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[Via Satellite 04-22-2016] Rezatec, a U.K.-based Earth Observation (EO) data analytics company formed in 2012, has raised more than $1.4 million in a seed financing round to expand its sales and marketing teams worldwide. Run Capital led the round with support from the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels and existing shareholders.

Rezatec provides satellite-driven data analytics for users in the utilities, agribusiness and energy sectors. The financing follows a number of contract awards for subscription to the company’s landscape intelligence portal by customers seeking to enhance their corporate predictive and forecasting capabilities around their land-based assets.

We are making clear headway with commercial sales of satellite-derived data analytics in a number of sectors worldwide,” said Rezatec CEO Patrick Newton. “The support of our investors in this round is key to our expansion plans into this new and fast developing segment of big data analytics.”

Rezatec proprietary algorithms process data inputs from satellite, airborne and ground sensors to predict outcomes for key assets in a number of industry verticals. Users access Rezatec analytics through subscription to the Rezatec landscape intelligence portal. Among its solution sets, Rezatec enables yield optimization for commodity crops in the agribusiness sector; water catchment pollution and soil erosion forecasts in the water utilities sector; and pipe bursts and subsidence movements in the energy and utilities sectors. Rezatec users include major U.K. utilities, agribusinesses, consulting partners and government.

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- Joint-venture with Airbus Defence and Space to build estimated $85 million automated facility in Florida to manufacture nearly 900 satellites
- The satellites are designed in Toulouse (France) and series production will be tested there on a prototype assembly line

OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between Airbus Defence and Space and OneWeb, has chosen Florida in the United States as the site for its final assembly line, completing the last step in its industrial organisation. This facility, located at Florida’s Exploration Park, near the Kennedy Space Center, will carry out the series production of nearly 900 satellites for the OneWeb constellation.

“In June 2015, we started from scratch to create a new satellite design and manufacturing company,” stated François Auque, Head of Space Systems. “In both Florida and Europe, we are now embarking on the next stage of an unprecedented venture in the space industry: a site that can mass-produce dozens of satellites every month. All this, of course, without affecting the levels of quality and technology that are essential when it comes to spacecraft – complex machines that need to operate for several years in space.”

The choice of Florida for the final assembly line follows the announcement of the creation of OneWeb Satellites in January 2016. The production site will cover an area of 100,000+ square feet and will create nearly 250 direct jobs.

A prototype production line at Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse (France) will assemble and test the first 10 satellites, and check and validate industrial solutions for the series production. The design of the satellites is currently under way in the company’s design offices in Toulouse.

The space segment of OneWeb will comprise initially a constellation of 648 operational satellites and replacement satellites, all of which will be identical. Each satellite will weigh approximately 150 kg and will operate in low Earth orbit. Arianespace and Virgin Galactic will begin launching the spacecraft in 2018 and the satellites will be placed in orbit using electrical propulsion.

This joint venture, equally owned by Airbus Defence and Space and OneWeb, has been set up following the selection in June 2015 of Airbus Defence and Space as the industrial partner of OneWeb to design and build its satellites. The constellation to be operated by OneWeb will provide high-speed internet services with global coverage. OneWeb Satellites will also be able to produce satellites, platforms or equipment to be marketed by Airbus Defence and Space for the benefit of other operators of future constellations.

Read about our activities over the last few months and understand what the Association is doing.

This page gathers EARSC ‘ Annual reports. These describe how we fulfil our mission to foster the development of the European geo-information service industry. The report showcases the year’s accomplishments, detailing our key goals and activities, list of our members, and financial statement.

Reports

Airbus Defense and Space has been selected as a 2016 honoree in the Hexagon Shaping Smart Change Recognition Program for their innovative imagery solutions and use of Hexagon technologies. Airbus Defense and Space was recognized during a ceremony held at HxGN LIVE, Hexagon’s international conference held June 13-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.

The Shaping Smart Change Recognition Program recognizes Hexagon customers or partners for their vision in the use of Hexagon technology to make significant contributions to their business, the industries they serve and communities worldwide.

“When selecting the Geospatial honoree, we considered organisations that have achieved distinction in their fields and exemplify leadership and excellence by pushing the boundaries of innovation, “said Mladen Stojic, President of Hexagon Geospatial. “We are thrilled to recognize Airbus Defense and Space as our Shaping Smart Change recepient. “

Within their partnership, Airbus Defense and Space and Hexagon Geospatial provide Smart M.Apps users and developers easy, cost-efficient access to very-high- and high- resolution optical imagery from the Pléiades and SPOT satellites. In addition, they enable end users with powerful technology and imagery to transform this data into useful information across multiple market segments.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from Hexagon,” said Greg Buckman, Head of Airbus Defense and Space’s Intelligence activities in North America. “We are committed to continuing to grow and strengthen our partnership, which enables larger numbers of people to utilize the valuable insights provided from combining accurate imagery and advanced analytic capabilities.”

