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Astrium, Europe’s leading space company, has announced the purchase of further shares in Spot Image from the French Space Agency (CNES). This is a significant deal resulting in Astrium holding 81% of Spot Image and therefore becoming the majority shareholder.

(Farnborough, 15 July 2008). As part of Astrium, Infoterra & Spot Image will work together within the Earth Observation Division of Astrium Services. This purchase reaffirms Astrium’s commitment to strengthening its presence in the entire Earth observation value chain – satellites, spaceborne & airborne data, ground segment, application solutions and information management & distribution.

With the Earth observation industry undergoing significant change, Astrium Services’ growth strategy, consistent with EADS’ objectives to strengthen its services portfolio, will offer real opportunities for Spot Image and Infoterra. Earth observation services, combined with other components of Astrium Services (secure telecommunications and navigation), will help create integrated capabilities to address new markets and deliver additional value across the business.

“Taking the majority stake in Spot Image is in line with Astrium’s strategic initiatives to build a strong European group acting internationally,” said Eric Beranger, CEO of Astrium Services. “Broadly, our objective by bringing together application and service activities, is to significantly develop this business area by demonstrating the benefits that geo-information can bring for monitoring and managing the Earth’s assets. In short, a full range of Earth observation solutions enables leaders to make better decisions about our world.”

Spot Image has achieved commercial success for more than 20 years, delivering satellite-based geographic information and services. This is the longest track record of all satellite operators in the Earth observation industry. As a world leader, Spot Image has continually adapted its products and services to deliver solutions to meet the needs of customers – both public and private – on all continents. Today, users benefit from a wide range of satellite data, receiving & processing infrastructures, and value-added solutions.

“The Earth observation market has shifted in the past years from an industry dominated by a small number of experts to a truly commercial, competitive market serving operational applications,” said Hervé Buchwalter, CEO of Spot Image. “The change to Spot Image’s shareholding will reinforce the company’s ability to launch new programmes underpinned by a PPP logic driven by private investors. So continuing our commitment to support the development of space services and deliver additional benefits to our customers.”

As the exclusive operator of the SPOT optical satellite constellation and strategic partner for other satellites, (the Korean 1 metre KOMPSAT-2, the Taiwanese 2 metre FORMOSAT-2 and others), Spot Image, and its 5 subsidiaries, offer the most comprehensive range of satellite data and services in the market. Spot Image is preparing for the planned launch of the Pleiades constellation (2 agile, 50 cm resolution optical satellites) in 2010 and the development of a high resolution sensor to ensure SPOT 5 service continuity beyond 2012.

Already, Spot Image and Infoterra Group enjoy a privileged relationship through the development of joint products and services in many sectors such as, mapping, security, agriculture and telecommunications. This collaboration has recently been reinforced with the start of Infoterra’s commercial business operations for the TerraSAR-X radar satellite, which paves the way for developing and marketing new combined optical-radar offerings.

Spot Image will remain an independent French company with its individual brand and unique long-standing relationships with direct receiving stations, value-added resellers and distributors worldwide.

About Astrium
Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2007, Astrium had a turnover of 3.5 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, and Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, and its wholly owned subsidiary Astrium Services for the development and delivery of satellite services.

About Astrium Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium, offers a unique ‘one-stop-shop’ in the satellite services market, with unrivalled capability and expertise in secure communications, Earth observation services and navigation services. The European provider of milsatcom services, including the pioneering Skynet 5 service, and a world-leading supplier of geo-information products and services, Astrium Services meets its customers’ requirements with innovative and highly competitive end-to-end solutions.

About Infoterra Group
Part of Astrium, the Infoterra Group is a leading provider of geo-information products and services for managing the development, environment and security of our changing world. With companies in France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Hungary, its global customers include international companies, national, regional and local governments and authorities throughout Europe, and organisations such as the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Infoterra holds the exclusive commercial exploitation rights for the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X, and plays a leading role in geo-information services within the European GMES initiative of the EC and ESA.

About Spot Image
Spot Image (81% owned by Astrium) is a world leader in the provision of satellite imagery and geo-information value-added services. Spot Image has established subsidiaries in the USA, China, Singapore, Japan and Australia, with a sixth planned for summer 2008 in Brazil. As the commercial operator of the SPOT satellites and provider of imagery from other optical and radar satellites, Spot Image has successfully harnessed a range of space- and ground-based systems to meet customers’ needs. The Spot Image group leverages a global network of ground receiving stations, partners and distributors to bring geographic information, products and services to public- and private- sector decision makers worldwide.

