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(Issue #10, 5 October 2010)


IMPLEMENTING GEOSS

ESA/FAO, USGS confirmed as Portal and Clearinghouse providers

The GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) has been created to ensure that end-users of Earth observations have efficient access to the full suite of Earth observation content provided through GEOSS. Continued …

Final selections announced for GEO Call for Proposals
The list of final selections for the GEO Call for Proposals is now posted on the GEO web site. Later in October, the reviewers’ reports will be sent to all contributors. In addition, the GEO User Interface and Capacity Building Committees will start working with the selected proposal teams to contact potential resource-providing organizations and to initiate their projects.

SERVIR supports forest management in Belize
A recent study conducted in the context of SERVIR demonstrates the utility of Earth observation technologies for monitoring the forest resources of Belize. Continued …

The Year of Tropical Convection
The Year of Tropical Convection (YOTC) is an international project coordinated jointly by the World Meteorological Organization’s World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and World Weather Research Programme/The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (WWRP/THORPEX). Continued …

GEO Carbon Strategy Report now available
The GEO Carbon Community of Practice has finalized the GEO Carbon Strategy Report and posted it on the GEO web site. The Report describes the implementation of the GEOSS global carbon observation and analysis system, which will address the three components of the carbon cycle (atmosphere, land and ocean) integrating both in-situ and space-based observations. The report follows on from the Carbon theme report of the Integrated Global Observing Strategy Partnership (IGOS-P), which has since been fully integrated into the GEO Carbon Community of Practice.

Locating geothermal resources in East Africa
As described in the last issue of GEO News, the African-European Georesources Observation System (AEGOS) project (Task CB-09-05d) is a geoscience contribution to building GEOSS. Several recent workshops held by AEGOS and GEO have now proposed strengthening this contribution by adding a new task to the GEO Work Plan on identifying geothermal energy resources (a second new task will focus on managing the environmental impacts of mineral extraction). Continued …

Norway-led initiative to monitor CO2 storage sites
Norway is launching a new energy initiative to support and develop the use of Earth observation products and services for monitoring CO2 storage sites. If approved by the GEO Plenary, this initiative, entitled “Towards an Operational System for the Monitoring of CCS Sites”, will be implemented as a new Task in the current Work Plan. It will perform a gap analysis, define a strategy and draft a work plan for establishing an operational Earth observation system for monitoring CCS sites. Continued …

GEO UPDATE

Countdown to Beijing
Planning for the GEO-VII Plenary session and the second GEO Ministerial Summit, to be held back-to-back in Beijing during the first week of November, is now well advanced. The Ministerial agenda has been finalized, and a draft text of a Beijing Declaration has been circulated for discussion amongst governments in the run-up to the Summit. Continued …

User Interface Committee prepares for 2011
The 16th meeting of the User Interface Committee (UIC) was held in Oslo at the invitation of the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The meeting’s objectives were to plan the Committee’s business for 2011 and to complete preparations for the GEO-VII Plenary and Ministerial Summit in November. Continued …

STC reviews Biodiversity and Ecosystem Tasks
The Science and Technology Committee (STC) met in Rome on 28-29 September at the invitation of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). Continued …

ADC focuses on interoperability and data management
The GEO Architecture and Data Committee held its 14th meeting in Ankara, Turkey on 1-3 September. The meeting focused on the Architecture and Data Management Strategy and related issues. The presentation materials are available on the GEO FTP site. Continued …

GEO BON prepares to support Convention on Biodiversity
The Steering Committee of the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) met in July in Cambridge, UK, at the invitation of the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Continued …

Health and Environment Community of Practice elaborates projects
A three-day workshop of the Health and Environment Community of Practice was hosted on 27-29 July in Paris by the French Space Agency (CNES). It was attended by some 25 participants, including practitioners, scientists, and providers and users in the Earth-observation and public-health sector. Continued …

ISPRS holds special sessions on GEO
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission VIII held a Symposium on “Networking the World with Remote Sensing” in August in Kyoto, Japan. Two sessions dedicated to GEO were included in the agenda with the aims of promoting awareness of the benefits of GEO for the science and technology community and of engaging users. Continued …

