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WASHINGTON — Planet has won a second contract to provide satellite imagery to the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), beating out contenders UrtheCast, Orbital Insight and Sky Hawk Drone Services.

The one-year, $14 million contract follows a seven-month, $20 million pilot contract that began in September to assess ways San Francisco-based Planet’s “persistence and global coverage capabilities could most effectively support the NGA mission,” according to a July 19 agency statement.

NGA said none of the other companies it considered could offer an imagery subscription service with a high enough revisit rate on a global basis. NGA said the agency requires the ability to monitor changes across large geographic areas for humanitarian and intelligence missions.

“Monitoring sources that collect imagery at medium resolution (3-7 meters) at a cadence of weekly or better can satisfy the requirements of making assessments of certain [redacted] intelligence problems, including food security forecasting, [redacted] installation or infrastructure development, military preparedness [redacted] economic forecasting by measuring inventories, and other observations that can be made from analyzing changes over time. In addition, medium resolution monitoring sources improves NGA’s ability to maintain current shoreline data and assess whether foundation products require updating,” the agency said in an unclassified document released July 20.

Planet’s constellation of remote-sensing cubesats, called Doves, is currently the largest constellation in orbit. The NGA document described the constellation as 160 satellites with 120 active, but Planet spokesperson Trevor Hammond told SpaceNews July 20 that the operator’s current fleet numbers 190 satellites, 142 of which are actively imaging; the remaining 48 are still being integrated into the fleet after launching on a Soyuz rocket last week. Dove cubesats have an average resolution of 3.7 meters. The Planet fleet also includes seven larger SkySat satellites from its acquisition of Terra Bella and five RapidEye satellites from BlackBridge.

Planet has 23 operational ground stations to communicate with its constellation and receive collected imagery. A ground station completed in northern Canada earlier this year is facing protracted licensing delays, prompting the company to look elsewhere for other sites while awaiting an outcome.

Of Planet’s competitors for the NGA contract, only Vancouver-based UrtheCast is a satellite operator, and the company’s first UrtheDaily satellites won’t be in orbit until early 2019. The company currently leverages cameras on the International Space Station and two free-flyers gained through the acquisition of Elecnor Deimos in 2015.

NGA said that Orbital Insight, not being a satellite operator, was inherently “incapable of satisfying the requirement.” Hanover, Maryland-based Sky Hawk Drone Services provides imagery only for domestic monitoring activities, the agency said.

NGA said the second Planet contract gives the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community imagery from 25 regions of interest that include the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

“Our second contract with Planet demonstrates NGA’s continued pursuit of commercial [geospatial intelligence] GEOINT where it has demonstrated mission utility,” John Charles, NGA’s senior GEOINT authority for commercial imagery, said in a July 19 statement. “At the same time that Planet has continued to mature their capability to where they can now offer weekly global coverage, NGA and our many customers have been learning how to use it across our varied mission sets in numerous locations so we truly understand where we get the bang for our buck. Those lessons learned are reflected in the structure of this new contract.”

NGA’s mainstay imagery and geospatial solutions provider DigitalGlobe said at the time of the first Planet NGA contract that it had expected the agency to experiment with new small satellite resources.

“We see no impact whatsoever on our relationship with the NGA,” DigitalGlobe Chief Executive Jeffrey Tarr said in October. “Very different use case: We’re foundational and part of the core [NGA] mission.”

Nonetheless, DigitalGlobe is investing in small satellites of its own. Through a joint venture with Saudi Arabia-based Taqnia Space and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), DigitalGlobe is building a constellation of least six small satellites called Scout, with sub-meter resolution imaging capabilities for launch in 2019. The company is also planning a constellation called WorldView Legion starting in 2020 for which it has given few details other than saying it will reach revisit rates of up to 40 times a day. WorldView Legion replaces the WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and GeoEye-1 satellites, and will double the company’s 30-centimeter and multispectral imaging capacity. Space Systems Loral, a satellite manufacturing subsidiary of MDA Corp., which is buying DigitalGlobe, is building those satellites.

