Skip to content

China aims to snatch 20 percent of the world’s space business
by 2015, the president of the nation’s sole satellite launch contractor said

The expected use of high thrust satellite launch vehicles
in 2015 will meet customers’ various needs, said Yin Liming, president of China Great Wall Industry Corporation
(CGWIC) in Xichang, in southwest Sichuan Province, where most satellites in China are launched.

He said CGWIC is willing to cooperate with other countries on aerospace development. The company is researching providing tailored services to meet the needs of different countries and projects.

Hao Zhaoping, deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said China’s Long March Series rocket boasts reliable quality and a reasonable price, with 94 percent of satellite launches via the rocket successful.

He said research on the Long March 5, the latest model of its series, is proceeding smoothly.

China has launched 36 commercial satellites since 1990, when it started the program.

It has signed five satellite export contracts with foreign countries since 2007 and two satellites have entered into orbit.

Source: Xinhua

ESA has awarded a contract to Eurockot for the launch of two of its Earth observation missions. The first will be the next Earth Explorer: Swarm, a constellation of three satellites to study Earth’s magnetic field.

With the successful launch of the CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer, this new contract highlights ESA’s commitment to learning more about Earth from the vantage point of space.

The contract covers the launch of ESA’s Swarm magnetic-field mission and a ‘ticket’ for one other mission, yet to be decided. Both will take place from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia using a Rockot launcher.

Swarm will be the fourth Earth Explorer satellite in orbit, following the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), launched by Eurockot in March 2009, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, also launched by Eurockot, in November 2009, and CryoSat, launched by Kosmotras yesterday.

An event was held today in Bremen, Germany, to mark the signature of the contract, and attended by Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Matthias Oehm, CEO of Eurockot, and Sergey Anisimov, Deputy Director General of Khrunichev, builder of the Russian rocket.

Volker Liebig said, “We all know that for an ambitious mission such as Swarm it is of utmost importance to choose a reliable launch provider. After the successful Eurockot launches of GOCE and SMOS, we are looking forward to a full launch service that will deliver all three Swarm satellites into their orbits.”

The series of Earth Explorer satellites provides a unique approach to observing Earth from space. Developed in direct response to issues raised by the scientific community, they improve our understanding of how the ‘Earth system’ works and the effect that human activity is having on natural processes.

While focusing on specific aspects of the Earth system, they use cutting-edge technology and remote-sensing techniques and, together with the scientific questions addressed, lead to new applications for Earth observation data.

The Swarm mission comprises three satellites, launched together, to provide high-precision and high-resolution measurements of the strength and direction of Earth’s magnetic field. This will provide new insights into Earth’s interior, further our understanding of atmospheric processes connected with climate and weather, and offer practical applications in areas such as space weather and radiation hazards.

The launch of Swarm is planned for before mid-2012. Although Rockot is a small launcher, it can deliver all three satellites into an orbit 490 km above Earth.

Eurockot is based in Bremen, Germany and is a joint venture between Astrium and Khrunichev Space Centre. The company provides low-orbit launches for observation and communication satellites from its dedicated facilities in northern Russia.

Source Eurekaalert

Kicked Off!!!


eoVox2 will be organising a consultations that you might be interested to look at and participate. For more information please do not hesitate to contact secretariat-at-earsc.org

eovox2 activities

*Producing position papers on various topics of relevance to our industry, engaging experts from different market sectors to tell us what the geo-information needs are in that sector, and what we need to do in order to better promote our capabilities and services towards those sectors.

*Related to the above, producing promotional materials publicising EO services and the capabilities of European EO service providers, targeted at and customised for specific new market sectors.

*Producing a trade directory for our industry – to provide details of companies active in EO value-adding services across Europe, with details on the services each company is able to provide, organised by thematic domain, geographical coverage, and location so as to be easily searchable by potential customers.

*Organising trade missions open to all EARSC members to participate in. These will provide a significant opportunity for EARSC members to present their capabilities to new customers, and also to network and establish contact with key individuals and stakeholders in those sectors. One of these trade missions is likely to be to the World Bank in Washington, with a second still to be decided.

In support of these activities, we warmly encourage all EARSC members to come up with fresh ideas and input for EARSC to take forward. The EARSC secretariat will keep you informed of ways to get engaged in the process. Your active participation will add value to the association and bring greater benefit to all of our members and the industry as a whole

At the opening of the GMES Workshop in Sofia (Bulgaria) on 25 March 2010, Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, addressed the participants through a videoconference.

Throughout her speech she underlined the importance of Earth Observation to the international community and in particular the relevance of GMES as a key European contribution to the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS).

