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Epsom, June 2017. Astun Technology, providers of cloud-based open-source GIS solutions has been accepted as a G-Cloud 9 supplier.

The G-Cloud is a framework agreement for use by UK Public Sector bodies which allows them to choose and purchase cloud computing services covering infrastructure, platform, software and specialist cloud services. The framework is for commodity based, pay-as-you go cloud services in three specific areas; cloud hosting, cloud software and cloud support.

Astun Technology was formed in 2005 to provide open source and web-based GIS services to local and central governments. Today, as all organisations realise the technical and financial benefits of using cloud solutions to create, manage and deliver their crucial geo-services, the demand for Astun’s knowledge and experience in delivering marketing leading, fully managed AWS-based GIS cloud solutions, continues to grow.

Mike Smith, Head of Sales for Astun commented on how joining the G-Cloud 9 will benefit his company’s customers; “The G-Cloud frameworks have proved very popular with our customers as they have helped them to simplify their procurement process whilst ensuring that they receive excellent value for money. G-Cloud 9 is particularly important as it will supercede all previous G-Cloud Frameworks.”

To search the G-Cloud 9 Framework visit https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud and to see Astun on the G-Cloud 9 visit https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/search?q=astun

28 June 2017. At its 87th session, the EUMETSAT Council approved the extension of Jason-2 operations and contracts required to deploy the EPS Second Generation (EPS-SG) system in the early 2020’s and improve access to EUMETSAT and Copernicus data.

The Jason-2 high-precision ocean altimetry mission launched in 2008 and exploited in partnership with NOAA, NASA and CNES was extended for two years, from 1 January 2018 until the end of 2019, to complement Jason-3 , operational since July 2016.

The Council also welcomed Ireland as the 16th Participating State in the Jason-CS Programme, the contribution of EUMETSAT to the cooperative Sentinel-6 mission expected to replace Jason-3 in 2021. The mission involves also ESA, the European Union and the United States through NASA and NOAA.

A key milestone towards the initial deployment of the EUMETSAT Polar System of Second Generation (EPS-SG ) was passed with the award of contracts to Arianespace and Telespazio for the launch services and the Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) services for the first pair of Metop-SG satellites plus one spare satellite.

The first two Metop-SG satellites will be launched from Kourou by Soyuz, and the contract with Arianespace also offers EUMETSAT the possibility to use Ariane-62 for the third satellite.

To improve access to EUMETSAT and Copernicus data, the Council approved a contract to extend the EUMETCast-Africa data broadcasting service with higher bandwidth and arrangements with ECMWF and Mercator-Ocean for the deployment of a distributed Copernicus Data and Information Access Service (DIAS) platform on behalf of the European Union.

The 6th Space App Camp is coming closer: The European Space Agency (ESA) will again invite 20 developers to their ESA ESRIN location in Frascati – including travel expenses and accommodation.

Big data from space produced by the European Earth observation programme Copernicus and its fleet of Sentinel satellites provides crucial economic and ecological information to many industry sectors – from energy, transport, logistics and construction to aeronautics, healthcare and mobile communications. Additionally, an increasing number of mobile phone users challenge the mobile app business.

However, huge amounts of data from space offer countless opportunities in connection with mobile applications. In order to make Earth observation (EO) data accessible to a wide range of citizens, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space App Camp each year assembles programmers from across Europe to exchange ideas with like-minded people and tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. There’s a special treat to boot, with ESA taking care of food & beverage, hotel and flight expenses.

Join the Space App Camp and write your own chapter of the success story!
Professional app developers from all over Europe are welcome to apply by 24 July 2017 at www.app-camp.eu

Since the inception of the initiative five years ago, around 400 developers from nearly 30 countries have applied to the Space App Camps, and more than 30 apps have been developed. A number of former participants are currently finalising their applications, have already transformed their ideas into operational services, or have founded a start-up in order to bring their apps to the market.

