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(24 May 2017) ESA and BayWa AG are joining forces in an effort to advance the use of satellite data in farming.

The collaboration aims to optimise the use of satellite data in farming and to assess the benefit to farmers with the overall aim of improving farming practices, water resource efficiency and crop yield.

ESA will provide technical expertise about how to access and interpret data from satellites such as the fleet of Sentinels for Europe’s Copernicus programme. In particular, Sentinel-2 is providing images that can distinguish between different crop types and be used to monitor plant growth.

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Sentinel-2 for agriculture

BayWa’s subsidiary FarmFacts, which specialises in digital services for farming, will provide feedback on the usefulness and validity of the data.

“Through the collaboration with ESA we get access to state-of-the-art technology for FarmFacts,” said Klaus Josef Lutz, BayWa Chief Executive Officer. “As an agri-trading group, we are glad that we are able to help farms of all sizes to benefit from this technology.”

Josef Aschbacher, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, added, “The swift integration of data from the Copernicus Sentinel fleet into agronomic models is a prerequisite for forecasting crop yields and other food supply issues.

“BayWa is an ideal partner for ESA to validate and improve our satellite-based models and products in this respect.”

The agreement also foresees BayWa’s participation in next year’s Copernicus Masters Prize competition through a dedicated farming/agriculture challenge to help raise awareness of satellite data in farming.

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(24 May 2017 by Sarah Wild) Agreement will see the South African National Space Agency provide Earth observation products and services to Nepad.

SA’s space agency has its eyes on Africa and a new memorandum of understanding with the AU’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) paves the way for it to expand its footprint. But it takes more than data to create evidence-based policy.

The agreement, signed in April, will see the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) provide Earth observation products and services to Nepad.

Africa is the second-largest continent and its size and paucity of infrastructure makes it difficult efficiently and cost-effectively to detect changes in natural resources and land usage. Governments, business and landowners can use satellites to identify these changes and to compile data that they can use to guide their decision-making and policies.

“It’s increasingly apparent that quality and legitimate data and information is one of the most valuable resources in Africa’s development agenda,” says Martin Bwalya, a senior adviser at Nepad.

“Space science and Earth observation capacities are critical in generating information that directly affects development initiatives.”

Sansa — which has been in existence for seven years and has no satellite of its own — buys all of its satellite imagery through agreements with other countries. The memorandum of understanding “enables Sansa to provide Earth observation products and services that support the implementation of key programmes, such as sustainable agriculture and food security, integrated water resources management, as well as urban planning and infrastructure monitoring”, says Paida Mangara, acting MD of Sansa’s Earth observations unit.

Satellites have certain payloads — sensors or cameras — that allow them to view different things on Earth’s surface. Some cameras have a higher resolution and can see fine-grained details, while some sensors can see outside the visible spectrum and report back on water quality or plant health, for example.

A few products have already been agreed upon in the Sansa-Nepad memorandum of understanding.

Mangara says that Sansa will derive maps that “show the location of water bodies such as dams and rivers at a national scale. [This] is important for identifying seasonal and permanent water resources, as well as indicating whether the water levels in dams and rivers are increasing or decreasing.”

They are also able to monitor the growth of human settlements from space, displaying built up areas and city growth on a national scale.

Sansa will also offer a service to monitor the health of countries’ crops.

“These are satellite-derived parameters that assist with crop condition assessment, crop monitoring and crop damage assessment,” Mangara says. “These are key in the assessment of food security and sustainable agriculture on the continent.”

Mangara says that the costs for the products and services will be determined on “a project-by-project basis, depending on the requirements of each country”. The implementation plan will involve pilot studies to determine the costs of projects.

SA has been using satellite data for a number of years. Most national government departments have a unit using the data for planning — such as indigenous forestry protection at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and human settlement spread at Statistics SA.

SA’s satellite, EO-Sat-1, has been in the pipeline for several years and officials hope that it will be launched in 2020.

While it is important for African countries to have data about what is happening on a national and regional level, it is of little use unless there are people available to decipher and use it as the basis of policy.

The AU — as part of its Science and Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 — established the African Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation (AOSTI).

“The AOSTI in Malabo [in Equatorial Guinea] serves as a continental repository of science, technology and innovation statistics and a source of policy analysis in support of evidence-based policy making, thus tackling the gap in the research policy nexus,” says Hambani Masheleni, the senior policy officer for human resources, science and technology at the AU Commission.

However, repeated attempts to contact the observatory were fruitless and their website was last updated in 2014.

But Nepad’s Bwalya maintains that the continent needs more evidence-based decision-making. In terms of Earth observation, it is “in the interest of bringing genuine, legitimate and top-quality information and data into member states development planning and implementation.