In the July 20 document, NGA said it expects more imagery providers like Planet to launch remote-sensing constellations over the next five years. The agency will reassess its commercial options as these new entrants come online “before entering subsequent acquisitions.”

Source @Spacenews

UrtheCast Corp., its subsidiary Deimos Imaging and e-GEOS (a company owned by Telespazio and the Italian Space Agency) announced on 20 October 2017 a strategic partnership to offer a unique combination of joint optical and radar sensors with ground stations.

Massimo Claudio Comparini CEO of e-GEOS left and Fabrizio Pirondini CEO of Deimos Imaging right shaking hands after signing the agreement

The collaboration will allow observation of the Earth day and night, regardless of weather conditions, and is intended to provide a constant asset monitoring service resulting from the specific characteristics of the COSMO-SkyMed SAR constellation and the Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 optical multispectral sensors.

The combination of high-resolution radar data with medium and very-high resolution optical imagery is expected to provide customers with an exceptional level of decision making insights, and to create a unique and valuable benefit for users in a diverse group of sectors including emergency services and the oil and gas industry, among others.
The data acquired by the different satellites, will be jointly marketed and distributed to the end user, enabling the provision of seamless products and services.

Both e-GEOS and Deimos Imaging are leading sources of information solutions for the emergency response sector. The current space assets of UrtheCast and e-GEOS include the Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 optical multispectral sensors and the COSMO-SkyMed constellation of the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence, consisting of four radar satellites. These assets are significant contributors to the European Commission’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, where e-GEOS leads the Rapid Mapping Team for the operations providing mapping products based on satellite imagery for disaster risk reduction and emergency response. In addition, both Deimos Imaging and e-GEOS have extensive satellite imagery and production capabilities operating 24/7.

“We are very glad to be partnering with UrtheCast because this collaboration supports and empowers our data strategy to become a hub for all geospatial data, both optical and SAR to serve reliable monitoring capabilities and to feed our multi-sensor application platforms. This agreement confirms the importance to establish strong and valuable partnerships with key players to provide the best services to our customers”, said Massimo Claudio Comparini, CEO of e-GEOS.

“We see that highly derived products are significantly broadening the utility of Earth Observation data as near-real time efficient tools for decision makers. By partnering with e-GEOS, we are delighted to significantly accelerate decision making in a wide range of fields”, said Fabrizio Pirondini, CEO at UrtheCast’s subsidiary Deimos imaging. “This joint service is a precursor to our upcoming OptiSAR™ constellation, the world’s first fully-integrated constellation of sixteen multispectral optical and SAR satellites, which is expected to revolutionize the way we observe and map the Earth.”

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Chantilly, VA, 28 August 2017 – Airbus Defence and Space has entered into an agreement with the GIS mapping engine operator Satshot to provide high-resolution SPOT 6/7 satellite data over a large area of the corn and wheat belt within the continental United States. SPOT 6/7 data is integrated into the Satshot platform, which can be used for deep analysis of specific farmland for further improved operations and efficiency.

Satshot is a fully customized cloud-based online Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping engine that handles satellite imagery distribution, analysis, and management for the agricultural (ag) industry. Satshot relies on three main platforms (Mapcenter, Landscout and iCue) along with various imagery to help growers be more efficient in the field. SPOT 6/7 data can be used within Satshot’s platforms for a variety of applications, such as: crop health monitoring and stress estimation throughout the season, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), crop damage assessment for insurance, land use sustainability management, land value, and Precison Ag Variable Rate Technologies (VRT).

SPOT 6/7 data provides 1.5 meter high resolution natural color and near infra-red information with daily collection opportunities making the data a valuable source for analysis and decision-making in the ag industry. The large swath and coverage capabilities of the twin satellites allow for mapping from a national level down to fragmented farmland parcels at a very competitive price point. This trade-off between resolution, coverage and revisit is key to monitor crop growth and needs more closely and make better informed decisions.

“We are thrilled to have a partner like Satshot, who is leveraging our SPOT 6/7 satellites to serve the US agriculture industry with high value information” said François Lombard, Head of the Intelligence Business at Airbus Defence and Space. “Disseminating imagery and value added data into the hands of our partners will provide near real time solutions for farmers, agribusinesses and will have a positive impact on food production and sustainability.”

