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(12 April 2016) e-GEOS has been awarded, with the Brazilian company Geoambiente, a contract from CENSIPAM (Centro Gestor e Operacional do Sistema de Proteçao da Amazonia) to monitor deforestation in the Amazon.

The contract, valid for 2016 and renewable for a second year, provides for the monthly acquisition of satellite data from the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation, relating to an area of one million square kilometres of the Amazon territory.

Radar sensors on the satellites will enable constant monitoring, day and night and in all weather conditions, making it the ideal solution for the Amazon territory, characterized most of the year by frequent rains and constant cloud cover. The data from COSMO-SkyMed have already been used successfully in Brazil – where Telespazio has been operating since 1997 through the subsidiary Telespazio Brasil – for environmental monitoring and safety (oil spills from platforms at sea, landslide control), in support to agriculture and for defence applications.

The president of e-GEOS, Roberto Ibba, expressed the Italian Space Agency’s satisfaction with the selection of the COSMO-SkyMed system by CENSIPAM for this important radar satellite project monitoring the Amazon. Finmeccanica also expressed satisfaction, since the new contract is further confirmation of the value of its technology in the space sector.

Finmeccanica plays a leading role in COSMO-SkyMed: a lot of equipment comes from the company’s laboratories – from the solar panels to the star sensors, from the unit controlling and distributing power to the unit for amplification, conversion, and modulation of the RF signal – integrated on board the four satellites, manufactured by the subsidiary Thales Alenia Space (Finmeccanica 33%, Thales 67%), while Telespazio (Finmeccanica 67%, Thales 33%) developed the entire ground segment and is responsible for the acquisition, processing, and distribution of the satellite data – marketed worldwide by e-GEOS – for civil applications.

Funded by ASI, the Italian Ministry of Defence and the MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research), COSMO-SkyMed is able to operate in any visibility with a high refresh frequency. It also meets military and civilian needs, with services and applications for environmental monitoring, control of land and sea, agriculture, border protection, and safety.

e-GEOS, an Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%) company, is a leading international player in the geo-spatial business. e-GEOS offers a whole range of products and services in the Earth Observation and in the geo-spatial application domains, based on both optical and radar satellites as well as on aerial surveys. e-GEOS operates its Earth Observation centres in Matera and Neustrelitz, where data from multiple satellites are received and processed, also for near-real-time monitoring. As the European hub for very high resolution data, e-GEOS grants a unique access to COSMO-SkyMed, GeoEye-1, IKONOS, QuickBird, WorlView-1&2 and Radarsat-1&2 satellites.

(source: e-GEOS)

The e-GEOS Board of Directors, a company created by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), appointed Massimo Claudio Comparini as new CEO of the company.

The e-GEOS Board of Directors, a company created by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), today appointed Massimo Claudio Comparini as new CEO of the company.

Born in Rome in 1963, Massimo Claudio Comparini graduated in electronic engineering at the University “La Sapienza,” and began his career in the space industry in 1983 at Selenia Spazio (later Alenia Spazio), taking positions of increasing responsibility, up to that of Chief Technology Officer.

With the establishment of the joint venture Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Finmeccanica 33%), he took on the role of head of research and development and product policy, and then Deputy Chief Technical Officer. In 2013 he was appointed Chief Technical Officer at Telespazio, a joint venture between Finmeccanica (67%) and Thales (33%).

Comparini is chairman of the Space Innovation technology platform in Italy, and is a national expert in the space configuration of the European Horizon 2020 programme.

The president of e-GEOS, Roberto Ibba, said: “We welcome Massimo Claudio Comparini in his new and prestigious position and we thank Marcello Maranesi, who led the company since its establishment thirteen years ago, bringing it to be one of the most prestigious international companies in the field of Earth observation, concluding a long career dedicated to the worldwide growth of the sector and of geo-information”.

Cannes, Cote d’Azur, France, 2016/02/09 – Thales Alenia Space is celebrating today the signing with the European Space Agency (ESA), for the contract worth €450 million, to build the Sentinel-3C and D environmental monitoring and oceanographic satellites for the European program Copernicus.

