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Category: Earth Observation News

The European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) supports the European Union decision-making in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) through the exploitation and production of information derived primarily from the analysis of Earth Observation space imagery.

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Based on integrated, service-oriented IT infrastructure, the facility will enable efficient processing of the workflows within the Centre. Thus fully support the production of the requested information dossiers.
These are relative to different domains such as general security surveillance, support to humanitarian and peace-keeping missions, maritime surveillance, management of environmental crisis…
The consortium led by ACS will implement architectural solution which includes Catalogue Interoperability, Workflow Engines and Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL) in the framework of the facility development.
(Source www.eu.eusc.int)

This year’s Summer School in Alpbach, Austria, was one of the most successful ever undertaken, according to both the students and the experts who took part.

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The Alpbach Summer School was organised by the Aeronautics and Space Agency of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). It is co-sponsored by ESA and the national space authorities of its member and cooperating states, as well as by EUMETSAT, with the support of the Interntional Space Science Institute and EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies.
Each Summer School concentrates on a different subject, and the theme chosen for the 2006 event was “Monitoring of Natural Hazards from Space”. This topic was considered to be particularly appropriate at a time of growing concern over environmental change, since it involves the use of satellites to improve scientists’ ability to monitor, predict and mitigate natural hazard events.
More than 50% of the Summer School timetable was devoted to student workshops. Following on from lectures covering scientific and technical aspects of Earth Observation from space, with an emphasis on major natural hazards, students were organised into four teams, each of which had to design a different space mission that might answer some of the key questions relating to the theme. At the end of the Summer School, the teams were asked to present their mission ideas to a jury of experts.
Each team was asked to:
* Identify a natural hazard or set of hazards susceptible to space borne observation;
* Determine a set of measurements or procedures that could aid in this process;
* Identify and detail a space mission that can enable these objectives to be achieved;
* Define and outline the design of an instrumental payload to make the observations;
* Establish the mission’s technical feasibility;
* Establish a mission architecture, considering technical and planning aspects;
* Determine the launcher required, and the cost envelope of the mission;
* Identify assumptions underpinning the mission: e.g. ground infrastructure, coordination with ground-based observations, new instrument developments etc.;
* Compare the mission with others in this field and consider its competitiveness;
* Consider the cost effectiveness of the mission.
The following topics were selected:
Floods (blue team)
The blue team produced an implementation plan for a Flood Assessment Satellites mission that would provide data to support and enhance hydrological models and decision making in flood disaster management. Envisaged as a flotilla of 4 satellites, it would use an innovative L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload to monitor land water bodies and estimate soil moisture for flood model calibration, drought forecasting and climate research.
Landslides (green team)
The green team presented the case for a Movement Detection Mission, an innovative mission concept for long-term monitoring of global landslide activity at medium and large scales. The key element of the mission is an orbital synthetic aperture radar instrument known as Differential Interferometric SAR. This will provide global coverage of landslide activity over a period of 36 days.
Earthquakes (orange team)
The orange team designed the Monitoring of Surface Deformation in Active Tectonic Zones mission that would increase knowledge of global seismology and advance research in earthquake predictions. In order to achieve the required sensitivity the mission would make use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and the Persistent Scatterers processing concept. It would also include a microwave sounder to correct the low frequencies of atmospheric water vapour and a magnetometer to capture ionospheric disturbances.
Volcanoes (red team)
The ?volcano haSAT’ mission presented by the red team was intended to provide a “global fast response monitoring system for volcanoes”. A 3-satellite constellation would guarantee full global coverage each day. The spacecraft’s L-band SAR sensor would deliver information about ground deformation prior to possible eruptions. This would also lead to the creation of a SAR database for 115 selected high risk volcanoes.
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“Never in my life did I get such a high-ranked and comprehensive overview of natural hazards and existing remote sensing capabilities,” commented Professor Hartmut Grassl, chairman of the jury.
Professor Grassl went on to compliment the teams on their innovative thoughts and approaches.
“Overall, I was so impressed that I will report to the Earth Science Advisory Committee of ESA on the outcome of this summer school and I will propose the launch of further studies within ESA’s study budget,” he said.
The overall feedback of Summer School students was also extremely positive.
“They all really enjoyed participating in it, and reported back that it was an exceptional experience, they had learned a lot and enjoyed the atmosphere,“ said Michaela Gitsch, the Summer School cordinator.
“From the point of view of the organisers I can say that the students were extremely enthusiastic, very well organised in their work (e.g. they managed to select team spokespersons on the first day), and able to actively engage with each other and with the scientists and engineers. We had outstanding lectures, tutors and students who spent many hours – almost day and night – working toward a successful Summer School,” echoed the Head Tutor, Professor Martin Turner, from the University of Leicester, UK.
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Google began showcasing the world‘s natural wonders, famous haunts, and man-made changes on its global mapping service.