About EADS
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2007, EADS generated revenues of 39.1 billion and employed a workforce of about 116,000. The Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world’s largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and Astrium, the European leader in space programmes from Ariane to Galileo. Its Defence & Security Division is a provider of comprehensive systems solutions and makes EADS the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium as well as a stakeholder in the missile systems provider MBDA. EADS also develops the A400M through its Military Transport Aircraft Division.

Press Contacts
For Astrium:
Matthieu Duvelleroy FR – Tel: +33 (0)1 77 75 80 32
Jeremy Close UK – Tel: +44 (0)1 438 77 3872
Robert Klarner GER – Tel: +49 89 607 29821
Francisco Lechón SP – Tel: +34 91 586 37 41
For Infoterra Group:
Sarah Haslam UK – Tel: +44 (0)116 273 23 79
Nathalie Pisot FR – Tel: +33 (0)4 97 23 23 46
Mareike Doepke GER – Tel: +49 (0)7545 8 3924
For Spot Image:
Jennifer Newlands FR – Tel: + 33 (0)5 62 19 40 09

Definiens, the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence™ company, today announced it teamed up with Sydney-based Lagen Spatial to deliver highly-integrated image analysis solutions and services, especially to governmental customers.

(July 2, 2008). Lagen Spatial conducts consulting business, software distribution and reselling for spatial or location based technologies. The company is distributing data and services – from core GIS to imagery and ETL solutions – all over Australia as well as in South Pacific and South East Asia. Under the terms of this partner agreement, Lagen Spatial becomes an authorized Value Added Reseller of Definiens. It will distribute Definiens Enterprise Image Intelligence™ Suite and related geospatial applications and services in Australia and in the Pacific countries.

“Committed to providing the best geospatial products and services, we are delighted to add Definiens image analysis software to our offering”, said Brett Madsen, CEO of Lagen Spatial. “These high-end products will enable us to automatically extract knowledge from digital images and provide our customers with reliable information to – for example – create impervious surface maps.”

Definiens provides the cutting-edge technology for analyzing and interpreting images on every scale, and is the perfect match to Lagen Spatial’s geospatial solutions which include consulting, support, software development and systems integration. Future and existing customers in the government sector, particularly in city councils, will benefit from Lagen Spatial’s enhanced offering – which also includes local contact persons, regional support and market insights.

Lagen Spatial’s strong market presence as well as its network of potential customers and key players in Australia will also strengthen Definiens position in these regions.

“Australia and the Pacific region represent a strategically important and booming market for our products and technologies,” says Ralph Humberg, VP Business Development at Definiens. “By partnering with Lagen Spatial, a well-positioned company with in-depth expertise in providing geospatial solutions and services, we are confident that Definiens products will make further significant inroads into these markets.”

About Lagen Spatial
Lagen Spatial are specialist GIS consulting and solutions providers, and has client base in all three levels of government, as well as utilities, engineering and resource companies. Further information can be found on the Lagen Spatial website www.lagenspatial.com.au.

Definiens in Earth Sciences
Definiens enables organizations involved in Earth Sciences to quickly extract accurate geo-information, ready for use in GIS, from earth observation and remote sensing imagery. Definiens’ intelligent feature extraction capabilities accelerate mapping, change detection as well as object recognition and deliver standardized, reproducible image analysis results.

About Definiens
Definiens is the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence company for analyzing and interpreting images on every scale, from microscopic cell structures to satellite images. The Definiens Cognition Network Technology®, developed by Nobel laureate Prof. Gerd Binnig and his team, is an advanced and robust context-based technology designed to fulfill the image analysis requirements of the Life and Earth sciences markets. The technology is modeled on the powerful human cognitive perception processes to extract intelligence from images. Definiens provides organizations with faster image analysis results, allowing deeper insights enabling better business decisions. The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany and has offices throughout the United States. Further information is available at www.definiens.com.

Definiens, Definiens Cellenger, Definiens Cognition Network Technology, Definiens eCognition, Enterprise Image Intelligence and Understanding Images are trademarks or registered trademarks of Definiens. All other names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Press contacts:
-Definiens: Eva Tietz, Manager Corporate Communications
etietz@definiens.com
-Lagen Spatial: Ben Crockett
bcrockett@lagenspatial.com.au
+61 2 9527 9592
-Lucy Turpin Communications GmbH: Eva Hildebrandt
definiens@lucyturpin.com
+49 (0)89 417761-14

St. John’s, NL – C-CORE and Kanata based Vantage Point International (VPI) announced that they have completed the C-CORE acquisition of VPI’s assets.