Lanny Faleide, President and founder of Satshot said: “This is the first time satellite imagery of this quality and resolution will be accessible to the ag market at exactly the scale needed and at an attractive price level. We are extremely excited to get this data in the hands of everyone in the ag industry to truly help create added insight and understanding concerning our clients fields and managed crops.”

Airbus Defence and Space and Satshot will expand this partnership to provide more imagery and data into the Satshot platforms. To learn more about Satshot, please visit www.satshot.com.

Source Airbus

In today’s world where image data is abundant, the scarce resource in imagery intelligence is analyst capacity. Spacemetric and Simularity joined their respective Keystone and AI-ADS technologies to demonstrate how automated image registration and artificial intelligence techniques are disruptive technologies in change detection.

Based on the Keystone technology, Spacemetric applied rigorous photogrammetric techniques on sequences of satellite and UAS image data. This approach ensured best possible relative alignment of image pixels, thus eliminating spurious noise and false signals in subsequent anomaly detection. A short video illustrating this process is available here. A full report with case studies is available upon request.

Spacemetric and Simularity jointly offer a solution to local government, municipalities, and private companies to monitor their properties, rapidly detect change, and benefit by generating revenue, saving costs, and monitoring compliancy issues before they happen.

To request a free copy of the complete case study report, please leave a message with your contact details on the contact section of Spacemetric’s website.

© Ana Maria Lebada Blog (4 August 2017) The UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) discussed implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during its seventh session. Senior officials and executives from national geospatial information and statistical authorities within Member States and international geospatial experts from across the globe welcomed the alignment of GGIM’s Strategic Framework with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and discussed ways to support the alignment.

In opening remarks to the seventh session of GGIM, Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, observed that the Committee’s agenda includes items that are “closely aligned” to the needs of the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs. He noted that the broad and integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda requires innovative ways of tackling development challenges, and highlighted that the ways in which countries collect, process, and manage data need to undergo a similar revolution, to ensure the monitoring and evidence-based decision making for the SDGs.

Liu Zhenmin suggested GGIM can contribute to the creation of a new data ecosystem for sustainable development.

Zhenmin explained that this requires coordinated efforts at the global, regional and national level to strengthen countries’ geospatial information management and ensure countries’ coherence of statistics, geospatial information, earth observation, environmental, and big data. He added that, through developing norms, standards, guides, and capacity building for geospatial management, GGIM can contribute to the creation of a new data ecosystem for sustainable development, as integrated information systems will ensure that all countries will be able to measure and monitor the state of the people and planet, while informing the decisions of citizens and governments with timely data.

Mexico expressed concern about mobilizing budgetary and extra-budgetary resources for implementing the proposed GGIM Strategic Framework and possible expansion related to the 2030 Agenda. Belgium suggested using existing associations and organizational structures to implement the Framework.

GGIM Europe welcomed the proposed Framework and noted that it is exploring ways in which it can collaborate with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for its implementation. Japan and Spain recommended collaboration between the GGIM regional committees and the UN Regional Commissions on capacity building for developing countries to implement the Framework. The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the UN Economic Commission for the Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) also invited collaborations with the GGIM regional committees.

China, Japan and Singapore stressed the need to prioritize capacity building on geospatial information for developing countries in the Committee’s work. China added that all governments should make geospatial information the primary source of data for social and economic development.

The GGIM’s discussions on the SDGs follow the UN Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) adoption of Resolution E/RES/2016/27, on ‘Strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management’ in July 2016. The Resolution recognizes that the Committee of Experts “is well placed” to assist Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the small island developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway. The Resolution notes the need for sustainable funding and support for the Committee’s operations related to the SDGs and encourages Member States to provide voluntary contributions and consider expert secondments to support the Committee’s activities. The Resolution also requests the UN Secretary-General to try to mobilize additional resources, including through trust funds and other sources.

