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Seventeen years ago the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA) adopted the Baveno Manifesto laying the ground for a European Earth Observation (EO) system – the Copernicus Programme.

The first of the “Sentinel” satellites dedicated to this programme started to transmit data last autumn. The deployment of the first Sentinel, alongside the US Landsat, marks a step change in the volumes of data available. The dizzying growth of data availability will continue as the Sentinel programme progresses. When fully operational eight terabytes of new data per day will be available from the Copernicus programme, equivalent to eight computer hard drives worth, and all of it free to all for download.

The European Earth Observation Industry’s representative body, EARSC, found in 2013 that access to Sentinel data was seen as the biggest benefit of Copernicus. Nevertheless the priority of ESA and the European Commission has been to support the provision of six facilities providing information services in specific environmental areas. This has meant that ESA’s downloading and processing capacity is making available only a limited amount of Sentinel data, and that it archives material for only a short period. Realisation of the enormity of the task of managing the newly-available data, of the potential for application development built on these data, and dissatisfaction with current arrangements, have emerged as serious issues only quite slowly.

As in other sectors, the emergence of Big Data from satellite EO implies not just more of the same approach to data management, but rather the need to apply more sophisticated techniques both to deal with massively greater data volumes and to exploit them in order to develop new products. Furthermore Copernicus data are available free, so the quantities used are less constrained than from other sources, and this will promote greater usage. These factors will promote a shift of focus away from individual scenes towards the use of “image stacks” and “data cubes” based on a continuous flow of data, permitting dynamic analysis using observations at pixel level rather than whole images. This in turn implies more automatic processing, and a requirement for a high standard of pre-processing. Such tasks can most efficiently be done by central data hubs rather than requiring users to do the job themselves.

ESA’s response has been to develop the Collaborative Ground Segment concept, providing ESA member states with direct access to Sentinel data which they can process and archive themselves. So far, Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Italy and UK have signed agreements providing access to this facility. The UK is in a particularly strong position because of the infrastructure which it has created to make data available to both commercial and academic users through its Satellite Data Hub. While many of our European competitors have plans to develop their own facilities, they acknowledge that at this stage the UK is in the lead.
The ESA approach is “bottom-up” – seeking to help member states to meet their own needs, rather than promoting a broad strategic approach, and exploitation of the new data flows has been uncoordinated. The European Commission has since the start of the year started (perhaps belatedly) to take an active approach, aimed at promoting European leadership – characterised as meeting the “Google Challenge” – and ensuring a level playing field for European operators. Commission thinking is becoming clearer, and they are likely to promote a joint process to integrate their approach and ESA’s. The period between now and 2017 is likely to be crucial in developing the solution to these issues.

The other big European space players often seem less concerned with exploiting space assets to promote economic growth and government efficiency than is the UK, and it will be important for the UK to ensure that the needs of real users are prioritised.

Beta Technology, with its experience in the management of European activity, its familiarity with a wide range of UK and international business, and a strong space background, is in a good position to help exploit the enormous new opportunities in this area.

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In 2015, EUMETSAT will support the commissioning of the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite by ESA, following its expected launch in October.

EUMETSAT will also start to extract marine products at its multi-mission facilities in Darmstadt and to deliver these, as well as other products from Jason-3, EUMETSAT and other third party missions from the US, China, India, in a unique data stream available across the EU and EUMETSAT’s Member States. To find out more about EUMETSAT’s activities in oceanography, please take a look at the new oceanographic brochure here

To prepare users to access this unique and integrated Marine data stream, the European Commission and EUMETSAT are pleased to invite you to attend a “Copernicus Users Information Day”, planned to take place at EUMETSAT headquarters (Darmstadt, Germany) on 11 September 2015. For interested users, EUMETSAT will also host a WebEx Meeting for the plenary sessions only. A 1-pager presenting the Information Day and its programme is enclosed.

Please note that participation on site will be limited to 120 Pax. Therefore, early registration is important.

To register for the Information day, or to register for the WebEx Meeting, please visit the dedicated website

EARSC workshop Procuring Copernicus Services-a public-private effort (17June2015, Brussels) final.pdf
Copernicus Users Information Day – 2nd announcement.pdf

(by Xu Hong) In the past week, streams of favorable news come from geo-information industry. First, the State Council approved the medium- and long-term plan for nationwide basic surveying and mapping, putting forward to construct new basic surveying and mapping system and comprehensively promoting service capability of surveying and mapping geo-information.