(2 June 2008). C-CORE is a Canadian corporation providing applied research and engineering services to Government and natural resource industries worldwide. VPI is a privately held company that specializes in radar and satellite monitoring services to defence, space and environmental markets.

C-CORE President and CEO, Dr. Charles Randell, said VPI employees and business are an excellent fit with C CORE’s strategic plan for further expansion in the space and defence markets.

“The VPI client base is a natural fit with C-CORE’s markets in Defence R&D, satellite monitoring, and specialized radar engineering services. We’re very pleased to be in a position to make this investment. The acquisition positions C-CORE as one of the largest satellite monitoring companies in Canada, and creates new avenues for growth. Expansion in government Defence, Security and Environment sectors are a key driver. This acquisition gives C-CORE a presence right on those customers’ doorstep.” said Dr. Randell.

VPI President, Ron Saper, said “The combined capabilities and resulting corporate strength will position C-CORE to serve the growing market for radar engineering services. I’m pleased to see that VPI’s clients and personnel are in good hands with a company that understands our core business.”

Paul Adlakha, C-CORE Director of Marketing stated that a C-CORE Ottawa office will benefit many of C CORE’s existing and emerging clients. “We’ve been asked about increasing our presence in Ottawa for some time. This acquisition certainly addresses that request and helps us support our clients even better. Our growth and repeat business over the past few years has confirmed that we’re doing things right and solving our client’s problems, so this acquisition is a solid investment in that growth.”

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
For further information, please contact:

Contact: Paul Adlakha, P.Eng.
Director, Marketing
+1 902 448 7278
Paul.adlakha@c-core.ca
C-CORE

Detection and prevention capabilities ‘at street level’ figure heavily in Commission’s next annual call for security research

BRUSSELS – The European Commission will launch its second annual Security Research call for proposals (SRC02) in early autumn, setting aside EUR 119 million to cover 26 research topics. SECURITY EUROPE was shown an advance copy of the all-but-finalised draft call. Similar to SRC01 in 2007, which set aside approximately EUR 175 million for 47 topics, the new call will devote most of its budget – about 90 percent – to small- and medium-sized research and technology efforts, known as capability and integration projects, respectively.

Source SecEUR sprl

BMT Group Ltd announced today its acquisition of ARGOSS, a leading specialist provider of marine environmental information services, using satellite observations, meteorological and oceanographic data.

(May 2008). This latest addition to BMT’s international portfolio of companies brings a crucial new capability to the group. With ARGOSS’s long-standing expertise in supporting planning, design and forensic investigations and forecast data to support customer operations, the group is now positioned to take advantage of growing demand in these fields.

ARGOSS provides downtime analysis and feasibility studies, making use of cutting edge in-house models and databases of waves, wind and tides. It also offers efficient, cost effective solutions for the mapping and monitoring of water quality, bathymetry and coastal morphology through the use of satellite observations.

All of these services will soon be linked and integrated with specific applications software from BMT’s existing suite of offerings, thereby enriching the service provided to the group’s customers across the maritime, energy, transportation and defence sectors.

Han Wensink, Managing Director of ARGOSS, said:

“There is a growing industry need for access to long-term archived, near real-time and forecasted information to support offshore and coastal activities and reduce operational risks. ARGOSS will extend its industry leading knowledge globally through the combinations of its particular expertise with BMT’s access to broad international markets and existing offshore technology capabilities.“

The union addresses a need for easily accessible, quality checked and certified basic environmental data and information products and systems, services and value added services.

A wealth of scientific environmental data is available within space agencies, universities and other public/governmental organisations, but it remains difficult to secure access to this information. BMT and ARGOSS aim to address this gap, whilst also becoming a major private sector player in value-added atmospheric services for governmental agencies and the construction, transport, food and insurance sectors.

Peter French, Chief Executive of BMT Group Ltd, said:

“BMT has worked with Han and his team at ARGOSS for some time, on a number of very successful projects, so this announcement consolidates a productive link between our two companies. Across the group we have some expertise in this area and have long supported a Chair in Marine Informatics at Reading University, in the UK but see this as a significant step forward in expanding our capability and enhancing our offering to
customers.”