Follow-up underway to OceanObs’09 conference
The OceanObs’09 conference brought together, among others, the major international stakeholders committed to the development of a sustained ocean observing system. These stakeholders decided to convene a post-conference working group that will formulate, by October 2010, its recommendations for a framework through which to move global sustained ocean observations forward in the next decade. Continued …

ANNOUNCEMENTS

QA4EO workshop announced for 5-7 April 2011
The QA4EO Workshop on Providing Quality Information in Harmonised Earth Observation Data will be held from 5 – 7 April 2011 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford, UK. Continued …

Earthzine extends essay, blog competition deadline to 22 October
Earthzine’s second global essay and blogging competition for college and university students worldwide has extended its deadline for submissions to 22 October 2010. Continued …

GEO
download version

The objective of the FP7 space work programme is to support a European Space Policy focusing on applications such as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), with benefits for citizens, but also other space foundation areas for the competitiveness of the European space industry.

This will contribute to fulfil the overall objectives of the European Space Policy, complementing efforts of Member States and of other key players, including the European Space Agency.

“Document”:j_wp_201001_en.pdf

AeroGRID has announced the availability of wide area aerial photography of South Africa. The imagery, which comprises over 400,000km² of orthophoto coverage includes high resolution photos of Cape Town, is being supplied by Geosense a core AeroGRID partner.

-“Following our recent agreement with Ramani (Nairobi) to distribute their Kenyan photography, this addition of extensive South African aerial photography to our worldwide archive really puts us on the map in Africa,” said Miles Taylor, General Manager. “We expect to extend our online archive to cover Brazil and Japan in the near future which will turn AreroGRID into a global supplier of aerial data from all five continents,” continued Taylor.

The Institut Geographique National (IGN, France) is the national mapping agency for France, with over 1,600 employees and a mandate to collect, integrate, manage and distribute reference geographical information for the whole country. IGN France has a year-on-year national update program for aerial photography and uses its fleet of aircraft to capture areas for public departments concerned with many scientific and environmental projects such as logging forest damage, flood and oil slick monitoring, surveys of archaeological sites and night flights to measure light pollution.

CNIG Spain is the commercial department for Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN-E, Spain). Founded in 1870, IGN-E is the national mapping agency, and, as part of the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport, is responsible for the observation and maintenance of the national geodetic networks, producing and updating national cartography, producing and maintaining the Spanish Spatial Data Infrastructure and measuring and recording seismic and volcanic activity.

“AeroGRID is proud to be able to work with these two highly respected National Mapping Agencies and we are delighted to be able to add full online coverage of both France and Spain to our core datasets of Western Europe. This enables us to provide a continuous dataset of more than 1 million square miles (1.7 million km²) to our customers across the world” said Miles Taylor, General Manager. “Our role is to make all this imagery available to the multinational audience, thereby making the procurement of worldwide aerial imagery much more convenient and cost effective,” continued Taylor.

“IGN France is very satisfied by this agreement with AeroGRID, which will increase the wide dissemination and re-use of its national reference orthophoto collection and enable closer interoperability with IGN Spain,” said Patrice Parisé, General Director.

“CNIG Spain and IGN-E are glad of the cooperation with AeroGRID through this agreement, which is a good example of our data re-use policy for Spanish geographic information, in this case, national orthophoto coverage. These agreements together with IGN-E and IGN-F´s orthophoto data enable AeroGRID to provide a multinational offering and significant value add,” said Sebastian Mas, Director of CNIG.

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Reccent News


Strengthening a watchful eye over the Northern Gulf

(9 August 2010). The monitoring of environments in the Northern Gulf of Mexico has been strengthened during the summer by the deployment of a Keystone system at the Geosystems Research Institute (GRI) of Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS. This Keystone installation provides an image cataloguing and processing capability for satellite imagery from the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) that will be received directly at the NASA Stennis Space Center.