The partners will continue to foster innovation and expand access to more data through Hexagon Geospatials Smart M.Apps platform. In addition to the current data offerings, the plan is to also provide powerful synthetic aperture radar data from the TerraSAR-X satellite and a range of digital elevation models from the Airbus Defense and Space’s portfolio.

Contact:
Fabienne GRAZZINI + 33 5 62 19 41 19
fabienne.grazzini@astrium.eads.net

(14 June 2016) exactEarth and DigitalGlobe today announced a strategic alliance to offer joint services to the commercial fishing industry and to aid in the combating of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Today, IUU fishing is recognized as a major threat to achieving sustainable fisheries, with the potential to cause an irreversible change in ocean ecosystems. Several decades of overfishing in the world’s major fisheries has created large declines in commercially important fish populations, thus hindering the ability to feed the growing global population and costing governments tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue annually.

The Alliance will see exactEarth’s advanced automatic identification system (AIS) maritime information services integrated with DigitalGlobe’s high-accuracy, high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. The integrated solution will leverage both organizations’ big data and predictive analytics capabilities in order to help governments to address IUU fishing and also their broader maritime surveillance.

“26 million tonnes of fish, representing approximately $23 billion in lost revenue, are taken each year through illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” said Peter Mabson, CEO of exactEarth. “This has created a compelling case for governments and commercial organization to find a solution to stem their IUU losses. With DigitalGlobe we believe we have the solution required and we will be first-to-market with a satellite-based AIS system to solve this problem. Our Alliance will enable governments and commercial organizations to monitor fishing activity in and around their borders, respond to suspicious activity and hold vessels accountable for their catch.”

“Illegal fishing costs countries billions of dollars each year and impacts livelihoods of millions,” said Tony Frazier, SVP & GM of Services for DigitalGlobe. “This partnership will bring to market the first commercial solution to combat illegal fishing, and the combined capabilities of DigitalGlobe and exactEarth will allow stakeholders to make decisions with confidence to control the serious problem of IUU fishing. The Alliance will enable our customers to receive AIS data covering a broader territory, which in turn will help them to enhance their overall maritime governance decisions and increase transparency for our changing planet.”

About exactEarth

exactEarth is a leading provider of global maritime vessel data for ship tracking and maritime situational awareness solutions. Since its establishment in 2009, exactEarth has pioneered a powerful new method of maritime surveillance called Satellite-AIS (“S-AIS”) and has delivered to its clients a view of maritime behaviours across all regions of the world’s oceans unrestricted by terrestrial limitations. exactEarth has deployed an operational data processing supply chain involving a constellation of satellites, receiving ground stations, patented decoding algorithms and advanced “big data” processing and distribution facilities. This ground-breaking system provides a comprehensive picture of the location of AIS equipped maritime vessels throughout the world and allows exactEarth to deliver data and information services characterized by high performance, reliability, security and simplicity to large international markets.

About DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe is a leading provider of commercial high-resolution earth observation and advanced geospatial solutions that help decision makers better understand our changing planet in order to save lives, resources and time. Sourced from the world’s leading constellation, our imagery solutions deliver unmatched coverage and capacity to meet our customers’ most demanding mission requirements. Each day customers in defense and intelligence, public safety, civil agencies, map making and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, navigation technology, and providers of location-based services depend on DigitalGlobe data, information, technology and expertise to gain actionable insight.

(source: exactEarth) and spacenews

Airbus Defense and Space and 3v Geomatics Inc. (3v Geomatics) have signed a multi-year agreement that will provide 3v Geomatics with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery acquired by TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites. Both sensors deliver imagery access with resolution ranging from 25cm to 40m, an unrivalled geometric accuracy combined with the unique ability to collect anywhere in the world, independent of weather conditions.

The multi-year agreement will provide 3v Geomatics with the ability to utilize both the unique radar imagery archive, as well as a series of new TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X acquisitions. As a leading provider of Interferometric SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) monitoring services, 3v Geomatics has extensive technical experience in providing accurate change detection information, to detect surface movements which result from Oil, Gas and mining activities or constitute possible threats for structural integrity of infrastructure.

“We are thrilled to leverage the unique capabilities of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X to help 3v Geomatics meet the needs of their customers” said Greg Buckman, Head of Airbus Defense and Space’s Intelligence Business activities in North America. “3v Geomatics is now able to offer a unique combination of radar imagery interpretation and information extraction to deliver actionable information over areas where near-real time information is needed.”

