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DENVER, Colorado, USA, February 2017– TCarta Marine LLC of Denver, Colo., has merged with Proteus Geo of Oxford, UK, to create a global mapping company that provides bathymetric and marine data sets from the shallow coastal zone out to the continental shelf.

The new company is called TCarta Marine and will maintain offices in Denver and Oxford.

“By merging, we believe the merged company provides a wider and more sophisticated range of products than any other supplier worldwide,” said TCarta Marine CEO David Critchley. “TCarta Marine is now a one-stop shop for bathymetric and marine data.”

TCarta Marine will continue offering all existing product lines from the two companies as well as new products and services under development. Primary markets served will be engineering, oil & gas, government and defense with expansion planned into the insurance, 3D modeling and aquaculture industries.

“Our goal is to make it easier for the marine community to obtain and use quality mapping data,” said TCarta Marine President Kyle Goodrich. “To support every phase of offshore projects, we now offer lower resolution bathymetry for regional planning as well as high-resolution, highly accurate seafloor modeling for precise coastal engineering activities. Additionally, we offer a range of global and regional marine basemaps.”

In recent years, TCarta Marine and Proteus Geo collaborated on many projects and had numerous clients in common due to the complementary nature of their product lines.

David Critchley established Proteus Geo in the United Kingdom in 2011 to leverage a new technology that derives high-accuracy seafloor survey and seabed classification information from multispectral satellite imagery. Operating at a fraction of the cost of traditional ship- and airborne bathymetric technologies, the Proteus methodology has been deployed extensively in energy exploration, infrastructure engineering and environmental applications in shallow-water coastal zones.

“The two-meter satellite-derived bathymetric data can be derived to depths of 35 meters depending on water clarity and every depth has an uncertainty value assigned,” said Critchley.

TCarta Marine was started in 2008 by Kyle Goodrich to fill an enormous gap in quality bathymetric data from the littoral zone out to the base of the continental shelf, distance often spanning hundreds of kilometers. The firm developed proprietary techniques for aggregating seafloor depth data from numerous medium- to coarse-resolution sources, including navigation charts, ship tracklines, and boat surveys. TCarta Marine has built an impressive off-the-shelf line of 90- and 30-meter GIS-ready products covering the Earth’s most important marine areas.

“Our bathymetric products are available via annual subscription for streaming directly into our clients’ GIS and mapping applications,” said Goodrich. “Oil, gas and renewable energy companies have become major users of TCarta Marine products.”

As president of the new TCarta Marine, Goodrich will focus on developing additional products and innovative methods for delivering them. The global company seeks to expand its foothold in traditional marine markets and cultivate new applications for seafloor data. Critchley, as CEO of TCarta Marine, will be responsible for business development in new geographic regions of the world.

In the near term, TCarta Marine and Proteus Geo customers can look forward to purchasing the existing 90-, 30- and 2-meter resolution product lines online through a new web portal, now under development. Information can be found and orders placed now through the new unified TCarta Marine website at www.TCartaMarine.com

Proteus FZC, an affiliated company of Proteus Geo based in the United Arab Emirates, will remain a stand-alone company offering terrestrial geospatial and marine consulting services in the Middle East.

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The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, celebrated the range and quality of the nominations for the Award for Good Administration in a ceremony in Brussels on Thursday 30 March 2017.

Launched in October, the Award attracted 90 nominated projects from the main EU institutions as well as many agencies and other bodies. Prizes were awarded in 7 categories.

About the European Space Expo

More than one million people visited the European Space Expo during its tour of 32 major European cities. The Expo presented key information on the European space programmes – from satellite navigation (Galileo and EGNOS) to Earth observation (Copernicus) – in an engaging and entertaining way. Highlights included an interactive hologram of the earth’s atmosphere and a model of the ‘Galileo’ satellite.

The aim of the Expo was to show citizens how European space policy and space-based technologies benefit our everyday lives on earth and also of course, their importance for the European economy and job creation.