The history of ARGOSS and BMT collaboration has been ongoing for a number of years and includes a diversity of projects in a variety of market sectors:

  • Metocean studies to support design of offshore structure in Bohai Bay, China and pier design for the island of Boracay, Phillipines
  • Bathymetry in the Gulf of Khambhat North, route analysis in Qatar and tow analysis for floating dry docks
  • Metocean studies for four platform locations in the North Sea, including extreme value analysis of wind and waves
    - Input wind fields for Oil Spill Information System (OSIS)
    - Oil spill trajectory modelling – Nigeria and Tobago
  • Hindcasts and historic wind and wave information in support of investigations of maritime accidents for a number of locations around the world including the Red Sea
  • Wind and solar radiation data to support current modelling for areas in the Middle East and around Australia

Souce Argoss

Aerodata International Surveys (Antwerp, Belgium) and Vexcel Imaging GmbH (Graz, Austria) are pleased to announce a purchase agreement under which Aerodata will become the first customer for 2 of the newly launched 196 megapixel Ultracam-X prime (UCXp) large format digital frame camera.

(July 9, 2008) The agreement has been signed ceremoniously by both parties at the ISPRS 2008 conference in Beijing, China. The agreement once again underscores the innovative nature of both Aerodata and Vexcel.

Aerodata was one of the original launch customers of the Ultracam-D in August 2003 and started operating the first system already in February 2004.

Presently Aerodata owns 3 Ultracam platforms and operates these on many European, African and Middle East projects. These systems already captured a total of over 500.000 images until now.

Today once again Aerodata has become launch customer for the state of the art UCXp system, thereby confirming their continued confidence in Vexcel’s product line.

Aerodata continues to build up and streamline capacity through leverage of the Ultracams, combined with vast expertise as aerial survey operator and an easy integration into the impressive Aerodata Pixel Pipeline workflow.

The full integration of Vexcel cameras and the Aerodata Pixel Pipeline (NAS clustered storage and processing array, nearly 200TB of space and distributed processing over tens of cores) makes for a winning concept of speed and economy, which benefits both the customer and Aerodata.

Source Aerodata-Surveys

Kongsberg Spacetec is a world leading provider of turnkey satellite ground stations. Our systems include solutions for the most known SAR and optical satellite sensors. We are also providing specialized solutions to the meteorological community.


The main areas of activity are:
-Ground Stations for Polar Orbiting Satellites
-Ground Stations for Geostationary Satellites
-Terminals for Ocean Surveillance
-Data Acquisition Systems: Digital demodulator and Front End Processors
-Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) systems
-Ground Station Control
-Ground Station networking

Ground Stations for Polar Orbiting Satellites

The MEOS Polar Ground Station is a multi-mission, flexible and modular turnkey system for acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis and distribution of meteorological data

The MEOS Polar Ground Station supports the following satellites, sensors and transmission formats:

Satellites Sensors Transmissions
NOAA AVHRR, TOVS, ATOVS HRPT
SeaStar SeaWIFS HRPT
FY-1 MVISR CHRPT
TERRA and AQUA MODIS, AIRS AMSU-A, HSB Direct Broadcast
METOP AVHRR, ATOVS HRPT

The MEOS Polar Ground Station can be delivered with support for any combination of these missions depending on the customer’s requirements. Other missions are available upon request

MEOS Antenna

A dualband (L- and X-band) antenna with reflector sizes ranging from 2.4 m to 4 m is available for the MEOS Polar system.

Ground Stations for Geostationary Satellites

The MEOS Geostationary Ground Station is a multi-mission, flexible and modular turnkey system for acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis and distribution of meteorological data.

The MEOS Geostationary Ground Station supports the following satellites, sensors and transmission formats:

Satellites Sensors Transmissions
GOES GOES IM Imager GVAR
MTSAT MTSAT Imager HRIT/LRIT
MSG SEVIRI HRIT/LRIT
Figure 1: NOAA HRPT image after processing Figure 2: MTSAT HRIT image after processing

SAR Terminal for Maritime Surveillance

The SAR terminal is a compact system for real time reception and near real time processing of SAR satellite data into maritime surveillance products:

• Ship detection
• Oil Spill detection
• Ocean Surface Wind
• Waves

The terminals are available for Radarsat 1, Radarsat-2 and Envisat.


