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(Dec 2008) Measuring surface deformation remotely with PSInSAR™

TRE is proud to announce that a new version of the PSInSAR™ processing chain is now available for commercial projects. During the last year, the internal software procedures as well as TRE hardware facilities have been updated to allow the delivery of ever better data to our clients and, following three months of testing by our R&D group, the new processing chain is now available!

Although the PSInSAR™ software, used for generating PS data, has been continuously updated since TRE was founded in March 2000, this new release delivers a range of new features and tools that improve the quality of the final results and the amount of the information that can be extracted from radar multi-temporal data-stacks.

1. Points of measurement, PS, affected by non-linear motion and then exhibiting a non-linear displacement time series can be better identified and the deformation signal can be better singled out.
2. Radar data gathered by new satellites, the Cosmo-SkyMed constellation and TerraSAR-X, can be now processed for PSInSAR™ analyses.
3. More quality checks have been added to all processing steps for improved reliability and precision assessment.

Following three months of trials and testing by TRE’s R&D group the new algorithm is now available!

Source

Tele-Rilevamento Europa (TRE) has established itself as a leading global provider of InSAR services thanks to its advanced PSInSAR™ technique, a radar remote sensing technology for monitoring ground movements.

www.treuropa.com

Head office
Via Vittoria Colonna, 7 , 20149 Milano, Italy
Tel.: +39 02 4343.121
Fax: +39 02 4343.1230
E-mail: info@treuropa.com

TRE Canada Inc.
#550 – 409 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC , V6C 1T2, Canada
Tel: +1 604 331.2512
Fax: +1 604 331.2513
E-mail: info@trecanada.com

Spot Image introduced two new service offerings developed to provide clients with direct access to SPOT satellite imagery in the Google Earth environment.

SPOT Globe For Google Earth Enterprise
The first offering, SPOT Globe for Google Earth Enterprise, delivers fusion-ready SPOT imagery to the growing number of organizations who rely on Google Earth Enterprise as their geospatial viewing and archiving solution.

Imagery is delivered in a pre-packaged and pre-ingested format for direct integration into existing Google Earth Enterprise Globes along with other raster and vector layers.

The SPOT Globe offering includes the entire line of 2.5m SPOTMaps mosaics. These off-the-shelf products provide seamless uniform coverage comprised of 2.5-meter, natural-color SPOT 5 satellite imagery acquired in the past three years.

Offered in regional and nationwide orthorectified mosaics, SPOTMaps serve as ideal geographic base maps for visualization, planning and mapping projects. Over 40 countries (more than 15 million km²) are now covered with SPOTMaps, and are available for use within Google Earth Enterprise.

“We are bringing our unique and extensive SPOTMaps coverage to Google Earth Enterprise users”, said Nicolas Stussi, Director of Services at SPOT Image Corp. “The SPOT Globe is a turn-key solution that makes SPOTMaps mosaics available and “ready-to-use” for Google Earth Enterprise customers, which saves users time and money.”.

SPOT Imagery, Google Earth – Ready
Spot Image is also introducing a service that provides SPOT imagery in a Google Earth-Ready KML format. This format enables imagery to be loaded and viewed immediately in any of the Google Earth software packages, including the Free, Plus, Pro and Enterprise levels. The Google Earth-Ready offering is available for any SPOT and Formosat-2 data.

To receive the KML formatted imagery, SPOT clients simply request it from Customer Service when placing the order. In addition to having the KML-formatted imagery delivered via FTP or CD/DVD, SPOT clients receive a network link giving them immediate online access to their imagery for visualization in Google Earth for 30 days.

“We have an increasing number of our customers using Google Earth Plus/Pro as part of their geospatial solution, especially for time-critical applications”, said Stussi. “Providing a vehicle that simplifies access and use makes our imagery more relevant in time sensitive situations, and empowers our customers to use and share SPOT imagery more efficiently”.

