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One of our planet’s few exposed lava lakes is changing, and artificial intelligence is helping NASA understand how.

On 21 January, a fissure opened at the top of Ethiopia’s Erta Ale volcano – one of the few in the world with an active lava lake in its caldera. Volcanologists sent out requests for NASA’s Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) spacecraft to image the eruption, which was large enough to begin reshaping the volcano’s summit.

As it turned out, that spacecraft was already busy collecting data of the lava lake. Alerted by a detection from another satellite, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) system had ordered it to look at the volcano. By the time scientists needed these images, they were already processed and on the ground.

Source NASA

From 6 March 2017, SRAL Level-1A products will be available at Short Time Critical (STC) and Non-Time Critical (NTC) timeliness.

SRAL Level-1A products SRAL Level 1A Unpacked L0 Complex echos in STC and SRAL Level 1A Unpacked L0 Complex echos in NTC are unpacked L0 Complex echos.

The Sentinel-3A Product Notice, Sentinel-3A Product Notice – STM Level-1 (PDF, 822 KB), describes the Level-1 current status, processing baseline, product quality and limitations, and product availability status.

The SRAL Level-1A products can be accessed via the following means:

The new pilot Copernicus Online Data Access (CODA) service, an online rolling archive with http access. CODA can be accessed at https://coda.eumetsat.int.. If you are a first time user, click on ‘Sign Up’. You will then be taken to our Earth Observation Portal where you will be able to request access to CODA. If you don’t have an Earth Observation Portal (EOP) account, you will need to create one first. A CODA account will be set up for you and you will receive an email with your CODA account credentials within the next working day.
The EUMETSAT Data Centre, accessible via our Earth Observation Portal (EOP).

More information on SRAL products and accessing the data can be found on the Sentinel-3 Services Altimetry page.

For any questions, contact our EUMETSAT Service Helpdesk

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On 23 February 2017, a new version of CODA was released by EUMETSAT.

The pilot CODA service is an online rolling archive with http access and 14 days of data online. It provides access to Sentinel-3 Level 1 and Level 2 global data in near real-time (NRT), short time critical (STC) & non time critical (NTC) latency mode.

Main enhancements

The new version of CODA will include the following main enhancements.

Quicklook
It will be possible to display a thumbnail image (Quicklook) showing a preview of the products. Quicklooks will be displayed in the list of search results in the main Map Tool (in order to have a quick overview of the search results) and also for every single product.

To access a single product’s Quicklook, click on ‘View Products Details’: a window will open displaying information about the selected file e.g. Footprint (Figure 1, orange arrow), Attributes (green arrow), Inspector (red arrow), and also a bigger version of the Quicklook (blue arrow).

Single file download

In the old version it was possible to download the complete product compressed in zip format only, the new version also supports download of manifest and single files contained in the product.

Click on ‘View Products Details’, a window with information about the file will open. In the section ‘Inspector’ you will find the list of the single files contained in the zip and a button to download every single file.

Sort/Order results

With this new version of CODA it will be possible to sort the results of a search using two parameters: Ingestion Date and Sensing Date. It will also be possible to display the sorted list in descending or ascending order.

Read the CODA User Guide

Access CODA

CODA can be accessed at https://coda.eumetsat.int.

If you are a first time user, click on ‘Sign Up’. You will then be taken to EUMETSAT’s Earth Observation Portal where you will be able to request access to CODA.

If you don’t have an Earth Observation Portal (EOP) account, you will need to create one first. A CODA account will be set up and you will receive an email with your CODA account credentials within the next working day.

For more information, contact EUMETSAT User Service Helpdesk.

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(29 March 2017) Users of Copernicus services are set to benefit from a new partnership which improves access to pan-European maps and land information from official sources.

The cooperation agreement signed today between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and EuroGeographics signals a commitment to make more national authoritative geospatial information available through the European Commission’s flagship initiative for earth observation and monitoring.

Mrs Ingrid Vanden Berghe, President, EuroGeographics said: “Our members, the European National Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registry Authorities, already provide data to crisis response teams through the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service. This new agreement strengthens and builds on their relationship with the EEA and will benefit people across Europe by supporting wider initiatives underpinned by pan-European harmonised data.”

Dr Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director, EEA said: “Policy makers, researchers, commercial and private users, as well as the global scientific community, all use information provided by the different Copernicus services to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Europe. We are delighted to be working with EuroGeographics and its members to improve the awareness, availability and benefit of geospatial data for a wide range of applications, including climate and energy, public health, urban and regional planning, biodiversity and environmental protection, and transport and safety.”

