Skip to content

Scientists and commercial users are flabbergasted and only the most optimistic of engineers could have expected it, but just four days after the launch of the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X from Baikonur, brilliant first satellite images have been received.

June 21st. To loud applause from the TerraSAR-X teams of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Astrium and Infoterra, the first pictures appeared on the monitors of the DLR Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. This occurred just 30 minutes after the receipt of the data by the Neustrelitz ground station.
Although the satellite will only achieve its final orbit after ten days in space, the first data, actually sent simply for testing purposes, is already of a surprisingly high quality and sharp detail.
“I am so excited and inspired!This mission confirms the prominent international position of Germany in the field of radar remote sensing. Our data will be an important source for geoscientific research on one hand and for commercial applications on the other. TerraSAR-X will play, in addition, a prominent role in the European Earth observation programme, GMES”, said Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, chairman of the board of DLR.
“These data show not only the comprehensive technical know-how and the experience of many years of radar satellite and instrument development by Astrium, but confirm also our successful partnership with DLR”, added Uwe Minne, Director of Earth Observation and Science at Astrium GmbH.
“The efficiency of the satellite system is proven with these first impressive images – the outlook for our commercial business could not be better”, commented a pleased Jörg Herrmann, managing director of Infoterra GmbH, which can now start the commercial marketing of the TerraSAR-X data.
The TerraSAR-X team at DLR will work quickly in the next few months to finally calibrate the radar instrument and optimise the data processing system.
TerraSAR-X is the first German Public-Private Partnership (PPP) satellite – jointly realised by DLR and EADS Astrium. EADS Astrium has taken on the costs of development, building and employment of the satellite. Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of the EADS Astrium, is responsible for the commercial marketing.
Operating the mission involves four institutes alongside the space agency of DLR. DLR covers the entire range of necessary technologies from the setting up of TerraSAR-X‘s mission control to the processing and the use of the data for scientific purposes.
TerraSAR-X at a glance:
Height:
4,88 m
Width:
2.4 m
Launch mass:
1.230 kg (including payload mass 400 kg)
Radar Frequency:
9.65 GHz
Power consumption:
800W average
Resolution:
1 m, 3 m, 16 m
Launcher:
Dnepr 1 (ehemals SS-18)

Launch:

15 June 2007, 4:14 h (CEST) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Orbit:
514 km
Inclination:
97.4°, Sun-synchronous
Life time:
5 years
TerraSAR-X is the first German satellite to be realised within the scope of a public-private partnership (PPP) between DLR and Astrium: Europe‘s leading satellite specialist, Astrium, is sharing the costs of the development, construction and deployment of the satellite. The scientific use of the TerraSAR-X data is the responsibility of DLR, as is the mission planning and operation of the satellite, whilst Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of Astrium specifically established for this purpose, will be responsible for the commercial exploitation of the satellite data.
With its active antenna, the satellite will record new high-quality X-band radar images of the entire planet whilst circling Earth in a polar orbit at an altitude of 514 kilometres. TerraSAR-X will carry out its task for five years, independently of weather conditions, cloud cover or daylight, and will be able to provide radar images with a resolution as high as one metre
Contact
Dr. Niklas Reinke
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) –
German Aerospace Center
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 228 447-394
Fax: +49 228 447-386
Mathias Pikelj
EADS SPACE
Tel.: +49 7545 8 9123
Fax: +49 7545 8 5589
Mareike Doepke
Infoterra GmbH
Tel.: +49 7545 8 3924
Fax: +49 75454 8 1337

Spacemetric delivers airborne image distribution and archive solution to the Swedish National Land Survey // Spacemetric supports Spanish DMC satellite

