Skip to content

Posted by Alan Boyle on Tuesday, October 4, 2016. Google has announced the release of Landsat and Sentinel-2 data on the Google Cloud.

How do you channel a flood of almost 5 million images into useful applications? Google Cloud is doing it with more than 30 years’ worth of satellite imagery from the Landsat and Sentinel-2 missions, for free.

Satellite views have long been part of Google’s global mapping operation, of course. But putting them on the cloud is a different matter.

One of the newly added data sets draws upon the complete catalog of pictures from Landsat 4, 5, 7 and 8, amounting to 1.3 petabytes of data that go back to 1984. The other data set takes advantage of more than 430 terabytes’ worth of multispectral imaging from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite, which is part of the Copernicus program to monitor global environmental indicators.

The Landsat database keeps track of 4 million scenes, while the Sentinel-2 set offers 970,000 images. More pictures are being added daily.

When satellite images become available via the cloud, customers who focus on geospatial analysis don’t have to worry about downloading and organizing 1.7 quadrillion bytes of data on their own. “In a Google blog posting“https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/powering-geospatial-analysis-public-geo-datasets-now-on-Google-Cloud.html, Descartes Labs CEO Mark Johnson explained how the shift to the cloud makes the job of predicting crop yields easier.

“To make accurate machine-learning models of major crops, we needed decades of satellite imagery from the entire globe,” Johnson said. “Thanks to Google Earth Engine hosting the entire Landsat archive publicly on Google Cloud, we can focus on algorithms instead of worrying about collecting petabytes of data. Earth observation will continue to improve with every new satellite launch, and so will our ability to forecast global food supply.”

Another venture that’s taking advantage of Google’s cloud-based satellite data is Spaceknow, which analyzes changes over time to track economic trends. Spaceknow’s algorithms digest billions of observations from Landsat satellites to determine, for example, the ups and downs of Chinese manufacturing activity.

In today’s posting, the project manager for Google Earth Engine, Peter Birch, says there’s likely to be more to come. “With dozens of public satellites in orbit and many more scheduled over the next decade, the size and complexity of geospatial imagery continues to grow,” Birch says.

There’s also likely to be more competition in the cloud as well: Amazon Web Services has its own repository of free imagery from Landsat and other Earth-watching satellites, while Microsoft’s Azure platform has been used to process MODIS satellite imagery and tease out hydrological trends.

Source

On the 6th of October 2016, the European Commission entrusted SatCen with the operations of the Copernicus services in Support to EU External Action (SEA) with the signature of a Delegation Agreement by Lowri EVANS, Director-General DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW) and Pascal Legai, SatCen Director.

SEA together with Border Surveillance and Maritime Surveillance is one of the three pillars of the security dimension of Copernicus, the EU Earth Observation programme.

In the framework of this agreement, SEA will provide the External Action user community – including CFSP/CSDP and its Missions and Operations – with a portfolio of services ranging from Reference Mapping to Activity Reports, in full compliance with SatCen governance. Since 2006, SatCen has been involved in the preparation of those services through activities funded by EU Framework Programmes (FP6, FP7), notably the LIMES, G-MOSAIC, BRIDGES and G-NEXT projects. In particular, G-NEXT implemented the pre-operational phase of the service and BRIDGES addressed its governance.

In implementing the service, SatCen will work in cooperation and build up synergies with the service operators for the two other components of the Copernicus Security Service, already put in place from the end of 2015, respectively with Frontex, acting as service operator for the border surveillance, and with “EMSA:“http://www.emsa.europa.eu/, implementing the maritime surveillance component.


Credits: SatCen/European Commission

Source

Every minute of every day, ocean-monitoring Satellites produce data crucial to aiding understanding of the weather, climate and environment.
Now EUMETSAT, the European OrganISAtion for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, is offering a free, five-week massive open online course (MOOC) for anyone curious to know more about how satellites contribute to our understanding of the oceans.

The course, “Monitoring the Oceans from Space”, starts on 24 October and is timed to coincide with the coming on stream of satellite data and products from the Sentinel-3A satellite.