The DMC satellites are well suited to regional monitoring applications offering wide-swath, medium-resolution imagery and regular repeat coverage. Direct reception services have been offered since the launch in 2009 of the UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 missions and this capability is being exploited by the GRI together with other data sources such as NASA’s MODIS sensor. Spacemetric has supported the DMC satellites since 2004 and provides systems for DMCii, the UK-based coordinator of the DMC satellites, and several of the partner missions including Deimos-1 and the forthcoming Nigeriasat-2 satellite.

Adding UAV support for Swedish Defence Forces

(23 August 2010). Spacemetric has received an order from system integrator SAAB to add support for video imagery within the image management system developed for the JAS 39 Gripen multi-role combat aircraft in service with the Swedish Air Force.

The new contract supports the provision of functions for video imagery from the Shadow 200 tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This will extend the capabilities of the existing Sensor Source Intelligence Cell (SSIC) through the addition of a video server with real-time video review and map display, and video geometric enhancement. The SSIC’s image management solution is based upon Spacemetric’s Keystone system and provides an integrated multi-sensor environment for data from air and space assets.

The new UAV will be deployed in support of Sweden’s commitments to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. By building upon technology already delivered for Gripen, the image management system can be highly capable, while being provided to a short delivery schedule.

Smart ground station services previewed in Latin America

(8 October 2010). The Latin American Remote Sensing (LARS) conference in Santiago de Chile was the venue for a preview of smart ground station services offered in a cooperation between Spacemetric and the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), operators of PrioraNet, the world’s largest commercial network of satellite ground stations.

The new service offers added value to users of satellite data reception services by providing rapid cataloguing and geo-enabled online access to the received data. This both decreases the time from satellite to desktop for monitoring applications and enables the interactive review of data for quality before committing processing resources or transfer bandwidth. Imagery is published securely via web services and notification services inform subscribers of new imagery over the “hotspots” they have defined. Geolocation tools can be used to match new imagery to existing data and products generated from single or multiple scenes.

Spacemetric’s Keystone Image Management System is used by several satellite operators as their core image cataloguing and product processing environment. By combining this technology with PrioraNet these capabilities will provide added value to a new group of customers.

About Spacemetric
Spacemetric was founded in 1999 to provide cost- effective systems that streamline the process between geospatial image acquisition and application. The company’s Keystone Image Management System embodies more than 20 years of experience in image processing system development and is used in a range of civilian and security applications. Spacemetric works closely with satellite operators, service providers and solution integrators to meet emerging needs relating to management of image assets.
www.spacemetric.com

Contact
Ian Spence, Sales & Marketing Director
Tel: +46 8 594 770 83, email: is@spacemetric com