Spacemetric delivers airborne image distribution and archive solution to the Swedish National Land Survey
Spacemetric has completed the delivery and operational roll-out of a complete image distribution and archiving solution based on its Keystone image supply technology to the Swedish National Land Survey. This provides a catalogue and serves image products from the Land Survey’s 50 Terabyte archive of existing orthophotos and recent digital airborne camera acquisitions.
Since February 2007 the Swedish National Land Survey has adopted a new national map system, Sweref99. At the same time, there is a need to effectively and simply provide seamless access to both the archive of older aerial photography and newer digital airborne imagery from the Survey‘s two Z/I DMC cameras. The existing archive is stored in the previous system, RT90, and must now be provided to the new standard. In the meantime, full customer adoption of Sweref99 is expected to take several years so all imagery will be provided in both systems for some time to come.
The solution provided by Spacemetric supports on-demand generation of the Survey’s image products in either of the Swedish coordinate systems. Archived orthoimages can be recombined and reprojected to provide tailored extracts and image mosaics regardless of standard map-sheet boundaries. Meanwhile, new DMC imagery is kept in a rudimentary form together with its orientation data and is only generated in a specific map system in response to an order. The solution is also highly scalable and will support an archive growth rate of 10-15 TB per year in response to an annual survey of 150,000 km2 of Swedish territory.
Spacemetric is a Swedish company providing image supply solutions for satellite and airborne imagery. Customers include the European Space Agency, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, the National Aerospace Laboratory in the Netherlands, the Swedish National Land Survey and the Swedish National Space Board.
Spacemetric supports Spanish DMC satellite
Spacemetric is to deliver a comprehensive image supply solution for the latest satellite in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) being built for the Spanish company Deimos Space by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). This satellite features a 600 km wide-swath multispectral imager with pixels of 22 metres.
Five DMC satellites have been built so far for customers including the UK, Nigeria and China. Spacemetric supports all of these missions with catalogue, archive management and orthoprocessing functions through the Keystone image supply solution delivered to the SSTL subsidiary DMC International Imaging (DMCii). Meanwhile, the Keystone solution for the Deimos satellite will be delivered as a stand-alone system to the Spanish operator. The system will be delivered in Autumn 2007 and will be complemented by post-launch activities to fine-tune the workflow and ensure that high-accuracy orthoimages can be generated in an efficient and streamlined way.
Spacemetric is a Swedish company providing image supply solutions for satellite and airborne imagery. Customers include the European Space Agency, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, the National Aerospace Laboratory in the Netherlands, the Swedish National Land Survey and the Swedish National Space Board.
Contact:
Lars-Äke Edgardh,
CEO
Tel: +46 859477080
Ian Spence,
Sales & Marketing Director
International Sales Office, UK
Tel: +44 20710036060
(Source SpaceMetric)

The airships, located far away from any normal aerial traffic, will provide data for local and regional applications that will be complementary to those provided by satellites, or will even improve satellite performance.

INSA, Ingeniería y Servicios Aeroespaciales S.A., is a leader company in Space Services and Aerospace Engineering, with a solid experience based on more than 40 years managing, operating and maintaining NASA, ESA and INTA space stations, being the largest Spanish company in this field.
INSA is also responsible for many space engineering projects in the fields of Earth Observation Systems, Satellite-based Telecommunication Networks and Ground Segment Engineering. Related to this engineering activity, INSA established an ambitious R&D plan, in which the SANCHO Project is included.
SANCHO seeks to acquire the technologies to enable the development of
aerostatic vehicles for emergency management, security and
telecommunication applications, with altitudes ranging between few
meters and stratosphere. The fields of research include aeronautical,
power control, telecommunications and Earth observation technologies.
The main goal is to provide services in critical emergency management situations, like forest fire fighting, border security and for personal communications in areas without the necessary terrestrial telecommunication infrastructures. The platforms, located far away from any normal aerial traffic, will provide data for local and regional applications that will be complementary to those provided by satellites, or will even improve satellite performance.
Regarding forest fire fighting, continuous observation of the fire progress is a high valuable information for every single resource involved in extinguishing the fire. The same applies for other natural disasters liken volcanic eruptions or thermal pollution in rivers. In the past, many infrared space platform-based applications have been developed, as well as aerial, terrestrial or even portable systems to obtain data about the development of the flame front and burned areas.
Geostationary satellites, hot air balloons and dirigible airships provide a static point of observation. Furthermore, the latter are even capable of correcting its position and counteracting atmospheric perturbations. Current cost of these equipments is reasonable, due to them being widely spread for scientific research (as well as for entertainment and advertising). The operation cost for such a dirigible airship presents great advantages over satellites, manned airships and even over unmanned aerial vehicles. Even though, there are currently no such operational projects based on these platforms, for which if the results are as expected, this would lead the project to a promising second stage.
For the current stage of the project the dirigible is expected to be flying over 1.500 meters and carrying a 100 kg payload, prior to the goal altitude of 4.000 meter and the goal payload of 200 kg. First stratospheric flights could be achieved by 2012.
(Source INSA S.A.)