Sentinel-3A was Launched in February and is part of the EU’s flagship Copernicus Programme for monitoring the environment from space. The MOOC is funded by the EU through the Copernicus programme.

“The course will give people a whole new perspective on the world,” Dr Hayley Evers-King, Marine Earth Observation Scientist of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and one of the MOOC’s presenters, said.

“Satellite observations provide a completely different way of looking how the world works, how things are interconnected.

“Satellite observations provide a completely different way of looking how the world works, how things are interconnected”

“Oceans are a vast proportion of the planet – 70 per cent of the Earth is water. Everybody knows that but, as we ourselves only experience a small part of the Earth at any one time, it is quite difficult for us to comprehend how things are connected globally. With satellites, you can see the interconnections (and) the ocean’s importance in terms of food, the air we breathe, the weather and climate.”

Hayley said she thought many people were unaware of the accessibility of satellite data.

EUMETSAT Training Manager Dr Mark Higgins who, along with physicist, oceanographer and BBC science presenter Dr Helen Czerski from University College London, also is a presenter for the MOOC, said the course brought together recognised experts from around Europe and further afield.

“If you are curious about how we know what we know about the oceans, then this course is an opportunity to come and play with the data,” Mark said.

“The course shows how much care we take over making sure the satellite data are correct, making sure the data are always available to downstream users and the sheer amount of data that is available.”

MOOCThat amount of information is set to vastly increase when Sentinel-3’s data is added to the mix.

EUMETSAT is responsible for the day to day operations of Sentinel-3 and for processing and dISSeminating its marine data stream. One of the main users of the data is the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, where experts interpret and make available data relating to four key application areas: marine resources, maritime safety, coastal and marine environment and climate monitoring.

The MOOC also explores this relationship.

Registrations (https://www.futurelearn.com/courSES/oceans-from-space) for the MOOC are now open.
About the MOOC

The Monitoring the Oceans From Space MOOC is funded by the EU’s Copernicus Programme.

  • The MOOC was developed by Imperative Space in partnership with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton), CLS France and NASA JPL.
  • It will run for three hours per week and provide an interactive learning environment through entertaining lecture videos with leading scientists, tutorials, quizzes and learning apps.
  • The MOOC will explain how to access and use marine Earth observation data and information from Copernicus/EUMETSAT missions and the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

Link Open learning course shows how satellites aid understanding of the oceans

Source

(October 2016) Planetek Italia is pleased to announce that The Wroclaw Institute, GeoSolutions Consulting Inc. and Gjeo-Vjosa sh.p.k. been appointed as Authorized Partners for the reselling of the Earth monitoring services offered by its cloud platform, Rheticus®.

Contracts grants to Authorized Partners the exclusive right to sell Rheticus® satellite processing services to the customers located in their respective countries and markets. Services available through the Rheticus® platform allow the users to monitor the Earth surface evolution. It includes monitoring of earth crust subsidence, urban dynamics, forest fires hazards, costal seawater quality as well as many more in the near future.

The Planetek Italia CEO, Mr Giovanni Sylos Labini added:

“We are excited to cooperate with our international partners. Rheticus® will now support professionals and decision makers in a growing number of countries, relying on the sound professional support of our partners. Born and strengthened under the Hexagon Geospatial network, these cooperations open new opportunities to develop and deliver cutting-edge solutions to our markets. Through the integration of the Rheticus® monitoring services in Hexagon Geospatial Smart M.Apps, we can offer insightful analytics and dynamic maps to users worldwide.”

Rheticus® is a cloud-based geoinformation service platform, designed to automatically process satellite data and other data sources. It delivers fresh and accurate data and information for monitoring of the earth’s surface evolution. Rheticus® platform is a perfect solution for organizations dealing in their operations with natural environment concerns like mining, heavy industry, roads, rail utility construction and operations, environmental and forestry agencies and local government, etc.

