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The European Interparliamentary Space Conference was established in 1999 as a permanent forum for cooperation between the European national parliaments.

It aims to develop a continuing dialogue on space policy issues and support national governments and European institutions in their efforts to achieve a common European Space Policy for the maximum benefit of Europe‘s citizens.
Every year a conference is held in order to discuss issues relating to space exploration and utilisation. Apart from the members of national parliamentary space groups, representatives of the European Commission, the European Space Agency, national space agencies, industry and observers from other space-faring countries also participate in the conferences.
The EISC encourages closer cooperation between the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the member states of ESA and the European Union, national space agencies and experts from science and industry, with the aim of creating a permanent and effective mechanism for implementing and maintaining a true European space strategy.
The Assembly of WEU, Europe’s only interparliamentary security and defence assembly, was founded in 1954 when the 1948 Brussels Treaty was modified. It held its first session in 1955. The Treaty contains an unconditional mutual defence clause (Article V) and provides an organic link to NATO (Article IV). It also established the Assembly, to which some 40 countries send their parliamentary representatives.
These include all the EU member states and the European NATO countries as well as Russia, Ukraine and all the Balkan states. The Assembly scrutinises European intergovernmental activities in all areas of security and defence, including armaments cooperation. Following the transfer of WEU’s operational activities to the EU, the Assembly also serves as the interparliamentary platform for the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) on the basis of the parliamentary instruments for which the WEU legal framework makes provision.
email: press@assembly.weu.int
(Source ESA)

On 19-22 September 2006, the WEU Assembly and the European Interparliamentary Space Conference joined forces to hold a colloquium on Space, Defence and European Security in Kourou, French Guiana, in association with the European Space Agency (ESA), France’s national centre for space studies, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Arianespace.

The event brought together over a hundred Members of Parliament from European nations along with Members of the European Parliament and senior executives from ESA, CNES, Arianespace and the space industry in Europe. The main aim of the discussions was to examine the space sector in its application to security and defence and assess industrial capabilities in the light of the challenges Europe faces at the present time. The participants noted the gulf between the strategic ambitions Europe had of its space dimension and the level of funds it was prepared to commit to it. There was a risk of Space Europe losing its head start.
The President of the Interparliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly (WEU Assembly), Jean-Pierre Masseret, emphasised the importance of Europe being able to draw on the full gamut of space-based facilities: Earth observation, telecommunications, intelligence, navigation and ballistic missile early warning systems, noting further that this comprehensive range of capabilities played a crucial part in preventing, managing and exiting crises, and would guarantee Europe genuinely autonomous powers of decision and action in security and defence matters.
The President of the European Interparliamentary Space Conference, François Roelants du Vivier, welcomed the fact of the colloquium being held in Kourou, in his view “not a moment too soon”. If Europe wanted to catch up with its main competitors in space, it needed to take the financial decisions that were necessary, and quickly! The vital necessity of the security and defence dimension being discussed at the colloquium was something that parliamentarians must seriously take on board in order to convince governments to invest massively in space – an area that has been far too long neglected.
The Director General of ESA Jean-Jacques Dordain felt that messages were being received from the conference that would constitute important inputs into the preparation, by the European Commission and ESA, of the European Space Policy, to be unveiled at the Fourth Meeting of the Space Council scheduled to take place in May 2007. Members of national parliaments and of the European Parliament had affirmed the strategic importance of space for the continent of Europe. In defining and implementing a European Space Policy, Europeans should build on present successes. There was a need to take feedback from users, consolidate technological and industrial capacities, maintain flexibility, strengthen coordination between the various parties involved and manage the evolution of space governance by stages. This was a challenge for everyone and one to which, with the commitment of all concerned, and in particular of the member states, Europe was quite equal.
For the President of the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Yannick D’Escatha, Space had now become thoroughly interdisciplinary, and was consequently a key element of major European policies. He emphasised space’s special ‘dual’ contribution in virtually every field (military and civil) connected with people’s security and was adamant that Europe must take advantage of this dual-use aspect, in view of the differential between levels of investment in Europe and the United States (in a ratio of 1:6).
On the subject of access to space, the Director of Arianespace, the Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, pointed to the ever stronger position of the world leader in European launchers, with Ariane 5 especially, whose reliability and frequent regular launches had enabled Europe to put up the highest number of commercial satellites in 2005 and 2006. These high levels of activity in the worldwide commercial market had brought Europe the spin off of ready, reliable, guaranteed competitive access to space for sovereign missions by European governments.
In this respect, the European launcher programme was a model of the success of European integration in the service of security and defence, as the launches that had already taken place of 26 military satellites served to illustrate. Finally, the full range of launchers in use at the Kourou European Spaceport from 2008 – including Vega, Soyuz and Ariane 5, would mean that Europe was able independently to put a payload of any given weight into any chosen orbit.
For further information, please contact:
Fernando Doblas
Head of Communication Department,
ESA
Tél. : 00.33.1.53.69.80.28
(Source ESA)

