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(16 October 2017) When disaster strikes, a group of international space agencies pools its resources and expertise to support relief efforts on the ground. For the next six months, ESA will be leading the International Charter Space and Major Disasters as it brings information from satellites to the aid of the vulnerable.

Every six months, a different member takes the role of Primus Inter Pares – or Charter lead. Last week, ESA took over this role for the sixth time, and is responsible for ensuring that the Charter’s policies and rules are respected.

ESA will also develop new partnerships with the space and the disaster risk-reduction communities.

“ESA plans to ensure that not only the operational activities of the Charter are running smoothly but will also prepare for future challenges,” said Maurice Borgeaud, head of ESA’s Earth Observation Science, Applications and Climate Department. “Future challenges include the likely increase of the calls on the Charter, international collaboration with key partners running similar activities, and taking advantage of the ever-increasing availability of Earth observation data.”

Founded by ESA and the French and Canadian space agencies, the Charter is an international collaboration between 16 owners or operators of Earth observation missions. It provides rapid access to satellite data to help disaster management authorities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

The value of the initiative lies in being able to mobilise agencies around the world and benefit from their knowhow and their satellites through a single access point that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and at no cost to the user.

Since its first request for support, in 2000, the Charter has called on space assets on many occasions, helping to respond to more than 520 disasters in more than 120 countries.

Recent activations have included Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which hit the United States and Caribbean in September, as well as the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck central Mexico on 19 September.

On average, the Charter is activated about 40 times a year. But this year has been particularly busy, already exceeding that average. In August and September alone, there have been 16 activations – twice the monthly average.

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TERRASIGNA contributed to a documentary programme released by GEO, the Group on Earth Observations. From disaster risk reduction, tracking animals using satellites to Lake Titicaca water assessment and city planning, the documentary points out innovation in Earth Observation technology.

Climate change, water availability, food security, natural disaster mitigation, agriculture, forestry and coasts ecosystems, energy and resources security – all these topics are considered critical challenges for the times we live in.

Governments, industry and scientists have long recognised the critical importance of Earth Observation, as an information source in support of many sectors of society. But what EO data means in terms of everyday life activities, how they contribute to the Understanding of our life?

At the beginning of October, GEO released a documentary programme, entitled Earth observations: Delivering insight for decisions . The film engages with key figures and innovative organisations from different fields of expertise, in order to demonstrate the efficiency of EO information.

TERRASIGNA was invited to share its contribution to this vast realm of Earth Observation.

Insights addressing their native region, the South East Europe, but also case studies from remote areas, in South America’s countries are their testimonials.

See below TERRSASIGNA’s movie section.

TRE-Altamira are pleased to be featured in the latest issue of Géologues, the French Geological Society magazine.

The article L’interférométrie radar au service de la cartographie et de la surveillance des mouvements du sol. Application à l’étude des déformations dans le bassin de Neuquén details their InSAR project with the multinational company TOTAL to monitor large scale deformations related to tectonics affecting the Néuquen basin, one of the largest petroleum provinces in South America. The aim of the project was to evaluate the contribution of InSAR to anticipate the directions and magnitudes of the current tectonic forces to be able to optimize drilling campaigns.

The large-scale ground motion study was performed using 70 images acquired by Sentinel-1, in ascending and descending modes, between December 2014 and January 2017. Images in both acquisition geometries allowed the East-West and the Vertical component of the deformation to be estimated.


Ground motion maps (displacement velocities in mm/year) over the Néuquen Basin. SqueeSARTM results with Sentinel-1 images (a) Vertical component of displacement (b) East-West component of displacement © Vertical component measurement standard deviation (d) East-West component measurement standard deviation (source: article authors)

Deformation was detected around some active exploitation sites where water injection activities resulted in a terrain uplift of more than 30 mm over the period of study. Uplift reduced when the injection activities stopped. Subsidence was also observed around some production sites with values of around 20 mm during the period of study, however unlike the detected uplift, the subsidence phenomenon shows slower kinetics and continued once the production phase was completed. Landslides were also detected in some areas.


Vertical component of the motion (a) InSAR ground motion map (in mm/yr-1) s (b) Times series along a cross section over a production well and an injection well.

This is one of our most recent projects with TOTAL as part of a long-term cooperation started in 2005. Since then several milestone projects have been successfully concluded in various challenging fields such as the monitoring of SAGD operations using Corner Reflectors networks or offshore anchored platform motion control.
InSAR is a consolidated tool for measuring the impact that conventional Oil & Gas exploitation activities can have on the terrain surface. This information on surface motion associated to oil and gas exploitation is also used as input data for modelling the mechanical behaviour of reservoirs.

