Skip to content

Between February and June 2016, Eurisy coordinated an interview based qualitative research as part of the project’s mission to set-up a Regional Data Hub uniting the Balkan, Middle-East and North Africa regions.

The report that follows will aim to provide an insight into the market segment situated at the end of the data value added chain. More than 90 local, national or regional stakeholders responded to the call, covering four thematic areas (climate change, access to raw materials, energy and food security). The results will be available on the project website shortly!

Regional stakeholders are also invited to join project partners in dedicated events:

Project Workshop, 16-17 November 2016, Limassol, Cyprus

Subscribe to the newsletter and stay updated on the project progress
Discover GEO-CRADLE

Eurisy’s “Satellites going local” 5th edition – a collection of good practices in preparation

The latest instalment of this handbook will cover user testimonials and business cases from agriculture, environment, risk management, logistics and tourism, to name a few. They are intended to demonstrate, in a down-to-earth manner, how digital products and services that rely on satellite technology benefit professionals in all areas of activity. Coming soon at a conference near you and on eurisy.org

Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2025, in its 19th edition, provides an exhaustive analysis of the worldwide satellite demand merging customers, applications & orbits.

According to Euroconsult’s 2016 forecast of the space market, 145 satellites with launch mass over 50kg will be launched on average each year by 2025 for government agencies and commercial organizations worldwide. When including satellites smaller than 50kg and the two mega constellations of OneWeb and SpaceX, the total for the decade would grow precipitously to 9,000 units (vs. 1,480 launched in the past ten years).

The 1,450 satellites over 50kg to be launched over 2016-2025 should represent a market of $250 billion for the space industry to build and launch. A price decrease is visible in this core market of the industry, driven by 11 commercial constellations using 370 small satellites to be deployed into low or medium Earth orbits for communication or Earth observation.

New in the 2016 Edition

  • Retrospective analysis of Euroconsult’s forecast matching with satellite reality over the past 16 years
  • Market share of the satellites of the report relative to the cubesat and mega-comsat constellation
  • New data series in Excel files
  • New format & layout

Key Trends, Drivers & Forecasts

  • Exclusive 10-year forecasts including breakdown by customer & by orbit, with number & mass of satellites to be manufactured & launched, plus market value (manufacturing & launch services)
  • Review of strategic issues from both supply (industry) & demand (customers) perspectives
  • Detailed demand database for commercial (order book) and government satellites (forecasts) including: application, launch date, launch mass, satellite platform, manufacturer, launch provider

For each satellite, the following information is provided

  • Name of the satellite
  • Year of launch
  • Name and country of the operator
  • Application of the satellite
  • Orbit of the satellite
  • Satellite manufacturer
  • Satellite bus
  • Design lifetime of the satellite
  • Launch mass of the satellite
  • Launch service provider
  • Launch vehicle

Read Press Release==

Download report brochure==

A new partnership between the Group on Earth Observations and the World Health Organization seeks to leverage their areas of expertise to promote use of Earth observing technologies in addressing global health challenges.

In our complex and ever-changing world, satellite data provides life-saving information on tornadoes, landslides, and other atmospheric events. A new partnership seeks to expand how this information can be applied to the arena of human health.

The new partnership between the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) was announced during the GEO 37th Executive Committee Meeting in Geneva and seeks to increase the use of Earth observations and geospatial data to help improve global health.

Earth observations and geospatial data can be instrumental in achieving the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a list of 17 measurable goals that succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Furthering the SDGs forms a component of GEO’s mission. The SDGs include eradicating world hunger, eliminating poverty, and achieving gender equality by 2030. Public health is a key area where Earth observations can make a difference, helping to achieve Goal 3: good health and well-being. Although Earth observations and geospatial data also will be applied to many other goals on the 2030 Agenda, GEO’s new partnership with the WHO will help ensure that health is a priority.