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Oil spills, such as those from the Erika (1999) and the Prestige (2002) tankers, result in huge environmental and economic damage to our coastlines.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), based in Lisbon, provides technical assistance and support to the European Commission and Member States, amongst others, in the development and implementation of EU maritime legislation. Its mission is to ensure a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of and response to pollution from ships, as well as response to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.

Satellites, with their sophisticated sensors, provide routine, cost-effective, wide-area surveillance over maritime zones. Furthermore, they can be pointed to a targeted location for monitoring specific operations and gather material in response to intelligence information.

Earth observation contributes to maritime surveillance to help manage the actions and events that can have an impact on maritime safety and security, including marine pollution, accident and disaster response, search and rescue, as well as fisheries control.

Data from satellites are downlinked to a network of ground stations, processed into images, and analysed. The images and results are then sent to the Earth Observation Data Centre at EMSA for data fusion and distribution to end users.

EMSA also operates CleanSeaNet, a satellite-based oil spill surveillance and vessel detection service, which analyses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from satellites to detect possible oil spills on the sea surface.

SAR satellite images cannot provide information on the nature of a spill (for instance whether it is mineral oil, fish or vegetable oil, or other), but spills from vessels often appear as long, linear dark lines (indicating a substance discharging as the vessel is moving), with a bright spot (the vessel) at the tip. Vessel detection is also available through the CleanSeaNet service. If a vessel is detected in a satellite image, its identity can often be determined by correlating the satellite data with vessel positioning reports from the European monitoring systems operated at EMSA, such as SafeSeaNet.

When a spill is detected, a pollution alert is sent to national authorities. The alerts are available within 30 minutes of the satellite acquiring the image.

The national authority then chooses how to react to the alert. A patrol aircraft or vessel may be sent to monitor the area and check the oil spill detection, or an inspection of the vessel may be requested in the next port of call.

But where does Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite come in?

The satellite carries an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface.

The C-band SAR builds on ESA’s and Canada’s heritage systems on ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and RADARSAT.

As a constellation of two satellites orbiting 180° apart, the mission images Earth with a high coverage frequency. As well as transmitting data to a number of ground stations in Europe, Sentinel-1 also carries a laser to transmit data through the geostationary European Data Relay System. This offers fast data access to support, among others, operational maritime surveillance activities in remote areas. EMSA services are set to benefit from this additional capability.

The spatial resolution of Sentinel-1 also allows the detection of much smaller spills than could be provided by earlier radar satellites.

In 2016, the proportion of image acquisitions by Sentinel-1 for the service (1506 out of 3057 acquisitions) was considerable, and this is expected to grow even further in 2017.

On 2 January 2017, the CleanSeaNet service detected spills in Portugal’s Algarve Ria Formosa area thanks to the Sentinel-1 satellite. The satellite image displayed four small spills. The spill closest to the shore, just 2.24 km from land, covered an area of 1.64 sq km.

As soon as the Portuguese National Maritime Authority received the CleanSeaNet alert, the drift of the spills were calculated and a pollution alert was sent to relevant national authorities. Correlation of vessel detections with other vessel position information presented a close match, providing authorities with valuable information about the potential polluter.

The National Environmental Agency (APA) was contacted and when the pollutants washed up on the shores, samples were collected for analysis. Palm oil was identified and preparations for cleaning of beaches with volunteers and local maritime authorities started.

By 10 January, the cleaning was complete and an APA report confirmed that the substance was palm oil.

Leendert Bal, Head of Operations at EMSA, confirmed that: “The addition of Sentinel-1A and -1B improves significantly the availability of satellite imagery for the CleanSeaNet service. Sentinel-1 offers good quality imagery, which is very much appreciated by our users.”

About the Sentinels

The Sentinels are a fleet of dedicated EU-owned satellites, designed to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to Europe’s Copernicus environmental programme.