Space and Society
Conference “Space Options for the 21st Century”, February 27 to March 1, 2007

INTRODUCTION
This conference follows on from the 1st Impact of Space on Society conference held as a stand-alone International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) event held in Budapest in March 2005 and is intended to gather experts interested in this broad, complex and international topic at a time when the world is celebrating not only the 50th anniversary of spaceflight, but also the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical/Polar Year. The conference is hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) at its large R&D establishment in Noordwijk, The Netherlands and is co-organized with the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) and the International Academy of Astronautics. It is anticipated to hold a third such conference, organized by CASI and co-organized with ESA and the IAA in Canada in 2008.
The conference will explore some of the many important and critical issues which are having an impact on society such as global warming and climate change, natural disasters, energy needs and resources, water management and security with a view to emphasizing how space systems, technologies and applications are helping to provide viable solutions to terrestrial problems.
The conference will also examine the role of innovation, creativity and spin-in in conceptualizing, designing, developing and building technologies for space exploration and how this can be harnessed for societal good. To this end, entrepreneurs will be able to show how their ideas and concepts to utilize space technologies for new products and services can help meet society?s needs.
TOPICS
Papers are sought which address such topics as:
? Critical issues and choices facing society in the not so distant future
? How space developments and space technologies can realistically provide solutions to urgent
terrestrial challenges
? Space exploration as a catalyst for providing solutions to terrestrial problems
? Achieving sustainable development through space activities
? National and global space policy issues and priorities
? The impact that space activities are having upon society and how the public perceives them
? Benefits of space in our daily life – technology transfers and spin-offs
? Innovation and creativity in space systems design and development
? New advances and developments outside the space sector which could spun-in to space programmes
? Ethical and humanitarian issues of space activity
?Ensuring greater public awareness of the role played by space systems in preserving Earth
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
In order to obtain an interesting and lively discussion of the important issues facing society and the role that space activities do and can play in this respect, the organizers hope to bring together a group of leading environmentalists, sociologists, economists, philosophers, policy makers and industrialists to interact with visionary and specialist space experts to explore and discuss what viable options space development and space technologies can realistically provide for society in the critical years ahead.
(Source ESA)

POSTEL is a thematic centre associating R&D and services to describe the soil and vegetation from Earth Observation satellite data, at regional and global scales.

It is supported by several national public institutions . It develops through a series of projects .
The POSTEL products are spatialized variables describing :
- Vegetation and Soils with products such as Leaf Area Index, vegetal cover fraction, fAPAR, burnt areas, surface reflectance, land cover
- Radiation with products such as albedo, BRDF,surface temperature , downwelling radiation flux shortwave and longwave
- Water with products such as soil moisture, precipitation, water bodies, evapotranspiration, continental water level
The products are available to the international science community and can be downloaded.
More information at:
Marc Leroy
Centre de Service POSTEL,
MEDIAS-
France
Email: marc.leroy@medias.cnes.fr
(Source POSTEL)

(“Optimal”), a geomatics solutions provider to engineering and geospatial professionals, is pleased to announce the recent expansion of its linear corridor solutions to the Transportation market.

