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Paris, 28 June 2012 – The revised launch date for the Metop-B satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been set for 19 September 2012.

The launch campaign will resume in early July. The Metop-B satellite is being stored in a controlled environment in the Starsem facilities in Baikonur and will be subject to a set of tests and preparatory activities until its fuelling which is currently planned for August,.

Metop-B is the second of three Metop polar-orbiting satellites procured on behalf of EUMETSAT by the European Space Agency from a European industrial consortium led by Astrium.

The satellite includes instruments delivered by the French space agency, CNES, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. The Metop satellites form the space segment of the EUMETSAT Polar System.

Source GeoConnexion

(July 2012) DigitalGlobe, a global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, has once again met commitments for its EnhancedView contract by completing a series of upgrades to its ground systems.

The upgrades were conducted in a collaborative effort with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) over a two-year period and more closely align DigitalGlobe’s security capabilities with those used by the U.S. Government. This will enable DigitalGlobe to participate in a broader range of government projects in support of the NGA’s mission. To date, DigitalGlobe has met every major EnhancedView milestone commitment on time.

Internet: www.digitalglobe.com

The Institute of New Imaging Technologies of the Universitat Jaume I (Castellón, Spain) has taken part in the design of a tool that integrates all the information on forestry, drought and biodiversity produced by different European systems of Earth observation.

The new tool – EuroGEOSS Broker – offers open access to vast amounts of environmental data. Developed as part of the EuroGEOSS Project and funded by the Seventh Framework programme of the European Commission, it combines official sources and interactions from the Web 2.0 communities and aims to offer relevant multi-disciplinary data that will improve environmental monitoring and land management.

Millions of sensors continuously record parameters such as air quality, light pollution, noise, vegetation density, biodiversity or water quality. This data provides valuable information on the state of our planet both to the scientific community and to society and is used for sending alerts and promoting research projects and public policies.

Given the proliferation of such sources, GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) was launched in 2003 as an international attempt to deveolp an open register of all existing systems. However, until now there was no connection between these different systems.

The European Commission considered the added benefits of interoperable systems and applications that would provide a wider picture of complex issues such as the effects of climate change or natural disasters. Joaquín Huerta Guijarro, Professor of Computer Languages and Systems at the Universitat Jaume I (pictured above) explains the relevance of this interoperability: “If we integrate systems related to weather, soil quality and water, we may develop an efficient agriculture or reforestation project.”

EuroGEOSS, therefore, aims to contribute to GEOSS with an inventory of European systems, resources and environmental monitoring services, focusing especially on the three strategic areas of Forestry, Drought and Biodiversity. The partners have developed the search engine EuroGEOSS Broker and hope it will contribute to better decision-making, especially for the prevention and management of natural disasters.

“Interoperability between Earth observation systems allows us to assess an area’s forest fire risk and loss of biodiversity. This may encourage corrective measures to avoid such a scenario,” says the Spanish researcher. The initiative has also contributed to a better understanding of the research developed by the different European experts in the three strategic areas and will help to avoid duplicities and promote partnerships.

The multidisciplinary team that participated in the project included users of Earth observation systems and experts in software engineering. The researchers at the Institute of New Imaging Technologies of the Universitat Jaume I dealt with the quality of the heterogeneous data, a key task to ensure that the different information was interoperable.

The centre also addressed the use of contributions from Web 2.0 users. “GEOSS includes a list of official sources but we have incorporated the possibility of using additional data from the Web 2.0,” says Joaquín Huerta. In this sense, Tweets or Flickr photos are extremely useful for early detection means and for analyzing the impact of disasters such as earthquakes or fires, for example. The same can be said about entries on Facebook, Wikipedia articles, and other services such as OpenStreetMap or Meteoclimatic, which shares the information collected on home weather stations.

EUROGEOSS (European environment Earth observation system), adds Prof. Huerta,“has served to test the efficiency of GEOSS and demonstrate that the benefit of this programme far exceeds the investment, as well as the intangible benefits it poses to the environment and sustainability.” An extension of the project is already underway through GEOWOW (GEOSS interoperability for Weather, Ocean and Water).

For more information visit:www.eurogeoss.eu

Source

The European Space Agency (ESA) and China have been cooperating through the Dragon Programme since 2004 to encourage the use of Earth observation in China. Building on the success of the past years, the programme is taking on more momentum as it enters its third phase.

The Dragon Programme started in 2004 as a joint undertaking between ESA, the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China.

The aim is to promote the use of ESA, Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation satellite data within China for science and applications.

Since its conception, the programme has grown from strength to strength.