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GRETA KICK-OFF MEETING – 22/09/2017

space4environment is part of a European consortium that has been contracted by ESPON to analyse green infrastructure and ecosystem services in the context of territorial development (GRETA).

After the successful kick-off meeting, their main responsibility will be to build the foundation of the project by (i) developing a working definition of green infrastructure and (ii) mapping the spatial distribution patterns of green infrastructure and ecosystem service across European regions.

In the 18-months project we’ll be collaborating with colleagues from tecnalia (ES), autonomous university of barcelona (ES), nordregio (SE) and the james hutton institute (UK).

18 August 2017. Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) has signed an expanded contract extension for satellite ground services to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA).

KSAT will deliver operations support and data collection from the US meteorological satellites S-NPP and JPSS. The agreement has a frame value of 43,8 MUSD (approx. 360 MNOK) for the period 2017-2022.

The services will be delivered from the Svalbard Ground Station in Norway and Troll Ground Station in Queen Maud Land. The activities are coordinated from KSAT Tromsø Network Operation Center (TNOC), located at the company headquarters in Tromsø, Norway.

This is a fixed price contract for the period 2017 – 2022. The maximum value, including all options, is approximately $43.8 million (approx. 360 MNOK). Including this contract KSAT’s order backlog is approx. NOK 2,8 billion (not recognized in KONGSBERG’s reported backlog due to accounting practices).

KSAT provides services related to both data reception from and control of satellites in polar orbits. The ground station in the Arctic (Svalbard) and Antarctica (Troll) are the core elements in the stations “pole-to-pole” concept enabling data reception from critical environmental satellites every 50 minutes.

The contract strengthens the company’s position as the worlds leading provider of satellite operations services.

KSAT is a commercial satellite centre owned 50% by KONGSBERG and 50% by the Department of Trade and Industry through Space Norway. KSAT is situated in Tromsø, Norway, with ground stations located at 15 different locations world wide, including Tromsø, Svalbard, Dubai, South Africa, Singapore, Mauritius and the Antarctic. KSAT operates more than 120 antenna installations and supports approximately 100 different satellite systems more than 30 000 times per month. KSAT is immaculately located for both TT&C (Telemetri tracking & Control), launch support, as well as data reception and near real time Earth Observation services.

(20 September 2017) British satellite company Earth-i today announced a range of new senior appointments to help with the company’s rapid growth as it cements its position at the forefront of the commercialisation of space and the rapid evolution of the New Space market.

In May, Earth-i announced that it will launch Europe’s first large-scale commercial satellite constellation for Earth Observation– and the first in the world to provide full-colour video footage as well as still imagery.

Owning and operating its own constellation is a natural evolution of Earth-i’s existing and well-regarded Image and Earth Observation (EO) analytics business. The new constellation will enable Earth-i to meet the rapidly growing demand for insights derived from high-resolution EO data from commercial organisations that want to improve investment and trading decisions, monitor and track their assets more cost effectively, track changes or activity in critical locations – and predict future events with more certainty.

The new recruits bring years of experience and expertise across the EO and technology industry:

John Linwood – Chief Technology Officer
John is now responsible for the data, analytics and insights platforms that transform Earth-i’s satellite imagery into meaningful analysis and actionable insights for use by a wide range of customers across multiple markets.
Prior to joining Earth-i, John held a number of influential positions. Most recently, he was CTO of Wood Mackenzie, the leading Data Analytics provider to the Energy, Mining and Metals industries; where he led a digital transformation of the company’s global business including eCommerce, Digital Marketing, Data Science and digital distribution of data, analytics and reporting.
He also served as CTO of the BBC, Senior Vice President of International Engineering for Yahoo for five years, and General Manager for Microsoft’s MSN International Engineering team.

Chetan Pradhan – Head of Institutional Engagement
Chetan Pradhan is responsible for Earth-i’s relationships with national, European and global institutions that want to improve their operations by using unique and timely insights obtained from geospatial information.
With 14 years’ experience in the EO industry, Chetan holds a number of high-profile industry positions ensuring that the EO and Space industries’ views and concerns are raised and progressed at appropriate levels within Governmental and institutional circles. He is currently Chair of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC), which represents the EO service industry in Europe. He is also Chair of the EO Committee (EOC) of UKspace, the trade association of the UK’s space industry; and previously served as Chairman of the British Association of Remote Sensing Companies (BARSC).