Thales Alenia Space is once again prime contractor for these two new satellites, as for the Sentinel-3A and 3B satellites, with responsibility for design, development, integration and testing. These satellites are compatible with the European light launcher, Vega, and will each be fitted with four main instruments:

  • Two optical instruments: one dedicated to the color of the oceans, OLCI (Ocean and Land Color Instrument), and a Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR)
  • Two radar instruments: a Synthetic aperture Radar ALtimeter (SRAL) completed by a MicroWave Radiometer (MWR), used to provide versatile capability of surface topography measurement with primary mission over the oceans but offering also sea ice, ice and in land waters and land capabilities.

Slated for launch as from 2021, the Sentinel-3C and 3D satellites are an integral part of Europe’s vast Earth observation program Copernicus (formerly known as GMES), managed by ESA in partnership with the European Commission. Copernicus aims to ensure European independence in the acquisition and management of our planet’s environmental data, to provide sound support for Europe’s authorities and decision-makers.

Each satellite, Sentinel-3C and 3D, will weigh approximately 1.2 metric tons at launch, and will be positioned in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 815 kilometers.

The main objective of the Sentinel-3 mission is the global observation of oceans and land, including their “color” and temperature, along with a precise measurement of ocean heights. ESA’s Sentinel programs include six families of satellites, each fitted with instruments for their specific missions. Sentinel-3 will ensure continuity with the optical observation data provided by Envisat. Sentinel-3A, scheduled for launch in mid-february 2016, will mark the start of this operational service. Sentinel-3B is now being integrated at Thales Alenia Space’s plant in Cannes, southern France, and is scheduled for launch in mid-2017.

“We are extremely proud of winning this major contract, which confirms Thales Alenia Space’s long-standing expertise in the manufacture of Earth observation satellites and instruments,” said Jean Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “Our selection by ESA also shows that we have the capabilities needed to meet the technological challenges of this program, while making a major contribution to Europe’s environmental protection strategy, today and for years to come.”

Along with Europe’s leading role in this sector, France and Thales Alenia Space, with significant backing from French space agency CNES, play a pivotal role in Earth observation programs. For example, Thales Alenia Space has been in charge of all generations of Meteosat meteorology satellites, the very successful series of Jason climatology/oceanography satellites, the third of which was launched on January 17, 2016, and the family of IASI interferometers, used for atmospheric monitoring.

About Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space ( thalesaleniaspace.com), a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%), is a key European player in space telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, exploration and orbital infrastructures. Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio form the two parent companies’ “Space Alliance”, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Because of its unrivaled expertise in dual (civil/military) missions, constellations, flexible payloads, altimetry, meteorology and high-resolution optical and radar instruments, Thales Alenia Space is the natural partner to countries that want to expand their space program. The company posted consolidated revenues in excess of 2 billion euros in 2014, and has 7,500 employees in eight countries.

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BMT ARGOSS (BMT), a subsidiary of BMT Group, the leading international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has recently completed an assessment of metocean conditions to support Energean’s Prinos and Epsilon oil field developments in the Gulf of Kavala.

Located in the Prinos-Kavala basin, situated northwest of the island of Thassos and some 18 km south of mainland northern Greece, the Prinos oil field is the main structure with Epsilon a satellite field. BMT was tasked with providing a comprehensive report on the local metocean conditions including wind, waves and current.

Ian Wade, Senior Metocean Advisor at BMT ARGOSS explains: “The location presented a number of interesting challenges with regard to quantifying the wave climate in particular. In order to provide an accurate representation of the wave conditions at the Kavala study site, we had to carry out several levels of analysis utilising our Mediterranean wave hindcast, satellite altimetry, as well as wave buoy statistics from a location between the Mount Athos peninsula and the island of Limnos.

This data allowed us to verify the performance of the wave model at that specific location and provide suitable calibrations against satellite altimeter data, without compromising results due to coastal effects. Subsequent wave transforms to the location of interest were then possible, via our spectral wave ray tracing approach.”

With extensive experience of developing, maintaining and operating state-of-the-art numerical metocean models covering local, regional and global conditions, BMT ARGOSS recognises the multiple methods that need to be employed in order to obtain accurate metocean criteria at a given study site.