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Google Earth offered “Featured Content” ranging from details of the Three Gorges Dam in China and King Tut‘s tomb in Egypt to Itsukushima Shrine in Japan and Pablo Picasso‘s favorite social spot in Sweden.
“We are excited to provide users with the opportunity to learn more about the natural wonders and manmade landmarks of the world,” said John Hanke, director Google Earth and Maps. “We believe Google Earth is an excellent medium for organizing and sharing the world‘s geographic information and we continue to explore opportunities to bring visually compelling and informative content into Google Earth.”
Google created “multimedia overlays” that users can trigger by clicking icons that appear on a virtual globe.
Icons designated natural wonders, major landmarks or cities, and environmental changes such as deforestation in the Amazon and a shrinking glacier in Iceland.
Pop-up boxes provide images, brief information, and links to websites with more details.
The Mountain View, California, based online search giant‘s partners in the project included the United Nations Environmental Program; Discovery Networks World Tour; Jane Goodall Institute; Turn Here travel guides, and the US National Park Service.
(Source: Agence France-Presse)

Professor Robert Boroffice, director-general, National Space Research and Development Agency said Abuja , the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently said that the project would be built with active participation of many local engineers.

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The project is slated for launch in 2008.
Professor Robert Boroffice, said that the country has a pool of highly trained engineers to undertake the design while the
construction and launch would be done with assistance from foreign experts.
Boroffice said Sat-2 would be an improvement on Nigeria Sat-1, “Which is a medium resolution earth observation satellite.”
The director-general said when Sat-2 is launched in 2008 it would provide a wide range of applications in the areas of infrastructure, water resources management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management.
Boroffice said Nigeria Sat-1, which was launched in 2003 from Plesetsk, Russia into 686 km polar orbit has been capturing high quality images using six cameras on board the satellite.
He said Sat-1 has apart from demonstrating good applications and commercial value has been configured in Disaster Monitoring Constellation with other United Kingdom (UK).
Boroffice added that Sat-1 has given Nigeria an added advantage of global coverage and daily revisit with provision of real time data.
By Kuayire Igho – Nigeria Bureau, AND

(“Optimal”), a geomatics solutions provider to engineering and geospatial professionals, is pleased to announce the recent expansion of its linear corridor solutions to the Transportation market.