Events Autumn 2010


Start Date End Date Event Web Venue
11-oct-10 13-oct-10 ISPRS WG I/4 Workshop on Modeling of Optical Airborne & Space Borne Sensors web Istambul, Turkey
12-oct-10 12-oct-10 Resources for your EO research, application or service web Frascati, Italy
12-oct-10 14-oct-10 “The 4C – Challenge: Communication – Coordination -Cooperation – Capacity Development” web Bonn, Germany
13-oct-10 13-oct-10 Monitoring Europe’s biodiversity in a post 2010 era:the role of remote sensing for Natura 2000 reporting
and ecosystem assessment
web Brussels, Belgium
13-oct-10 13-oct-10 1st TELEIOS User Community Workshop web Frascati, Italy
14-oct-10 15-oct-10 Fourth Coastal Altimetry Workshop web Porto, Portugal
14-oct-10 17-oct-10 Joint FIG Commission 3 and Commission Workshop “Information and Land Management. A Decade after the Millennium” web Sofia, Bulgaria
14-oct-10 19-oct-10 WG V/2 Workshop on “Advances in Cultural Heritage Measurement Techniques” with International Conference on “Digital Preservation of Archaeological Heritage” web Kanpur, India
17-oct-10 20-oct-10 2010 ESRI Electric & Gas User Group Conference web Dearborn, MI, U.S.A.
18-oct-10 20-oct-10 ESRI Health GIS Conference web Denver, CO, U.S.A.
19-oct-10 20-oct-10 Be Inspired web Amsterdam, The Netherlands
19-oct-10 21-oct-10 ENC GNSS – The European Navigation Conference on Global Navigation Satellite Systems web Braunschweig, Germany
19-oct-10 22-oct-10 GSDI 12 World Conference : Realizing Spatially Enabled Societies web Singapure, Singapure
20-oct-10 22-oct-10 The 16th Ka and Broadband Communications, Navigation and Earth Observation Conference web Milan,Italy
20-oct-10 22-oct-10 CSSP International Workshop web Tuscany, Italy
20-oct-10 23-oct-10 The 16th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia web Seoul, Korea
24-oct-10 27-oct-10 GIS for National Security, Defence & Emergency Management Conference web Abu Dhabi, UAE
25-oct-10 29-oct-10 8th International Conference of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE2010) web Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
25-oct-10 29-oct-10 TransCAD Training web Boston, MA, U.S.A.
26-oct-10 27-oct-10 Crucial issues of the European Space Policy web Brussels, Belgium
26-oct-10 28-oct-10 ESRI, EMEA User Conference web Rome, Italy
28-oct-10 29-oct-10 Geomatics Atlantic 2010 conference web New Brunswick, Canada
01-nov-10 01-nov-10 Earth Observation Satellites web London, UK
01-nov-10 05-nov-10 31st Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS2010) web Hanoi, Vietnam
03-nov-10 04-nov-10 5th International Workshop on 3D Geo-Information web Berlin, Germany
03-nov-10 05-nov-10 Earth Observation for Land-Atmosphere Interaction Science web Frascati, Italy
08-nov-10 12-nov-10 ‘Dynamic interlinkages between social and ecosystem changes: Towards a Europe-Africa partnership’ web Hulshort, the Netherlands
08-nov-10 12-nov-10 Trimble Dimensions web Las Vegas, U.S.A
09-nov-10 10-nov-10 Smart Grids, Smart Cities – Smart Future web Amsterdam, The Netherlands
10-nov-10 10-nov-10 GeoDATA 2010 web Glasgow,UK
11-nov-10 12-nov-10 Joint UrbanFlood & SG4E Workshop Monitoring and Flood Safety web Amsterdam, The Netherlands
15-nov-10 17-nov-10 Joint FIG Comm3 and Comm 7 Workshop \‘Information and Land Management web Sofia, Bulgaria
15-nov-10 19-nov-10 ASPRS 2010 Fall Conference web Orlando, Florida, U.S.A
16-nov-10 19-nov-10 United Nations/Thailand/European Space Agency (ESA) Workshop on Space Law “Activities of States in Outer Space in Light of New Developments: Meeting International Responsibilities and Establishing National Legal and Policy Frameworks” web Bangkok, Thailand
17-nov-10 18-nov-10 Tracking and Positioning Europe web Amsterdam, The Netherlands
18-nov-10 19-nov-10 Remote Sensing Methods for Change Detection and Process Modelling – Workshop web Cologne, Germany
23-nov-10 23-nov-10 Learn how to turn innovation into commercial success web Brussels, Belgium
23-nov-10 25-nov-10 Map Africa 2010 web Cape Town,South Africa
24-nov-10 25-nov-10 ECDIS Revolution web London, UK
24-nov-10 26-nov-10 Geo-Information and Information Management for Farms, Agribusiness and Administration web Cologne, Germany
29-nov-10 29-nov-10 IET Earth Observation Satellites seminar web London, UK
29-nov-10 03-dec-10 The Fifth Session of the International Conference Geotunis 2010 web Tunisia
30-nov-10 01-dec-10 European LiDAR Mapping Forum web The Hague, The Netherlands
30-nov-10 02-dec-10 NAV10: Position, Location, Timing: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere web London, UK
30-nov-10 03-dec-10 OSEA2010 International Conference web Singapore
01-dec-10 04-dec-10 II International Symposium New Paths to Cartography within Geography web Sao Paulo, Brazil