From 10 to 11, June, WGDC 2015 was held in Beijing and proposed to “build new ecological geo-information” and proactively propel “Geo-information+” strategy so as to make geo-information industry a new growth point driving economic development of the state. Insiders believe that the geo-information industry undergoing constant innovation and development enjoys tremendous potential and is likely to create millions of production value in the future.

Satisfactory industrial development

Ku Rexi, Director General of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information said that though pressure of macroeconomic downturn has certain influence on geo-information industry, the industry maintains relatively higher growth rate in general. 2014 financial statements of the related listed companies show that annual gross revenue of 23 listed companies totals RMB 15.011 billion yuan, an increase of 35.31 percent on a year-on-year basis; the net profits totals RMB 1.687 billion yuan, an increase of 31.61 percent year-on-year, promising favorable development tendency.

At present, the relevant ministries and commissions have strengthened support for geo-information industry. According to incomplete statistics, government departments at each level have invested in about RMB 8 billion yuan in total in general survey of national geographic conditions, in about RMB 10 billion yuan in confirmation of rural land right and in about RMB 12 billion yuan in cyber-city construction. Driven by these favorable conditions, the geo-information industry, seizing the opportunities, maintains high growth.

Xu Yanying, Senior Vice Chairman and Secretary-general of China Association for Geographic Information Society said that geo-information sources are a precise national treasury and forms numerous new business models and new product and service modes in terms of comprehensive analysis and development and utilization. In addition, development of intelligent hardware in geo-information industry, including new radar technologies and laser scanner is expected to be investment hot spot in the future, it is noticeable that the proposal of such strategies as “one belt and one road” and “Internet+” is hard-won development opportunities for geo-information industry.

Traditional companies striving for transformation

2015 have witnessed that many traditional surveying and mapping geo-information enterprises are transforming from surveying and mapping production to services. For example, China Survey is proactively carrying out comprehensive networking service businesses of passenger and commercial vehicles based on Beidou Navigation Satellite System; Beidou chips independently developed by BDStar Navigation has realized multiple ten thousand-level applications; South is progressing from traditional surveying and mapping field to integration of hardware and software services. Successful transformation of numerous enterprises further promotes the in-depth application of geo-information industry.

However, though geo-information industry is undergoing rapid development, enterprises engaged in traditional geo-information data collection and surveying and mapping technological services see general revenues and some even suffer from losses. According to statistical data of 2014 surveying and mapping qualification units released by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information recently, total service value of surveying and mapping qualification units in the whole country last year is about RMB 68 billion yuan, an increase of 11.93 percent year-on-year, while the growth rate decreases 2.5 percentage points.

Ku Rexi believes that vigorous engagement of such large internet enterprises as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu in geo-information industry brings about huge pressure for traditional small- and medium-sized geo-information enterprises, aggregating competition among enterprises, but also accelerating quality and efficiency improvement of the industry and providing strong power for transformation and upgrading for geo-information enterprises. “In the future, industry development should be quality and efficient innovative development driven by ‘Internet+’,” said Ku.

Multi-industry integration of “Geo-information+”

“Geo-information industry is a kind of producer services and needs to be integrated with other industries to play a role jointly for growth.” Min Yishi, Deputy Director General of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information believes that accelerated integration of geo-information industry with such emerging industries as internet and big data expedites the arising of business models and services modes constantly. Meanwhile, with rapid demand growth of geo-information resources by the economic society, it is in urgent need for geo-information industry to make multi-industry integration to open new market space.

Yu Yongfu, President of Amap, believes that geo-information industry needs to make multi-industry integration by making use of internet thinking and committing to users’ demands to promote in-depth application of geo-information. “Recently, Amap has made data docking with traffic management departments of 8 cities according to “traffic big data” and launched traffic information public service platform to the society, embodying the integration of geo-information resources with intelligent traffic system” said Yu Fuyong. Wang Jianning, General Manager of Platform Department of SOSO Map also believes that it is necessary to tap intelligent application of location-based service on the basis of geographic big data to further approach to users’ demands. “Tencent has tapped such added-value information services as location electronic eye and speed limit based on big data of street view, which is also one multi-industry attempt to improve users’ navigation experience.”