Figure 3: MEOS SAR Terminal

Satellite Data Acquisition Systems

The MEOS Capture product line consists of high performance data acquisition and management systems for the most demanding professional users, developed to bring all the user’s data safely home, always. This mission statement translates into the key properties of all MEOS Capture products: Performance, Reliability and Flexibility.

MEOS Capture systems are designed to acquire all data, right from the start of every satellite contact session. This, combined with the ability to make acquired data available to end users as fast as possible, makes MEOS Capture a good choice when timeliness is important.

MEOS Capture systems are designed for “lights-out” operations – once installed and configured it will do its job. This is achieved by incorporating mechanisms for automatic storage management, automatic recovery in case of network problems, data driven or scheduled operations, and use of well-proven, state of the art, hardware solutions.

Live with your MEOS Capture system! Updates are provided as software file, and systems may be upgraded from one model to another by adding additional modules.


Figure 4: All MEOS Capture products are multi-mission by nature, supporting current and future satellites

The following MEOS Capture products are available:

  • MEOS Capture HRD – High Rate Demodulator
  • MEOS Capture HRFEP – High Rate Front End Processor
  • MEOS Capture HRDFEP – High Rate Demodulator and Front End Processor. All in one box

MEOS Capture systems are used in many mission critical environments, where “every bit counts”. Current users of MEOS Capture (and its predecessors) includes NASA EDOS, ESA ERS/Envisat, Eumetsat EPS and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT).

Ground Station Control

MEOS Control is a flexible and scalable system, providing one interface, for both local and remote monitoring and control of standalone units at a Ground Station.

A typical Ground Station often consists of a number of specialized units, e.g. demodulators, modulators, antenna control units (ACU), converters, switch matrices, etc. (These units normal have their own Graphical User Interface (GUI), but also a well-defined interface (API)). Instead of handling these units as stand alone units, MEOS Control integrates them into one seamless system, with a common GUI and a common API for remote operations.

All units integrated into MEOS Control can be scheduled as one system, thus, being setup automatically prior to activities. MEOS Control supports both immediate and time-based scheduling. This implies that ACU, demodulators, switch matrices, etc. can be scheduled in one operation to handle the mission in question.

During operation, MEOS Control collects all available status information from the connected units. This status information can be provided in real-time through the MEOS Control’s external interface and through the embedded GUI, and summarized as post-pass quality reports.


Figure 5: MEOS Control Context

When combined with MEOS Connect, the Ground Station units become an integrated part of an overall Ground Station network

Ground Station Networking

MEOS Connect is a basic building block for implementing efficient Monitoring & Control infrastructures in distributed Ground Station environments

Masking the complexity and implementation of control systems is critical for providing interface flexibility and a consistent Monitoring and Control architecture. The individual system components must be accessible for commanding and component status retrieval, through a unified, well defined interface. In addition flexible mechanisms allowing efficient access to system configuration, historical status, events, alarms and scheduled activities are needed.

The primary mode of operation is to have MEOS Connect reside locally on each physical system node hosting the sub-systems. In this mode it is accessed directly from the central control system or operator MMI, with no intermediate links. This is suitable for ground station infrastructures having few physical nodes.

In system architectures with a larger number of nodes, centralized access to all subsystems may yield an un-necessarily complex architecture. MEOS Connect concept allows MEOS Connect instances to be inserted as intermediate links, creating a single access point to sets of nodes. E.g. one MEOS Connect box per acquisition site. The resulting monitoring and control hierarchy inherently allows virtually limitless system scalability and flexibility. The databases hosted by central nodes of the hierarchy are automatically populated and synchronised with those at lower levels.


Figure 6: MEOS Connect Overview Layout as Implemented for ESA ENVISAT GS

Contact

Kongsberg Spacetec AS
bq. Address: P.O.B. 6244, NO-9292 TROMSO, Norway
Phone: +47 77 66 08 00
E-mail: marketing@spacetec.no
Website

Ukraine is one of few countries that possess complete package of technologies and have experience in designing, development, manufacturing, testing, launching and operating satellites.


Activity of Ukraine in satellite development domain

Yuzhnoye State Design Office is the prime developer of the satellite systems in Ukraine; it closely cooperates with the manufacturer of the satellites – Production Association “Yuzhnyy Machine-Building Plant” and with the organization that is operating satellite systems – “National center of SC control and testing”.

The first satellite of SDO Yuzhnoye’s development was launched on March 16, 1962, and about 400 satellites were launched since then.