In 2004, Dragon focused on 16 projects to exploit satellite data for scientific research and different practical applications.

Under Dragon 2, which started in 2008, more than 400 scientists from 165 research institutes in Europe and China were involved in 25 joint Chinese–European research projects covering land, ocean and atmospheric themes.

This week, some 400 scientists gathered in China to discuss the results of Dragon 2 and mark the opening of the programme’s third phase, Dragon 3.

Prof. Cao Jianlin, Vice Minister of MOST, addressed the symposium stating the importance of the collaboration between ESA and China to advance science through Earth observation.

“The Dragon Programme has become a model for scientific and technological cooperation between China and Europe.

“Through collaborative research, advanced training courses and sharing Earth observation data, not only have applications of remote-sensing expanded, but also high level results in scientific research have been achieved.”

One of the largest areas of research has focused on land applications.

For example, radar data from ESA’s Envisat have been used to monitor forests in northeast China.

Using the technique of hypertemporal imaging, scientists were able to map changes in forest cover along the Chinese–Russian border in 2005–10.

The usefulness of flood monitoring has also been demonstrated through the programme. For example, 2010 proved to be a particularly bad year for floods in China but radar imagery from Envisat meant that they could be carefully monitored.

In fact, using data from a range of satellites, teams were able to reconstruct changes in the dynamics of Lake Poyang in east China in the period 2003–08.

Dragon has also focused on using Earth observation for monitoring air quality and water quality.

Under this next phase of cooperation, some 50 projects have been selected for joint exploitation of Earth observation data. These projects involve 170 institutes and 700 researchers from both Europe and China.

ESA’s Maurice Borgeaud added, “The Dragon Programme is a perfect example of cooperation between MOST and ESA.”

“It not only enables the promotion of Chinese and European Earth observation data, but it also stimulates the collaboration between Sino–European science teams and the training of a new generation of young scientists.”

Dragon 3 will continue with advanced training courses on the exploitation of remote sensing of land, ocean and atmosphere. The first course, focusing on land, will take place in Beijing on 15–20 October

For more information visit:www.esa.int

HERNDON, Va., July 13, 2012 — GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a leading source of geospatial information and insight, announced that it recently signed seven-figure agreements with two international partners in the Middle East and Asia for both the renewal and expanded use of GeoEye imagery products.

The Middle East affiliate has signed a new agreement for access to GeoEye-1 sub half-meter imagery, which is the highest resolution commercial imagery available globally. This affiliate has had an ongoing agreement with GeoEye for IKONOS satellite imagery collection and distribution since 2000. The agreement with the government customer in Asia renewed their access to GeoEye-1’s highly precise imagery products. This customer has had an agreement in place for GeoEye-1 satellite imagery collection since 2009.

Both partners have indicated they will integrate GeoEye-1’s high-resolution imagery with their own systems to support regional security and peace missions.

“Both the Mideast Regional Affiliate and the Asian government customer have been trusted and valued partners for many years,” said Paolo Colombi, GeoEye’s vice president of International Sales. “We appreciate the extension of our partnerships and the expansion of our global footprint that these agreements represent. We look forward to supporting our partners’ mission critical requirements by delivering superior-quality location intelligence regarding these highly sensitive and dynamic regions of the world.”

GeoConnexion

Korea will start a new system in 2018 to monitor environmental conditions by launching the world’s first satellite for monitoring climate change over the Korean Peninsula.

The Environment Ministry and the National Institute of Environment Research said Monday in a statement, “We have recently begun to develop an earth environment satellite to monitor climate change and air pollution in Northeast Asia.”

The ministry said the U.S. and Europe observe air pollution and global warming via a low-earth orbit satellite. It floats about 700 kilometers above the Earth’s surface and its orbit crosses the Arctic and the Antarctic. Therefore, it can seamlessly monitor air pollution in a region and its movement as well as climate change patterns.

For more information click here

Source: The Dong-A Ilbo

(Publish Date: 15 May 2012) Abuja, Nigeria: The newly-launched earth observation satellite, NigeriaSat-2, is now set for commercial activities.

Director-general of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) Mohammed Seidu disclosed this on Friday in Abuja, adding that Nigeria’s first satellite in orbit NigeriaSat-1 is to be decommissioned soon.

Seidu, who was giving a rundown of the activities of NASRDA, said the testing of Sat-2, launched in August 2011, had been completed and commercial activities would take off soon.

Seidu, declared the agency’s current financial status as the most poorly funded among its contemporaries globally, said Nigeria would be saved over two billion dollars on high resolution imagery annually by NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X.