Adrian McCardle, President of 3v Geomatics, said: “We are pleased to continue strengthening our relationship with Airbus Defense and Space through this partnership agreement. We look forward to further expand and develop our joint business, and to provide radar solutions that facilitate the requirements of our customers across all sectors.”

TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are specifically optimized to meet the requirements of users around the globe who require readily available, high-quality and precise Earth observation data – independent of lighting and weather conditions. Airbus Defence and Space holds the exclusive commercial distribution rights for the data of the two satellites.

Contact
Fabienne GRAZZINI
+ 33 5 62 19 41 19
fabienne.grazzini@astrium.eads.net

For the first year, under the umbrella of the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation ConnectinGEO project, the EARSC competition “European EO product of the year” rewarded a company which has developed the most innovative product integrating an element of open data.

During the whole process about 16 companies got interested in the award and the finalists were: AnsuR Technologies (NO): GEO-ASIGN: the solutions for communication of operational EO data, Jeobrowser (FR): Rocket: the Earth in your pocket, Noveltis (FR): TIPS- Tidal Prediction Services: current and water elevation now only a click away and Planetek Italia (IT): Rheticus displacement: monitoring of terrain surface movements.

EARSC thereby recognised “Rocket: The Earth in your pocket” by Jeobrowser as the product which has best followed the jury criteria:
- commercial product integrating an element of open data resources
- type of innovation of the product
- challenge: problem to be solved and solution this product will solve
- expected impact and clients to address

Rocket: The Earth in your pocket The rocket application provides a unique entry point to search, visualize and download Earth Observation products from various catalogs. collections are available : for search : Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Landsat 8, SPOT 6-7 and Pleiades images for download : Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 data. The database is updated daily from the CNES PEPS platform (Sentinels) and from the USGS platform (Landsat). One of the coolest feature is the density result map. Basically, each result of a search request is represented as a density layer : the red part indicates a high density of results and the blue part a low density of results.

EARSC represents the Earth Observation geo-information services companies in Europe. Today EARSC has 80 members coming from more than 22 countries in Europe. Our members include both commercial operators of EO satellites, IT, downstream and value-adding companies. The sector plays a key role in providing value-added geo-spatial information to its customers in Europe and the world. In 2014, the revenue of the European EO services sector is estimated to be around €900m for approximatively 450 companies and giving work to over 6500 highly skilled employees.

Press release at EARSC website

Deimos Imaging has been presented with the EARSC Company Achievement Award during the occasion of the pre General Assembly cocktail, held on 21st June in Brussels. We want to thank GAF AG, Planet Germany GmbH and Spacetecpartners for their sponsorship.

left to right: Markus Probeck (GAF AG, Winner 2015 EARSC achievement Award), Fabrizio Pirondini (CEO Deimos Imaging), Sebastian Carl (GAF AG, Winner 2015 EARSC achievement Award), Massimiliano Vitale (Planet Germany) and Geoff Sawyer (EARSC Secretary General)

EARSC has thereby recognised Deimos Imaging as the company to have made the most significant contribution to the development of the Earth Observation sector in Europe.

The criteria used for the selection of the winning company were:
- the successful development of EO services for a target market (sector or geographic)
- a strong contribution to a defining European programme (eg. Copernicus, Inspire, ESA GSE
projects, etc)
- exhibited good revenue and/or employment growth.

Deimos Imaging, a subsidiary of UrtheCast Corp. (Canada), is a private Spanish company headquartered in Tres Cantos (Madrid) and with satellite control and processing facilities in Boecillo (Valladolid) and Puertollano (Ciudad Real). Deimos Imaging, one of the world leading satellite imagery provider, owns and operates the DEIMOS-1 and DEIMOS-2 satellites with a 24/7 commercial service from our three facilities in Spain and through our own network of ground stations in Canada, Sweden and Norway. All the ground segment software, from mission planning to image processing, has been co-developed in-house, allowing a unique capacity to customise the service to best suite all customer needs. Deimos Imaging provides high-quality services to clients worldwide, including imagery from our own constellation of satellites and from the satellites of our partners like the PanGeo Alliance, and value-added applications in a wide range of fields.

EARSC represents the Earth Observation geo-information services companies in Europe. Today EARSC has 80 members coming from more than 22 countries in Europe. Our members include both commercial operators of EO satellites, IT, downstream and valueadding companies. The sector plays a key role in providing value-added geo-spatial information to its customers in Europe and the world. In 2014, the revenue of the European EO services sector is estimated to be around €900m for approximatively 450 companies and giving work to over 6500 highly skilled employees.