While GEO’s Initiative 18 outlines its commitment to using Earth observations to achieve the SDGs, the partnership with WHO also aligns with GEO’s overall mission, to ensure that decisions made to benefit mankind “are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observation information and services.”

There are benefits for the WHO as well.

“WHO sees participation in GEO as a positive step towards use of Earth observations for improved decision-making on public health,” says Dr. Ed Kelley, director of Service Delivery and Safety Department at WHO, who will serve as the representative of WHO to GEO.

By supplying WHO with timely visualized data like foliage cover, water temperature, and structure locations, more effective and improved decisions can be made regarding time-sensitive issues.

“The use of geospatial data is critical to advancing disease detection and containment efforts. Being part of GEO would allow WHO secretariat and its member states to benefit from the space-based technologies,” says Dr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy, senior adviser, who serves as the alternate representative of WHO to GEO.

Although WHO has a long history of partnering with other organizations and countries, the GEO community is unique in that it includes 102 nations and the European Commission, along with 103 organizations. GEO, therefore, brings to the partnership global Earth observation resources, in a worldwide system of systems that operates across multiple Societal Benefit Areas and makes those resources available for informed decision-making.

As GEO’s China Chair Dr. Liao Xiaohan, deputy director general for the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explains, “Public health is central to development and we must improve our efforts to harness Earth observations technologies to visualize the accessibility of health centers, to monitor air quality and to track pollutant and disease outbreaks.”

Although the GEO/WHO partnership is new, there are many examples within the geospatial community of ways in which Earth observation data can be applied to health threats or goals.

For instance, remote sensing data can be used to predict outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases, while data also has been used in assessing the potential risk of Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and water-borne diseases. Additionally, satellite data can be helpful for on the ground efforts after an outbreak, as was seen during the 2014 Ebola outbreak when satellite data was used to locate health facilities in West Africa.

By making Earth observation data readily accessible to the WHO, the latest partnership with GEO ensures that the most accurate information can be used in solving public health issues and is a reminder of the power and importance of global-level coordination.

Emily Sullivan is a freelance writer and teacher based in Connecticut.

Source

Wildlife habitats close to airports pose a serious risk to safety at takeoff and landing. Thanks to ESA, a new service lets airports use satellites to identify and manage these areas.

Developed by Ascend XYZ in Denmark with ESA’s help, the service uSES free images and data from Earth observation satellites combined with smart software.

Several airports in Denmark have tested the Ascend software and found it far easier to use than existing complicated standalone systems.

FOCusing on risk sites has increased their efficiency and reduced costs and enabled them to comply with the legal requirement to monitor within a 13 km radius.

“Using Earth observation data is more efficient than on-ground monitoring, requiring fewer man-hours and lowering demands on resources which cuts costs while increasing flight safety,” commented Peter Hemmingsen, CEO at Ascend.

“This is especially valuable to smaller airports with fewer resources to meet the same safety standards as large airports.

“Free data from the latest Copernicus Sentinel satellites make this an affordable solution for airports.”

Two airports have already signed up to the service.

Several international airports from Germany, England and North America also plan to adopt it.

Registering a lake in Ascend

In the software, users can identify risk sites such as lakes, golf courses, rubbish dumps, seasonal crops and other areas that attract wildlife – birds in particular. This provides a full overview of all the sites around the airport.

Satellite pictures are updated weekly, so changes in the water levels of lakes and flooded fields can be monitored and the site visited. All actions can be documented in the software.

The software can also generate alerts such as reminders to visit a site, monitor it via the satellite images, or contact the authorities if changes occur.

Sites can be marked on maps and field personnel can visit specific areas guided by satellite navigation data from Ascend.

Field personnel locate sites through satnav

Reports and images generated in Ascend can also be used for auditing purposes and to create a wildlife management report. Without the Ascend solution, airports require a costly team of specialists to do this.

The cloud- and browser-based management system allows the information to be shared online between airport operators, ground staff, civil aviation authorities, the wildlife management team and others involved in airport operations.

