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Friday, 14 October 2016. After the launch of Jason-3 on 17 January 2016, the two satellites flew in a tandem configuration, about 80 seconds or 500km apart from each other. This allowed for a precise comparison and direct cross calibration between the instruments flying on both platforms. During this phase, the instruments aboard Jason-3 were fully calibrated and have demonstrated performances at least equivalent to those of Jason-2. Based on these results, the satellite was deemed ready for operational service.

In order to improve sampling and spatial coverage, Jason-2 has now been moved to its final position, on the same orbit but at 162° from Jason-3, thus overflying different ocean surfaces and at a different time than Jason-3.

“Jason-3 will carry the sea level rise monitoring task that is the hallmark of the Jason missions forward”

The Jason-3 satellite will continue the long term climate data record on the ground track previously occupied by Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1 and, until recently, Jason-2.

Because of their precision, the Jason missions have become the reference for all satellite altimeters, including the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite, launched on 16 February 2016 and operated by EUMETSAT in cooperation with ESA.

Ultimately, Jason-3 will form the backbone of a virtual constellation of ocean altimeter missions.

Josh Willis, NASA Jason-3 project scientist said, “Jason-3 is our window onto the impact of human-caused climate change across the planet. As ocean levels rise due to global warming, the Jason-3 satellite will observe the literal reshaping of more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface.”

Laury Miller, NOAA Jason Program Scientist said, “Jason-3 will carry the sea level rise monitoring task that is the hallmark of the Jason missions forward, but the continued operation of Jason-2, in combination with Jason-3, adds another critical dimension. Doubling the number of altimeter sea level observations improves our ability forecast over a range of scales, from the movement of local oil spills to massive El Niño events.”

Philippe Escudier, Oceanography Programme Manager of CNES said: “Jason-3 will provide essential operational measurements, benefiting from a long series of research and development efforts which allow to reach the necessary measurement accuracy and to optimize the hardware design to make it sustainable in a long term series. In the near term, a new generation of satellite altimetry providing high resolution monitoring will be demonstrated. SWOT, wide swath altimetry mission, which is under development (NASA & CNES), will directly inherit from Jason heritage and will benefit from the absolute accuracy of Jason for the calibration of its measurements.”

Francois Parisot, Altimetry Manager at EUMETSAT said: “The ocean evolves across different scales – levels – from mid-latitude eddies to large scale currents. Therefore and improving space/time sampling altimetry of ocean topography measurements is essential. With Jason-2, Jason-3 and Sentinel-3 we are now making a major step forward.”

About Jason-3

Jason-3 is the result of an international partnership between EUMETSAT, the French Space Agency (CNES), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the European Union, which funds European contributions to Jason-3 operations as part of the European Commission’s Copernicus Programme.

Within Copernicus, Jason-3 is the reference mission for cross-calibrating Sentinel-3 observations of sea surface height and the precursor to the future cooperative Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission also implemented in partnership between Europe and the United States.

EUMETSAT, CNES and NOAA will process data from Jason-3, with EUMETSAT being responsible for data services to users of the EUMETSAT and EU Member States, on behalf of the EU Copernicus Programme. Data access in Europe will be secured via the multi-mission infrastructure available at EUMETSAT and CNES, including EUMETSAT’s EUMETCast real-time data dissemination system, Earth Observation Portal and archives, as well as CNES’s AVISO data system.

About EUMETSAT

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and one Cooperating State (Serbia).

EUMETSAT operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8, -9, -10 and -11 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.

EUMETSAT also operates two Metop polar-orbiting satellites as part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

EUMETSAT is also a partner in the cooperative high precision ocean altimetry Jason missions involving Europe and the United States (Jason-2, Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6).

The data and products from EUMETSAT’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and climate change.

After completion of the in-orbit commissioning of Sentinel-3A, EUMETSAT will exploit the Copernicus Sentinel-3 marine mission in cooperation withESA and on behalf of the EU, and deliver data services to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and users.

Media Relations EUMETSAT:
Tel: +49 6151 807 7320
Fax: +49 6151 807 7321
Email: press@eumetsat.int

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This video explains the challenges faced when managing vast quantities of satellite data, for the benefit of humankind, to address a range of environmental, social and agricultural issues.

This video, produced by Redboat, introduces the architecture of the Australian Geoscience Data Cube as a key tool for unlocking Earth observation satellite data, to better manage and store vast amounts of data.

The Data Cube has already been used to for understanding water observations from Space and its related application for better flood management.

The video also provides a case study of developing a satellite data management infrastructure for Kenya.