In partnership with EU Member States, the European Commission leads and coordinates this programme, to improve the management of the environment, safeguarding lives every day. ESA is in charge of the space component, responsible for developing the family of Copernicus Sentinel satellites and ensuring the flow of data for the Copernicus services, while the operations of the Sentinels have been entrusted to ESA and EUMETSAT.

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DLR is looking for the best application ideas in the fields of satellite navigation and Earth observation for the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) and the Copernicus Masters. The deadline for applications is 30 June 2017.

The new season has begun: DLR is once again looking for the best application ideas in the fields of satellite navigation and Earth observation for the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) and the Copernicus Masters. Now, the possibilities are greater. The European satellite navigation system Galileo has been providing services since the end of 2016. Previously, an Ariane rocket delivered four Galileo satellites into their orbits simultaneously, bringing the Galileo system to 18 satellites. The European Earth Observation Programme Copernicus is now ready for action: with the launch of Sentinel-2B at the beginning of March 2017, five satellites are now on their ‘guardian’ mission, delivering valuable data on Earth’s surface, oceans, atmosphere, disaster management, climate change and security.

Robust Means Trust – Galileo for Reliable Positioning

The DLR Special Prize has been awarded as part of the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) for many years now. This year, approaches and ideas that contribute to the reliability of Galileo services and exploit opportunities for further development are sought.

Galileo is a driver for various new coming applications targeting a broad field from mass market to professional, governmental and safety-critical applications. Along with the applications new challenging requirements have to be fulfilled, especially targeting a robust, resilient and ubiquitous provision of navigation information. This includes positioning in challenging environmental conditions such as dense urban scenarios and in areas with potential radio interference or other types of radio propagation. It is therefore the aim of the DLR Special Topic Prize to maximise the benefits for the user community by supporting new applications and solutions to meet the needs of the real world.

Topic 1: Resilient GNSS

Wide usage of GNSS requires reliable provision of positioning services with sufficient accuracy and availability, and in case of safety-critical applications also integrity and continuity.

Challenge: Hardening PNT with robust designs or backup.

Areas of search:

  • Making GNSS receivers robust in challenging conditions
  • Fusing GNSS data with information from other sensors for Resilient PNT
  • Making the Galileo System itself even more robust against various sources of influences
  • Complementing PNT by Non-GNSS (…)

Scope: Identify the problem – create a solution – overcome current limitations – prepare for the future.

Topic 2: Early Services and Applications

Challenge: Utilising Galileo Early Services as standalone system and/or in a Multi Constellation Environment

Areas of search:

  • Applications using Early Services of Galileo especially in challenging environments
  • Using Galileo in a Multi Constellation Context (…)

Wanted:

  • Technical and application oriented solutions
  • From space to spatial
  • Ready & robust
    For the best usage of GNSS with top-grade trust

The call for proposals is geared towards companies, research institutions, organisations as well as individuals. The winner of the special prize will be awarded a DLR voucher as a prize for further development and targeted implementation of the idea — for example in the form of feasibility studies, design studies or prototype developments. The consultancy and development services at the DLR will cover five person months; conversion to a cash prize is not permitted. The ESNC competition offers the possibility to apply in several categories. The jury will nominate a total winner from the group of finalists – the ‘GALILEO Master 2017’. Since 2004, the competition has been organised by AZO GmbH in Oberpfaffenhofen. More information can be found here: www.esnc.eu

Copernicus Masters 2017

The DLR Environment, Energy & Health Challenge

DLR is looking for new applications in Earth observation that address climate change and environmental issues. Sustainable energy management and human health aspects are often related to environmental conditions. In addition to general environmental management, ideas for the generation, distribution or consumption of energy – as well as monitoring or management of health and welfare using remote sensing data – will thus be especially welcome.

