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Since 2015, VisioTerra is involved in Proba-V MEP (Mission Exploitation Platform). VisioTerra is developing enhanced processing and visualization tools with two services of automatic detection for fires and burnt areas.

By computing the difference between the bands of the image of the day and “the rolling mean” of these bands, one define a change index. This index together with other criteria are analysed in a decision tree to detect fires or burnt areas.

This automatic classification has been successfully applied for the detection of fires in Spain, Guinea and Sudan.

Scope of these preliminariy studies is to set up a multi-sensor alarm system for civil protection, farmers, NGOs, citizen… After a qualification phase, e-mail or SMS will be sent to the people for events occuring within their area of interest.

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Since the collision, Sanchy oil spill is monitored by the various Sentinel satellites. The right image is the view #3 of Sentinel-2 HR optical observed on 18 January 2018 on 02:20:21 GMT showing a 100 km x 200 km slick around the sinking point.

Except in case of specular reflection (reflection of the Sun on the surface of the sea), it is very rare to distinguish a oil slick on the surface of the sea. Here we observe the intense combustion of the boat and its cargo a few hours before its sinking.

This document published by VisioTerra illustrates the potential of Sentinel missions to monitor the oil spill occurring in China Sea.

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2017 was a very productive year for the GEO-CRADLE project.

During this year 8 regional workshops were organised in the region of interest (Balkans, Middle East and North Africa) towards the implementation of GEO, GEOSS and Copernicus, identifying the local challenges and needs that can be addressed with the Earth Observation (EO), enabling more informed decision making, while seeking solutions to enhance growth and innovation in the geo-information sector. Furthermore, the GEO-CRADLE partners participated in several conferences and workshops all over the world, disseminating the added value of the project, the GEO priorities, and the Copernicus services.

In addition, during 2017, GEO-CRADLE launched both its Networking Platform and its Regional Data Hub, which are publicly available online from the project’s portal. The Networking Platform provides a wealth of information on key EO stakeholders active in North Africa, Middle East, and the Balkans. The users can navigate through the profiles of stakeholders and be informed on the existing networks, capacities, skills, etc. in the entire region. Whilst the platform is primarily targeting stakeholders from the region, organisations from other countries are invited to become part of the network too. The Regional Data Hub provides access to both region-related datasets, portals, and services developed by a regional network of raw data providers, intermediate users/service providers, end-users from the industry, the academic and public sector from the region of interest, and, also, datasets and services directly fed from the GEOSS-portal. Discover the Networking Platform and the Regional Data Hub, register your profile and your data & services, and make the most of these opportunities!

Last but not least, GEO-CRADLE actively participated in the GEO Week 2017, 23-27 October 2017 in Washington D.C., USA, with a message “Fostering regional cooperation and roadmap for GEOSS and Copernicus”. GEO Week 2017, consisting of GEO-XIV Plenary, side events and exhibition, highlighted and promoted the role, applications and opportunities to use EO in delivering ‘Insight into a changing world. With a focus on delivery and impact, GEO Week 2017 explored the use and applications of EO in both the public and private sectors for the benefit of humankind.

Source

Gisat leads the SUCE project aiming at implementation of tools helping the EO community retrieve and effectively select optimal set of Sentinel 2 products based on tailored metadata analysis.

The main objectives of the SUCE project was to define a concept, an architecture and provide a prototype permitting to effectively select and download EO products from identified PDGS on the basis on advanced user criteria and analytics needs. Through the enhanced metadata analysis (cloud masks) the prototype permits to derive optimal set of EO products suitable for various applications (e.g. any mapping task where cloud free coverage is needed), avoiding both manual filtering and transfer of useless data.

The SUCE prototype was delivered at the end of 2016 as a web portal based tool. The tool was successfully demonstrated to Copernicus Services Account Managers and the discussions led to the definition of an activity for the upgrade and operational utilisation of the SUCE tool in support to the generation optical High-Resolution coverages of EEA-39 (HR_IMAGE_2015 dataset).

The main objectives of this follow-on activity (named SUCE-C, SUCE for Copernicus) were:

  • Put in place an automatic end-to-end processing chain able to ingest HR_IMAGE_2015 dataset metadata along with gaps layers;
  • Discover, access and download Sentinel 2 metadata from Copernicus DataHub (CopHub) catalogue directly, over predefined area of interest and time of interest;
  • Process available Sentinel 2 passes to derive most suitable coverage over the gap areas;
  • Improve SUCE algorithms so the users can choose multiple coverage types best meeting their needs;
  • Provide output packages including area of interest polygons associated with cloud free Sentinel 2 products, disseminated through Copernicus Services DataHub (CopHub) catalogue;
  • Deploy developed tools in ESA infrastructure – Payload Data Networks and Systems (PDNS) and provide it as a service for the EO Payload Data Segment (EO-PDS).

