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NEW DELHI — India will launch its new Earth observation satellite, Cartosat-2C, in May, in an effort to boost the country’s military reconnaissance and surveillance capability.

The observatory, along with 21 other satellites, will be lifted by India’s indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-CA) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in south India. It will be placed in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit with a perigee of 200 km (124 mi.) and an apogee of 1,200 km above the Earth’s surface, according to an official at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The satellite, which was built at ISRO’s Space Application Center (SAC) in the western city of Ahmedabad, was moved to ISRO’S Satellite Center (ISAC) at Bengaluru in south India two weeks ago after undergoing several rounds of tests and evaluation. “All tests have turned out to be successful,” the ISRO official says.

India’s first dedicated military satellite, CartoSat-2A, was launched in 2007. Cartosat-2C will be a dual-use satellite, performing disaster monitoring as well as surveilling enemy missile sites.

The 690-kg (1,520 lb.) satellite is equipped with a panchromatic camera and a high-resolution multi-spectral instrument. With a resolution of 0.65 meters, an upgrade over the 0.8 meter camera of Cartosat-2A, Cartosat-2C can spot even smaller objects from space. The camera can not only capture high-resolution images of disputed border and coastal areas, but also record videos of crucial targets from space and transmit compressed versions to the ground.

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The importance of measuring species diversity as an indicator of ecosystem health has been long recognized and it seems that satellite remote sensing (SRS) has proven to be one of the most cost-effective approaches to identify biodiversity hotspots and predict changes in species composition.

What is the real potential of SRS and what are the pitfalls that need to be avoided to achieve the full potential of this method is the topic of a new research, published in the journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.

The new study, supported by the FP7 funded EU project EU BON takes the assessment of diversity in plant communities as a case study. Showing the difficulties to achieve high results by relying only on field data, the paper discusses the advantages of SRS methods.

“In contrast to field-based methods, SRS allows for complete spatial coverages of the Earth’s surface under study over a short period of time. Furthermore, it provides repeated measures, thus making it possible to study temporal changes in biodiversity,” explains Dr. D. Rocchini from Fondazione Edmund Mach, lead author and WP deputy leader / task leader in EU BON. “In our research we provide a concise review of the potential of satellites to help track changes in plant species diversity, and provide, for the first time, an overview of the potential pitfalls associated with the misuse of satellite imagery to predict species diversity. ”

Traditionally, assessment of biodiversity at local and regional scales relies on the one hand on local diversity, or the so called alpha-diversity, and on the other, on species turnover, or beta-diversity. Only in combination of these two measures can lead to an estimate of the whole diversity of an area.

While the assessment of alpha-diversity is relatively straightforward, calculation of beta-diversity could prove to be quite challenging. This is where increased collaboration between the remote sensing and biodiversity communities is needed in order to properly address future challenges and developments.

The new research shown the high potential of remote sensing in biodiversity studies while also identifying the challenges underpinning the development of this interdisciplinary field of research.

“Further sensitivity studies on environmental parameters derived from remote sensing for biodiversity mapping need to be undertaken to understand the pitfalls and impacts of different data collection processes and models. Such information, however, is crucial for a continuous global biodiversity analysis and an improved understanding of our current global challenges.”concludes Dr. Rocchini.

Original Source:
Rocchini, D., Boyd, D. S., Féret, J.-B., Foody, G. M., He, K. S., Lausch, A., Nagendra, H., Wegmann, M., Pettorelli, N. (2016), Satellite remote sensing to monitor species diversity: potential and pitfalls. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2: 25-36. doi: 10.1002/rse2.9

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When wildfires start blazing across remote parts of South Africa, electricity providers, whose transmission lines can burn up, take a hit. Monitoring every inch of these lines by CCTV or by human eye would be costly, but commercial satellite technology, in combination with data-crunching software and internet connectivity, is equipped to solve this. All the problem needed was someone to connect the dots.

Those dots were connected in 2013 by Afis – Advanced Fire Information System – the app made by a team from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Meraka Institute in Pretoria. The free Afis phone app enables location tracking, and you can instantly see the fires raging, how likely they are to occur in the next few days and when the last ones happened.

This type of service, which uses space hardware to solve terrestrial business problems, can be used to streamline almost every major industry and service imaginable, from health care to oil to education to water management. It is an area where the Mena region has plenty of room to grow.