Accordingly, Optimal appointed Ron Gant as Director of Transportation to strengthen the drive to become the premier provider of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, GIS, and GPS solutions in the Transportation sector.
“Transportation projects depend upon reliable, accurate data and as a result the Transportation Industry has been in the forefront for developing technologies serving data acquisition and compilation for engineering and GIS,” stated Ron Gant, Director of Transportation. “Optimal is a leading edge provider of solutions and services for consulting, remote sensing, GPS, LiDAR and similar technologies. Optimal will focus resources on providing those leading edge solutions to meeting the needs of surveyors, engineers and GIS professionals in the Transportation Industry.”
Mr. Gant brings with him a wealth of experience to this sector including 16 years of executive experience with Bentley Systems and Intergraph Corporation. Mr. Gant‘s focus is on developing strong customer relationships and a growing market share in the transportation sector within North America.
“Mr. Gant has a proven track record in the Transportation sector of building products and market share. I am confident that this market will be well-served by his leadership and benefit from his commitment to bringing the latest geomatics solutions to the customer‘s enterprise,” commented Colum Caldwell, President and CEO.
Optimal Geomatics specializes in the science and technology of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, distributing and using geographic information. Optimal applies the disciplines of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning system (GPS) to provide solutions for engineering and geospatial professionals. Optimal‘s geomatics solutions enable State Departments of Transportation to streamline tasks and projects related to operations, road routes, intermodal connectivity, traffic congestion, safety improvements, engineering, conservations / environmental protection, and more.
This document may contain forward-looking statements. These statements present management‘s expectations, beliefs, plans, and objectives regarding future events and conditions and, as such, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could be significantly different from those projected.
(Source Spatialnews)

Professor Robert Boroffice, director-general, National Space Research and Development Agency said Abuja , the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently said that the project would be built with active participation of many local engineers.

The project is slated for launch in 2008.
Professor Robert Boroffice, said that the country has a pool of highly trained engineers to undertake the design while the
construction and launch would be done with assistance from foreign experts.
Boroffice said Sat-2 would be an improvement on Nigeria Sat-1, “Which is a medium resolution earth observation satellite.”
The director-general said when Sat-2 is launched in 2008 it would provide a wide range of applications in the areas of infrastructure, water resources management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management.
Boroffice said Nigeria Sat-1, which was launched in 2003 from Plesetsk, Russia into 686 km polar orbit has been capturing high quality images using six cameras on board the satellite.
He said Sat-1 has apart from demonstrating good applications and commercial value has been configured in Disaster Monitoring Constellation with other United Kingdom (UK).
Boroffice added that Sat-1 has given Nigeria an added advantage of global coverage and daily revisit with provision of real time data.
By Kuayire Igho – Nigeria Bureau, AND

Google began showcasing the world‘s natural wonders, famous haunts, and man-made changes on its global mapping service.

Google Earth offered “Featured Content” ranging from details of the Three Gorges Dam in China and King Tut‘s tomb in Egypt to Itsukushima Shrine in Japan and Pablo Picasso‘s favorite social spot in Sweden.
“We are excited to provide users with the opportunity to learn more about the natural wonders and manmade landmarks of the world,” said John Hanke, director Google Earth and Maps. “We believe Google Earth is an excellent medium for organizing and sharing the world‘s geographic information and we continue to explore opportunities to bring visually compelling and informative content into Google Earth.”
Google created “multimedia overlays” that users can trigger by clicking icons that appear on a virtual globe.
Icons designated natural wonders, major landmarks or cities, and environmental changes such as deforestation in the Amazon and a shrinking glacier in Iceland.
Pop-up boxes provide images, brief information, and links to websites with more details.
The Mountain View, California, based online search giant‘s partners in the project included the United Nations Environmental Program; Discovery Networks World Tour; Jane Goodall Institute; Turn Here travel guides, and the US National Park Service.
(Source: Agence France-Presse)

This year’s Summer School in Alpbach, Austria, was one of the most successful ever undertaken, according to both the students and the experts who took part.

