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We are pleased to inform you about the organization of the next EUFAR FP7 Training Courses for promoting airborne research in the European academic community

The courses provide a theoretical background on Earth Sciences and associated physical processes, as well as training on airborne instrumentation, measurement, data processing and analysis. The participants are also trained by aircraft operators on issues specific to airborne operations.

The 1st EUFAR Training Course “ADvanced Digital Remote sensing in Ecology and earth Sciences Summer School” (ADDRESSS) will be held at the Balaton Limnological Research Institute (BLRI) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from August 19th to 28th 2010, Tihany, Hungary (see flyer enclosed).

The 2nd EUFAR Training Course “Training & Education for Turbulence Research via Airborne Data” (TETRAD), organized by the CNR ISAC Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Climate will be held from September 10th to 18th 2010 at Hyères, France (see flyer enclosed).

The webpage (www.eufar.net/ET) provides all practical details for accommodation and registration.
Email: bureau_at_eufar.net
Website: www.eufar.net
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News on … Operational GMES Data Supply from the DMC Satellites, CEOS Calibration & Validation Task Force led by DMCii


Operational GMES Data Supply from the DMC Satellites

The GMES programme of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) has stepped up a gear, and is now providing access to imagery for projects from a variety of ESA’s Third Party Missions including the DMC. Following a consultation process with projects across Europe and associates around the globe, DMC imagery has been selected for a variety of datasets. The datasets will be used for monitoring many different environmental and man-made phenomena including land cover, floods, forest fires, disaster events, desertification and deforestation.

DMCii is acquiring up-to-date high resolution imagery of the majority of the land area of Africa for GMES. Imagery is being acquired over a period of only 12 months, with low cloud cover. Previous attempts to perform such an ambitious data collection have failed, with useable datasets spanning over three years or more. The cloud cover in tropical areas renders conventional optical satellite systems ineffective and requires the rapid revisit of a constellation to achieve regular annual rather than decadal datasets. This coverage will provide a much needed snapshot of the land cover conditions of Africa, and will reveal important information about our climate and environment.

DMCii is interfacing its systems with ESA to allow for quicker and more efficient imagery ordering and delivery, and to provide advanced cataloguing facilities for the benefit of all European users. The GMES initiative has important benefits for all Earth Observation data users and will put into place services moving towards self-sustainability. Data will be made available to the ESA to licensed users and can also be purchased from DMCii. The North African countries will also be imaged to complete the dataset in the DMCii catalogue Image: 1 DMC coverage of sub-Saharan Africa since Oct 2009

CEOS Calibration & Validation Task Force led by DMCii

Dr Steve Mackin, DMCii Chief Scientist, leads the CEOS Task Force for calibration of satellite imagery.

The annual Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) working group meeting for Calibration and Validation (WGCV) appointed Dr. Mackin to run a small task force (including members from India, China and the United States) to help explore elements of how to endorse quality assurance and quality control to meet the guidelines given within the Quality Assurance for Earth observation (QA4EO) framework. The ultimate aim being to provide quantitative quality estimators on every earth observation product.

DMCii manages the quality of DMC data across the constellation through a regular calibration programme and a campaign of continuous improvement.

The latest data review analyzed large numbers of DMC images from:
•Annual vicarious calibration campaigns over instrumented test sites in RailRoad Valley, Arizona and Tuz Golu, Turkey.
•Winter relative and cross calibration campaigns over Antarctic DOME C site.
•Monthly acquisitions over CEOS endorsed stable sites (Libya, La Crau) for calibration trending
The results of the review of DMC data show that:
•Radiometric procedure achieves less than 5% uncertainty in absolute radiometry.
•Cross calibration between DMC satellites delivers <1% uncertainty between the different satellite systems for all spectral bands.
•Relative band-to-band ratios very stable over three years (< 0.34% r.m.s error) for the UK-DMC-1 satellite.
•Noise Equivalent Radiance (NER) approaches Landsat.
•Orthorectified 32-metre data achieves 10-25 metres r.m.s. error with respect to reference data.

