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(n°16 – 6th April 2011). This E-News is published by the SWIFT project whose aim is to support information dissemination in the framework of the European Commission GMES initiative.
SWIFT is a Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Commission / Directorate General Enterprise and Industry under the 7th Framework Programme.


1. European Commissioner for Climate Action Emphasizes the Role of Space
2. The GlobCover Project
3. Workshop on Maritime Monitoring for Coast Guards
4. EU Study Reveals the Plight of Baltic Sea Ecosystem
5. UK Accorded Time Extension to Comply with the Air Quality Directive
6. Climate Change Threatens European Forests
7. Water Scarcity and Droughts in Europe: State of Play
8. Consultation on Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management
9. Reminder: Call for Expressions of Interest Concerning GMES Projects and Services
GMES Project Corner:
10. Newly launched GMES projects
11. MACC Project: Recent Achievements
12. G-MOSAIC: Recent Activations
13. Latest Activations of the GMES Emergency Management Service

1. European Commissioner for Climate Action Emphasizes the Role of Space

On 2 February 2011, a Hearing on “Space Systems and Key Assets for Climate Change Monitoring and Adaptation Strategies” took place at the European Parliament. European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, stressed that Earth observation is of the utmost importance for monitoring, tackling and adapting to climate change, and pointed to satellite navigation as an important space tool. Moreover, she is working together with Vice-President and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, in order to develop a joint strategy on space and climate.

Read More…

2. The GlobCover Project

On 9 February 2011 took place the final meeting of the European Space Agency’s GlobCover project at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC IES) in Ispra, Italy. The objective was to make an assessment of both the strengths and limitations of the project, as well as to present the new GlobCover 2009 Map. The GlobCover project has developed a service capable of delivering land cover maps on the basis of satellite images, thanks to observations from the 300m MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor on board the ENVISAT (“Environmental Satellite”) mission.

Read More…

3. Workshop on Maritime Monitoring for Coast Guards

On 10 February 2011, a training workshop on the latest space technologies for maritime monitoring and surveillance was held at the European Space Agency’s Earth observation centre in Frascati (Italy). This course served as a platform to agree on future collaborative projects and to provide coast guards with an improved understanding of the technical aspects behind operational systems that make wider use of satellite data. New developments, currently under verification, were also presented.

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4. EU Study Reveals the Plight of Baltic Sea Ecosystem

In a recently study, EU-funded researchers at the Geological Survey of Finland have found that the sea surface temperature of the Baltic Sea was warmer in the past than at the present time and that the oxygen depletion was stronger than current figures show. In this context, the INFLOW project (one of the sixteen BONUS+ projects) is developing a model for natural variability in marine ecosystems that will clarify how the changes will affect the Baltic Sea in the long term.

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5. UK Accorded Time Extension to Comply with the Air Quality Directive

On 11 March 2011, under a temporary and conditional exemption, the European Commission granted the United Kingdom additional time to comply with the European Union’s air quality standards for airborne particles (known as “PM10”) in the Greater London Urban Area. The decision approves the time extension provided that the UK adapts its air quality plan for this zone.

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6. Climate Change Threatens European Forests

Europe’s forests face threats from climate change. Global warming and extreme events will probably make disappear some tree sorts from certain areas. In response to this concern, the European Commission issued in March 2010 a Green Paper on “Forest protection and information in the EU: preparing forests for climate change”. Following this, Kriton Arsenis – Greek Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP) – wrote a draft report on the Commission Green Paper that was adopted by the European Parliament (EP) Environment Committee at its meeting of 16 March. The indicative date for the vote in plenary is 9 May 2011.

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7. Water Scarcity and Droughts in Europe: State of Play

On 21 March 2011, the European Commission published the “Third Follow up Report to the Communication on water scarcity and droughts in the European Union”. In the run up to a major water policy review in 2012, the report presents the water management measures introduced by Member States to tackle water scarcity and droughts and highlights the areas in which further action will be needed in the future.

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8. Consultation on Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management

On 24 March 2011, the European Commission launched a public consultation in order to seek views on how to reduce pressure on coastal and marine areas in the European Union. The questionnaire is aimed at collecting background information for the Impact Assessment which the Commission launched in December 2010 on options for action on Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), as well as at obtaining thoughts about the future of coastal and marine areas in the EU and where action at European level would be most useful. The consultation will be open for a period of eight weeks and to all interested parties.

