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Play with scales, optimize your budget

The Constellation is now completed, featuring a massive acquisition capacity and collecting smart and fresh archive imagery. See how to get the perfect trade-off between resolution and coverage in every point of your AOI, to deal with the detail depth you need – not more, not less.

Since we all know that no one type of sensor can solve all of the issues you face, whatever you want to identify, map or to track, Airbus Defence and Space can trigger the appropriate satellite or screen a rich, structured archive to provide you with the meaningful and appropriate solution.

With the smartest radar and optical satellite constellation – soon to be completed with the imminent launch of SPOT 7 – Airbus DS provides you what you need and when you need it: wide coverage, fine detail, intensive monitoring, reliable and successful new collections, fresh and extensive archives, premium reactivity.

  • 25 September – Big Picture & Sharp Details: play wiht scales, optimize your budget
  • 2 October – Reliable Tasking: get an image when and where you want it
  • 9 October – Intensive Monitoring: demand the closest surveillance where things change fast

Register now to attend our free Webinar Series giving you full insight on Airbus Defence and Space Constellation’s benefits and applications.

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DEIMOS-2, the first Spanish very-high resolution satellite and the highest-resolution fully private satellite in Europe, was successfully launched last June 19th. It acquires panchromatic and 4-band multispectral images over a 12-km swath, producing pan-sharpened or stereo images with a resolution of 75 cm. It began capturing images just 12 hours after launch, and has acquired more than 400 scenes in its first two weeks of operations. DEIMOS-2 is now fully operational after a successful early orbit phase, and it is undergoing in-orbit commissioning before starting full commercial service in the next few months.

Elecnor Deimos, the technological branch of the Elecnor group, successfully launched DEIMOS-2, Spain’s first very-high resolution satellite, into orbit last June 19th at 21:11 CET from the Yasny launch base in Russia.

DEIMOS-2, with a mass of 300 kg and over 2 meters long, is a very-high resolution multispectral satellite which produces pan-sharpened images with a resolution of 75 cm per pixel. Its advanced imaging camera acquires panchromatic and 4-band multispectral images over a 12-km swath (which can be increased to 24 km in its wide-area mode), with a sustained production capacity in excess of 150,000 km2/day. DEIMOS-2 is also capable of acquiring single-pass stereo pairs, which allows creating 3D models of the imaged area.

DEIMOS-2 is the highest-resolution fully private satellite in Europe, and one of the very few privately-owned submetric satellites in the world.

The satellite is expected to have an operational lifetime in excess of seven years, and will contribute to projects in various applications fields, from agriculture, environment and climate change monitoring, to monitoring of natural crisis and civil protection (fires and floods), as well as defence, intelligence and borders control.
Just after launch the DEIMOS-2 satellite was repeatedly contacted by the three main stations of its Ground Segment Network: Puertollano (Spain), Kiruna (Sweden) and Inuvik (Canada). All subsystems on board have been activated and tested, and DEIMOS-2 has already passed successfully its first calibration and validation phase.

The satellite began capturing images just 12 hours after its launch, and has acquired more than 400 scenes in its first two weeks of operations. The first images acquired include the complex built for 2022 World cup in Qatar capital, Doha, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (US) and the Opera House in Sydney (Australia).

These first published images, even if still lacking in-orbit calibration, show a high level of details and the very good quality that shall be expected from DEIMOS-2 products. More images will be published in the coming weeks, during the commissioning phase, as they become available.


After the successful launch and a by-the-book early orbit phase, DEIMOS-2 is now undergoing its in-orbit commissioning, which will include the orbit maneuvers campaign to reach its nominal operational orbit, and the in-flight absolute calibration of the payload. Elecnor Deimos expects to start full commercial operations in the next few months.

DEIMOS-2, developed by Elecnor Deimos in collaboration with Satrec-I (South Korea), has been integrated in the Puertollano Satellite Integration and Operations Centre (Ciudad Real, Spain), a complex built specifically by Elecnor Deimos for integrating and managing its own and third-party satellites. Equipped with the latest technology, it has engineering areas, a 400+ m2 clean room for satellite integration and testing, a dual S/X-band antenna with a diameter of 10.2 m to communicate with the satellites, and a complete Mission Control Centre.