But many companies and potential investors in this type of innovation do not yet understand these implications, so they are not yet taking full advantage of all the possibilities opened up by the convergence of satellites that are cheap to launch and software that can process torrents of data in real time.

That’s the view of Lee Annamalai, a member of the team that launched Afis. He heads space applications R&D, innovation and commercialisation at the Meraka Institute and has served as a board member of the South African Space Agency. “Uptake [of space-tech applications] by industries is still slow,” he says. “There is still some scepticism that these futuristic solutions can actually yield benefits. Some attention to decision-maker education and marketing would make a big difference.” Where innovations are happening in this realm, he says, are mostly in the US, India, Brazil, Canada, China and Japan.

However, that could be changing. With its new space agency, startup-friendly infrastructure and planned 2021 Mission to Mars, the UAE is well positioned to capitalise on the commercial potential of Earth-observation satellites and their manifold applications. And in November, a new venture capital fund was launched by the Jordanian start-up incubator Oasis 500 (in partnership with the European Space Agency and the European Investment Bank) to encourage entrepreneurs in the Mena region to develop new terrestrial applications of space-based technologies.

These “will be in high demand in the Mena region”, says Suleiman Arabiat, the fund’s project manager, “especially as the communications infrastructure is not highly developed and as there’s a vast need to monitor and communicate assets across the region’s less-populated areas”.

Entrepreneurs who successfully pitch for funding to apply “enhanced connectivity” and “advanced space system applications” to areas such as logistics, water management, agriculture, emergency relief, energy, health and education will receive seed investment of €50,000 (Dh209,239) to €250,000, as well as training and mentorship.

When asked what areas he considers to be ripe for innovation, Mr Annamalai mentions that water quality, energy security and border surveillance are three big fields that can be monitored remotely. He also says that companies are working on remote sensors for increasingly specific phenomena, such as ship transponder signals, atmospheric physics and lightning. Another significant field of research is “precision agriculture”: connecting on-the-ground sensors to GPS-generated maps to create a nuanced system for a maximum yield at minimum cost.

Although there are barriers to entry for start-ups wanting to get into this field, says Mr Annamalai – such as access to the necessary satellite data and to the bandwidth and processing power needed to crunch those numbers – there are some advantages to innovating in “resource-constrained countries”. Developers there, he says, “are producing interesting applications that are highly competitive, due to the fact that they are designed to work more efficiently”.

Afis demonstrates that the number of applications from satellite data can be limitless, with commercial appeal around the world. When you add smart-city infrastructure into the mix, it is really possible to transform services and industries such as agriculture, logistics and transport, and to monitor and mitigate the environmental impact of businesses.

business@thenational.ae
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WELLESLEY, MA—(Marketwired – April 12, 2016) – The remote sensing community has expanded beyond national space agencies and handful of private companies to include scores of small businesses that specialize in creating customized imagery from free and low-cost government-acquired data. BCC Research reveals in its new report that the while the cost of creating remote sensing products will fall from tens of dollars to as little as pennies, expanded global demand will increase the value of the global business at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

In the remote sensing industry, a global network of instruments capture infinitesimally small amounts of energy reflected from targets at distances from feet to miles away, and transform it into products and services that provide information for applications from predicting harvests to protecting wildlife and preventing pandemics.

The global market for remote sensing products should reach nearly $8.9 billion and $13.8 billion in 2016 and 2021, respectively, reflecting a five-year CAGR of 9.3%. Space-based-conventional platforms as a segment should reach $3.3 billion in 2016 and $4.3 billion in 2021, demonstrating a five-year CAGR of 5.3%. Airborne-unmanned platforms as a segment should reach $503 million in 2016 and $2.3 billion in 2021, a CAGR of 36.1%.

Since BCC Research last analyzed the remote sensing industry in 2013, the global enterprise has experienced a series of profound changes. The changes, which have been primarily technology driven, are in the process of converting the business of providing earth observation imagery and data into a free public utility, akin to weather forecasts and GPS signals. This shift has occurred at the same time as the release of powerful new free data analysis tools permitting sophisticated processing software to run on low-cost computer systems.

The industry has experienced an increase of free software programs for integrating data across different types of platforms and merging it with archival records from multiple private and government sources. This change is shifting the economic center of gravity of the remote sensing industry away from its pioneers rooted in the defense and intelligence segments of the aerospace industry and toward small entrepreneurially driven enterprises. At the same time, the traditional lines separating data suppliers have vanished. Space imaging companies now sell aerial photos, aerial photo companies now sell satellite images, and both draw heavily on government archives for customized projects.

