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DHI GRAS to lead ESA project on large-scale exploitation of satellite data in support of water resource management and sustainable development


Satellite Earth Observation (EO) technology has a tremendous potential to inform and facilitate international development work. Since 2008, the European Space Agency (ESA) has worked together with International Financing Institutions (IFIs) and their client states to harness the benefits of EO in their operations and resources management

EO4SD — Earth Observation for Sustainable Development — is an ESA initiative started in spring 2016 and focusing on three top-priority international development issues i.e. [i] urban development, [ii] agriculture and rural development as well as [iii] water resource management. The overall objective is to achieve a step increase in the uptake of satellite-based information in the IFIs regional and global programs within these three domains.

A consortium led by DHI GRAS has been selected to carry out the EO4SD project on water resource management, aiming at delivering EO services in response to stakeholder requirements for water resources monitoring and management at local to basin scales. The first phase (i.e. year one) of the project is dedicated to stakeholder’s engagement, requirements consolidation and product testing and with the second phase (i.e. years two and three) focusing on information production, delivery and capacity building.

Ultimately the project will provide Earth Observation demonstrations on a large-scale in Africa (Sahel, Africa Horn and Zambezi), Asia (Myanmar and Lower Mekong) and Latin America (Altiplano), and within water related operations of major IFI’s including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.

Partners

For this project DHI GRAS have assembled a high profile team of experts in Earth Observation, water resource management and operational development assistance including Geoville (Austria), Satelligence (Netherlands), eLEAF (Netherlands), Starlab (Spain), DHI (Denmark) as well as ITC (Netherlands) and adelphi (Germany).
For further information please contact project lead Christian Tottrup (cto@dhi-gras.com). A dedicated project website and portal will be launched later.

by Peter Hausknecht, PhD, Chief Scientist, Earth-i.
Earth-i provides access to even more very high resolution satellite data sets from UK built satellites – complementing the successful European Sentinel2 mission data.

The EU’s Copernicus programme, with free data access to the constellation of Sentinel satellites, has pushed high resolution Earth Observation imagery data into the concept of ‘Big Data’ stimulating service providers and application developers to provide tools to harvest such free data volumes. Frequently updated, high resolution optical data is potentially available for any place on Earth every day. Data collection capabilities, on board storage and a global network of downlink stations, have radically reduced the barriers and restrictions of the past on the application of satellite imagery. What a great opportunity to utilise Earth Observation on a scale not seen before.

Since its inception over 15 years ago, the EO industry has also seen an increased provision of very high resolution satellite data (1m GSD or better) from a number of providers in the commercial satellite sector, but such data comes at a cost. Whilst the availability of high resolution satellite data (10m up to 1m GSD) is now better than ever, the question still needs to be asked: do we really need all that new very high resolution capability? Since users have to pay commercial rates, does very high resolution data represent value for money or is high resolution data like that available from the new 10m Sentinel-2 set the norm with enough information for most applications? The answer is, like for many things in life, not ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but a bit of both, application and requirement depending. In most cases a very high resolution dataset should be part of any baseline mapping exercise to fully understand an area in question. Also, when looking at a regional or country-wide scale, very high resolution will be expensive to acquire – especially when used at high temporal frequency. But for a monitoring program a lower spatial resolution data set may be sufficient. If a change or something unusual has been detected, another very high spatial resolution dataset may resolve the question and enable fully effective analysis and action.

Sentinel2, launched by the European Space Agency to meet the need for high spatial resolution optical data, is well suited to mapping large areas, detecting changes on land, and providing a dependable baseline map of wide areas of interest. However, illustrating the difference that can be made by acquiring supplementary very high spatial resolution data, is recent satellite imagery acquired over a farm area in central southern France. Showing the location, where Sentinel2 data was acquired only 2 days apart in August 2016, when looking with very high resolution (1m GSD) DMC3 satellite data, it is possible to identify the spatial detail in the local agricultural pattern and even differentiate a vineyard from neighbouring planting. Such a level of insight is simply not possible at 10m resolution, but it also may not be necessary for each data acquisition occasion in a monitoring program. Broad questions and outcomes are addressed on a regional scale. But once distinct change is detected in the regular pattern of a monitoring program with Sentinel2, an investigation of that change using very high resolution satellites will make a particular image far more detailed and insightful.

