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Proba-2, one of the smallest satellites ESA has ever built for space, is about to leave its Belgian homeland.

Its development and testing complete, the satellite is being packed up for the first leg of its journey to orbit – shipment to the distant Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia.

Proba-2 is second in ESA’s Project for OnBoard Autonomy series, building on nearly eight years of operational experience gained with Proba-1. While standard satellites are truck-sized structures, the Proba satellites have a volume of less than one cubic metre. But this small scale does not limit their functionality: Proba-2 incorporates a total of 17 new technological developments and four scientific experiments, focused on solar and space weather observations.

Like Proba-1 before it, Proba-2 was constructed for ESA by Verhaert Design & Development in the East Flanders town of Kruibeke, with the support of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. On Wednesday Belgian Minister for Science Policy Sabine Laruelle visited the company to bid farewell to the satellite and emphasise again the importance of space technology for the Belgian space policy.

“Proba-2 is the result of ESA’s commitment to technological innovation,” said Director Courtois. “This mission is serving as a testbed for a variety of new space technologies. And the next two in the Proba series, the Proba-3 formation flying demonstrator and Proba-V vegetation monitoring mission, are already in preparation.”

PROBA was developed under the ESA General Studies Technology Programme (GSTP), which fosters the development of flight hardware,” explained Frank Preud’homme, Verhaert Space Business Unit Manager. “This allowed Verhaert Space to build up satellite engineering capabilities and to attain a competitive position on the international market for small satellites.”

David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium briefed journalists on Proba-2’s Sun-monitoring instruments: LYRA (Lyman-Alpha Radiator) is designed to measure solar irradiance in key ultraviolet bands, while SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active pixel detector and image Processing) will make ultraviolet observations of the corona around the Sun. Two further science instruments developed by a scientific consortium from the Czech Republic will detect the radiation and plasma environment around the spacecraft.

In-orbit technology testing supporting European competitiveness

The Proba series are part of ESA’s GSTP In-orbit Technology Demonstration Programme: missions dedicated to the demonstration of innovative technologies. In orbit demonstration is the final step on the technology development ladder, proving new hardware has the ‘right stuff’ for ongoing use.

Such missions provide small and medium sized companies with rich operational experience essential for European industry to remain innovative and competitive.

As part of ESA’s strategy to reduce mission costs the satellite will piggyback its way to orbit aboard the same Rockot launcher carrying ESA’s full-sized Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer satellite. The two are scheduled to launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 2 November.

More information
Frederic.Teston, ESA

Source ESA

Hampshire, UK – More than a dozen UK government departments and organisations have purchased the latest marine mapping from SeaZone.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), English Heritage, Natural England, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency are amongst those benefiting from SeaZone data products in the implementation of their marine management, development and protection responsibilities.

SeaZone continues to promote the adoption of Central Government collective agreements to provide easier management, better co-ordination and cost savings to Government, with the Welsh Assembly Government, Countryside Council for Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales the first to benefit from this approach.

“We are extremely pleased to have signed our first collective agreement with government departments and organisations in Wales and are working towards a number of similar agreements in Scotland and Northern Ireland,” commented Mike Osborne, Managing Director and Founder of SeaZone. “It is also encouraging to note that individual organisations are increasing their use of our solutions with, for example, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showing a 50% increase in users compared with last year.”

One user of SeaZone’s marine geographic information data is English Heritage, the government’s statutory advisor on the historic environment. Their AMIE (Archives and Monuments in England) database contains tens of thousands of maritime records and SeaZone data has proved invaluable in compiling, updating and managing these records, allowing them to provide enhanced information to their partners and customers.

“English Heritage’s remit for the protection, promotion and understanding of England’s historic environment extends out to the twelve mile territorial limit. We have made SeaZone HydroSpatial data available to staff through our intranet and desktop GIS systems to provide context to our marine planning and designation work,” commented David Gander, webGIS Manager for English Heritage.

SeaZone has developed a range of marine geographic information data, software and services. Easy to use, fit for purpose geographic datasets include detailed water depth information, scanned and geocoded Admiralty Charts and the only truly authoritative digital marine map – SeaZone HydroSpatial. SeaZone has also developed next generation software to manage and present survey and environmental monitoring data and provide desktop access to the world standard in tidal prediction methodology. To complement its data and software portfolio SeaZone can also provide application specific product and Geographical Information System training, data manipulation and analysis and software development.

