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Dutch Ministry of Defence and Spacemetric BV have signed the MAJIIC Project Security Instruction.

This provides Spacemetric BV with access to NATO MAJIIC programme information, allowing verification of the Spacemetric NSILI implementation against the MAJIIC CSD OPS test suite. This is an important step towards a Keystone system providing enhanced support for NATO interoperability standards for exchange of airborne and spaceborne ISR data.

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Brockmann Consult is contributing to the System Engineering and Earth Observation team of the Climate Change Initiative, a 75M€ programme of the European Space Agency.

On 27.09.2012 the first results of the programme were presented to the delegates of the ESA members states during the Mid Term Review. Having successfully passed this important milestone the programme will enter into its second phase in 2013.

The Brockmann Consult Software and Earth Observation experts are working in three out of the 13 projects of the programme, namely the Land Cover CCI, Ocean Colour CCI and Sea Surface Temperature CCI. Dr. Carsten Brockmann participated in the review by representing the industrial software engineering teams.

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(September 2012) Pixel Factory™, the industrial-scale geo-production system developed by Astrium GEO-Information Services, generates high-level 2D and 3D mapping products thanks to a revolutionary processing chain designed to handle all kinds of Earth-observation data.

Widely used at Astrium GEO-Information Services for products like SPOTMaps, the system has been on the market since 2003 and today has a base of more than 20 customers.

Building on this success, Astrium GEO-Information Services is now further expanding its range of Pixel Factory™.

The newcomers to the family, Space Factory™, Sky Factory™ and Street Factory™, each offer the advantages of their elder, with the industrial production capacity to support fully automated processing of huge volumes of data.

Space Factory™

Designed to handle both optical and radar satellite data, Space Factory™, can be connected to direct receiving stations for even faster processing, so you can start production as soon as data arrive from the antenna. This fully integrated system generates very-high-quality, cloudless nationwide mosaics as well as digital surface models in no time at all.

Sky Factory™

Aircraft or UAVs acquire equally large amounts of imagery, so Sky Factory™ is designed to give all users in the aerial imagery domain the industrial capability of Pixel Factory™.

With Sky Factory™, it is also possible to generate highly accurate digital elevation or surface models, orthoimages and TrueOrthos™, all automatically. And with its small footprint, Sky Factory™ can even be deployed near your area of interest to further speed access to end products.

Street Factory™

Also in the aerial domain, Street Factory™, the newest member of the family, allows you to create highly realistic textured 3D urban models within hours of acquiring imagery from airborne or ground-based cameras.

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Thanks to its unique orbit, FORMOSAT-2 is the only civil high-resolution optical satellite that can cover any scene in its coverage area every day. Each site within this area is imaged under the same viewing conditions, i.e. from the same angle and under the same lighting conditions. This makes FORMOSAT-2 the ideal sensor for monitoring and change detection applications, e.g. environmental monitoring for oil spills, oil production facility monitoring).

The unique acquisition capabilities also ensure an improved acquisition success for optical data in equatorial areas or other cloud-prone areas.

With the MyFORMOSAT-2 Virtual Reception system Astrium offers priority access to FORMOSAT-2 data by a guaranteed allocation of acquisition capacity to users on defined orbits. Customers benefit from customised and flexible programming services using an accessible desktop system. A simple web interface provides full visibility of the programming, acquisition and production and enables the modification of tasking requests in order to develop the imaging scenario best suited for the respective requirements. In July 2012 Astrium GEO-Information Services conducted a demonstration project for a customer in the Latin American region to demonstrate the capabilities of FORMOSAT-2 and the advantages of MyFORMOSAT-2. In the demo project images of an area of more than 40,000 km² were programmed to be acquired every day during the equivalent of a 1-orbit minute. The images were recorded in Panchromatic and Multispectral modes. In spite of the winter season in the region, which is characterised by frequent cloud cover, more than 80% of the images resulted to have less than 20% clouds. Within only 10 days more than 70% of the area was successfully covered – thanks to the daily revisit of the sensor and the flexibility offered by the MyFORMOSAT-2 platform FORMOSAT-2 Satellite Image – Mauritius Island © NSPO 2008/ 2009

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Since 1 August, Astrium Services has been providing regular status reports for the international community on clean-up and repair work underway at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Produced with GO Monitor, Astrium Services’ monitoring and analysis service, the reports are derived from very-high-resolution imagery acquired by the Pléiades 1A satellite.