To know more about Rheticus® Authorized Partners

The Wroclaw Institute in Poland http://www.wizipisi.pl
GeoSolutions Consulting Inc. in Central America http://geosolutionsconsulting.com/
Gjeo-Vjosa sh.p.k. in Albania http://www.gjeovjosa.com/

Press Release From: European Space Agency
Posted: Thursday, October 6, 2016

In an era of profound digital transformation, business leaders and IT experts are convening at ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, today for the first SAP Digital Leaders’ Summit.

Under the theme “Gain the competitive edge in a disruptive world”, the summit provides an opportunity for European chief executive officers and future digital leaders to exchange ideas on next-generation business and technology landscapes.

Topics including strategy in the digital age and how outer space impacts digital society, politics and economy are being addressed.

In February, SAP and ESA signed a letter of intent to develop innovative approaches for the quick and efficient processing of large amounts of Earth observation data through access to real-time platforms.

The amount of data from ESA satellites including the Sentinels for Europe’s Copernicus programme – controlled by teams at the European Space Operations Centre where today’s event is being held– is a challenge for traditional data processing and handling.

Through the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, quick and efficient processing of vast amounts of Earth observation data is possible, and opens access to many new applications and users working with the SAP cloud solutions.

Driven by the SAP Center for Digital Leadership, SAP intends to develop further solutions and technologies based on elastic cloud-platforms such as SAP HANA Spatial and Earth observation data from ESA. The results are planned to become reality in new services, showcase, and new fields of applications for SAP and ESA customers. Entrepreneurs, partners and SAP customers around the world will be able to build their businesses on top of SAP technology while leveraging geospatial information.

Today’s summit is an important step in the ESA–SAP collaboration, which also foresees joint promotional activities for start-up companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises. A session will be devoted to digital start-up innovation, where winners from ESA’s App Camps and the Copernicus Masters will present their ideas, together with teams from the SAP HANA Startup Focus Programme.

“More and more applications will be platform-based in the future. To reach the users it is important that data providers and platform operators join forces. This is the idea behind the strategic partnership between ESA and SAP,” said Volker Liebig, former Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes.

“From the ESA side, we bring the vast amount of information coming from ESA’s scientific satellite missions as well as the data delivered by the European Copernicus satellites. Together with SAP we expect to gain access to new user groups and pave the way for new satellite-based applications.”

Dr Carsten Linz, Business Development Officer and Global Head of SAP’s Center for Digital Leadership, said: “Smart data is the new golden nugget in the digital age. However, data alone is not knowledge. Platform-based innovation makes it easier than ever to create a winning digital strategy where data-driven insight and action are true, smart assets.

“Today’s summit demonstrates concrete digital innovation showcases from the SAP-ESA partnership as well as joint achievements in building a digital space ecosystem with start-up companies.

“The combination of the SAP HANA Spatial platform with ESA’s geospatial information opens a bright future for space-related applications, such as smart farming and smart cities which bring businesses the competitive edge and improve peoples’ lives.”

The “Internationalisation of European EO companies” workshop will be held at DG GROW, on 22 November 2016. The event belongs to the “Copernicus User Forum Industry Workshop” series.

The European Commission (EC) is organising the “Internationalisation of European Earth Observation companies” workshop on 22 November 2016 at the Breydel building of DG GROW. The workshop will gather European EO companies, representatives of the EO industry, as well as interested User Forum members.

The main objectives are to:

  • Discuss the opportunities, challenges and critical needs of European EO companies, in particular SMEs, to expand their business outside the EU
  • Provide information on dedicated tools and initiatives available in support to internationalisation
  • Examine EO companies’ specific and/or additional expectations with respect to internationalisation and EU support to it

REGISTRATIONS TO THE WORKSHOP ARE NOW OPEN. Please register here

The meeting will take place in Limassol, Cyprus , on 16-17 November 2016.

GEO-CRADLE has proactively engaged with the relevant regional stakeholders (data/service providers, decision makers, and SMEs) in a series of consultation activities including surveys, interviews, workshops and bilateral exchanges, in order to identify the regional needs.