Geneva, Switzerland, and Washington, DC, USA – 14 June 2017. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) through its Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) and Radiant.Earth, have agreed to explore new Earth observation data innovations supporting humanitarian disaster management, global health, climate change, sustainable water management and cultural heritage.

With Radiant.Earth’s capacity in combining the best in discovery and dissemination with the latest trends in image processing, and UNOSAT’s experience in satellite imagery analysis and capacity development, the two entities will collaborate to make data and solutions widely available to the global development community for overall support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The cooperation will focus on joint activities to raise awareness about the benefits of Earth observation at the local level, automate analysis, and provide capacity building activities on the use of Earth observation data for the global development community.

“UNOSAT expertise in rapid mapping combined with our shared mission to build the capacity of governments and non-profits in using satellite imagery for disaster situations makes this partnership quite powerful. Our alliance can help strengthen the resiliency in vulnerable regions to deal with climate change, displacements, food security, among many other global challenges,” says Anne Hale Miglarese, CEO of Radiant.Earth.

“This partnership fits us perfectly, as we can combine the operational nature of UNOSAT with the outreach and long-term impact Radiant.Earth is also looking for,” says Einar Bjorgo, UNOSATs manager. “Finally, we will have a platform and solutions in place for accessing the wealth of Earth observation data out there, and the ready-to-use products that will go along with them.”

About UNITAR-UNOSAT
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is a principal training arm of the United Nations, working in every region of the world. UNITAR empowers individuals,governments and organizations through knowledge and learning to effectively overcome contemporary global challenges.

UNITAR’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) is recognized as a Centre of Excellence within the United Nations for satellite image analysis and geospatial applications.Since 2000, UNOSAT has provided the United Nations family and Member States with access to satellite imagery and satellite-derived analysis through the development and provision of Earth Observation and GIS applications, as well as training and capacity development, for humanitarian relief and human security, human rights, crisis management and prevention, recovery and development, in alignment with its commitment towards supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

About Radiant.Earth
Radiant.Earth is a non-profit organization, committed to aggregating the world’s open Earth imagery and providing access and education on its use to the global development community. At the center of Radiant.Earth is an open technology platform that will help people discover and analyze the vast resources of Earth imagery, accelerating improved decision-making and fueling new solutions, discoveries and innovations. In support of this user-driven platform,

Radiant.Earth offers an integrated and robust community development program to guide people in the use of Earth imagery, geospatial data sets and tools. This includes insights into the commercial market and related policies.

Media Contacts

  • Einar Bjorgo, Manager, UNOSAT, UNITAR, Tel: +41 76 691 0106 | email: einar.bjorgo@unitar.org
  • Anthony Burn, Director, Community Engagement, Radiant.Earth, Tel: +1 202 731 7466 | email: anthony@radiant.earth

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Sunyani, June 15, GNA – A second international Africa Global Earth Observation System of Systems (AfriGEOSS) symposium under the auspices of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) was opened on Tuesday in Sunyani.

Under the theme, “Delivering Earth Observations for Policy and Sustainable Societal Impact in Africa”, the three-day programme was attended by about 120 practitioners, experts and developers in earth observations technologies across Africa, Europe, the United States of America, Canada and other parts of the world.

It aimed at “providing the necessary framework for African countries, organisations and international partners to access and leverage ongoing local and international bilateral and multilateral EO-based initiatives across Africa, thereby creating synergies and minimising duplication for the benefit of the continent”.

It was designed to raise awareness on the value of the earth observation and to promote and build synergies with on-going and planned earth observations initiatives at national, regional and international levels.

Professor Harrison Kwame Dapaah, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of UENR was hopeful that the initiative of the group on earth observations to focus on strengthening the use of earth observations and delivering the global earth observing system of systems (GEOSS) to Africa would leverage the expected impact.

He said AfriGEOSS was a coordination initiative that had been recognised essentially to enhance Africa’s capacity for producing, managing and using earth observations.