This video was used to launch Australia’s tenure as the Chair of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) at the 2015 Plenary CEOS meeting held in Kyoto, Japan in November 2015.

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The MAEOS study is examining the context in which the many EO services companies are operating and the extent to which new trends such as the projected (anticipated) market share increase for geospatial web services can be addressed through a Marketplace.

The MAEOS study is examining the context in which the many EO services companies are operating and the extent to which new trends such as the projected (anticipated) market share increase for geospatial web services can be addressed through a Marketplace.

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The 10th annual Autumn Conference of the European Space Policy Institute was held in ESPI premises from 15th to 16th September. The two-day event brought together professionals from a wide range of sectors to give presentations, present case studies, participate in panel discussions and strengthen their networks in informal talks on the theme of “Space for Sustainable Development”.

The speakers, which included professionals from space agencies, the wider development community, academia, industry and new private actors, as well as European and international institutions, addressed different facets of this topic in three sessions on “Space as an Enabler”, “Sustainable Development and Space”, and “Financial and Non-Financial Aspects of Sustainable Development”. The panels provided a valuable opportunity to engage field actors in the development sectors in discussions frequently dominated by theorists and Space actors. Speakers noted the importance of continuing to pursue such an inter-disciplinary format, and stressed the relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while highlighting the key role of connectivity in their future evolution. They cautioned, however, on the lack of central dialogue mechanisms. The space sector is well-placed to fill in this gap, building on existing examples, such as ISRO’s use of tele-medicine and tele-education as well as the NASA-USAID SERVIR partnership that demonstrate that space can actually benefit international development. In particular, Space’s strong capacity for monitoring and evaluation as well as building situational awareness were noted.

However, several key prerequisites for a successful contribution of space activities to the Sustainable Development Goals were identified:

*Space actors were urged to adopt an end-to-end approach with comprehensive exploratory work on identifying user needs to avoid an inadvertent perpetuation of inequality and prevent ‘technology push’ scenarios. To this end, a greater inter-sectoral, inter-institutional (e.g. state and NGOs), and international cooperation and information sharing shall be sought.
*The space sector should play a proactive role in increasing the availability of space resources, while IGOs, NGOs, and states should improve their technology awareness to strengthen capacity building, improve infrastructures as well as reduce environmental impacts. To this end, speakers expressed a desire for a formalized cross-sectoral dialogue platform, as well as for an up-to-date archive on earth observation images incorporating the capacity for near-realtime map building.
*Best practices in the field should also be compiled so that basic common requirements serving the SDGs for the next generation of space infrastructure might be devised. In this context the African Union presented its Space Policy and Strategy which aim to create a well-coordinated and integrated African programme, while addressing user needs and improving access to space services, also by enhancing international cooperation.

While the rise of the private sector in this domain was praised, further calls for action concerned the development of local markets for space services, open to public and private actors, relying on good governance mechanisms and in particular including a sound and fair tax policy on space related facilities. The promotion of a strong STEM curriculum was also deemed essential, eventually leading to wider technology awareness in the society. Several key institutional players showed that they were taking steps to structure, coordinate and enhance the role of space in order to implement the SDGs. Speakers agreed that a stronger coordination among space agencies, IGOs, NGOs, the private sector, academia, and sustainable development actors is advisable. In this context, UNOOSA is organising High Level Fora, a sort of “Davos for Space”, addressing cross cutting areas and outlining UNISPACE +50 thematic priorities within the framework of the SDGs involving also the (new) private sector.

The conference closed in a spirit of optimism and with the expressed intention to follow up with concrete proposals for improved dialogue and cooperation. Vittorio Prodi gave voice to this sentiment in his opening address, in which he noted that “It is time to consider what we are going to lose if we don’t act together.” The outline above has given a highly abbreviated summary of the findings of the ESPI conference which was praised by participants as an innovative and successful step, following a year-long project which addressed sustainable development and the use of Space technologies and services in global efforts. This has included discussing existing applications, identifying gaps in leveraging of technologies, delineating limitations and challenges in governance, cooperation and technical implementation, and discussing ways forward for Space and Development.

The findings of the conference will be presented at the United Nations/United Arab Emirates High Level Forum: “Space as a Driver for Socio-Economic Sustainable Development” in Dubai in November and, in the medium term, be carried forward in the framework of UNISPACE + 50 preparatory activities.

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As preparations begin for the launch of Google’s Terra Bella’s SkySats their launch service company, Spaceflight, signed up with SpaceX’s Falcon 9, and already Falcon 9 is 90 percent full even though the launch is set in late 2017.

Terra Bella will be the co-lead on Spaceflight’s SSO, a dedicated rideshare.