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9. Reminder: Call for Expressions of Interest Concerning GMES Projects and Services

As GMES gradually moves towards operations, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (EC DG ENTR) plans to launch more projects on this theme. These should provide value-added services and products in all GMES areas. In this context, EC DG ENTR is looking for experts in evaluating, monitoring and validating GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) projects and services.

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GMES Projects’ Corner

10. Newly launched GMES projects

Several GMES-related projects have been launched recently by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (EC DG ENTR). Two of them, GRAAL and DORIS_Net, aim at fostering the development of GMES downstream services and the link with the regions. Another project, CryoLand aims at implementing a snow and land ice monitoring service. A fourth project, PanGeo, aims at enabling access to geological information in support of the GMES programme.

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11. MACC Project: Recent Achievements

The EC-funded project MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate) is implementing the pre-operational version of the GMES Atmosphere Monitoring Service. An accurate monitoring of the depletion of the ozone layer in March and an improvement of aerosol forecasts are part of the recent achievements of the project.

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12. G-MOSAIC: Recent Activations

The EC-funded project G-MOSAIC (GMES services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crises) provides intelligence data that can be applied to early warning and crisis prevention, as well as to crisis management and rapid interventions in hot spots around the world. Recent activations of the project include for instance the illegal monitoring of charcoal production in Africa, the delivery of population distribution maps in support to yearly surveys in Asia or the analysis of widespread damages due to continuous rainfalls in combination with unstable grounds in Latin America.

Read More…

13. Latest Activations of the GMES Emergency Management Service

The GMES Emergency Management Service powered by the EC-funded project SAFER reinforces the European capacity to respond to emergency situations: it provides a reactive cartographic service to the registered users involved in the management of humanitarian crisis, natural disasters and man-made emergency situations with timely and high quality products derived from Space Observation. During the last two months, this service has been triggered several times (floods in Madagascar, Oil Spill in Norway, earthquake in New Zealand and civil unrest in Lybia).

Read More…

(Source GMES.Info)

(April 2011) The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) membership has approved the Sensor Planning Service (SPS) Interface Standard 2.0 Earth Observation Satellite Tasking Extension standard as an official OGC standard.

This standard is available for free download at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/sps.

The SPS 2.0 Earth Observation Satellite Tasking Extension Standard specifies extensions to the OGC Sensor Planning Service (SPS) 2.0 Interface Standard. The SPS configuration proposed in this extension is intended to support the programming process of Earth Observation (EO) sensor systems.

This standard describes a consistent SPS configuration that can be supported by many satellite data providers, most of whom have existing facilities for the management of these programming requests.

The resulting extended web service interface can be used for
Determining the feasibility of an intended sensor planning request
Submitting such a request
Inquiring about the status of such a request
Updating or canceling such a request
Requesting information on means of obtaining the data collected by the requested task.

SPS is one of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) (http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/markets-technologies/swe) suite of standards.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 410 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.

Source SpatialNews

(6 April 2011) Fugro announced today that it has signed a 5-year contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coastal Services Center (CSC) for geospatial services to support coastal resources management in all US continental, Caribbean and Pacific territories.

This open-ended contract provides NOAA and other federal, state, local and tribal organizations with access to state-of-the-art geospatial services including: airborne digital and hyperspectral imagery, LiDAR, and IFSAR; topographic and bathymetric mapping; thematic mapping; photogrammetric mapping; terrestrial surveying; and GIS services. Geospatial information developed under this contract will feed into the CSC’s Digital Coast program and will serve coastal resources managers, researchers, and policy makers on a broad range of applications, including: coastal and marine spatial planning, land use management, coastal erosion, marine fisheries management, transportation and shipping coordination, emergency management, and flood risk mitigation.

Said Ed Saade, President and General Manager of Fugro EarthData, “We understand the challenges NOAA and other government organizations face in addressing social, economic, and environmental issues related to our Nation’s coastal areas. Fugro is committed to providing quality geospatial products and services to support the CSC’s important mission.”

Fugro EarthData, Inc. provides a full range of mapping and GIS services to support customer needs in a wide variety of natural resource management, urban planning, economic development, defense, and engineering activities.

Fugro EarthData is a member of the international Fugro group of companies. Fugro is listed on Euronext N.V. in Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midkap index. Fugro has over 275 offices, more than 13,500 staff and a permanent presence in over 50 countries.