02-dec-10 02-dec-10 StreetMapper 2010 International User Conference web The Hague, The Netherlands
07-dec-10 08-dec-10 SPAR Europe web Amsterdam, The Netherlands
07-dec-10 10-dec-10 GEO India web New Delhi, India
05-jan-11 07-jan-11 GeoDesign Summit web http://www.geodesignsummit.com/
17-jan-11 19-jan-11 Infrastructure Middle East 2011 web The Gulf Hotel, Bahrain
17-jan-11 21-jan-11 1st Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry web Frascati, Italy
18-jan-11 21-jan-11 Geospatial World Forum web Hyderabab, India
19-jan-11 21-jan-11 Esri Federal User Conference web Washington, DC, U.S.A.
24-jan-11 27-jan-11 Defence Geospatial Intelligence (DGI) 2011 web London, UK
24-jan-11 28-jan-11 PolInSAR 2011 Workshop web Frascati, Italy
01-feb-11 03-feb-11 Imagina web Monaco, Monaco
07-feb-11 09-feb-11 6th EARSeL Workshop REMOTE SENSING OF LAND ICE AND SNOW – Remote Sensing of Snow and Glaciers: Cryosphere, Hydrology & Climate interactions web Bern, Switzerland
07-feb-11 09-feb-11 11th International LiDAR Mapping Forum web New Orleans, LA,U.S.A
07-feb-11 09-feb-11 6th EARSeL Workshop Remote Sensing of Snow and Glaciers:
Cryosphere, Hydrology and Climate Interactions
web Salzburg, Austria
13-feb-11 19-feb-11 Internationale Geodätische Woche web Obergurgl, Austria
15-feb-11 17-feb-11 ISU 15th Annual International Symposium: “The International Space Station: Maximizing the Return from Extended Operations” web Strasbourg, France
23-feb-11 28-feb-11 GEOProcessing 2011: The Third International Conference on Advanced
Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services
web Gosier, Guadeloupe, France
03-mar-11 04-mar-11 W2GIS 2011 Web & Wireless Geographical Information Systems web Kyoto, Japan
07-mar-11 10-mar-11 Esri Developer Summit web Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
10-mar-11 11mar-11 GeoViz Hamburg 2011: Linking Geovisualization with Spatial Analysis and Modeling web Hamburg, Germany
15-mar-11 18-mar-11 8th International Specialized Forum GEOFORM+\‘2011 web Moscow, Russia
17-mar-11 18-mar-11 Second Earth Observation-Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Operational Capacity Workshop web Venize, Italy
21-mar-11 24-mar-11 SPAR, International 2011 web Texas, U.S.A
23-mar-11 25-mar-11 Spatial Statistics 2011 web Enschede, The Netherlands
30-mar-11 01-apr-11 ESA EUSC JRC 2011 Conference on Image Information Mining web Ispra, Italy
spring-10 spring-10 Development and cooperation in the Mediterranean region using satellite services web Rabat, Morocco
05-apr-11 07-apr-11 Ocean Business 2011 – The ocean technology training and procurement forum web Southampton, U.K.
05-apr-11 07-apr-11 QA4EO workshop web Oxford, UK
06-apr-11 07-apr-11 Offshore Survey 2011 – Technical Conference web Southampton, U.K.
06-apr-11 09-apr-11 RIN 11 – Birds, Humans and Other Animals Conference web University of Reading, UK
11-apr-11 13-apr-11 JURSE 2011 – Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event web Munich, Germany
11-apr-11 13-apr-11 EARSeL 7th Workshop of EARSeL Special Interest Group “Imaging Spectroscopy” web Edinburgh, UK
10-apr-11 15-apr-11 34th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment web Sydney, Australia
20-apr-11 22-apr-11 3rd International Conference on Advanced Space Technologies for Humankind Prosperity (Space Technologies: present and future) web Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine
25-apr-11 29-apr-11 SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing web Orlando, Fl, U.S.A.
01-may-11 05-may-11 ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference web Milwaukee,U.S.A.
03-may-11 08-may-11 Gi4DM 2011 web Antalya, Turkey
10-may-11 11-may-11 IF&GIS 2011 5th International Workshop on Information Fusion and Geographical Information Systems: Towards the Digital Ocean web Brest, France
15-may-11 17-may-11 TRANS-NAV 2011 web Gdynia, Poland
30-may-11 02-jun-11 31st EARSeL Symposium “Remote Sensing and Geoinformation not only for Scientific Cooperation” web Prague, Czech Republic
31-may-11 31-may-11 AfricaGEO web Capetown, SA
31-may-11 01-jun-11 3rd EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing in Education and Training web Prague, Czech Republic
01-jun-11 03-jun-11 4th EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing for Land Use & Land Cover web Prague, Czech Republic
01-jun-11 03-jun-11 5th EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Coastal Zone web Prague, Czech Republic
02-jun-11 03-jun-11 1st EARSeL SIG Forestry workshop: Operational remote sensing in forest management web Prague, Czech Republic
03-july-11 08-july-11 ICC 2011 – 25th International Cartographic Conference web Paris, France
21-sep-11 23-sep-11 Space Access International Conference web Paris, France