Promoting “Geo-information+” by “Internet+” will facilitate numerous new products, services and new growth points. “Objectively speaking, current promotion force, breadth and depth of surveying and mapping geo-information achievements and technologies is far enough. Neglecting achievements still exists and conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements is very poor” Ku said. It is expected to make bold reform and innovation, capture the right path for flourishing of geo-information, grasp the advantages, build brand and accelerate development.

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This workshop brought together academia, data and service providers and farmers for an extensive overview on the latest technologies for precision agriculture.

Participants concluded that precision agriculture today can no longer ignore remote sensing data any more than it does weather data.

Opinions were divided on the usefulness of UAVs (to be used for wedding photos, some argued) but they are here to stay. Farmers experiment with “intelligent tractors” that sometimes require no more than an off-the-shelf video camera, as one of the speakers showed. Tractors, and farming equipment in general, come better and better equipped to work autonomously, relying on EGNOS and GPS. All these technologies make up the new “farmer’s house” – to use the metaphor that framed our discussions on the day.

Not all these technologies are fully operational, but this makes them all the more an opportunity for innovation. Beyond the technology, closer cooperation between data providers, machine makers and farmers is necessary to integrate all these technologies into easy-to-use tools for farmers.

Today many initiatives to create (open) data sharing platforms exist. New tools should rely on what is already there as much as possible. For instance, ZAMG the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics already provides farmers with crop risk information thanks to a partnership with farming insurance companies. It is conceivable that such a platform could integrate various other sources of information. Such platforms have at least the merit of being a tool that is already used by farmers, so familiar to them.

Universities who work such solutions, such as BOKU, have a role in technology transfer, but also in acting as a broker and a federator of the stakeholders of the “new farmer’s house”. Some suggested that big farming companies should already be involved, but others argued that technology in use needs to reach a critical mass first.

Here you can download the PowerPoint presentations from the event and watch them on YouTube.

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By Caleb Henry [Via Satellite 06-30-2015] Several leading small satellite entrepreneurs are confident that the success of their businesses does not hinge on whether or not the U.S. government will be an anchor customer. Earth observation and remote sensing companies at the Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) luncheon on June 25, while acknowledging that the U.S. government is a desirable, high-profile customer, said that their business plans are not contingent upon winning this single client.


“We have already collected a number of not only [letters of] intent, but firm contracts from a wide range of customers, Antoine de Chassy, vice president of Spire said, adding “[The business] has to be sustainable without the government’s money.”

Spire plans to launch a constellation of 20 satellites to collect weather data through GPS-Radio Occultation measurements (GPS-RO), and maritime data through Automatic Identification System (AIS) sensors. The first launch is scheduled for September this year, and Spire intends to grow the constellation up beyond 100 satellites in 2017. The company is also building a global ground-system receiving network with 20 stations around the world, climbing to 50 stations in two years, de Chassy said.

For meteorological events de Chassy said the high cost of weather-related damage is incentive enough for many companies desiring more than government-provided predictions to become customers in order to forecast more effectively.

“That’s a market where the government plays a role, definitely, but we don’t depend on the government’s money to do that, and to grow our business. Otherwise our investors would not come onboard as they do,” he said.

Since forming in 2012, Spire has launched four satellites and with today’s announcement of a $40 million Series B financing round, has secured more than $80 million from investors. Promus Ventures led the company’s latest funding round, with participation from new investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Jump Capital, as well as existing investors RRE Ventures and Lemnos Labs, among others.

Skybox Imaging Product Manager Andy Hock expressed a similar mentality, noting that while governments have largely driven remote sensing and Earth observation demand in the past, Skybox’s strategy is to reach new customers by accelerating access to and the usability of satellite imagery in under-addressed markets.

“Our business model from day one has been focused on the commercial market,” said Hock.

Skybox, which Google acquired in 2014 for approximately $500 million, does sell to government customers, but Hock said the company’s core market consists of buyers that are “awash in data,” who often lack Geographic Information System (GIS) expertise. The company has launched two satellites to date and partnered with Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build an additional 13 satellites. The newer spacecraft will use the environmentally friendly High Performance Green Propellant (HPGP) from Swedish Space Corporation subsidiary ECAPS, enabling the satellites to reach a mission life of six years or more.