Source SpatialNews

The European Commission adopted the proposal of regulation for the GMES programme on 20th May 2009.

The programme monitors the state of the environment on land, at sea and in the atmosphere to improve the security of the citizens in a world facing increased risks. This new investment from the EC brings GMES into an initial operational phase. It is the first concrete step towards the sustainability of the programme. Earth observation allows monitoring of the natural environment. It draws on both satellites and airborne, seaborne and ground-based installations. Data collected allows better management of the environment and enhances security for citizens.

In order to complement the running activities funded through framework programme, the European Commission has decided to invest EUR 150 millions more with the objective to make GMES operational by 2014.

Space applications like GMES are source of innovation.

In the current economic downturn, investment in innovation is crucial. OECD tells that the world market for Earth Observation, worth $735 millions in 2007, has the potential to rise to around $3 billions in 2017.

The Space Council of the 29th May “underlines the potential of space to develop enabling technologies and promote future economic growth in Europe. It considers including space applications among any further selection of new lead markets under the Commission’s Lead Market Initiative”. No doubt, GMES will encourage industry in particular SMEs to develop innovative information services.

The availability of environmental information is a key factor to understand the evolution of climate change so that we can observe our planet for a safer world.

See also: The full text of the communciation

Related Items:

-Contracts & grants (Calls for expressions of interest): GMES experts

-Contracts & grants (Prior information notices): Implementation of an initial GMES service for geospatial reference data access – Prior information notice (25/03/2009)

In 2005 the European Parliament and Council adopted a Directive (2005/35/EC) aimed at incorporating international standards for ship-sourced pollution into Community law and at discouraging illegal discharges of oil from ships by ensuring that persons responsible are subject to adequate penalties.

The Directive tasks EMSA to ‘work with the Member States in developing technical solutions and providing technical assistance in actions such as tracing satellite discharges by satellite monitoring and surveillance’. Therefore the Agency has established a European wide operational system for oil slick detection based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from satellites. This service, called CleanSeaNet, supplements existing surveillance systems at national and regional level and supports Member States response to illegal discharges and accidental spills as well as helping to locate and identify polluters in areas under their jurisdiction.

CleanSeaNet uses SAR satellite images primarily from ENVISAT ASAR (ESA) and RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2 (CSA/MDA). Looking to the future the planned GMES Sentinel-1 mission series will be important for routine monitoring, while other X-band radar data from TerraSAR-X (DLR) and CosmoSkyMed (ASI): could potentially be used in case of an oil spill emergency. After acquisition by the satellite, SAR data are transmitted to a network of ground receiving stations, where the data is processed and the image interpreted by image analysts. The analysed satellite imagery is available to the relevant Coastal State operational users within 30 minutes after satellite overpass. In case of a detected oil slick, an alert message to the end user is transmitted by phone call as well as e-mail and optionally by fax or SMS. The final verification of the possible slick needs to be done by in-situ means such as patrol vessel or ideally by aerial surveillance. National aerial and vessel surveillance patrols can then target this area to verify the possible spill and potentially identify the polluter. By complementing national aerial and vessel surveillance with satellite images a more cost effective use of these expensive resources is achieved.


Image 1: A CleanSeaNet Envisat ASAR satellite image acquired in February 2009 alerted the Irish Coastguard of an extensive oil slick approximately 50 miles South East of Fastnet Rock off the West Cork coast of Ireland.

CleanSeaNet began operating in April 2007 and oil pollution response authorities of 24 European Coastal States have access to the service. Since the beginning of the service over 400,000,000km2 of European seas have been monitored. More than 4000 possible oil slicks have been detected, but not all of these detections were oil. A study conducted after 18 months of operations showed that the percentage of detections checked on-site by aircraft or patrol vessels and confirmed as oil varies from one region to another but can reach values as high as 80%.

SAR image data is able to detect ships and quite often their wakes. In order to identify vessels suspected of causing pollution, traffic monitoring information from AIS (Automatic Identification Systems) and LRIT (Long Range Identification and Tracking) data is necessary. Later in 2009 CleanSeaNet will provide vessel track information as an added layer on top of the SAR image. Therefore it shall be possible to link a recent spill to a vessel if the vessel is shown to be attached to the spill, or if the track matches pattern and shape of the spill and if there is no confusion between the different vessels observed in the vicinity of the slick.