Prof. Harrison expressed optimism that the symposium would develop, network and disseminate knowledge and information among participants and added that its outcome would translate into transformational and pragmatic solutions for the existing emerging problems on Africa and the entire world.

In a speech read for him, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said Africa was probably the most naturally endowed continent yet the management of its resources for the collective prosperity of her people had not yielded the desired results.

He cited deforestation resulting from unsustainable lumbering, poor agricultural practices, indiscriminate mining of sand, precious minerals and pollution of water resources as some of the endemic environmental issues across the continent.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng noted both renewable and non-renewable natural resources abounded on the continent and the leadership therefore had enormous responsibility of ensuring sustainable exploitation of those resources.

By Daniel A Ashietey, GNA. Source

by Jeff Foust — June 14, 2017 at SpaceNews

Do three events constitute a trend?

For many in the Earth-observation industry, the answer seems to be yes.

Three deals in less than three months appeared to herald a new wave of consolidation among both established companies and startups. It started in early February when Google announced it was selling its Terra Bella satellite imaging company — originally known as Skybox Imaging — to Planet for an undisclosed sum.

Three weeks later, Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) announced it was acquiring DigitalGlobe, itself the product of the merger of other remote sensing companies, for $2.4 billion. Two months later, in a far smaller deal, EagleView Technologies announced it was buying OmniEarth, a company that originally planned its own satellite constellation and later focused on analyzing satellite imagery.

Those events have created the perception that the sector is consolidating: companies are merging with or acquiring one another to shore up their positions in the market. In the eyes of many industry observers, there are more remote sensing companies than the market can support, making a shakeout inevitable.
Analysts weigh in

Dylan Taylor, a SpaceNews contributor and investor whose portfolio includes OmniEarth and Planet, sees consolidation going on in three dimensions. There is horizontal consolidation, as companies merge with their competitors; vertical, where companies merge with others to build up a more complete set of both imagery and analysis capabilities; and financial, where private equity companies “roll up” several companies to later sell or take public through an initial public offering (IPO) of stock.

“I see horizontal integration being the biggest driver near-term,” Taylor said, citing as a prime example Planet’s acquisition of Terra Bella. In such deals, he said, “Earth-observation firms look to achieve scale and position themselves to be more competitive and ultimately more attractive to a financial consolidation or IPO.”

Not everyone, though, is convinced that the Earth observation sector is consolidating. “It’s very convenient to think there’s a trend, but these deals have all been very company-specific,” said Chris Quilty, president of Quilty Analytics and a long-time financial analyst focusing on the space industry.

One example is the Planet-Terra Bella deal. While that deal is seen as key evidence of an industry consolidation, Quilty believes it should interpreted instead as part of a broader recent effort by Google to divest itself of projects that it no longer considers part of its core business. “Google was just trying to unload the company,” Quilty said.

Google, which paid an estimated $500 million to acquire Skybox Imaging in 2014, does not appear to have gotten much in return for selling it to Planet. Neither Google nor Planet provided specific terms of the acquisition when it was announced. Planet did note in April, when the deal closed, that Google had become a shareholder in Planet, but did not disclose the size of its stake. Google did not consider the sale material enough to mention it in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent 10-Q quarterly statement in early May.

Quilty is also skeptical that MDA’s planned acquisition of DigitalGlobe, set to close later this year, is also a sign of consolidation. “The synergies are a little lacking,” he said, particularly of the potential to combine DigitalGlobe’s high-resolution optical images with radar imagery from MDA’s Radarsat 2. “The synergy of optical and radar is not proven.”

He sees the deal as part of a larger effort by MDA to expand its American footprint, one that includes its earlier acquisition of Space Systems Loral and plans to trade its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. That effort is intended to help it win business from the U.S. government that, as a solely Canadian company, it would not be eligible for.