This project completes Elecnor Deimos’ presence in the entire value chain of space missions. Elecnor Deimos has the demonstrated capability to manage end-to-end space programs: design, integrate, validate, launch and operate Earth observation satellites, distribute their data and develop derived services and applications, and develop full end-to-end missions for customers worldwide.

Elecnor Deimos

Elecnor Deimos is Elecnor’s technological area that specialises in engineering solutions in the aerospace, information systems and telecommunications sectors. Its main business areas are remote sensing, aerospace and defence systems, air and maritime navigation, satellite systems.
www.elecnor-deimos.com

Elecnor

Elecnor develops projects involving infrastructure, renewable energies and new technologies. It has 12,500 employees and operates in over 40 countries.
www.elecnor.com

Over 85 million square kilometers of fresh basemap imagery from Airbus Defense and Space is now available in ArcGIS Online. This announcement follows the signing of an agreement between Airbus Defense and Space and Esri for access to select sets of Airbus Defense and Space imagery.

Through this agreement with Esri, ArcGIS Online users will have access to a near global coverage with Airbus Defense and Space’s SPOTMaps 2.5m, seamless mosaic product, as well as very high resolution 50cm Pléiades imagery products over major cities worldwide. These fresh datasets will be used to enhance the existing Esri ArcGIS Online World Imagery Basemap, one of the foundation datasets available worldwide to all Esri users.

The seamless SPOTMaps 2.5 mosaic provides users with a high-end, seamless basemap over most of the world to be used as a backdrop for many GIS applications. This mosaicked data is enhanced by fresh Pléiades imagery, giving ArcGIS Online users updated information over major cities worldwide. Imagery will also be available, on demand, for deployments through the Esri Data Appliance solution, and more will become available through the end of September 2014.

“With this announcement, ArcGIS users will have easier access to really crisp, high resolution imagery,” said Jack Dangermond, President of Esri. “We’ve added over 85M km2 of Airbus Defense and Space SPOTMaps 2.5m seamless, global and current mid-scale imagery over 164 countries to our cloud basemaps, available through ArcGIS Online”.

“We are excited by this partnership with Esri. Thanks to this agreement, ArcGIS Online users will be able to leverage an extensive access to our high resolution, high-end, and, more importantly, fresh basemap content through the Esri platform,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of the Geo-Intelligence program line of Airbus Defense and Space.

Airbus Defense and Space and Esri will continue to expand their partnership through additional innovative services in order to better serve Esri partners and users worldwide. Stop by the Airbus Defense and Space booth #1215 at Esri UC, in San Diego, July 14-18, 2014 for more information.

Press contact: Fabienne Grazzini: +33 5 62 19 41 19

Airbus Defense and Space and its client GeoNorth have inaugurated the first commercially available multi-satellite Direct Receiving Station (DRS) in the world, set to give a host of new markets quick access to both high-resolution and very high-resolution optical and radar satellite imagery.

The DRS in Fairbanks, Alaska, will give GeoNorth the unparalleled capability of priority tasking the Airbus Defense and Space satellite constellations to capture imagery anywhere on the globe and downlink data to its processing terminal.

It draws on SPOT (5 and 6, and soon 7), Pleiades (1A and 1B), TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites – with resolutions across optical and radar products ranging from 0.25m to 40m.

New customers, including small-scale customers who previously did not have such rapid access to such information, will be able to collect and downlink data in an instant.

The GeoNorth DRS is set to bring in a wider range of clients and contracts for both companies given that GeoNorth is an Alaska Native Corporation – a status that among other benefits gives it procurement preference in the US.

The new DRS will have applications for the North American market, in particular for major business areas in Alaska, including: oil, gas and mining; infrastructure development; fisheries and ice monitoring.

“Airbus Defense and Space welcomes GeoNorth both as a new partner and as the first multi-satellite radar and optical DRS operator,” said Bernhard Brenner, head of the Geo-Intelligence program line at Airbus Defense and Space.