Early next year, Ascend intends to extend their service to identify objects that exceed height restrictions in restricted areas.

_“ESA’s ARTES Applications programme merges big space data with smart ideas,”_noted Arnaud Runge, Ascend Project Manager at the Agency.

“Ascend is an excellent example of how space can increase efficiency, cuts costs, solve problems and, in this CASe, make our skies safer.”

Source

(By Rhiannan Price – September 9, 2016)

The recent polio outbreak in Borno, Nigeria, is a reminder that gaps in surveillance systems have prompted a whole array of health challenges.

After more than two years without new cases of polio, two children in Borno state, Nigeria have been paralyzed by the disease, a setback for global eradication.

While large-scale immunization campaigns have helped the Africa continent realize nearly two years free of any new cases, many children in northern Nigerian were simply out of reach. The presence of Boko Haram has weakened the health surveillance system, and persistent conflict means that these children are difficult to find, difficult to reach, and thus difficult to immunize. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than half of the health facilities in Borno State are not functioning, and of the two new polio cases, one of the children still cannot be reached because of the security issues.

With the ongoing instability, there are thousands of displaced persons throughout the Lake Chad region, making the risk of transmission extremely high. Reaching these children requires vaccinating populations as they move in and out of inaccessible areas and using local-level groups and organizations, such as religious institutions and community based organizations, to negotiate access for vaccination teams. In addition to the migration issues, it is currently the peak of the rainy season in Borno and major floods are expected in the coming weeks. Health workers will need military escorts over long distances on rough terrain and may not be able to reach every community.

This recent polio outbreak is a reminder that these health interventions do not exist in a vacuum. Protracted conflict greatly exacerbates these types of global health crises. In 2013, DigitalGlobe helped put northern Nigerian communities on the map; however, because of Boko Haram, in a matter of just three years, those maps have become outdated, making health surveillance much more difficult. Gaps in surveillance systems have prompted a whole array of health challenges, and, according to WHO, estimated mortality rates in the area are four times higher than emergency thresholds.

To support current immunization campaigns, DigitalGlobe is working with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to update the maps in Borno. With DigitalGlobe’s high resolution imagery, individual settlements are easy to identify, and leveraging satellite imagery means we have a lens to even the most insecure areas of the world, places that are off limits even to health workers.

While these communities are easily identified in imagery, extracting information over such a large area on short timelines requires a scalable methodology. To enable a quick turnaround, DigitalGlobe uses advanced machine learning-based algorithms to evaluate terabytes of imagery and identify possible human settlements. To ensure the most accurate results possible, DigitalGlobe turns to volunteers in a public crowdsourcing campaign to verify findings. Using Tomnod, volunteers worldwide confirm whether or not an image contained a settlement. In 2013, more than 45,000 volunteers helped validate the village detection results across Nigeria, Somalia, and Pakistan. For Somalia, the volunteer-driven campaign lasted three days and covered over 120,000 polygons. The end result was a map of 285,103 settlements that otherwise might not have been reached.

When polio appeared in the Middle East in 2013, the emergency vaccination campaigns reached more than 25 million children and contained the outbreak within a matter of months. Polio also returned to Somalia in 2013 and the rapid regional immunization campaigns were able to stem further transmission.

Eyes on the goal

The same mapping exercise is happening again in Nigeria. That way, health workers have the best information possible as they lead immunization efforts in recently unchartered territory.

Despite this recent setback, the world is still very close to reaching the goal of polio eradication. Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of oral polio vaccines have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%.

Only 21 wild polio cases have been reported so far in 2016, compared to 34 cases at the same point last year. And these cases are contained to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are eerily similar, conflict-ridden environments like Borno.

Big Data analytics, in conjunction with innovative approaches like crowdsourcing, offer promising inputs to addressing information gaps. That said, locating these communities is just the beginning. Establishing a comprehensive plan to achieve universal health coverage and ensure access to necessary medicines and vaccines is the challenge ahead. Innovative technologies have a crucial role to play to realize this vision, and in partnership with the international community, eradicating polio and improving our health systems overall is entirely possible.