Speaking about the various applications of satellite based imagery, Ms Kristalina pointed out that they can support effective response to natural disasters, climate change and security challenges such as terrorism, illegal immigration, and drug trafficking. She added also that they can allow more effective humanitarian operations, improve land-use and agriculture as well as bring business opportunities for European companies.

Given the nature of her portfolio within the Commission, Ms Georgieva affirmed particular interest in the successful development of GMES as an essential tool for improving the response to major disasters, as well as for disaster prevention and post-crisis assistance. In this context the Bulgarian Commissioner reminded the vital role GMES had played by providing emergency response services after the recent earthquakes that occurred in Haiti and Chile.

Ms Georgieva stressed also the paramount importance of GMES for addressing the biggest global challenge – climate change. She highlighted that GMES will provide a basis of enhanced modelling activities to help better understand the drivers of climate change.

As a conclusion, the Commissioner stated the following: ‘I am therefore very pleased that President Barroso has underlined that the success of EU flagship programmes, such as GMES, needs to be guaranteed’. Finally, she committed to follow very closely the dossier on the successful development of GMES over the next five years.

More information at:
ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/georgieva/files/headlines/speeches/100325-speech-gmes_en.pdf

Source GMES.Info

In the next issue of EOMAG, EARSC had the opportunity to discuss with the Member of the European Parliament Mr. Norbert GLANTE some topics relevant for the European Earth Observation Inital Operations programme


European Earth Observation programme (GMES) and Environment

After the submission of the regulation on the European Earth Observation programme (GMES) by the European Commission: What’s under discussion in the EP at the moment? What are the next steps to be solved after the approval of the regulation by the EU Parliament? How can EARSC support future decisions on GMES?

While preparing my report I was in direct contact with many different stakeholders such as ESA, EUMETSAT, representatives of relevant companies and National Permanent Representations. Thereby I got a brought overview and insight of this project, the related problems and also challenges we face. During the discussions in the Industry Committee and with the shadow rapporteurs it turned out that all political groups supported the proposal of the European Commission. Right from the beginning on the involved Members of the European Parliament were aware of the significance of this project for environment and society.

As GMES is considered to be an important European project the Parliament is willing to adopt the GMES regulation within its first reading. The Industry Committee voted unanimously the amended report on February 4th and a first informal meeting with representatives of the Council and the Commission has already taken place. For the moment trilog meetings are being prepared. Main points to be discussed beside budget matters are questions of governance of GMES and data policy. In case an agreement with the Council can be reached rapidly the Industry Committee will vote its legislative resolution end of May which is the last step before plenary vote. The aim is to finish the legislative procedure before summer break.

Once this regulation will be completed we expect a new proposal from the Commission in the first semester 2011 to pave the way for the next financial perspective. My committee will be strongly involved and I will still have a focus on GMES matters and count on the cooperation with EARSC.

A key success factor for GMES will be an appropriate Governance structure taking into account the needs and requirements of all stakeholders at all levels (European, national and regional). Do you think that Service industry also should be considered via EARSC?

For me the governance structure is one of the key questions for the project. Of course I see the need for users as for the service industry to participate and be involved, because GMES should be user driven and service oriented. But we have to define clearly which stakeholder group is organised in which kind of body and which task they should fulfil. Transparency as well as security criteria are to be respected.

COOPERATION & PARTNERSHIP WITH EO INDUSTRY

In your opinion:

How can the dialogue between the European research institutions and the service industry be improved?

Research Institutions and service industry need to work close together in order to identify the needs and find appropriate solutions – this is obvious. Existing networks should be more promoted. As a Member of the European Parliament, I can help to organise forums and create possibilities where research institutions and industry can meet.

How can we build a strong partnership with European research institutions to avoid unnecessary competition?

Cooperation and partnership are important, especially in a sector where the market is not developed yet. But on the other hand I do not want to avoid competition. Competition can lead to innovation and new ideas. With Galileo we have seen what can happen if there was no competition left. Two industry consortia merged and no step forward was taken. I know that Galileo and GMES are a different kettle of fish, but…

The establishment of a Data Policy supporting the development of public GMES markets at all levels (from global to local!) must be a priority and it seems to be obvious, that the data from the EO satellites realized for GMES with public money, shall be free of costs… However, how can a negative effect out of the current discussion on data policy (open and free access to everybody) on private data provider be prevented?

We had an intensive discussion amongst the Members of the Industry Committee and with the Commission about the question whether the data produced from GMES should be free of charge or not. In principle we agree with the concept of “free of charge” but we did not want to exclude the possibility to charge users in a further step, once the project is established and fully operational.