“The more ground terminals like this there are in the world, the better it is for our customers because we can provide them with data more quickly than ever before.”

This new DRS brings the number of stations in the Airbus Defense and Space DRS network, the largest worldwide, to nearly 40. The network allows customers to downlink imagery instantly each time a satellite passes over the stations, thereby ensuring rapid delivery of fresh data and services in near-real time.

In addition, the ability to more frequently download images frees up memory on-board the satellites and as such increases acquisition capacity. Airbus Defense and Space offers the broadest multi-sensor portfolio on the market in terms of resolution and responsiveness – as well as availability in all weather conditions.

“We at GeoNorth are delighted to be able to inaugurate and operate this new Direct Receiving Station,” said Martin Hanofee, of GeoNorth.

“The addition of optical and radar remote sensing capture and processing capabilities complements and expands our existing geospatial technologies expertise. We will continue to service our clients at the highest level while adding services unmatched in today’s industry.”

Source

(3 July 2014) Deimos-2, Spain’s first ultra-high resolution satellite launched into orbit on 19 June, has started capturing its first images just 12 hours after it was brought on line.

Deimos-2, which was launched from the launch site at Yasny (Russia), was developed by Elecnor Deimos in a record time of just three years. The company built an innovative Satellite Integration and Operations Centre in Puertollano (Spain) to assemble and subsequently control Deimos-2. As a result, this project completes Elecnor Deimos’ presence in the entire value chain for space missions. Elecnor Deimos has the capability to manage entire space programs: design, integrate, validate, launch and operate Earth observation satellites; use them for commercial purposes and develop them for third parties.

The first images taken by the satellite are of San Francisco (USA) and of Qatar’s capital city, Doha, showing its avenues and the development that will be built there for the 2022 World Cup. Link

Over the next seven years, Deimos-2 will take shots down to a resolution of 75 cm, and is capable of capturing images of 150,000 Km2/day in the RGB; NIR and panchromatic bands. Images will be taken at the request of customers for use in agriculture, the environment, climate change, crisis control and emergencies, fires and floods, civil protection, defence, intelligence and border control.

About Elecnor Deimos

Elecnor Deimos is Elecnor’s technological area that specialises in engineering solutions in the aerospace, information systems and telecommunications sectors. The company is structured into four business units: Remote Sensing (responsible for operating the Deimos-1 satellite); Aerospace, Defence & Systems; Aeronautics; and Satellite Systems (managing the Puertollano Satellite Integration and Operations Centre and the Deimos-2 project).

About Elecnor

Elecnor develops projects involving infrastructure, renewable energies and new technologies. It has 12,500 employees and operates in over 40 countries.

(source: Elecnor Deimos)

SPOT 6/SPOT 7 constellation in place now, designed for unparalleled high-resolution national coverage

Airbus Defence and Space has published the first images obtained from the SPOT 7 satellite, a mere three days after its launch on 30 June. Over the last few hours, the entire chain – from satellite programming and image acquisition to telemetry reception and processing – was successfully put into operation to deliver these first spectacular images. These images show highly diverse landscapes, revealing SPOT 7’s full potential in terms of natural resource and urban zone mapping and agri-environmental monitoring.

The SPOT 6/7 constellation is now in place and considerably improves the capabilities and performance offered by SPOT 5, which has been in operation since 2002 and which is scheduled to be decommissioned from commercial service during the first quarter of 2015. This new constellation offers a higher resolution, greater programming reactivity and a much higher volume of images acquired daily (in monoscopic or stereoscopic mode).

SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 mark the dawning of a new era for the SPOT family in forming a constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites phased at 180° in the same orbit. This means that each point on the globe can be revisited on a daily basis and wide areas covered in record time, all with an unparalleled level of precision. With both satellites in orbit, acquisition capacity will be boosted to six million square kilometres per day – an area ten times the size of France.

With the very-high-resolution twin satellites Pléiades 1A and 1B, SPOT 6 and now SPOT 7, Airbus Defence and Space’s optical satellite constellation will offer the company’s customers a high level of detail across wide areas, a highly reactive image programming service and unique surveillance and monitoring capabilities.