The SSO is a dedicated rideshare mission scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in late 2017 that will transport both government and commercial microsats and cubesats. Terra Bella will be the co-lead on the SSO. Currently the payload is at 90 percent capacity with more than 20 satellites from 10 countries manifested aboard the rocket. The Confirmed spacecraft include:

  • Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s (KAIST) NEXTSat-1 satellite, conducting scientific missions such as star formation and space storm measurements and also technology demonstration in space
  • Iceye’s innovative SAR (synthetic aperture radar) micro-satellite for all condition imaging
  • HawkEye 360’s first three formation-flying satellites to detect, characterize, and geolocate various RF signals worldwide

Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight stated, “We’re seeing a tide shift in the industry’s expectation for routine, reliable and affordable access to space. The willingness of prominent commercial organizations to join forces for the advancement of global initiatives is very encouraging to the smallsat community, and to society as a whole.”

Spaceflight organizes launches with available capacity and schedule, provides integrated launch services, mission management, support hardware, payload integration and orbital deployment, and has negotiated the launch of nearly 120 satellites with contracts to deploy more than 150 through 2018. The company is planning its largest launch—89 spacecraft—to be deployed by its Sherpa tug from a Falcon 9 in 2017.

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Bari, Italy, October 6th, 2016. Planetek Italia is pleased to announce that The Wroclaw Institute, GeoSolutions Consulting Inc. and Gjeo-Vjosa sh.p.k. have been appointed as Authorized Partners for the reselling of the Earth monitoring services offered by its cloud platform, Rheticus®.

Contracts grants to Authorized Partners the exclusive right to sell Rheticus® satellite processing services to the customers located in their respective countries and markets. Services available through the Rheticus® platform allow the users to monitor the Earth surface evolution. It includes monitoring of earth crust subsidence, urban dynamics, forest fires hazards, costal seawater quality as well as many more in the near future.

The Planetek Italia CEO, Mr Giovanni Sylos Labini added: “We are excited to cooperate with our international partners. Rheticus® will now support professionals and decision makers in a growing number of countries, relying on the sound professional support of our partners. Born and strengthened under the Hexagon Geospatial network, these cooperations open new opportunities to develop and deliver cutting-edge solutions to our markets. Through the integration of the Rheticus® monitoring services in Hexagon Geospatial Smart M.Apps, we can offer insightful analytics and dynamic maps to users worldwide.”

Rheticus® is a cloud-based geoinformation service platform, designed to automatically process satellite data and other data sources. It delivers fresh and accurate data and information for monitoring of the earth’s surface evolution. Rheticus® platform is a perfect solution for organizations dealing in their operations with natural environment concerns like mining, heavy industry, roads, rail utility construction and operations, environmental and forestry agencies and local government, etc.

To know more about Rheticus® Authorized Partners

The Wroclaw Institute www.wizipisi.pl
GeoSolutions Consulting Inc. http://geosolutionsconsulting.com/
Gjeo-Vjosa sh.p.k. http://www.gjeovjosa.com/

About Planetek Italia s.r.l.
Planetek Italia is an Italian company established in 1994, providing a broad range of geospatial services including delivery, analysis and processing of satellite data. Premium Partner of Hexagon Geospatial in Italy, Planetek is the creator and operator of the unique Rheticus® cloud platform (www.rheticus.eu), designed for the provision of sophisticated satellite data based monitoring services. See www.planetek.it

Clermont-Ferrand, 12 October 2016 – The French company PlanetObserver, specialized in imagery basemap production for more than 25 years, announced today the coverage of Asia with PlanetSAT 15 L8 basemap, that covers now 40% of the Earth’s land mass.

Processed with fresh Landsat 8 source data, PlanetSAT 15 L8 is a unique natural colour imagery basemap that offers highly detailed, seamless and cloudless geographic information, perfect for 1:50,000 scale mapping.

Landsat 8 source data are carefully selected according to precise specifications, in particular concerning season and cloud cover. With PlanetObserver internal data processing chain, satellite images are assembled and processed homogeneously with high quality colour balance. Processed exclusively in natural colours (RGB channels), PlanetSAT 15 L8 basemap is the product closest to the Earth true colours.

Production of PlanetSAT 15 L8 imagery basemap goes at a rapid pace. Further to the coverage of Northern Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, India and Australia, PlanetObserver has finalised Asia that includes China, Mongolia, Korean peninsula and Japan. Western Europe will be ready for delivery early 2017. Our roadmap for end of 2017: North America, South America, and Southern Africa.

PlanetSAT 15 L8 imagery basemap covers today about 55 million sq km, i.e. 40% of the Earth’s land mass (excl. Antarctica).