Information will be regularly refreshed on line on the GO Monitor website to keep track of:

  • Movements of radioactive waste and materials
    - Analysis and monitoring of processes employed to treat contaminated materials (cement encapsulation, vitrification, storage, etc.)
  • Demolition and construction work
    - Clearance or reinforcement of infrastructures damaged by the tsunami (buildings, reactors, cooling systems, etc.)
  • Use of support tools such as cranes, storage and public works plant and machinery
    - Analysis of volume of activity to gauge involvement of all stakeholders working on the site

This analysis follows on from that based on FORMOSAT-2 satellite imagery in the month after the tsunami of 11 March 2011. This imagery, which can be viewed via the same interface on the GO Monitor website, tracks the trail of damage left by the tsunami on a daily basis.

Astrium Services’ full satellite constellation and domain experts dispatched vital data to emergency relief teams in the aftermath of the tsunami:

  • SPOT 5 delivered images of the stricken coastline and nuclear power plants on 12 March 2011, the day after the tsunami.
  • GO Monitor experts provided daily analysis of what soon became a “no-go” area from images acquired by the FORMOSAT-2 satellite.
  • TerraSAR-X data enabled comparative analysis of the Sendai region before and after the earthquake, highlighting the tsunami’s destructive power and the debris left in its wake.

GO Monitor tracks clean-up and repair operations at Fukushima plant

Source Astrium Services

Gisat has contributed into this year’s European Earth Monitoring Competition – the GMES Masters 2012.

UrbanAtlas Exploration Tool prepared by Gisat, is a demonstrator showing how huge potential of complex results from the GMES services can be unlocked using flexible software framework supporting user-friendly exploration of spatial and socio-economic data in web environment. The Tool is based on the WebTool technology developed by Gisat, integrating different modes of presentation in flexible, user-friendly, active and interlinked way with instant application response.

UrbanAtlas Exploration Tool provides advanced but still intuitive interface, where different modes of presentation (maps, tables, graphs) are interlinked and data can thus be easily visualized, further explored, analyzed or combined with socio-economic statistics. Compiled from thousands of satellite images, the GMES Urban Atlas represents an unique dataset for the first time harmonizing land cover and land use information on city/regional scale across Europe. UrbanAtlas Exploration Tool presents the great potential of the GMES Urban Atlas, in relation to Urban Audit statistical data, to support various strategic planning and decision making activities.

The UrbanAtlas Exploration Tool can be explored here

Acknowledgement
The WebTool framework technology builts on various Open Source software initiatives and GISAT’ further research and development activities in the UrbanAtlas+ project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the FP7 HLanData project co-financed by EC.

More information at GISAT

Following the success of the Gisat‘s service case within the frame of the joint ESA / World Bank EOWORLD initiative, Gisat has been selected by the World Bank in two stage competitive call as the consultant providing services for web based geospatial software platform PUMA – the Platform for Urban Management and Analysis.

PUMA is being developed to enable World Bank staff in the East Asia region working at the metropolitan and city scale to derive a standard preliminary analysis that better informs the priorities and facilitates the cross-sector coordination of their investment and advisory activities. The platform and its outputs will help the World Bank and its clients develop a shared understanding of the long-term spatial, economic and environmental implications of land use, spatial development and infrastructure investment choices. This assignment is part of the World Bank’s larger “East Asia and Pacific Regional Urban Flagship” that will support economically efficient, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable urbanization in East Asian countries.