Sentinel2 provides a wide area baseline for monitoring and change detection, DMC3 delivers a powerful capability to ‘zoom in’ adding additional value to services and applications.

Figure 1: DMC3/TripleSat satellite image subset from August 2016, over an area in south-west of France near LaBastide d’Armagnac, an agricultural region producing a variety of produce incl. some vineyards. Copyright: 21AT/Earth-i

© by Peter Hausknecht, PhD, Chief Scientist, Earth-i.
Earth observation has contributed to the response activities in the recent Canadian wildfires. Aerial imagery and satellite data from sensors of all wavelengths and spatial dimensions were utilised to assess and combat the recent fires – most likely the biggest environmental catastrophe in Canada’s recent history. Due to its location near the Fort McMurray shale fields, the oil industry was quickly drawn into the disaster response, needing to demonstrate its readiness to shut down production, secure assets and evacuate people on a large scale.

Fort McMurray was a place few people in Europe had heard of before. That changed when the headlines hit the newsrooms: Alberta Wildfire Grows Tenfold in Size Canadian Wildfires Curtail Oil Sands Production Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city.

When the wildfire happened the oil and gas industry had to react fast, asking: Where? When? What? Local authorities, emergency services and news providers had exactly the same questions. These questions are typical for events not easily anticipated or planned for, such as natural disasters, environmental catastrophes or other larger scale incidents where situational awareness becomes a crucial part in decision making and emergency response. Earth observation-derived information, plain imagery and value-added information products provide key inputs in the before, during and after phases of planning the response to such an event. Where are the access roads and what conditions are they in? How far has the fire progressed and in which direction is it moving? What areas have been affected most and how severe is the damage? These are three questions which can be addressed by earth observation technologies. Crucial in this regard is the on-time and up-to-date availability of earth observation data. Information products derived from that data, whether from satellite or airborne sensors, are a critical element in disaster response.

However, not only the direct response to an event and the impact assessment, need the high spatial resolution information. Ongoing rescue and recovery operations can also benefit greatly from the availability and analysis of EO data. In the direct aftermath any insurance company or aid agency will derive significant benefit from the immediate availability of such information, enabling swift and accurate decisions to be made in support of their clients.

In Canada, like in most European countries, regular updates of the baseline mapping products, such as background imagery, are carried out with high resolution satellites and aerial photography. With an ever-growing number of high spatial resolution satellites available to acquire data and provide the derived information in a timely manner, means such data can become part of preparedness planning. The 24/7 availability of the baseline data is essential for a well-informed response should preparedness have to turn into emergency action.

All the Satellite service providers reacted swiftly to the sudden demand for information on the Fort McMurray fires with the international charter on space and major disasters being activated on May 4th. Many Earth observation satellites contributed to this Canadian emergency call and agencies on the ground successfully utilised the information derived. The 2015-launched DMC3/TripleSat constellation of three satellites was part of the array of responding optical instruments and an example of the images produced, about 40 km south-east of Ft. McMurray, is shown below. 

The images show a small subset of the affected areas with some of the shale gas production locations clearly visible, especially the number of well pads and a production train highlighted in the high resolution subset. The area is heavily forested and the regular patterns cut into the native vegetation show quite clearly in the satellite images.

DMC3 images subset taken on 6th of May 2016 near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. © 21AT/Earth-i


True color composite RGB=321


False color composite RGB=432

image processing results performing principle component analysis


straight PC channel 3


directed MNF channel 3


Panchromatic subset – 1 meter pixel

There are two main fire ‘hotspots’ in the images – seen in the red of the false colour image. The one to southwest shows the wildfire potentially moving towards the production / pumping facility. The main issue with optical imagery in any fire scenario is the smoke camouflaging the areas underneath, and consequently any assessment or analysis of that area becomes difficult. However, with dedicated image processing techniques, such as Principle Component (PC) transformation or Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) transformation, some of the residual ground information can be retrieved and utilised for analysis. For example, the fire scars (see middle left) on the top right hand side become quite obvious and can be mapped easily, despite being covered by smoke in the original image displays.