Source Directionsmag

ERDAS announces the official release of ERDAS APOLLO 2011, now available for download on the ERDAS website.

ERDAS APOLLO is an enterprise solution for managing and delivering massive volumes of distributed geospatial data and imagery. This server-based offering is available in three product tiers to suit a wide spectrum of organizations – from those that simply need a very low-cost, remarkably fast image server to those requiring a comprehensive data management system.

ERDAS APOLLO 2011 further improves the reliability and scalability of the system via clustering, in which multiple servers work in concert to improve performance. Clustering increases the number of users the system can serve and improves system reliability by allowing other servers to handle requests if a server goes down.

Additionally, ERDAS APOLLO 2011 features significant usability enhancements. Base maps from Microsoft Bing Maps are now available in both the ERDAS APOLLO Web Client and the ERDAS TITAN Client, providing a premium map-viewing experience. Users may choose from three different map sources: Bing Maps Roads (a map with roads and labels), Bing Maps Aerial (an aerial imagery map) and Bing Maps Hybrid (an aerial map with roads and labels).

Source

Fugro EarthData announced last week it has delivered the first tiles of updated orthoimagery and digital elevation model (DEM) for the Alaska Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative’s (SDMI) multi-year program to develop new mapping of the entire state

Frederick,MD — Funded under a state and federal cost partnership, the goal of the SDMI is to provide new and improved base mapping that can be used by many organizations to include local, state, tribal, and federal governments; businesses; and the scientific research community. New, up-to-date statewide geospatial information will directly contribute to a broad range of applications from aviation safety, to infrastructure planning, to natural resources management.

The Statewide Imagery Acquisition project is coordinated by AeroMetric with Astrium providing the source satellite imagery. Deliverables include digital color and infrared orthoimagery at 2.5 m pixel resolution. The Alaska Mid-Accuracy DEM update project is coordinated by Dewberry through a contract with the U.S. Geological Survey and will deliver a 5m-posted DEM and orthorectified radar imagery across the state.

“Fugro’s role on both the orthoimage and DEM mapping programs of the Alaska SDMI demonstrates our ability to meet a broad range of user needs through the use of cutting-edge technology,” said Ed Saade, president of Fugro EarthData, adding: ““These projects reinforce Fugro’s decades-long position as a leading survey services provider in Alaska and the Arctic region.”

Fugro EarthData, Inc. provides a full range of mapping and GIS services to support customer needs in a wide variety of natural resource management, urban planning, economic development, defense, and engineering activities.

Fugro EarthData is a member of the international Fugro group of companies. Fugro is listed on Euronext N.V. in Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midkap index. Fugro has over 275 offices, more than 13,500 staff and a permanent presence in over 50 countries.

Source

from November issue Vector1 magazine

While integration of geospatial technologies is contributing toward an increase in real-time geodata needs, it can be argued that a shift toward demands for greater collaboration and increased sharing within and between projects is the primary driver for real-time geodata. With more people working and sharing together, often from different localities and time zones – projects never sleep. Spatial data is constantly be captured and exchanged, and many sub-systems in the work flows are automated for continuous geoprocessing and output.

Many geospatial applications today aspire to greater collaboration and sharing among those participating within and between projects. Whereas users previously worked alone with specific kinds of spatial data or because of disciplinary boundaries, many projects and contracts now depend upon people communicating together with higher levels of interaction and sharing. Technological developments have supported this change and standards also contribute toward these interactions.

  • BIM Model Sharing and Synchronization
  • the United States Geological Service (USGS) generates real-time earthquake mapping as a means to improve reaction response.
  • real-time GIS data is used to enable GeoDesign through pen-based technology.
  • Real-time and near real-time GPS-components for the Indonesian tsunami early warning system and IGS real-time products evaluation.
  • JASON-2 satellite delivers near real-time data for ocean monitoring.
  • IBM software predicts traffic patterns using real-time data.
  • Weatherbug delivers real-time agricultural data to support real-time decision making for agricultural producers.
  • ERTICO – urban test bed sites should include real-time collection (intelligent agents, WiFi etc.) from fleets.
  • Capturing the Long Tail of Sensor Web

Recently at a meeting in Rome, members of the European Environment Agency indicated that the future would see a rise in the number of general public as contributors to that agency’s web services. The notion behind this realisation is that people will begin to feedback their own expressions as part of a wider data pool, thereby contributing toward updates of these web services – the services will be dynamic in nature.