PUMA will be used to produce standard city profiles that will draw on the various layers of data and functions described in detail below, and at the same time enable user-driven customized analysis. Gisat‘s services include both production of multi-temporal land cover / land use layers for selected metropolitan areas based on Earth Observation data and development of the software framework for the platform implementation using Open Source software solutions.

Please, find more about the ESA / World Bank EOWORLD initiative here and about the Gisat’s service case here

More information at GISAT

Indra has closed with the European Space Agency (ESA) the definition of the requirements for the system that will manage the Spanish satellite Ingenio.

The technological company leads the development, implementation and start-up of the ground segment for the future Spanish ground-based optical observation satellite, which will be ready to enter into service in 2015. With this important milestone, Indra, along with the consortium, firmly undertakes the review of the preliminary design for the second half of the year.

This past December, the Ministry of Industry awarded Indra a contract to lead the project. As a result, Indra, as the leader of the Spanish industry, is responsible for the integration, installation, testing and start-up of the ground segments for the two satellites in the Spanish National Earth Observation Programme (PNOT): the Ingenio optical satellite and the Paz radar satellite. This is the most complex Earth observation programme that has been carried out in Spain to date.

The requirements defined by Indra and approved by the ESA (the agency which Spain has entrusted to supervise the project) for the future Ingenio Ground Segment establish a system comprised by three centres located in Madrid, the Canary Islands and the Arctic. The main centre will be located at the INTA facility in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid). This centre will have the complete functionality to plan and manage Ingenio flight operations and to process the data transmitted by the satellite, including information for its administration as well as the data collected by the opto-electronic sensor it carries. Indra will install the second control centre, which will act as a backup, in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. It will provide the main Torrejón centre with additional capacity for receiving satellite data. It will also include the flight operations management functions that are necessary to guarantee the satellite’s control in any situation. Lastly, there will be access to a centre in the Arctic at a location that has not yet been determined. It will be used to send and receive information to and from the satellite. Its high latitude position will favour frequent contact with the satellite.

Image production will take place in Torrejón. Indra will lead the implementation of the system that manages and processes the data obtained by the opto-electronic sensor carried by the satellite. The main ground segment will handle end-user requests, plan the mission in order for the satellite to take the requested images, and once the telemetry is received, it will process the data in order to prepare, disseminate, archive and catalogue the images.

The system will have a specific interface for interacting with users and another adapted to providing access to users of the GMES Global Monitoring Environment and Security programme. GMES is the programme that will give Europe the ability to observe the Earth for operational applications. Connecting Ingenio to the constellation of GMES satellites will facilitate collaborations with other European nations and the international community. Indra has participated in the GMES programme for more than ten years developing Earth observation services.

The images that Ingenio takes from space will reinforce the prevention of and ability to respond to natural disasters, fires, floods and spills in the sea. It will also help to better manage the occupancy and use of land, among other applications. Scientific and research centres, institutions and various state administrations will benefit from this tool that can be used in a coordinated manner with Paz.

About Indra

Indra has more than 25 years of experience in the space industry and it is the Spanish leader in the development and implementation of ground segments. The company has undertaken emblematic projects such as the implementation of the Spanish user segment for the Helios I and II satellite programme and for the SMOS satellite, as well as the implementation of the Spanish user segment for the Pleiades satellite constellation. It has also completed the advanced processing centre that generates high level SMOS data in addition to the image operating centre for military applications (SIGESTREDI), among other references.

Source SatNews

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(11 September 2012). British satellite imaging company DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is today launching a ground-breaking project with support from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board to provide more accurate and reliable information about land carbon storage and how it changes over time.

By building on established carbon modelling and satellite remote sensing techniques, this initiative will provide scientifically validated carbon market intelligence and an automated Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) system to help organisations in their efforts to reduce deforestation and degradation. This system is designed for use in supporting REDD+ initiatives and aims to significantly reduce the transaction costs incurred in trading forest based carbon.