About Spot Image (www.spotimage.com)
The SPOT constellation of three satellites offers the broadest range of image telemetry, including, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 meter resolutions. Spot Image provides imagery, data, surveillance and mapping solutions within numerous markets including Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Land Management & Planning, Disaster Recovery, and Oil, Gas & Mining Exploration. The constellation is supplemented by the Taiwanese satellite Formosat-2 for which Spot Image has exclusive commercial distribution rights. Spot Image will also serve as exclusive commercial distributor for the upcoming 50cm resolution 2-satellite constellation, Pleiades, and the SPOT 6 satellite constellation. For over two decades, the Spot Image organization has perfected the ability to harness space- and ground-based systems to meet customers’ needs. Spot Image has also developed a far-reaching global network of commercial offices, receiving stations, partners and distributors. Every first-tier data provider operating today relies on Spot’s commercial network for reaching the global market.
SPOT Image is a Google Earth Enterprise Partner.

Spot Image is 81% owned by Astrium Services, an EADS company.

For further information:
Jean-François Faudi
jean-francois . faudi @ spotimage.fr
Tél : +33 (0)5 62 19 40 40

Google and Google Earth are trademarks of Google Inc.

Source

(nov 2008) RapidEye is pleased to announce the “opening” of their new Image Gallery on their website (www.rapideye.de).

The Image Gallery will feature high resolution satellite images taken from around the world by RapidEye’s constellation of five spacecraft. RapidEye plans to update the Image Gallery regularly as new, exciting images become available.

“RapidEye’s Image Gallery highlights a small sample of the images provided lately by our satellites and makes them accessible to everyone.” comments Michael Prechtel, Head of RapidEye’s Marketing and Sales.

System commissioning and calibration activities are advancing. bq. “Having obtained good images from each of the five cameras makes us confident that all cameras work well,” says Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye. “We are making good progress in tuning a large number of system parameters that have to be just right, in order to generate the high quality our customers expect from us. The images posted in the Image Gallery show the first results.”

The new gallery currently includes six images in South America and the U.S. Among these are the area around the volcano Tunupa in Bolivia, oil fields in the vicinity of Odessa, Texas, as well as an agricultural area near São Paulo, Brazil. All images can be viewed on RapidEye’s website at www.rapideye.de/home/news/gallery/. RapidEye successfully launched their constellation of satellites at the end of August, and is currently moving closer to completing final testing and calibration activities that will allow for commercial operations.

Please note that these images are provided for viewing purposes only. Commissioning and calibration activities are still in progress. The image gallery can be viewed at www.rapideye.de/home/news/gallery/.

Source

(Nov 2008) Planetek Italia is now an authorized distributor of DigitalGlobe’s high resolution world imagery solutions to customers in Italy and Greece.

With this agreement, Planetek Italia will enrich its capacity to offer remotely sensed satellite products and value added services, by adding QuickBird and WorldView-1 satellite data to its list of widely used imagery, including IKONOS, OrbView, Kompsat-2, Formosat-2, SPOT and TerraSAR-X.
By contacting Planetek Italia sales dept., all GIS and CAD users (ESRI, Autodesk, Bentley, Intergraph) can also ask for DigitalGlobe innovative web-services for GIS professionals, such as ImageConnect™, and connect directly to DigitalGlobe’s online ImageLibrary, the most comprehensive source of global aerial and satellite earth imagery.
To know more please visit also the italian Product section at the following link

Source Planetek

Work is forging ahead on Ingenio and Paz, Spain’s future Earth observation satellites.

INSA is taking an active part in the definition of the two satellites, under two contracts which it was recently awarded. In the first, a “Compatibility study for a shared segment for the Paz and Ingenio satellites”, INTA is responsible for two parallel studies, one of which has been assigned to the consortium lead by INSA that also includes Astrium S.A.S. and Deimos Space S.L. The second, the “Ingenio ground segment consolidation study”, has been awarded by the European Space Agency to the consortium formed by Deimos and INSA.

Both satellites, which will be launched in 2012, will cover Spain’s civil and military remote sensing requirements by means of their optical and radar observation instruments which are being designed from the outset to ensure a high degree of compatibility. They will thereby obtain far better results than if the two had been developed separately.

Source

Latest news

27 November 2008
bq. Infoterra launches new high definition land cover mapping product – LandBase™

Infoterra has launched LandBase™, its new high definition land cover mapping product. LandBase combines the latest object based classification technology and digital aerial imagery to provide an unrivalled land cover product, allowing viewing down to 1:5000 scale/property level. This enables the extraction of meaningful land cover data for a range of applications including; environmental and habitat management, change detection, flood modelling and infrastructure planning.