Rhiannan Price
Senior Manager
Seeing a Better World Program at DigitalGlobe

Source

With Earth’s population growing at an exponential rate, the future of agriculture — in particular precision agriculture — will continue to grow in importance as the world works to support its population.

Satellite monitoring, a key component of precision ag, aids in the analysis of everything from crop type and crop health to yield prediction. And as the global agricultural stakes are raised as the population balloons, so too does the need for increased access to extremely high quality imagery, on a reliable and frequent basis.

The ability of farmers to gain truly actionable insights is absolutely contingent on the use of high quality imagery, which can provide accurate measurements of what is happening in the field.

With that in mind, this week UrtheCast attended the industry-leading InfoAg Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. There it showcased not only its current four-sensor system — including Deimos-1, specifically built for precision ag — but also the UrtheDaily™ Constellation, a planned eight-satellite constellation being designed to image the entire planet’s landmass (excluding Antarctica), every day, at 10:30 am local time.

Eyes on heightened precision

UrtheCast’s sensor system is one of the most diverse in the Earth Observation business, and with that brings a host of benefits, including heightened analysis for precision agriculture.

How it’s done…

The entire UrtheCast sensor system provides high-quality imagery, like that captured from Deimos-1 and Theia, composed of rich multispectral data with uncompromisingly high radiometric and geometric quality.

  • With frequent coverage of continent-wide areas or the monitoring of a single field, UrtheCast can design the perfect imagery solutions for many applications, thanks to our sensor system variety.
  • The system can provide frequent revisits over AOIs, broad coverage (from our three sensors and nine other sensors in the PanGeo Alliance) and, as is expected, daily global revisit in the future with UrtheDaily.
  • Data via API using the UrthePlatform or via rapid FTP delivery from our Customer Experience team.
  • High-quality data at flexible and competitive pricing structures brings higher value.
  • A team with over a decade of experience and unique expertise in supporting agriculture applications with multi-satellite imagery services, while Deimos-1 and UrtheDaily are designed, or being designed, specifically for Precision Agriculture.

Classifying every crop type across the U.S.

The Deimos-1 satellite is a workhorse in the agricultural monitoring world. Since 2011, Deimos-1 has been on an agricultural mission for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has used Deimos-1 (and its twin UK-DMC2) as its main satellite imagery source to monitor and classify more than 100 crop types every day across the U.S.

As a part of the program, the USDA is provided with complete coverage of the contiguous U.S. every 15 days during the growing season (April to October), more than 90% cloud-free and with daily acquisitions. Every day, for six months out of each year, more than 1-million km2 of cloud-free data is delivered and orthorectified with <1 pixel GSD accuracy, which allows for high-quality multi-temporal analyses. Most of this data is delivered in less than 24 hours from acquisition.

What’s more, as of April 2016, that Deimos-1 data of the entire contiguous U.S. is being made available throughout the growing season on our highly-accessible, cloud-based UrthePlatform; another step towards the democratization of Earth Observation data.

That’s done with…

  • Information-rich imagery, at 20-m pixel size and 3 spectral bands (R, G, NIR)
  • Frequent coverage of large areas every 2-3 days, ideal for cloud-free data
  • Precision measurements, and cross-calibration with NASA’s Landsat satellites
  • Fast data delivery within 24 hours of collection, via FTP or in the UrthePlatform
  • Affordable and flexible options for custom solutions

Precision Irrigation: Water savings and huge crop yeilds

For four years, Deimos-1 has been providing a high-frequency monitoring service in selected crop fields throughout the U.S. In cooperation with UK-DMC2, Deimos-1 is relied upon to deliver one image every two days, less than 24 hours following acquisition — complete with dedicated processing and quality control. All data is orthorectified with <1 pixel GSD accuracy, allowing for high-quality multi-temporal analyses.