Proposals must be based on existing or imminent Earth observation data – preferably from Copernicus Sentinels. They may be supplemented by any kind of ancillary geo-information, such as crowdsourced data or in-situ measurements, for further information enrichment, validation or application. The proposed products or services derived from the ideas submitted should either support professionals in environmental assessment and energy and health management, or empower the general public and consumer-oriented markets. The applications can range from a local to a global scale.

Participants are encouraged to submit innovative ways to link remote-sensing-based products and services with user needs. The ideas can also describe a real-world implementation scenario that includes the general public and/or potential commercial benefits.

Prize 2017:

  • The winner will be awarded a cash prize of 5000 euro.
  • The winner will benefit from a substantial satellite data quota worth 5000 euro made possible with financial support by the European Commission.
  • Finalists will be automatically granted access to the Copernicus Accelerator programme (if eligible).

Copernicus Masters: overall competition

The international competition ‘Copernicus Masters’ offers the possibility to participate in several ‘Challenges’. The winners of each challenge are selected by experts from industry and research. The grand winner – the ‘Copernicus Master 2017’ – is given the opportunity to be present at the launch of an Earth observation satellite in Kourou, French Guiana, and receives a cash prize. The competition will be organised by AZO. Information on all individual tenders, partners and terms of participation can also be found here: www.copernicus-masters.com

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Australia and New Zealand CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI), released the White Paper Towards a Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure to position new knowledge concepts across the emerging digital economy.

Towards a Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure White Paper proposes a Next Generation Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure that moves the agenda from more traditional Spatial Data Infrastructure concepts, to automatically creating, sharing, curating, delivering and using knowledge (including the data and the detailed analytics that produce the information products) in support of the emerging digital economy and the rise of spatially-aware and equipped citizens.

The key challenges the White Paper presents are moving our current approach from bespoke systems to automated systems, from expert to non-expert users, from data as a descriptor to information as a predictor, from post-analysis to real time analysis, and from simple quality descriptors to full warrantability.

“Within the next five years new technologies and growing user demands will render current approaches to spatial data infrastructures inadequate”, said Kylie Armstrong, White Paper co-author, CRCSI.
“Becoming semantically enabled is the next step towards more streamlined data supply, more versatile and usable information and automated spatial analytics for knowledge creation and discovery”.

This will be a time of transition that requires innovation and new practices in government and the private sector to allow the power of emerging technologies to meet the future demand of users.

This movement from information data to fit-for-purpose knowledge will drive new activities across the economy, including smarter transport networks, responsive and resilient cities and intelligent infrastructure planning.

“The rapidly changing requirements of users, the growing role of industry in the knowledge economy, and the innovation policy agendas of Government are placing demands on the way we manage our spatial data and analytics. This paper is designed to stimulate a discussion to accelerate the development of the next generation of spatial infrastructure” says Dr Peter Woodgate, CEO, CRCSI.

The White Paper is authored by Professor Matt Duckham, Dr Lesley Arnold, Kylie Armstrong, Dr David McMeekin and Darren Mottolini and highlights the case for change and maps the journey that will help realise the creation of the Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure.

To access the White Paper, use this link

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MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada—April 11, 2017: PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today the release of Geomatica 2017 – the latest version of the company’s complete and integrated desktop, geo-image processing software featuring tools for remote sensing, digital photogrammetry, geospatial analysis, mosaicking and more.

This release greatly expands Geomatica capabilities by adding two new packages, as well as improving core technology and satellite sensor support. “The common theme behind all the advances in Geomatica 2017 is making complex technologies easier to use, for both experts and non-experts” said David Piekny, Product Marketing Manager at PCI Geomatics. The two new packages are Geomatica Object Analyst, for image segmentation and object classification, and Geomatica InSAR, an advanced radar package for measurement and analysis of ground subsidence and uplift.