The first SPOT 7 images can be downloaded via FTP: ftp.astrium-geo.com/SPOT7
For more information on SPOT 7: www.geo-airbusds.com/

(2014-06-05) Metria just finalised a project on Earth Observation (EO) for Ecosystem valuation. In four different trials in Asia and South America EO data was used for mapping in three terrestrial and one marine trial.

The EO derived maps was used for Ecosystem services valuation using the GIS-tool INVEST. The project was funded by the European Space Agency and performed in co-operation with GeoVille GmbH, GeoVille Environmental Services and Argans Ltd. More information is found in the recent newsletter. One example from Lombok in Indonesia reveals the benefits using EO data

Water falling on land is filtered by vegetation, soil and to some extent bedrock. Purification of water is one of the most important and basic ecosystem services. Pure water is a prerequisite for human well-being as drinking water, source of irrigation and for healthy aquatic environments. The aquatic environments provide services such as recreation and populations of edible fish and other aquatic organisms. Clean water, in lakes ponds and rivers, is important for game populations. Clean water availability is one of the most important factors for primary production. Water filtration hence provides the base for a cascade of ecosystem services at landscape and global level.

EO derived data is important to estimate the ecosystem services delivered, serving as key information to support policies on nutrient retention. In order to assess the nutrient retention potential on Lombok the land cover classification, a digital elevation model and metrological data on rainfall and soil characteristics was used as input to the Invest water yield and nutrient retention model. The results are calculated per watershed.

The figure displays one of the outputs, a phosphorous (P) retention map, where green areas have low retention and orange areas a high. The retention is closely connected to the nutrient load on the land but to a large extent dependent on the vegetation close to the water courses. The results show how EO data can be used to monitor different scenarios in land use changes and its impact on phosphorous retentions.

Questions?
For more information contact Tobias Edman , tel +46 10 121 85 04.
Source

(June 2014) Flood mapping using SAR-imagery has been demonstrated previously, using various techniques. The recently launched European radar satellite Sentinel-1 has the ability of facilitating future operational flood mapping based on fully automated processing.

Kongsberg satellite Services (KSAT) has in cooperation with the partners Norwegian Computing Center (NR) and Norwegian Space Centre developed a prototype product for operational flood extent mapping based on automatic detection that has been demonstrated for the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).


KSAT product processed by Norwegian Computing Center based on Radarsat (2014)-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD., – All Rights Reserved and RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency (2014).
The image: Floods in Troms – Image by Radarsat-2 – June 07, 2014 05:19 UTC. Image: NR, KSAT, NRS, MDA.
Areas affected by flooding are colored in dark red

KSAT’s Project Manager Hans Eilif Larsen says that in the future there will be regular and frequent monitoring of Norway from radar satellites by Sentinel-1 and other SAR missions. Potentially flooded areas may be reported and monitored operationally, not only as demonstrations, already from next flooding season.
bq. We try to show that it is possible, says Larsen.

The use of radar satellite data provides the ability to cover larger areas than by aircrafts and UAVs as today, and also provides authorities and other stakeholders with an overview of flood affected areas even though it could be bad flying weather, which is often the case with flood events caused by heavy rain, says Larsen.

KSAT product processed by Norwegian Computing Center based on Radarsat-2 Data and Products © MacDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD., – All Rights Reserved and RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency (2014).
The image: Flood at Lake Øyeren. Image by Radarsat-2 – May 27 2014. Image: NR, KSAT, NRS, MDA.
Areas affected by flooding are colored in dark red.

The current flood warning system is based on models. These can only estimate how floods turn out. Larsen says that satellite monitoring will provide an instant observation, not a calculated estimate of how flood evolves.
The first example of how this can be applied was demonstrated through radar images of the flooding taking place in Norway recently.

This first demonstration shows how an operationalised service can be used in flood mapping, says senior adviser Dag Anders Moldestad at the Norwegian Space Centre.