The SUCE project was funded by the European Space Agency under the GSTP programme. The project begun in February 2015 and ended in January 2017. The project continuation (SUCE-C) is funded under Copernicus DWH 2014-2020, started in July 2017, with the duration of 7 months, until January 2018. The project is led by Gisat as prime contractor and it is supported by TERRASIGNA as subcontractor.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment.
Tel: + 420 271741935 Fax: + 420 271741936
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Airborne LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), is an active remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses, combined with other data recorded by the airborne system, generate reliable and precise three-dimensional (3D) information, in terms of point cloud, about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics. A LIDAR instrument principally consists of a laser, a scanner, and a specialized GPS receiver. Airplanes are the most commonly used platforms for acquiring LIDAR topographic data over broad areas. An airborne LIDAR mission process is called Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS).

Impact

Compared to traditional photogrammetry, GPS and land surveying, LIDAR provide: 1) higher and homogenous accuracy, 2) fast acquisition of massive data (point clouds) and processing, 3) minimum human dependence, 4) weather/light independence, 5) canopy and vegetation penetration through LIDAR pulses, 6) higher data density (very dense point clouds), 7) Ground Control Points (GCPs) independence, i.e., few GCPs are needed for the georeference process and for the qualitative and quantitative control (this makes LIDAR ideal for mapping inaccessible and featureless areas), 8) additional information such intensity, multiple returns, etc., and 9) cost-effectiveness for big covered areas, e.g., for national/public work studies or services. However, several research approaches have been proposed the recent years that fuse LIDAR and aerial imagery to exploit both: the good geometric quality of ALS and the spectral image information for object detection and feature extraction, forest canopy modeling, 3D mapping and reconstruction, 3D city modeling in terms of Level of Details (LoDs), smart cities, BIMs, etc. Despite the constant technological development of computer vision, computer graphics and aerial/space technology, the accurate, reliable and rapid 3D reconstruction of complex scenes such the industrial ones still remains challenging.

Concept

In this study a multi-modal data fusion approach is implemented, that is LIDAR and aerial RGB imagery, to create 3D modern cartographic backgrounds for smart and safe management of industrial areas. A complex industrial area of 4.3 km2 near at Patras city, Greece was used as case study.

Technical Details

At first step, the LIDAR point clouds and the aerial RGB imagery were simultaneously acquired over the area of interest. The adjustment of neighboring LIDAR strips was firstly performed through strip alignment and then a georeference process using ground control points (GCPs) and check points (CPs) was carried out afterwards. The LIDAR point clouds were classified and refined to extract building, vegetation and ground points. The ground points were used to extract the corresponding Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the area of interest. Also an aerial triangulation of the aerial imagery was conducted via bundle adjustment using GPS/INS data and GCPs/CPs. Finally the orthoimages of the area of interest were generated using the LIDAR/DTM. Concerning the used GCPs and CPs: 1) were consisted of characteristic points (e.g., pitches, corners at buildings, etc), 2) were measured by the ComNav Τ300 receiver station both on GPS/RTK and GPS/Relative static modes, and 3) their coordinates were calculated using the GNSS network of reference stations of SmartNet Europe/MetricaNET.

Point density varied considerably over the whole block depending on the LIDAR strip overlap, i.e., 5 points/m2 and 30 points/m2 for regions covered by only one strip and more than one strip respectively. Multiple echoes and intensities were recorded. The ground sample distance (GSD) of the orthoimages was 10 cm. Several 2D and 3D feature/spatial data products were extracted using the Erdas Imagine software (Raster and Point cloud tools, Imagine Photogrammetry, Terrain analysis tool and VirtualGIS tool) such: 1) true-ortho intensity images, 2) Digital Surfaces Models (DSMs), Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) and RGB orthoimages, 3) 3D LIDAR point clouds coloured by the orthoimages, 4) inspection of critical infrastructures such power lines and street lighting network, 5) automatic detection of buildings and 3D modeling in LoD1, and 6) aspect and slope maps of the DSMs. The results demonstrate the utility and the functionality of LIDAR points clouds for high-level 3D reconstruction of complex scenes such the industrial areas. The fusion with the aerial imagery contributed to the extraction of appropriate cartographic backgrounds in order to potentially feed smart management systems such as BIMs.

