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MALAREO and REDDINESS, two FP7 projects led by EUROSENSE as the prime leader, finished in January 2013. Both projects were dedicated to the international cooperation between European and African partners. Within MALAREO, a Map Atlas for malaria research and control community was created. REDDINESS helped Gabon and the Republic of Congo to get ready for a future REDD+ mechanism.

MALAREO Map Atlas for malaria research and control community

MALAREO focused to develop technology and implement earth observation data that contributes to the fight against malaria in southern Africa. Within the project a Map Atlas for malaria research and control community was created. The Map Atlas contains all map products created in the MALAREO project aiming to support the daily work of the National Malaria Control Programs (NMCP) in the project area.

Based on a variety of thematic maps, the management of integrated vector control, including the planning of indoor residual spraying (IRS), the distribution of insecticide treated nets (ITN) or larvaciding, can be substantially improved and can result in more effective vector control measures.

All geo-data were provided to the NMCPs as geo-referenced shape files and raster files to implement the data in their data management systems. All data presented in this Map Atlas can also be downloaded via the MALAREO website. The use of these data and of this Map Atlas for the work of the NMCPs was also part of three capacity building sessions. MALAREO organized courses in GIS, Earth Observation and spatial statistics for the end-users. The courses were held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban, South-Africa) and targeted at the NMCPs in Southern Africa.

Click here to download the MALAREO Map Atlas

REDDiness helped Gabon and the Republic of Congo to get ready for a future REDD+ mechanism

REDD+ aims at decreasing carbon losses from the forest sector through five activities: reducing deforestation, reducing forest degradation, forest enhancement, sustainable management of forests, and forest conservations. Obtaining compensations due to REDD+ presupposes the development of a robust, reliable and transparent forest monitoring system and requires an accurate measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) system at the national level. REDDiness offered support in the definition and set up of this system in the Republic of Congo and Gabon. The main impact of REDDiness has been the stimulation of the exchange of EO (Earth Observation) knowledge and capacity in the context of forest monitoring between European and African partners. The project revised the state-of-the-art forest monitoring methods, especially in the field of forest degradation, and helped the Central African countries further towards an operational use of EO products and solutions supporting the sustainable management of forests. This has been performed by analyzing the capacity gaps first, and subsequently building the needed capacity for the exploitation of existing or future GMES and GEO services, and by developing and customizing EO methodologies according to local user needs.

Based on the in-depth assessment of requirements on technical and practical aspects and advises obtained from scientific experts, capacity building activities have been established in both countries in reference to existing regional capacities either in EO methodologies and in forest monitoring:

  • Training sessions provided the participants with a very useful overview of EO data, methods and applications in the field of forest monitoring. In addition, the participants had the opportunity to use image processing software with project data on the study area. These are relevant contributions for participants involved in the definition, elaboration and implementation of the national MRV systems.
  • Field missions in study areas provided the participants with increased knowledge on field protocols development and data collection. Data collected allowed for a much better understanding of forest degradation drivers and a much better analysis of the remote sensing imagery than would have been the case without it.
  • The user workshop allowed for a detailed description of the research outcomes in forest monitoring by remote sensing, associated with practical exercises with experts based on the developed applications. The link between EO monitoring applications and the field mission was very positive and also ascertained a stronger involvement of local partners in the project by including them in the research component. Formal and informal evaluations of the support activities clearly indicate a positive appreciation by the participants.

The research component of REDDiness allowed to estimate the potential of optical and radar satellite imagery to detect forest degradation. REDDiness concluded that satellite imagery has potential to detect forest degradation, but requires good quality cloud-free remote sensing imagery at frequent intervals (at least once per year), and at high spatial resolutions (<10m). This has implications on the cost of a national monitoring system, which may need to implement a sampling approach. Persistent cloud cover is the main problem for optical image acquisition in the Congo Basin, but radar has its own intrinsic difficulties. These include 1) the relative complexity of image products and pre-processing requirements for non-experts, 2) the strong dependence of the radar backscatter on viewing geometry meaning that some changes in these can drastically affect what is observed in the scene, 3) the difficulty of interpretation requiring a good understanding of radar scattering mechanisms by the interpreter, and 4) strong terrain-related effects in mountainous or undulating terrain.