The Alpbach Summer School was organised by the Aeronautics and Space Agency of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). It is co-sponsored by ESA and the national space authorities of its member and cooperating states, as well as by EUMETSAT, with the support of the Interntional Space Science Institute and EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies.
Each Summer School concentrates on a different subject, and the theme chosen for the 2006 event was “Monitoring of Natural Hazards from Space”. This topic was considered to be particularly appropriate at a time of growing concern over environmental change, since it involves the use of satellites to improve scientists’ ability to monitor, predict and mitigate natural hazard events.
More than 50% of the Summer School timetable was devoted to student workshops. Following on from lectures covering scientific and technical aspects of Earth Observation from space, with an emphasis on major natural hazards, students were organised into four teams, each of which had to design a different space mission that might answer some of the key questions relating to the theme. At the end of the Summer School, the teams were asked to present their mission ideas to a jury of experts.
Each team was asked to:
* Identify a natural hazard or set of hazards susceptible to space borne observation;
* Determine a set of measurements or procedures that could aid in this process;
* Identify and detail a space mission that can enable these objectives to be achieved;
* Define and outline the design of an instrumental payload to make the observations;
* Establish the mission’s technical feasibility;
* Establish a mission architecture, considering technical and planning aspects;
* Determine the launcher required, and the cost envelope of the mission;
* Identify assumptions underpinning the mission: e.g. ground infrastructure, coordination with ground-based observations, new instrument developments etc.;
* Compare the mission with others in this field and consider its competitiveness;
* Consider the cost effectiveness of the mission.
The following topics were selected:
Floods (blue team)
The blue team produced an implementation plan for a Flood Assessment Satellites mission that would provide data to support and enhance hydrological models and decision making in flood disaster management. Envisaged as a flotilla of 4 satellites, it would use an innovative L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload to monitor land water bodies and estimate soil moisture for flood model calibration, drought forecasting and climate research.
Landslides (green team)
The green team presented the case for a Movement Detection Mission, an innovative mission concept for long-term monitoring of global landslide activity at medium and large scales. The key element of the mission is an orbital synthetic aperture radar instrument known as Differential Interferometric SAR. This will provide global coverage of landslide activity over a period of 36 days.
Earthquakes (orange team)
The orange team designed the Monitoring of Surface Deformation in Active Tectonic Zones mission that would increase knowledge of global seismology and advance research in earthquake predictions. In order to achieve the required sensitivity the mission would make use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and the Persistent Scatterers processing concept. It would also include a microwave sounder to correct the low frequencies of atmospheric water vapour and a magnetometer to capture ionospheric disturbances.
Volcanoes (red team)
The ?volcano haSAT’ mission presented by the red team was intended to provide a “global fast response monitoring system for volcanoes”. A 3-satellite constellation would guarantee full global coverage each day. The spacecraft’s L-band SAR sensor would deliver information about ground deformation prior to possible eruptions. This would also lead to the creation of a SAR database for 115 selected high risk volcanoes.
**********
“Never in my life did I get such a high-ranked and comprehensive overview of natural hazards and existing remote sensing capabilities,” commented Professor Hartmut Grassl, chairman of the jury.
Professor Grassl went on to compliment the teams on their innovative thoughts and approaches.
“Overall, I was so impressed that I will report to the Earth Science Advisory Committee of ESA on the outcome of this summer school and I will propose the launch of further studies within ESA’s study budget,” he said.
The overall feedback of Summer School students was also extremely positive.
“They all really enjoyed participating in it, and reported back that it was an exceptional experience, they had learned a lot and enjoyed the atmosphere,“ said Michaela Gitsch, the Summer School cordinator.
“From the point of view of the organisers I can say that the students were extremely enthusiastic, very well organised in their work (e.g. they managed to select team spokespersons on the first day), and able to actively engage with each other and with the scientists and engineers. We had outstanding lectures, tutors and students who spent many hours – almost day and night – working toward a successful Summer School,” echoed the Head Tutor, Professor Martin Turner, from the University of Leicester, UK.
Links

The European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) supports the European Union decision-making in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) through the exploitation and production of information derived primarily from the analysis of Earth Observation space imagery.