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii)

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK company which supplies satellite imagery products and services to a wide range of international customers. DMCii supplies both programmed and archived optical satellite imagery from the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).
DMCii provides imaging and mapping services to meet specific customer and application needs. DMC images are used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications, including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping. DMC imagery is used by organisations such as the European Commission, Brazilian Space Agency, United Nations and the US Geological Survey, as well as private precision-agriculture and other applied remote sensing organisations.

The small satellites of the DMC provide daily revisit capability combined with an unmatched 660km imaging swath width for frequent broad area coverage. Multispectral image products offer a resolution of 32-metres GSD and 22-metre GSD.
Panchromatic image products feature a very high-resolution 4-metre pixel GSD, from Beijing-1. All DMC images are calibrated and processed to a variety of product levels according to customer requirements.

DMCii provides imagery from the two satellites it owns and operates, UK-DMC (32metre gsd) and UK-DMC2 (22metre gsd) and also coordinates the commercial activity of the DMC satellite constellation. The DMC satellites are independently owned and operated by a cooperating consortium of organisations representing member nations:
• Centre National des Techniques Spatiales, Algeria
• Beijing Landview Mapping Information Technology Ltd, China
• National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria
• Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, United Kingdom
• Deimos Imaging S.L., Spain

The DMC Consortium members work together through DMCii for commercial sales and for collaborative Earth observation campaigns.
_Contact DMC International Imaging Ltd. by email at info@dmcii.com or Tel +44 1483 804299
See our web site www.dmcii.com to access the DMCii catalogue and price lists._

Telespazio – eGeos latest News

30/11/2009. Telespazio presents the “Love Planet Earth 2010” calendar dedicated to Deserts

Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, presents the 2010 edition of its “Love Planet Earth” calendar, which is now into its fourth year and this year is dedicated to Deserts. Covering a third of the Earth’s land surface, deserts are the true sentries of climate change.

Link

30/11/2009. Conference celebrating the Nobel Prize to Guglielmo Marconi, Brussels, 3 December

On 3 December, the conference “Wireless, Telecommunication, Space: Frontier Research from Marconi to the Future”, organised by the Italian Embassy to celebrate the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize for Physics to Guglielmo Marconi will be held in Brussels.

Link

19/11/2009. e-GEOS (Telespazio/ASI) wins ESA contract to supply high resolution optical and radar satellite data for the GMES programme

e-GEOS, the company jointly owned by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to supply optical and radar satellite data for the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme.

Link

SENER won the 2009 Miguel Pardo award granted by the Spanish Maritime Cluster (CME) in the Technology and Innovation category.

The award ceremony was held on Tuesday 1 December before the General Meeting of the CME, at the Hotel Ritz in Madrid.

The jury, whose members included the Chairman of the Spanish Maritime Cluster, Federico Esteve, the Chairman of Fundación Innovamar, José Manuel Manzanedo, the CEO of Repsol-Gas Natural, Alberto Toca, and the Deputy Director of the economic daily Expansión, Manuel del Pozo, rewarded SENER for its proven career in multi-discipline projects “that combine various technologies; international presence in the marine sector, boosted by its outstanding activities in research, development and innovation in information technology for all fields, especially in the maritime sector”.

Luis García, General Manager of the Marine Business Unit and Jorge Unda, Managing Director of SENER, who collected the award, attended the ceremony.

Through its marine department, SENER offers ship consulting and engineering services. For over 45 years it has also commercialized its FORAN Naval CAD/CAM System, an application at the cutting edge of technology and currently licensed for use in over 150 shipyards and technical offices in 30 countries.

Source

Arianespace wrapped up another successful year of operations orbiting the French Helios 2B military observation satellite, which was lofted on the seventh Ariane 5 launch in mid Dec 2009.

Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for principal systems on European defence and security satellites

Cannes, December 18, 2009 – The Helios 2B military observation satellite, built for the French Ministry of Defence by EADS Astrium as prime contractor and featuring a very-high-resolution optical imaging instrument produced by Thales Alenia Space, was successfully launched today by Arianespace, using an Ariane 5 rocket, from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Helios 2 programme, based on two satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, is a second-generation military observation system developed by France in conjunction with Belgium, Spain, Greece and Italy. The five countries participating in this programme chose French defence procurement agency DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement) as the general contracting authority for the Helios 2 system.