An important differentiator for this project is that the team will conduct rigorous scientific analysis of the carbon intelligence from the data sources (satellite images and ground samples) throughout the processing chain and will use carbon models to quantify the uncertainties involved and supply users with valuable quality assurance information.

Head of DMCii Product Development, Adina Gillespie, explains: “Earth observation-based carbon models are proven effective for MRV, but we have to accept that we don’t yet have a perfect system. We set out by asking ourselves: How can policy makers and carbon markets put their trust in an MRV system without knowing the uncertainties involved? With this in mind, we will employ end-to-end quality assurance and make the accuracy of the carbon market intelligence from this system available to the user.”

The system will use high­–resolution satellite images to produce detailed carbon inventory maps, and will incorporate frequently updated images from Earth observation satellites to determine changes (deforestation, degradation) in forest cover or land use – and therefore the carbon flux – over time.

This innovative project was made possible with investment from the Technology Strategy Board, and brings together carbon intelligence provider Carbon Associates Limited and world renowned remote sensing and carbon sequestration researchers from University College London (UCL) under the leadership of satellite operator and remote sensing solution provider DMCii. The resulting carbon market intelligence products address a market estimated at £16 billion for which the UK has a strong base of skills, experience, research and technology.

Patrick Newton, acting Chief Executive Officer of Carbon Associates, commented, “we are very pleased to have been selected as a consortium partner alongside DMCii and UCL in this Technology Strategy Board backed project. We look forward to delivering increasingly accurate carbon stock accounting data to project developers, financiers and forest owners as they look to trade forest based carbon credits in the voluntary markets and take advantage of the enhanced Carbon Market Intelligence this project will deliver”.

Carbon market intelligence is continuously developing as the science matures and new techniques are developed. By employing rigorous quality assurance throughout its system, the team will be able to test how future improvements influence the reliability of data as the science and techniques of carbon modelling and remote sensing evolve.


Caption: UK-DMC2 Image of Mato Grosso, Brazil © DMCii, 2012. All rights reserved

About DMC International Imaging Ltd

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is used extensively in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.

DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the Disaster Monitoring Constellation with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation Consortium member nations listed above.

DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trade mark DMC.

About Carbon Associates Limited (CAL)

CAL is a value added processor of remote sensing and ground collected data. CAL applies its proprietary algorithms and statistical analysis to big data sets in order to calculate carbon stock values – and changes in those values over time – for forested and agricultural land. CAL provides processed data sets and index based products to users as a managed service for the delivery of Carbon Market Intelligence.

Carbon Associates Limited is UK based and private equity backed.

About the Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency; its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit: www.innovateuk.org

Contacts:
DMCii:Paul Stephens, DMCii, Email: P.Stephens@dmcii.com
Carbon Associates: Rebecca Reilly, Open Road, Email: rebecca.reilly@theopen-road.com

(27 September 2012) e-GEOS is pleased to announce the publication of its new Price List, which will be effective immediately

GeoEye-1/IKONOS

  • New Priority Tasking Policy: new pricing per km2 has been introduced, based on different priority levels (Elevated Tasking and Targeted Tasking). The two new tasking options replace the previous up-front Priority Tasking fee.
  • New Products: now available GeoProfessional Archive, GeoEye View, GeoEye View Archive (GeoEye View is an orthorectified image product specifically designed for use in Google Earth and Maps and is licensend as “view-only”. It can only be viewed and managed within the Google Enterprise Geo infrastructure.)

DigitalGlobe:

  • New Archive Policy and Pricing:
    Standard Archive: Pricing applies to data older than 90 days
    Fresh Archive: Pricing applies to data less than 90 days old, equivalent to Select Tasking price.
  • New Products: 2m resolution Standard, Basic and Stereo products now available
  • Basic Products: Minimum order sizes and prices based on km2
  • CitySphere offering removed

Envisat

  • Only archive products available due to end of mission, declared on 9 May, 2012

ALOS

  • ALOS archive products again available

Contact your Customer Service Representative for any additional information or clarification. Regards. e-GEOS Team

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 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

Price List