Image 2: An illegal oil discharge was detected in this CleanSeaNet satellite image acquired in June 2009 off the coast of Spain. The polluting vessel was also detected in the SAR image. Vessel track information taken from the SafeSeaNet AIS database identified the ship responsible for causing the pollution.

Oil spill modelling tools further assist in the identification of vessels responsible for illegal discharges (spill backtracking) and for prediction of spill drift and fate (spill forecasting) to support decision making for pollution response activities. Backtracking of spills and the intersection of the spill trajectory with vessel tracking data can limit the number of potential polluters and allows authorities to carry out more in-depth checking of suspicious vessels. Beginning in 2009 EMSA plans to integrate oil spill modelling capabilities within CleanSeaNet in co-operation with model operators at Coastal States. In the future the service will be further enhanced by the inclusion of additional information to Coastal States, such as sea surface temperature maps, surface chlorophyll maps, and reference data sets including nautical charts.

The Agency has recently launched an open invitation to tender for the EMSA CleanSeaNet Data Centre”, part of the 2nd generation CleanSeaNet to be in place from 2011. The procurement includes the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of the CleanSeaNet Data Centre (CSN DC) The CSN DC information system shall provide a platform for the Agency to manage Earth Observation data. The data will be stored and managed by the CSN DC and distributed to CleanSeaNet users. The CSN will guarantee an advanced platform for the alerting, visualisation, dissemination, ingestion, and archiving of both data and information.

Further information on CleanSeaNet and this tender can be found at: http://cleanseanet.emsa.europa.eu/

EMSA 2. CleanSeaNet. An oil spill detection service for European seas.pdf

In this issue of EOMAG, EARSC has an opportunity to feature an interview with Mr. Leendert Bal, Head of Operations Department of the European Maritime Safety Agency to talk about some aspects of Maritime Safety and Maritime Surveillance and links with satellite based services


INTRODUCTION

Please tell us about EMSA and the relation with satellite services

Maritime safety issues were brought sharply into focus with the sinking of the oil tanker Erika off the coast of France in 1999, followed by the sinking of the Prestige off Spain in 2002. These disasters led to the decision to set up a new EU body which could act as the technical and operational arm of European Union decision makers. With this in mind EMSA, one of the EU’s decentralised regulatory Agencies, was established in 2003. The Agency is required to provide technical support and advice to the European Commission and Member States in certain key maritime safety areas and to monitor the ways in which different Member States and organizations are implementing EU legislation. EMSA has operational tasks in the field of satellite monitoring and detection of illegal discharges of oil at sea, oil pollution response, and in the field of vessel traffic monitoring with Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) and Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) tools. These maritime support services permits EU Member States to share live information on incidents and ship movements off each country’s coast. Overall, EMSA can be seen as a maritime safety, maritime security and protection of the marine environment agency.

What is the EMSA’s role in monitoring system for marine oil spill detection and surveillance in European waters?

The majority of oil spills occur when tankers and other vessels clean out their oil tanks at sea. This practice is illegal, but is very difficult to detect and subsequently prosecute. As a support service for Member States in the fight against pollution, in 2007 EMSA set up CleanSeaNet (CSN), a satellite service for oil spill detection. The system provides pollution alerts and analysed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images to pollution control authorities of Member States within 30 minutes of the satellite overpass. In a nut-shell CleanSeaNet provides the initial detection and tracking of possible discharges from ships using satellite imagery which is then backed up with on-the-spot surveillance by Member States with patrol vessels and aircraft.

(The illustrations and side article provide more information on CleanSeaNet)

How can EMSA assist in satellite monitoring and surveillance during an accidental oil spill?

The Agency can place emergency orders for fast delivery of satellite radar imagery for the affected area and provide pollution emergency reports to the relevant authorities at Member States. In case of major accidental spills the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters may be activated. EMSA acts as a Project Manager of the Charter in case of a major spill in European waters and coordinates the delivery and analysis of radar and optical satellite images made available through the Charter to monitor the evolution of the spill.

What is the added value of a pan-European operational system for marine oil slick detection and surveillance?

EMSA would like to enable greater sharing of data and information, as well as expertise between Coastal States in relation to marine oil slick detection and surveillance. It has been demonstrated that satellite services operated at a regional level allow co-ordination of surveillance resources and an improvement in cost efficiency for aerial and vessel surveillance. Certainly the purchase of a large volume of imagery and services creates a cost reduction due to economies of scale.