The extent of real-time requirements is not restricted to a particular technology. From field mobility tools through to satellite imagery, real-time geodata will be captured, analysed and represented in near continuous fashion. One of the clearest signals that collaboration and sharing are driving real-time data needs can be found in the building information modeling (BIM) field.

BIM seeks to integrate spatial information from a wide number of professionals in a multi-disciplinary approach. Architects, structural engineers, urban planners and transportation specialists as well as others seek to connect their work in a fused and seamless way. These BIM models inter-connect these individuals, sometimes from different locations and time zones.

It becomes more difficult to identify local projects, since the participants originate from different locations. In fact, discussions surrounding 3D city models now often speak about connecting different projects that find their foundational infrastructure all within common geodata. Few can argue with the fact the one road serves utilities, transport and developer needs at the same time.

How will all this connectedness impact the sector? Clearly efficiency is an outcome as is improved communication. Additionally, there are benefits in time saved on projects, and the ability to access components of infrastructure lifecycle using a common approach. But other impacts may be triggered.

How do we train and educate people to work at such high levels of collaboration and rates of data integration? Should people become more generalist or more specific in terms of disciplines that they study? What will be the role of surveyor’s? Should architects need to know and understand geodata? Where do the lines of ownership and liability meet and cross as real-time data draws more people into the collaborative processes?

The trend is toward greater amounts of real-time geodata. This is positive and likely to result in better decision-making and improved outcomes. It will demand improvements in hardware, particularly communication technologies and connections for moving large quantities of geodata, storing them and new innovations for improving the synthesis of vast quantities of data arriving at our work places.

Source

(November 2010) GeoOptics has just released a new Climate Mobile app that is free to all. The app allows users to access worldwide climate information, from space satellites and surface instruments (which provide valuable information in their own right and also cross-checks of space data).

Users can browse worldwide temperature records from NASA and NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) going back over 130 years.

The app’s “Personal Climate Analyzer” enables you to perform analysis of climate trends – if you discover something important, your results can be relayed back to the web and potentially published for the world to see.

The point is to engage “citizen scientists”, arm them with up-to-date info and let them see the facts of climate change for themselves.

This is not the first climate app out there. Skeptical Science, a very nice website that “gets skeptical about global warming skepticism” launched its free app earlier this year.

The goal is to enable people to browse the top 10 arguments used by climate skeptics to argue against the scientific evidence for man-made climate change, as well as browse by three main skeptical categories (“It’s not happening”, “It’s not us”, “It’s not bad”)”, and then compare that with what the scientific evidence says.

Of course, then there’s the “skeptics” themselves, and their iPhone app offering called “Our Climate”. They say: “It offers a balanced, skeptical point of view on the current state of climate science, since after all, science is supposed to be about a skeptical search for the underlying truth in how nature behaves!”

Check them out for yourself. Read, think and discuss with your friends and family. Question sources of information. Think for yourself. And get more informed about climate change, on-the-go or not.

Source

(November 2010) Issue 41 of the “ESPI Perspectives” series

Since the 1990s, cooperation between Europe and Russia in space has steadily expanded and became institutionalised. While successful projects were undertaken in areas like human spaceflight, launchers, space science or exploration, cooperation in the field of Earth observation (EO) has remained rather limited. Russia, however, has set forth an ambitious plan to develop further its EO capabilities in the coming years. This effort is emblematic of Moscow’s broader desire to revitalise its role as a leading space power. It could likewise offer an opportunity to inspire expanded cooperation between Europe and Russia. This ESPI Perspective seeks to provide a summary of Russia’s space policies, institutions and industry as a lead-in to exploring candidate areas for expanded cooperation between Europe and Russia in the civilian EO field.

Download:
ESPI Perspectives 41: Russia’s Earth Observation Activities: Overview and Prospects for Expanded Cooperation with Europe

Should part of the future Space Budgets be allocated directly to potential end-users of satellite services? This proposal and other measures to support demand creation were the focus of the Eurisy Conference “Securing the benefits of satellite services for European society”, held ending November in Brussels.

The event brought together representatives from potential end-user organisations on the one hand (the Committee of the Regions, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Union (SME Union) and the European Confederation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEA-PME)) and the space community on the other hand (the European Commission, the European Space Agency, service provider associations EARSC, ESOA and EuroTeleServ).