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Accordingly, Optimal appointed Ron Gant as Director of Transportation to strengthen the drive to become the premier provider of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, GIS, and GPS solutions in the Transportation sector.
“Transportation projects depend upon reliable, accurate data and as a result the Transportation Industry has been in the forefront for developing technologies serving data acquisition and compilation for engineering and GIS,” stated Ron Gant, Director of Transportation. “Optimal is a leading edge provider of solutions and services for consulting, remote sensing, GPS, LiDAR and similar technologies. Optimal will focus resources on providing those leading edge solutions to meeting the needs of surveyors, engineers and GIS professionals in the Transportation Industry.”
Mr. Gant brings with him a wealth of experience to this sector including 16 years of executive experience with Bentley Systems and Intergraph Corporation. Mr. Gant‘s focus is on developing strong customer relationships and a growing market share in the transportation sector within North America.
“Mr. Gant has a proven track record in the Transportation sector of building products and market share. I am confident that this market will be well-served by his leadership and benefit from his commitment to bringing the latest geomatics solutions to the customer‘s enterprise,” commented Colum Caldwell, President and CEO.
Optimal Geomatics specializes in the science and technology of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, distributing and using geographic information. Optimal applies the disciplines of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning system (GPS) to provide solutions for engineering and geospatial professionals. Optimal‘s geomatics solutions enable State Departments of Transportation to streamline tasks and projects related to operations, road routes, intermodal connectivity, traffic congestion, safety improvements, engineering, conservations / environmental protection, and more.
This document may contain forward-looking statements. These statements present management‘s expectations, beliefs, plans, and objectives regarding future events and conditions and, as such, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could be significantly different from those projected.
(Source Spatialnews)

POSTEL is a thematic centre associating R&D and services to describe the soil and vegetation from Earth Observation satellite data, at regional and global scales.

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It is supported by several national public institutions . It develops through a series of projects .
The POSTEL products are spatialized variables describing :
- Vegetation and Soils with products such as Leaf Area Index, vegetal cover fraction, fAPAR, burnt areas, surface reflectance, land cover
- Radiation with products such as albedo, BRDF,surface temperature , downwelling radiation flux shortwave and longwave
- Water with products such as soil moisture, precipitation, water bodies, evapotranspiration, continental water level
The products are available to the international science community and can be downloaded.
More information at:
Marc Leroy
Centre de Service POSTEL,
MEDIAS-
France
Email: marc.leroy@medias.cnes.fr
(Source POSTEL)

On the heels of one of the clean technology sector’s biggest success stories—the reduction of ozone-depleting gases in the atmosphere—the Alliance for Earth Observations is bringing leaders from the environmental monitoring and information technology sectors together today to examine the potential contribution of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to the growing clean tech industry.

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GEOSS could not only provide unprecedented data for measuring the performance of clean technologies, but also aid in spurring new entrepreneurial opportunities in related areas such as climate change.
“Just last month, we acknowledged an improvement in the ozone hole. Observation technologies enabled us to identify, visualize and monitor this critical environmental problem, while government cooperation and industry innovation allowed us to solve the problem,” said Nancy Colleton, executive director of the Alliance for Earth Observations, an industry group devoted to promoting the benefits of observations. “We can apply a similar model to climate change and other areas closely connected with clean tech.”
Like Colleton, Craig Cuddeback, senior vice president of Cleantech Venture Network LLC, sees a clear link between Earth observations and clean technology. “It’s exciting to explore the role of Earth observations in clean tech. The investment possibilities are strong,” he said.
Bill Gail, director for strategic development for Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, notes the importance of both the observations themselves and the ability to visualize them.
“Platforms like Virtual Earth will enable governments, businesses and even consumers to visualize and address a host of environmental issues. It is the visualization of these topics that will catalyze action,” Gail said. “The more observational data that is available, the more applications we will see being built using Virtual Earth and Google Earth. It will impact all segments of the clean tech sector—energy, agriculture, water and transportation. The possibilities are endless.”
One area in which experts see a high-impact opportunity to apply observation systems is in the emerging ecosystem services sector. The carbon market, for example, is one that is evolving quickly and could benefit greatly from improved availability of, and access to, space-based remote sensing technology.
“Satellite observations of the Earth are going to be a primary method of measuring, monitoring and verifying carbon credits generated from changes in land use,” said David Skole, chief technology officer for the Climate Investment Network for Carbon Sequestration. “We need imagery from space and other sources to continually monitor carbon resources. Using satellites, we can do large-scale, global monitoring and ensure credibility to the markets.”
The use of space-based satellites in other vertical markets such as homeland security, marine and ocean transportation, and agriculture is nothing new. However, the introduction of tools including Virtual Earth and Google Earth in parallel with more than 60 countries agreeing to share Earth and environmental information through GEOSS opens up new possibilities, according to NOAA Administrator and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr.
“GEOSS will enable applications in areas we’ve never even considered,” Lautenbacher said. “On the government side, we are working very hard for improved prediction of natural hazards like tsunami and hurricane forecasting, and utilization of the data for better resource management. But, on the private sector side, we know GEOSS information will enhance the activities of existing companies in every industry and will help support new entrepreneurial ventures. The underlying, critical piece in all of this is the observations. We need the data and information from satellites, buoys, balloons, ships and aircraft available and easy to integrate.”
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For the first time, leaders from the environmental monitoring and information technology sectors come together today to examine the potential of GEOSS to not only provide unprecedented data for measuring the performance of clean technologies, but also generate new entrepreneurial opportunities for the clean tech sector.
Moderated by Dan Dubno, producer and technologist for CBS News in New York, the session is part of the Cleantech Venture Forum XI being held at New York’s Marriott Marquis, Midtown. Joining Dubno will be Bill Gail, director of strategic development for Microsoft’s Virtual Earth; Chikai Ohazama, senior product manger for Google Earth; David Skole, chief technology officer for the Climate Investment Network for Carbon Sequestration; and Carla Sullivan, senior policy advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
Science Applications International Corporation and Northrop Grumman are sponsoring the session, which is organized by the Alliance for Earth Observations.
CONTACT
Dan Stillman
Alliance for Earth Observations
(703) 312-7138 (Phone)
(703) 312-8657 (FAX)
E-mail: dan_stillman@strategies.org

