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MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada—January 13, 2014: PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today a strategic partnership with McDonald, Dettwiler and Associated Ltd. (MDA).

The partnership introduces a solution that streamlines access to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery for Geomatica 2014 users. A key benefit of this partnership provides Geomatica users with direct access to MDA’s SAR experts who have decades of expertise in radar remote sensing analysis. The solution provides access to RADARSAT-2 order handling services through both the PCI Geomatics website, and Geomatica, a state-of-the-art desktop software package for processing Earth observation data that allows users to load satellite and aerial imagery where advanced analysis can be performed.

PCI Geomatics offers considerable expertise as well, with online SAR training courses taught by PhD level scientists, free access to SAR coursebooks, and also step by step examples of SAR based applications supported by freely available RADARSAT-2 imagery which is provided by MDA, which can be processed to generate information using Geomatica.

SAR has all weather, any-time monitoring capabilities that offer a number of unique benefits for Earth-surface and feature observation. The RADARSAT-2 satellite has global high-resolution surveillance capabilities that include a large collection capacity and high accuracy. The satellite provides frequent re-visit imaging options, and is supported by ground receiving stations that provide near real-time information delivery services. This versatility makes RADARSAT-2 a reliable source of information in multi-faceted intelligence surveillance and monitoring programs. MDA is a primary source of geospatial solutions for the Oil and Gas, Defense and Security, Disaster Management, Aviation, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Mining markets.

Through this partnership, PCI users can better leverage MDA’s SAR expertise to unlock the potential of RADARSAT-2 to solve some unique customer challenges. With a more robust suite of services, and with world-leading advanced geospatial production and analysis capabilities, MDA and PCI are even better positioned to meet customers’ needs.

To find out more about the new capability, visit: www.pcigeomatics.com/imagery

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 www.pcigeomatics.com.

Press Contact (PCI Geomatics)
Kevin R. Jones
Director, Marketing and Communications
T: 819-770-0022 × 214
E: jones@pcigeomatics.com
Web: www.pcigeomatics.com
Twitter: @pcigeomatics

Press Contact (MDA)
Wendy Keyzer
MDA External Relations
T: 604-231-2743
E: wendy@mdacorporation.com

[Via Satellite 11-12-2014] MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) is optimistic it can capture new business in the small satellite market through its subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL).

In February 2014 Skybox Imaging partnered with SSL to build 13 small Earth imaging satellites known as “SkySats.” Skybox built the first two satellites, SkySat 1 and SkySat 2, on its own before turning over large scale manufacturing to SSL. As part of the agreement, SSL gained intellectual property rights that the company hopes to use to win more small satellite business.

SSL is headquartered in Silicon Valley where a number of entrepreneurial space companies are located — including Skybox. SSL has expressed a strong interest in working with satellite startups, having also partnered with NanoRacks for the U.S. Air Force’s Hosted Payloads Solutions (HoPS) program. Existing relationships and geographic proximity to startup companies operating in this sector have created an ideal situation for SSL. Speaking during MDA’s third quarter 2014 earnings call, MDA President and CEO Daniel Friedmann said this was a market that was never anticipated when acquiring SSL, but one that has great potential for new contracts.

“We are perfectly situated for the Skybox-like opportunities,” he said. “That’s a whole funnel that has developed in the last six to eight months.”

SSL’s Vice President of Business Development, David Lackner, confirmed the company is working hard to become the partner of choice for new entrants. MDA has been very intentional about increasing SSL’s satellite manufacturing capacity to maintain a competitive edge, though he did not disclose exactly how the company plans to do this. In the long run, Lackner said SSL’s goal is to be as diverse as possible.

“Our vision is to have a fully diversified product line that spans from LEO CubeSats to our traditional GEO birds. You may even see ‘atmospheric satellites’ in the mix,” he said. “We will be capable of rapidly responding to a variety of different needs through a streamlined product development process where customers can show up with a business plan, and we provide the entire enabling infrastructure to make it real. We are progressing in this direction.”

SSL’s growing product line for small satellites meshes knowhow and practices from building larger satellites, such as those that use the SSL 1300 bus, with knowledge gained from Skybox. Likewise, new small satellite technology is having an influence on other products. Lackner said the company is currently looking at a broad range of commercial and government applications; the majority for remote sensing projects, but SSL small satellites are not limited to this purpose, he said.

Friedmann identified the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) marketplace as a new focus for both communications and additional Earth observation projects. To date the company has already seen interest, though he said most are for single satellites, rather than full constellations.

“We have today U.S. government classified opportunities for [LEO small satellites]. We have about four or five international opportunities, traditional MDA-like customers, and we have several U.S. commercial opportunities,” said Friedmann. “We are pursuing all of those. Some of those use the Skybox technology, some use other technology but they are all LEO-based communications or Earth Observation or both in one satellite.”

Friedmann cautioned that it is too early to tell if any of these will turn into contracts. If Skybox, now owned by Google, were to order more satellites, he said MDA would have enough notice to prepare. For now, Lackner said SSL would continue to diversify its product line to gain business from those seeking satellites of all sizes.