The most important direction of scientific and applied studies was research of the near-earth space and the Earth planet which was performed by means of spacecraft designed on the basis of the unified platforms (DС-U1, DС-U2, DС-U3 – small platforms of the first generation; АUОС-З, АUОС-SM – automated universal orbital stations).

During 1965-2001 53 scientific spacecraft were injected into the orbit. Their efficiency was a determinative factor due to which these SC were accepted as the basic SC in the “Intercosmos” Program.

In 1977 Yuzhnoye SDO started development of the “Okean”_satellite subsystem, _“Resurs” operational system. The first satellite from this series “Okean-OE” solved the tasks related to principle possibility of acquiring the required information and its transmission to a consumer; the next spacecraft “Okean-O1” and “Okean-O” provided the global optical, radar and microwave imaging that allowed to solve the range of the national economy’s problems by the Earth remote sensing.

Declaration of independence of Ukraine considerably changed the situation in the space domain. Therefore the launch of the first Earth Remote Sensing Satellite under jurisdiction of Ukraine – “Sich-1” required solving the tasks related to creation of national infrastructure of control, data acquisition and processing facilities and facilities of the acquired information distribution, as well as preparation of customer network in Ukraine. All these tasks were successfully solved within short period of time – less than two years.

“Sich-1” satellite was launched on August 31, 1995 and demonstrated its high efficiency. “Sich-1M” satellite had considerably improved specifications of the observation systems, both in optical and radio bands.

“Mikron” experimental microsatellite developed by Yuzhnoye SDO was used for testing the new technological solutions integrated into the space platform in the interest of the Earth remote sensing using microsatellites.

In 2001 Yuzhnoye SDO won the tender on development of Egyptsat-1 satellite, ground control station and data receiving technologies for the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Project also envisaged training of the Egyptian specialists and technology transfer in designing, developing and manufacturing of satellite, as well as satellite control training.

Yuzhnoye SDO in cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises developed project documentation and design documentation, conducted experimental testing of satellite’s components and satellite as a whole as well as ensured its manufacturing and pre-launch processing.

On April 17, 2007 the Egyptsat-1 satellite was injected into orbit by “Dnepr-1” LV from Baikonur launch site; the satellite successfully passed flight tests and currently it is performing imaging of the Earth surface.

Yuzhnoye SDO constantly monitors development of new technologies in Earth remote sensing, maintains close contacts with the partners, searches for new scientific and industrial contacts in order to be at the forefront of this direction of cosmonautics and meet the highest requirements of the customers.

Perspective Earth Remote Sensing Satellites made in Ukraine

Currently, Yuzhnoye SDO is finalizing creation of the Ukrainian optical-electronic observation satellite “Sich-2”:

Configuration of the satellite payload includes the following:

- The multi-zonal scanner that ensures obtaining of digital images of the Earth surface in panchromatic, green, red and near-infrared spectral bands having ground resolution of 7,8 m in swath of 46,6 km; – Scanner of medium infrared band that ensures obtaining of digital images of the Earth surface in medium infrared spectral band with the ground resolution of 39,5 m in swath of 55,5 km.

Pointing of scanners to the necessary parts of the Earth surface is performed by rotation of the whole satellite.

Launch of “Sich-2” satellite is scheduled for 2009. The satellite will be injected by “Dnepr-1” Launch-Vehicle into sun-synchronous orbit with altitude of 668 km. Active life time of the satellite on orbit should be no less than 5 years.

With the purpose of ensuring further advancement of Remote Sensing Satellite Systems the National Space Program of Ukraine envisages creation of the following satellites:

- Optical-electronic observation satellite “Sich-2M” with ground resolution higher than 2 m:

- Optical-electronic observation satellites “Sich-3” with ground resolution higher that 1 m and radar observation with ground resolution higher than 2 m.

Ukraine is open for international cooperation including developing countries, and proposes the following ways of cooperation:

1. Creation of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites, and ground control complexes for these satellites;
2. Creation of ground complexes for acquiring and processing information from the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites at the territories of the interested countries.
3. Performing launches of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites for the interested countries.
4. Joint operation of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites in the interests of Ukraine and the interested countries.
5. Training specialists of the interested countries and technology transfer of designing, development, manufacturing and operation of satellites.

The Ukrainian scientific project “ІОNОSАT” – monitoring natural and man – caused catastrophes on the basis of a cluster of microsatellites for multi-positional measurements of ionosphere parameters.