Chinese scientists plan to put into orbit the Haiyang 1-B (Ocean 1-B), an advanced version of the Haiyang 1-A oceanic satellite, by the end of this year to monitor marine environment and disasters.

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The Haiyang 1-B Satellite was still undergoing testing, said Sun Laiyan, vice director of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense.
Sun told a national conference on oceanic science and technology that the technical flaws of the Haiyang 1-A had been removed from the upgraded satellite, and the data quality to be collected would be improved.
Bai Zhaoguang, chief scientist on the Haiyang 1-B project, said the main function of the Haiyang 1-B would be to observe sea surface height, waves, currents and temperatures.
The satellite‘s operational life was expected to reach three years, one year more than that of Haiyang 1-A, Bai said.
The Haiyang 1-A, China‘s first experimental satellite to use ocean color detecting, was successfully launched in May 2002 and had a designed lifespan of two years.
The “color” of the ocean is determined by the interactions of light with the water. The satellite can measure a wide array of shades to determine levels of phytoplankton, sediments, and dissolved organic chemicals, which most affect the color.
The oceanic satellite would be China‘s most important satellites together with a series of weather and resources satellites, said Sun Zhihui, director of the State Oceanic Administration.
The administration would actively participate in the country‘s space plan and develop satellite projects to realize three-dimensional monitoring of the ocean, Sun added.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency & Spacedaily)

The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has placed a contract for a second year with DMC International Imaging to acquire high-resolution satellite images of the entire 5 million square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest.

