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The Remote Sensing Days conference (Fjärranalysdagarna) is taking place at the Solna Summit venue in Solna, Sweden, on 9th and 10th April 2013.

The Remote Sensing Days conference (Fjärranalysdagarna) is taking place at the Solna Summit venue in Solna, Sweden, on 9th and 10th April 2013. Spacemetric has been invited to make a presentation on the data repository, processing and dissemination solution the company is developing for the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, launched on 11th February from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Remote Sensing Days conference is being co-arranged by the Swedish National Space Board the Swedish cadastre, mapping & registry authority, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, the Swedish Forest Agency, Swedish Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

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A multi-annual partnership agreement has been signed by France-based reinsurance company CCR (Caisse Centrale de Réassurance) and SERTIT, the regional image processing and remote sensing department at the University of Strasbourg, with the aim of speeding up natural disaster impact assessments. SERTIT receives support from the French Space Agency, CNES, for the development of satellite-based imaging applications.

For many years, CCR has been developing models that simulate natural hazards (including floods, earthquakes, cyclones and droughts) in order to assess the cost of such events within a few days of their occurrence, both for its own purposes and for the French State (its shareholder) and its clientele of insurance companies.

As France is now equipped with new, highly responsive Pléiades satellites, which offer unprecedented capabilities (supplying images with a resolution of 70 cm), this new partnership will enable CCR to benefit from the SERTIT’s internationally renowned expertise. In the event of a major catastrophe, SERTIT will provide CCR with mapping data covering the affected area. CCR will then use that data to adjust its models and refine its estimate of the cost of the event.

For SERTIT and CNES, putting this new satellite imaging technology to this practical use is an ideal way of proving how useful it can be in post-event situations and of promoting the development of applications meeting the needs of civil society. CCR is able to access data from Pléiades via a delegated public service organisation set up by CNES.

This partnership combining expertise in the fields of space, science and reinsurance is driven by the desire to improve our knowledge of natural catastrophes in order to mitigate their consequences.

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He will combine this new position with his current post, held since 2005, as SENER’S Director of Space

Madrid, April 3, 2013 – The engineering and technology group SENER has appointed Diego Rodríguez as new Director of Defense, a department that is part of the Aerospace Strategic Business Unit. Diego Rodríguez will coordinate this new responsibility with his work as Director of the Space Department, a position he has held since 2005.

In his new role, Rodríguez will have as main objectives, on the one hand, identifying potential synergies between both departments, through cross-work coordination in the development of products and own technologies, and on the other, enhancing SENER’s globalization in the Aerospace sector by seizing new business opportunities in the international markets.

Diego Rodríguez joined SENER in 1987. In these 26 years, he has spent his entire career working in the fields of Aerospace and Defense engineering. He began working in the company as a Design Engineer in the Electronics and Control section, carrying out later tasks as a Systems Engineer. Since 1995, Rodríguez has held Project Management responsibilities in European Space Agency (ESA) and Defense programs. In 2005, he was appointed Director of the Space Department, a post he will now coordinate with his new position as Director of the Defense Department.

Diego Rodríguez is an Advanced Telecommunications Engineer, graduated from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has completed the General Management Program PDG at IESE business school. He is member of the Board of the Space Commission of the Spanish Association for Defense, Aeronautics and Space Technologies (TEDAE), being also a board member at the company HISDESAT.

SENER group has a workforce of more than 5,000 professionals, with offices on four continents and a turnover of 1,160 million euros (2011 figures).

About SENER

SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956, which strives to offer its clients state-of-the-art technological solutions and which enjoys international recognition thanks to its independence and its commitment to innovation and quality. SENER has a workforce of more than 5,000 professionals and a turnover of 1,160 million Euros (2011 figures).

SENER engages in the specific activities of Engineering and Construction, and also holds industrial company shares in firms involved in the field of Energy and Environment, as well as in Aerospace technology. The Engineering and Construction Division, SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas, S.A. has become one of the largest engineering companies in Spain, with a turnover of more than 653 million Euros (2011 figures), employing some 2,200 workers and having offices in Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, South Corea, United Arab Emirates, Spain, United States, Japan, Mexico, Poland and Portugal.

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ScanEX news from March/April

Satellite imagery data is applied on a regular basis to study and protect the population of animals, biodiversity of any given region, to assess the level of rational nature use, etc. Special attention of the participants of the 6th International Conference “Earth from Space — the Most Effective Solutions” will be drawn to this particular topic.