For more information about the project and its outcomes, please visit the REDDiness website and the EUROSENSE website

Contact us for more information
Eurosense

AeroGRID Ltd (England) operates a geo-imagery wms and tiling web-server that now has available over 4 million km² of orthorectified imagery from 12.5cm to 50cm resolution covering most of Europe all produced by professional photogrammetry organisations both government and private. The data is accessed through a high performance web server system in any required projection.

WMS is the standard protocol for streaming georeferenced map imagery over the Internet to web based applications, GIS and CAD software. As WMS feeds only load the imagery that a user needs to see, it is a very convenient and cost-efficient way for clients to access very high resolution imagery.

With the European market gradually integrating, more and more organisations need to access data from all over the continent. Although satellite imagery has been available world-wide since the beginning it is only recently that such solutions are becoming available for aerial photography. AeroGRID is the most extensive European solution available covering not only Western Europe but also Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe.

The imagery is accompanied by comprehensive metadata including a statement of accuracy upon which users can confidently base their projects. As the data is produced by professional photogrammetry organisations accuracies are generally higher and the orthophotos often of higher resolution than rival products.

As a result the service is used by mapping organisations, utilities and network planners and other branches of professionals. The European Joint research Centre in ISPRA has recently conducted tests whose results will shortly be published. The Project Manager stated that they found the service very useful.

AeroGRID is a one-stop-shop for international archived aerial imagery providing speedy access to aerial photography from 65 countries with off-the-shelf high resolution satellite orthophotos for many others. By marshalling an impressive network of partner’s survey aircraft and high resolution digital cameras AeroGRID is able to extend coverage around the world. In this manner we produce orthophotos, DEMs and building models from new aerial photography, DigitalGlobe and Geoeye satellite data worldwide.


For further information please contact:
Miles Taylor
T: + 33 671 156 116 E: info@aerogrid.net
www.aerogrid.net

As a valued member of the European Earth Observation community we would like to invite you to the upcoming 3rd WorldView Global Alliance User Conference in Munich 19-20 June 2013

  • A new, dynamic conference format
  • Everything you want to know about the changes at DigitalGlobe
  • Updates on recent developments in the European earth observation industry
  • Opportunities for our resellers and partners to information share in a congenial atmosphere.

Mailing address:
European Space Imaging
Arnulfstrasse 197, Munich 80634
Germany

Registration

Meteosat-10 Data Utilization For All 2met!® Processing Software Versions

After the successful launch in 2012 of MSG-3, the latest European meteorological satellite, the spacecraft has now been moved to 0º and officially replaces Meteosat-9 as EUMETSAT´s prime geostationary weather satellite. In this context, MSG-3 has been renamed to Meteosat-10.

While all current 2met!® products and solutions fully support from the very beginning the utilization of data from Meteosat-10, SCISYS is pleased to announce that corresponding software enhancements are also available for previous 2met!® Processing software versions. New radiance tables for the calibration of Meteosat-10 data are now available.

The software updates are available for two versions:

  • For 2met!® Processing versions lower than v3.2 (e.g. PUMA)
  • For 2met!® Processing versions v3.2 to v3.4

The software update is available free of charge for existing SCISYS (or formerly VCS AG) customers. Please go to the Meteosat-10 update page and use the online form for your request.

For more than 25 years, our company is successfully acting in the business of earth observation and meteorological user stations as one of the leading suppliers. 2met!® is the SCISYS-developed multi-mission concept for real-time data acquisition, processing, visualisation and distribution of earth observation satellite data. It is a commercial off-the-shelf solution, based on standard hardware and software. 2met!® supports a variety of remote sensing satellites such as METEOSAT, MSG, GOES, MTSAT, NOAA, METOP, NPP and TERRA/AQUA as well as telemetry standards in line with the CCSDS recommendation.

Chelys was established in 2002. Our core business focuses on software development and supplying services in the Earth Observation sector, by providing processing stations for Earth Observation satellites.

We are specialized in satellite data management and real time satellite (raw) data processing, data quality control, image generation, projection and mosaics (composite satellite images).

Our main product, the Satellite Rapid Response System, is a multimission real-time data processing and quality control system that is able to simultaneously process data coming from several different missions. It can be used to process data from the following satellite instruments:

  • ALOSAVNIR-2 level0 (raw data) and level 1
  • ENVISATASAR level0 (raw data) and level1
  • ENVISATMERIS level0 (raw data), level1 and level2
  • ENVISATMERIS level0 and level1 FAPAR/MGVI Processor for Monitoring Vegetation Cover
  • METOP/NOAA – AVHRR3 level1b
  • SUOMI-NPPVIIRS level1b
  • TERRA and AQUAMODIS level1b

The SRRS system used by ESA, called MIRAVI, has been installed in all Envisat satellite acquisition stations and has been delivering thousands of images per month since June 2006, processing the Envisat/MERIS Full Resolution raw data as soon as they are acquired.