The partnership agreement has five main objectives:

  • To improve Copernicus access to EuroGeographics data and services, produced using official geospatial data from its members.
  • To enhance the dialogue between Copernicus and EuroGeographics members.
  • To foster knowledge exchange between Copernicus and EuroGeographics members.
  • To promote awareness raising activities.
  • To support initiatives to provide pan-European harmonised data services.

To facilitate coordination and communication between the two organisations, EuroGeographics is establishing a dedicated knowledge exchange network to share expertise and experiences.

Feedback from the EEA will also provide invaluable input into the delivery of future European Location Services which are being developed by EuroGeographics and its members. The vision is that these will provide the single access point for international users of harmonised, pan-European, authoritative geospatial information and services; and enable national mapping, cadastral and land registry authorities to be recognised in their international effort to contribute to the wider public good.

For further information please contact Rhian French on +44 1264 300126, +447892 698 350(mobile) or email press@eurogeographics.org.

EuroGeographics

EuroGeographics is an international not-for-profit organisation (AISBL/ IVZW under Belgian Law. BCE registration: 833 607 112) and the membership association for the European National Mapping, Cadastre and Land Registry Authorities. It currently brings together 61 members from 46 countries.

NASA has officially launched a new resource to help the public search and download out-of-this-world images, videos and audio files by keyword and metadata searches from NASA.gov—the NASA Image and Video Library website consolidates imagery spread across more than 60 collections into one searchable location.

NASA Image and Video Library allows users to search, discover and download a treasure trove of more than 140,000 NASA images, videos and audio files from across the agency’s many missions in aeronautics, astrophysics, Earth science, human spaceflight, and more. Users now can embed content in their own sites and choose from multiple resolutions to download. The website also displays the metadata associated with images.

Users can browse the agency’s most recently uploaded files, as well as discover historic and the most popularly searched images, audio files and videos. Other features include:

  • Automatically scales the interface for mobile phones and tablets
  • Displays the EXIF/camera data that includes exposure, lens used, and other information, when available from the original image
  • Allows for easy public access to high resolution files
  • All video includes a downloadable caption file
  • NASA Image and Video Library’s Application Programmers Interface (API) allows automation of imagery uploads for NASA, and gives members of the public the ability to embed content in their own sites and applications. This public site runs on NASA’s cloud native “infrastructure-as-a-code” technology enabling on-demand use in the cloud.

The library is not comprehensive, but rather provides the best of what NASA makes publicly available from a single point of presence on the web. Additionally, this is a living website, where new and archival images, video and audio files will continually be added.

images.nasa.gov

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Remote GeoSystems, Inc. is pleased to announce the release and availability of the all new LineVision™ Google Earth Extension – commercial software for UAV, airborne & terrestrial mobile inspection and survey projects requiring georeferenced video playback, analysis, collaboration and reporting using Google Earth & other GIS applications.

Unlike its stand-alone predecessor, the new LineVision Google Earth is a true application extension and gives users the full functionality of native Google Earth, including Pro edition. Now anyone with a GPS-enabled video camera, drone or geospatial DVR that can geotag video in the proper format can immediately load their videos and photos to Google Earth along with compatible KML and other traditional geospatial data.

As the video plays, a position marker moves along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track positioned three-dimensionally in Google Earth, continuously indicating where the current frames were recorded. Users may also geospatially “navigate” a video recording by simply clicking a single point along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track. The video then automatically advances to that point in the recording so that users can visually interpret what was recorded at that specific place and time. If something of interest is detected in the video, users may also “snap” a still image from the video, which is geotagged and saved for future analysis.

This easy-to-use software is one of the most “open” and versatile geotagged video analysis tools available. The LineVision Google Earth Extension is compatible with properly formatted georeferenced video files from a variety of consumer hand-held and action video cameras, drones and specialized mobile geospatial DVRs, including our own geoDVR™ geospatial FMV recorder.

The LineVision Google Earth Extension is much more than a multi-channel geospatial video tool. In addition to video, users can import oblique photos and KML data from survey and inspection projects. All these imported data types can be saved in a Remote GeoSystems geoProject file for data portability, reporting and future analysis in other versions of LineVision desktop, cloud and server applications.

