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The blight of illegal timber removal from fragile rainforests could be alleviated by a “CCTV in the sky” being developed by Scottish-based, internationally-operating space services and management company Astrosat.

The blight of illegal timber removal from fragile rainforests could be alleviated by a “CCTV in the sky” being developed by Scottish-based, internationally-operating space services and management company Astrosat.

The Edinburgh-based company, which specialises in innovative space technology, is working on a UK Space Agency project to stop deforestation of vast tracts of land in Guatemala in Central America, particularly where the country borders Mexico.

Forests, of which nearly 40% are primary forests, cover one third of Guatemala’s land area. The annual rate of deforestation was 1% for the period 2010-15 and illegal logging is a widespread problem in the country.

Astrosat specialises in earth observation, using earth-viewing instruments, and it has teamed up with UK and US-based company Earth Observation Ltd to monitor forests and detect illegal activity. This will allow law enforcement agencies to take action against offenders.

Steve Lee, Astrosat CEO and founder, said: “What we are working on here is could be described as a CCTV system which operates from space. With the data and information we can garner, we can help countries and communities which are at the mercy of unscrupulous operators.

“This, in effect, brings space – and space companies and organisations – into the Fair Trade arena, by helping local farmers and villagers to manage sustainable timber reserves. Illegal logging not only undercuts markets, but has a devastating effect on vital ecosystems.”

Astrosat’s technology will help the Guatemalan government agencies to monitor large forested areas such as the rich and diverse Reserva de Biosfera Maya and a series of important national parks along the border.

Working with Earth Observation, it will monitor areas of jurisdiction and particular types of trees to ensure that only permitted timber felling is allowed, creating a legal market for sustainably-managed forestry products.

In the worst cases, such as clear-cutting, illegal logging destroys entire areas of forest habitat, with the consequent loss of important species, damage to the ecosystem and loss of fresh water sources on which local communities rely.

Steve Lee said: “Data and information from space sources is increasingly important in allowing countries which do not have significant satellite resources to implement action programmes on issues such as this which directly affect the lives of their citizens.”

Multi-award winning Astrosat employs 24 people and has a growing turnover in excess of £1.6 million.

For further information, visit www.astrosat.biz or contact us on info@astrosat.biz.

Copernicus is the European Union programme for Earth observation and monitoring. It provides users with reliable and up-to-date information through a set of services related to environmental and security issues. It consists of a complex system which collects data from multiple sources: earth observation satellites and in situ sensors. All data and information are provided through a free, full and open data policy.

Copernicus is a user driven programme, which means that the users are at the centre of the programme’s design and implementation and that Copernicus must evolve continuously to make sure that it addresses its users’ needs.

If you are, or are interested in becoming a user of Copernicus data or service information, we sincerely would appreciate your time and effort in completing this “call for interest” survey. The results will be used to identify existing users and potential users who are willing to participate in one way or another to the collection and analysis of Copernicus user needs.

This call for interest survey and the gathering of user needs will be the first building block of a process aimed at defining the high level requirements for the next generation of Copernicus Space Component. It is thus a unique opportunity to contribute to the creation of a “fil rouge” between this Space Component and the users.

This survey will take about 15 minutes of your time

Survey

(November 10, 2015) Spacemetric has delivered a Keystone System for the KazSTSat mission being developed jointly by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and Ghalam LLC of Kazakhstan. The new mission uses the new SSTL-X50 platform and builds upon heritage from the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). It includes an updated wide-swath instrument with six spectral bands and a resolution of 17.5 metres, along with several experimental payloads.

The SSTL SLIM6 sensor has been modified for the KazSTSat mission to specifications defined by DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii), the commercial distributor of imagery from the DMC satellites. This medium-resolution imager now provides Coastal Blue, Blue and Red-Edge channels in addition to the Red, Green and Near Infra-Red channels of the previous DMC missions. Spacemetric is responsible for physical sensor modelling of the new instrument and has incorporated this capability into the Keystone software. After launch, the sensor parameters will be refined through an in-orbit calibration

“This is a second mission for Kazakhstan that uses our Keystone software and we are thrilled to again be helping SSTL’s customers achieve their ambitions in Earth observation” commented Mikael Stern, Spacemetric’s CEO. Previously Spacemetric has delivered a ground processing and archive system for the KazEOSat-2 mission, a satellite based closely on RapidEye and developed for Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary (KGS). Keystone operator training took place at KGS early in October 2015.

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(Nov 2015) First results of the “Earth Observation in support of the City Biodiversity Index” project presented at the MUAS Conference at Frascati, Italy

On 4 & 5 November 2015 Stefan Kleeschulte presented first results of the ESA Innovator project “Earth Observation in support of the City Biodiversity Index (EO4CBI) at the Mapping Urban Areas from Space Conference. The conference brought together scientists and users to present first-hand and up-to-date results of on-going research and space application development related to urban areas.

Presentation held at the MUAS conference at Rome (Italy) on 4-5 November 2015 (approx. 2MB)

(Jan 2016) The results of the EAGLE working group are now publicly available from the Copernicus land monitoring web site

The EAGLE working group is an open assembly of technical experts from different National Reference Centres (NRCs) on land cover. Its objective is the elaboration of a future-oriented conceptual solution that would support a European information capacity for land monitoring built on existing or future national data sources. The results of a framework contract coordinated by space4environment is available from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Services website

The SERTIT platform of the ICube laboratory received on November 27, 2015 at the 10th National Congress Aprovalbois in Dijon, the 1st prize Innovation Awards in the forest industry in the Innovation category based media marketing, ICT, strategy, marketing and services.