Our current areas of activity are:

  • software development
  • environmental acquisition and processing systems
  • data acquisition systems (ESA/DDS, Eumetsat/EUMETCAST)
  • image generation from raw data, orthorectification and mosaics

We also provide services such as:

  • a comprehensive maintenance and support program that provides operational support, software and hardware maintenance and enhancementsts
  • technical consultancy
  • feasibility, design and pre-phase studies
  • system prototyping

Rapidly processing great quantities of satellite data makes it possible to generate an incredible number of Value Added Products. The SRRS post-processing systems are able to generate extremely quickly products such as:

  • Mosaics (Multispectral, Radar, FAPAR, etc.)
  • Interferometry
  • Orthorectification
  • Projection
  • Export in KML/KMZ format (Google Earth)
  • 2D/3D Animations
    Our systems are flexible enough to permit the implementation of your processing algorithms inside our SRRS infrastructure. If you have data and/or algorithms to be processed, we can create post-processing modules in order to make that processing fast and carried out systematically on all acquired data.
    Please contact us, we would be happy to suggest the best solution for processing specific to your needs.

We are looking for an experienced, self-motivated and team-oriented project manager to join our team in Innsbruck, Austria, for working in international projects related to satellite Earth Observation and Geographic Information Systems.

Specifically, this full-time position is situated in the Technical Department and will cover high level, self-reliant technical and administrative project management for international customers. The position will also support the Commercial Department in project acquisition, proposal writing, and preparatory marketing and sales activities.

The ideal applicant has a proven track record in project management in the international Earth Observation and GIS domain and should have more than 5 years of working experience after graduation.

  • Proven record of working in and managing sizeable projects, preferably in a private industry environment
  • In depth knowledge of satellite and airborne remote sensing, GI technology and applications; expertise in land-related EO applications (land cover/use mapping, urban planning, hydrology, forestry) is a key asset
  • Excellent experience in project management (minimum of 3 years)
  • Proof of experience in proposal writing; know-how in sales, acquisition and promotion activities advantageous
  • Excellent command in English and German, other EU language advantageous
  • Excellent writing and communication capabilities
  • Willingness to travel (also international), motivation skills and team leadership an asset
  • Applicants form related industries, such as engineering, geo-products and IT are welcome!

Please visit our website (www.geoville.com) for more information and send your CV with a covering letter outlining how your experience and interests match our requirements to Dr. Andreas Walli, walli@geoville.com

GeoVille group provides a wide range of value-added services in the land domain with focus on urban, regional and spatial planning as well as environmental monitoring, forestry and agriculture applications. Registered offices are in Innsbruck, Austria, and Niederanven, Luxembourg.
GeoVille Information Systems, based in Innsbruck, Austria, is an internationally operating company providing consultancy, services and products related to satellite earth observation, geo-information and geographic information systems.
The company is ISO 9001:2008 and 14000 certified and offers an attractive work environment in the city centre of Innsbruck, Tyrol, and a competitive entry salary in a growing high-tech market.

GeoVille Information Systems GmbH
Sparkassenplatz 2, 3rd floor
A – 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Tel: +43 (0)512 56 20 21-0
Fax: +43 (0)512 56 20 21-22
Email: info@geoville.com

The Indonesian archipelago lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle and is one of the most important reservoirs of marine biodiversity on the planet. The region provides several billion dollars of annual revenue through fisheries, aquaculture and tourism, with fishing and aquaculture employing almost 50 million people. These resources are now under threat as never before, ravaged each year by, illegal fishing that robs the government and local fishermen of some 2 billion dollars. The region’s natural resources are also threatened by global warming, pollution and coastal deforestation. To combat these risks and support the country’s Blue Revolution, which aims to make Indonesia the world’s leading producer of seafood, the government has chosen CLS, a subsidiary of CNES, to create a major national centre to forecast changes to marine resources, protect them (especially against illegal fishing) and develop them.

The seas around Indonesia are a part of the Coral Triangle, which encompasses the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and West Timor. The triangle is a major reservoir of the planet’s biodiversity, containing some 30% of all coral reefs and the largest known nurseries of tuna. Since the 1970s, almost 40% of these coral reefs and mangroves have been lost. These changes could lead to an ecological disaster with rapid and dramatic consequences for the local economy.