“For instance, information on climate change and related extreme weather is valuable in informing development policies and investment initiatives including the allocation, use and management of Africa’s natural assets, especially land, water and forests.”

This is one of a number of collaborative projects, says Mangara. Sansa is a partner in Tiger-Net, an initiative of the European Space Agency that monitors African water resources; as well as the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa project, another Europe-backed initiative.

Sansa CEO Val Munsami said earlier in 2017 that he planned to position the agency to expand into Africa.

“If you look at the space policy space, there’s a transformation happening in terms of how much the governments are actually spending on science and technology.

“A few years ago, some African governments weren’t spending anything. Africa should be playing in this space.

“We don’t want foreign entities coming in and determining how things should be done. Africa needs to do this on its own,” said Munsami, who also chairs the AU’s committee responsible for developing space plans for Africa.

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Marc Tondriaux, President of the EUGENIUS association, shares the vitality of the emerging Copernicus eco-system.

The Copernicus programme provides great opportunities for the development of new, innovative and efficient local geo-information services thanks to full, free and open data from a range of sensors aboard the Sentinel satellites, and the possibility to merge data from a variety of complementary sources.

Geo-information services based on satellite data can support local public authorities and private actors to more efficiently carry out operational activities such as urban planning, environmental monitoring (water, air, and soil conditions), disaster management and mitigation, and many others.

Whilst Copernicus makes available the raw materials for the development of such services, it is up to local operators to understand the final users‘ needs, to access locally available in situ data if required, and to ensure that the appropriate quality of services is maintained. These tasks call for a wider range of tools and expertise than most individual enterprises have access to.

Recognising this need, a group of European SMEs founded the European Group of Enterprises for a Network of Information using Space (EUGENIUS) in 2016. This network of EO service providers has the ambition to jointly design, create and deliver services and applications related to natural resource management for regional and local customers, primarily public authorities. The applications will be based on the very large quantity of geospatial information made available by the Copernicus programme, as well as through numerous local and regional initiatives.

Source Eugenius & Copernicus Observer

MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada – May 9, 2017: PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today it has become a Planet Ecosystem Partner.

PCI Geomatics has worked closely with Planet sensors since the RapidEye Constellation, and continues to add support for the new PlanetScope data format. Geomatica 2017, released recently, includes atmospheric-correction support for PlanetScope imagery. In addition, with the Geomatica API, customers can access Planet.com imagery and integrate the data into operational workflows leveraging more than 550 algorithms available in Geomatica and GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL).

“Imagery collected with the constellation of Dove satellites opens up new possibilities for operational monitoring and Earth observation” said Arnold Hougham, vice-president of sales and marketing at PCI Geomatics. “We are already working with our clients and partners to deliver new, enterprise-level GXL workflows that leverage the powerful processing capability of the GXL platform for operational applications in agriculture, for example,” he added.

“We are pleased that PCI Geomatics has joined the Planet Ecosystem,”, said Alex Shih, director of product and ecosystem at Planet. “They bring advanced processing capability that can be leveraged by customers to develop customized workflows. We believe that by combining the rich data source from Planet with the flexible, scalable analytics, and processing capability from PCI Geomatics, we will be able to deliver the full value of daily and global data to our customers and enable them to deploy innovative solutions”, he added.

For more information about the level of support available for Planet imagery, visit support.pcigeomatics.com

To learn more about using the Python API to create custom image-processing workflows, visit the PCI Developer Zone at dev.pcigeomatics.com

To learn more about using the Planet API to develop image-access workflows, visit www.planet.com .

Dakar, Senegal, 24-28 April 2017

WHAT: The 2nd MESA Forum is organised by the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Government of the Republic of Senegal under the theme “from Earth Observation to Policy Development and Implementation”. The European Union provides financial support to the MESA Project.

WHERE: Dakar, Senegal

WHEN: 24-28 April 2017

The Media is invited to cover the opening ceremony and Press Conference on Monday, 24 April 2017, at King Fahd Hotel, Dakar, from 9:00 – 12:00 AM.

WHO: Opening

  • Keynote address by Prof. Abdoulaye Dia, Executive secretary and CEO Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall;
  • Welcome Remarks by H.E. Mr. Marcel Alain de Souza, President of the ECOWAS region;
  • Remarks by H.E. Mr. Isidor Embola, CEMAC, current PSC Chair;
  • Remarks by H.E. Ambassador, Joaquin Gonzalez-Ducay, Head of EU Delegation to the Government of the Republic of Senegal;
  • Statement by H.E. Mrs Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission;
  • Statement by H.E. Mr. Abdoulaye Balde, Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development and H.E. Mr. Oumar Gueye; Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Economy of the Government of the Republic of Senegal.