Ian Wade continues: “Model simulations (hindcasts or forecasts) of metocean conditions have, for many years, been one of the main assets in our arsenal of tools with which to quantify key phenomena. However, all models have their limitations, and it is vitally important that we understand these and correct them or militate against them wherever possible.”

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- The French National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information (IGN) has awarded the Thales-Airbus Defence and Space consortium the GeoMaps contract for the next six years – French armed forces will get high added-value geographical data that will give them the upper hand in missions in theatres of operations

The IGN, acting for the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), the French defence procurement agency, has thus renewed its confidence in this consortium founded more than a decade ago to create TopoBase Défense, which GeoMaps now supersedes. It is one of the main building blocks of the GEODE 4D program – the four-dimensional defence data (geographical, hydrographic, oceanographic and meteorological) – which integrates all the systems required to keep the French armed forces sufficiently informed of the nature and characteristics of the theatre concerned. In the future, the GeoMaps data will be managed by the GEODE 4D program and disseminated to all the defense systems and in all theaters of operations.

The French Military Staff will be capable of generating highly value-added data to meet the challenges that defence forces now face: to recall the latest multi-scale geographical data (from national to urban level) and to keep it highly precise and updated regularly to ensure that the information is accurate. The areas to be produced will be defined according to the respective needs of the armed forces.

The Thales-Airbus Defence and Space consortium will handle the whole process: from analysing what the Military Staff need, through running quality control checks on the products supplied. This also includes managing specifications, defining the production framework (procedures, tools, controls) and is based on a large network of SMEs to ensure that all of the data is consistent and homogeneous.

“We are very proud of the confidence that has been shown in our consortium.. It really recognises our teams’ expertise and the know-how of the French SMEs we rely on. The accuracy of the data we provide is vital if the operations which French armed forces are involved in and the fight against terrorism in particular will succeed,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space.

“Thales is a trusted partner to the military and security industry. With GeoMaps, the consortium stands behind them, with support in theatres of operations, providing them with high added-value data to meet their varying operational constraints and conducting operations with intelligence systems. In an age of asymmetrical conflicts, being able to rely on highly precise geographical data gives them a real technical advantage on the ground,” said Jean-Michel Lagarde, Deputy General Manager, Secure communications and Information Systems.

About Airbus Defence and Space

Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group, is Europe’s number one defence and space enterprise and the second largest space business worldwide. Its activities include space, military aircraft and related systems and services. It employs more than 38,000 people and in 2015 generated revenues of over 13 billion Euros.

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

(Paris, France – March 15, 2016 )Leading UK Experts Join Forces to Develop Unique Solutions for Transport Operators.


CGG GeoConsulting announced that its NPA Satellite Mapping group has been awarded a contract to lead the ‘Live Land’ demonstration project, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the “Integrated Applications Program (IAP)”. The aim of Live Land is to design, develop and demonstrate new and innovative services for assessing geological hazards, their impact on UK transport infrastructure and alert geotechnical asset management teams accordingly. This is achieved through the integration of data from Earth Observation satellites and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

Transport operators across the UK face significant challenges in detecting, monitoring and forecasting landslide and subsidence hazards across their networks. Incidents along or within the vicinity of road and rail corridors resulting from these geohazards can disrupt business and communities, especially in remote locations. As a result, owners and operators of transport infrastructure increasingly need to understand geohazards, to better manage their exposure, mitigate risk and improve their planning and response to incidents when they occur.

The Live Land demonstration project is the follow-on of a previous ESA IAP feasibility study concluded in 2014 and draws on expertise from a team of internationally respected authorities in their respective fields:

  • NPA Satellite Mapping (www.cgg.com/npa)
  • British Geological Survey (www.bgs.ac.uk)
  • Met Office (www.metoffice.gov.uk)
  • Nottingham Scientific Ltd. (www.nsl.eu.com) – GNSS experts

NPA Satellite Mapping is a world-leading satellite mapping consultancy that derives geospatial intelligence from satellite imagery. Its mapping solutions are used around the world by a client base ranging from oil and gas operators to transport asset owners to maximize operational insight and minimize risk. NPA Satellite Mapping has considerable experience in leading geohazard research projects for the European Space Agency and European Commission, and, with its expertise in satellite InSAR (surface deformation) mapping, is optimally placed to coordinate and bring to market the unique monitoring solutions that will be developed within the Live Land project.