This event aims to reward companies in the north of France developing a product, a service, an organization or an innovative process in the forest industry.

SERTIT is congratulated for its project on the development of a forest inventory method using satellite images to map the chestnut in Alsace.

Press release

(November 2015) The conference offered an opportunity for Member State Administrations, EU officials, Image Providers and contractors to meet and discuss particular problems or innovations concerning the whole management of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) direct aids, such as controls with Remote Sensing (CwRS), Land Parcel Identification Systems (LPIS) management and quality assessment, permanent Ecological Focus Area (EFA) creation and management, and GNSS technologies in support of CAP.

The conference was held in hotel “Macedonia Palace”, attended by representatives of the JRC, MARS-unit, DG AGRI, and eGeos, European Space Imaging, representatives of OPEKEPE (GR), NEO BV (NL), RP Wales (UK), Abaco (IT), AVEPA (IT), Danish Agrifish Agency (DK), MoA (IE); Bulgarian side representatives of MAF and the Agency for Agro-Environmental Payments.

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Euronews channel: Planetek is the kind of hi-tech company wich is investing and taking benefits from the European programme Copernicus.

“Copernicus: down-to-Earth opportunities for SMEs reaching for the stars”, is the new European success story described by Euronews channel’s program ‘Business Planet’. In this issue, Anne Glémarec explored the opportunities of the European programme Copernicus and the Geospatial industry, interviewing Massimo Antoninetti, of the Italian Research Council (CNR), and Giovanni Sylos Labini, CEO of Planetek Italia.

Some 58% of the global space economy relies on satellite Earth observation data This data is available on an open basis in the EU thanks to the Copernicus Programme, as Massimo Antoninetti, of the Italian Research Council explains: “By analysing the potential impact of the Copernicus programme on the European economy, we can forecast a financial benefit of 30 billions euro and the creation of at least 50,000 jobs by 2030“, “Citizens, researchers, entrepreneurs and public authorities; this information is open to everyone. It can be useful to many business sectors, such as the oil industry, insurance and transport”.

The launch of the Copernicus Programme last year boosted the Planetek’s ambitions.

“Copernicus is very important for us because it produces more environmental data to transform into more environmental information for our customers, “ says Giovanni Sylos Labini, CEO of Planetek Italia. The open and free access to Copernicus data is guaranteed until 2034, which allows Planetek to have a long-term growth strategy. The impact promises to be spectacular. “Thanks to Copernicus, in the next 10 years Planetek Italia will be 5 to 10 times bigger than now. Today we employ 50 people, and we will employ 250 to 500 tomorrow“ adds Giovanni Sylos Labini. Planetek Italia is part of what is commonly called “the downstream industries” of space economy, which should harvest most of the economic benefit of the Copernicus programme.

Watch the Video on EURONEWS

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(13 Jan2016) © Pixalytics. The Jason-3 oceanographic satellite is planned to launch on Sunday 17th January from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, aboard the Space-X Falcon 9 rocket. Named after the Greek hero Jason, of the Argonauts fame, Jason-3 is actually the fourth in a series of joint US-European missions to measure ocean surface height.

The series began with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite launched in 1992, followed by Jason-1 and Jason-2 which were launched in 2001 and 2008 respectively.

Jason-3 should provide a global map of sea surface height every ten days, which will be invaluable to scientists investigating circulation patterns and climate change.

The primary instrument is the Poseidon-3B radar altimeter, which will measure the time it takes an emitted radar pulse to bounce off the ocean’s surface and return to the satellite’s sensor. Pulses will be emitted at two frequencies: 13.6 GHz in the Ku band and 5.3 GHz in the C band. These bands are used in combination due to atmospheric sensitivity, as the difference between the two frequencies helps to provide estimates of the ionospheric delay caused by the charged particles in the upper atmosphere that can time delay the return.

Once the satellite has received the signal reflected back, it will be able to use its other internal location focussed instruments to provide a highly accurate measurement of sea surface height. Initially the satellite will be able to determine heights to within 3.3cm, although the long-term goal is to reduce this accuracy down to 2.5cm. In addition, the strength and shape of the return signal also allows the determination of wave height and wind speed which are used in ocean models to calculate the speed and direction of ocean currents together the amount and location of heat stored in the ocean.

In addition, Jason-3 carries an Advanced Microwave radiometer (AMR) which measures altimeter signal path delay due to tropospheric water vapour.

The three location focused instruments aboard Jason-3 are:

  • DORIS (Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite) – Uses a ground network of 60 orbitography beacons around the globe to derive the satellite’s speed and therefore allowing it’s precise position in orbit to be determined to within three centimetres.
  • Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) – An array of mirrors that provide a target for laser tracking measurements from the ground. By analysing the round-trip time of the laser beam, the satellite’s location can be determined.
  • Global Positioning System – Using triangulation from three GPS satellites the satellites exact position can be determined.

The importance of extending the twenty-year time series of sea surface measurements cannot be underestimated, given the huge influence the ocean has on our atmosphere, weather and climate change. For example, increasing our knowledge of the variations in ocean temperature in the Pacific Ocean that result in the El Niño effect – which have caused coral bleaching, droughts, wet weather and movements in the jet stream in 2015, and are expected to continue into this year – will be hugely beneficial.

This type of understanding is what Jason-3 is setting sail to discover.

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NOVELTIS contributes to promoting Sustainable Energy Access in West Africa

NOVELTIS, in partnership with ECREEE (ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency), participates in the project to improve the ECOWREX observatory (www.ecowrex.org/mapView).

This platform is based on a geographic information system (GIS) which aims at providing up-to-date information and statistics on renewables energy resources in the ECOWAS region.

For more information see the following link.