“SSL is committed to pursuing small satellite contract awards as a critical path to growth and we are actively looking for this type of opportunity. We see this as key to our future strategy of expanding the product line and bringing a Silicon Valley mentality into the aerospace community,” he said.

Source

(January 2015) NASA is set to launch Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite as part of the ESSP (Earth System Science Pathfinder) program. The overall objective of SMAP is to monitor global soil moisture mapping with unprecedented resolution, sensitivity, area coverage, and revisit times of 3days or less.

The radiometer provides more accurate soil moisture but a coarse resolution of about 40 kilometers [25 miles] across,” said JPL’s Eni Njoku, a research scientist with SMAP. “With the radar, you can create very high resolution, but it’s less accurate. To get both an accurate and a high-resolution measurement, we process the two signals together.

The SMAP data will help characterise the relationship between soil moisture, its freeze/thaw state, and the associated environmental constraints to ecosystem processes including land-atmosphere carbon, water and energy exchange, and vegetation productivity.

The instrument’s three main parts are a radar, a radiometer and the largest rotating mesh antenna ever deployed in space.

SMAP’s radar, uses the antenna to transmit microwaves toward Earth and receive the signals that bounce back, called backscatter. The microwaves penetrate a few inches or more into the soil before they rebound. Changes in the electrical properties of the returning microwaves indicate changes in soil moisture, and also tell whether or not the soil is frozen.

SMAP’s radiometer detects differences in Earth’s natural emissions of microwaves that are caused by water in soil. The mission also tries to address the problems radio frequency interference. The microwave wavelengths that SMAP uses are officially reserved for scientific use, but signals at nearby wavelengths that are used for air traffic control, cell phones and other purposes spill over into SMAP’s wavelengths unpredictably. NASA Goddard engineers devised a new way to delete only the small segments of actual interference, leaving much more of the observations untouched.

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Lab

See more at

The second remote sensing satellite of the Resource-P series was put in to orbit on 31 December 2014. The satellite was launched from the Baikonur space centre on December 26 by rocket carrier Soyuz-2.1b.

The “Resource-P” Series forms the basis of the Russian system vysokoperiodicheskogo remote sensing (RS), which provides consumers in Russia and other countries highly detailed pictures super high, medium and high resolution. The satellite would be providing 1 meter panchromatic imagery, and multispectral imager at a resolution of 2 to 3 meters from a height of 475 kilometers.

As on per the new published by the Russian News Agency (TASS), the Equipment for taking Earth surface imagery is being adjusted. The satellite operating parameters are normal and there are no remarks to the operation of onboard equipment.

The launch of third satellite Resource-P is expected in 2015 to finalise the shaping of the orbital system for high-definition recording of around 90 million square kilometres of territories annually.

Source: TASS & spaceflight101

See more at

We cordially invite you to join us for The Unmanned System Expo 2015 (TUSExpo), the first fully integrated European Unmanned Systems tradeshow and conference covering all domains including Air, Ground, Maritime and Space.

European and global companies encompassing the full spectrum of the Unmanned Systems industry, from component manufacturers to integrators and buyers, will come together from 4 to 6 February in The Hague, the Netherlands.
You can optimise your network opportunities by attending the tradeshow, conference, and unique TUSE matchmaking event. Companies will have the opportunity to showcase their latest products and technologies to an international audience and media while visitors can watch demonstrations in dedicated indoor and outdoor demonstration zones.

TUSExpo will be hosted at the World Forum, a wold class facility that has an impressive track record in hosting international congresses and events such as the NSS Nuclear Summit earlier this year.

For more information, click the link TUSExpo 2015

Visitors’ registration is live – free entrance for a limited period

TUSExpo is a must-attend event for all players of the Unmanned Systems industry. The event provides an opportunity to meet new prospects, expand your network, and learn about the latest market developments and technologies.

The online registration is already live. Until 27 January you can register for free entrance to the exhibition on. On each day of the exhibition tickets can also be purchased at the gate for €75,-.

For an additional fee you can also benefit and participate in the conference program.

Visitors’ registration

Conference programme ‘It’s all about services!’

TUSExpo hosts a comprehensive conference programme focusing on increasing awareness about the ever growing potential of commercial and civil applications for the commercial and even consumer market. Commercial and civil applications will contribute to a major part of the industry’s growth in terms of value and production over the next decade.

Participants of the conference gain insight on the latest developments and learn about the newest applications and technologies. A group of leading industry experts, academia, and organizations will share their views and knowledge with the audience.

The conference programme & registration

Exhibition

The exhibition offers companies the opportunity to engage with end-users and showcase their latest solutions and technologies to an international audience including high-profile figures and decision-makers. Visitors will have the chance to attend demonstrations in dedicated outdoor and indoor demonstration zones and learn about new products and technologies.

Exhibitors’ information

TUSE Matchmaking Event

TUSE Match is the first and only event completely dedicated to bringing global players of the Unmanned Systems industry together.