3D LIDAR point cloud coloured by the intensity (left); True-ortho intensity image (right)
Superimposition of the DSM to the orthoimage
3D LIDAR point cloud coloured by the orthoimage
Inspection of power lines and street lighting network
3D building models in LoD1 visualized in a 3D Virtual GIS environment
Slope (top) and aspect (bottom) maps of the DSM

Contact info
o Contact person : Maltezos Evangelos, Betty Charalampopoulou
o E-mail: mail@geosystems-hellas.gr

16 January 2018. Astrosat, one of the leading businesses in Europe’s space exploitation industry, has formed a partnership with Irish start-up DroneSAR- Search and Rescue, to incorporate drone software with Astrosat’s Recovery and Protection in Disaster (RAPID) system.

The RAPID system is designed to provide intelligent situational awareness and support in the context of disaster scenarios to aid, inform and support decisions that are made in the operational theatre.

Steve Lee, CEO of Astrosat, said: “DroneSAR’s technology will fit beautifully with our RAPID system. With RAPID’s ability to provide up-to-date mapping images in less than three hours, and the ability to interlace footage from drones, we are giving first responders the most detailed picture available.”

DroneSAR recently won the Copernicus Master Service Challenge European Space Week in Tallin, Estonia. Oisin McGrath, CEO and Co-Founder of DroneSAR, said: “The software, a result of 18 months of development with input from Search and Rescue (SAR) teams across the country, perfectly with the RAPID system. It allows first responders a greater depth of overview, through the addition of drone footage to the interface. We plan to integrate both platforms to give near-real-time satellite imagery to both unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots and to Command and Control for better informed decision making”.

DroneSAR was developed through Donegal Mountain Rescue who were chosen as one of four European pilot tests sites by DJI, the market leader in consumer drone technology, and EENA the European Emergency Numbers Association. The software was refined based on the results of this project.

The company provides software that enables commercially available drones to maintain autonomous search patterns based on waypoint missions or user-defined search ‘boxes’, reducing risk to search personnel, improving situational awareness and increasing the chance of finding people in distress, all at a fraction of the cost of a SAR helicopter. It has a Share Location function, which allows pilots to instantly share locations to all team members as the drone flies.

Source

Breaking point was a discovery that it actually is possible to process source EO data in real time, without compute intensive pre-processing or expensive infrastructure. This has opened the door for Sentinel Playground, a web application giving access to complete global Sentinel-2 archive to anyone. Something, that a few years ago could be only built by a company like Google. This put Sinergise on the “Earth observation map”. After winning the Copernicus Masters award, a recognition of Sentinel Hub – the service for processing and distribution of satellite data – reached a tipping point and other application developers, who struggled trying to use free and open Copernicus data, started coming.

Sinergise is a GIS software development company with a decade of experience in agriculture, land management and cloud GIS solutions. Although Sinergise was founded in 2008, the story of the Sentinel Hub started a couple of years later. Working with public institutions in Europe, Africa and Asia, Sinergise was keenly promoting potential of on-going monitoring based on Sentinel-2 data even before the satellite was launched. However, it quickly became apparent that using existing technology for pre-processing of raster data, the task was too costly, both from infrastructure and maintenance point of view. A small group of engineers decided to do the unthinkable – to build a system from scratch. And it worked. Unbound from limitations of 3rd party software they could tweak and re-tweak each part of the puzzle until it worked fast enough. Amazon lent an ear for storage and together they have established Sentinel-2 Open Public Dataset. A combination makes it possible to process majority of requests in under a second – querying a database with millions of entries to select appropriate scenes, downloading relevant data from peta-byte archive, decompressing, compositing, re-projection and more. Quite an unthinkable.

Today, Sentinel Hub is empowering application developers around the world building EO-based applications. It is a payable service, but users have quickly realised that it is much more cost effective to pay a small amount every month than to develop and maintain the system by them. Analytical tools built on top of the core data distribution, such as multi-temporal processing, statistical API, custom band combinations and algorithms, make it even more attractive.

It is business but it is also much more. Sinergise wanted to do something good for society as well. They believe that just about everyone should be able to access Copernicus earth observation data so that they could get an objective and up-to-date view on what is happening with the Earth, either in their neighbourhood or thousands of miles away.

