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Chelmsford, England—Imaging solutions company e2v signed two contracts with Thales Alenia Space worth a total of more than $5.7 million dollars ($4 million euro). The contracts are for the supply of imaging sensors—space-qualified back-thinned CCD sensors with high quantum efficiency (QE) and excellent modulation transfer function (MTF) performance—that will equip the high-resolution optical imaging instruments for Thales Alenia Space Earth observation satellites Göktürk and Seosat-Ingenio.

Göktürk is an Earth observation satellite system for the Turkish Ministry of Defence. It is derived from the Proteus platform (also developed by Thales Alenia Space) and will include a high-resolution optical instrument, similar to that used in the Pleiades program. The satellite launch is planned for 2013.

Seosat-Ingenio is the first Spanish Earth observation satellite and the first to be built by a consortium of industries from the Spanish space sector primed by Astrium. This Spanish Earth observation satellite system will meet a growing need for data and provide Spain with full autonomy and independence in image capture for applications such as security land management, natural resource management, and to help with the response to natural catastrophes.

The sensors will be delivered over a 2 year period starting in July 2011.

Bertrand De Monte, Marketing Manager of high performance imaging, at e2v said, “e2v is delighted to sign this contract with Thales Alenia Space. It demonstrates how e2v’s imaging solutions for Earth observation applications are well respected and add to more than 20 worldwide programmes running with our high performance imaging technology.”

SOURCE: e2v

Posted by: Gail Overton

After 16 years spent gathering a wealth of data that has revolutionised our understanding of Earth, ESA’s veteran ERS-2 satellite is being retired. This pioneering mission has not only advanced science, but also forged the technologies we now rely on for monitoring our planet.

ERS-2 was launched in 1995, following its sister, the first European Remote Sensing satellite, which was launched four years earlier.

Carrying suites of sophisticated instruments to study the complexities of the atmosphere, land, oceans and polar ice, these two missions were the most advanced of their time, putting Europe firmly at the forefront of Earth observation.

The twin satellites were identical, apart from ERS-2’s additional instrument to monitor ozone in the atmosphere. Both exceeded their design lifetime by far, together delivering a 20-year stream of continuous data.

In 2000, ERS-1 unexpectedly stopped working and now it is time to bid farewell to ERS-2 before it succumbs to a similar fate.

To avoid ERS-2 ending up as a piece of space debris, ESA will take the satellite out of service by bringing it down to a lower orbit while there is still sufficient fuel to make the careful manoeuvres.

The decision to retire ERS-2 was not taken lightly, but after orbiting Earth almost 85 000 times – travelling 3.8 billion km – the risk that the satellite could lose power at any time is clearly high.

The deorbiting procedure will be carried out over a number of weeks by spacecraft operators and flight dynamics experts at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany.

Starting on 6 July, a series of thruster burns will gradually lower the satellite’s orbit from its current altitude of 800 km to about 550 km, where the risk of collision is minimal. Eventually, ERS-2 will enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

Its destruction will occur within 25 years, in accordance with European Code of Conduct on Space Debris Mitigation.

ERS-2 has been delivering data right to the end. In one of its last operations, the satellite was placed in an orbit that allowed it to capture radar images every three days of some of Earth’s most rapidly changing features.

Source ESA

China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday said it will lauch an experimental orbiter in China’s Shi-Jian satellite series in coming days.

The orbiter, SJ-11-03, will be boosted by China’s indigenous Long-March II-C rocket at an appropriate launch window, said a press release provided by the center.

Currently, the orbiter and rocket are in good condition and all preparations for the launch are going smoothly, said the press release which gives no further details.

Xinhua
Spacedaily

Galileo Services Association welcomes with enthusiasm the European Parliament Resolution of 7 June 2011 on ”Transport applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems – short- and medium term EU policy”.

With the dedicated budget being exhausted, 2010 would have been the year of the last FP7 call for GNSS – thereby effectively removing Europe’s opportunity to continue boosting downstream industry and taking advantage of the momentum created by the large investment made in Galileo. However, after more than one year of committed lobby campaign1, hope is reborn among European GNSS downstream Research and Innovation actors when reading the recent resolution of the European Parliament.