“In 2015, a handful of government space, maritime and weather forecasting agencies, along with several private companies with roots in the national defense and intelligence communities, dominated the remote sensing industry,” says BCC Research analyst James Wilson. “By 2021 the commercial portion of the enterprise is anticipated to have broken into hundreds of small, entrepreneurially driven enterprises. A growing free data and free software movement is strongly supported by space agencies in the United States and Europe.”

Remote Sensing Technologies and Global Markets (IAS022E) examines remote sensing technologies, including major remote sensing platforms, key remote sensing instruments, and applications accounting for the bulk of the industry. Analyses of global market drivers and trends, with data from 2015, estimates for 2016, and projections of CAGRs through 2021 also are provided.

About BCC Research
BCC Research publishes market research reports that make organizations worldwide more profitable with intelligence that drives smart business decisions. These reports cover today’s major industrial and technology sectors, including emerging markets. For more than 40 years we’ve helped customers identify new market opportunities with accurate and reliable data and insight, including market sizing, forecasting, industry overviews, and identification of significant trends and key market participants. We partner with analysts who are experts in specific areas of industry and technology, providing unbiased measurements and assessments of global markets. Recently selected as the world’s greatest market research company, BCC Research is a unit of Eli Global, LLC. Visit our website at www.bccresearch.com. Contact us: (+1) 781-489-7301 (U.S. Eastern Time), or email information@bccresearch.com.

Editors and reporters who wish to speak with the analyst should contact:
Steven Cumming
steven.cumming@bccresearch.com.
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©EUMETSAT (Tuesday, 12 April 2016). Following its successful launch and early operations phase, EUMETSAT has been supporting the European Space Agency (ESA) in-orbit commissioning activities, before EUMETSAT takes over routine operations of the spacecraft and processing data at its Sentinel-3 Marine Centre.

The Copernicus programme is Europe’s response to the challenge of global environment monitoring and climate change.

Sentinel-3A will provide systematic measurements of the Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.

It has been described as “the most beautiful satellite ever built” from oceanographers’ perspective, with its cutting-edge instruments’ ability to provide highly accurate data on the ocean colour, sea surface temperature and sea surface height.

These data are crucial for Europe’s 500 billion euro a year “blue economy” and will be relied upon by the fishing and aquaculture industries, coastal planners, the marine transport industry, environment and climate scientists and others, in addition to weather and ocean forecasters.

The EU has entrusted EUMETSAT to undertake, in cooperation with ESA, routine operations of Sentinel-3A, which was launched on 16 February and is now going through its commissioning phase, and to deliver its marine mission.

In addition, EUMETSAT will deliver to Copernicus data from the joint European-US Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite, which was launched in January this year, as part of an integrated marine data stream, incorporating data from third-party missions of our partners in the US, China and India.

Jason-3 will expand until 2021 the unique mean sea-level climate data record, started in 1992 by Topex-Poseidon, and continue to provide the reference ocean surface topography measurements used for cross-calibrating all other altimeter missions, including Sentinel-3, and this data will also soon be available.

Sentinel-3A has already delivered impressive first images from its Ocean and Land Colour Instrument, altimeter and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer and the quality of the products is expected to improve with fine-tuning over the remaining months of the commissioning before EUMETSAT begins routine operations.

When Sentinel-3A’s marine mission is fully operational, these new, advanced instruments will be sending back to Earth high quality data in vastly increased amounts.

EUMETCast provides a very reliable, cost-effective and easy to use mechanism for the near real time delivery of more than 50 gigabytes of satellite data every day”. It is an essential component of ECMWF’s data reception system.

EUMETSAT offers users and service providers access to a multi-mission data stream via EUMETCast, a highly-reliable, cost-effective system based on off-the-shelf, commercially available, standard Digital Video Broadcast technology.

EUMETCast’s highly scalable architecture will provide the near real-time Sentinel-3 data services to an unlimited number of simultaneous users, regardless of the possible limitations of local communication infrastructures.

The UK-based European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (“ECMWF:“http://www.ecmwf.int/), which produces and disseminates numerical weather predictions to its 34 Member States and is both a research institute and operational service, receives more than 50 gigabytes of data via EUMETCast in near real time every day.