“That will enable us not only to grow the number of places we are looking at on a repeat basis, but also to increase the cadence from weekly to daily, and even inter-daily in some cases,” said Hock.

Skybox’s next satellites are scheduled to launch from 2016 to 2017, Hock said. The company has announced contracts so far with Virgin Galactic for LauncherOne and Arianespace for Vega.

GeoOptics, an environmental services company focusing thus-far on GPS-RO for weather data said its business plan calls for both commercial and government customers. Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., CEO of GeoOptics said that the company’s business plan has changed drastically since 2006, and that the amount of data the company’s satellites will be able to provide is more than the government would even need to buy.

“Right now there is no end to the amount of radio occultation data for which people see an improvement in forecasting for weather. And that’s just one start. We plan to go into other services as well,” he said.

Lautenbacher said GeoOptics now intends to have spacecraft in orbit by January or February of 2016.

For OmniEarth, the government has become a significant starting customer. The company’s first two prototype satellites are not slated to launch until 2018 or 2019, but it has made use of sensors from various other platforms to collect data and measurements that can be turned into products and services. OmniEarth rolled out a product during the fourth quarter of 2014 for government customers in California seeking to measure water usage due to a drought. Frank McKenna, president of OmniEarth satellite services division said this product is now going into 400 districts across the state, providing data on water use by aggregating water meter data, integrating it through the cloud, and then delivering it to customers.

“Our strategy is not dependent on getting the satellites up in that timeframe. What we are doing is a lot of collection of data through aerial collects now and drones and other third party information to fuel the business. We’re going to put the satellite constellation up when it’s the right timing,” said McKenna.

Ball Aerospace is building OmniEarth’s constellation of 15 satellites, which include space for hosted payloads. In addition to the government sector, OmniEarth is targeting customers in energy, agriculture, forestry and elsewhere. The company’s goal is to provide data products using a variety of platforms to a variety of customers.

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A new Belarusian-Russian satellite for the remote sensing of the Earth will be created within 2-3 years.

The statement was made by Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) Vladimir Gusakov, in the presence of Igor Komarov, Head of the Russian Space Agency. The new satellite will boast higher image resolution — less than one meter — while the present satellite’s resolution stands at two meters. It means that the satellite’s imagery will be more precise. And we believe that it will be used not only for domestic purposes,” stated Gusakov.

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Belta

Just four days after being lofted into orbit, European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2A satellite delivered its first images of Earth.

The Sentinel-2A satellite lifted off on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on June 23, 2015.

The 1,140-kg satellite carries a high-resolution optical payload that will gather some of the best global imagery ever delivered from space of our land and vegetation for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring program. This information will mainly be used for agricultural and forestry practices, as well as will help manage food security, monitor pollution in lakes and coastal waters and contribute to more rapid disaster mapping.

“This new satellite will be a game changer in Earth observation for Europe and for the European Copernicus program,” said Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defense at the European Commission.

“Sentinel-2 will enable us to provide data for the program’s land monitoring services and will be the base for a wide spectrum of applications reaching from agriculture to forestry, environmental monitoring to urban planning,” added Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programs.

The Multispectral Imager (MSI) on Sentinel-2A is being calibrated during the commissioning phase, but the quality of the first images already exceeds expectations. MSI’s 13 spectral bands, from the visible and the near infrared to the shortwave infrared at different spatial resolutions, take land monitoring to an unprecedented level.

Sentinel-2A is the second satellite for Europe’s Copernicus program, following the Sentinel-1A radar satellite launched last year.

Designed as a two-satellite mission, Sentinel-2 will provide optical imagery on a 5-day revisit cycle once its twin, Sentinel-2B, is launched in the second half of 2016.

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at support.pcigeomatics.com

MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada—June 30, 2015: PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today that it launched a dedicated customer support website at support.pcigeomatics.com. The new, improved and centralized customer support destination website provides improved access to hundreds of articles, tutorials, videos, webinars, as well as a discussion forum to interact with other Geomatica users from around the world.

PCI Geomatics is a recognized leader in the industry for providing top quality, responsive customer support to prospective and existing customers. The customer support team consists of talented individuals who have detailed, practical experience working with PCI’s technology and are passionate about ensuring customers are successful with our software. Providing improved access to support material is a key component of the support team’s approach to continue to provide top quality customer support.