Following the adoption of the Resolution, in December 2016, the Secretariat tabled the UN-GGIM ‘2017-2021 Strategic Framework’ (available as Annex to the Resolution) at the Expanded Bureau meeting, as an initial starting point for discussion towards a GGIM strategic plan. The framework is designed as an overarching global policy framework for the GGIM to communicate and reference the importance of integrating geospatial information into global development policies, and to contribute to national implementations of the 2030 Agenda. The Framework explicitly notes that the UN-GGIM is “anchored” by the 2030 Agenda and notes that the Committee will help with providing:

  • recommendations for sound national policies, legal frameworks and institutional arrangements;
  • fundamental authoritative data and information;
  • agreed standards, methods, guides, and frameworks;
  • principles on geospatial information and open data;
  • recommendations for the integration and interoperability of national information systems; information sharing and knowledge transfer; and
  • building global and local capability

The seventh session of the UN-GGIM convened from 2-4 August 2017, at UN Headquarters in New York, US. GGIM Website ECOSOC Resolution:Strengthening institutional arrangements on geospatial information management

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July 25th, 2017. In the last couple of weeks, the Forest Inspector has raised vivid discussions in the Romanian press about the status of the platform and the mobile application. TERRASIGNA has contributed to the platform development, and the facts below present the service evolution, as well as its progress’ deployment stages.

The Romanian Forest Inspector is a monitoring service, based on satellite imagery, acquired and processed by our company, and transferred to the general public use, through an IT platform, administered by an external company.

The service is a geographic information system that ingests Sentinel 1 radar imagery and optical satellite images from Sentinel 2 and Landsat. Support information is acquired from Open Street Map and Google platforms. Data availability is verified every two to five days and acquired once it meets the mandatory quality and cloud coverage criteria. Prior to any imagery analysis, in-house developed software performs all the necessary pre-processing steps like co-registration or atmospheric correction. Afterwards, the software compares pairs of images taken at 10 to 15 days interval over the same areas and identifies the changes in forest cover, which can indicate logging activities, wind damages, fires, etc.

These changes, that can be equalled to forest loss, do not necessarily represent illegal deforestation.

Forest loss can be caused by various natural and human induced processes loss: legal harvesting, wind damages, landslides, fires, flash floods, etc. In order to assess legal or illegal forest cuts, the satellite map is further populated with information coming from the governmental digital database and tracking system. This information includes:

  • permissions about who, what and where to cut – woodland project developments, exploitation licenses and other legal approvals for forest exploitation;
  • the truck license plate number;
  • the logging location.

The platform represents a part of SUMAL project (Woodland Vegetation Tracking System) and brings together citizen activism, technology and authorities. Due to its multi-level access features, both authorities and citizens can monitor the logging activities.

Back in 2014, in order to fight illegal cutting, the government at that time first established a mandatory digital tracking system for all the trucks transporting wood. This mobile application – initially known as The Forest Radar (Radarul Padurilor) – allows every citizen to verify the legitimacy of logging operations, based on the truck licence plate number, GPS data records and location registration. However, the system proved to be easily eluded through GPS fake loading points, and in 2016, in order to add an additional control, this mobile application was enforced with the online platform The Forest Inspector – solution based on satellite images.

(© Copernicus website-Brussels, 29 September 2017). Last year, eight innovative Copernicus use cases were funded and supported technically by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), in the frame of the 2017 Use Cases programme. CAMS recently launched a second call and is looking for six new ground –breaking applications. If you would like to develop an economically sustainable model on the basis of your innovative ideas, this is your chance!

There are numerous business cases that demonstrate the value that Copernicus brings to society and provide useful examples that help others to imagine how they in turn might use the data in their own line of work. One of the missions of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) is to demonstrate how Copernicus data can be applied to real-world challenges. Successful Copernicus business and application cases are excellent demonstration tools for showcasing how these challenges are being tackled using Copernicus data.