Having such immediate satellite images available is only the first step – the data needs to be processed, analysed, and derived products created. The results will need to be integrated with the existing GIS information, such as fire risk maps, evacuation routes, and safe places, and integrated in the Common Operating Picture (COP).

Once the fire has passed and the immediate risk is gone, the initial appraisals on the severity of the fires, damage assessments and affected localities can be carried out. This enables immediate assistance to be allocated to the local people and identification of essential infrastructure needing to be repaired with a high priority.

Even now, when the fires have long stopped, there is still an ongoing need to monitor the clean-up operations and the progress of vegetation rehabilitation and infrastructure repair. As part of the ‘lessons learnt review’ people will look at the satellite data to see if they could have made better, faster and more effective decisions.

Earth observation from satellites and airborne sensors will always play a crucial part in such an emergency response, but also a very important role in the preparedness planning for any risk event before an emergency develops, and in the subsequent clean-up and restoration projects after the emergency is over.

Additional information can be found on the following websites of service providers and agencies:

This week’s Business Planet come from Rotterdam. The city is buzzing with imaginative entrepreneurs keen to tap the enormous potential Europe’s Earth Observation space programme Copernicus offers.

Ivo Visser is a risk analyst for a major energy utility based here.

“In the Netherlands the ground moves a lot causing problems for our underground gas pipes. Using Copernicus’ data, we are able to predict these movements.”

The maps that show the potential underground instability risk for the gas network are produced near Rotterdam, in Delft.

Pieter Bas Leezenberg set up his small company Skygeo developing an application using Copernicus’ satellite imagery.

“What we produce here is a map of how rapidly the streets and the homes in the city of Rotterdam are subsiding. The color of the dots tells you, for each of these locations, how fast it’s going down.”

This sharp idea is accurate to within a millimetre, and it has considerably modified the way the big energy companies monitor their networks.

“Before we came along, the only way that Stedin, (Dutch gas and electricity company), could assess if there was a problem with a gas pipeline as a result of some subsidence was essentially to send out two people in a car who would have to dig a hole and visually inspect it,” smiles Pieter.

This application is also used in other fields like oil exploration, mining, dams and railways. and it is a booming market. Pieter has already grabbed 200 clients around the world and is counting on tripling his turnover in 2017. Twenty-five people work here and in offices in Houston and San Francisco.

“Copernicus is currently acquiring these radar images proactively over large parts of the world. And it really enables us to essentially go and deliver this product anywhere,” says Pieter.

Serge Rombi, Business Planet:
“So Ivo, what has been the overall impact of this new technology?”

Ivo Visser:
“We know how the ground moves, we can improve our maintenance planning, so the safety of our infrastructure network is increased and we are able to save up to 90% in costs in some cases.”

The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Earth Observation satellites are having areal impact on businesses. It is estimated they have been able to generate up to 15,000 jobs per year, and main backer the European Commission wants to further strengthen this economic booster.

euronews:
“What advice would you give, Ivo, to anyone wanting to develop this sort of project with success?”

Ivo Visser:
“Work together on a tailor-made solution for a problem. That’s how we did it !”

Source and Business Planet’s webpage.

(Published by GIS Lounge on August 4 by Andrew Cutts, owner of ACGeospatial) It discusses the role of GIS and earth observation data in the oil and gas industry in this guest article.

Earth Observation (EO) data should be a more attractive proposition today than ever before. The USGS suggests the Landsat program is “a stunning return on public investment”. Since the free and open data policy start in 2008 the number of downloaded scenes has increased exponentially.