EUMETCast delivers the majority of the satellite observations operationally assimilated at ECMWF,” ECMWF Head of Evaluation Section David Richardson said.

“These are important to the quality of the forecasts in all regions and in those parts of the world where non-satellite observations are scarce the forecast skill would fall dramatically without the observations disseminated by EUMETCast.
“ECMWF is also making use of the EUMETCast service to broadcast essential weather forecast products to over 50 African countries overcoming the lack of network infrastructure available in this area of the world.”

“The addition of Sentinel-3A data will complement the already existing marine data stream we have available on EUMETCast”

EUMETSAT User Relations Manager Sally Wannop said: “As a single data access mechanism, EUMETCast is the one-stop-shop to a wide range of environmental data.

In addition, EUMETSAT will disseminate the Sentinel-3A data on-line, via its Copernicus Online Data Access, and to international partners via EUMETCast Terrestrial, which functions like the satellite service but using a terrestrial network instead.

The DVB satellite link is replaced by a connection to a national research network. EUMETCast Terrestrial has the potential to reach users beyond the EUMETCast satellite footprint, for example, in Australia.

EUMETSAT is already looking at future evolutions of its data services to users.

A series of pathfinder projects, involving hosted processing, new data view capabilities, the creation of a format conversation toolbox and online data platforms, for example, are currently being undertaken.

Many of the enhancements arising from these projects will also be applied to the Copernicus data.

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On January 11th 2016, COSPACE (consultation comittee between French State and space industry) steering comittee approved the labeling of 4 “Boosters” dedicated project enablers, bringing together different actors from space, digital and applications domains.

Among these labelised structures, the “PACA Booster” led by the cluster SAFE aims at creating applications in various fields such as security, ecotechnologies ans smart cities.

Read the Press release

Booster

©EUMETSAT. Wednesday, 06 April 2016. Arguably the most comprehensive of all the Copernicus Sentinel missions, Sentinel-3A carries a suite of state-of-the-art instruments to systematically measure the temperature of Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.

Sentinel-3 measurements like this will be used to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics and provide critical information for ocean and weather forecasting.

The Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) is particularly sophisticated, measuring energy radiating from the Earth’s surface in nine spectral bands.

By accurately measuring temperature changes, the radiometer will, for example, make an important contribution to monitoring large-scale events such as El Niño.

The very first images came from its optical channels. Before the thermal-infrared channels could be turned on they had to go through a decontamination process to ensure the highest-quality measurements.

The first image from these channels shows thermal signatures over a part of western Namibia and the South Atlantic Ocean.

The first image from the Sentinel-3A Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) thermal-infrared channels depicts thermal signatures over a part of western Namibia and the South Atlantic Ocean. This image shows the ‘brightness temperature’, which corresponds to radiation emitted from the surface. Further processing is needed to turn this into an actual temperature map. The Namibian land surface is shown in red–orange colours, corresponding to a temperature range 301–319 K. The blue colours over the ocean correspond to a temperature range of 285–295 K. The black areas correspond to clouds, which are opaque to thermal-infrared radiation and so prevent a view of the ocean or land surface.
Cold water is seen along the Namibian coast that is upwelled from deeper waters. The Benguela current flows north along the west coast of South Africa driven by south-easterly winds forming coastal upwelling. Many eddies and meanders are generated in this complex system and these small-scale features are captured beautifully by SLSTR. Understanding changes in the pattern of these waters is important for fisheries, for example.
In the top part of the image over the land, the distinct folds of desert dunes can be seen. In fact, further north, Gobabeb is the location of a land-surface temperature validation site – chosen because of its featureless arid nature and lack of vegetation. The site will be instrumental to monitor the accuracy of the SLSTR instrument during its mission.
Credits: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016], processed by ESA

“It’s extremely satisfying to see that all of the satellite’s instruments are working well”

This image shows the brightness temperature, which corresponds to radiation emitted from the surface. Further processing is needed to remove the effects the atmosphere and account for the characteristics of the surface to turn this into an actual surface temperature map.

Cold water is seen along the Namibian coast upwelling from deeper waters.

The Benguela current flows north along the west coast of South Africa driven by south-easterly winds creating coastal upwelling.

Many eddies and meanders are generated in this complex system and these small-scale features are captured beautifully. Understanding changes in the pattern of these waters is important for fisheries, for example.

Over land, the distinct folds of desert dunes can be seen. In fact, further north, Gobabeb is the location of a land-surface temperature validation site – chosen because of its featureless arid nature and lack of vegetation.