Key Features Include:

  • Play videos from single and multi-camera data collection platforms
  • “Click-on-Map” video navigation
  • Set a custom geo-fence around the moving position marker
  • Load any Google Earth-compatible KML or shapefiles
  • Save video and photo work as geoProjects for simple project reporting, archive and search

Interested parties can learn more at: https://www.remotegeo.com/lv-google-earth or request a free 7 day trial by completing the online form at: https://www.remotegeo.com/contact-us/request-trial/

About Remote GeoSystems, Inc.

Remote GeoSystems is a geospatial software and hardware company offering turnkey solutions to easily record, map, report, archive & search “moving-track” geotagged videos, photos and other location-based project files. Our products include the industry-first, patent-pending geoDVR (geospatial digital video recorder) and LineVision suite of software.

Unlike traditional video recording systems, our rugged geoDVRs log GPS and permanently embed the video with this important location and time data. Post-mission, our LineVision video mapping and photo inspection reporting software provides users with simple but powerful tools for geographic video analysis, editing and project packaging while leveraging existing Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

These capabilities allow for more efficient and accurate data collection and the creation of reusable aerial and ground-based survey and inspection work-products across a broad range of industries including: Unmanned Vehicles, Aerospace & Aviation, Electric Utilities, Oil & Gas, Rail Transportation, Defense & Security, Engineering & Survey and Natural Resources Management.

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KONGSBERG has launched Kognifai, the company’s open and collaborative digital platform that places a portfolio of applications into the cloud.

Kognifai focuses on optimizing data access and analysis for customers across maritime and energy industries, and also provides an integrated development and distribution platform for efficiency enhancing applications.

Kognifai is designed to enable value creation for KONGSBERG customers throughout the digital value chain. It is an all-encompassing and open digital ecosystem for users to collect, store, analyze, and apply the data they generate using KONGSBERG and third-party systems. It is also an expert platform for development of new data-centric applications, a single portal to access vital solutions developed by KONGSBERG and uniquely, certified third-party developers.

Since 2014, different business units within KONGSBERG have merged their technology, knowledge, and effort to create Kognifai, KONGSBERG’s universal response to the growing wave of digitalization across all industries. Our aim is to drive business for our customers and help them take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the digitalization of industry, the internet of things, automation, and robotics. Now, Kognifai is expanding the boundaries of the industry by acting as a single digital platform for all data produced across the technology spectrum.

Facts about Kognifai:

  • Developed to accelerate the digitalization of existing and new business areas within KONGSBERG and to simplify the business transformation journey for customers
  • Provides access to KONGSBERG’s extensive portfolio of standalone solutions as well as third-party solutions
  • Serves as a development hub and storefront for external developers encouraging participation and sharing
  • Allows customers to subscribe to the solutions they need as and when they need them with a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach
  • Opens the possibility for smaller and niche companies with limited resources to bring their innovations to the Kognifai connected global community
  • Ensures shorter time to market for existing and new products and services
  • Protected by the highest level of cybersecurity and a strict application certification process for all third-party services and applications
  • Includes industry-specific solutions for machine learning and advanced analytics
  • Has a state-of-the-art 3D engine which is easy to use and allows for rich and advanced applications and real-time simulation tools
  • Reduces IT costs by moving to the cloud, but applications will also run on premise
  • Offers a high level of support for all developers, whether they are from KONGSBERG or other companies

Jørn Seglem, SVP Digital Platform and Analytics in Kongsberg Digital, reported that the Kognifai ecosystem is built on a core of cybersecurity, customers’ ownership of their information, and data integrity, but the open standards make it easy to add and integrate both KONGSBERG and third-party applications.

kognifai.com

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The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) plans to create a joint remote earth sensing system by integrating the space- and ground-based capabilities of its member states, to include Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, by 2019.


“In the first half of 2018, the Eurasian Economic Commission plans to draft an intergovernmental agreement and an intergovernmental program on integrating the existing orbital and ground space system resources belonging to EAEU members, as well as expanding a joint remote earth sensing satellite constellation. The start of operations of such a joint constellation is planned for 2019,” Nikolai Kushnaryov, Director of the Department of Industrial Policies at the Eurasian Economic Commission, told the Izvestia newspaper.

The EAEU remote sensing project involves the creation of a commercial company that will integrate the space- and ground-based systems and provide satellite imaging to global customers, Kushnaryov explained. The provision of this satellite imagery will through an integrated web portal that will allow users to monitor urban and industrial areas, infrastructure and transport corridors, as well as agricultural land management applications. Not mentioned by EAEU, but presumably available, will be satellite imagery for security applications.