Launched in 1993, the programme calls on the space optics expertise of Thales Alenia Space, which supplied the high-resolution imaging instruments for the Helios 1A, Helios 1B, Helios 2A and Helios 2B satellites. The system provides a real “eagle eye” in space for all defence needs. The new-generation high-resolution imaging instrument for the Helios 2 satellites, designated HRZ for “High Resolution Zoom”, is the successor to the imaging assembly on the Helios 1 satellites. It weighs 1,124 kg, consumes 418 W of power in standby mode and up to 893 W in use.It is operated by 290 commands and delivers 250 telemetry readings.

The HRZ offers a significant performance improvement compared to its predecessor, especially in terms of spatial resolution and spectrum width. In particular the ground footprint has been considerably improved, and the incorporation of an infrared channel makes this new satellite a prime reconnaissance tool for European defence. It will offer complementary night detection capabilities and will help speed up access to information.

“Thales Alenia Space has produced all the high-resolution instruments for Helios satellites since 1993,” said Reynald Seznec, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “By drawing on our expertise in optical engineering and industrial facilities that are unrivaled in Europe, we have developed instruments that are increasingly sophisticated and also provide greater and greater precision in terms of both spatial and spectral resolution. Thales Alenia Space has the capabilities needed to remain the trusted partner of the French Ministry of Defence in the coming years, for both observation and communications applications.”

Thales Alenia Space offers unrivaled expertise to meet evolving defence and security requirements, as reflected in the company’s selection on new French programmes. For example, Thales Alenia Space was chosen to develop the optical instrument for CSO, successor to the Helios 2 programme and actively prepares the operational CERES spaceborne intelligence programme. At the same time, Thales Alenia Space is a pivotal player in current analyses on the possibility of outsourcing responsibility for French military space communications systems, built and already operated by the company. The same approach will probably be applied to the operational early warning system that France plans to develop, as well as to the Italian second-generation observation system and the European intelligence system, Musis.

For more information, please connect our dedicated web-site
www.helios-instrument.com

About Thales Alenia Space

The European leader in satellite systems and a major player in orbital infrastructures, Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio embody the two groups’ “Space Alliance”. Thales Alenia Space sets the global standard in solutions for space telecommunications, radar and optical Earth observation, defence and security, navigation and science. With consolidated revenues of 2 billion euros in 2008, Thales Alenia Space has 7,200 employees at 11 industrial sites in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

www.thalesaleniaspace.com

Helios 2B weighed approximately 4,200 kg. at liftoff, and is the second platform in a new-generation military spaceborne observation system created by France in conjunction with Belgium, Spain, Italy and Greece. The satellite was produced by EADS Astrium as prime contractor, and the spacecraft’s European industrial team included Thales Alenia Space, which supplied the reconnaissance satellite’s high resolution imaging instrument.

News from Nov and Dec 2009


Dec 2009. HTSI has renewed the Maintenance contract with KSPT under the Mission Operation and Mission Services contract with NASA’s GSFC

Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTSI) has renewed the Maintenance contract with Kongsberg Spacetec AS under the
Mission Operation and Mission Services (MOMS) contract
with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md.

The renewal of this contract is evidence of the successful
co-operation between Kongsberg Spacetec AS, HTSI and NASA
in the deployment, operations and support of the
48 MEOS Capture and MEOS Connect Systems widely deployed at
NASA data acquisition facilities.
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link

Nov2009. KSPT MEOS™ Polar and MEOS™ Geo to Thailand Meteorological Department

Kongsberg Spacetec is awarded contract for delivery of the next generation satellite reception and processing system for Thailand Meteorological Department (TMD). The system will receive data from the satellites Terra, Aqua, NOAA, Metop, Fy1, Fy2, FY3 and MTSAT and deliver high level satellite image products to TMD to support weather forecasting and typhoon warning.

The MEOS Polar ground station system is Kongsberg Spacetec’s multi-mission, flexible and modular turnkey system for acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis and distribution of meteorological data.

For more information about the customer: Thai Meteorological Department

Latest News from Nov09 and Jan10


January 2010

INNOVA, as collaborating partner, is happy to announce that it is now possible to register for the Master in “Space Remote Sensing Tecnologies”, that will take place at the Università degli Studi di Bari, accademic year 2009 – 2010. Click here for more information.