He said that NASRDA was currently proposing a policy to the National Assembly which would compel companies within Nigeria to first patronise Nigerian space technologies and only look outside when the technology was not in Nigeria.

The director general, who did not disclose the specific time for decommissioning NigeriaSat-1 and the takeoff of commercial activities for the NigeriaSat-2, cited security reasons as why he could not divulge the information.

Nigeria became the third African country to have a presence in space after South Africa and Algeria with the launch of NigeriaSat- 1.

Source: Xinhua

(June 2012) UK consortium to help fight global deforestation through REDD+

UK satellite imaging company DMCii has successfully led a multi-disciplinary consortium to win a place on the Department for International Development (DfID) Forest Governance Markets and Climate (FGMC) Framework Agreement. This means they will be able to bid for projects to monitor forest governance and deforestation globally, and its effects on local communities.

Coordinating a constellation of remote Earth observation satellites, DMCii has the unique capability to survey and classify vast areas of forest and to monitor changes in land use over time. This highly effective imaging system has been employed by the Brazilian space agency (INPE) since 2005, helping the authorities to quantify deforestation in the Amazon Basin and pro-actively intervene to deter illegal logging – itself advising the consortium. It is this expertise that has been crucial in helping the consortium win a place on the framework agreement.

Professor Jim Lynch, DMCii Forestry Director, commented, “We are delighted to have been accepted to the FGMC – helping reduce poverty in developing countries while combating climate change is the reason we formed our consortium. We look forward to addressing the many challenges of such rewarding and innovative projects.”

The UK’s FGMC programme supports developing countries in strengthening their governance of forest resources. Under the FGMC Framework, the consortium can now compete for projects to monitor land use and forests, to understand and build methods for forest protection, to introduce a financial results-based payment system for carbon, and to analyse the impact of forest management scenarios. This could help support communities whose livelihoods depend on forest resources, whilst supporting broader UK efforts to Reduce Emissions Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and the EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan.

The inFORm consortium comprises commercial and academic partners, providing a nucleus of relevant expertise with which to develop local capabilities and support for sustainable forest management in communities around the world. Members complement each other with skills such as forest mapping, deforestation assessment, broad ranging Earth observation technologies, carbon accounting, timber tracking, policy development, new ideas for financial environmental markets – and a proven track record in the development of native capabilities in countries such as Colombia, D.R Congo, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Notes to editor:
1. Find out more about REDD+ here http://www.un-redd.org/
2. DMCii press releases can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/dmciipr and satellite imagery is available upon request.
3. The consortium is made up of:
DMCii International Imaging Ltd: Satellite Data and value-added services provider and consortium lead.
• Helveta: Leader in supply chain and asset management software.
• World Resources Institute: Non-profit environmental think tank with goal of protecting the Earth and improving people’s lives.
• Astrium GeoServices: Provider of radar/optical data, GIS products and services.
• University of Leicester: University leading in research into the nature and dynamics of human-environmental systems.
• University of Surrey: The inter-disciplinary Centre for Environmental Strategy (Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences) has a global focus, and works closely with the Faculty of Management and Law.
• Carbon Auditors: Expert in carbon monitoring and verification in Land Use Change and Forestry sector.
• Z/Yen: Commercial think tank promoting societal advancement through finance and technology.
• Quarry One Eleven: Geospatial sales and marketing agency.
4. 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.

Toulouse, France – 4 June 2012 – The Astrium Services GEO-Information team is pleased to announce that Pléiades imagery is now available to all users, notably through its Geostore portal (www.geostore.com) that have opened starting June.

Astrium GEO-Information Services, which has already signed partnership agreements to supply Pléiades data with three leading players in the remote-sensing industry—PASCO Corporation in Japan, Beijing Eastdawn Information Technology in China and MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in Canada—is thus adding very-high-resolution products for precision mapping and photo-interpretation to its portfolio, available to customers worldwide.

Pléiades 1A, launched on 16 December 2011, is the first in a constellation of twin Earth-imaging satellites, the second of which is set for launch in the coming months. This constellation offers exceptional performance for civil applications. Besides their 50-cm resolution after resampling, the Pléiades satellites’ agility enables them to image points out to 1,500 km either side of nadir. The two satellites will be phased to guarantee daily revisits to any point on the globe.

Pléiades complements the SPOT satellites, the latest of which, SPOT 6, is set to be orbited in September this year. SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will offer lower-resolution (1.5 m) wide-swath (60 km) data for mapping very large areas. The Pléiades (1A and 1B) and SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 constellations will be equally spaced in Earth orbit, giving Astrium Services a capability by 2014 to supply very recent imagery and multiscale, quick-response services unique in the civil market. These satellites will make Astrium Services the first operator in the world to offer customers a full palette of optical and radar Earth-imaging data at scales from medium to very-high resolution.