Not all EO data is free of course, but we have come a long way from the 1990s when a Landsat scene cost greater than $4000. A World Oil article written in 2002 talks about “the growing tie between remote sensing and GIS” and that “The range of remote sensing uses has increased in recent years, and now the role includes integration into sophisticated, quantitative, structural models; surface layers for data cubes; backdrops for GIS models; detailed fracture analyses; logistical and route planning; and environmental assessment, documentation and monitoring.”

THE RATE OF DOWNLOADS OF LANDSAT DATA IS INCREASING RAPIDLY. IMAGE CREDIT: USGS.

The use of EO data in Oil and Gas goes even further back, with imagery being used in the early 1970s. Landsat 1 was launched in 1972. The point is that the use of EO data within the Oil and Gas sector is not a new thing. In this decade the EO industry is undergoing a step change, more and more satellites are being launched providing increasing spatial and spectral resolution. Everywhere you look the message is consistent – the EO industry is expanding and the use of EO data in Oil and Gas should be looked at again.

In 2014 the European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) funded a project called the EO4OG (Earth Observation for Oil and Gas). The aim was to “to undertake a comprehensive study of the geo-information needs of the O&G sector and what EO services / products could help meet those needs”. It was undertaken by 4 separate consortiums.

The website is rich in content and information. I put together a YouTube video highlighting the key parts although the site is pretty intuitive:

The project identified 225 “challenges” covering onshore and offshore operations. They are listed in entirety here. One of the great things about the challenges is that they have been converted into interactive “Challenge trees”.

IMAGE FROM THE EO4OG WEBPAGE (ACCESSED JULY 2016)

These challenge trees allow for quick navigation. Click on a challenge and it will take you to the product sheet. The challenges found by each consortium are coloured by the bounding box (in the example above OTM is blue and Hatfield is orange). There is no repetition within each consortium’s challenges. Surface geological mapping is perhaps best highlighted in desert conditions, such as the Qattara Depression.

An example – OTM-051 Identification of fault lines

Clicking on the identification of fault lines you will be taken to a detailed description of the challenge. “Identification of geological features can give reasonable and early indications of likely reservoir locations. These are more easily seen in clear or deserted regions but areas of forested / agricultural land where the surface is covered or artificially modified, it is difficult to see these”. Each challenge contains comprehensive information about the Challenge and the current ways of addressing it, plus a challenge classification and known restrictions. Relevant products that help address the challenge are also listed on a separate tab.

In this example:

  • Elevation
  • Fault Identification
  • Faults and discontinuities
  • Floodplain mapping and flood risk assessment
  • Reservoir optimization
  • Slope
  • Surface Deformation
  • Surface Deformation Monitoring
  • Terrain Roughness

If you click on Faults and discontinuities, you will be taken to a product sheet. This provides a clear overview of uses, geoinformation requirements, description, limitations/restrictions and coverage. It also will reconnect back to any challenge that this product addresses. Finally, in the product sheet you will get information about how to create a faults and discontinuities map, the data sources, the spatial resolution, the minimum mapping unit, accuracy & constraints, frequency, availability and output format. These product sheets were based on a light version of the Document Requirements Definition (DRD) set out by EARSC.

19 case studies

The EO4OG project also helpfully created 19 case studies. Again they are split into Onshore and Offshore case studies, but each one contains a tab either called ‘Outcomes’ or ‘Results & Perspectives’. The case studies have a global coverage, with a broad range of climatic zones highlighting the reach of the Oil and Gas industry.

Conclusion

EO data has in the past been oversold to the Oil and Gas Sector. The rapid improvement in spatial and spectral resolution, added to the increasing temporal coverage plus a move towards machine learning and ‘Earth Observation 2.0’ is making EO data more attractive today. The work produced by the EO4OG sets a framework to solve common industry problems. Time to look at EO again.

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MINNEAPOLIS – East View Geospatial is excited to announce an agreement with the Gitashenasi Geographic and Cartographic Institute to create an online archive of the Iranian mapping agency’s extensive publications.

A visitor’s guide map of Andisheh New Town, Tehran Province, Iran, (courtesy of Gitashenasi).