The decision was recently made to develop an improved customer support destination website to make the materials more readily searchable. “We have invested in a new customer support platform to make it easier for Geomatica users to search our support material”, said Ross Downey, Manager of the Customer Support team. “The customer support website also provides a discussion forum to allow Geomatica users to interact and build additional support channels through the establishment of a community of users”.

The dedicated customer support website provides information on getting started, step by step tutorials, webinars, articles, training manuals, case studies, FAQs, as well as developer resources. All of the information is searchable, making it easier than ever to find help related to a specific Geomatica topic. The discussion forum provides various categories to post topics and suggest improvements to Geomatica, and interact with other Geomatica users.

For more information on the new customer support platform, visit support.pcigeomatics.com.

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

(17 June 2015) ABB has won a contract to supply the main component, a Michelson interferometer, for the satellite of the GOSAT-2 mission that will enable the Japanese government to continue and enhance spaceborne measurement of major greenhouse gases.

This contract agreement is with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, who is the primary equipment supplier for this second Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT-2) program. GOSAT-2 is being jointly developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Institute for Environmental Studies, and Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, and is expected to be launched by JAXA in Japan Fiscal Year 2017.

ABB will supply the Michelson interferometer, the heart of a system that will collect and transmit precise atmospheric measurements from 613 kilometers above the earth. The data is used to ascertain the global distribution of carbon dioxide and methane gases and how the sources and sinks of these gases vary by month, year and location. GOSAT-2, the improved successor of GOSAT-1, will strengthen such observations by using high-performance sensors to provide even more precise measurements and will feature new capabilities to measure carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter.

ABB is very proud of having been selected to build the GOSAT-2 interferometer. GOSAT-2 relies on the heritage of GOSAT-1 (IBUKI), a highly successful satellite on-orbit since 2009. ABB has provided technologies for Japanese space programs in over 20 years, and our team is fully dedicated to the GOSAT program. The technology used also relies very much on the ACE-FTS instrument that ABB built for the Canadian Space Agency for the Scisat satellite” said Marc-Andre Soucy, Space and Defense Systems Director at ABB Measurement & Analytics Business Unit.

GOSAT-2 will feature a range of highly advanced instruments, including greenhouse gas and cloud/aerosol sensors, which contributed to the Proactive Diplomatic Strategy for Countering Global Warming announced by the Japanese government at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 19) in Warsaw, Poland in 2013.

About ABB

ABB’s Measurement & Analytics business unit is among the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of instrumentation and analyzers. With thousands of experts around the world and high-performance technology, ABB’s team is dedicated to making measurement easy for its customers.

ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people. In Canada, ABB has more than 5,000 employees from coast to coast.

(source: ABB)

(24 June 2015) SSTL is now downloading data from its newly installed ground station in Svalbard, which will maximise contact with the company’s polar-orbiting satellites.

The Svalbard ground station, uniquely located close to the North Pole, will enable satellite contact every 90 minutes – up to 14 passes a day.

With 14 satellites already monitored and controlled from its Guildford-based Satellite Operations Centre and four more to be launched next month, SSTL has increased it ground network capabilities with the addition of a high latitude ground station to supplement its existing UK capabilities, which receive up to 6 passes a day.

Under an agreement with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), SSTL has installed one of its ground station mini racks at KSAT’s Svalbard facility. This has been successfully commissioned and is now operational. A high speed data link between Svalbard and the SSTL Satellite Operations Centre in Guildford completes the new system.

James Northam, Head of Ground Systems and Missions Services said: “We are very pleased to be working with our colleagues at KSAT. This new facility will significantly enhance our operational capabilities for both our customer’s and our own missions. With four new satellites to be launched next month, the increased contact time provided by the high latitude location will allow us to spread the loading efficiently across the ground stations. This will reduce commissioning times and enable us to bring these new missions into service quickly, which will benefit our customers.”

About SSTL

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is the world’s leading small satellite company, delivering operational space missions for a range of applications including Earth observation, science and communications. The Company designs, manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a fraction of the price normally associated with space missions, with 500 staff working on turnkey satellite platforms, space-proven satellite subsystems and optical instruments.

Since 1981, SSTL has built and launched 43 satellites – as well as providing training and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA , international governments and commercial customers, with an innovative approach that is changing the economics of space.

Headquartered in Guildford, UK, SSTL is part of the Airbus Group.

(source: SSTL)