Press Conference Speakers

  • H.E. Mrs. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission;
  • H.E. Mr. Oumar Gueye, Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Economy of the Government of the Republic of Senegal;
  • H.E. Mr. Abdoulaye Balde, Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Government of the Republic of Senegal;
  • H.E. Mr. Marcel Alain de Souza, President of the ECOWAS Commission;
  • H.E. Ambassador, Joaquin Gonzalez-Ducay, Head of EU Delegation to the Government of the Republic of Senegal.

More than 200 international delegates composed of decision and policy makers, planners, earth observation data users and experts from 49 beneficiary countries of MESA Project, other stakeholders and partner institutions are expected to attend the second MESA Forum.

WHY: The objectives of the 2nd MESA Forum, among others include, to:

  • Show case achievements of the MESA Project;
  • Demonstrate how MESA services has influenced policy and decision making, policy development, and policy implementations at national, regional and continental levels in Africa;
  • Discuss how stories of successes in MESA will be enhanced in the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES & Africa Project) and other related pro- grams in Africa;
  • Share best practices of the uses of satellite data for different applications at national, regional and continental scales in Africa;
  • Contributions of MESA to livelihoods of community development;
  • Enhance Africa’s capacity to access Earth Observation data and applications.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA).
For more information: Dr. Jolly Wasambo (AUC) MESA Programme Coordinator African Union Commission Tel: +251912646235 E-mail: WasamboJ@Africa-Union.org Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  • Dr. Bakary Djaby (AU-MESA) MESA TAT Team Leader African Union Commission Tel: +251 909 537954 Email: Bakary.Djaby@HD-MESA.org Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Mr. Hailu Wudineh (AU-MESA) AU-MESA Communication Officer African Union Commission Email: Hailu.Wudineh@HD-MESA.org; HailuW@Africa-Union.org Tel: +251 911671683 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Mrs. Thioro Codou Niang (CSE) Communications Marketing and External Relations Officer Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE) Email: Thioro.Niang@CSE.sn Tel: +221 33825 8066 Dakar, Senegal

About MESA: The Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) Project uses space-based and in-situ data to enable an improved management of the environment and food security at continental, regional and national levels in Africa. MESA consolidates and widens the operational environmental services developed in the African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) programme, and is a contribution to the GMES-Africa initiative.
The objective of the MESA Project is to enhance access to reliable, timely and accurate land, marine and climate data and information for Africa. And the purpose of the MESA project is to increase the capacity in information management, decision making and planning of African continental, regional and national institutions mandated for environment, climate and food security. This is being achieved by enhancing access to reliable, timely and accurate land, marine and climate data and information for Africa. MESA is exploiting Earth Observation (EO) data and technologies to promote socioeconomic progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2063.
The MESA project provides eighteen services for the seven thematic actions: Management of Water Resources in Central Africa; Coastal and Marine Resources Management in the ECOWAS Region; Water Management for Cropland and Rangeland in the ECOWAS Region; Land Degradation, Natural Habitat Conservation and Forest monitoring in the IGAD Region; Marine and Coastal Management in the IOC region; Climate Services for Disaster Risk Reduction in Africa.
The MESA Project, funded by the European Union, is implemented with the overall coordination of the African Union Commission. Specialised technical institutions of the Regional Economic Communities and Inter-Governmental Organisations (CEMAC, ECOWAS, IGAD, IOC and SADC) lead the implementation of the project in their respective regions. The project is also implemented with close cooperation of the European Union and partners such as European Organisation for the Exploration of Meteorological Satellite (EUMETSAT) and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Source

Earth observation for decision-making is the subject of a new report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development .

The organisation, which promotes economic growth, prosperity, and sustainable development describes Earth observation data as a unique source of eommensurable information. It can be combined with administrative, social and economic data at multiple scales for in-depth policy analysis.

Examples of applications of Earth observation data included in the publication include the joint Research Centre’s Human Settlement layer, a global high-resolution multitemporal dataset which measures the extent of built-up areas and was developed through GEO.

Earth observation data is now routinely used in country reviews by OECD, and supports policy analysis. OECD joined GEO as an observer in 2015.

Download Earth observation for decision making brochure here

NASA strives to explore space and to expand our understanding of our Solar System and beyond. But they also turn their keen eyes on Earth in an effort to understand how our planet is doing. Now, they’re releasing a new composite image of Earth at night, the first one since 2012.

We’ve grown accustomed to seeing these types of images in our social media feeds, especially night-time views of Earth from the International Space Station. But this new image is much more than that. It’s part of a whole project that will allow scientists—and the rest of us—to study Earth at night in unprecedented detail.