After an in-depth analysis of their feedback which was presented in the” GEO-CRADLE meeting in Novisad, Serbia”:http://geocradle.eu//geo-cradle-novi-sad-workshop/, GEO-CRADLE is now going to make a concrete first step through the following 4 pilot/feasibility studies towards addressing the identified gaps and needs in relation to common regional challenges by creating the appropriate ecosystem, building the necessary toolbox, and providing a first tangible outcome:

1) Adaptation to Climate Change (Leader: NOA)

2) Improved Food Security – Water Extremes Management (Leader: IBEC)

3) Access to Raw Material (Leader: EGS)

4) Access to Energy (Leader: PMOD/WRC)

The GEO-CRADLE meeting in Limassol, Cyprus, kindly hosted by the partner Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), will refine the scope of the pilots and conclude with their launch. The objective of the pilot activities is not to develop new science but to build on the integration of existing capacities (infrastructure, datasets, models, etc.) and skills within the relevant group of project partners that are involved towards the provision of improved EO Services in the RoI. The pilots will span a period of 15 months, and the final results will be presented to relevant stakeholders (especially decision makers) in a dedicated workshop.

Register here

Agenda

  • 16 November 2016, 12:00-18:00: Workshop on soil spectral data & water extremes management, access to solar energy and adaptation to climate change
  • 17 November 2016, 09:30-15:30: Project consortium working session on the roadmap and action plan for WP4 in light of WP3 outcomes.

Source

The PerúSAT-1 satellite, designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, has delivered its first images after its successful launch on 16 September from Kourou.


“We constructed PerúSAT-1 in a record time of less than 24 months and now, after having completed the orbital maneuvers to reach its operational orbit at an altitude of 695 km, it has delivered its first image for the Peruvian Space Agency (CONIDA). I would like to thank all the teams for their efforts in achieving this latest milestone,” said Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Space Systems.

Airbus Defence and Space is the world’s leading exporter of Earth observation satellites, and PerúSAT-1 is based on the highly flexible, compact AstroBus-S platform featuring a state-of-the-art silicon carbide optical instrument system with 70 cm resolution. It will collect images for use in agriculture, urban planning, border control and drug trafficking, and will support the management of humanitarian aid and the evaluation of natural disasters, among other applications.

From now until the end of the year, exhaustive in-orbit tests will be carried out from the CNOIS control centre (Centro Nacional de Operaciones de Imágenes Satelitales) built by Airbus Defence and Space, in Pucusana, south of Lima to ensure that all subsystems are operating properly. PerúSAT-1 satellite system will then be commissioned and handed over to the fully trained Peruvian engineers and technicians of the customer CONIDA.

Constructed in a record time of less than 24 months, PerúSAT-1 is currently the most powerful Earth observation satellite in the Latin American region. The result of a bilateral agreement between Peru and France, PerúSAT-1 gives Peru a sovereign capability and will play a key role in bringing the benefits of space to its society.

About Airbus Defence and Space

Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group, is Europe’s number one defence and space enterprise and the second largest space business worldwide. Its activities include space, military aircraft and related systems and services. It employs more than 38,000 people and in 2015 generated revenues of over 13 billion Euros.

Source

The new three-dimensional map of Earth has been completed. Mountain peaks and valley floors across the globe can now be seen with an accuracy of just one metre. The global elevation model was created as part of the TanDEM-X satellite mission; it offers unprecedented accuracy compared with other global datasets and is based on a uniform database. The approximately 150 million square kilometres of land surface were scanned from space by radar sensors. “TanDEM-X has opened up a whole new chapter in the field of remote sensing. The use of radar technology based on two satellites orbiting in close formation is still unique and was key to the high-precision remapping of Earth. In this way, DLR has demonstrated its pioneering role and satisfied the prerequisites for the next major development step in satellite-based Earth observation – the Tandem-L radar mission,” says Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).

More than 1000 scientists around the world are already making use of the data from the mission. “With completion of the global TanDEM-X elevation model, we are once again anticipating a surge in scientific interest. Accurate topographical data is essential for all geoscientific applications,” says Alberto Moreira, Principal Investigator of the TanDEM-X mission and Director of the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute. The applications for this unique dataset range from climate and environmental research, surveying and mapping to infrastructure planning for urban development and road construction.