For all projects requiring a global basemap, PlanetSAT 15 L8 imagery can be easily combined with PlanetSAT 15 global basemap processed by PlanetObserver with multisource data (Landsat 7 and Landsat 8).

“PlanetObserver is positioned as a key supplier of high quality imagery basemaps, with regional and global coverages”, said Laurent Masselot, CEO of PlanetObserver.
“PlanetSAT 15 L8 and PlanetSAT 15 basemaps are value added cartographic solutions, ready-to-use in any professional solution, from GIS to visualization and simulation systems, both for civil and military applications.”

To find out more about PlanetSAT 15 L8 base maps, visit PlanetObserver website at www.planetobserver.com

PlanetObserver offers a full range of value-added geospatial products, ready-to-use in any professional solution for visualization, simulation and mapping.

Founded in 1989, PlanetObserver is a French company specialized in geospatial data processing and production of ready-to-use imagery basemaps and elevation datasets. We control the whole supply chain, from raw data selection to in-house production of ready-to-use geospatial products. This approach is the key to offer a high level of service to our clients and partners. All geospatial products are developed internally, backed up by our know-how in geospatial data processing and more than 25 years of technological expertise.

Our product range includes global satellite imagery basemaps in natural colours with a unique visual quality, and global and accurate Digital Elevation Models. PlanetObserver is also a reseller of AIRBUS DS very high resolution imagery, and orthophotography from different suppliers (IGN, Getmapping, etc.).

With a constant commitment to R&D and innovation, and mastery of cutting-edge technologies, we are positioned as the supplier and partner of leading companies located in Europe, North America and Asia.

PlanetObserver imagery and elevation products are used in numerous commercial, military and consumer applications, ranging from orthorectification solutions, visualization and simulation solutions, web-mapping to cartographic mapping and audio-visual production. Our network of distributors includes East View Geospatial (US) and GAF (Germany).

Our Earth Observation (EO) clients include the European Space Agency and its centre for EO, ESRIN, in Italy and the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, the French space agency (CNES), RapidEye/Planet, and Thales Alenia Space, developer of space systems and solutions.

In the defense industry, our products are used as high quality geographic information layer in mission planning systems and flight simulation solutions. AIRBUS DS and AIRBUS Helicopters are amongst our customers. We also partner with developers of visualization and simulation solutions such as Agenium and Diginext (VirtualGeo solution).

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

PlanetSAT 15 global imagery basemap: Unique global imagery basemap at 15-meter resolution processed in natural colours (RGB). PlanetSAT 15 global basemap benefits from an annual update programme with cloudless and up-to-date imagery from different sources (Landsat 8, Sentinel-2). PlanetSAT 15 seamless basemap is available off-the-shelf in different standard formats.


[Image 1] PlanetSAT 15 global imagery basemap

PlanetSAT 15 L8 imagery basemap: Processed from fresh and cloudless Landsat 8 imagery, PlanetSAT 15 L8 is a seamless and natural colour basemap at 15-meter resolution. This entirely up-to-date imagery basemap covers 40% of the Earth’s landmass, including North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and all Asia (from China to the Korean peninsula, and Japan). PlanetSAT 15 L8 product is used for PlanetSAT 15 annual global update.


[Image 2] PlanetSAT 15 L8 – Abu Dabhi, UAE

On-demand very high resolution imagery: We offer on-demand Pleiades and SPOT 6/7 imagery as ready-to-use files as per customers’ requirements.


[Image 3] SPOT 7 – Sydney, Australia

PlanetDEM 30 Plus global elevation product: Digital Elevation Model offering a global coverage at 30-meter resolution and providing seamless, reliable and accurate data.


[Image 4] PlanetDEM 30 Plus – Mount Everest, Himalayas

RELEVANT PROJECTS

PlanetObserver is a recognized supplier of high quality imagery and elevation products for different projects, such as:

Project with Diginext – End-user – Airbus DS: Diginext offers VirtualGeo solution for visualization and analysis of 2D & 3D geospatial information. PlanetSAT 15 global imagery basemap is part of the data package embedded in the solution and supplied to Airbus DS.


[Image 5] VirtualGeo

Project with Airbus Helicopters: PlanetDEM 90 global elevation product is used in Airbus Helicopters mission planning system. PlanetObserver has processed the product in specific data format in order to match the solution requirements.

Project for Flight Path 3D – In-flight Entertainment (IFE): PlanetObserver has supplied a specific version of PlanetSAT 15 global product embedding bathymetry information. This product is used in all Flight Path 3D solutions.