Easy-to-learn and easy-to-use, Object Analyst guides you through segmenting images, extracting features, creating training sites and classifying objects (including through custom rules). By segmenting images into discrete objects, boundaries and relationships can be more easily seen and analyzed, leading to new insights and discoveries. Shape manipulation and accuracy assessment are also included, allowing quick image processing and results.

End-to-end interferometic radar processing is in the new InSAR add-on. Each step in this process is designed to be flexible, intuitive, and run independently or in sequence through the Geomatica Python API, with default parameters to aid automation. Using RadarSat-2 and TerraSar-X, InSAR is suitable for any land subsidence or uplift application and allows time-series analysis to measure change and rate of change across stacks of images. Interferograms can also be generated from Kompsat-5, Cosmo-Skymed and other sensors.

Improvements for ortho-project management include image thumbnails and reference backdrops, making it easier to see project layout, while new tie-point collection, blunder detection and point thinning provide better point distribution and stronger models.

Geomatica 2017 users can now work with a suite of new sensors, including PlanetScope, ZY3-02 and TeLEOS-1, along with updates to Sentinel-2, Kompsat-5, Pleiades, RapidEye and CBERS-4.

For customers who are interested in trying out this new capability for the first time, a fully functional trial license is available at: www.GetGeomatica.com. Details on the content of this release, tutorials and technical information can be found online at www.pcigeomatics.com, while a user forum and additional resources are available at the PCI Customer Support Website: support.pcigeomatics.com.

About PCI Geomatics
PCI Geomatics is a world-leading developer of software and systems for remote sensing, imagery processing, and photogrammetry. With more than 30 years of experience in the geospatial industry, PCI is recognized globally for its excellence in providing software for accurately and rapidly processing satellite and aerial imagery. There are more than 30,000 PCI licenses, in over 150 countries worldwide. Find out more about PCI Geomatics at www.pcigeomatics.com.

Press Contact (PCI Geomatics)
Kevin R. Jones
Director, Marketing and Communications
T: 819-770-0022 × 214
E: jones@pcigeomatics.com
Web: www.pcigeomatics.com
Twitter: @pcigeomatics

(Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Apr 10, 2017) Led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland , the EU North State project has developed a new method of using satellite images to evaluate the forest carbon balance.

The carbon balance indicates how much carbon is sequestered or released by forests each year. This enables the carbon balance to be displayed on digital maps, with an accuracy of up to ten meters.

The technique involves mapping the key features of forest areas and forests – such as the location, main tree species, height and biomass – from images provided by the European Sentinel satellites. These digital images are fed into a model, alongside climate data. The result is carbon sequestration maps. Such maps reveal which areas are carbon sinks or carbon sources. This information can be used for activities such as planning forest management and assessing climate impacts.

The simplest maps show the amount of carbon sequestered through photosynthesis, but take no account of carbon released by the decomposition of organic matter. More refined products take account of carbon released by living plants and carbon emissions from the soil. They provide a more precise idea of the carbon balance, but require the best source data. It was possible to create more advanced carbon balance maps of Finnish territory because sufficient ground reference data was available for guiding satellite image interpretation.

“The partners in the project developed advanced methods of interpreting satellite and drone images. The University of Helsinki did the computing for the final carbon balance maps, based on VTT’s satellite image interpretation. We had to invent a new approach to processing such huge quantities of data,” says Research Professor Tuomas Hame.

The University of Helsinki also developed a new way of using its carbon balance model to forecast growing stock volumes. The growing stock estimates for Finland yielded almost the same result as national forest inventories.

At their most detailed, the maps had a resolution of ten meters. Coarser maps with a resolution of 500 meters were used to calculate the balance for the entire boreal coniferous forest zone from Iceland to the Urals. The same techniques could be used for satellite image interpretation and assessing the carbon balance, despite the major differences in image resolutions.

The Sentinel satellite series forms the central part of the Copernicus Programme of the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA), which will provide free satellite data from across the globe over the forthcoming decades. The current total budget for the programme is over seven billion euros.