Is any other type of data from satellites used in CleanSeaNet?

CleanSeaNet provides wind and wave swell information derived directly from the SAR data and from meteorological sources. In the future, the Agency will bring in other types of data derived from Earth Observation satellites including sea surface temperature maps, and maps of chlorophyll a distribution derived from satellites to support image analysis and interpretation.

Could you describe the vessel traffic services offered by EMSA and how this data is linked to CleanSeaNet?

With so many vessels loading and unloading in European ports, information about cargo, ship safety records and port destinations is vital. EMSA has developed SafeSeaNet (SSN), which is a pan-European electronic information system which harmonises the way maritime data on ship movements and cargoes is exchanged. The EU has the best covered coastline with AIS receiving stations picking up all signals from passing ships.
Data from these systems are being integrated at EMSA to provide Member States and the Commission with a comprehensive image of vessel traffic in the EU. The goal is to distribute to participating countries, the full real-time AIS information picture, enhanced with selected data stored in the SSN system (e.g. notifications on hazardous goods, alert incidents posing threats to safety of navigations and/ or the environment) and LRIT information.
Vessel traffic information will very shortly be available in CleanSeaNet. Integrating vessel track positions with CleanSeaNet satellite radar images assists in the identification and eventual prosecution of the polluting vessel responsible for the spill. Within CleanSeaNet we have already successfully combined satellite SAR with vessel information to positively identify ships responsible for causing pollution.
In fact we plan to enhance CleanSeaNet further by offering Synthetic Aperture Radar automatic vessel detection information layer to identify the presence of vessels which are not transmitting their position by AIS or LRIT.

INTEROPERABILITY, QUALITY & STANDARDS

Coming to the interoperability issues how do you compare EMSA satellite based products with others?

The satellite services team is very aware of the importance of standards and interoperability issues for EO data. CleanSeaNet is a formally recognised GMES service and we aim to follow recommendations for appropriate common standards and protocols within the framework of GMES, the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for SPatail InfoRmation in Europe) Directive and GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems).
In the near future we are moving towards implementation of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) compliant web services for the CleanSeaNet Data Centre. The standards applied to the CSN DC components shall be compliant to the GMES/INSPIRE recommendations on architecture; catalogues/metadata; sensor planning; ordering; web mapping services, data access and dissemination amongst others.

COOPERATION & PARTNERSHIP WITH EO INDUSTRY

What type of dialogue mechanism could take place with the EO service industry?

We have an open dialogue with industry. We receive industry at EMSA to be informed about innovations and staff attend relevant conferences and big exhibitions.

In your opinion, what milestones in last two decades have made an impact in the growth of EO downstream maritime services products?

Certainly R&D activities and pre-operational demonstration projects, for example MarCoast from European Space Agency, and Oceanides from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), as well as developments through the EU Framework Programmes, have been valuable for improving reliability and strengthening the downstream service chain. Of significant importance for the successful establishment of CleanSeaNet has been the availability and reliability of Near Real Time SAR satellite data. Delivery of satellite image products that have been ordered must be delivered 95% of the time, and within a strict time limit. For services which impact operational decision making, fast and reliable delivery of images and derived information is indispensible.

Are there other satellite based service technologies which may have an impact on the maritime sector?

One area EMSA is closely following is the development of satellite based AIS. This technology, which is in demonstration phase, could strengthen the portfolio of vessel information services at the Agency. Satellites can collect the positions of vessels which are far off-shore. This position information is technically difficult to capture using sea or ground based systems. It is in this respect that space-based AIS technology could play an increasingly important role in providing AIS data to the maritime sector, which in turn may be used for various purposes including maritime surveillance.

FUTURE & SOCIETY

At the end of the interview, here is the opportunity for your final thoughts on the future, what do you see as the task ahead?

Following the European Commission’s Blue Book for an Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union, and the strategic goals and recommendations for the EU’s maritime transport policy until 2018 the Agency will continue initiatives for sharing ship related information. EMSA’s guiding principle for the medium term is to focus on those actions that can be undertaken more efficiently at EU level than national level. Certainly the strengthening of maritime surveillance services for Member States and for other Agency bodies at EU level is a medium term goal for the Agency.