Just hours before the anticipated kickoff of the 44th Annual Havelfest, RapidEye had the pleasure of welcoming Brandenburg‘s Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck along with the Mayor of Brandenburg an der Havel, Dr. Dietlind Thiemann.

Accompanying them were the former Mayor and member of the Bundestag Dr. Margrit Spielmann and Ralf Holzschuher, a member of Brandenburg‘s parliament. The tour was an informational visit for the guests highlighting RapidEye‘s technology, employees and facilities.
Management members Wolfgang Biedermann and Michael Oxfort greeted and escorted the group on a tour of the recently renovated RapidEye headquarters. Informative presentations then gave guests an overview of the company, and a visual simulation of RapidEye‘s satellite constellation to be launched later this year.
A select team of employees then shared with the guests how satellite imagery is applied to identify biomass and grain types, and a demonstration on removing cloud cover from images by using mosaic techniques.
RapidEye‘s staff would like to thank these distinguished guests for taking an interest in their progress, and for making time in their busy schedules for a visit.
(Source RapidEye)

INDRA is conducting a market characterization of the Latin American Remote Sensing sector to promote the products and services from the value adding European EO industry

INDRA is conducting a characterization study of the Latin American and Caribbean Earth Observation sector under contract from the European Space Agency (EOMD programme). The aim of JAGUAR PLAN is to analyse the current situation of the sector in the continent in order to draw a Strategic Plan (“Plan Jaguar”), by the end of 2007, to steer the activities in the area during the following five years and enable the access of the European remote sensing companies to the Latin American market.
The study includes a market characterization supported by the execution of mini-projects (small outreach pilot projects to be executed soon) in different countries involving local stakeholders and European EO companies willing to promote their portfolio overseas. At present time, INDRA has already delivered the sectoral characterisation of the EO sector and an analysis of priority action areas, pinpointing some candidate pilot projects for implementation.
After the summer, INDRA and ESA shall launch a call for expressions of interest so that the interested European EO services companies can participate in the small scale pilot projects and enable the consolidation of the results of the analysis and the drafting of the long term strategy. The announcement of the ITT shall be promptly announced through EARSC and other channels.
More information: http://www.planjaguar.info
(Source INDRA)

Terrafirma, run by NPA of the UK, is an ESA GMES project aimed at establishing a ‘terrain motion’ hazard information service across Europe in support of policies aimed at saving lives, improving safety and reducing economic loss.