During an initial 2.5 year period, the Live Land team will together develop a number of innovative solutions that will address the requirements of two prominent Scottish transport operators, Network Rail (Scotland) and Transport Scotland. These services will range from regional geological hazard susceptibility and activity datasets that exploit satellite InSAR (earth observation) measurements, to hazard forecasting models using geological and meteorological data, and the development of cost-effective, multi-sensor devices (GNSS receiver and inertial sensors) for in-situ monitoring. Applied to high-priority sites across Scotland and parts of England, the services will provide new insights into geohazard potential and activity along and in proximity to rail and road assets. Once successfully demonstrated in Scotland and regions of England, Live Land is expected to expand across the UK and continental Europe as the project team engages with other transport operators who could benefit from the new information that will be available on geohazards.

Claire Roberts, Live Land Project Manager, and Remote Sensing Consultant with NPA Satellite Mapping, said: “Live Land will initially play a crucial role in helping to better understand, monitor and forecast geological hazards across the UK’s road and rail networks. The developments targeted in the project are ambitious but necessary given the scale of the issues we want to address. The project team looks forward to working with Network Rail and Transport Scotland and is grateful for their continued support of the project.”

If you are a transport operator and are interested in discussing this opportunity further, please contact Claire Roberts using the details below.

About CGG:

CGG (www.cgg.com) is a fully integrated Geoscience company providing leading geological, geophysical and reservoir capabilities to its broad base of customers primarily from the global oil and gas industry. Through its three complementary businesses of Equipment, Acquisition and Geology, Geophysics & Reservoir (GGR), CGG brings value across all aspects of natural resource exploration and exploitation.

CGG employs more than 7,000 people around the world, all with a Passion for Geoscience and working together to deliver the best solutions to its customers.

Contacts

NPA Satellite Mapping: Claire Roberts. +44 1732 865023. claire.roberts@cgg.com
Media Relations: Sara Pink-Zerling. +33 1 64 47 38 83. media.relations@cgg.com

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In 2011, eLEAF received funding from the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Hortgro and ESA to start the FruitLook project. The purpose of this project is to provide farmers with an improved knowledge of water and crop management for fruit and wine producing areas of the Western Cape.

Targeting fruit and wine grape growers, FruitLook’s objective is to deliver satellite imagery-based information directly to the farmers responsible for crop management, through an open online portal.

In order to meet their own objectives, FruitLook required an operational service that was reliable in terms of data quality and delivery. The need for cloud free optical data required working with a company being able to make several recordings a week of the area.

The only constellation in the market able to provide high quality data and a regularity of 22m resolution imagery that could meet their needs was the DMC constellation from Airbus Defence and Space.

FruitLook is an open online platform to monitor vineyards and orchards in the Western Cape of South Africa, building on satellite imagery and weather information. FruitLook provides farmers weekly insights in crop production and water use during the growth season.

A better informed farmer makes better decisions in farm resource management, which eventually leads to more efficient water use on their farm. As FruitLook is accessible to almost every fruit and wine grape farmer in the Western Cape it has the potential to improve water use efficiency at an unprecedented scale.

Solution and Results

Since 2011 the DMC Constellation has delivered to FruitLook: imagery on a regular basis data, the possibility to plan new acquisitions to avoid cloud cover, good communication with the operations team, and 22m resolution data to capture in-field variation in productivity.

eLEAF uses 22m data acquired weekly from the DMC Constellation over the 35 week growing period. They then use this data together with other data sources and SEBAL technology (Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land), to produce data components containing information regarding the moisture, growth, and minerals of each crop. These data components are delivered on a weekly basis.

This information can then be seen by the farmers in the FruitLook portal in order to assess the vegetation index (NDVI), biomass production, actual water use (evapotranspiration) and water productivity.

With the correct training and weekly updates, they are able to identify problems with their irrigation systems, improve their disease management and in general make better decisions on block management.

As a result, users reported increase in water use efficiency of 10 to 30% thanks to the efforts of FruitLook and the contributing data providers.