(Tuesday, 02 April 2013) The Earth from Space –the Most Effective Solutions magazine is the media partner of the joint AfricaGIS 2013 Conference and the GSDI 14 World Conference. According to the conference organizers, “we are now six weeks away from the deadline for abstracts and/or papers for the GSDI World Conference (GSDI 14) and AfricaGIS 2013. This combined conference is being held at the UN Economic Commission for Africa Conference Center in Addis Ababa from November 4-8, 2013”.

ScanEx Center has developed and put into operation a new information service “KosmoInspector” intended for operational satellite-based monitoring of economic activities at remote areas and enterprises. In 2011-2013 the “KosmoInspector” service was tested when carrying out control of illegal economic activities projects, illegal domestic wastes dumps, monitoring of forest logging, emergency response, and houses construction dynamics, etc.

On March 27 the meeting of the “University geoportals (UNIGEO)” Consortium participants took place in Moscow at the Geography Department of the Lomonosov’s MSU. Representatives from 23 higher education institutions out of 27 institutions-members of the Consortium attended the meeting.

On March 26 the nuclear-powered ice-breaker “Taimyr” of the FSUE “Atomflot” successfully completed the escorting the cargo-vessel “Yuri Arshenevsky” brining construction loads to the transpolar Sabetta port on the Yamal peninsula (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area). Space images served as the source of updated information about ice situation along the route of the caravan, navigating through the Kara Sea and Gulf of Ob.

The “Earth from Space –the Most Effective Solutions” magazine is now the information partner of the joint AfricaGIS 2013 Conference and the GSDI 14 World Conference, that will take place at the UN Economic Commission for Africa Conference Center in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia on November 4 – 8, 2013. The joint conference is dedicated to Space Technologies in Support of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction.

Registration to the 6th International Conference “Earth from Space — the Most Effective Solutions” is ongoing. Conference participants will speak about innovations in Earth remote sensing, will share experience in space images applications, including agricultural solutions and effective land management.

More information at

SSBV Aerospace & Technology Group (SSBV) and zero2infinity today announced the signing of an agreement regarding the use of SSBV’s ACRIDS airdrop & vehicle recovery technology for the guided recovery of the bloon Near-Space vehicle.

The bloon vehicle, developed by zero2infinty, represents a family of low-cost high-altitude vehicles that will allow amateur Space explorers to experience Near-Space conditions. The bloon vehicles use helium balloons for their lift-off and flight and will be able to carry up to 6 people in a pressurized pod. After a drift of a few hours at a nominal altitude of 36 km, the vehicles return to the ground by means of parachutes. In addition to “Near Space Tourism” flights, bloon vehicles can be used for cost effective scientific missions.

SSBV’s Aerial Cargo Rider System (ACRIDS) system is able to autonomously control a steerable parachute and perform an automatic landing at a pre-designated point on the ground. This is done through an Autonomous Guidance Unit (AGU) that contains an on-board computer that continuously monitors the present location (by means of satellite navigation signals), altitude, wind and predicted flight-path. Through built-in actuators, the AGU is able to steer the parachute and perform a high-precision landing (50-100 m accuracy) at one or more pre-designated landing points.

The agreement establishes a longer-term co-operation between the companies, starting with a number of test and demonstration flights and the final aim of integrating the ACRIDS guided parachute technology in the bloon vehicles.

About zero2infinity

zero2infinity, a Spanish private company, is developing a family of low-cost high-altitude vehicles for amateur Space explorers to experience Near-Space conditions.

In 2012 the company performed a successful flight up to an altitude of 32 km with a 300 kg unmanned scaled model of the vehicle. In this test flight, the recovery of the vehicle was performed with a ballistic round parachute. However, the objective for the future flights is to make use of the ACRIDS guided recovery system.

About SSBV Aerospace & Technology Group (SSBV)
SSBV is a Dutch-headed, group of technology driven SMEs, active in the domains of (aero)Space, Defence & Security, Remote Sensing & Monitoring and the development of High-Tech Systems.

SSBV develops and manufactures the ACRIDS airdrop system in the Defence & Security, as well as Aerospace markets. The ACRIDS airdrop technology can be used for standalone precision airdrop systems as well as air-vehicle recovery systems to increase the safety and accuracy of nominal, tactical or emergency landings.

For more information please visit the respective company websites www.ssbv.com and www.inbloon.com
Download the full English press-release in PDF

(March 3) Regular working meeting of the EUFODOS project, 7th FP for Research and Technological Development of the EC, was held in the office of ReSAC.