Showcases

To explore the satellite imagery, the Sentinel Playground is a good way to start. It is a public showcase demo application providing access to complete archive of Sentinel, Landsat and MODIS. Everything in full resolution, globally, either years ago or as recent as a couple of hours after acquisition. It is as simple as possible, to engage as many users as possible.


Various stages of ice formation on Lake Erie. Cold winds are driving the pattern of thin ice streams in the area of open water. – Sentinel-2 from 2018-01-05. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2018], published by Zack Labe on Twitter

Similar, a bit more advanced, application is EO Browser, which opens other EO archives as well. After becoming freely available to anyone at the beginning of October 2017 it exceeded all the expectations. Today it counts almost 4,000 users who contribute to its success and improvements based on users’ experience.


Wildfire in Mendoza, Argentina – Sentinel-2 L1C from 2018-01-08. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2018], processed by Pierre Markus, full resolution image available here.

Who are the users?

Playground and EO Browser became well known and used among the EO enthusiasts and remote sensing experts, but what really drives Sentinel Hub forward is its core purpose, working with application developers who use Sentinel Hub services to power their applications for end users. We can talk about farm management tools in Europe, Africa, South America, Canada and Australia, or how paying agencies are using Sentinel Hub service to control subsidies. There are organisations from security field – EU SatCen and European Maritime Safety Agency among the users, who integrated it in their tools. Working with some of the biggest providers of geospatial tools and data shows, that they are on the right path. Just to give you an idea about the scale, Sentinel Hub processes over million requests per day, which is five times more than three months ago.

“We believe our services are empowering application developers to translate space data into useful information. And there are quite a few applications around the world in precision farming, security, land administration and environment monitoring. For example, FAO, Global Forest Watch and Greenpeace all use our services, and we process more than 1 million requests per day.”
Grega Milčinski, CEO at Sinergise


CLAAS Crop View application for farmers to get more value from Copernicus EU data is powered by Sentinel Hub and Sentinel-2 as part of 365FarmNet portfolio.


A South-African company Aerobotics offers on-demand satellite analytics and farming tools based on Sentinel Hub services.


Global Forest Watch uses Sentinel Hub’s imagery to monitor forests. Among others, their application helps discovering illegal deforestation, illegal mining and logging in protected areas.

Behind the scenes of Sentinel Hub

Since the Sentinel Hub’s technology is optimized for on-demand real-time processing of satellite’s big datasets it makes it possible to effectively and efficiently leverage open data distributed by several cloud providers – instead of the standard pre-processing, this platform does practically all the steps on-the-fly, as the user requests the data. There is only one pre-processing step, the indexing of data and their associated files, making access to the data much faster. There are two important benefits of this approach.

  • First is cost-of-operation, which is an order of magnitude less than similar systems, due to the fact that costs occur almost entirely when the user requires data specific to their area of interest. Their unique approach solves a common problem with EO data, namely that users are only interested in small percentage of data available, but it is impossible to accurately predict, which ones are those areas of interest.
  • The second benefit, possibly even more important, is flexibility of the service. By avoiding time-consuming dataset processing tasks, it is possible to add new features to the platform in a matter of minutes, which gives the user all the flexibility of additional data management.


Satellite imagery used as a basic component for planning UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) flights by MAVinci GmbH. Image shows true color imagery overlaid on 3D globe.

What the future holds?

After integrating all major open EO data sources as well as some commercial ones (Planet, Airbus) the amount of available information has become so large that it is simply not possible to check them all. It became apparent that machine learning is required to sift through the volumes and provide added value information or trigger alerts.

At Sinergise, they started with a pretty boring but extremely important problem – identification of clouds. This will make it possible to get a clean data for other tasks such as crop classification, flood detection, identification of new built-up areas, etc.

“When starting with Sentinel Hub, we came to a completely new world of remote sensing. But with a tremendous support by ESA and H2020* programme, we are capable to look a bit further in the future not worrying on day to date business only. And, without Copernicus team, we would have not even started. – Thank you!”
Grega Milčinski, CEO at Sinergise

For decades, people were using the EO data in various domains. However, with free and open data provided by Copernicus, USGS and alike, they became accessible to just about anyone. EO field was a game of big industry guys and research until recently, but not anymore. Anyone can engage. Either by simply going to their Sentinel Playground, observing and monitoring his location of interest, sharing the findings with others, or by building an app for end users or, for experts, using machine learning to help finding relevant things.

More info : www.sentinel-hub.com | info@sentinel-hub.com

Sentinel Hub has received funding from European Union’s H2020 programme, no. 755899.