Earth observation’s evolving world

If the Earth-observation sector isn’t consolidating, though, it is evolving. When companies like Planet and Skybox started several years ago, the focus was primarily on collecting imagery and selling it to any and all takers. It was a business model that worked well in the past, particularly when government agencies were the primary customers for such images.

However, that business model is changing. Earth-observation firms realize than many commercial customers have neither the ability nor the interest to develop their own imagery analysis pipelines. Instead, they want the intelligence derived from those images.

Astro Digital sees that transition. The California company announced in March that it had raised a $16.65 million Series A round, which it will use to build an initial constellation of medium-resolution satellites. The company, though, has already developed its own software platform that processes imagery from U.S. Landsat and E.U. Sentinel satellites — and, eventually, its own — to extract information for use in various markets, such as agriculture. That information is then integrated into other software through a protocol known as an application program interface (API).

The company sees that as the wave of the future. “We don’t believe that anyone is going to be buying imagery anymore,” said Bronwyn Agrios, co-founder and head of product at the company, in a recent interview. “We believe that the future is a subscription to an API that will have information show up right in your applications.”

Quilty sees a similar transition in the industry. “Companies are trying to move closer to the customer and deeper into the analytics game,” he said.

Other companies are trying to do that as well. Orbital Insight announced May 2 it raised a $50 million Series C round to accelerate its growth. The company does not own satellites but rather purchases imagery from several companies, analyzing it to provide information ranging from global crude oil reserves to traffic patterns in shopping center parking lots.

The EagleView acquisition of OmniEarth is a similar case. OmniEarth originally planned its own satellite constellation, but switched its focus to analysis of satellite images from other providers. EagleView plans to apply that technology to its own data analytics business, which has focused on construction markets.
Threat meets opportunity

Such companies are thus an opportunity and a threat to Earth-observation satellite developers. They are an opportunity in that they are customers of satellite images in bulk. But, they also pose a threat as they provide the analysis that customers want, undercutting satellite companies’ plans to move up the value chain.

Moreover, since companies like EagleView and Orbital Insight can buy from a wide range of satellite companies, or even aerial or other non-satellite imagery, they can offer a kind of “one-stop shopping” for customers that individual imagery providers cannot.

This leaves Earth-observation companies trying to figure out who their customers, and their competitors, really are. “One of the great challenges for this industry is both discovering where the technology and data are most needed, and finding partners to monetize those opportunities,” Quilty said.

So even if there isn’t consolidation in the Earth observation sector now, the effort to find customers and partners may trigger a wave of such deals in the future.

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This article originally appeared in the May 22, 2017 issue of SpaceNews magazine

MINNEAPOLIS, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — ‘Geosys Labs’ participants will have access to company’s tools and expertise at no cost.

Geosys, a leading provider of agronomic decision support tools, today launched Geosys™ Labs, a new program that will make its global database of satellite imagery and weather data available to initiatives dedicated to addressing the growing challenges facing the agriculture industry.

Geosys is requesting applications via its website from companies, NGOs and universities interested in establishing a partnership for a proof of concept project. As part of these partnerships, Geosys will provide free access to its remote sensing technologies and agronomic expertise. While there is no specific limitation on the number of projects, qualifying partners must address one of the following objectives:

  • Improve the measurement of sustainable practices in agriculture
  • Provide affordable risk management solutions for smallholder farms
  • Increase transparency within the agriculture supply chain
  • Revolutionize the future of agriculture and farming technologies

“Businesses across the ag supply chain face many challenges today, including changing weather patterns and the need to increase production of high quality food with limited resources,” said Damien Lepoutre, founder and president of Geosys. “To mark our 30th anniversary this year, we will support organizations and individuals working to solve these critical challenges by providing access to our data and experts who can help uncover opportunities to improve the future of agriculture.”

Since 1987, Geosys has managed global satellite imagery from a growing virtual constellation of public and private satellites to help improve decision making practices for customers that represent the entire ecosystem of the agriculture supply chain.