Read press release in english

20 November 2008
bq. Infoterra develops an online geographical asset management system for Stanfords

Infoterra has partnered with Stanfords Business Mapping, a leading retail supplier of paper mapping and map data for businesses, to develop a cost-effective new geographical asset management system – Stanfords GIS – for organisations managing property portfolios. This new system incorporates mapping and aerial photography in a secure, web-based management interface to provide an integrated geographical property database

Read press release in english

20 November 2008
bq. TerraSAR-X Imagery: Unique Year-End Ordering with Attractive Discounts expires Dec 10th

Infoterra GmbH now offers a unique opportunity which may well correspond to customer’s budgetary strategies towards the end of the fiscal year – or simply be an attractive discount opportunity. When ordering an individually defined data volume until Dec 10th, customers receive a volume discount of up to 30% for these data orders.

View website

17 November 2008
bq. British Transport Police to use ERDAS APOLLO. Infoterra supports 4 year implementation programme for London 2012 preparation.

Infoterra Ltd is working with British Transport Police to implement ERDAS APOLLO 2009, a unified enterprise platform for managing and serving large volumes of geospatial data across an organisation.

Read press release in english

SOURCE

(Dec 2008) Based on the outstanding success of the first tandem mission between ERS-2 and Envisat , ESA has paired the two satellites together again to help improve our understanding of the planet.

ERS-2, ESA’s veteran spacecraft, and Envisat, the largest environmental satellite ever built, both carry Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instruments that provide high resolution images of the Earth’s surface. By combining two or more SAR images of the same site, slight alterations that may have occurred between acquisitions can be detected.

This technique, known as SAR interferometry or InSAR, has proven to be very useful for applications such as glacier monitoring, surface deformation detection and terrain mapping.

ESA engineers configured the first SAR tandem mission, which took place from September 2007 to February 2008, and the current one, which began on 23 November, to ensure that the satellites both acquire data over the same area just 28 minutes apart.

This short time separation allows for changes that occur quickly to be detected. Fast-moving glaciers, for instance, move more than 200 m per year and can move as much as 1 cm in 30 minutes. The ability to detect these small changes occurring on the ground between acquisitions is also allowing scientists to understand better and improve the quality of the SAR interferometry technique.

The current tandem mission, scheduled to run until 27 January 2009, is continuing the work of the first tandem mission with respect to measuring the velocity of fast-moving glaciers, detecting land-ice motion and developing elevation models over flat terrain.

However, based on the first mission’s proven ability to provide precise elevation information over flat regions, data from the current mission will also be used to identify natural carbon sources and sinks in Kazakh Steppe and wetlands in permafrost regions.

A challenging configuration

ESA engineers had to overcome many challenges in order to put Envisat and ERS-2 into a tandem flight configuration. For instance, in 2001 ERS-2 lost the ability to be manoeuvred in the usual way by onboard gyroscopes, navigational tools that allow mission controllers to maintain the correct position of satellites.

The operational lifetime of satellite missions is normally determined by the functioning of onboard gyroscopes. Without them, the ESA team had to work out a way of positioning the spacecraft by operating onboard sensors in a new way.

Part of their creative solution involved using a device called the Digital Earth Sensor (DES), which is designed to provide the horizon line to allow basic checks on the spacecraft’s position, and analysing Doppler frequency shifts in the signals of ERS-2’s radar instruments.

ERS-2, launched in 1995, and Envisat, launched in 2002, have exceeded the time they were intended to stay in orbit. Since they remain operational and continue to provide quality data about our planet, engineers are trying to use as little fuel as possible so as not to shorten their lifetimes.

“The strategy is to align the tandem start date with an Envisat manoeuvre. Therefore, there is no need to spend extra hydrazine for Envisat. For ERS, the manoeuvre to place it in tandem position is such that the satellite drifts back to its nominal orbit without additional manoeuvre after the tandem campaign,” ESA Mission Planner Manager Sergio Vazzana said.