Based on integrated, service-oriented IT infrastructure, the facility will enable efficient processing of the workflows within the Centre. Thus fully support the production of the requested information dossiers.
These are relative to different domains such as general security surveillance, support to humanitarian and peace-keeping missions, maritime surveillance, management of environmental crisis…
The consortium led by ACS will implement architectural solution which includes Catalogue Interoperability, Workflow Engines and Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL) in the framework of the facility development.
(Source www.eu.eusc.int)

ESA‘s smallest Earth Observation satellite, Proba, is making big contributions to science with applications ranging from environmental monitoring, agriculture, forest , land use, crop forecasting, marine and coastal science as well as biological soil crusts and solid waste landfill monitoring.

Launched on 22 October 2001, Proba orbits 600 kilometres above the Earth and acquires around 450 scientific image datasets of more than 100 separate sites each year. Its main payload, the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), is a highly configurable hyperspectral imager that sees down to a resolution of 17 metres and can acquire up to five images of a desired target at a time, each at a different angle with respect to Earth‘s surface, because Proba is manoeuvrable enough to perform controlled pitch and roll.
This unique instrument was highlighted at the 4th Proba/CHRIS workshop held at ESRIN, ESA‘s Earth Observation Centre in Frascati, Italy, from 19 to 21 September 2006, where some 60 researchers from around the world met to share current results and future plans, and have an input into future CHRIS acquisition planning.
The workshop heard how CHRIS images are being used to assess the effects of different land use strategies on vegetation types in the savannahs in Central Nambia, to evaluate aerosol retrieval in Hong Kong, to identify ancient Roman buildings, to help map and measure alpine snow cover in the Swiss National Park, to monitor waste landfill operations, and to study the role of woodland as both sinks and sources of carbon dioxide, among many others.
The themes of the workshop included CHRIS image processing and validation, land-surface processes and the atmosphere, and inland and coastal waters. In addition to hearing encouraging results presented on diverse sets of scientific and application studies, the workshop highlighted the need to continue the Proba mission until new hyperspectral missions become available.
CHRIS, which is roughly the size of a large television set, is especially useful because of its combined ability to retrieve hyperspectral and multi-angular data. The imager‘s combination of high spatial resolution and wide spectral range means that a large amount of important biophysical and biochemical properties can be gathered, including chlorophyll and water content, leaf area index and overall biomass and vegetation health. It is also useful for studying the atmosphere and bodies of water.
Mike Barnsley of the University Swansea in the UK said that although upcoming missions will offer hyperspectral capabilities, “the multi-angle acquisition capacity of Proba/CHRIS remains unsurpassed by any other equivalent mission. What the scientific community requires now is a CHRIS-2 instrument, perhaps with extended spectral on a future Proba satellite to build upon the stunning successes of the original mission.”
Participants also focused on the CHRIS/Proba mission helping to develop a new scientific community exploring applications of hyperspectral and multi-angle image data and on the growing knowledge base stemming from the mission, which is leading to a more coherent terrestrial science community that could provide informed advice on future satellite missions.
The need to better promote the advantages of the mission to a still wider scientific audience, since the CHRIS/Proba community is relatively small and select, was also highlighted at the workshop. To this end, Proba Scientific Investigators are invited to submit their contributions to the 2007 Envisat Symposium being held from 23 to 27 April 2007 in Montreux, Switzerland, where dedicated sessions will be organised.
In closing comments, the Proba community expressed hope that the spacecraft would last well beyond its 5-year anniversary next month in order to keep the science going until new missions with similar capabilities arrive.
(Source ESA)