Eomag Events Autumn 2010.pdf.pdf

The Europe-Africa Marine Earth Observation (EO) Network (EAMNet) project, funded under the space theme of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), was launched on 20-21 July 2010 as one of the three projects supporting the definition and implementation of the GMES-Africa initiative. EUMETSAT participated to the kick-off meeting.

The 3-year project will seek to construct a network linking EO information providers, user networks and centres of excellence in Europe and Africa in the area of coastal and marine observations for sustainable development in Africa. The network will undertake capacity building and maintenance, and build upon existing infrastructure and expertise in Africa. The overall aim is to improve the exploitation of EO data for coastal and oceanic monitoring for an Africa-wide observation system, Global Ocean Observing System in Africa (GOOS-Africa). The project will provide an interface between European GMES-related core and downstream services, and research and development projects (notably MyOcean) and African initiatives like African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) with the emerging GMES-Africa initiative.

The project’s consortium is composed of ten partners in Africa and Europe, coordinated by the Plymouth Maritime Laboratory (PML) in the UK.

Thanks to EAMNet, some MyOcean products (GMES Marine Core Service), essentially ocean colour data, will be available operationally in near-real time to African users. These data and products will complement operational oceanography data already available through EUMETCast.

More information at:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/CorporateNews/800698
http://www.eamnet.eu/cms/

Source:GMES.info

The European Environment Agency (EEA) and Esri have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The agreement supports the design and development of ways to share and access essential geographic environmental data provided by the agency’s 38 European member countries.

EEA, which already uses Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) products, will now work closely with Esri to improve the agency’s cloud environment map services. European countries will share their environmental data more easily, while nations, agencies, scientists, and policy makers will be able to quickly access and consume the data for viewing and analysis.

“Our partnership with Esri provides us with innovative solutions to reach out to our key stakeholders and present them with timely and relevant information as they need it,” said Jacquie McGlade, EEA’s executive director. “The agency will now also be able to work directly with citizens in the coproduction of knowledge via open access to data, creation of personalized maps, and simple ways of sharing data among social networks. The two-way exchange of knowledge and expertise between Esri and the EEA underlines just how business and the public sector can work well together to build answers for tomorrow’s challenges.”

During the next year, EEA and Esri will work together to develop

  • Cloud architecture that serves the EEA initiatives and European Union directives
  • Data sharing that is in line with the principles of Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) as well as the Shared Environmental Information System
  • Standardized templates and layer definitions based on the Esri Community Maps initiative
  • A collaborative plan supporting EEA’s Eye on Earth initiative

“EEA is a leader in environmental issues and has a high level of expertise,” said Esri president Jack Dangermond. “This alliance brings together EEA’s environmental knowledge and Esri’s technologies, which will greatly benefit Europe’s environmental community. People will share information via the cloud and use applications that will allow them to analyze and create policy regarding quality of the environment and hazards.”

EEA helps the community and member countries make informed decisions about improving the environment, integrating environmental consideration into economic policies, and moving toward sustainability. It is also charged to coordinate the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet). Esri’s complete ArcGIS system plays a prominent role in helping EEA achieve its goal of delivering geographic data management, visualization, and analysis capabilities to environmental information consumers.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at http://www.esri.com.

Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, ArcGIS, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

Barbara Shields (press@esri.com)
Phone: 909-793-2853, ext 1-2641

The European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite is again collecting data on Earth’s gravitational field after a computer glitch disrupted the flow of scientific communications to the ground.

GOCE has been out of commission since July, when the arrow-shaped satellite suffered a computer malfunction that engineers later traced to a communications link between processor and telemetry modules in a backup unit.

Ground controllers at the European Space Operations Center in Germany switched GOCE to a redundant B-side computer in February after an unexplained chip failure crippled the primary unit. ESA says the problems are apparently not related.

The July anomaly prevented GOCE science data from reaching the ground, and engineers were devising software patches to connect working functions of the two computers to restore full capacity.

But the recovery came sooner than expected as ESA commanded a rise in temperature inside the satellite’s computer compartment.

“We are very glad that one of the most innovative missions of ESA is back on track,” said Volker Liebig, director of the agency’s Earth observation programs. “I would like to congratulate and thank the teams from ESA and especially industry.”

GOCE resumed normal communications after the temperature increased by about 7 degrees Celsius, according to ESA.

Engineers are still developing software patches to link the two computers should the communications system suffer the same problem again, an ESA statement said.

The $444 million Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, mission is creating an exceptionally accurate map of the planet’s geoid, a global model illustrating subtle variations in the gravity fields, assuming oceans were motionless.

Scientists use the geoid’s reference surface to compare against measurements of ocean activity, allowing oceanographers to more accurately study ocean circulation and sea level changes.

GOCE’s gradiometer, the mission’s scientific instrument, was turned back on Monday and is working well, said Rune Floberghagen, the satellite’s mission manager.

“With everything back in proper working order, the satellite is now being gently brought back down to its operational status and altitude,” Floberghagen said. “This should be achieved before the end of September.”

Officials raised GOCE’s unusually low orbit by about 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, to buy more time during the recovery effort.

GOCE is circling nearly 165 miles above Earth, an altitude that is prone to fluctuations in atmospheric drag caused by increased solar activity. Controllers boosted the satellite to ensure it would not be dragged back into the atmosphere in case the computer glitch spread to GOCE’s ion thruster or navigation systems.

GOCE’s ion thruster produces a steady stream of thrust to keep the satellite at a stable altitude.

In an Aug. 27 interview, ESA’s chief of Earth observation mission science said the spacecraft is working well besides the unlucky computer mishaps.

Mark Drinkwater, also a former GOCE scientist, said the satellite has enough xenon gas for its ion engine to continue operating through the end of 2012, well beyond the anticipated end of the mission in April 2011.

GOCE has already delivered two-thirds of the gravity data expected from the mission, according to an ESA press release. The mission is designed to produce measurements 100 times better than its predecessors.

“We have a significant degree of data in the back from the nominal mission,” Drinkwater told Spaceflight Now. “We’re making huge scientific progress with the data we’ve already got.”

Source ESA

Landscape managers have traditionally depended upon the use of 2D tools and applications for the development and production of food. However, three-dimensional spatial applications are highly oriented to two things — better communication and higher efficiency.

Restrictions on Russian grain exports, flooding in Pakistan, climate anomalies in Australia and wetness in Canada will all drive food production inputs up, as well as prices. Much more efficiency will be the outcome.

Agron­o­mists think in 3D. Insects fly around fields, water infil­trates down­ward and side­ways in soil, tem­per­a­tures are vari­able across topog­ra­phy — regions and food pro­duc­tion are trans­ported and har­vested over con­tours and across net­works. The processes that occur in agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion are inher­ently 3D, and under­stand­ing them well is the pri­mary fac­tor in attain­ing top productivity.