Dr. Nico V. Spyropoulos – Strategic Engagement, EMEA
Nico is responsible for growing Earth-i’s business across EMEA region.
He has over 25 years of Earth Observation (EO) and Satcom industry experience, most recently serving as the Vice President of European Sales for the UrtheCast Corp., from 2013 to 2017. During his tenure at UrtheCast, he led efforts to establish the business in space-based full motion video (FMV).
Nico also served as senior executive of IIS-EOSAT, SpaceCosmotelco, KBI Impuls and 5CI. His business portfolio includes exploitation of various EO missions, special object-oriented software tools and coordination of several European Commission projects funded under TELEMATICS, ACTS, ESPRIT, IST and H2020 covering environmental liability and security, geospatial intelligence and advanced information systems. Nico was also a Eurocourses lecturer at Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra.

Gary Crowley – Satellite Operations Manager
Drawing on almost 15 years in the industry, Gary is responsible for developing Earth-i’s ground segment for satellite operations and data processing – and providing technical support for the company’s new missions and data products.
Prior to joining Earth-i, Gary held a variety of entrepreneurial, product development and problem-solving engineering positions at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, DMC International Imaging Ltd, and Airbus Defence and Space where he worked on DMC operations and the Mission Operations Centre (MOC) as well as new product development to enhance and optimise DMC operations, capabilities and services.

Natasha Hyde – Digital Marketing Manager
Natasha joins Earth-i as it increases its marketing activity prior to the launch of its demonstrator satellite EiX2. She manages Earth-i’s online presence, including website, social media and digital content.
Natasha joined from Satellite Applications Catapult, a technology and innovation company, set up by the UK government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to foster growth across the economy through the exploitation of space data and technology.

Richard Blain, CEO of Earth-i, said: “We welcome John, Chetan, Nico, Gary and Natasha to the team at this exciting time for both Earth-i and the space industry in general. Our existing EO data business is growing rapidly and the development of our new constellation is progressing as planned.”

About Earth-i

Earth-i currently provides satellite imagery and various analytical services from the DMC3/TripleSat constellation of three very high-resolution optical satellites in conjunction with Twenty First Aerospace Technology (21AT).
In 2019 Earth-i will launch Europe’s first large-scale Earth Observation constellation to offer full colour video as well as still imagery.
It already has a wide range of big budget customers including The World Bank, National and Local Governments and a multitude of specialist geospatial companies and other commercial organisations.
Earth-i is headquartered in the Surrey Research Park in the UK near to a number of other UK space-related companies including SSTL – as well as the Space Centre at the University of Surrey.

18 September 2017. CARTO is a web-based location intelligence platform combining powerful visualisation and analysis with impressive ease of use. GIM is thus able to offer its customers unique insights into the WHERE and WHY of their activities.

CARTO is a leading location intelligence platform that transforms location data into insights for marketing, logistics, store placement and infrastructure management. Users such as marketers and business analysts use this cloud software to understand where things happen, why they happen and to predict what will happen in the future.

CARTO + Belmap = accurate insights

GIM will use CARTO as a data visualisation and analysis tool in its Location Intelligence Center of Competence. GIM can offer its customers unique insights for making strategic decisions, by combining CARTO with its Belmap geodata product and its location intelligence services.

Users in a wide range of sectors, such as banking and insurance, real estate, utilities, retail and consumer products can gain a competitive advantage from location intelligence services such as:

  • drawing up statistical analyses and future scenarios;
  • streamlining services and operations;
  • risk management;
  • analysing sales potential;
  • and so on.

(Munich, 02/10/17) European Space Imaging have partnered with eoVision to produce a book entirely comprised of satellite imagery showcasing the diversity of Europe as seen from space

The book titled Europa – Kontinent der Vielfalt (Europe, the diversity) tells the story of Europe using more than 100 current satellite images to display the present and highlight the past incorporating political, economic and social challenges that are facing the continent. From historical sights of significance that have lasted the span of time to current villages and cities where urbanisation and migration are clearly visible, the satellie images portray Europe in many differing aspects.

European Space Imaging is the market leader of very high resolution imagery across Europe. We are delighted to be able to exclusively partner with EOVision on this project and supply imagery showcasing the diversity of Europe” said Managing Director, Adrian Zevenbergen.

The satellite images included within the book also identify the changing landscapes, natural and man-made, to be found in Europe. Due to the long history of the continent and comparatively dense populations, hardly untouched landscapes are acknowledged, however predominantly the continent is used extensively. Furthermore topics such as border controls, refugee migration, global warming and climate change are discussed.

“It was very important for us to include only the best satellite imagery of Europe available within this book. This is why we chose to partner with European Space Imaging. Not only is the quality of their imagery outstanding, but their flexibility and personalised customer service made the entire process very easy” commented eoVision editor Gerald Mansberger.