East View will be introducing the platform specifically to house the aggregated Gitashenasi content, offering EVG customers access to the Iranian world perspective via a single database subscription, as opposed to hundreds of individual purchases that would require immense cataloging.

“We are pleased to be able to work with Gitashenasi; bringing their catalogue online for a whole new audience,” said Kent Lee, East View Geospatial’s founder and CEO. “Gitashenasi is one of the most reputable mapping agencies in the world, and this agreement allows non-Farsi speakers, and those based outside of the Middle East, access to their impressive array of products, which previously were very difficult to obtain.”

This marks the first time that Gitashenasi’s cartographic products will be available online, making the Iranian company’s compendium available to the world market in a digital format, and adding to East View Geospatial’s growing collection of Middle Eastern content.

The archive contains an extensive collection of products, highlighted by approximately 200 maps, 100 books, and 50 atlases, which will be digitized and presented in an EVG database that features full-text searching, MARC records and even bilingual English-Persian metadata so that complete Persian language items are discovered.

For more information about accessing the Gitashenasi archive and additional East View products, visit http://geospatial.com/ or contact your East View representative.

About East View

East View was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. East View is comprised of East View Information Services ( www.eastview.com), East View Geospatial ( www.geospatial.com) and East View Map Link ( www.maplink.com). East View maintains thousands of supplier/publisher relationships throughout the world for maps and geospatial data and Russian, Arabic and Chinese-produced social and hard science content. East View manages a data center, library and warehouse in Minneapolis where it hosts and stores dozens of foreign language databases, hundreds of thousands of maps and atlases and millions of geosatial, Russian, Chinese and Arabic metadata records.East View

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Trimble announced that Delair-Tech acquired its Belgium-based Gatewing Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) engineering and manufacturing business. Delair-Tech intends to grow the acquired business as part of its portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed. ♦

Trimble announced that Delair-Tech acquired its Belgium-based Gatewing Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) engineering and manufacturing business. Delair-Tech intends to grow the acquired business as part of its portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“This transaction is part of our continuing program to tighten our corporate focus,” said Ron Bisio, vice president of Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “Trimble will remain actively engaged in the market by leveraging its brand-agnostic software technology for a broader range of UAS platforms.”

Gatewing has been reported as part of Trimble’s Engineering and Construction segment. The divestiture will not have a material impact on overall or segment financial results.

In addition, Trimble entered into strategic alliances with Delair-Tech and Microdrones, which will become preferred providers of fixed-wing and multirotor UAS solutions, with Trimble providing software, data processing and deliverables to UAS operators across multiple vertical markets.

Source

Harwell, Oxfordshire, 15th September, 2016 Rezatec, leading geospatial data analysts, has recently been awarded Phase II funding for the development of geo-spatial big data analytics products that can identify and monitor plant health on a large scale. The funding from the Space for Smarter Government Programme (via the UK Space Agency), is the result of a competitive application process through Innovate UK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), following an initial feasibility project (Phase I) to ensure the commercial value of the products and services under development by Rezatec.

Phase I of this project, known as SAPPHIRE (Space Applications for Precision Plant Health Information, Response and Evaluation), involved Rezatec working with Forest Research (the research agency of the Forestry Commission) to explore the feasibility of differentiating tree species using their typical annual phenological pattern.

The Phase I project focussed on mapping the distribution of different broadleaved species within selected study sites that are affected by forest pests and diseases. Rezatec utilised various Earth Observation (EO) sensors (e.g. Sentinel 1 C-band SAR, Sentinel 2 multi-spectral sensor and Landsat 8) to map the distribution and abundance of these species. These EO data sets were complemented with already available ground-based and accessory data (e.g. LiDAR and National Forest Inventory), provided by Forest Research, and integrated using data mining approaches that included random forest classifiers, statistical clustering methods and post-processing classification algorithms.

The results of SAPPHIRE Phase I were excellent. Maps of tree species achieved a minimum classification accuracy of 80%. Rezatec also developed indicators of broadleaved tree phenology to provide baseline information to detect anomalous measures of plant stress that might be associated with forest pathogens.