The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) & the Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI) sign MoU for strengthening relationships between European and Indian companies in the Geospatial Industry.

Hyderabad, 16th January 2018: The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) and the Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the 16th of January 2018, on the sidelines of the Geospatial World Forum in Hyderabad. Representatives from the EARSC member companies Airbus, Deimos Imaging, e-geos and Planet as well as our project partner from Caselex attended the ceremony.

This MoU has the objective to establish a formal cooperation initiative between EARSC, responsible for promoting the use of Earth Observation (EO) technology and supporting companies in Europe which offer EO-related products and services, and AGI which is responsible for addressing common concerns and for promotion of the interests of the geospatial industry in India. The concrete objectives of the MoU include:
1. Regular exchange of information and answering requests
2. Production of a joint roadmap for increased future cooperation
3. Cross-promotion of mutual opportunities and interest to export technologies
4. Cooperation in the marketing of showcase applications of mutual interest
5. Organisation of joint meetings/events on an appropriate basis to support and implement the objectives

The main beneficiaries of this MoU would be organisations and firms located in the EU and India that are willing to develop partnerships and joint projects, and are interested in benefitting from the sharing of best practices and exchange of experience, information, people and technologies related to EO which are not available in their home locations.

Commenting on the MoU, Sandeep Srivastava – Executive Director of AGI expressed, “The MoU acts as a foundation of growth and development between the European Union and India and not just EARSC and AGI. This will provide a much-required impetus to the geospatial companies in both geographies to explore mutually beneficial growth opportunities.”

“We’re delighted to have entered in a MoU with AGI. This for us embarks the beginning of a relationship which will greatly benefit the geospatial and EO companies in both EU and India. We’re certain that the conjoined efforts from both organisations will yield great results for our members”, stated Geoff Sawyer – Secretary General of EARSC.

About the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC)

EARSC is a non-profit organisation aimed to promote the use of Earth-observation (EO) and European companies which offer EO-related products and services. Formed in 1989, the organisation has over 100-member companies from throughout Europe with a secretariat office in Brussels. EARSC is actively involved in coordinating and strengthening the EO chain and promoting the European geo-information industry, and also providing a unified voice on wider European and global issues of importance to the industrial sector.

About the Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI)

The Association of Geospatial Industries (AGI) is a non-profit, non-Government, industry body, representing the common and collective interest of the Geospatial Industry in India. Geospatial Technologies encompass a wide range of technologies such as Remote Sensing, Surveying, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Photogrammetry, Image Processing and other emerging technologies that assist the user in the collection, analysis and interpretation of spatial data with reference to geographic information.

AGI members draw representation from the entire workflow of geospatial technologies from spatial data acquisition to spatial data processing, enterprise wide application development, integration, maintenance and update. AGI members are providers of products, applications, solutions and services including hardware, software, platforms, etc.

Satellite, sighting towers and community collaboration. Inside the Alta Murgia National Park, the fight against fires is done with integrated actions and, from this year, with cutting-edge technological equipment, which allow the implementation of prevention activities, as a support for active struggle and post-event investigation.

It was presented on 10 November 2017, in Bari, Italy, the report on the burnt areas identified and monitored during the summer of the last year in the area of Parco Nazionale dell’Alta Murgia, Italy.

The most critical season for wildfires and forest fires is summer. The first accurate information about the areas involved, derived from monitoring campaigns is available in several months. This is not the case for the Alta Murgia National Park, which this year has adopted satellite technologies to carry out an analysis in a very short time. The information, in fact, was collected and made available after only two months, compared to the usual 12/18 months of waiting, thanks to the adoption of Rheticus® Wildfires service, developed by Planetek Italia, a cloud-based service which automatically process Copernicus Sentinel-2 data to deliver timely and accurate information to managers of Parks and Public Administration involved in safeguarding of forest.

Wildfires facts

2017 will be remembered as a “hot” year globally, California and Portugal for weeks have been covered by fires that have burned thousands of hectares. Even Italy continues to burn and until October in Piedmont fires as well as burning hundreds of hectares of forest have lapped population centers and infrastructures. In order to counter this phenomenon, a series of initiatives are adopted that, on the whole, allow us to limit something which appears, for various reasons, inevitable.

Parks have the main function of defining the rules that regulate the activities in the park area and an appropriate monitoring activity, can significantly affect the success in the fight against fires, which involves several institutional entities. In Puglia region, in addition to the Park Authorities, the regional administration with the Civil Protection and its ARIF Agency, the Carabinieri, have inherited some of the functions that were carried out by the State Forestry Corps, the Fire Brigade, the Municipalities.