The Project consolidates the existing experience of the Ukrainian space organizations and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for creation of state-of-art ionosphere satellite Project.

The purpose of the Project is to inject into orbit a series of clusters in 3 scientific satellites configuration for global monitoring of the ionosphere parameters. Satellites are created based on subsystems and engineering solutions space proven in order to reduce costs of the Project development and creation of a multi-purpose space platform for global space monitoring system.
The Project is open for international cooperation and could be developed with involvement of foreign partners.

Method of multi-positional measurements based on 3 closely located satellites (satellite cluster) in contrast to the single-point measurements by one satellite, enables to separate spatial and time changes of the measured values. Accommodation of scientific equipment on the cluster satellites will ensure a series of fundamentally new experiments important for understanding of physical processes with the maximal possible level of electromagnetic purity and higher accuracy of measurements.

Taking into consideration the worldwide trends in ionosphere studies it supposed to solve the following scientific tasks: registration of ionosphere phenomena, analysis of large-scale electric field, small variations of magnetic fields, energy-angular distributions of energetic charged particles, characteristics of heat and superheat plasma in ionosphere.

Initial phase of the space system creation will be performed based on the orbital constellation of 3 satellites (one satellite cluster) located in one plane, which will be injected into orbit by one launch-vehicle.

In future, global monitoring satellite constellation could be deployed based on 6-8 satellite clusters (18-24 satellites). The number of planes will be finally determined upon results of the experimental phase of the space system creation.

Directions of works for international cooperation are the following: investing in the project development, creation of interstate project, participation in forming scientific part of the project, results processing, project ground support, creation of space experiments devices, acquiring and using information from the onboard scientific complex, participation in deployment of the satellite constellation for global monitoring.

Scientists for many years have been using satellite remote sensing technology, utilising low and medium resolution sensors to improve water balance and farming yield assessment on large geographical scales around the world.

(June 22). With the availability of high resolution satellite sensors such as IKONOS, QuickBird and soon GeoEye-1, the current remote sensing NDVI algorithms utilised have become more accurate and reliable, providing detailed crop information for agriculture management to improve production and crop health.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) data indicate that annually 2500 km3 of freshwater is used for agricultural production, which amounts to 70% of the water resources that the world population consumes in a year. China is now consuming more than twice as much as what its ecosystems can supply sustainably, having doubled its needs since the 1960s, as indicated in a new WWF report. With the global population continuing to grow at a high pace, it is essential to optimise the use of water resources and to increase agricultural production in view of the prospect of having to feed 8 billion humans by 2030.

Agriculture resources are among the most important renewable, dynamic natural resources. Comprehensive, reliable and timely information on agricultural resources is very much necessary for countries whose main source of the economy is agriculture. Agriculture surveys are conducted through the nation in order to gather information and statistics on crops, rangeland, livestock and other related agricultural resources. This data is most important for the implementation of effective management decisions.

Satellite images can show variations in organic matter and drainage patterns. Soils higher in organic matter can be differentiated from lighter sandier soil that has a lower organic matter content. “Satellite image data have the potential to provide real-time analysis for large areas of attributes of a growing crop that can assist in making timely management decisions that affect the outcome of the current crop” said Leopold J. Romeijn, President of Satellite Imaging Corporation of Houston, Texas. However, like other precision agriculture technologies the information gained from satellite imagery are more meaningful when used with other available data and visualised and analysed with a 2D/3D Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Satellite Imagery analysis for agriculture production allows for:

* Fast and accurate overview
* Quantitative green vegetation assessment
* Underlying soil characteristics
* TreeGrading

Remote sensing satellite imaging is an evolving technology with the potential for contributing to studies for land cover and change detection by making globally comprehensive evaluations of many environmental and human actions possible. These changes, in turn, influence management and policy decision-making. Satellite image data enable direct observation of the land surface at repetitive intervals and therefore allow mapping of the extent and monitoring and assessment of:

* Crop health
* Storm Water Runoff
* Change detection
* Air Quality
* Environmental analysis
* Energy Savings
* Irrigated landscape mapping
* Carbon Storage and Avoidance
* Yield determination
* Soils and Fertility Analysis

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a simple numerical indicator that can be used to analyse remote sensing measurements from a space or airborne platform, and assess whether the target being observed contains live green vegetation or not. AgroWatch (*) algorithms were developed by DigitalGlobe to enhance the NDVI results.