Europa – Kontinent der Vielfalt will be available from Sunday 15 October 2017 and can be purchased from www.eovision.at

28th July 2017. GAF’s GEO-Information experts have now signed up Planet, one of the global leading providers of high frequent Earth Observation data to extend GAF’s multisource satellite data and service portfolio for a new quality of timely observations.

GAF customers in Germany, Europe and worldwide can now access Planet’s substantial portfolio of optical satellite data, as well as derived value-added products, through a new partnership. According to GAF’s CEO, Dr. Peter Volk, the generation of data and monitoring services offered by Planet perfectly complements the available sources and enables new services. Specifically, important domains like Defence, Security, Insurance and Agriculture will benefit from this unmatched imaging and data capacity made available by an experienced service provider like GAF.

With its current constellation of about 190 satellites, Planet can image the entire earth every day with 3-5 meters ground sampling distance (GSD) and offers RGB, RedEdge and NIR spectral bands. This constellation includes 7 SkySat satellites, which offer high resolution panchromatic and multispectral images at sub-1 meter GSD. Planet products Planet Monitoring and Planet Basemaps are available through GAF using the Planet Platform or via Planet API.

“Planet looks forward to continuing our successful and trusted partnership with GAF as one of the leading companies in the geospatial market in Europe” says Dr. Marcus Apel, Director Strategic Accounts at Planet. “This partnership with GAF ensures users have access to Planet’s latest data and products, and can leverage one of the largest Earth Observation archives currently available”.

Planet is an integrated aerospace and data analytics company that operates history’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites, collecting a massive amount of information about our changing planet. Planet designs, builds and operates 190 satellites, and develops the online software and tools that serves data to users. Decision makers in business, government, and within organizations use Planet’s data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest challenges.

Download the Press Release

e-GEOS closely monitored Hurricane Harvey affected areas through its Rapid Mapping Team and operational teams (active H24) in Rome and Matera who are continuously supporting both public and private US organisations.

Thanks to the satellite constellation COSMO-SkyMed managed by the ASI (Italian Space Agency) and the Ministry of Defense, Italy plays a key role in Hurrican Harvey Emergency Support. The maps (six) already available for the area, provide impact data on Houston, Corpus Chirsti and all major cities and submerged inhabited areas.

e-GEOS (joint venture ASI – Telespazio) is the distributor of Italian constellation data and thanks to its network of agreements with major US Data Analysts (URSA and ORBITAL INSIGHT), it is supporting private and public entities involved in Emergency management, providing images that can detect large-scale impact, and will secure constant monitoring of the situation in the coming days, still considered critical.

ASI, through e-GEOS, is at the center of the analysis and information system that is supporting the government agencies involved using the COPERNICUS-EMS (the world’s largest Emergency Support System), contract with European Commission with prime role of e-GEOS leading a European consortium of companies. The #emergency and #RapidMapping team, in which besides e-GEOS and its German subsidiary GAF is also active the Italian Ithaca, is operating h24 updating with new data the 6 areas of interest.

Value-added products are made possible by the e-GEOS platform, FLooD , which allows to have the first estimates of affected areas, just few hours after receipt of satellite data.

Important sources of appreciation have come from European authorities, from the highest representatives of the European Commission and directly from the US organizations involved in the post event management, as well as European and American citizens.

COSMO-SkyMed is a scientific and technological excellence, thanks to the skills of the Italian space industry, the joint ventures Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio” said Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian Space Agency. “I would also like to point out that, thanks to the ASI institutional network and the e-GEOS management capability, this constellation is a world-wide standpoint in emergency management and rapid mapping. A global community service that with the second generation of new COSMO satellites will be even more efficient “.

Massimo Claudio Comparini (CEO of e-GEOS) commented: “Emergency management is one of the many activities in which space technologies, and in particular Earth Observation, shows its full impact on society and economic activities. e-GEOS in this context contributes to cutting-edge solutions based on the use of the COSMO-SkyMed radar constellation, the data fusion with optical data, and more and more the development and processing of high-quality information products (Data Analytics). It’s a must to warmly thank all the operational teams that are facing this period of emergencies with intensive work done also on fires monitoring and other natural hazards that have hit Italy and Europe over the past few weeks

Thanks to a bilateral agreement, ASI supplies 7,000 COSMO-SkyMed images to NASA each year. Emergency activations are also planned in this framework, such as Harvey Hurricane.

Value-added products are made possible by the e-GEOS platform, FLooD , which allows to have the first estimates of affected areas, just few hours after receipt of satellite data.

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