Russia has a variety of civilian earth observation satellites, such as its Kanopus and Resurs satellites, that it will presumably provide to the new EAEU commercial company, while Belarus operates the BKA (formerly known as Belka-2) earth observation satellite, said to be based on the Russian Kanopus earth observation satellite design. Kazakhstan operates KazEOSat-1 and -2, both built by Airbus Defence and Space, and will launch KazSTSAT, built by Surrey Satellite, sometime in 2017. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan do not operate earth observation satellites, but are presumably offering ground-based capabilities towards the EAEU project.

The Izvestia newspaper also quoted Eurasian Economic Commission sources who claim that it plans to jointly produce next-generation earth observation satellites, with plans to launch the first EAEU satellite by 2020. Funding for the earth observation project is expected to be provided by the Eurasian Development Bank, which has suggested that it is interested in the project.

Should the EAEU project come together it will be an alternative, if less capable, source of satellite imagery for Middle East customers, as well as users in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Original published at Spacewatchme

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The new Radiant platform will support open formats, data standards, as well as common core and extensible metadata. All data, applications and services will be available with open licenses and freely accessible via shared infrastructure.

“We intend to change the paradigm and make earth imagery, data, and the software tools to analyze the imagery more easily accessible for the global development community. The international and global development community is increasingly pressured to find impactful solutions dealing with traditional societal issues and fast moving calamities,” says Radiant CEO Anne Hale Miglarese. “We want to provide the best open data that the geospatial sector has to offer whether for food security, property rights, global health or other societal issues.

Radiant’s Chief Technology Officer Dan Lopez further adds, “These awards are critical for Radiant to deliver a shared infrastructure allowing us to improve collaboration and discovery of imagery data worldwide. A major goal is to reduce costs and empower decision-making . . . the opportunity for innovation is also enormous. Developers will be able to access the data with open APIs, which will foster open source collaboration and grow the development ecosystem working from the platform.”

Craig Mills, CEO of Vizzuality emphasizes the need for simplicity in the design and architecture of the Radiant platform. “We’re honored to contribute to the Radiant vision. For Radiant to be successful we are going to need the help of the community. As we design, build and share early versions we will learn how to make an application that saves people hours, days and weeks of time. For the people finding, analyzing and using earth observation imagery through Radiant, we hope to make the experience as beautiful as the imagery of earth itself,” says Mills.

Azavea CEO Robert Cheetham believes that Radiant’s platform will fill a vital gap in the imagery technology landscape. “Azavea is excited to be contributing its Raster Foundry technology as a foundation for the new Radiant platform. This will create a central location to share and analyze openly-licensed imagery data. The growth in the volume of imagery data has outstripped the ability for even experienced analysts to extract value from it. Azavea is pleased to work with Radiant to create software that will make it simpler and easier to access, use, and analyze imagery for everyone,” says Cheetham.

The MVP is expected to be ready in mid-July.

*About Radiant *

A registered non-profit, Radiant responds to continuous calls by the global development community for better access to open imagery, analytical tools and capacity building, all of which fuel greater analysis and insight into the various challenges facing societies across the globe. Radiant is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Omidyar Network.

To learn more about Radiant, visit www.radiant.earth

(By Sifelani Tsiko) AFRICA needs to take practical steps to adopt space technology for earth observation, telecommunications and advancing space science to promote socio-economic development on the continent, a top African Union Commission official says.

Dr Tidiane Ouattara, an African Union space science expert, told participants at the third information session of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES and Africa), which was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, recently, that countries on the continent have now recognised the usefulness of satellites for earth observation in Africa’s sustainable development.

“It is a veritable fact that space science and technology are an important enabler for the implementation of any Science and Technology Strategy. And this is true for the African Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA 2024),” he said.

“Africa has woken up to the potential and usefulness of space technology.

The manifold benefits that will accrue to Africa from a formal space sector will surely assist us to translate the vision for a united, prosperous continent in peace with itself into reality.”

Experts say earth observation satellites can collect data on areas of importance to a country’s economy and well-being such as agriculture, natural disasters, water resources, wildlife, forests and coastal marine resources.

For instance, in some countries in Africa satellites have been used to monitor the oil resources, election monitoring, providing crucial information about deforestation, wildlife poaching, monitoring floods and other natural disasters.

In another case, South Africa has harnessed earth observation satellite capability to do human settlement mapping.