“Geosys Labs is an extension of our traditional business capabilities,” said Vincent Lelandais, customer solutions lead, Geosys. “Our objective is to assist efforts that will better our world and the agriculture ecosystem by providing data and imagery to power future solutions.”

Starting today, Geosys invites individuals and organizations interested in exploring a partnership with Geosys Labs to fill out an application at geosys.com/labs or contact Labs@geosys.com. Visit the website for complete details and partnership rules.

About GEOSYS
Geosys is the first global digital agriculture company founded by agronomists. With 30 years of industry experience and business in more than 50 countries, Geosys’ digital agricultural solutions use the latest research in agronomics, information technologies and satellite imagery to provide clients with data, analysis and insights they need to make more informed decisions. Geosys services range from worldwide risk management and supply monitoring of agricultural commodities to input sales and precision farming support. It also develops highly customized business solutions for large multinational agricultural companies. Acquired by Land O’Lakes, Inc. in 2013, Geosys is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with offices in France, Switzerland, Australia, and Brazil. For more information on Geosys, please visit geosys.com.

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June 12, 2017. With the Sentinel-2B satellite close to beginning its working life in orbit, this latest Copernicus satellite has linked up to Alphasat by laser, across almost 36 000 km of space, to deliver images of Earth just moments after they were captured.

The test, which was done as part of Sentinel-2B’s commissioning, included capturing a strip of images from Europe to North Africa and downlinking the data in just six minutes.

This achievement is not only thanks to cutting-edge laser technology, but also the power of ESA’s partnerships with space industries and the European Union. Following its launch on 7 March, Sentinel-2B is set to be commissioned on 15 June. It joins its twin, Sentinel-2A, which is already supplying a wealth of high-resolution images for the European Union’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

The Sentinel-2 mission not only provides information to improve agricultural practices and map changes in land cover, but it also helps to monitor the world’s forests, detects pollution in lakes and coastal waters, and contributes to disaster mapping. Many of these applications rely on imaging the same area in quick succession.

The two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites circle on opposite sides of Earth. With each providing 290 km-wide swath, together they can image the globe every five days and image Europe every two to three days.

Sometimes, however, information is needed quicker, or indeed continuously, and this is where the satellites’ lasers come in, complementing the standard ground station network. Orbiting from pole to pole almost 800 km up, the Sentinel-2 satellites transmit data to Earth routinely, but only when they pass over their ground stations in Europe.

However, geostationary satellites, hovering 36 000 km above Earth, have their ground stations in permanent view so they can immediately stream large volumes of to Earth.

The Sentinel-2 satellites are equipped with terminals to transmit data by laser to satellites in geostationary orbit such as Alphasat and the European Data Relay System (EDRS). These satellites then transmit the Sentinel-2 data to the ground. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites also carry the same equipment.

Eric Monjoux, head of ESA’s Copernicus Ground Segment, said, “EDRS has already increased delivery of Sentinel-1 data enormously and we can soon expect to see the same benefits for Sentinel-2 data.”

As well as being a remarkable technological achievement, this novel system is also thanks to the public–private partnership between ESA and industry. This latest test paves the way for even greater opportunities for the European Union, EDRS’ anchor customer, to have access to large volumes of data extremely quickly for services that improve daily lives and protect the environment.

ESA’s Sentinel-2 system manager, Omar Sy, said, “The laser link is a bit like an optical fibre in the sky that can connect the Sentinel-2 satellites back to Europe via geostationary satellites.

“The test, which is thanks to cooperation between teams at ESA, the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Tesat, Airbus and Inmarsat, has shown that everything is working well. “This means that once all the commissioning is over, Sentinel-2B will be able to downlink huge amounts of data in a matter of moments via the EDRS ‘SpaceDataHighway’, which is the world’s first optical satellite communication network in geostationary orbit.”

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By Kendall Russell | June 5, 201. OGSystems announced that it has formed partnerships with both Ursa Space Systems and Earth-i to improve its BlueGlass platform.