High or medium resolution satellite image data products help quantify crop status, soil conditions and rates of crop change throughout the field as small as 2’ x 2’. NDVI products reduce the field time by 50% by quickly identifying the problem areas – often before they are visible to the naked eye and to provide a solution to the problem which can significantly boost field productivity and crop quality, while reducing costs.

Green Vegetation Index – Colorized Map

The Green Vegetation Index – Colorized Map (GVC) colourises the green vegetation index (GVI) values to show the spatial distribution of remotely sensed vegetation. The index is related to crop vigour, vegetation amount or biomass, resulting from inputs, environmental, physical and cultural factors affecting crops. The NDVI algorithm is applied to calibrate satellite images to separate the reflectance of vegetation from variation caused by underlying soils or water. The product is produced for a given field as well as for a region of interest.

Green Vegetation Index – Sharpened Map (GVS) is a superior product which combines pansharpened information and GVC values to improve manual image interpretation intended to facilitate the identification and mapping of significant spatial features. Information about green biomass density is contained in the original GVC product, which uses colours to show various levels in increments of 5 (on a scale from 0 to 100). GVS uses the registered panchromatic image (collected to make this a visible pan image) to modulate the brightness of each GVC colour. The result has the excellent properties of a pansharpened image, but with quantitative numbers that are close (within 2 units) of the original GVC numbers.

Soil Zone Index

To develop a Soil Zone Index map, satellite images of the agriculture fields are calibrated and then spectral algorithms are applied that isolate soil components from vegetation. The final satellite image shows what the soil surface of your field looks like, including irrigation patterns, sand streaks, clay lenses, and organic matter and crop residue variations. If the crop has less than 50 percent canopy cover, the NDVI algorithms sees it all, and the Soil Zone map shows only the underlying soil. With a Soil Zone map, you can clearly see landscape variations. Lighter colours indicate dry, salty or coarsely textured soils, while darker colours indicate wet or organic soils. Often, variations in colour indicate topographic variations across fields, which can greatly impact your crop management strategies and zone creation for precision agriculture management applications.

TreeGrading

The TreeGrading product provides an assessment of each individual tree in an orchard to help growers manage trees for top production. High resolution QuickBird, IKONOS or SPOT-5 satellite image data can be collected in support of Agriculture Management developing TreeGrading Maps to reveal the location and extent of each tree canopy determined by using a proprietary spectral algorithm. The properties of the GVI satellite images within each polygon are extracted to an industry standard Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database. The GIS software is then used to view and analyse the data. A satellite image and GIS map of missing trees is also created so the manager can plan for replacement.

Satellite Imaging Corporation (SIC) provides archived and new IKONOS, QuickBird, SPOT-5, ALOS and other Satellite Image data for many areas around the Globe and utilises advanced Remote Sensing techniques, Colour and Panchromatic image data processing services, orthorectification, culture and feature extractions, pan sharpening with image data fusion from different sensors and resolutions, enhancements, georeferencing, mosaicing and colour/grayscale balancing for GIS and other geospatial applications.

(source: Satellite Imaging Corporation and Spacenews)

Thailand’s Theos satellite has another chance to get into orbit now Russia has negotiated a deal with Kazakhstan to take rocket waste discharged during the launch process.

The launch is now expected by September.

Theos _ short for Thailand Earth Observation System _ will be Thailand’s first natural resources survey satellite. Its launch has been delayed since early this year because Uzbekistan opposed receiving the rocket-waste discharge, which is released as the satellite is launched.

‘‘We just received good news from France on Friday. They told me that Russia talked to Kazakhstan. What we have to do is prepare the launch campaign, which takes around eight weeks,’‘ said Thongchai Charuppat, director of Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency.

‘‘When it gets into orbit, we will have achieved significant success,’‘ he said.

Although the bed site for the waste discharge has now changed, the launch base is still in Yahni of Russia.

The remote sensing satellite project was started by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005.

The government signed a contract with EADS Astrium company from France worth 6.2 billion baht to build the remote sensing satellite to survey natural resources. According to the contract, the company was to have launched the satellite into orbit by November last year.

Mr Thongchai said he was confident no further technical problems should arise to delay the process.

‘‘Please be assured that we do not have to pay more. The French company has to take responsibility for the delay. In case of an explosion, the company will also take responsibility,’‘ he said.

Source bangkokpost