Following the success of Phase I, Rezatec is continuing its collaboration with Forest Research, to create a series of data products that can identify and classify an expanded set of tree species and their typical annual phenological pattern with specific focus on:

  • identifying limiting issues with optical capabilities and applying radar data to help differentiate different tree species and identify their distribution, for example in linear features such as trees lining roads or rail lines;
  • validating identified areas of tree stress against known scenarios and discounting them against false positives, saving time and cost for the end users of the products; and,
  • employing Sentinel 1 data sets to demonstrate the effective capability of SAR data in monitoring tree phenology, using standard EO multi-spectral imagery to complement the SAR imagery via data fusion techniques.

“Using satellite data to enable more efficient tree-health mapping and assessment holds great promise for landowners in both the public and private sectors, in the UK and abroad,” commented Alison Melvin, Business Development Manager at Forest Research.

“With Phase I of this project we demonstrated the feasibility and commercial potential of using satellite data analytics to provide real insight to the forestry sector whilst delivering previously unseen efficiencies. Now we are looking forward to finalising the development of our forestry data products and bringing this valuable information to market,” said Tim Vallings, Head of Forestry, Rezatec.

The results of Phase II will be market-ready data products that allow users to understand tree species distribution, tree health, tree mensuration (height, count and volume) and tree windblow damage for any area or forest stand. All of these products will be accessible via Rezatec’s subscription-based geospatial data web portal.

Rezatec and John Clegg, a leading provider of forest asset valuation services in the United Kingdom, are jointly presenting the data products developed under the SAPPHIRE programme at APF 2016, the UK’s largest forestry exhibition. John Clegg’s professional services expertise will be complemented by Rezatec’s technology as these new data products come to market.

_“Rezatec has proven the commercial applications of Earth Observation data analytics in forestry and we’re impressed with the potential cost savings and accuracy of the data products versus traditional techniques,”_observed Mike Tustin, Partner, John Clegg and Co.

Rezatec are launching these new forestry plant health data products to market in 2017 with a preview available at the APF Forestry Exhibition 15/09/2016. http://www.apfexhibition.co.uk/

About Space for Smarter Government Programme
SSGP is an exciting and challenging programme operating to educate and inspire public sector to the multiple uses of satellite applications and data as well as dispel the myths that space is too costly, too technical too difficult to understand. http://spaceforsmartergovernment.uk/

About the Small Business Research Initiative
Supported by Innovate UK, SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) enables the public sector to tap into new ideas and technologies and speeds up their adoption. It helps government departments connect with innovative businesses to solve the tough challenges facing the public sector. https://sbri.innovateuk.org/

About Rezatec
Rezatec™ applies new science to Earth Observation (EO) data to produce high value geospatial data analytics that substantially reduce the cost of quantifying, monitoring and verifying land use change and environmental risk. Rezatec’s unique strength lies in its ability to aggregate large amounts of diverse data from satellite, airborne and ground instruments to provide critical decision support for science and non-science users. Headquartered within the UK Space Gateway in Oxfordshire, in the UK, Rezatec customers today are spread across the utilities, agribusiness, energy, urban and forestry sectors. For more information about Rezatec visit www.rezatec.com

About Forest Research
Forest Research is an agency of the Forestry Commission, and conducts world-class scientific research and technical development in support of sustainable forest management for a range of internal and external clients. www.forestry.gov.uk/forestresearch

For editorial enquiries contact:
Philip Briscoe, Marketing Director, Rezatec Limited.
Tel: 01235 567396, Email: philip.briscoe@rezatec.com

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ECMWF has launched its new ten-year Strategy, which sets ambitious goals that push the limits of predictability in weather forecasting.

A key target is to extend the probabilistic skill of ECMWF’s high-impact weather forecasts by three to six days over the next decade.

This would enable skilful predictions of high-impact weather up to two weeks ahead.

Other goals include predicting large-scale patterns and regime transitions up to four weeks ahead, and global-scale anomalies up to a year ahead.