Among the decisive statements raised in the resolution the European Parliament reminds that “the commercial transport applications of GNSS and Galileo represent a growing global market which should be secured as far as is possible for the economic benefit of European industry and for the creation of skilled jobs” and, more widely, that “investment in this sector has implications for all EU policies, and whereas its expansion and implementation will have a direct impact on the realisation of the EU 2020 Strategy and from the point of view of developing the potential of the European market in GNSS applications and services so as to create jobs and enhance Europe’s competitiveness.”

The European Parliament “calls on the Commission to ensure that the EUR 100 m likely to be underspent in payment appropriation for research within the Seventh Framework Programme is made available for the development of GNSS applications.”

As already stressed frequently by industry, Europe has a golden opportunity but only for a very limited period of time. The world enters into the time of multi-GNSS multi-sensor technologies, enabling the development of crucial applications and services for Europe. An absence of funding up to 2014, delaying the technological progress as well as knowledge in the GNSS domain, constitutes a huge risk both for European GNSS programmes and Europe’s competitiveness.

The resolution2 (P7_TA-PROV0250) follows the report3 of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A7-0084/2011) on GNSS applications in transport, adopted on March 24th, 2011. These papers deal not only with short- but also medium-term EU policy and set out the main issues of GNSS in transport domain.

The reallocation of the budget mentioned by the European Parliament would enable the publication of a 4th Call for Proposals for GNSS applications within FP7. From a short term perspective this would prevent a critical rupture of the way to European Excellence and Competitiveness in the GNSS field and must be followed by substantial funding for the coming years.

1) http://www.galileo-services.org/library/library.html
2) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0250+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
3) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-0084&language=EN

***
bq. For further information:
contact: Axelle Pomies, Galileo Services Permanent Representative
e-mail : axelle.pomies@galileo-services.org or visit www.galileo-services.org

On 29 June 2011, the European Commission launched a consultation on standards that will affect everybody’s life.

With INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe), the European Union is creating common standards to make environmental information quickly and easily accessible. This will translate into clear benefits for European citizens, ranging from improved emergency services to a healthier everyday environment. Common standards will help to cut costs and improve the basis for decision making at all levels.

Hundreds of experts from across Europe have been working together for several years to agree common definitions in important policy areas such as energy, climate change, biodiversity, the marine environment and human health. The proposed standards are now open for public consultation and testing to assess their usability across disciplines and nations.

Further information is available at INSPIRE

Source GMES.Info

ESA’s project could help Norway to map avalanches

The European Space Agency (ESA) has recently shown that satellites could help to monitor avalanche falls in Norway, where they pose a risk to road users every year. A pilot study called “Innovators II–AvalRS” was launched through ESA’s Earth Observation Data User Element programme to do that.

The project tested two different approaches: one focusing on the texture of the avalanche deposits and the other focusing on topographic features of the avalanche such as aspect direction. Both methods have yielded promising results. The remaining challenge is to distinguish between shadows and rocks and also make classifications within areas in shadow.

The project has shown that satellite images and these new techniques could be used to add a significant degree of confidence to avalanche mapping from space, which would have the knock-on effect of keeping Norway’s roads safe in the winter.

More information can be found at ESA website

Source GMES.Info

GIS and allied technologies help in planning for, monitoring and responding to disasters, as well as in effecting reconstruction, from aerial and ground surveys, to spatial analysis for planning community rebuilding or even relocation in extreme cases.

Occurrence of a disaster is often the first indication that insufficient geospatial data or models exist that could have helped in either pre-disaster planning or in response and mitigation.

One obstacle is funding – governments around the globe are loathe to invest in geodata collection and modelling, especially in these economically difficult times, unless necessary. Sadly, it takes a disaster and the accompanying economic consequences – not to mention loss of human life – to raise geospatial technology
requirements (data, models, expertise) higher up the funding ladder.

MapAction, the specialist emergency mapping service, sent a team of mapping specialists to Haiti. Using GIS, MapAction was able to provide a dedicated, easy to understand, realtime mapping service to all other humanitarian aid missions in the area. In the disaster zone, MapAction team members, equipped with GPS units and satellite phones, survey the area, working with rapid assessment teams from United Nations and other relief agencies. In 2010, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between GISCorps and MapAction, highlighting the mutual interest of the two organizations in providing GIS assistance to communities affected by disasters throughout the world.

Original article Published by: GeoConnexion

GIS and allied technologies help in planning for, monitoring and responding to disasters, as well as in effecting reconstruction, from aerial and ground surveys, to spatial analysis for planning community rebuilding or even relocation in extreme cases.