On 21st and 22nd of March 2013 a working meeting on the project EUFODOS funded by the 7th FP for Research and Technological Development of European Commission was held. The main goal of the project is to develop specific downstream forest services related to forest damage assessment and mapping of forest structural parameters. The meeting was hosted by ReSAC and it was held in its administrative office.

The project EUFODOS is a collaborative project (with duration 3 years January 2011 – December 2013) coordinated by the JOANEUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE – Austria. ReSAC develops services that will be provided to Executive Forest Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The services are related to preparation and updating of GIS databases for the forest cover and forest cover changes, forest infrastructure as well as rapid mapping for disaster management. The project consortium includes several European organizations including research centers, institutes and private companies active in R&D and Earth observation: VTT (Finland), GAF (Germany), University of Freiberg (Germany), EURAC (Italy), RapidEye (Germany), ReSAC (Bulgaria), EAA (Austria).

On 21st of March for the end user organizations in the forest sector from Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Poland and Italy field trip was organized to biosphere reserve “Bistrishko Branishte”, Vitosha Mountain. During the field work the expert from Executive Forest Agency and the Directorate of Vitosha Nature Park introduced foreign experts with the activities carried out in the region in fighting forest fire and infestation of bark beetles in the park.

The meeting continued in the Game Administration “Vitosha – Studena” – where the participants exchanged experience in the management of forest area and forest disaster management. On the meeting, together with the above mentioned organisations representatives from Game Administration “Vitosha – Studena” and Southwest state enterprise of Ministry of Agriculture and Food took part.

At the same time the project consortium held technical meeting with a discussion of administrative issues.

On the 22nd of March the meeting continued with participation of consortium partners and end users of the project. Each of the project partners presented the state of forest management services in which they participate. In the frame of the project the RUSH Mode and NON-RUSH Mode services are ready. The RUSH Mode provides a quick product in a few days after a natural disaster and gives information about forest damages, while the second type of services generates products with more detailed assessment of the damages types.

The next EUFODOS meeting will be held on October 2013, Copenhagen in the office of the European Environment Agency. On this meeting, the portfolio of services that the consortium is ready to execute when certain natural disaster occurs in forest area on the territory of European Union will be presented.

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(Berlin, Germany, March 14, 2013) RapidEye, a leader in high-resolution, wide area repetitive coverage of earth through its constellation of five satellites, announced today that the African Malaria Control Project, MALAREO, which incorporates RapidEye data, has come to a close and results are now available on the project’s website.

MALAREO, which began just over two years ago, was funded by the European Commission under FP7 and run by a mixed European-African consortium, which incorporated years of experience in malaria control, with the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Earth Observation expertise.

Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH (RSS) near Munich was responsible for data processing and the development of EO products for the project, which explored the spatial variability of malaria-relevant environmental factors at local level and supported the work of the National Malaria Control Programs in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. The MALAREO study area, about 43,000 square kilometers, was imaged by the RapidEye satellite constellation, and data was provided via the EC/ESA GMES Space Component Data Access (GSC-DA).

After completion of the project in January, a final meeting with end-users from the Southern African National Malaria Control programs and the MALAREO project team took place in Durban, South Africa, where the products derived from the RapidEye imagery were presented. The end-users emphasized the benefit of these products and the resulting Map Atlas for malaria control, as it greatly improves planning of malaria control measures. It also complements the approach of linking environmental and epidemiological data, which is a first step towards an early warning system for malaria.

The MALAREO Map Atlas, summarizing the EO-based mapping approaches and additional information about the project can be found at the project website.

About RapidEye

RapidEye is a leading provider of quality high-resolution satellite imagery. With a constellation of five Earth Observation satellites, RapidEye is able to image up to five million square kilometers of earth every day, and adds over one billion square kilometers of imagery to its archive every year. Online searching and viewing of its massive collection of imagery is quick and easy with EyeFind (eyefind.rapideye.com), RapidEye’s archive discovery tool. With an unprecedented combination of wide area repetitive coverage and five meter pixel size multi-spectral imagery, RapidEye is a natural choice for many industries and government agencies. RapidEye: Delivering the World. http://www.rapideye.com.