Source Spacemart

(Dec 2008) In the coming days, the Colombian government will make a very important decision for the country: how and when to launch the first national satellite. There are multiple options on the table – and contradictory positions

For more than 20 years, one of the dreams of Colombian governments and presidents alike has been to have the country’s own satellite in space, which would allow Colombia autonomy and freedom in the management of its telecommunications.

It now appears that before the end of this year, the government will make a decision in the cabinet to launch not one but two satellites before 2010. The problem is that there are already divisions among those in the Uribe administration.

For several months, the Ministry of Communications together with the Colombian Commission on Space presided by Vice President Francisco Santos, has led a process to launch a powerful telecommunications satellite that would guarantee sufficient capacity to make up for the growing needs in the next 15-20 years.

To finalize this project, the ministry has set aside 100 billion pesos (over 43 million USD) next year and has announced that it will designate another 350 billion (150 million USD) between 2010 and 2012, coming from the telecommunications fund, with the goal of financing 280 million dollars that this single mega satellite will cost.

But this is not the only initiative. The ministry has been accompanying the Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi, which also has a project to launch a satellite for observation of Earth, which could cost 100-150 million dollars.

On the other hand a consortium of companies from five countries made a proposal to the Office of the Vice President, Ministries of Defense and of Communications, the Agustín Codazzi and to the National Planning Department to launch a veritable constellation of up to seven satellites, costing between 250 and 300 million dollars.

This constellation will have a geostationary satellite, like the one sought by the Ministry of Communications, but with a smaller but scalable capacity. Buying one of those large satellites “would be as if a family going on an excursion purchased a TransMilenio (the public transportation system in Bogotá) bus with the idea that along the way passengers would be picked up to fill up the bus and thus pay for all of the expenses,” says an expert consulted by SEMANA.

In addition to the communications satellite that costs 150 million dollars, it would be possible to have one for Earth’s observation, capable of taking photos with a one meter resolution, like what the Agustín Codazzi wants. This satellite would have a synthetic aperture radar with multiple military and civilian uses, which would allow for the generation of a whole new industry in Colombia and would put the country at the forefront in Latin America. All this would supposedly cost the same as the mega-satellite.

The Vice Minister of Communications Daniel Medina told SEMANA that he is thinking of a satellite with 32 transponders (a system for which signals are received and retransmitted) because the demand for broad band is going to be very high. According to the connectivity plan, in the coming years more than 30,000 schools have to be equipped with broad band, of which half will have to be via satellite.

The problem is that the same ministry was wrong ten years ago when it designed the Compartel program, which contracted 10,000 fixed telephony points and a few broad band points via satellite in rural and marginalized areas of the country. What nobody predicted was the overwhelming advance in cellular telephones that arrived to many of those areas which put the program in crisis. Fortunately this program is on the verge of being reoriented.

That is why several experts consulted by SEMANA believe that it is better to launch a satellite with less capacity and a lower pricetag, in order to minimize risks and to use the remaining funds to add on new satellites.

Some military officials believe that instead of having an observation satellite it would be better to have a SAR, synthetic aperture radar satellite, which would be able to penetrate the permanently clouded areas of the country in order to observe both day and night everything from volcanic activity, to snow-capped mountains and rivers, to coffee or coca crops and even to armed groups in jungles and mountains.

At the same time, spokespersons from the consortium tell SEMANA that they could acquire about four low-orbit communications satellites, known as LEO. Located about 800 kilometers from the earth, each one of those satellites would pass by the country every 45 minutes, which would allow them to make a follow-up almost in real time for civilian and military installations that require it, for maritime vessels and land vehicles, and for the troops who today are in the jungle and can last weeks without their whereabouts being known.

Precisely what the government has in its hands is the possibility of giving a technological leap which would replace mules with satellites, but that requires policy definitions of what the country wants and needs, and not what each of its ministries and their entities desire.

A constellation not only will give greater capacity to the armed forces but will also create a new civilian knowledge-based industry in the country. More importantly, it will give Colombia independence to measure and look at what it is interested in, and not, as is the case today, what interests the owners of the satellites that it uses.

The Ministry of Communications said that for now the government is studying the matter and coordinating between the different ministries and entities in order to bring the issue to the cabinet before year’s end. “No decisions have been made and we are open to exploring all the possibilities,” said Medina.