According to Euroconsult’s latest report, Earth Observation: Defense & Security, the number of countries expected to launch proprietary Earth observation (EO) defense capacity is expected to remain limited, despite increases in global tensions. Under exploration by multiple countries are other avenues to receive data capable of image intelligence (IMINT) applications, such as dual-use and commercial approaches.

The manufacturing market value of these 80 EO defense satellites over 2016-2025 will be approximately $20 billion. The manufacturing market for defense satellites is historically closed. However with several countries exploring dual-use/defense options with a limited national satellite manufacturing capability, an export market is emerging. As with the civil domain, technology transfer remains a component, however the focus is on obtaining an autonomous IMINT capability rather than first developing a national manufacturing industry. National pride and the “neighborhood effect” are further factors when taking the decision to invest in a defense EO system.

Defense end-users requirements for IMINT include both submetric SAR and optical data sets with, for most applications, a high revisit. Given that most countries launching defense capacity are only developing one satellite or a constellation, not all requirements for defense will be met. Instead, an autonomous system allows for at least some data collection capability when needed. For instance, France operates optical systems, whereas Germany operates SAR only. Other systems being manufactured for the UAE, Peru etc. may only be one or two satellites. Thus it is essential to further augment data, such as through defense partnerships (either for mutual data share between programs, or wider defense agreements), or via the commercial sector.

Defense is by far the first destination for commercial EO data, totaling more than $1 billion in data sales in 2015, nearly three-quarters of the data being from ≤1m ground resolution systems, such as from DigitalGlobe and Airbus Defence and Space. The U.S. NGA remains the single largest procurer of imagery to support defense applications, however non-U.S. markets remain a key growth driver across the commercial data market as a whole. By 2025 it is expected that commercial defense data sales will top $2 billion (7% CAGR). Asia and Latin America in particular are witnessing a strong uptake in the procurement of commercial data, facilitated by direct access solutions provided by the commercial operators and driven by heightened regional unrest.

As with government solutions, commercial high native geolocation accuracy/submetric systems require sophisticated components and stable platforms which imply higher manufacturing costs. Several emerging lower-cost constellations using smallsat technologies however are being developed with data offerings around 1 meter ground resolution and the ability to price data much cheaper than current commercial offerings. If geolocation accuracy can be improved with post-processing and end users are less stringent on native accuracies, then the data can be suitable, adding competition to the commercial supply scenario.

“Only six countries launched dedicated EO defense capacity over 2006-2015; this number is not expected to differ greatly moving into the next decade,” said Adam Keith, Managing Director of Euroconsult Canada and editor of the report. “Only a few new entrants (such as the UAE) are expected, as the high costs and technical know-how to develop and maintain capacity capable of submetric/high geolocation accuracy imaging is an inhibiting factor.” A further four countries launched dual-use satellites (implying mixed defense & civil: financing & usage), spreading the costs across multiple government departments. Several dual-use systems are expected to be launched over the next decade, such as in Peru, Morocco and Spain; in total, 80 defense/dual-use satellites (discounting U.S. classified programs) are expected to be launched over 2016-2025, a marginal increase over that of the previous decade.”

Source Euroconsult

(Munich, 25/01/16) European Space Imaging (EUSI) released a new case study outlining the success of using satellite imagery to help protect UNESCO World Heritage sites this week. Working together with experts at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) they explain what high-quality satellite data reveals about the situation on the ground at World Heritage sites Hatra and Nimrud in Iran.

2015 saw a growth of intentional destruction of heritage sites in the Middle East. In the light of international media reports in March 2015 that Nimrud was being methodically destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) with bulldozers and explosives, DAI contacted EUSI to request a combination of new and archive imagery so they could assess the reports. With the help of DLR’s Department Geo-Risks and Civil Security in the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) they analysed the imagery to understand the scope of the destruction. The WorldView-2 40cm imagery supplied by European Space Imaging revealed singular details that helped experts to assess the situation. Their findings are part of the case study “VHR Imagery Enables Archaeologists to Safely Assess Heritage Site Destruction” which can be found on European Space Imaging’s website.

“Without the satellite imagery, we would not have been able to confirm when the major destruction took place” stated Margarete Van Ess, Deputy Director of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) Orient Department, Germany.