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In 2005 DMC rapidly acquired images of the whole Amazon Basin in 6 weeks to provide Brazil with vital information for the annual programme to monitor deforestation and combat illegal logging. The programme is now repeated in 2006.
Imagery is provided by the five-satellite international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). The Earth Observation micro-satellites use wide area cameras to capture the high-resolution images. The latest satellite, built for China, was launched into the DMC on 27 October 2005.
Dr. Joao Vianei Soares, Director of Earth Observation at INPE said, “The DMC has achieved a significant new step in remote sensing through coordination of five nations in space. The unique constellation of low cost micro-satellites enables rapid imaging of large areas at high resolution. This opens up many new possibilities in remote sensing, especially in cloudy areas, because of the ability to re-image an area almost daily if needed.”
Paul Stephens, Marketing Director, DMCii said, “We are proud to supply DMC data to INPE for the important DETER programme monitoring the vital resources of the Amazon rainforest. The recent drought in Brazil highlights the need to collect good information to help understand changes in the environment and their consequences for both the local people and the global climate.”
The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) INPE‘s mission is to make it possible for Brazilian society to benefit from new developments in space science and technology, mainly focusing on:
+ Increasing Brazil‘s autonomy in a number of strategic areas;
+ Providing the means for Brazilian industry to participate and become competitive in the space area;
+ Encouraging the development and dissemination of space technology;
Deforestation rates in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America have remained constant or have increased over the past two decades, altering global carbon emissions and climate while elevating the need for frequent and accurate assessment of forest loss. In the Brazilian Amazon alone, where the growth of cattle ranching and cropland agriculture are the primary causes of forest clearing, about 20,000 square kilometres of forest are clear-cut and burned each year.
INPE has developed a near or almost real time monitoring application for deforestation detection known as the Real Time Deforestation Monitoring System (DETER) system. High-resolution imagery is needed when estimating the total area of deforestation and when identifying small clearings.
DMC International Imaging Ltd. (DMCii) is a UK supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMC data is now used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.
The small satellites of the DMC provide daily revisit in combination with an unmatched 600km imaging swath width at 32 metre ground sample distance (GSD) for frequent broad area coverage. DMC data products are calibrated and processed to a variety of levels according to customer requirements.
In partnership with the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the other DMC member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey) DMCii uses the commercial exploitation of the DMC small satellite constellation to fund co-ordination of the DMC for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters. DMCii works with the UN, the European Space Agency and The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters during disasters such as Tsunami, Fire, Flooding and Hurricanes.
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The official programme of events celebrating EUMETSAT’s 20th anniversary kicks off today July 3rd at the 59th Council Meeting, which takes place at the organisation’s Darmstadt headquarters.

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Representatives from the German federal and country governments, the World Meteorological Organization, the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the international meteorological community will deliver speeches commemorating this special event to the audience of Council delegates and VIP guests.
In the two decades since its foundation on 19 June 1986 the organisation has become one of the world’s pre-eminent meteorological and environmental satellite organisations, serving the interests of Europe’s National Meteorological Services as well as an ever-growing community of international users. For more information about how EUMETSAT has developed over the years please visit the anniversary website [External link]here.
‘The success of EUMETSAT is very much the success story of meteorology itself,’ says Dr. Lars P. Prahm, Director-General. ‘Powerful super-computers, increasingly sophisticated Numerical Weather Prediction models and the highly reliable, superb quality satellite data and images provided by EUMETSAT’s fleet of satellites have resulted in radically improved weather forecasts as well as a better understanding of climate and the environment.
‘Our latest generation of Meteosat satellites, the second of which was launched last December, has greatly enhanced our support to Europe’s National Meteorological Services and their capability to accurately predict very fast-moving localised fronts of severe weather, helping with disaster prevention and mitigation and thereby saving many more lives and property.’
EUMETSAT is securing its service for the future with the forthcoming launch on 17 July of MetOp-2, the inaugural satellite of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS), Europe’s first polar-orbiting meteorological satellite service. Planned programmes such as the Jason-2 Ocean Surface Topography mission and the Meteosat Third Generation, as well as the Post-EPS programmes, will further assure EUMETSAT’s service for the long-term.
The organisation is also poised to significantly extend its objective to become the operational satellite agency of choice for European Earth Observation programmes for atmosphere and oceans such as the strategically important Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative led by the European Commission and the European Space Agency.
EUMETSAT
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation that establishes and maintains operational meteorological satellites for 19 European States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom). EUMETSAT has signed 11 Cooperating State Agreements. Those with Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have entered into force whereas the agreement with Serbia and Montenegro is to be ratified in the near future.
EUMETSAT is currently operating Meteosat-6, -7 and -8 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-5 over the Indian Ocean.
The data, product and services from EUMETSAT’s satellites make a significant contribution to weather forecasting and to the monitoring of the global climate.
(Credits Eumetsat)