Occurrence of a disaster is often the first indication that insufficient geospatial data or models exist that could have helped in either pre-disaster planning or in response and mitigation.

One obstacle is funding – governments around the globe are loathe to invest in geodata collection and modelling, especially in these economically difficult times, unless necessary. Sadly, it takes a disaster and the accompanying economic consequences – not to mention loss of human life – to raise geospatial technology
requirements (data, models, expertise) higher up the funding ladder.

MapAction, the specialist emergency mapping service, sent a team of mapping specialists to Haiti. Using GIS, MapAction was able to provide a dedicated, easy to understand, realtime mapping service to all other humanitarian aid missions in the area. In the disaster zone, MapAction team members, equipped with GPS units and satellite phones, survey the area, working with rapid assessment teams from United Nations and other relief agencies. In 2010, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between GISCorps and MapAction, highlighting the mutual interest of the two organizations in providing GIS assistance to communities affected by disasters throughout the world.

Original article Published by: GeoConnexion

Satellite images could be used to track and quantify long-term recovery efforts in regions stricken by natural disasters.

But longer term recovery — including the rebuilding of infrastructure and amenities such as schools and hospitals — can take decades, depending on the extent and the location of the disaster.
Now, a group based at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, working with industrial partners Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd. and ImageCat Inc., says it has developed the first systematic approach to monitoring and evaluating this process. The method, which has been submitted to Disasters journal, involves tracking a region using high-resolution satellite images, which have become more abundant and affordable in recent years.

A recovery monitoring system could improve coordination and decision-making, and warn if the reconstruction is not going according to plan, say the researchers.

“Analysing past recovery processes will also allow us to identify examples of good and bad practice and to provide ‘lessons learned’ to stakeholders that can hopefully be applied to future and ongoing responses,” Brown said.

Their approach is to integrate satellite data into 13 ‘performance indicators’ such as length of roads and distribution of housing. Data is then compared with on-the-ground reports collected from household surveys and interviews with recovery workers. The method is based on two case studies, in Pakistan and Thailand, which are documented in the team’s report, ‘Disaster Recovery Indicators’, aimed at policymakers and released last year.

Original article Published by: AlertNet

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) participated in the IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation held in Berlin (Germany), presenting the advances made by the UAE in space and satellite systems since the launch of DubaiSat-1 in 2009.

EIAST delegates briefed the symposium on the ongoing preparations for the launch of DubaiSat-2, the second satellite mission under EIAST’s Space Programme.

The symposium held during 4-8 April 2011 was organised by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) with the support of German Aerospace Centre (DLR) to promote exchange of information, explore new concepts, encourage international cooperation in mission planning, and develop collaborative relationships among individuals and institutions.

Engineers Suhail Al Dhafri and Mohammed Wali who represented EIAST at the symposium gave a round-up of the Space Programme and its achievements in transferring critical satellite technology to the UAE to complement ongoing development.

“While improving our capabilities in protecting our resources and planning sustainable development, DubaiSat-1 has brought the UAE into a league of countries with advanced knowledge of satellite imaging. EIAST is keen on our engineers leading our programmes and initiatives as it is critical to achieving the knowledge transfer and culture of innovation which we seek to promote,” said Mr Ahmed Al Mansoori, Director General, EIAST.

“The 8th IAA symposium gave us an opportunity to present the capabilities of Dubaisat-1 and its optical payload performance to the Small Satellite community worldwide. We were also able to convey the benefits of our determination and continued success in space activity for the UAE and beyond,” commented Suhail Al Dhafri.

Mohammed Wali added: “The responsibility of building awareness on our satellite activity at such high profile forum like the IAA Symposium was indeed a great opportunity and honor. We are happy that we were able to detail our progress on DubaiSat-2 at the gathering.”

DubaiSat-1 images play a vital role in infrastructure development in the UAE by providing spatial information essential to decision-making on urban and rural planning, transport, utilities, mapping, and environmental conservation. Its relatively high spatial resolution complements existing Geographic Information System (GIS) databases and enables more efficient monitoring and prediction of natural hazards such as sandstorms, land degradation, desertification and droughts.

Following the success of DubaiSat-1 EIAST is currently preparing to launch DubaiSat-2 and preparations have now reached the Critical Design Review (CDR) stage after completing preliminary design reviews. The second mission will be a totally new design developed by EIAST and Satrec Initiative of South Korea and it will produce higher and better quality image data.

Source