A prediction of net primary production of forest for Finland, calculated based on VTT’s satellite image interpretation and the University of Helsinki’s model. The intensity of the green colour indicates the quantity of carbon sequestration during the year. The estimate quantifies the carbon balance of living vegetation, without carbon dioxide release from the soil.

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CORINE Land Cover is the official pan-European land cover monitoring programme being operational since the late 1980s and covering four survey periods for 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2012.

Ariane Walz and Luisa Gedon, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science | University of Potsdam

We investigated land cover changes as detected by the CORINE programme for all protected areas (PA) of the European Union and showed how ECOPOTENTIAL PAs compare with the total of European Protected Areas. We used the “Nationally Designated Areas” database, which is the official source of information on PAs from European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas and includes a total of 85´319 individual protected areas in its Geodatabase for 2015 (version 11). For the land cover, we use the CORINE Land Cover Change, which is based on an improved technique to detect changes in land cover. The “mapping change first” technique has been applied by most countries since 2006, and it covers changes in land cover in a higher resolution than the initial wall-to-wall land cover surveys. Changes in land cover are mapped, if they affect an area >5 ha with a width >100 m. We convert land cover changes to the six main “land cover flows” (LCF) identified by Feranec et al. (2010) which prevents double-counting of changes from and to a specific land cover. First results show the most important land cover flows within PAs include LCF4 “Reforestation” and LCF5 “Deforestation”. LCF4 contains areas changing away from “forest and semi-natural vegetation”, and LCF5 contains areas changing towards “forest and semi-natural vegetation”. Both flows can be caused either by natural processes or by human intervention. Comparing these flows from within PAs and from a 1 km buffer around PAs shows considerably higher changes around the PAs. Assuming natural processes are similar in intensity within PAs and their direct surroundings, this indicates considerably less human intervention within PAs. However, we can still not estimate the degree of human intervention within PAs due to limitations in the categorical resolution of CORINE land cover. Both flows occur to a large extent within PAs of IUCN Category V (“Protected Landscape/Seascape”), where the human intervention is allowed (Fig 1). Changes in Category V exceed to a remarkable degree the rates of changes observed in Category VI (“Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources”), where human intervention is explicitly needed to maintain the current state of ecosystems. In absolute terms, land cover changes add up also for Category II (“National Park”) which is due to the usually large extend of these PAs.


Fig 1. Sum of LCF4 and LCF5 for different IUCN categories in (A) absolute area of change/year and (B) normalized by size of PAs.

Plotting LCF4 and LCF5 over the size of PAs shows that land cover change occurs at all sizes (Fig 2). Normalising land cover change with the size of the individual PAs indicates a high vulnerability of very small PAs. If they are affected by a land cover change, very large proportions of the PA can be transformed according to CORINE. The limited set of ECOPOTENTIAL PAs covers well the range of observed rates of changes except for very small, highly impacted PAs.


Fig 2. Distribution of LFC4 and LCF5 across the size of PAs (1) in absolute area of LCF and (B) fraction of PA, in red: ECOPOTENTIAL PAs.

In summary, CORINE confirms that changes in “forest and semi-natural vegetation” dominate land cover change in European Pas. It shows that changes in close proximity to PAs occur at considerably higher rates, which can give us some indication on both the functioning of the protection and the prevailing pressures on PAs. The data further indicate a high sensitivity of small PAs to land cover change. Major short-comings of CORINE Land Cover Change could be identified mainly in the spatial and categorical resolution, including the ability to distinguish natural processes from human intervention in the dataset which is of particular interest for PAs. ECOPOTENTIAL PAs all show land cover changes, and their change rates cover a large range of observed change rates for large European PAs. Further refinement of these findings will deepen our knowledge about the applicability of CORINE land cover for the management of PAs. Furthermore, we might be able to compare the results from CORINE land cover change with the targeted reconstruction of past changes from LANDSAT for the ECOPOTENTIAL PAs. After all, this will enable us to provide guidance to improve large-scale land cover monitoring towards the needs of PA management.