17th November 2009

INNOVA issues demo version 0.6.0b of its GSDView software in occasion of the official agreement between the Italian Space Agency and the Basilicata Region signed on the 17th Novembre 2009, for the creation of the CIDOT (Centre for the Interpretation of Earth Observation Data).

Infoterra Nov-Dec News


07 December 2009: Malaysia will task TerraSAR-X Satellite directly

>> Infoterra installs a “Virtual Ground Station” in Kuala Lumpur
>> Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency equipped with order workstation
>> Weather-independent radar satellite data will support flood risk management

Infoterra and its Malaysian partner IMS have now installed a TerraSAR-X Virtual Ground Station at the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (MRSA) in Kuala Lumpur: Following the delivery and installation of all necessary technical equipment as well as thorough training on the planning and ordering tool, Nikolaus Faller, Chief Operations Officer of Infoterra GmbH, officially handed the access key to Nik Mazlina Nik Mustapha, Head of Remote Sensing Data Services at MRSA, on Friday, Dec 4.

Read press release in english or german

24 November 2009: Leading Geo-Information Service Providers to Update Federal Digital Landscape Model of Germany

• Infoterra, DELPHI IMM and IABG: working group to update and complete
almost 360,000 square kilometres of geodata

• Main project started in production centres in Potsdam and Dresden

Read press release in english or german

12 November 2009: Imass and Trionics relaunch as Symetri™

The two Autodesk resellers, Imass Design Solutions and Trionics, today relaunched as one business under the name Symetri. The new name and branding was unveiled at a customer conference in Sheffield, following a strategic agreement earlier in the year. Like the former Imass Design Solutions, the newly-formed division is a business unit of Infoterra Ltd, part of EADS Astrium.

View website
Read press release in english

The GIM GIS Training Centre offers you training to match your needs.

Thematic or hands-on training, basic or advanced, open calendar or bespoke training, at our premises or elsewhere, the choice is yours.

Go for the training that suits you best:

  • Open calendar collective training in small groups for maximum knowledge transfer and optimal interaction between trainer and trainee.
  • Bespoke training starting from your specific training needs, the course content is determined by taking into account the knowledge and the required skills of the trainees. You have maximal participation in the topics to be treated, target audience, planning, language and location for the training.
  • Trainng on the job are you looking for individual coaching on a specific GIS topic or GIS software? Ask for the possibilities of on-site coaching by GIM’s specialists.

Our comprehensive training programmes is the fruit of our product independence and years of GIS experience in various applications.
The GIM trainers are all enthusiastic highly experienced GIS professionals, giving our courses a broad practical basis.
Existing training programmes are constantly updated and new topics are added as the GIS landscape evolves and new technologies and application domains become important.

For land surveyors our whole trainingsprogram is applicable for half of the training hours in the frame work of permant education, because GIM is recognised as training centre for land surveyors by the Federal Council.

Visit our training news page regularly to stay informed about extra training courses or other training related news.

Example Training …

2010/01/19 – Introduction to FME
2010/01/21 – Quantum GIS
2010/01/26 – Introduction to GML
2010/01/28 – Intro to Open GIS Webservices
2010/02/02 – Getting started with GIS
2010/02/04 – GIS for local governments
2010/02/09-11 – MapInfo Basis
2010/02/15-16-17 – eCognition Essentials
2010/02/18-19 – eCognition Rule Set
2010/02/23-25 & 03/02 – ArcGIS Basis
2010/03/04 – MapInfo Adv 1 Data creation
2010/03/09 – MapInfo Adv 2 Data analysis
2010/03/11 – ArcGIS Adv 1 Geodatabase
2010/03/16 – ArcGIS Adv 2 Visualisation
2010/03/18 – ArcGIS Adv 3 Editing
2010/03/23 – ArcGIS Adv 4 Querying
2010/03/25 – ArcGIS Adv 5 Geoprocessing
2010/03/30 – ArcGIS Adv 6 Rasters
2010/03/31 – INSPIRE Directive
2010/04/01 – PostGIS Open Source

more info

From overview to … insight
An image says more than a thousand words.
GIM offers you the key to geographical data. With solutions and bespoke services and the most appropriate software for your specific situation.
GIM specialises in services in geographical information systems, information technology and earth observation and sets itself apart with its software independence.