The Commission carried out a market analysis and concluded that at that time no company was operating in the area of data provision. As I know from my own constituency this has changed by now. As the creation of a well functioning market is crucial to the success of GMES, it is very important to have a data access with lowest barriers possible. On the other hand we do not want to constrain the development of new companies. Therefore I introduced the passage that the information and data freely and openly provided in connection with GMES services should not jeopardise the business models of existing enterprises or those in the process of being established into the regulation.

FUNDING

After the current GMES Initial Operations Phase, how do you see the planning and budgeting process in the GMES programmes? How to organize the next steps on financing the operations. What do we need to do when it comes to financing?

The budget proposal from the Commission with 150 million Euros for the initial operations phase (2011-2013) was quite small and amongst all political groups in the European Parliament we recognized the need for more money. Together we managed to more than double the proposed funding to now 316 million Euros. In my report the Parliament also asks the Commission to submit a mid-term financial strategy for GMES in the context of the mid-term review of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework. The Commission should as well submit a long-term financing strategy for the future Multi-annual Financial Framework from 2014 on. For the moment we are waiting for the position of the Council and we will see how we can get an agreement on this question. In the future GMES will be financed by an own budget line; the Commission will come up with a proposal on this in the first semester of 2011.

Can EARSC be integrated into this process and what do we have to do to make appropriate budgets lines in the next Financial Perspective reality?

EARSC will most probably stay in contact with the European Commission that carries out a proposal for the budgets lines in the next Financial Perspective. And I am also happy to stay in contact to get relevant input when we start the work in Parliament on this.

FUTURE & SOCIETY

At the end of the interview, we would like to ask you for your overall recommendations on the future development of the geo-information service sector, and would like to ask to give some hopefully positive messages to the members of EARSC.

I see a huge market potential in the geo-information service sector in the European Union. GMES is a significant project for the benefit of the people in Europe and even other parts of the world. In its various applications I see positive environmental aspects but also an opportunity for the dynamic development of small and medium-sized companies, above all in the earth monitoring and any associated industrial fields. The industry sector should be active, innovative and take risks where necessary. Innovative solutions for existing problems to the benefit of the society will find acceptance and I will do my best to support this and help wherever I can.

Thank you in advance for the elements of contribution to the Interview and for sharing your thoughts and comments with the EOmag readers

Biography
Norbert Glante is a German socialist Member of the European Parliament, representing the region of Brandenburg (Germany). After an apprenticeship as electrical engineer and studies in Automation technology he worked several years as Design engineer and Computer scientist before joining politics with the political change in East Germany. Being Chairman of Potsdam district council between 1990 and 1994 he became MEP in 1994 where he is full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

Eomag!21_Interview with Norbert Glante Member European Parliament.pdf

ESA has awarded a contract worth €105 million to Astrium to build the second Sentinel-2 satellite. Once both are operational, this pair of satellites will provide global coverage every five days, delivering high-resolution optical imagery for GMES land and emergency services.

(31 March 2010) Marking another milestone in Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, this contract follows hot on the heels of the agreement between ESA and Thales Alenia Space to build the second, or ‘B units’, for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3.

These contracts ensure that the first three Sentinel missions will fly as pairs to achieve fast coverage of Earth’s land surface, acquiring the systematic data needed for the GMES services.

Sentinel-2 carries a multispectral imager that uses 13 spectral bands from the visible and near-infrared to the shortwave infrared to reveal different features of the landscape. Together with its swath of 290 km, this mission will realise a new generation of imagery for land monitoring.

The data, for example, will be used to generate land-cover and land-use change maps, as well as to monitor geophysical variables such as the area, chlorophyll and water content of leaves. In addition, Sentinel-2 data will find applications in disaster management and humanitarian relief operations.

The contract to build Sentinel-2B was signed by ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Volker Liebig, and the CEO of Astrium Satellites, Evert Dudok, in the presence of DLR’s Chairman, Johann-Dietrich Wörner, and the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, Stefan Mappus.

“The Sentinel-2 satellites form an important element of the GMES initiative and will give Europe the ability to monitor environmental changes over an extended period of time,” said Volker Liebig.

GMES is a unique programme and with the Sentinel B units we can ensure global coverage as well as the availability of long-term data, as required by the users.”

The contract follows on from the deal to build Sentinel-2A, which was signed in 2008 with Astrium. Astrium heads a core team and is responsible for the overall design of the satellite, the multispectral instrument, the platform and satellite integration and testing.

This contract demonstrates Europe’s commitment to GMES, which, through the European Commission, will provide a wealth of services and information to understand and protect the environment.