Terrafirma, now in Stage 2 and starting its fourth year of activity, is based on a combination of radar satellite interferometry and expert geophysical interpretation to produce terrain motion information products that relate to four key areas of concern: urban stability (including mining), flood-risk (coastal lowlands, floodplain subsidence and flood defence integrity), crustal deformation (earthquakes) and landslides.
Terrafirma has so far enlisted the national geological organisations of 22 member states (including the British Geological Survey), as well as the main pan-European geological associations (EuroGeoSurveys, European Federation of Geologists and the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre). Terrafirma therefore represents a single point of contact for geohazard expertise in Europe. The project is delivering products for at least one major town in each of the EU25, plus 17 landslide products in Italy, Spain, Greece and Switzerland. All in all, nearly 60 terrain motion products will have been made by 2008.
Terrafirma products cross-cut a range of established applications: landslide products are allied to emergency response, urban stability to land monitoring, crustal deformation is more appropriate to future security issues, and monitoring coastal lowlands is complementary to in-situ services. Because of this cross-cutting nature and there consequently being no single home for Terrafirma in the current FP7 Fast Track regime, it is important that all lobbying activities continue to ensure that the unique and valuable attributes offered by Terrafirma are fully exploited.
“Stoke on Trent, UK. A result showing the remarkable attributes of the Terrafirma product. Red is subsidence, blue uplift and green stable. Current theories believe the uplift to be due to the flooding of old mines.”
For further information, please contact the project Co-ordinator,
Ren Capes, on ren@npagroup.com
(Source NPAGroup)

Kongsberg Spacetec news

MEOS Capture High Rate Front End Processor to Kongsberg Satellite Systems, Norway
Kongsberg Spacetec (KSPT) has signed a contract with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) to deliver a MEOS Capture HRFEP (High Rate Front End Processor) system.
This is a general 150 Mbps system, but equipped with special support for handling the ADM Aeolus satellite downlink. MEOS Capture is KSPT‘s new generation of high performance data acquisition and telemetry processing systems.
MEOS Capture High Rate Test Generator System to Kongsberg Satellite Systems, Norway
Kongsberg Spacetec has signed a contract with Kongsberg Satellite Services to deliver a MEOS Capture HRTG (High Rate Test Generator) system.
This is a general purpose test system, operating up to 150 Mbps. MEOS Capture is KSPT‘s new generation of high performance data acquisition and telemetry processing systems.

Infoterra Ltd, a leader in the provision of geographic information products and services, has completed the mapping of offshore oil slicks in the Arctic area covering more than 2 million km2 – including the Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Mackenzie Delta, Hudson Strait, Greenland and Outer Rockall areas. These areas expand the existing Global Seeps database into another new frontier region.

Global Seeps database covers over 60 million km2.
The Global Seeps database, covering over 60 million km2 of offshore basins, has been constructed by interpreting radar satellite data and screening offshore basins worldwide to a water depth of c.3,000 meters. The database is made up of over 12,300 ERS satellite equivalent scenes.
Oil seep information is valuable to exploration companies for locating possible sites of valuable oil accumulation. Immediate access and availability of this oil seeps database, either on a local, regional or global basis, provides customers with precise and detailed information when required. Infoterra’s Global Seeps database is already used by many major international oil companies as a powerful exploration tool to analyse the probability of a mature source rock and an active petroleum system being present, saving both time and money.
Dr Andy Wells, director of sales at Infoterra Ltd comments: “Infoterra has continued its plan to screen all the world’s offshore basins by adding the Arctic areas and the North Atlantic, which are now opening up to hydrocarbon exploration. This new detailed oil seeps data, in GIS format, will enable businesses to maximise exploration effectiveness and manage environmental impact.”
Oil seep identification is a complex process due to the depth of water, variability in leaking petroleum systems and man-made pollution within the offshore frontier basins. Infoterra’s team of experts characterise and rank the slicks as probable natural seepage or man-made pollution, as well as mapping rigs, platforms and ship traffic for a more complete picture of the controls on oil slick distribution.
About Infoterra Ltd.
Infoterra Ltd is a leading provider of geographic information products and services. Its portfolio of geographic information solutions includes airborne and satellite data acquisition, geo-information creation, database management and outsourced hosting. Infoterra provides geospatial knowledge to companies worldwide to help them make informed decisions. The company has major customers in communications, utilities, engineering, agriculture, defence and oil, gas & mineral exploration.
Infoterra Ltd. is part of the Infoterra group which comprises companies in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium Ltd, an EADS company.
Media contact
Sarah Haslam, Infoterra Ltd,
+44 (0)116 273 2300
(Source Infoterra Ltd.)