Would you like to give some message to the entrepreneurs interested in helping EMSA with its goals?

Data fusion and increased availability of integrated, information rich, products for maritime surveillance is of interest to the Agency. Continuing improvement of Near Real Time Performance for SAR processing would be advantageous. Industry innovation and flexibility in responding to the needs of EMSA for further development of maritime surveillance services is appreciated.

Thank you for your time, and for sharing your thoughts and comments with the EOmag readers.

EMSA 1. Interview with Leendert Bal. Head of Operations Depart. of EMSA.pdf

“Space Council” focused on a Ministerial discussion under the title “Space and Innovation”.

- Background Paper N° 1:Space, Competitiveness and Innovation: Space Activities and their Potential Contribution to Europe’s Global Competitiveness and Innovation Potential
st09851.en09.pdf

- Background Paper N° 2:The European Space Policy, its contribution to European Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth
st09887.en09.pdf

- Preparation paper + Agenda + discussion note on Space and Innovation

- Draft “Space Council” orientations

EU’s Maritime Policy Blue Book (COM 575 final)

EU’s Maritime Policy Blue Book (COM 575 final), welcomed by the European Council in December 2007, undertook to take steps towards a European Marine Observation and Data Network that would improve availability of high quality data. This document clarifies the current European marine data infrastructure and what those steps will be.

st08820.en09.pdf

Last version of the “Practical Guide to EU Funding Opportunities for Research and Innovation”.


(Mid April 2009)The goal of this guide is to help potential applicants for EU funding for research and innovation to find their way to relevant information on funding opportunities in order to identify the most suitable choices among the relevant EU programmes (FP7, Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and Structural funds).

practical-guide-rev2_en.pdf

Draft Agenda


International Information Day & Brokerage Event for the 3rd Call Space in FP7
Warsaw 15th ‐16th September 2009

Agenda
15th Sept. 2008:LOCATION TBD
18:30:WELCOME, N.N.INITIATIVE SPEECH, N.N.
INFORMAL GET‐TOGETHER / RECEPTION
16th Sept. 2008:HOTEL LORD, ALEJA KRAKOWSKA 218
8:45 ‐ 9:30:REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE.
MEET EACH OTHER AT ONE OF THE MEETING POINTS DEDICATED TO A CALL TOPIC
9:30 – 9:40:WELCOME BY HOST, N.N.
9:40 – 9:50:INTRODUCTION AND AGENDA OF THE DAY, N.N.
9:50 – 10:50:3RD SPACE CALL IN FP7, N.N.
10:50 – 11:20:COFFEE BREAK
11:20 – 11:40:HOW TO WRITE A COMPETITIVE PROPOSAL – FROM THE EVALUATOR’S VIEW, N.N.
11:40 – 12:10:INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION RUSSIA, N.N., TBC.
AFRICA & SOUTH AMERICA, N.N., TBC
12:10 ‐ 13:30:LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 15:40:PARALLEL SESSIONS “GMES” AND “SPACE FOUNDATIONS”.
SESSION ON “GMES” , ROOM A
13:30 – 15:00:GMES CORE AND PILOT SERVICES.
MARINE: MYOCEAN, N.N.
CORE SERVICE EMERGENCY: SAFER, 
N.N.CORE SERVICE LAND: GEOLAND 2, N.N.
PILOT SERVICE ATMOSPHERE: MACC, N.N.
PILOT SERVICE SECURITY: G‐MOSAIC, N.N.
15:00 – 15:40:IDEA BOURSE: UP TO 8 PRESENTATIONS OF 5 MIN. 
EACH PARTICIPANTS PRESENT THEIR COMPETENCIES 
AND / OR IDEAS FOR PROJECTS SESSION ON “SPACE FOUNDATIONS” , ROOM B
13:30 – 14:30:ESA ACTIVITIES COMPLEMENTARY TO SPACE TECHNOLOGY, N.N. 
(ESA)SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS, N.N. 
(ESA)EXPLORATION, N.N. (ESA
14:30 – 15:40:IDEA BOURSE: UP TO 12 PRESENTATIONS OF 5 MIN. 
EACH PARTICIPANTS PRESENT THEIR COMPETENCIES 
AND / OR IDEAS FOR PROJECTS
15:40 ‐ 17:00:JOINT BROKERAGE WITH COFFEE SERVED, ALL PARTICIPANTS