In partnership with the European Commission, ESA’s role is, in part, to realise this dedicated family of Sentinel Earth observation missions to provide the essential data needed for the user services.

The status of the GMES initiative will be presented and discussed at the upcoming Living Planet Symposium, which will be held in Bergen, Norway, on 28 June – 2 July.

For more information click here

Source: ESA and EOportal

Natural ecosystems in East-Africa have been changing drastically in the last decades. Drivers of these changes include climate change, population dynamics, market forces and policy changes.

Good governance of the environment requires up-to-date and objective information on the status of natural ecosystems and trends of change. Satellite imagery can provide regularly updated information giving a synoptic view on vegetation dynamics and land cover changes over time.

The ENDELEO project aims at promoting good environmental governance of vulnerable ecosystems in Kenya, by facilitating access to updated remote sensing based information on the status of these natural ecosystems. A web-based monitoring tool, accessible through http://endeleo.vgt.vito.be, has been developed to allow easy exploration of the vegetation conditions. It consists of an image viewer, interactive graphs and the calculation of statistics. These sections are updated every ten days with new images. In addition, detailed patterns of change are analysed for a number of focus areas based on high resolution satellite images. A help section including a manual and background information on remote sensing is available.

As a result, the ENDELEO tool fulfils the increased demand from ecosystem managers, both government agencies and environmental NGO’s, for easy visualisation and analysis of remote sensing data to assess the extent of vegetation changes, to determine the drivers of change and to evaluate policy measures.

ENDELEO is a cooperation between Ghent University (Belgium), the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) (Belgium), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Kenyan government represented by the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS), together with multiple stakeholders. The project is financed by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO).

Welcome to the Spring 2010 edition of the EARSC EOMag! The year has certainly got off to a very busy start both for EARSC and for the European remote sensing industry, and this is evident from the number and quality of news articles you will see in this edition of the EOMag.

Let’s start with a quick look at what EARSC has been doing in Q1. Firstly you will have noticed that EARSC has resumed its search for a Secretary-General. Following our reopened call for interest in January, we have received a number of new applications, and the board is now in the process of short-listing and interviewing candidates in April and May. Our hope is to be able to make an announcement regarding the post at this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June.

Secondly, EARSC has now kicked off the “eoVox-2” activity, where the association is receiving financial support from ESA for a number of exciting activities that will benefit of the European remote sensing industry. EARSC will soon be producing a series of position papers on key topics, we will be organising trade missions and producing promotional materials to help our industry reach out to new market sectors, and we will be producing a new trade directory for the industry.

Thirdly, EARSC has participated in and is preparing for a number of events at which we represent the industry as a whole. We presented on behalf of EARSC at the recent “EU-US Commercial Satellite Critical Infrastructure Protection Workshop” held at JRC in Ispra in March, and we have secured a speaker slot at this year’s ESA Living Planet symposium, where we will be presenting our members capabilities in ecosystem monitoring and assessment. Another event on the horizon is the ESA Oil and Gas workshop being held 14-15 September at ESRIN, where EARSC will make a presentation on offshore infrastructure and transportation.

Outside of EARSC, quite a lot has been happening in the EO and GMES arena since the start of 2010. You will be aware that back in 2009 the European Commission submitted its proposal to the European Parliament and Council for the initial operations of GMES; this proposal is now making its way through the parliament. See our focus interviews with MEPs Mr. Norbert Glante and Mr. Vittorio Prodi, who have been main rapporteurs responsible for presenting the draft opinion of the Industry, Research & Energy and Environment Committees respectively in to this process.

In other news the ESA Value Adding Element (VAE) programme is launching a few new activities this year – see the news article on “EOMark”, a new activity addressing evolving opportunities for EO-based information services in the geo-marketing and retail business sector, and currently under evaluation are a few studies on the use of Earth observation data in support of the activities of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The EC programme of collaborative R&D projects for GMES downstream services continues, with proposals from the 2009 call now evaluated, and successful ones soon to enter into negotiations.

Finally, EARSC has been preparing and planning for our AGM to be held in Brussels in June. This year we are planning to focus on GMES Initial Operations and on the Insurance industry sector. EARSC is very pleased indeed to announce that our keynote guest will be the Member European Parliament (MEP) Mr. Norbert Glante, the Rapporteur on GMES Initial Operations, who has kindly accepted our invitation to address the EARSC community. We are also inviting prominent guest speakers from ESA and the EC and from the insurance industry sector. I sincerely hope that you will make every effort to attend the AGM on 22-June to hear our distinguished guests and to share your views on EARSC activities and priorities for the future. We will also be updating you on the eoVox-2 activities at the AGM, and on our search for a Secretary General. I look forward to seeing you there.