Night-time views of Earth have been around for 25 years or so, usually produced several years apart. Comparing those images shows clearly how humans are changing the face of the planet. Scientists have been refining the imaging over the years, producing better and more detailed images.

More info

The European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite captured this image of the Vojvodina region of northern Serbia. The area lies in the southern part of a region previously covered by the Pannonian Sea from two million to 23 million years ago. Today, the land boasts a fertile soil, as evidenced by the many agricultural fields visible as geometric shapes.

The Tisza river snakes down from the north, and curved, light-green areas primarily along the east side of the river reveal its former course. Manmade waterways appear as straight black lines and likely are used for drainage, transportation and irrigation.

Sentinel-2’s main instrument has 13 spectral bands and is designed to provide false-color images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant features, such as active chlorophyll content and leaf water content, all of which are essential to accurately monitor plant growth.

Different colors in this image indicate varying vegetative states. For example, yellowish patches indicate soil or freshly ploughed land, while shades of blue (primarily in the lower left) indicate the same or different crops at a similar stage of growth.

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The ESA-developed Sentinel-2B satellite was launched on 7th March 2017 , doubling the coverage of high-resolution optical imaging in the Sentinel-2 mission for the European Union Copernicus environmental monitoring system.

At 01:49 GMT (02:49 CET) on 7 March 2017, the second Sentinel-2 satellite successfully lifted off from Kourou, the Europe’s Spaceport.

In line with plans, the satellite was delivered into the targeted Sun-synchronous orbit. Telemetry links and attitude control have been established by controllers and the satellite’s solar panel has already been deployed. After this first “launch and early orbit” phase, which typically lasts three days, controllers will begin checking and calibrating the instruments to commission the satellite. The mission is expected to begin operations in three to four months.

“With this launch we are taking another step toward advancing the Copernicus programme, which is the most sophisticated Earth observation system in the world. And we are planning to add two more satellites to the constellation in the next months: with Sentinel-5P and Sentinel-3B,” said ESA Director General Jan Woerner.

The optical imaging Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites: Sentinel-2A, which was launched in June 2015, and Sentinel-2B. Although launched separately, the satellites are placed in the same orbit, flying 180° apart. Every five days, the satellites jointly cover all land surfaces, large islands, and inland and coastal waters between latitudes 84°S and 84°N, optimising global coverage and data delivery.

Each Sentinel-2 satellite carries an innovative high-resolution multispectral camera with 13 spectral bands for a new perspective of land and vegetation. The combination of high-resolution, novel spectral capabilities, a field of vision covering 290 km and frequent revisit times will provide unprecedented views of Earth.

Information from this mission is helping to improve agricultural practices, monitor the world’s forests, detect pollution in lakes and coastal waters, and contribute to disaster mapping.

“I have personally been involved in Copernicus since its very first day and helped shape it along its way. It is therefore extremely satisfying to see the constellation of satellites delivering data for the services we have always dreamt of,” said Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes.

“Sentinel-2A gets its twin brother in space with the launch of Sentinel-2B today. This allows global coverage every five days with the 13-channel high-resolution sensor, which is unprecedented in this class of satellites. I look forward to many new applications coming from Sentinel-2 now that this constellation is complete.”

Six families of Sentinel satellites will make up the core of EU’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. An EU flagship space initiative, Copernicus provides operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking, and meet the needs of citizens and service providers.

EARSC participated to the #Sentinel2Go event at ESOC together with 100 other social media participants from across Europe and beyond. Read our blog post .

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ARSGC will actively pursue the development of the Remote Sensing and Geospatial industry in Africa and participate in the development and utilisation of Earth Observation products and services, in collaboration with international organizations, for the benefit of sustainable development of the African continent.

On the sidelines of AARSE 11th Conference held in Kampala, Uganda, from 24 to 28 October 2016, members of Private African Companies of Remote Sensing,

  • considering that one of the major lessons learned from the survey carried out by AARSE on the African Remote sensing private sector is that it should create a PanAfrican Association;
  • considering the urgent need to combine their efforts, skills and resources to create a Pan African Association of Remote Sensing Companies, under the auspices of AARSE;
  • considering the role that such an association can and should play in advancing the interests of the African Remote Sensing private sector across the continent for the benefit of all African stakeholders;
  • considering the historical role that the African remote sensing private sector can and must play in the sustainable socio-economic development of the continent;

Have initiated the procedure leading as soon as possible to the creation of the Association,to be known as the African Association of Remote Sensing and Geospatial Companies, abbreviated ARSGC.

ARSGC will actively pursue the development of the Remote Sensing and Geospatial industry in Africa and participate in the development and utilisation of Earth Observation products and services, in collaboration with international organizations, for the benefit of sustainable development of the African continent.

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