This, experts say, has enabled it to monitor urbanisation by examining the growth of settlements and the transformation of housing.

It provides useful data for service delivery projects and town planning.

GMES and Africa, supported by the both the African and the European Commissions to the tune of euro 30 million, is an initiative that seeks to improve the exploitation of earth observation data, technologies and services in support of sustainable development in Africa.

A total of 28 representatives drawn from Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, AU, civil society, EU, academia, independent research institutions and the private sector attended the Harare information session to train members from the SADC grouping on the guidelines and procedures of accessing the fund to help build capacity and develop a consortia that will spearhead efforts to harness space technology for sustainable development.

“The Harare meeting is a crucial step for the SADC region and members are being trained on how to prepare proposals as a consortium to attract the funds driven by our own regional priorities,” said Rungano Karimanzira, head of projects technology transfer in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education

“We want our experts in the region to be able to collect and analyse data on earth observation for use by policy makers in our thrust towards realising Africa’s 2063 Agenda. The training we are getting is critical for us to effectively access the funds guided by the AU Commission manuals on procurement.”

Dr Ouattara said GMES and Africa sought to create five hubs in each of the continents sub –regions in the North, Central, East, West and South.

“Zimbabwe is hosting the third information session and we have already conducted others in Kigali (Rwanda, February 2017) and another in Dakar (Senegal, February 2017),” he said.

“In April we will be in Cairo for the North African cluster and in Libreville for the Central African cluster. We want our members to fully understand how they can apply for the funds. We want to strengthen our collaboration with the EU.”

The initiatives highlighted the strategic role that earth observation can play in supporting national, regional and continental policies for sustainable socio-economic development and how cooperation between Africa and Europe in the development of GMES and Africa can be increased.

Dr Ouattara said Africa needs to speed up the setting up of an institutional architecture to ensure the coordination of GMES and Africa initiative and the Group on Earth Observation projects.

SADC Climate Service Centre Regional Coordinator, Bradwell Garanganga, said space technologies was important for providing disaster monitoring and post-disaster assessment mechanism for the region.

“This initiative will help reduce the negative impacts from climate induced hazards such as droughts, floods and wildfires. It will also contribute to better environmental and agricultural management through evidence based decision-making,” he said.

“The project is all about providing reliable information, near real time status updates and trends on various parameter required for informed decision making and to facilitate planning, policy development frameworks the highest level.

“By making use of earth observations from satellites the project will cover every corner of the region and provide environmental data several times per day on issues of priority to the region – agriculture, drought, floods and wildfires.”

He said space technologies and particularly earth observation applications, could contribute to the achievement of the strategic development goals – providing information, useful in a wide range of areas like food security, management of natural resources, desertification, climate monitoring and humanitarian aid among others.

Regionally, at the African Union level and globally at the UN level, the international community developed various action plans, which, among other things, recommended that improving access to accurate and reliable satellite information be prioritised.

Dr Ouattara said the development of space technologies fitted into Africa’s 2063 agenda, a continental vision which is: “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.”

Africa recently approved Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA 2024) as an important intervention for using science, technology and innovation to respond to the key priorities of the continent and realise Africa’s aspirations.

In January 2016, African Union Heads of State and Government adopted the African Space Policy supported by the African Space Strategy that envisions an African Space Programme that is user-focused, competitive, efficient and innovative.

The thematic focus areas of the African Space Strategy are namely earth observation, navigation and positioning, satellite communications, and space science and astronomy.

After adopting the African Space Policy and Strategy, the African leaders urged the African Union Commission to continue developing an implementation plan and a governance structure, as well as to ensure that the continent fully participates in space activities.

It is envisaged that training and funding support will go a long way to ensure African countries are better equipped to deal with environmental challenges such as flood, drought and related challenges.

However, experts say for these programmes to be effective, much will depend on the individual country’s capability to launch domestic satellite systems,

Closer collaboration and setting up consortiums will help the speed up the process towards a true continental space alliance, experts say.

“There is no question satellites and space exploration have socioeconomic benefits. Satellites can help find mineral resources. Satellites helped uncover an underground aquifer in Kenya’s driest region. The plethora of possible benefits is combined with other crucial hard to quantify advantages.

These projects inspire youth, increase national pride and advance education,” wrote Scott Firsing, a research fellow on international relations at South Africa’s Monash University in an online publication. _“But, space endeavours require capital. And for most African countries, capital is a limited commodity.”_-Zimpapers Syndication

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