Contact
RapidEye AG
Kurfürstendamm 22, 10719 Berlin, Germany
marketing@rapideye.com
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rapideye_global
MALAREO / RSS Contact
Dr. Jonas Franke, Project Manager
RSS- Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH
Isarstraße 3, 82065 Baierbrunn, Germany
franke@rssghbh.de // (49) 089 48 95 47 66

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…News on releases, Historical Airphoto Processing, Supports SPOT-6 Sensor or GeoEye-1 DEM Generation for Mining …

PCI Geomatics Releases GXL 2013

RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, Canada—March 26, 2013: PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today the release of its GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) 2013 – the latest version of the company’s proven, high-performance, and scalable image processing solution.

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PCI Introduces Historical Airphoto Processing (HAP) Workflow

RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, Canada—March 21, 2013: PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today that it has introduced the Historical Airphoto Processing Workflow, also known as HAP.

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PCI Geomatics Software Supports SPOT-6 Sensor

RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, Canada—March 14, 2013: PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today that it now supports SPOT-6 imagery within its software suite.

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GeoEye-1 DEM Generation for Mining – Whitepaper

White Paper: Automatic DEM Generation using GeoEye-1 Stereo Data In Mining Applications. This article describes how high resolution satellite data can be used to extract accurate digital elevation model (DEM) for a mining application in the Amazon region. The resulting vertical accuracy can be within RMS error of 1.5m when using a minimum number of ground control points.

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KSAT has recently finalized a contract to monitor vessel traffic in the waters around Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.

Using multiple sensors from a variety of satellite missions (including synthetic aperture radar [SAR], electro-optical imagery, and satellite AIS data streams) KSAT will acquire, analyze and distribute information in order to evaluate the existence and extent of illegal fishing in the area.

The effort is part of the PEW Global Ocean Legacy project, which aims to establish a worldwide system of very large, highly protected marine reserves where fishing and other extractive activities are prohibited and which has been pivotal in the designation of some of the world’s largest ocean reserves.

KSAT and PEW are excited about this pioneering effort to bring cutting-edge technology to combat the overexploitation of the world’s oceans by sophisticated International fishing fleets penetrating progressively more remote waters.

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Cambridge, on- March 14, 2013—Last week the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals met to announce the winners for their 2013 Alliance Excellence Awards.

exactEarth and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) were awarded the Individual Alliance Excellence Award, a very competitive category. The two companies were recognized for their groundbreaking low-Earth orbit satellite tracking system that enables government agencies around the world to track all ships at sea beyond port areas—an industry first. This system, exactAIS®, enhances maritime domain awareness around the world, with superior detection capability that captures many times more vessels than any other system in a single satellite pass.

“It is a tremendous inspiration for us that our close cooperation with exactEarth is being recognized in this way,” said Fredrik Landmark, Senior VP -Business Development of KSAT.

“We are extremely proud and honoured to receive this award,” said Philip Miller, VP of Operations and Engineering at exactEarth. “Our strategic alliance with KSAT is of utmost importance to our daily operations as we rely heavily on them to provide real-time data downlinks that are crucial to the exactAIS® service we provide to customers worldwide.”

For more information about ASAP and the 2013 Excellence Awards, clik here

About the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals

Founded in 1998, the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) is a professional association dedicated to elevating and promoting the profession and discipline of alliance management.

ASAP is the only organization dedicated to providing knowledge and resources, education and professional development, and a community for networking to alliance professionals at every stage of business collaboration—from partnership formation to alliance management after a deal is signed all the way through to the dissolution of a relationship.

About exactEarth Ltd.

exactEarth, based in Cambridge, Ontario, is a data services company providing the most advanced information on global maritime traffic available today. Our premium service, exactAIS, delivers an unrivalled view of the recognized maritime picture at a global scale. Offering fully secure data in a variety of industry standard formats and delivery methods, exactEarth’s data provides real value for a wide range of operational maritime applications delivering operational efficiencies, enhancing security, safeguarding the environment, and assisting in saving lives. For more information, visit our website at www.exactearth.com.

About Kongsberg Satellite Services

Kongsberg Satellite Services AS (KSAT) is a commercial Norwegian enterprise, uniquely positioned to provide ground station and earth observation services for polar orbiting satellites. With three interconnected polar ground stations; Tromsø at 69°N, Svalbard (SvalSat) at 78°N and Antarctic TrollSat Station at 72°S, and a growing mid-latitude network, KSAT operates over 60 antennas optimally positioned for access to polar orbits. KSAT supports more than 60 satellites, including high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical satellites, allowing us to provide earth observation data and services to a wide range of customers.

Contact information:
Børre Pedersen
Sales Director
Tel: +47 776 00 271
boerrep@ksat.no

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