Last year, CAMS launched the ‘Use Cases programme’ designed to support, technically and financially, the launch of innovative applications using one or more CAMS information products. A first group of eight use cases was selected on the basis of two criteria: the quality of the submitted business case and the potential communication tool that these cases represent for illustrating the benefit of CAMS, and of the Copernicus programme in general. The contracts between the promoters of these use cases and CAMS are structured in two phases, a development phase of up to 6 months, and an exploitation/demonstration phase of up to 18 months. It is expected that an economically sustainable model will have been established by the end of the contract. The 2017 use cases are now entering the exploitation phase and some of the services provided are already being offered through smartphones apps and websites.

While this first generation of CAMS use cases are entering the second phase of their contract, a new public call has been just launched with the objective to award up to six additional contracts which will develop and demonstrate end-to-end applications based on CAMS products. The purpose, once again, is to stimulate innovative ideas and support the development of downstream applications. If you would like to bid for this call you need to submit your ideas by 8 November this year.

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(© Peter B. de Selding | Sep 17, 2017) PARIS — With satellite fleet operator SES joining its investor team, Seraphim Capital passed the $90-million mark for its Seraphim Space Fund and closed it with the announcement of two initial investments in Spire Global and Iceye Oy.

London-based Seraphim is no longer the outlier it appeared to be in 2015 when it first announced its intentions to use money from well-known space-industry players to finance startups whose technology ultimately would be useful to the industry’s established companies.

At the time, these included hardware builders Airbus and Surrey Satellites, and satellite services provider Telespazio as well as funding from the European Space Agency and Britain’s Satellite Application Catapult.

As Mark Rigolle, a former CFO of SES and now heading funds-seeking startup LeoSat, likes to say: “Anyone who says it’s easy raising money in this sector has never had to do it.” That proved the case for Seraphim, which struggled to meet its goal of closing with 83 million British pounds, or $123 million at 2015 exchange rates.

Since then, Seraphim has rethought its approach, hired former Google Maps, Earth and Local CTO Michael Jones as a managing partner and bided its time as the European markets woke up to the promise of what was going on in the United States.

Airbus has invested in multibillion-dollar startup OneWeb’s global internet constellation and created Airbus Ventures, which invested in IoT startup ELSE/Astrosat; Thales Alenia Space has invested in Spaceflight Industries’ startup BlackSky Earth observation project; and the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centers have begun to yield measurable results.

Europe likely will never be as ready to go as all-in on speculative investments as U.S. investors. But the movement is clear, even if many of the investment levels look modest by U.S. standards.

SES is located in Luxembourg, whose leaders’ language often makes them sound like investment-fund managers rather than politicians.

Luxembourg is putting cash into ventures that want to mine celestial bodies for minerals — not because Luxembourg thinks this market is near-term, but because it believes such investment creates a dynamic that will lure near-term talent and capital.

SES Chief Strategy and Development Officer Christophe De Hauwer said the company, which will have a seat on the Seraphim advisory board, invested in the fund as a way to keep an eye on developments of future use to SES.

“We’ve invested in the Seraphim Space Fund and joined the advisory board to further enhance our ability to identify and engage with innovative developments along our existing value chains, as well as with opportunities adjacent to our core markets,” De Hauwer said in a Sept. 14 statement.

Telespazio Chief Executive Luigi Pasquali, whose space services company is investing alongside Thales Alenia Space in BlackSky, said: “Seraphim is one of the most important nodes of the network we are building to keep up with this transformation and to manage innovation.”

Seraphim said Sept. 14 that it had closed its first two investments, in Spire Global of the United States, which has facilities in Scotland and Singapore; and Iceye Oy of Finland.

Spire, which is developing a network of small satellites for meteorological and maritime-tracking, is no longer a startup. It has raised some $70 million in funding rounds since 2013 and already operates a revenue-generating satellite infrastructure.

Lead backers include RRE Ventures, Promus Ventures, Jump Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Given that it’s well past the starting blocs, Spire might seem an odd choice for Seraphim. But fund manager Mark Boggett said he will not turn down a good investment prospect, even if it is well into development.

Iceye plans to begin launching a constellation of small radar satellites — “small” and “radar” do not usually play together — in 2018. Before the Seraphim investment, whose value was not disclosed, Iceye had raised $18.7 million in several funding rounds since 2015.