The German Archaeological Institute are forerunners in using space technology and continue to prove the value of using satellite imagery to help protect cultural heritage. They have used remote sensing since the early 2003 for monitoring activity in hard to reach world heritage sites especially those which are located in conflict zones.

Read the case study

About European Space Imaging
European Space Imaging (EUSI) is the ‘go to’ company in Europe if you are looking for very high-resolution satellite data. They always offer customers access to the highest resolution imagery available. Their current ’best’ offering is 30 cm data from the DigitalGlobe WorldView-3 satellite. EUSI also operate a multi-mission ground station to provide direct satellite tasking. This enables optimized image collection strategies, flexibility and real-time weather assessments for new collections. With a reputation for expert and personalized customer service EUSI has been providing tailored VHR imagery solutions from their Munich headquarters to meet the diverse project requirements of their customer base since 2002.

About German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (DAI), based in Berlin, performs fundamental archaeological research around the world with the goal of deepening the understanding of historical cultures. DAI personnel, once based in Baghdad but relocated to Berlin due to instability, began experimenting with satellite imagery in 2003 to monitor cultural heritage sites in the Middle East for evidence of looting and other damage.

About German Aerospace Centre
The Department Geo-Risks and Civil Security of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) is based in Oberpfaffennhofen near Munich. It is part of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Department has the goal of eveloping thematically relevant information products based on earth observation data, integrating them into IT systems, and operating and continuously optimizing customized user services.

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Last 15-17 March 2016, Planetek Italia participated the Conference on Big Data from Space 2016 (BiDS’16), held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, jointly organized by ESA, EUSC and CCR.

The event gave the opportunity to present Rheticus®, the Planetek cloud-based data and services hub designed to deliver products through complex automatic processes and, if appropriate, a minimum interaction with human beings. One of the main purposes of the system is to enable Planetek Italia to shift from the provision of data to the provision of services, intended as continuous access to information from the users.

At the conference, it was showcased how this system applies the Big Data concepts through the fusion of EO and ancillary data – with a particular attention to INSPIRE data – operated through a Big Data infrastructure that supports the batch processing of a continuously increasing volume of data for the generation of environmental indicators and alerts.

The Rheticus® platform is able to automatically deliver geoinformation services and products to subscribed user in a wide range of application fields, related to land, infrastructures and resources monitoring: wildfires, landislides and displacements, water quality and urban dynamics.

The description of a specific service case – the detection of new artificial areas -, explained in detail in the BiDS’16 paper, gives the opportunity to illustrate the Rheticus® capabilities to generate environmental indicators and alerts through the fusion of EO and ancillary data, and to indicate how the integration of INSPIRE data can add value to the final product, in the context of an operational workflow driven by the Rheticus Big Data infrastructure that supports the batch processing of a continuously increasing volume of data.

The application developed takes advantage from the new generation of Earth Observation data (e.g. Sentinel-1 and Senitnel-2) in combination of data coming from not-EO sources, like INSPIRE data.

A further characteristic of Rheticus® is the ability to act as an interoperable service node offering processing capabilities within a wider Big Data infrastructure. This concept will be demonstrated in the on-going ESA project Coastal Thematic Exploitation Platform (CTEP). CTEP project is addressing the coastal theme in the context of the Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) initiative, whose purpose is to exploit EO big data for the provision of a set of data and tools for thematic communities of users.

The Rheticus webportal has been released at the beginning of April, ready to deliver its first service Rheticus®Displacement.

Rheticus®Displacement is a geoinformation service designed for the monitoring of ground surface movements, aimed at monitoring areas subject to landslides and subsidence, and the stability of infrastructures.

The mapping of the earth’s surface movement speed and acceleration is made through the monitoring of points on the ground with high stability called Persistent Scatterers (PS). The PS is produced through the processing of Sentinel-1 images of the European Copernicus programme or COSMO-SkyMed data.

The PS processing algorithm used is SPINUA produced by GAP Srl, a spin-off of the Politecnico di Bari, and has been certified by the Italian Space Agency.
The service is targeted to: Infrastructures and works managers and builders; Public Administration; Planners & professionals in the territory.

Rheticus®Displacement service with some sample data is available at www.rheticus.eu. Links: