for its own data. It proposes that other EU institutions, bodies and agencies make their information accessible through this portal, making it the single access point to EU information.

In 2013, the Commission will establish a pan-European portal, bringing together data from different Member States as well as from the European institutions.

The Commission funds research and will use different instruments to test and promote the development of innovative solutions, and to ensure the widest possible uptake of open data.

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The remote-sensing applications supported provide useful information to the European Commission, to interested Member States, to research institutes and to other users, through the dissemination of different products.

Since its creation, the system has been continuously improved. Additionally to the primary objective of producing yield and harvest forecasts, the system also provides useful insights into other fields relevant to EU agriculture such as climate change. This second interim report is drawn up in view of a continuation of these measures within the framework of the CAP beyond 31 December 2013. The report elaborates on a possible scenario for continuation of the existing MARS Crop Yield Forecasting System for the EU and of an extension to a wider global coverage with the objectives of further improving yield forecasts for the EU and of contributing to the international initiatives launched by G20 agricultural ministers.

CAP- Implementation remote sensing applications.pdf

HOUSTON — The U.S. is preparing to launch a developmental spacecraft designed to preview a long-delayed network of satellites for weather forecasting, storm tracking and climate-change studies.

The satellite was developed as a pathfinder for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) program, an effort to marry civil and military weather satellite requirements into a single system. After years of delay and ballooning cost estimates, that program was scrapped in 2010 and split once again into separate civil and military efforts, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force.

Launch of the $1.5 billion Npoess Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on board a Delta II rocket is scheduled for Oct. 27 at 2:48 a.m. PDT (5:48 a.m. EDT). The current schedule represents a two-day slip in the original launch campaign to address a small hydraulic system leak and a damaged flexible exhaust system collar.

NPP carries five Earth-observing instruments, each destined for operational assignments crucial to the future of NOAA’s rechristened Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) network, into a Sun-synchronous orbit with a 512-mi. altitude. The spacecraft’s life is estimated at five years, although Ken Schwer, NPP project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, warns that the operational lives of the developmental instruments may vary from that figure.

Though intended to provide the advanced sensor suite with a trial period, NPP is also expected to serve as a single-platform bridge between NASA’s aging Earth Observing System spacecraft Terra, Aqua and Aura — launched, respectively in 1999, 2002 and 2004 — and the JPSS for continuous profiles of the atmosphere, clouds, oceans, ice cover and vegetation. Initial NPP instrument calibration could take as long as six months.

“The timing of this NPP launch could hardly be more appropriate,” said Louis Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, during an Oct. 12 NASA news briefing. In the U.S. alone, this year has already been marked by 10 major weather events that have produced at least $1 billion in damage each, he notes.

“With NPP we expect to improve and extend our forecast skills out to five to seven days in advance for hurricanes and other extreme weather events,” Uccellini says. “We expect the advanced instruments on NPP to become a foundation for the global observing system that will be absolutely essential for NOAA’s prediction models.”

NPP observations will also improve NOAA’s ability to track ash plumes from volcanic eruptions to enhance aviation safety; monitor the potential for drought and wild fires; measure variations in arctic sea ice; and detect harmful algae blooms and other hazards to fisheries and fragile ocean/sea coast systems, Uccellini says.

The 2010 restructuring preserved the Air Force, NOAA and NASA partnership, especially in shared ground systems, but split procurement responsibilities between the JPSS and the Air Force’s Defense Weather Satellite System.

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(12 October 2011) NASA is planning an Oct. 27 launch of the first Earth-observing satellite to measure both global climate changes and key weather variables.

The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) is the first mission designed to collect critical data to improve weather forecasts in the short-term and increase our understanding of long-term climate change. NPP continues observations of Earth from space that NASA has pioneered for more than 40 years.

NPP’s five science instruments, including four new state-of-the-art sensors, will provide scientists with data to extend more than 30 key long-term datasets. These records, which range from the ozone layer and land cover to atmospheric temperatures and ice cover, are critical for global change science.

NPP’s observations of a wide range of interconnected Earth properties and processes will give us the big picture of how our planet changes,” said Jim Gleason, NPP project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “That will help us improve our computer models that predict future environmental conditions. Better predictions will let us make better decisions, whether it is as simple as taking an umbrella to work today or as complex as responding to a changing climate.”

NPP serves as a bridge between NASA’s Earth Observing System of satellites and the planned Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which will collect climate and weather data. JPSS will be developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA meteorologists will incorporate NPP data into their weather prediction models to produce forecasts and warnings that will help emergency responders anticipate, monitor and react to many types of natural disasters.

“The timing of the NPP launch could hardly be more appropriate,” said Louis W. Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Camp Springs, Md. “With the many billion dollar weather disasters in 2011, NPP data is critical for accurate weather forecasts into the future.”

A Delta II rocket will carry NPP into an orbit 512 miles above Earth’s surface. Roughly the size of a mini-van, the spacecraft will orbit Earth’s poles about 14 times a day. It will transmit data once each orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and to direct broadcast receivers around the world.

NPP is set to launch from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Oct. 27. The launch window extends from 5:48 a.m. to 5:57 a.m. EDT. The launch recently was delayed two days due to the repair of the Delta II’s hydraulic system. The NPP spacecraft is scheduled to be transported to the launch pad for attachment to the Delta II on Oct. 12.

NPP’s Delta II launch vehicle also will carry several auxiliary payloads into orbit, which together comprise NASA’s third Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNa, mission. This mission will put five small research payloads, or CubeSats, into orbit: two for the University of Michigan; and one each for Auburn University, Montana State University and Utah State University.

Goddard manages the NPP mission for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The JPSS program is providing the ground system for NPP. NOAA will provide operational support for the mission. Launch management is the responsibility of the NASA Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

(source: NASA)