But how to monitor a maritime region the size of Europe? One solution is by satellite, backed up by CLS expertise in acquiring, processing, analysing and interpreting of satellite data, combined with 20 years’ experience and expertise in space-based oceanography and the modelling of marine ecosystems.

The Indonesian government has chosen CLS and entrusted it with the creation of its national centre for the monitoring and sustainable management of marine resources. This national centre, commissioned at a cost of almost $30M, will include a research and surveillance centre, a receiving station for the acquisition of high-resolution radar satellite imagery, models for forecasting the evolution of tuna populations and a training programme for scientists.

The data processed and stored will be acquired from observation and surveillance satellites covering the entire maritime region around Indonesia.

The centre will develop applications for:

  • combating illegal fishing
  • managing fish stocks (especially tuna)
  • integrated management of coastal regions and Marine Protected Areas
  • monitoring the condition of coral reefs and protecting them
  • supporting shrimp producers and industrial aquaculture (recommending production sites)
  • supporting the development of algae production (for the agrifood and cosmetics sectors)
  • protecting the environment (detecting accidental oil spills)

CLS was already working in Indonesia via its subsidiary, PT CLS Indonesia, which has been helping the government fit out the largest fishing vessels with location beacons since 2004. CLS has already equipped almost 3000 vessels with beacons so that they can be tracked in fishing zones. The creation of this national space oceanography centre is the logical next step in the implementation of a sustainable-fishery policy.

CLS
475 people employed around the world,
16 branches and subsidiaries,
79 million Euros of turnover in 2012,
Billions of data items processed every day, received from 80 instruments carried on 40 satellites,
A global reference for:

  • fighting illegal fishing: eradication of illegal fishing around the Kerguelen and Heard & McDonald Islands on behalf of the French Maritime Affairs authorities and the Australian Customs Service; setting up an acquisition and processing system for high-resolution satellite images (SEAS-OI) on Reunion Island; fitting out more than 15,000 fishing vessels around the world, including 80% of the French fishing fleet,
  • modelling marine ecosystems: developing models of the population dynamics of different economically significant species (such as sardine, anchovy, Jack mackerel, tuna or swordfish), used around the world.

Key figures:

  • 50 million Indonesians depend on fishing and aquaculture
  • 30% of the world’s corals are found in the waters round Indonesia
  • 40% of Indonesian coral reefs and mangroves have disappeared since the 1970s
  • 25 years is the average time necessary for coral reefs to recover from damage by fishing with explosives
  • 20 years of experience acquired by CLS in satellite-based oceanography and maritime surveillance, from which the new Indonesian centre will benefit.
  • 30 million dollars: the cost of the project
  • 3000 fishing vessels already fitted with CLS equipment in Indonesia as part of the administration of a managed fishery programme since 2004.

(19 March 2013) Astrium, Europe’s leading space technology company, has announced the operational and commercial launch of the fully complete Pléiades constellation as well as SPOT 6, following the successful in-orbit qualification of the Pléiades 1B and SPOT 6 satellites.

  • Astrium announces Pléiades 1B and SPOT 6 operational following their in-orbit validation
  • Astrium Services is now the only operator in the world able to offer very-high-resolution images of any point on the globe taken by a constellation of identical satellites, on a daily basis
  • Together with SPOT 6 and the soon-to-be-launched SPOT 7, the Pléiades satellites form a dual constellation of satellites to offer complementary performance in terms of image size and resolution

It is this daily revisit capability that makes geo-information services a reliable part of the strategic and economic decision-making process, offering Astrium Services’ customers a number of advantages. These are as follows: speedier access to images (war and crisis zones and natural disaster areas are visible in a matter of hours, anywhere in the world); the provision of images on a regular basis, enabling, for example, daily monitoring of activity at a specific location (rate of progress of civil engineering projects, surveillance of a military, industrial or mining sites, etc…); and twice the number of images (images are acquired twice as fast and with twice the chance of a cloud-free image being captured, making it the ideal configuration for mapping large areas).