Expectations exceeded

The quality of the global elevation model has surpassed all expectations. Exceeding the required 10-metre accuracy, the topographic map has an elevation accuracy of a single metre. This is a result of excellent system calibration. The distance between the two satellites in formation flight, for example, is determined with millimetre precision. The global coverage achieved by TanDEM-X is also unparalleled – all land surfaces were scanned multiple times and the data was then processed to create elevation models. In this process, DLR’s remote sensing specialists created a digital world map consisting of more than 450,000 individual models with pixel by pixel height detail – creating a special kind of three-dimensional mosaic.

This mission broke new ground in many areas. The close formation flight of the two satellites at a minimum distance of 120 metres has become as routine as the various manoeuvres required to continuously change the formation and adapt it to the requirements of the imaging geometry. A similar situation applies to bistatic radar operation; simultaneous data acquisition using two radar satellites was initially a major challenge, but was a necessity to ensure the high accuracy of the elevation models. DLR is now a world leader for this pioneering technology.

Between January 2010 and December 2015, the radar satellites transmitted more than 500 terabytes of data to Earth via the worldwide reception network. In parallel, systematic creation of elevation models began in 2014. Sophisticated processing chains analysed the data using highly accurate and efficient algorithms to generate the final elevation models. During this process, the data volume increased to a total of more than 2.6 petabytes and the computer systems constantly delivered top performance. “Processing this data was an exciting challenge for us,” explains Richard Bamler, Director of DLR’s Remote Sensing Technology Institute. “We are now all the more fascinated by our initial scientific findings. Using the current elevation model, we have shown that in some regions of Earth, glaciers are losing up to 30 metres in thickness per year in the area of the glacier tongues.”

Next steps

TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X have long exceeded their specified service lives and continue operating faultlessly and in such an efficient way that they still have enough propellant for several more years. Completion of the 3D world map does not signify the end of the mission. Due to the special nature of the formation flight, further scientific experiments are scheduled. Moreira points out: “Earth as a system is highly dynamic, which is also reflected in its topography. Through frequent updates, we could capture such dynamic processes systematically in the future. This is the primary goal of the Tandem-L mission that we have proposed.”

New Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) methods will enable diverse data for exploration of the global ecosystem to be provided within short periods of time. The Tandem-L successor mission could provide a current elevation image of Earth’s entire landmass every eight days and thereby capture dynamic processes in a timely manner. This would also make it possible to contribute to the review of international climate and environmental agreements. New radar methods and innovative missions such as Tandem-L are set to contribute to gaining a better understanding of dynamic processes in order to protect and preserve Earth Completion of the TanDEM-X global elevation model has now paved the way for the next dimension of radar remote sensing.

About the mission

TanDEM-X is being implemented on behalf of DLR using funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie). It is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project operated in conjunction with Airbus Defence and Space. DLR is responsible for providing TanDEM-X data to the scientific community, mission planning and implementation, radar operation and calibration, control of the two satellites, and generation of the digital elevation model. To this end, DLR has developed the necessary ground-based facilities. The DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute, the DLR Earth Observation Center and the DLR Space Operations Facility in Oberpfaffenhofen are participating in the development and operation of the ground segment of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. Scientific coordination is the responsibility of the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute. Airbus Defence and Space built the satellites and is sharing the development and operating costs. The company is also responsible for the commercial marketing of the TanDEM-X data.

DLR

Vancouver, BC – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (“MDA” or the “Company”) (TSX: MDA), a global communications and information company, today announced that the Department of National Defence (DND) has exercised an option for a contract announced in June 2016. MDA will provide advanced space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities for the DND Polar Epsilon 2 (PE2) project; a broad-area maritime surveillance system using the Government of Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM). The option is valued at CA$15 million (including taxes).

The PE2 ground systems will include ground segment systems with the capability to receive and utilize information from the RCM SAR satellites, currently being built by MDA for the Canadian Space Agency. PE2 will provide the DND with daily maritime information over millions of square kilometers from SAR imagery, all within minutes of imaging.

About MDA

MDA is a global communications and information company providing operational solutions to commercial and government organizations worldwide.

Source