POINT OF CONTACT
PlanetObserver
25 bd Gergovia
63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
Phone: +33 473 44 19 00
msat@planetobserver.com
www.planetobserver.com

The aim of the TED monitoring project is to explore the potential of long time series of high resolution EO imagery (Landsat and Sentinel-2 missions) for terrestrial ecosystem monitoring through the development of a new processing system and demonstration of novel approaches for long-term continuous detection of land cover (use) changes.

The current operational method of land cover (use) change detection, as also reflected in current line of Copernicus land services, are based on bi-temporal analysis for two points in time. These can be performed at decision level (supervised approach) or at data level (unsupervised approach). The most common methods include image differencing/rationing, linear transforms, change vector analysis and image regression or visual interpretation. There is no consensus on the type of change detection algorithm that performs best. Different studies and comparisons report different results. Principally there is not one universal method that would be applicable within all land cover domains. Moreover, these methods rely on the assumption that pixels associated with land-cover changes present spectral values that are significantly different from pixels associated with unchanged areas. However, vegetated terrestrial ecosystems exhibit high temporal (seasonal) variation that is captured in the acquired bi-temporal images, which considerably weaken the general assumption of the methods.

The temporal trajectory approach assumes continuous seasonal development of vegetation. With this approach seasonal development curves for different seasons are compared to detect changes. The use of temporal trajectory analysis for the problem of change detection is a way of avoiding the problem of selecting optimal points in time for images to be compared. This is generally performed for medium-resolution imagery as these can provide the necessary temporal resolution. However, with availability of the high resolution image archives (as Landsat 5/7/8), it is possible to retrospectively monitor land ecosystem dynamics, while in future it can be continued by Sentinel-2 mission.

The TED-processor being developed consists of the three subsystems that include image pre-processing to artefact-free time series, local-adaptive dynamic land surface model and change detection decision support system. The performance of the processor is demonstrated on the case study focused on deforestation monitoring in the region of Sumava national park within the time period from 1984 to 2014.

The TED monitoring project is funded by ESA within the Czech Industry Incentive Scheme.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

As a broad range of modern technological advances that benefit agriculture, satellite technology offers the possibility to reduce the dependence on labour and time-intensive work.


In this field, a new project led by DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL, aims to add value in the use of remote sensing in monitoring the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Since 2003, EU farmers shall respect the “cross-compliance” rules in order to receive payments. These CAP rules are legislative standards and obligations in the field of the environment and a non-compliance may lead to reduction or even cancelation of payments.

However, pursuing the integration of environmental concerns into the CAP and making it more compatible with the expectations of society, results many burdens both for the public authorities and the farmers. On the one hand, the public administrative costs are high due to the need of in-field visits and on the other hand, farmers face difficulties in familiarizing and dealing with the applicable regulations.

The RECAP project aims to develop an improved remote monitoring of CAP obligations and to supplement the in-field inspections by the Payment Agencies. The overall objective is to develop and pilot test a platform for the delivery of public services that will enable the improved implementation of the CAP.
RECAP will be a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) platform which will collect information from open satellite data and commercial channels of satellite data providers. It will extract useful features from earth observation, correlate them with user-generated and geo-information data and model this information for enabling the identification of potential breaches of compliance.

The RECAP services will be tested and validated in an operational environment in the UK, Spain, Greece, Lithuania and Serbia, with the participation of farmers, agricultural consultants and public authorities. RECAP aims to offer farmers a tool supporting them to comply with regulations and enable agricultural consultants to develop their own services within the platform using tools and communication with the database under an open approach. Paying agencies will benefit through less administrative work providing at the same time enhanced transparency in the CAP monitoring procedure.

The RECAP project started in May 2016 and is supported by Horizon 2020 programme “ICT- enabled open government”. The project consortium consists of:

  • DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL S.A. (Coordinator), Greece
  • INSTITUTO NAVARRO DE TECNOLOGIAS E INFRAESTRUCTURAS AGROALIMENTRARIAS S.A., Spain
  • PAYMENT AND CONTROL AGENCY FOR GUIDANCE AND GUARANTEE COMMUNITY AID, Greece
  • NATIONAL PAYING AGENCY, Lithuania
  • VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS ZEMES UKIO KOSNULTAVIMO TARNYBA, Lithuania
  • STRUTT & PARKER, UK
  • INOSENS DOO NOVI SAD, Serbia
  • THE UNIVERSITY OF READING, UK
  • NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS, Greece
  • INICIATIVAS INNOVADORAS SAL, Spain
  • ETAM ANONYMH ETAIRIA SYMBOULEYTIKON MELETHTIKON YPIRESION, Greece
    CREVIS SPRL, Belgium