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On 1 March 2011, the spatial technology company “GGP Systems” announced that users of the latest release of its desktop Geographical Information System (GIS) will be amongst the first in the UK to comply with the Directive 2007/2/EC establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). This directive is part of a suite of European directives with the aim of standardising and ensuring access to public data related to the environment across Europe.

The latest release of GGP GIS will allow users to submit information about their spatial data holdings to a catalogue accessible to the public. The data catalogue, GeoNetwork Opensource, harnesses the power of the Internet to enable access to geo-referenced databases, cartographic products and related metadata from a variety of sources.

More information can be found at:http://www.earsc.eu/news/ggp-s-inspire-gis-improves-access-to-public-sector-information

(Source GMES.Info)

On 25 February 2011 and following the approval of Belgium, all Member States of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) committed to the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme.

MTG consists of six satellites operating from geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. The collection of weather and climate data for Europe by Meteosat satellites began in 1977 and thanks to this programme it will still assure geostationary observations during the next 30 years. MTG will also bring significant improvements compared to the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), which will start being replaced in 2018. Key applications will include timelier forecasting of severe thunderstorms, improved monitoring of aerosols and volcanic dust clouds, as well as air quality monitoring.

More information can be found at: http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/Press_Releases/804158

Source GMES.Info

On 3 February 2011, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) of the European Parliament (EP) published a report on “An Industrial Policy for the Globalised Era”.

Among others, the EP takes the view that EU industrial policy should be based on practical projects which bring tangible benefits to European businesses and citizens, such as the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), Galileo and ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) projects.

More information is available at

Source GMES.Info

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2011) The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) have agreed to formally explore trengthening their cooperation in areas of common interest.

A letter of intent signed by Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator, and Dominique Ristori, JRC Director-General, expresses the organisations’ interest to further explore and propose cooperative activities in the following fields:

  • Earth Observation Data Collection, Quality Control and Sharing
  • Environmental contaminants and effects in the marine environment
  • Promoting coastal activities within the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)
  • Defining downstream services on marine and coastal issues for public administration and policy support
  • Development of a common global/regional modelling and analysis tool for coastal hazards and extreme events
  • Space weather, disaster monitoring, and crisis management
  • Climate change, climate services and climate change monitoring, within GEO
  • Atmospheric and air quality monitoring such as for volcanic ash events and the applications of atmospheric dispersion modelling techniques.

A NOAA/JRC coordination group will be established to follow up these cooperation proposals. It will build on the longstanding relations between the two entities, which have been working together for over 20 years in the field of Earth observation, including topics such as ocean colour, hydrology, sensor calibration and validation, involvement in the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, and in the Group of Earth Observation.

NOAA & JRC mission and vision

NOAA’s vision of the future is: healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies that are resilient in the face of change. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts; to share that knowledge and information with others; and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

The JRC’s vision is to be a trusted provider of science-based policy options to EU policy makers to address key challenges facing our society, underpinned by internationally-recognized research. Its mission is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, and implementation and monitoring of European Union policies.

Links

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre

Copyright 2011 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved
2011-02-18.
SOURCE European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)
Source

TRE, analysis to extract ground displacement over the area affected by the Japanese earthquake

Thanks to data available from the GEO Geohazards Supersite initiative (http://supersites.earthobservations.org/sendai.php), TRE has been able to perform an analysis to extract ground displacement over the area affected by the Japanese earthquake occurring on 11th March 2011. Using ENVISAT S6 data, descending track 347, a co-seismic interferogram was produced using two radar satellite images from 16th February and 21th March. The processed area is approximately 650×75 sqkm. Each visible fringe (a complete colour cycle ranging from red, through the colour spectrum, back to red again) refers to ground movement on the order of 2.8cm in the satellite line of sight (LOS).

The figure below shows our co-seismic interferogram:

Background image © Google Earth

Download the .kmz image file from Google Earth

Source TRE

Spacemetric is showcasing its capabilities in airborne video and other geospatial imagery management at the European Day for Border Guards in Warsaw on 25th May 2011.

The ED4BG conference and exhibition is organised by Frontex, the EU border security agency and collects solution providers and representatives from police, border and coast guards throughout the EU in a forum for discussion and exchange of best practices.