This frequency of fresh imagery allows for the management of crop field irrigation with unprecedented precision. The status of every 20×20-m area is assessed every two days and irrigation can be commanded with incredible precision, resulting in huge water savings and a large increase in crop yields. This near-daily monitoring allows for the early detection of crop illnesses, enabling the farmer to take quick action to minimize crop damage.

Precision agriculture across the entire planet

By supplementing weather information with daily updated imagery, leading solution providers leverage Deimos-1 imagery to analyze crop conditions throughout the world. Farmers across the world use this analysis to make better decisions about supply conditions and risks.

Using dedicated processing and quality control, all Deimos data is orthorectified with <1 pixel GSD accuracy, allowing for high-quality multi-temporal analyses. Because timeliness and accessibility are key, all data is delivered in less than 24 hours following acquisition.

Supporting crop risk insurance, globally

Deimos-1 imagery is used worldwide to determine crop and vegetation conditions, anticipate crop loss, and assess crop damage insurance claims. The full compatibility of Deimos-1 data with historical Landsat data allows for the comparison of past and current vegetation conditions.

Fast and easily accessible 5-m data

From aboard the International Space Station, Theia captures strips of imagery at a pixel size of 5 meters. This four-band multispectral imagery (B, G, R, NIR) has a swath of approximately 50 km and continuously flows into the UrthePlatform soon after acquisition, making it particularly accessible.

UrtheDaily™: The next-generation system, perfect for precision ag

UrtheDaily is a planned eight-satellite constellation, which is being designed to acquire very high-quality multispectral imagery, at 5-m resolution, of the entire Earth’s landmass (excluding Antarctica) every day at 10:30 am local time. That’s 140 million km2 of multispectral imagery every 24 hours.

The system’s design is being optimized for agricultural and change-detection applications — for planned delivery of data with high radiometric and geometric quality that enables geoanalytics capabilities that the agriculture industry has yet to see.

With an eye toward speed, these new daily datasets are expected to be delivered via the UrthePlatform within 12 hours following acquisition.

Working in partnership with OptiSAR™

Also being planned, and working in sync with UrtheDaily, is what’s expected to be the world’s first fully-integrated constellation of Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.
OptiSAR, which UrtheCast is currently developing, aims to provide the ability to image cloud-free on any given day or night, bringing additional value to the agricultural community.

Highlights:

  • A Constellation of 16 satellites: 8 Optical and 8 SAR
  • L and X SAR bands
  • Flying in tandem pairs in two different orbit planes
  • Ability to image day and night in all weather conditions
  • Very high revisit rates at mid-latitudes

Heightened analysis of infestations, diseases, and floods

When anomalies are detected by Deimos-1, Deimos-2 can provide high-res imagery for closer analysis. With a higher spatial resolution, Deimos-2 imagery is used to precisely outline the affected area(s) and accurately determine the spatial variability.

Deimos-2 also contributes to the surveillance and monitoring of the implementation of the CAP (Common Agriculture Policy, in the European Union), by monitoring the conservation of natural pasture, fallow land, field margins, hedges, trees, and buffer strips, etc.

Deimos-2 is a very high-resolution Earth Observation satellite capable of providing 75-cm pan-sharpened, 1-m pan and 4-m multispectral images with a 12-km-wide swath. Not only is Deimos-2 imagery a powerful data source, it is also an affordable one.

Tasks that can be achieved with Deimos-2 data include defining management zones, planning soil samples, defining maps for variable rate of seeding and fertilizer, prescriptions for variable rates: fertilizer and plant protection products (pesticides, herbicides, etc.), supporting irrigation management and watering systems.

The PanGeo Alliance: for even more variety

With eight members and a growing fleet of Earth Observation sensors, the PanGeo Alliance provides access to complementary imagery and tasking opportunities for ongoing or special projects.