Restric­tions on Russ­ian grain exports, flood­ing in Pak­istan, cli­mate anom­alies in Aus­tralia and wet­ness in Canada are only a few of the cur­rent prob­lems that con­fronting the amount of food pro­duc­tion over the short-to-medium term. Already spec­u­la­tors are work­ing at their cal­cu­la­tions and deter­min­ing higher prices, restric­tions and decreased lev­els of grain and other agri­cul­tural prod­ucts ahead.

Now is not the time to bury our heads, but to take action toward not only sta­bi­liz­ing pro­duc­tion and increas­ing it, but to lever­age new tools and tech­nolo­gies toward higher pro­duc­tion and approaches for farm­ing and food efficiency.

There has been no other time in his­tory where so many earth obser­va­tion satel­lites have been in orbit, pro­vid­ing high-resolution images with greater clar­ity and use­ful infor­ma­tion that can sup­port effi­cient agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion. With GNSS capa­bil­ity already present, we are likely to see a more fully oper­a­tional GLONASS con­stel­la­tion appear­ing soon. Many com­pa­nies are mov­ing away from indi­vid­u­ally focused approaches to sin­gle prod­ucts, and are devel­op­ing inte­grated strate­gies that incor­po­rate geo­mat­ics, GIS and per­haps GNSS or earth obser­va­tion in their col­lec­tive work flows.

If the past few months have been any indi­ca­tion, agri­cul­tural inputs such as fer­til­iz­ers are likely to increase in price as demand grows and more com­pe­ti­tion for lim­ited resources arises.

This will place unique stress on pro­duc­ers, since they will be faced with keep­ing costs under man­age­able lev­els, yet, some­how increas­ing pro­duc­tion to take advan­tage of much higher prices for agri­cul­tural com­modi­ties. This is undoubt­edly going to require some skill and thought­ful approaches. Farm­ing is business.

To meet the chal­lenge food pro­duc­ers will ben­e­fit through think­ing in 3D, more­over, they will solve part of this puz­zle of bal­anc­ing the equa­tion through employ­ing 3D tech­nolo­gies that help them to under­stand the land, processes and fac­tors that con­nect to and result in improved production.

Farm­ing in 3D will mean know­ing the soil in 3D, the crop in 3D and being able to model pro­duc­tion through crop rota­tion, cli­mate and oper­a­tions in 3D. The ‘Dig­i­tal 3D Farm’ is no longer a whim. Con­sider the value of crops that at this point, appear set to increase any­where from 10 to 80% in price.

Again, the task will be to bal­ance ris­ing input costs against rev­enues — and improved dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies can help to tilt that balance.

Source

September 2010 sees the launch of PlanetObserver newly redesigned website with a vibrant new look and new content detailing the company’s product portfolio and know-how.

The French company PlanetObserver, specialised in natural colour satellite imagery, has developed greatly in the past years with new products, new applications, new markets. The newly launched website reflects this new dynamic and the new business development trends within the company.

Featuring a better design, interface and content, the site is still available at www.planetobserver.com both in French and English. Offering improved navigation combined with significant layout updates and reorganized web pages, the website has been designed to highlight the company’s major product ranges : high-quality 2D and 3D satellite imagery which constitute PlanetObserver core business, and a full range of eye-catching communication products (satellite floor maps, 3D virtual globe program, exhibitions, etc.) derived from satellite imagery and aerial photography provided by the French cartographic institute IGN.

The new site also presents a new section “Markets and applications” with case studies and practical examples on how professionals take advantage of our products and images in their industry sector.

In addition, videos, pictures, detailed product brochures and downloadable sample data provide a very comprehensive overview of our products and expertise.
Check out the new image and video galeries highlighting the great diversity of our satellite imagery offering, also available on flickr and Youtube.

Contact : PlanetObserver
Email : msat@planetobserver.com
25 bd Gergovia – 63000 Clermont-Ferrand – France

About PlanetObserver

From its setting-up back in 1989, the French company PlanetObserver, based in Clermont-Ferrand, has been specialized in satellite imagery processing and global imagery dataset production, exclusively in natural colours, a truly innovative concept in the late ’80s. PlanetObserver satellite imagery is now widely used in many industry sectors ranging from IT applications, cartography, web-mapping, special events, museums or broadcasting.