Taken between 15 and 21 February 2013, this series of images of the port of Suez in Egypt perfectly illustrates the daily revisit potential of the Pléiades constellation. They show shipping activity, in particular the movement of ferries and commercial vessels at the entrance to the canal. All these images are available in jpeg or video stills at the website ftp://ftp.astrium-geo.com/satellite_2013/

Pléiades 1A and 1B are Europe’s first very-high-resolution Earth-observation satellites, and are positioned 180° apart in the same quasi-polar heliosynchronous orbit, at an altitude of 695 km. They offer exceptional performance in the civil market: 50 cm products over a 20 km footprint and excellent flexibility (rapid pointing) allowing multiple acquisition modes (stereo, mosaic, corridor, target). Thanks to their unparalleled ability to acquire 900 images a day, they also offer major operational advantages to users.

The SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 constellation will operate in conjunction with Pléiades and will offer 1.5 m resolution data over larger imaging swaths (60 km) for mapping very large areas. The Pléiades (1A and 1B) and SPOT 6 and 7 constellations will be stationed at equidistant points in the same orbit around the Earth, making Astrium Services the first operator in the world able to offer a complete range of Earth-observation data at different resolutions (from medium to very high resolution). What this means is that every point of the globe will now be visible in high and very-high resolution on a daily basis.

Astrium Services will now distribute images from the twin Pléiades 1A and 1B satellites, operating as a fully fledged constellation. This configuration, the only one of its kind in the world, offers very-high-resolution daily revisits and guarantees an image in less than 24 hours from any point on the globe, as well as daily monitoring of any location and double the coverage
Evert Dudok Astrium Services CEO

About Astrium

Astrium is the number one company in Europe for space technologies and the third in the world. It is the only global company that covers the full range of civil and defence space systems, equipment and services.

In 2012, Astrium had a turnover over €5.8 billion and 18,000 employees worldwide. Its three business units are: Astrium Space Transportation, the European prime contractor for launchers, orbital systems and space exploration; Astrium Satellites, a leading provider of satellite system solutions, including spacecraft, ground segments, payloads and equipments; Astrium Services, the Space services partner for critical missions, providing comprehensive fixed and mobile solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, and bespoke geo-information services, worldwide.

Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2012, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of €56.5 billion and employed a workforce of over 140,000.

Two years ago Aerodata International Surveys started a close co-operation with TerraImaging via a majority shareholding in the company.

This co-operation has proven to be very successful. Together we have realized many LIDAR projects in various countries in Europe and in other places in the world. The highly accurate AHN project in the Netherlands, mapping rivers for IGN in France and LIDAR projects in Germany, Spain, Romania and Columbia are just some examples. The demands to supply solutions based on a combination and integration of technologies is clearly growing.

So it is time for the next step:

Together we want to further exploit the knowledge, expertise and technologies in the Aerodata Group of companies, offer new products and services, implement new technologies, strengthen our market presence, create further synergies and most important offer our customers the best possible solutions.
On the road to achieve these ambitions we have decided to change our names as per March 1st, 2013 into:

Aerodata Surveys Nederland and Aerodata Surveys Deutschland.

More than just a change of name:

Aerodata Surveys Nederland and Deutschland will continue to be the international center of excellence for LIDAR technology within the Aerodata Group. And from our Dutch and German office we will continue to be your partner and offer laser scanning products and services on the international market.

On the Dutch market we will replace the existing Aerodata office and offer in addition to our current products and services all other Aerodata products from our office in Utrecht. Also our office in Berlin will offer all additional Aerodata products.

But there is more:

We will further extend our product portfolio with knowledge intensive services, often in close co-operation with partners. Solar potential analysis, flash flood mapping, change detection, 3D city models and “surveying behind your desk” are just some examples. We will implement new technologies like LIDAR bathymetry and others. All with the aim to serve our customers better and help them to achieve their goals and optimize their return on investment.

And most important:

For you as our Customer or Business partner this means that we can offer you all expertise, products and services of the Aerodata Group of companies. For further information please do not hesitate to contact: info@aerodata-nederland.com

Aerodata Surveys Nederland and Deutschland will continue to offer all services which were offered by TerraImaging. We are currently updating the Aerodata website to include information on these services. Until then, you can find this information on the old TerraImaging website

(Source Aerodata Surveys)

GeoVille is executing the ESA project Diversity II together with Brockmann Consult.

The project is composed of an Inland Waters and a Drylands component, where GeoVille’s work covers the drylands part. Dedicated to the Convention of Biodiversity (CBD) and to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as users, the aim is to generate indices and indicators on the vegetation status and trends of 22 drylands regions worldwide.

For more information please visit the project website

Source Geoville.org