Other goals include predicting large-scale patterns and regime transitions up to four weeks ahead, and global-scale anomalies up to a year ahead.

ECMWF’s Director-General Florence Rabier said: “Our 2025 ambition raises the international bar. Given the greater likelihood of life-threatening climate change impacts on the Earth’s weather, we will harness rapidly advancing data availability and technology to stretch the accuracy and range of predictions further and faster.

“ECMWF is a shining example of the value of European and global cooperation in the scientific field, and one which has tangible benefits day in, day out for dozens of national economies and millions of people’s daily lives.”

The Strategy was approved unanimously by the representatives of ECMWF’s Member States meeting on 30 June and 1 July.

Two pillars

Turning the Strategy’s goals into reality will require a sustained collaborative effort in two areas in particular: ensemble forecasts and Earth system modelling.

Ensemble forecasts are probabilistic: they provide a range of likely scenarios and give an indication of the confidence forecasters can have in their predictions. Running them at high resolution can increase the skill of forecasts but is computationally demanding.

The Strategy specifies a target of a 5 km grid spacing for ensemble forecasts by 2025, down from 18 km today. This is at the limit of what can be done scientifically and in terms of the computing capacity ECMWF envisages having.

In the context of weather prediction, Earth system modelling means adequately representing the interactions between components of the Earth system that influence the weather. In addition to the atmosphere, these components include the oceans, sea ice and the continental land surfaces.

Earth system interactions will also have to be represented in data assimilation, the process of combining weather observations with model output to achieve the best possible description of the state of the Earth system at the start of a forecast run.

The Strategy makes it clear that ECMWF aims to remain at the forefront of efforts to develop innovative solutions for data assimilation.

Scalable computing

The Strategy sets out how ECMWF intends to meet the computational challenges created by the evolution towards Earth system modelling at high resolution.

It explains that all parts of the forecasting process need to be optimised to ensure that the Centre’s high-performance computing facility remains economically and environmentally sustainable.

To this end, numerical weather prediction and computational science will have to advance in concert towards scalable, energy-efficient algorithms and technology.

Research projects exploring future heterogeneous computer architectures have already been initiated and will remain important throughout the period covered by the Strategy.

Collaboration

ECMWF’s new Strategy has been developed in close collaboration with its Member States. Implementing it will also require working closely with Member and Co-operating States, national meteorological services and the wider scientific community worldwide.

The Strategy also highlights the importance of continued collaboration with partner organisations across the world, including space agencies such as EUMETSAT, to ensure ECMWF receives the weather observations it needs to achieve its goals.

Further information

Press Release ECMWF commits to pushing the limits of predictability in 2025 strategy

The full Strategy 2016–2025 and a more concise Roadmap to 2025 are available on the website’s Strategy page.

EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have signed a Technical Operating Arrangement (TOA) to support the exchange of data related to Copernicus, the Earth Observation Programme of the European Union.


“We are glad that EUMETSAT and NOAA have joined forces to implement on a technical level the arrangements concluded several months ago by the European Commission with our counterparts in the United States. We greatly value the long standing transatlantic partnership on Earth Observation data exchange which is defined by this arrangement. This marks a new key milestone for reinforcing benefits of Copernicus for citizens on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence at the European Commission.

NOAA appreciates the European Union’s continued support for Earth observation activities. The signing of this TOA reaffirms the partnership between NOAA and EUMETSAT, which is based on a full, free, and open data sharing policy. NOAA believes that Sentinel-3 marine data and products will serve as a great benefit to the global community.”

The TOA is based on the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement on Sentinel data access and use signed between the European Commission and the United States on 16 October 2015, as well as the Delegation Agreement signed between the EC and EUMETSAT on 7 November 2014 which defines EUMETSAT’s role in implementing and coordinating technical actions with international partners on behalf of the European Commission.

Under the agreement, NOAA will be responsible for distributing the Copernicus data from EUMETSAT to NOAA and its user base, including the ocean user community, but will also extend to researchers and other users.

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