My best wishes, and happy reading of this issue of EOMag!


Chetan Pradhan
EARSC Director

Please share with us any suggestions you may have for improving the usefulness of this bulletin

Eomag!_Editorial, Issue 21_Spring 2010.pdf

The release of the first data products to the GOCE user community through ESA’s user services is imminent.

(30 March 2010). Following the start of nominal science operations with the satellite in drag-free mode at the end of September 2009, a first complete coverage of the Earth was completed last December. First results in terms of gravity gradients and satellite-to-satellite tracking data were also presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Following some tuning of the data processing, all associated Level 1b data products have meanwhile been generated, and are presently being assessed by the GOCE Cal/Val teams.

We are pleased to announce that the quality of the data products is excellent, and that we will start distributing Level 1b products to all registered GOCE users at the end of April. We will notify all Principal Investigators in person when data is eligible for retrieval.

An official presentation and discussion of the data quality will be given at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, on Friday 7 May in session G7. After the Assembly we will make the official presentation available to everyone.

We will present the first Level 2 products and start distributing them from ESA’s Living Planet symposium at the end of June onwards.

For more information click here

Source: ESA Earthnet Online and EOportal

Scientists from the German Aerospace Center’s (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre; IPA) travelled to Iceland for the last of a series of DLR-led technology demonstration campaigns for ESA’s meteorological satellite mission, ADM-Aeolus.

Scientists from the German Aerospace Center’s (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre; IPA) travelled to Iceland for the last of a series of DLR-led technology demonstration campaigns for ESA’s meteorological satellite mission, ADM-Aeolus. Its closeness to Greenland and the Atlantic storm track region made the island a perfect base for the test flights with DLR’s Falcon research aircraft.

The DLR team spent two weeks in Iceland, performing a total of six flights over Iceland, over the ocean between Iceland and Greenland and over the Greenland glacier plateau. The aim of this DLR-led campaign with A2D was to investigate details of the instrument operations strategy and to refine the ADM-Aeolus data processors that will provide the mission’s wind products.

Two different wind lidar instruments – the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator (A2D), a prototype version of the instrument that will fly on ADM-Aeolus, and a reference wind lidar operating at an infrared wavelength of two microns – were operated onboard DLR’s Falcon 20E aircraft, and both performed well throughout the campaign.

During the flights, spectacular measurements of very strong winds flowing off the Greenland plateau and over the northern Atlantic Ocean were made. These are referred to as katabatic winds and are narrow, strong regions of wind blowing from the cold mountain plateau of Greenland down the steep mountainsides and out over the ocean, causing large waves. The campaign also included measurements over sea-surfaces with strong surface winds and over the heart of a low-pressure region.

“The weather conditions were excellent and we obtained measurements of high wind speeds in the jet stream, as well as strong katabatic winds flowing down the Greenland ice sheet. Both of the wind lidar instruments performed very well and we achieved the ambitious objectives of the campaign. It was the first time that calibration measurements have been performed above the Greenland ice sheet, which is foreseen for the ALADIN satellite instrument. The team was very excited by the first quick look at the data,” said Oliver Reitebuch from DLR.

Iceland’s unique position, in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean, makes it a perfect starting-point for meteorological campaigns studying severe weather conditions as well as the effect of some of the world’s largest glaciers on weather and climate.

ESA’s ADM-Aeolus satellite will be the first space mission to directly measure wind profiles on a global scale. By doing so, the mission will improve the accuracy of weather forecasting and advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and processes relevant to climate variability.

In order to probe Earth’s atmosphere from space to measure wind speeds, ADM-Aeolus will carry a sophisticated instrument that utilises a phenomenon called ‘light scattering’ and the Doppler effect to acquire data. The innovative instrument is called ALADIN, short for Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument.

ALADIN is a lidar, which transmits light from a laser source onboard the spacecraft. Short, powerful pulses of light are emitted from the laser down into Earth’s atmosphere. As the light pulse passes through the atmosphere, it interacts with molecules of gas, dust particles and droplets in clouds. This results in some of the light being returned or ‘scattered back’ to the instrument.

The movement of the molecules of gas, particles or droplets with the local wind cause a shift in the frequency of the returned laser light. This is called the Doppler effect, which is well known from every-day phenomena like the change in the sound of a passing vehicle. By measuring the frequency shift of the returned light, the local wind speed can be calculated.

For more information click here

Source: DLR and
EOportal