It is time that Colombia takes on this technological leap, but it should do so in a sound footing in order to not embark the country on a wrong path into space.

Source

ESA PR 47-2008. The Ministers in charge of space activities in the European Space Agency’s 18 Member States and Canada concluded a successful two-day Council meeting in The Hague, agreeing to undertake new initiatives in several fields and endorsing the next phases of a set of ongoing programmes.

Decisions are a further step towards giving Europe the means to respond to global challenges. In keeping with the European Space Policy, designed in cooperation with the European Commission, the measures will further strengthen Europe’s role in the development and exploitation of space applications serving public policy objectives and the needs of European citizens and enterprises.

ESA Council at Ministerial Level, The Hague, November 2008
These decisions have particular relevance at the present time, showing as they do Europe’s determination to invest in space as a key sector providing for innovation, economic growth, strategic independence and the preparation of the future.

Recognising that space is a strategic asset and that it is of fundamental importance for the independence, security and prosperity of Europe, the Ministers also adopted four Resolutions:

  • first, “The role of Space in delivering Europe’s global objectives”, covering the political and programmatic highlights of the Council;
  • second, a resolution establishing the Level of Resources for the Agency to cater for Space Science programmes and basic activities in the period 2009-2013;
  • third, the renewal of the contribution of ESA Member States to the running costs of the Guiana Space Centre – Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana (South America); and
  • fourth, a resolution outlining the future evolution of the Agency, spanning its financial management reform, decision-making processes, industrial and procurement policies and the further development of site infrastructures for ESA programmes.

Decisions on programmes/activities

On the programmatic side, the Ministers took decisions concerning the full range of the Agency’s mandatory and optional programmes:

The decisions taken concern the following:

a) The Agency’s mandatory activities:

  • Funding of the Level of Resources for 2009-2013 covering the Scientific Programme and basic activities.

b) Continuation of ongoing optional programmes and start of new programmes:

  • Subscriptions for the Launcher programmes, including funding of the Guiana Space Centre, Ariane 5 and Vega accompaniment technology programmes, Ariane 5 evolution and the future launchers preparatory programme.
  • Subscriptions for the Earth Observation activities, including the second segment of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Space Component programme, the Meteosat 3rd generation development programme and a novel Climate Change Initiative on the provision of essential climate variables.
  • Subscriptions for the human spaceflight, microgravity and human exploration programmes including exploitation and evolution of the International Space Station, on-board research in life and physical sciences and definition studies on the evolution of a returnable transfer vehicle.
  • Subscriptions to robotic exploration programmes (the ExoMars programme and preparatory activities on future Mars robotic exploration).
  • Subscriptions for Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES), focusing on technologies, applications and mission demonstrations and including preparatory work for a European Data Relay System (EDRS), an air traffic management satellite system (Iris) and Integrated Application Promotion combining usage of telecommunications, Earth observation and navigation satellite systems with terrestrial information and communications systems.
  • Subscriptions for the programme on the evolution of the European Global Navigation Satellite System, to continue the improvement of Galileo.
  • Subscription to the start of a Space Situational Awareness programme to provide the information to help protect European space systems against space debris and the influence of adverse space weather.
  • Subscription to the continuation of the General Support Technology programme to provide in a timely way technologies for a wide range of new space programmes.

Space is an enabling tool which gives European decision-makers the ability to respond to critical challenges such as global climate change and global security. It brings a significant contribution to Europe’s growth and employment; it provides indispensable enabling technologies and services for the knowledge society; it increases the understanding of our planet and Universe; and it contributes towards European identity, cohesion and security, providing inspiration for future human potential and bringing young people into scientific and technical education.

Through this meeting the ESA Ministers have seized the opportunity to capitalise on the recent successes and achievements of Europe in space and to translate the political impetus into new programmes able to deliver knowledge, services and competitiveness and to shape ESA to assert itself as a global space agency, indispensable to the world in contributing to global policies.

Note for editors

For further background information on the programmatic aspects, see ESA PR 44-2008

Or contact:

Franco Bonacina
ESA Spokesman and Head of Media Relations Office
Communications and Knowledge Department
Tel: + 33 (0)1 53 69 72 99
e-mail: franco.bonacina@esa.int

SOURCE ESA

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