Through its GEO-Information services, Astrium is recognized as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, not least thanks to the now fully integrated skills and resources of the former Spot Image and Infoterra. The company provides decision-makers with complete solutions enabling them to increase security, boost agricultural performance, maximize oil & gas or mining operations, improve their management of natural resources, and protect the environment. It has exclusive access to data from the SPOT, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites and Pléiades, coupled with a complete range of space-based data sources and airborne acquisition capability allowing it to offer an unrivalled scope of Earth observation products and services. This extensive portfolio covers the entire geo-information supply chain, from the generation of images to the provision of high added-value information to end-users.

By leveraging the synergies and expertise available across the whole of Astrium Services, its GEO-Information teams develop innovative, yet competitive, bespoke solutions based on the combination and integration of Earth observation, navigation and high-end telecommunications.

Source Astrium

Darmstadt/Paris, 16 July 2012 – Today at 14:00 local time, following the successful launch of the satellite on 5 July aboard an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, and after 11 days of LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) by ESA’s Centre, ESOC, EUMETSAT took control of the MSG-3 operations.

During the last 11 days, the satellite was moved into geostationary orbit, the various components which make up the satellite’s platform were activated and their functionality checked. Thisincluded a number of critical manoeuvres like the firing of the apogee motors, the change of spacecraft orientation and the unlocking of the SEVIRI scan mirror.

After the successful handover, EUMETSAT can now begin commissioning the satellite and its sensors. Commissioning consists of a two-month phase for satellite check-out and assessment, followed by a four-month phase for imaging and product testing, including calibration and validation activities.

The release of the first image generated by the SEVIRI imager on board MSG-3 on 6 August will be an important milestone.

For more details
http://www.eumetsat.int/msg3/news.html
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM2WMMXL4H_index_0.html

About Meteosat Second Generation

MSG is a joint programme undertaken by ESA and EUMETSAT. ESA is responsible for the development of satellites fulfilling user and system requirements defined by EUMETSAT and of the procurement of recurrent satellites on its behalf. ESA also performs the Launch and Early Orbit Phase operations required to place the spacecraft in geostationary orbit, before handing it over to EUMETSAT for exploitation.

EUMETSAT develops all ground systems required to deliver products and services to users and to respond to their evolving needs, procures launch services and operates the full system for the benefit of users.

MSG-3 is the third in a series of four satellites introduced in 2002. These spin-stabilised satellites carry the primary Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager, or SEVIRI.

SEVIRI focuses on Europe and Africa to deliver enhanced weather coverage, in order to improve local forecasts, in particular for rapidly developing storms. It scans Earth’s surface and atmosphere every 15 minutes in 12 different wavelengths, to track cloud development and measure temperatures.

SEVIRI can pick out features as small as a kilometre across in the visible bands, and three kilometres in the infrared.

In addition to its weather-watching mission and collection of climate records, MSG-3 has two secondary payloads.

The Global Earth Radiation Budget sensor will measure the amount of solar energy that is radiated back into space to determine how much energy is introduced into the climate system and to provide insights into the atmospheric circulation between the day and night sides.

A Search & Rescue transponder will turn the satellite into a relay for distress signals from emergency beacons.

The MSG satellites were built in Cannes, France, by a European industrial team led by Thales Alenia Space, France. More than 50 subcontractors from 13 European countries are involved.

The last of the series, MSG-4, is planned for launch in 2015.

About EUMETSAT

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 26 European Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and five Cooperating States (Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, and Serbia).

EUMETSAT operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8 and -9 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.

Metop-A, the first European polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, was launched in October 2006 and has been delivering operational data since 15 May 2007.

The Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite, launched on 20 June 2008, added monitoring of sea state, ocean currents and sea level change to the missions EUMETSATEumetsat conducts.

The data and products from EUMETSAT’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and the global climate.

Media Relations
EUMETSAT
Tel: +49 6151 807 7320 / Fax: +49 6151 807 7321
press@eumetsat.int / www.eumetsat.int

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 19 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxem-bourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of whom 17 are Member States of the EU. ESA has Cooperation Agreements with nine other Member States of the EU and is negotiating an Agreement with the one remaining (Bulgaria). Poland is in the process of becoming ESA’s 20th Member State. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities. Today it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.

For further information, please contact:
ESA Media Relations Office
Communication Department
Tel: +33 1 53 69 72 99
Fax: +33 1 53 69 76 90