Source

March 11, 2011 at 5:46 (UTC) an earthquake of magnitude 8.9 hit Japan, occuring at a hundred kilometers off Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Honshu, the main island of the archipelago. The area is hit again one hour later by a tsunami that devastates everything in its path. The assessment is very heavy amounting to thousands of death and heavy damage, with a nuclear threat due to an explosion at the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

SERTIT

SPOT 4/5 and FORMOSAT-2 imagery tasking initiated [2011-03-31]

Space data for ice channeling in White Sea [2011-03-31]

European Space Agency reps familiarized themselves with Russian imaging technologies [2011-03-31]

Free workshops of world leading Operators to take place in MIIGAiK [2011-03-29]

Activities to deploy MSU’s geoportal: Geography Department meeting [2011-03-28]

Effective approach towards operational satellite-based monitoring [2011-03-24]

Mapping, navigation, information systems: new “Earth from Space” magazine’s issue articles available [2011-03-22]

Second Unit of Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant: smoke column detected on March 18 satellite images [2011-03-18]

Perspectives of using micro-satellites for emergencies monitoring and response: London conference summary [2011-03-14]

Earthquake in Japan: detailed satellite images received [2011-03-12]

Urals Federal University can now handle satellite data in real-time [2011-03-11]

New on-line service – satellite-based control of maritime environment [2011-03-04]


ReSAC participation in the HELM project, 7 FP Research programme, EU

On 16 and 17 of March 2011, in Baden, Austria was held kick-off meeting of partners in general consortium, one of which is the Remote Sensing Application Center – ReSAC, of the project financed by the 7-th Framework Program

HELM: Harmonised European Land Monitoring

HELM is a Coordination Action which has responded to the call FP7-Space 2010.1.1-06, Coordination of national activities for land monitoring in the frame of the program for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security – GMES

HELM has started in January 2011. The project website www.FP7HELM.eu will be online soon.

HELM is a network of authorities concerned with land monitoring across Europe. It will initiate a move to increase the maturity of European land monitoring along five sequential steps:

  • Mutual interest in achieving reciprocal knowledge.
  • Shared visions and planning for the future.
  • Joint activities by taking on tasks collectively.
  • Alignment of national systems involving the mutual adaptation of data interpretation methods and of the timing of data gathering.
  • Lasting integration and combining data across all administrative levels.

COSMOS Matchmaking Event, Sofia, Bulgaria, 18th of March 2011

ReSAC – partner in the organization of the COSMOS Matchmaking Event, Sofia, Bulgaria, 18th of March 2011

On 18th of March 2011 the National FP7 Space Contact Points network COSMOS is offering a matchmaking event related with the upcoming 5th Space call of FP7. The event is organized in the frame of the 2nd Earth Observation-GMES Operational Capacity Workshop and is supported by the Bulgarian Information Office for GMES (BIOG).

The main objective of the matchmaking event is to create an opportunity for R&D institutes, universities, SMEs, industry and other organizations working in the field of Space: GMES Service and Space Component. Interested organizations can present proposal ideas, their competencies or their field of work via posters and oral presentations. This aims at identifying common interest with other players and thus finally at submitting joint proposals under the next FP7 Space call.

All the presentations and posters will be published on the Bulgarian Information Office for GMES (BIOG) website as well as on the NCP network COSMOS website after approval by the authors.

We are looking forward to welcome you in the COSMOS Matchmaking Event – Bulgaria 2011.

The agenda of the event can be found HERE, and you can register for the event HERE

For more information, please contact Vassil Vassilev (FP7 NCP Space – Bulgaria):
vassil.vassilev@resac-bg.org

ERDAS will co-host a series of 11 World Tour events with distributor Planetek Italia in March and April.

The Italian branch of the tour will kick off on March 29 in Rome at the Star Hotel Metropole, and will include stops in Palermo, Milan, Venice, Cagliari and Bari. The tour will conclude on April 19 in Ancona.

During the events, ERDAS will share its unique “sensor to the internet” comprehensive workflow. This revolutionary enterprise approach has resulted in a cohesive product lineup that can handle the entire geospatial workflow from beginning to end with seamless transition between steps – authoring data sets from raw data, managing extensive volumes of data, connecting users, and rapidly delivering information to other users and organizations.

ERDAS and Planetek Italia will showcase the enhancements in ERDAS® 2011 that increase productivity, such as the ability to localize ERDAS products for a global audience, integrated support for Microsoft Bing™ Maps base imagery and map data, distributed processing throughout the desktop offerings, and a new product, ERDAS Engine.

For a more detailed list of ERDAS 2011 events, of What’s New in ERDAS 2011, a webinar showcasing new features, and full product descriptions and technical specifications for each product in the ERDAS portfolio, please visit www.erdas.com

Source Planetek