Gisat News

Fast-Tracking urban sprawl
Gisat is a member of the European service provider network mapping urban sprawl and soil sealing for Europe by 2008 in challenging project awarded by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Starting May 2007, a European service provider network led by Infoterra GmbH will map built-up areas and soil sealing for Europe. By 2008, the consortium will cover 5.8 mio square kilometres at 20 m resolution for the reference year of 2006.
This challenging project has recently been awarded by the European Environment Agency (EEA) as one of the first seamless pan-European geo-information services within the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The service provider network consists of GeoVille GmbH (Austria), GISAT s.r.o. (Czech Republic), Metria (Sweden), Planetek Italia srl. (Italy), Tragsatec SA (Spain), and is led by Infoterra GmbH (Germany); gathering essential expertise from all over Europe.
Gisat makes it REAL
REmote sensing identification and monitoring of Abandoned Land project aims to explore potential of the state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques for monitoring of land abandonment in the Czech Republic.
The process of land abandonment has become widespread in the last decades in all CEEC reflecting substantial political and economical changes in this period. Nowadays, it represent a serious issue and if not solved in time, the abandonment of productive agricultural lands would further grow. These lands would then gradually degrade together with their cultural landscape, soils will lose their productive potential, and jobs would be lost with consequent further migrations and further land degradation in a vicious circle that would deepen the social and economic problems of these regions. Besides the major social and economical impact, the process of land abandonment can have also serious ecological consequences.
Sustainable use and management of abandoned areas and prevention of abandonement land area enlargement is one of the policy targets both on European [e.g. Agro-Environmental Regulation, Council Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92, Rural Development Regulation, Council Regulation (EEC) No 1257/99] and national level (e.g. Biodiversity Strategy of Czech Republic [MŽP,2005], Post-accession Rural Policy 2004 – 2013 [MZE, 2005]). Nevertheless, the assessment of the policy strategies requires clear measures based on the figures on status and evolution of abandoned land area. Unfortunately, there are currently no actual statistical data available on the extent of land abandonment so only rough estimates are used (e.g. total area of abandoned land about 300 000 ha, that is 7 percent of the total agricultural area (Ministry of Agriculture, 2001).
The project aims to develop and test new methodology for identification and monitoring of abandoned land via the state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques. Two pilot areas are to be used for demonstration of technically and economically viable solution using object-based classification combining three basic strategies for abandoned land monitoring: spectral (hyperspectral), textural and temporal (both long term and seasonal).
The project is done under the support of the EUPRO programme of Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic in the frame of the ERA-STAR GMES Pilot Project “Brownfields” led by INDRA, Spain.
Gisat has landed in GSE Land
Gisat joins the ESA GMES GSE Land project as the service provider partner.
GSE Land is a project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the European GMES initiative – a joint approach of ESA and the European Commission.
The project responds to a number of European directives and policies and aims to support users across Europe in their efforts of fulfilling their obligations arising from these new developments. In particular in Czech Republic, GSE Land services will address support of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Urban Environment Thematic Strategy (UTS) and the regulations related to the Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection (STS).
GSE Land joins the three proceeding ESA GSE projects that had already worked on land applications and brought these to a status of pre-maturity during the GSE Stage-1 programme:
- SAGE addressing water pollution, water abstraction by irrigation, agri-environmental as well as soil sealing indicators
- GMES Urban Services (GUS) providing urban mapping and monitoring services
- CoastWatch (land part) supporting an integrated coastal zone management
The consortia and their skills have been merged in order to provide a joint portfolio of mature GSE Land Information Services. GSE Land is led by Infoterra GmbH and conducted in close conjunction with numerous complementary activities within other GMES projects.
(Source Gisat)