Source: ECOPOTENTIAL Newsletter

(By Keith Campbell, Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor) Worldwide, the Earth Observation (EO) sector is being shaken-up by disruptive innovations by major enterprises.

“Globally, traditional EO value chains are changing radically due to technological developments, rapid commercialisation and operationalisation by, especially, leading IT [information technology] companies,” highlighted Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Meraka Institute chief scientist in EO science and IT Dr Konrad Wessels.

He was speaking at the EO Indaba in Pretoria on Monday. “These developments are being actively funded by the European Commission and UK government agencies, and in the US by venture capital, to increase the competitiveness of their EO offerings.”

The traditional EO value chain was: sensors provide raw data; this is processed into spatial data information; this is subject to analysis and/or turned into application products and/or services; and these are then used to create decision support tools. Decision support tools must be customized for each client. Traditionally, different types of companies or agencies were responsible for different elements of this value chain. Thus, there were (and still are) satellite-owning and -operating companies or agencies, responsible for the sensors and the provision of raw data. Then other companies or agencies processed and analysed it. Then yet more companies created and sold application products and services and decision support tools.

But now, major value-added service providers have been expanding “up-stream” (to use industrial jargon) and now own and operate their one satellites and provide their own raw data, and carry out their own processing and analyses, cutting out everyone else. Conversely, satellite builders and data providers are moving “down-stream”, providing value-added services. These developments have potentially serious consequences for smaller players in the EO business, like South Africa.

“It’s been ten years since South Africa’s EO Strategy was launched. I think we’ve come a long way,” Wessels said. “Our common vision is to use EO for societal benefits. But our objective now is to ensure that the South African EO community maintains market share in EO. It is truly becoming a Big Data challenge. EO is really a part of a wider data economy.”

“Our future vision is that South Africa’s EO and Space Engineering community leads the development of EO applications and services in Africa,” he affirmed. Space engineers design and build satellites. If they and the EO people do not stand together then South Africa could be sidelined by the global EO majors, even in Africa. And to compete, it is also very important to develop local staff. The EO sector needs a high proportion of postgraduates in its ranks.

Wessels listed the expectations of the CSIR’s own EO community. These are: an enabling environment created under the leadership of the Department of Science and Technology and the South African National Space Agency. The creation of opportunities for international collaboration, especially in Africa. Access to EO data and EO data infrastructure. Less competition in South Africa for small projects. More funding opportunities for EO research and development and application development. Coordination between satellite engineers and EO application developers. Collaboration with local industry. And technology transfer to local industry. In South Africa, the need was to build relationships, he stressed, not delineate territories.

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EOS has developed this satellite data processing and analytics web tool where researchers could be able to look at available Sentinal data series or Landsat -8 OLI data, analyze them based on available analytics tool (The most important one to mention is NDVI) and then download it if found useful. This web tool is especially very useful for the researchers who has a special interest in NDVI image analysis

Land Viewer cloud software for remote sensing analytics is the biggest surprise I had in a long time. After trying it you won’t be needing any other satellite data processing web tool.

Founded in 2015 by Max Polyakov, EOS Inc. (EOS stands for the Earth Observing System) developed one of the best satellite data processing and analytics platforms out there. EOS’s back-end solutions are used by some of the Fortune 500 companies and the mapping industry leaders.

The platform offers the fastest engine to search and process satellite and areal imagery I’ve ever seen. On the top, it features a massive set of filters and algorithms to analyze the data at any scale. Now, all these features are available for free to the general public. The company recently launched a new, impressive web-based tool where anyone can access, analyze and download satellite images for free.

The service is called Land Viewer and offers free, on-the-fly, real-time imagery processing and analytics packed with features. It’s cool and insanely fast. It gives you access to imagery from Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellites with more to come soon.

more info