The site will be instrumental to monitor the accuracy of the sensor during its mission.

Susanne Mecklenburg, ESA’s Sentinel-3A mission manager, said, “It is still early days, but the data already look good and we are confident that we will be able to provide high-accuracy surface temperature products so that fine thermal structure both over land and over sea can be detected.

“It’s extremely satisfying to see that all of the satellite’s instruments are working well and we can be proud of the European industry and technology that makes it possible.”

“We are now looking forward to being able to provide these data to the oceanography and meteorology communities”

Hilary Wilson, EUMETSAT’s Sentinel-3 Project Manager added, “It is very exciting to see all the small scale thermal features clearly captured in the Benguela region and this really demonstrates the potential of the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer.

“With its dual view measurement capability, it will be used to derive accurate surface temperature, a key parameter at the ocean-atmosphere boundary. Therefore, it is important for both operational oceanography and meteorology, and ultimately for long term climate monitoring.
“We are now looking forward to being able to provide these data to the oceanography and meteorology communities, as well as to all citizens and decision-makers, for maximum data exploitation.”

While the instrument’s thermal channels will measure the temperature of the land and sea surface, it also includes dedicated channels for measuring fires.

This capability along with the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument will help to map carbon emissions from burnt biomass and to assess damage and estimate recovery of burned areas.

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The Botswana Geoscience Institute (BGI) is launching a Geoscience Portal that provides free access to multi-disciplinary datasets from Ngamiland, a district in the country’s northwest, for a period of one year.

Building on the success of online geoscience initiatives in North America, Europe and Australia, the portal is intended to help Botswana attract new investment in resource exploration, improve transparency and stimulate collaboration between government, industry and the public to advance understanding of the economic and social needs of the North-West district.

“In addition to encouraging investment, improved discovery and interpretation of the Ngamiland datasets can assist us in furthering our understanding of other issues, such as the causes of earthquakes in the region, evolution and geodynamics of the delta system, and contribution in the development of seismic hazard maps and zonation,” said Motsamai Tarzan Kwadiba, Chief Geophysicist with the Botswana Geoscience Institute.

Partnering with the BGI and industry stakeholders, Geosoft will make geoscientific and supporting data and information from Ngamiland freely accessible through a web portal, and will support the portal for the duration of the pilot project.

The Botswana Geoscience Portal was presented at the GeoInformation Management in Africa Symposium held during the Indaba African mining conference in Cape Town, and will launch in mid-February, 2016. Hosted by Geosoft, the symposium brought together key stakeholders in African government organizations with subject matter experts to discuss the role people, process, and technology play in using geoscientific data to foster sustainable collaboration.

The Botswana Geoscience Institute is a parastatal organization established to oversee the functions of the Department of Geological Survey. Visit the Botswana government Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.

Geosoft software and services advance exploration of the Earth’s subsurface. The company provides solutions for energy and mineral exploration, marine, government, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and the earth sciences. Visit www.geosoft.com.

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are set to begin monitoring rampant illegal logging in tropical rain forests near the equator, using the advanced land observation satellite Daichi-2.

The two agencies will start the project from this autumn, and release the data on their websites for developing countries that are struggling to deal with illegal logging.

The predecessor satellite, Daichi, has achieved remarkable results in monitoring illegal logging in the Amazon. Daichi-2 will play a role in protecting tropical rain forests all over the world, widening the observation areas.

Daichi-2 is a satellite with onboard radar that can also capture images of the areas at night and without regard to weather conditions. The satellite, which was launched in 2014, has so far been used mainly for observing land deformation and floods caused by disasters.

It is difficult to monitor illegal logging in vast rain forests from the ground. But as the Daichi-2 radar can track vegetation changes on the ground, it has been adopted for monitoring illegal logging.

Data can be captured at a resolution of about 50 meters by 50 meters, and the monitoring area extends across 16.6 million square kilometers of tropical rain forests in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and other areas. The two agencies will create maps showing newly deforested areas, and release the data on the websites free of charge every six weeks.

The agencies will also train 500 people overseas, over a period of five years, who can analyze the data, and hold an international conference with relevant countries. The project will cost ¥500 million in total over the five-year period.

The satellite Daichi has succeeded in detecting 140 cases of illegal logging annually in Brazil, in monitoring conducted from 2009 to 2011 at the request of the Brazilian government.

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