End-user organisation representatives confirmed an interest in satellite information and services, but highlighted difficulties for their members in accessing clear and transparent information about what is on offer, and in finding suitable financing mechanisms for implementing them. All made concrete proposals on enhancing service diffusion in Europe.

Joost Van Iersel, Chairman of EESC Consultative Commission on Industrial Change, positively commented on the Eurisy Position Paper proposal to support the end-users: “Financial support to the non-space SMEs will promote market development, and thus will generate a positive return on initial [European] investment in R&D and the downstream sector”.

CEMR Policy Director Angelika Poth-Moegele suggested that the next Cohesion Policy Programme, among others, could be a suitable framework for financing local and regional authorities wishing to share and transfer good practices in the use of satellite services and to apply them for their needs. Other measures could include putting the potential benefits of satellite services on European agendas, such as in the upcoming revision of the EU’s territorial agenda for the EU’s spatial development and the Leipzig Charter for sustainable urban development.

Similarly, Manfred Vohrer, Member of the CEA-PME Board, agreed on the importance of financially supporting end-user SMEs from sectors other than space: “We need SMEs to translate satellite services into benefits for society”, but [SMEs] need to be supported in this process.

Geraldine Naja, ESA Head of the Coordination with EU institutions, agreed on the necessity “to encourage the adoption and use of already-existing services” to complement service development. She highlighted the complementarity between its responsibilities in service development programmes, and EC responsibilities in ensuring better diffusion of operational, market-ready satellite services. Service providers expressed a commitment to working better with all stakeholders to make the case for satellite information and services.

For further information contact:
Eurisy Secretariat Phone no.: 0033147340079
info@eurisy.org

Source

(November 2010) With the commissioning of ESA’s CryoSat now complete, the mission has been officially transferred to the operations team. This milestone marks the beginning of the satellite’s operational life delivering ice-thickness data to understand the impact of climate change on the polar environment.

The handover ceremony took place on 19 November at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, where the responsibility for the mission passed from CryoSat-2’s Project Manager, Richard Francis, to the Mission Manager, Tommaso Parrinello.

Richard Francis had held the mission’s reins since the decision was taken to rebuild CryoSat in 2006 following the loss of the original satellite during launch. However, his experience with the mission goes right back to 1999, when CryoSat was selected as an Earth Explorer mission and he worked as the System Manager.

Dr Francis said, “The commissioning phase has proved what a high quality system we have in CryoSat. This is a tribute to the team. Handing over to Tommaso to begin its operational life is an important milestone and achievement.

“Although tinged with sadness for me, as it marks the end of a formal involvement with this wonderful project, Tommaso inherits a superb mission and I am confident he will make the most of it.”

Launched in April, the mission has recently completed commissioning – an important phase that ensures the satellite, instruments, data retrieval and data processing procedures are in optimal working order.

Now that this period is over, the mission has entered its exploitation phase and will start delivering vital data on ice thickness to the scientific community.

Tommaso Parrinello now holds the ‘keys’ to the mission and takes charge of the data exploitation, which is managed from ESRIN, ESA’s Centre of Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy. His responsibility includes operations and maintenance, data processing and delivery.

The satellite will continue to be monitored, operated and controlled by the Flight Operations Segment at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Dr Parrinello said, “I am privileged to take over the responsibility of this important mission which will play a key role in understanding how our climate is changing.

“The commissioning phase has proven that both the satellite and the ground segment are in good shape. We are now looking forward to releasing the data to the scientific community next month and equally eager to receive the first results.”

CryoSat is Europe’s first mission dedicated to monitoring Earth’s ice fields. The satellite carries a sophisticated radar altimeter that can measure the thickness of sea ice down to centimetres and also monitor changes in ice sheets, particularly around the edges where icebergs are calved from the vast ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica.

Along with information on ice extent, these measurements on ice-thickness change will show how the volume of Earth’s ice is changing and ultimately lead to a better understanding of the relationship between ice and climate change.

This milestone is not only achievement for the CryoSat mission, but also for ESA’s programme for Earth observation. After the GOCE gravity mission and the SMOS water mission, CryoSat is the third Earth Explorer mission to begin operational life in orbit.

Looking to the future, a host of missions, including the Swarm magnetic field Earth Explorer and the family of Sentinel satellites for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme are in various stages of development and will be launched over the next few years.

These satellite missions will significantly contribute to advancing our understanding of how Earth works as a system and provide much-needed information to assess how climate change is affecting our environment.

Source ESA

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