Earth-i will incorporate video and imagery into BlueGlass, a location-based intelligence platform, while Ursa Space Systems will incorporate observation as a service.

According to Omar Balkissoon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of OGSystems, BlueGlass will coalesce Ursa Space System’s observations with natural language generation to perform basic imagery analysis reporting.

This partnership also follows Earth-i’s recent announcement that it will launch and operate Europe’s first commercial constellation that offers both full-color video and imagery. BlueGlass combines commercial remote sensing, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver real-time insights through situational awareness, anomaly alerting, and reporting of activities that could pose risk to user operations.

“Working closely with OGSystems is validation of our belief that the real value in high resolution satellite imagery is in the truly actionable insights that can be derived from it,” commented Richard Blain, CEO of Earth-i.

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Between the 26th and 27th of May in Gdansk an EOVation event was held. This hackathon focused on the use of Earth Observation data for applications in the Middle East and South Asia

Between the 26th and 27th of May in Gdansk an EOVation event was held. This hackathon focused on the use of Earth Observation data for applications in the Middle East and South Asia.

Since November 2016 the EOClimLab project is being realised in Poland, Czech Republic and Romania. The project is commissioned by ESA. It’s purpose is to use satellite data for a better or new perspective on the subject of climate change. Among several activities within the project, also hackathons are organised by the consortium. These events are called EOvations and gather not only programmers and engineers or Earth Observation (EO) specialists but also representatives from other fields, including humanities and enthusiasts. Together, participants of EOvations have to create a preliminary application concept in a short amount of time (ca. 24 hours).

Oriental hackaton

On the 26th and 27th of May the second Polish hackathon was held under the EOClimLab project in Gdańsk. This event, called “Oriental EOvation” was devoted to the use of EO data in the Middle East and Asia in the context of regional problems related to climate change.

Team work was carried out with the support of scientific, technical and business-investment experts. There were several preliminary challenges available for participants to choose from. These challenges concerned, inter alia, the issue of rising sea levels, the drought-related situations in the Middle East and the relationship between man and the surrounding environment.

At the start of the hackathon four teams were formed. Two of them after several hours decided to join forces, creating a new team.

Results of Oriental EOvation hackathon

After 24 hours of intensive work, on the 27th of May, in the afternoon the teams presented their results. There were three solutions, one of which was more hardware based and the other two focused mainly on data processing from Earth Observation satellites.

The “Syrian Rebuild Map” team was selected as a winner. This team proposed the use of several different satellite-data indicators to assess and prioritize the reconstruction of individual Syrian regions after the ongoing civil war. The application showed trends of places where drought will continue as well as places where it will be possible to develop agriculture more optimally. Members of this team demonstrated the basic features of the future application, which was appreciated by the jury.

The other two teams also achieved some results. The other proposed two concepts focused on optimizing pipelines of desalination water from the Gulf of Aqaba into Jordan and a general hardware + data flood warning system.

All teams have been rewarded with vouchers, time to work with experts, access to a satellite data cloud, access to office space and a set of microelectronic circuits and sensors.

The event was organised by Blue Dot Solutions in support of the Black Pearls VC Fund, the Gdańsk University of Technology Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the O4 Coworking, the Nauka o Klimacie webservice, and the EO Cloud Technological Partner.

Next hackathons in Poland

The next dedicated hackathons under the EOClimLab project in Gdańsk will take place in the second half of this year. This time the subject will be the use of Earth Observation data for the Pomeranian region. In Warsaw, an EOvation hackathon also took place on the 3rd – 4th of June.

The consortium of the EOCLimLab from Poland is composed of Omnilogy, Blue Dot Solutions, Orange, Integrated Solutions and Kapitech. On the Czech side the partners are Czech Invest and SpaceSystems Czech, and on the Romanian side there are three IT partners: Arobs Transilvania Software, Aries Transilvania and Indeco Soft.

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