Moldestad says that through the major European Earth Observation program Copernicus Norway will have frequent access to radar images when the satellite Sentinel-1 enters the operational phase at the end of the summer.

Source

(June 2014) Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) to directly receive new satellite mission radar data starting in late 2014

Airbus Defence and Space and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) have signed a multi-million-euro agreement for the delivery and installation of a Direct Receiving Station (DRS) for TerraSAR-X and its twin satellite TanDEM-X in Norway.

Through data reception at KSAT’s premises in Svalbard and processing in Tromsø, this system – scheduled to be operational by the end of 2014 – will support a globally unique near real-time capability that will in particular significantly enhance maritime monitoring services.

“This agreement will strengthen our position as an independent, near real-time multi-mission service provider in the global market,” said Jan Petter Pedersen, Vice President of KSAT. “This high-quality radar data is particularly valuable for our global oil spill and vessel detection services and for Arctic services, where updated and reliable information about ice and ice conditions is the key.”

Airbus Defence and Space will equip KSAT with one of the first of its multi-mission DRSs, so that the station can receive and process data from Airbus Defence and Space’s satellite constellation, which includes the Pléiades twins, SPOT 6 and the upcoming SPOT 7, as well as PAZ (owned and to be operated by Hisdesat).

“While KSAT has chosen to receive TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X data only at this point, Airbus Defence and Space’s highly flexible and cost-efficient multi-mission DRS gives the company the option to extend its reception services. The agreement includes the option to draw on the future radar satellite PAZ, scheduled to enter into operation in 2015,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of Airbus Defence and Space’s Geo-Intelligence programme line.

Access to this northernmost receiving station will provide Airbus Defence and Space customers with improved near real-time services particularly valuable for regular monitoring applications. In parallel, KSAT will now be able to widely distribute TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X SAR data to develop new and enhanced services on a global basis.

Among the many applications of the weather-independent TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X SAR satellites – owned by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and commercially exploited by Airbus Defence and Space – are maritime monitoring services like oil spill or vessel detection. They also support near real-time requirements for maritime safety during winter, given that X-band imagery enables precise detection, measurement and tracking of ice flows on a daily basis, including the prediction of future movements.

KSAT operates a ground station network consisting of the headquarter and the station in Tromsø, the high latitude stations at Svalbard and in Antarctica, and the four new mid-latitude stations in South-Africa, Dubai, Mauritius and Singapore. Combining the ground network capabilities and the near real-time value added services differentiates KSAT from other providers.

With this new DRS, Airbus Defence and Space extends its receiving station network of some 40 DRS worldwide – confirming its status as the largest in the world today.

About KSAT

KSAT is a commercial Norwegian enterprise, providing satellite services for;

  • Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C)
  • Global data dump

*Near real-time Earth Observation

The ground segment includes The Tromsø Station, Svalbard Satellite Station, TrollSat in Antarctica, The Grimstad Site in Southern Norway, and the new set of mid-latitude stations in Dubai, Singapore Mauritius and South-Africa. The turnover in 2013 was around 57 M euro and the company now has 130 employees. KSAT downloads data from more than 80 Earth Observation satellites per day. KSAT delivers near real-time satellite data and derived services, such as near real-time oil spill and ship detection, and develops new services tailored to user requirements. Satellite radar data is the main source for the EO services, and includes missions like Radarsat, Cosmo-Skymed and the new ones inlcuding TerraSAR/TandemX and RISAT. KSAT is also a prime operator of the ESA Sentinel Core Ground Segment, as well as for a national collaborative ground segment.

Contacts:
Jan-Petter Pedersen, +47 776 00 260
Marte Indregaard, +47 776 00 278

Kongsberg Spacetec is now offering its solution for Sentinel-1 (S-1) Collaborative Ground Segment (CGS) reception and processing system aimed to support national users in countries able to receive data for SENTINEL-1.

The system will do data reception at the ground station and process the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to level 0, level 1 and level 2.

The solution is based on Kongsberg Spacetecs integrated SAR processing system, which supports both the official ESA IPF solution together with an internally developed processing framework aimed to meet real-time requirements for user services.

Source