The PanGeo fleet includes 13 operational Earth Observation imaging sensors providing multispectral imagery in a wide range of resolutions (from 20 m to 75 cm per pixel). This unique fleet assures a daily global imaging capability with multiple revisits per day over any target. As members of the PanGeo Alliance, UrtheCast and Deimos Imaging will work with customers to provide custom and complementary data services to fulfill project requirements.

Source UrtheCast

Planned to be launched by the end of 2017, the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM) Aeolus satellite will provide global observations of three-dimensional wind fields, which will help ito improve weather forecasting. The satellite will be operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).

ADM-Aeolus will be put into the sun-synchronous dawn / dusk orbit located at an altitude of 408km. It is being developed under Earth Explorer Core mission as part of the ESA’s living planet programme.

ADM-Aeolus satellite design and features

Airbus Defence and Space (formerly known as EADS Astrium) was selected as the prime contractor to provide design, construction and testing services for the ADM-Aeolus satellite. The satellite is being developed at the Airbus Defence and Space facility located in Stevenage, UK.

The spacecraft will have a launch mass of 1,366kg and will feature cubic platform and cylindrical instrument structure. It will have external dimensions including length of 1.9m, width of 2.0m and height of 4.6m. It will have three-axis stabilisation of Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS).

The spacecraft will include solar arrays, which can generate up to 2,200W of power that will be stored in 84Ah Li-ion batteries. The mission life of the spacecraft is expected to be three years.

The satellite will be fixed with a single payload called Atmospheric LAser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN), which includes two powerful lasers, a large telescope, and very sensitive receivers. The laser will generate ultraviolet light that will beam it towards Earth, and subsequently the fraction of light that will be scattered back towards the satellite, which will be gathered by Aladin’s telescope and measured.

ADM-Aeolus will explore and measure 120 wind profiles an hour and provide profiles of the wind on a global scale, along with information on aerosols and clouds. It will measure wind to an accuracy of 1m/s in the planetary boundary layer up to an altitude of 30km. It will also offer knowledge of atmospheric dynamics, which will help in the advancement of climate research.

The data provided by the spacecraft will be assimilated in numerical forecasting models, which will enhance the quality of operational short- and medium-range predictions. The objective of the mission is to provide global observations of wind profiles with a vertical resolution that will meet the accuracy requirements of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

ADM-Aeolus satellite launch vehicle details

Arianespace was contracted to provide launch services for the ADM-Aeolus satellite in September 2016. The satellite will be launched a top the Vega light launch vehicle, which can carry satellites ranging between 300kg and 1,500kg in Earth observation missions to polar and low Earth orbits. The rocket will put the satellite in its orbit after a four-stage launch.

The launch will be carried out at the Guiana Space Centre located in Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Ground station details of the ADM-Aeolus satellite

The data collected from the ADM-Aeolus satellite will be sent to SvalSat receiving station located in Norway, which will then be processed into wind profiles and the meteorological offices will use it in weather forecasting.

The satellite will have European space operations centres located in Germany and Sweden. The European space research institute will be situated in Italy, while the European centre for medium-range weather forecasts will be located in the UK.

Source

Friday, 14 October 2016. After the launch of Jason-3 on 17 January 2016, the two satellites flew in a tandem configuration, about 80 seconds or 500km apart from each other. This allowed for a precise comparison and direct cross calibration between the instruments flying on both platforms. During this phase, the instruments aboard Jason-3 were fully calibrated and have demonstrated performances at least equivalent to those of Jason-2. Based on these results, the satellite was deemed ready for operational service.

In order to improve sampling and spatial coverage, Jason-2 has now been moved to its final position, on the same orbit but at 162° from Jason-3, thus overflying different ocean surfaces and at a different time than Jason-3.

“Jason-3 will carry the sea level rise monitoring task that is the hallmark of the Jason missions forward”

The Jason-3 satellite will continue the long term climate data record on the ground track previously occupied by Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1 and, until recently, Jason-2.