Iceye’s backers have included the European Union’s Horizon 2020 fund and the Finnish government. Other supporters are Draper Associates, Draper Nexus, True Ventures, Space Angels and Lifeline Ventures, the latter based in Finland.

Seraphim’s stated focus is companies involved in Earth observation, whether from space or the atmosphere. It is about to close on an investment in an unidentified drone company.

“We find ourselves in a privileged position witin the space market,” said ex-Googler, now-Seraphim Managing Partner Jones. “We are seeing the vast majority of investment opportunities in the sector. By virtue of being a specialist space-tech investor — the only dedicated space-focused VC globally — we are benefitting from a strong, global deal flow….

“Furthermore, as a thematic specialist, we’ve been targeted by many other VCs asking us to participate in space-related transactions they’re working on,” Jones said.

Seraphim’s Boggett, who has been spearheading the space-tech fund since it was founded, addressed questions in a Sept. 17 interview.

Is GBP 70 million an optimal closing amount for the fund?

We set out to raise $100m fund and in the final result reached $90m. Raising for a VC fund is challenging, but is doubly so when thematically focused on an emerging sector like New Space. We are happy that we have sufficient capital for the fund but anticipate that Seraphim Capital will continue raising further space-tech-focused funds in the near future.

I thought your focus was Series A-type startup financing where you could have a significant influence. Spire Global is well beyond that stage.

The fund’s investment policy provides flexibility from Seed through to B series and beyond. We just want to invest in the best businesses we can identify.

However, we are focused on A series for the majority of investments as we consider this the optimal stage to participate at the Seraphim Space fund.

We always set out to include a number of B series investments as these help the returns profile for the LPs [limited partners]. They enable earlier returns than the typical 5-7 years of an A series investment.

Source

Ottobrunn/Dresden, 18 Sep. 2017. IABG’s Geodata Factory, established in Dresden in November 2007, can meanwhile look back on a successful first decade. Its launch was part of a large-scale assignment that included the processing of world-wide geo data for the German Federal Armed Forces.

In its Geodata Factory, IABG collects, processes, analyses and visualises geo information from most diverse sources. Applying highly automated processes, it creates two- or three-dimensional vector data, local land registers, digital city models, land models and ortho-photo mosaics, designed for subsequent processing in geographical information systems. To ensure proper implementation of these tasks, there is a team of experienced experts in the areas of geodesy, cartography, photogrammetry, remote sensing and geo computer science. At the time of its establishment, the Geodata Factory employed 25 people. Today, the number of staff has increased to 75 qualified experts.

In the course of its existence, the Geodata Factory has successfully worked on a number of important projects and established the organisation as a competent supplier in the national and European markets, for example, with the creation and constant actualisation of the “Landbedeckungsmodell Deutschland (LBM-DE)”, using multi-spectral satellite photographs on behalf the German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.

In the context of the European Copernicus programme, IABG supports the satellite centre of the European Union or the Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Control Office of the EC with earth observation services. Decision-makers are hereby provided with important spatial information, allowing them to promptly identify potential crises and to take suitable counter measures – for instance in the humanitarian or economic field.

Strategic advancement and future continuity is guaranteed via the creation and expansion of a radar competence centre and the development of new services for efficient processing of different sensor data. Another milestone is the conclusion of a cooperation agreement with the US-American company Planet as business and development partner in the New Space sector. This allows IABG to offer satellite photographs for various applications in ranges such as security (e.g. troop movements, early crisis recognition, and migration), transport & tourism (e.g. autonomous systems) as well as environment (e.g. natural hazards, such as floods, mountain and landslides) world-wide and on a daily basis. IABG currently analyses satellite data to provide a complete forest damage analysis of the Passau area in Lower Bavaria for the Bavarian Institute for Forestry and Silviculture, following the hurricane of 18 Aug. 2017.

“Up-to-date and custom-made geo information have become indispensable components of the most varied prognosis and analysis applications, especially during the past ten years.
To that extent, the establishment of our Geodata Factory was just the right step”, comments the Head of the Geodata Factory, Dr. Jörg Schäfer. “With our services in the geo data area, we are an important partner for our civilian and public clients today”.