The strategy of Alta Murgia National Park

Alta Murgia National Park in this context has activated a series of initiatives to prevent wildfires from starting and, in case of start, to activate rapid intervention teams.

As a first activity, the Park has committed itself to creating a network of relationships with people and organizations operating in the park. The goal was to build awareness of the importance of protecting the territory in which they operate, a territory which represents a source of income as well as the place in which they live. This awareness plays an essential role in the success of any initiative, including the fight against fires.

From the point of view of prevention, a series of rules have been activated, some of which are also accepted by the regional legislation, which regulate the activities in the park, also of an economic nature, in order to prevent activities that may provoke or induce the creation of fires. These include the ban on the collection of mushrooms and asparagus in the areas covered by the fire, the regulation of the burning of stubble, to mention those that probably have a greater potential impact.

For the early detection of outbreaks a network of observation points has been created that are widespread throughout the territory. These points are continuously monitored, throughout the fire season, by operators through the activation of agreements with voluntary associations, which are able to activate the alarm at the first signs of the fire. In some critical areas, video surveillance systems have been activated that bring together images acquired by cameras to an operations center that is able to interpret them and identify the outbreaks at birth.

Satellite monitoring

The Alta Murgia National Park this year has adopted, – the first example in Italy, followed by the Majella National Park – a satellite monitoring service with the aim of increasing investigation and monitoring capabilities of burned areas over time.

A continuous monitoring service was implemented using Rheticus® Wildfires developed by Planetek Italia, which is able to automatically process the images immediately after they have been collected by the European Sentinel-2 satellite constellation.

The activation of the service allowed the creation of a report on the areas covered by the fire in the Alta Murgia National Park area in the period July-September 2017. The processing of satellite data allowed on a weekly basis, the identification and contouring of burnt areas, the classification of events based on the degree of severity of the damages caused by the fires on the vegetation and theeir allocation by Municipality of reference.

All these are fundamental information, which allows a clear and detailed picture of the extent and size of the phenomenon, useful for planning and implementing actions to prevent and manage the areas covered by the fire, to make preliminary economic assessments of the interventions to be carried out.

Facts and figures of wildfires in summer 2017 in Alta Murgia National Park

In the period July 7th – October 5th, 2017, the areas covered by the fire amounted to 270 hectares.
There are 16 fires registered, 3 of which with an area of about 50 hectares. These large-scale fires occurred two in August and one in September. The municipality with the largest area covered by the fire is Andria with 70 hectares, followed by Corato and Minervino Murge.
The types of species most affected were the grazing areas and arable land for 132 and 44 hectares respectively. The wooded areas affected by fires were about 35 hectares and of these slightly less than one hectare presented a high degree of severity of damage to the vegetation.

Read more
Planetek Italia website
Alta Murgia National Park website
• TV News on RAI TGR Puglia of 10 november h 14,00 and h 19,30

Bari, Italy, 8th January 2018.
Planetek has signed two Distribution Agreements with the companies Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology (21AT Asia) and MDA Geospatial Services for the distribution of global imagery collected by TripleSat and RADARSAT-2 satellites.

21AT Asia is the provider of the commercial high-resolution optical TripleSat Earth imagery. The constellation consists of three identical satellites and imagery is available at 0.8 m resolution. The satellites are 120° apart around the same orbit and are able to target daily any point of the Earth with an acquisition capacity of half million km² per day.

MDA Geospatial Services is a Canadian corporation providing high-resolution RADARSAT-2 imagery. RADARSAT-2 is the highest-capacity commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite in the world, providing images of the Earth through darkness and clouds at spatial resolutions ranging from 1 to 100 m, providing coverage from 144 to 250.000 km² in a single scene.

The satellite provides a range of imaging options, including co-polarization (HH), vertical co-polarization (VV) and cross-polarization (HV or VH).
This new agreement adds further opportunities to Planetek capacity to meet customer monitoring needs in a wide range of application and with unprecedent ability to provide timely and customized geospatial products and services.

Planetek Italia clients can count on data and services derived by world’s leading satellite data providers, thanks to the distribution agreements signed also with Airbus Defence & Space, DigitalGlobe, Planet Labs and Deimos Imaging.

For further information contact Planetek Italia at Tel. +39.0809644200 or by mail at: sales @ planetek.it
Read the news here www.planetek.it