Find the press release at

The twin Sentinel-1 satellites have—for the first time—combined to show their capability for revealing even small deformations in Earth’s surface.

Following its orbital maneuvers, the recently launched Sentinel-1B satellite reached its designated orbit position on June 15th. The satellite is now orbiting Earth 180 degrees apart from its twin, Sentinel-1A, at an altitude of almost 700 km. With both satellites finally in the same orbit, together they can cover the entire globe every six days.

Sentinel-1B’s first data strip stretches 600 km from 80°N degrees through the Barents Sea. The image, which shows the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago on the left, was captured on 28 April 2016 at 05:37 GMT (07:37 CEST) – just two hours after the satellite’s radar was switched on.

The two-satellite ‘radar vision’ mission for Europe’s Copernicus program carries an advanced radar to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface. It has now been demonstrated that future images acquired by the pair can be merged to detect slight changes occurring between scans. This technique is particularly useful for generating accurate maps of surface deformation over wide areas, such as those caused by tectonic processes, volcanic activities or landslides and is also an ideal tool for monitoring glacier flow and changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice shelves.

Sentinel-1’s first such paired ‘interferogram’ combined a Sentinel-1A scan over southern Romania on June 9th with a Sentinel-1B acquisition over the same area just one day before reaching its target orbit position. Another interferogram over northwest Romania was produced shortly after Sentinel-1B reached final orbit. The rainbow-colored patterns are related to topography and they demonstrate that the two satellites’ identical radars are accurately synchronized, pointing in the same direction and that the satellites are in their correct orbits.

This ‘interferogram’ combines a Sentinel-1A radar scan from June 9, 2016, over southern Romania with a Sentinel-1B acquisition from 15 June over the same area – shortly before Sentinel-1B reached its designated orbit. Bucharest is near the lower right corner of the image. The color pattern is related to local terrain topography.

Once commissioning is completed in mid-September, the pair will be ready to deliver data for the systematic and routine monitoring of Earth surface deformation and ice dynamics.

“After the great success of generating the first radar image less than three days after liftoff, I am very happy to report another outstanding success as it is the generation of the first interferograms with Sentinel-1B on the same day that we reached the orbital position, 180 degrees apart from Sentinel-1A,” said ESA’s Sentinel-1 project manager, Ramón Torres. “It is of paramount importance to the mission that we have demonstrated, at the first try, that the two Sentinel-1 satellites work very well together.”

www.esa.int

The agreement was signed in the presence of Christophe Vassal, chairman of the Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) Board, the operator of ARGOS and a subsidiary formed by CNES and the French Ifremer institute in 1986, which – like EUMETSAT – is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.


EUMETSAT’s Director-General, Alain Ratier, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES, signed a cooperation agreement on the ARGOS Data Collection System to be included in the payload of the Metop-SG satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System of Second Generat

ARGOS receivers provided by CNES are already flying on board the current generation of EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites where they collect in situ observations of the three-dimensional ocean, acquired by buoys, profiling floats and other automated devices.

The new agreement will ensure the continuation of these vital data into the 2022-2040 timeframe.

“This synergy makes our cooperation with CNES all the more valuable”

Under the new agreement, EUMETSAT will host the ARGOS DCS instrument developed by CNES on its Metop Second Generation satellites.

EUMETSAT, via its EPS-SG ground segment, will also ensure that all information gathered from the Data Collection Platforms is transmitted to the Argos Data Processing and Distribution Centre for dissemination to the user community.

The EUMETSAT Director-General, Alain Ratier said: “The ARGOS system ensures the collection of most ocean observations gathered by buoys or drifters, thereby contributing to the forecasts of the ocean-atmosphere coupled system together with the observations provided by EUMETSAT’s satellites and the Jason altimetry missions, also shared with CNES. This synergy makes our cooperation with CNES all the more valuable.”

CNES is very proud to have signed this new agreement with EUMETSAT today”

CNES president, Jean-Yves Le Gall, said: “CNES is very proud to have signed this new agreement with EUMETSAT today. The Argos system and its user community are in the best shape ever and the number of applications is growing all the time.

By supporting oceanography and wildlife tracking applications, Argos is proving a key tool in predicting climate change and gauging its effects.”

Christophe Vassal, chairman of the CLS Board commented, “Argos is a pioneer satellite-based system which has been operating since 1978. It helps the scientific community to better monitor and understand our environment, but also enables industry to comply with environmental protection regulations implemented by various governments.

This system has revolutionized the way to study the ocean, protect the biodiversity and study our planet. We are really pleased that EUMETSAT ensure the future of this marvellous tool.”

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