Because of their precision, the Jason missions have become the reference for all satellite altimeters, including the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite, launched on 16 February 2016 and operated by EUMETSAT in cooperation with ESA.

Ultimately, Jason-3 will form the backbone of a virtual constellation of ocean altimeter missions.

Josh Willis, NASA Jason-3 project scientist said, “Jason-3 is our window onto the impact of human-caused climate change across the planet. As ocean levels rise due to global warming, the Jason-3 satellite will observe the literal reshaping of more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface.”

Laury Miller, NOAA Jason Program Scientist said, “Jason-3 will carry the sea level rise monitoring task that is the hallmark of the Jason missions forward, but the continued operation of Jason-2, in combination with Jason-3, adds another critical dimension. Doubling the number of altimeter sea level observations improves our ability forecast over a range of scales, from the movement of local oil spills to massive El Niño events.”

Philippe Escudier, Oceanography Programme Manager of CNES said: “Jason-3 will provide essential operational measurements, benefiting from a long series of research and development efforts which allow to reach the necessary measurement accuracy and to optimize the hardware design to make it sustainable in a long term series. In the near term, a new generation of satellite altimetry providing high resolution monitoring will be demonstrated. SWOT, wide swath altimetry mission, which is under development (NASA & CNES), will directly inherit from Jason heritage and will benefit from the absolute accuracy of Jason for the calibration of its measurements.”

Francois Parisot, Altimetry Manager at EUMETSAT said: “The ocean evolves across different scales – levels – from mid-latitude eddies to large scale currents. Therefore and improving space/time sampling altimetry of ocean topography measurements is essential. With Jason-2, Jason-3 and Sentinel-3 we are now making a major step forward.”

About Jason-3

Jason-3 is the result of an international partnership between EUMETSAT, the French Space Agency (CNES), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the European Union, which funds European contributions to Jason-3 operations as part of the European Commission’s Copernicus Programme.

Within Copernicus, Jason-3 is the reference mission for cross-calibrating Sentinel-3 observations of sea surface height and the precursor to the future cooperative Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission also implemented in partnership between Europe and the United States.

EUMETSAT, CNES and NOAA will process data from Jason-3, with EUMETSAT being responsible for data services to users of the EUMETSAT and EU Member States, on behalf of the EU Copernicus Programme. Data access in Europe will be secured via the multi-mission infrastructure available at EUMETSAT and CNES, including EUMETSAT’s EUMETCast real-time data dissemination system, Earth Observation Portal and archives, as well as CNES’s AVISO data system.

About EUMETSAT

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and one Cooperating State (Serbia).

EUMETSAT operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8, -9, -10 and -11 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.

EUMETSAT also operates two Metop polar-orbiting satellites as part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

EUMETSAT is also a partner in the cooperative high precision ocean altimetry Jason missions involving Europe and the United States (Jason-2, Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6).

The data and products from EUMETSAT’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and climate change.

After completion of the in-orbit commissioning of Sentinel-3A, EUMETSAT will exploit the Copernicus Sentinel-3 marine mission in cooperation withESA and on behalf of the EU, and deliver data services to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and users.

Media Relations EUMETSAT:
Tel: +49 6151 807 7320
Fax: +49 6151 807 7321
Email: press@eumetsat.int

Source

This video explains the challenges faced when managing vast quantities of satellite data, for the benefit of humankind, to address a range of environmental, social and agricultural issues.

This video, produced by Redboat, introduces the architecture of the Australian Geoscience Data Cube as a key tool for unlocking Earth observation satellite data, to better manage and store vast amounts of data.

The Data Cube has already been used to for understanding water observations from Space and its related application for better flood management.

The video also provides a case study of developing a satellite data management infrastructure for Kenya.

This video was used to launch Australia’s tenure as the Chair of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) at the 2015 Plenary CEOS meeting held in Kyoto, Japan in November 2015.

Source