About IABG
IABG offers integrated, future-oriented solutions in the sectors Automotive • InfoCom • Mobility, Energy & Environment • Aeronautics • Space • Defence & Security. We provide independent and competent consulting. We implement effectively, efficiently and with target orientation. We operate reliably and sustainably. Our success is based on an understanding of market trends and requirements, on our staff’s technological excellence and a fair relationship with our customers and business partners.

(By Kendall Russell | August 30, 2017) Although the global repository of Earth Observation (EO) imagery continues to grow, the means by which developers can turn that data into value are arguably less abundant. To address this demand, young software company SkyWatch has established a new cloud-based system called EarthCache that opens the door for developers to create new applications and products based on remote sensing data.

In an interview with Via Satellite, SkyWatch’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dexter Jagula explained that EarthCache targets developers looking for an easier way to access EO data, particularly those who have never leveraged remote sensing data in their respective markets. “That’s where we believe the true innovation and increase in usage will be realized,” Jagula said.

Jagula said he has observed demand ramping up for new applications for agriculture and infrastructure projects in particular. “From the agriculture standpoint, we’re talking about users that are looking to develop vegetation health indexes,” he said. “A prime use case would be allowing farmers to assess the health of their fields.”

On the infrastructure side, developers are seeking new ways to monitor the operational efficiency of projects such as new roads and railways, as well as improve emergency response analysis in rural areas, he added.

As SkyWatch states on its website, the current process for purchasing satellite data can be somewhat lengthy and time-consuming, as commercial satellite operators typically don’t distribute their own data and instead operate through regional and territorial resellers. This paradigm does allow satellite operators to more easily serve localized end-users such as city governments — but according to a 2014 Euroconsult report on data distribution, some end-user sectors, such as defense, prefer to bypass resellers entirely in lieu of shorter delivery times, additional autonomy in satellite tasking, and continuous data supply.

“As you can imagine it’s not a very scalable method. This is just the way the industry has offered the data for the last few decades,” Jagula added.

But there are exceptions. As Jagula pointed out, the industry has started to question the reseller model with the rise of EO juggernauts such as Planet and DigitalGlobe, which have developed their own digital infrastructure through which any of their customers can access their massive data archives. According to Jagula, SkyWatch has followed suit on this trend to recreate this type of infrastructure for the entire industry, but at a lower cost than traditional resellers.

EarthCache comprises both public and commercial data, coalescing datasets from partners such as NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The company is currently in talks with some of the prominent satellite operators to integrate their datasets too, Jagula said, as well as younger NewSpace startups looking to field new constellations.

The biggest draw for commercial companies to link their catalogs with EarthCache is additional visibility for their data. Additionally, SkyWatch offers a means for end users to task satellites on an anonymized basis. “We believe customers of this type of data don’t really care which satellites are being used,” he said. “We make this opportunity completely available and transparent to [satellite operators] so it’s on them to try and fulfill that if they have the capability or capacity on the satellite to do so.”

According to Jagula, SkyWatch plans to work closely with companies across the value chain to potentially funnel customers through the same conduit. Leaf Space, which is developing a ground station network to download more than seven terabytes of satellite data per day, is just one example of the kind of companies SkyWatch has formed a relationship with, Jagula said. Satellite operators who want their data downloaded to Leaf Space’s ground stations could then disseminate that data through SkyWatch’s platform, he explained. “And then tasking opportunities that are sent by users downstream can be sent directly … to Leaf Space’s customers as well,” he said. “You can see how a ground segment company like Leaf Space and SkyWatch go hand-in-hand.”

While companies such as DigitalGlobe and Planet will continue to distribute their data through their own proprietary platforms, Jagula doesn’t necessarily see it as a threat to the SkyWatch business. One reason is because they can still integrate their data in EarthCache if they choose, but also because he sees new companies building their own distribution platforms as “a waste of resources” if they don’t have one already. “In cases where companies are still launching, they can use us as a digital infrastructure exclusively … and save their capital for more important tasks and focus on their core competencies,” he said.

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