Key reasons to participate:

  • Book 1-to-1 meetings with decision-makers in the field of Security, Agriculture, EU legislation, Oil & Gas, Entertainment, and Robotics.
  • Engage with all relevant players from component suppliers to integrators and end-users
  • Meet new prospects and develop partnerships across the supply chain
  • Initiate international business and co-operation
  • Exchange ideas with stakeholders and government officials
  • Meet and share views with researchers and experts gaining the latest insights

For more information visit

Demonstration Areas

TUSExpo 2015 will also provide two or demonstration areas, indoor and outdoor (fixed wing most probably also possible). Please note that if you would like showcase your products, please inform us by sending a request to: sales@tusexpo.com

Contact Information:
Sales Department TUSExpo 2015
Email: “sales@tusexpo.com”:mailto:sales@tusexpo.com
Telephone: +31 (0) 88 88 33 450

[Via Satellite 01-08-2015] To support the international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) has releases a series of Image City Map products created with satellite imagery and human geography data sets from DigitalGlobe.

Through NGA’s EnhancedView program, military and civilian health workers, international partner nations and volunteers can better understand the ground situation with new images collected on a daily basis. Furthermore, the agency released country-scale DigitalGlobe human geography data layers that provide information on regional infrastructure, the locations of medical facilities, environmental data and more.

“This proactive and forward-leaning government-industry partnership is crucial when it comes to preparing for and responding to humanitarian crises of all kinds,” said William Arras, VP of U.S. government customer experience at DigitalGlobe. “Analysts may utilize this data to better understand where infrastructure is located, where the disease has the greatest risk of transmission, and what populations are most at risk.”

Source

[SatNews] As the New Year brings a whole set of expectations, one of the key measurements will be the expectation that commercially-available very high resolution imagery will help EO users ‘see more’.

And more nations are likely to assess this new type of satellite imagery to lower their limits on what users can see.

For the foreseeable future, the very high resolution market is likely be ‘reserved’ for the NGA under the EnhancedView contract and perhaps other U.S. Government agencies. But down the road, DigitalGlobe, which received a boost of 20 percent in imaging capacity with its newest satellite, is likely to count other Allied nations as customers of very high resolution data. This will be the first full year that EO imagery is offered by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite, and other governments may feel pressure to drop their barriers on resolution if the market turns out to be a success early on.

Israel could be the first country outside the U.S. to do so with ImageSat International’s Eros series satellites likely to put a new twist in the very high resolution market. It has a lighter, cheaper platform with flexible onboard camera look angles and at about 350 kg (770 lbs), offers a large savings on manufacturing and launch costs. It certainly will not offer the sophistication level of an NGA-requirement based Worldview-3, which will have 31 cm resolution data (not resampled), but could cater to a lot of nations in developing regions that want better than 50 cm data. In fact, the Israeli manufacturer of the Eros platform, IAI was quoted in Space News last fall stating they’re “… headed to 25 centimeter imagery”.

And even if the market is still nascent, it will take a prominent role for the EO market as erosion of prices at the lower end of the market dampens expectations. NSR’s recently released Satellite-Based Earth Observation, 6th Edition report shows that very-high resolution imagery will slowly be adopted and could reach close to 10 percent of the EO data market revenues by 2023. The decrease in market share of medium resolution and high-resolution optical data will be the result of both decreases in per/km2 pricing and a migration to very-high resolution data.

In the race for providing clearer sight of targets on the ground, be it for military or commercial purposes, satellite-based very-high resolution imagery is a formidable tool to address the growth in competition from Earth imaging aerial manned and unmanned platforms. But it will not replace it. Rather, it will act as a complement even if its capabilities give satellite a strong competitive edge: more frequent revisit, operations under any weather, expanded distribution networks and diversification of imaging sources (optical, SAR, and eventually hyperspectral).

2015 signifies an inflection point in the EO market. The impact of very high resolution imagery on the satellite-based Earth Observation market will start to be felt this year, and the expectations are high due to increasing competition from both commercial and government-owned satellites. As more customers want imagery with finer detail, the next twelve months will tell us if seeing more will meet their expectations and help lower the barrier such that more EO satellites could provide clearer views of the Earth in the years to come.

Story by Claude Rousseau, Research Director, NSR France

[Via Satellite 12-31-2014] The country of China has been entirely mapped in High Definition (HD) by satellite, according to the Chinese National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation.

China began photographing the country at a level that can clearly image objects smaller than one meter by satellite in 2012. As of 2014, the compiled imagery covered the entire land territory of the country.

Source

[Via Satellite 01-05-2015] NASA has awarded Exelis a $3.5 million contract that supports research to improve understanding of climate change by tracking how weather systems transport carbon dioxide, methane and other gases in the atmosphere.

As part of the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport-America project, Exelis will modify its Multi-Functional Fiber Laser LIDAR (MFLL) for integration into a NASA aircraft and provide support to five extensive flight campaigns that will collect regional carbon dioxide measurements. Exelis will work with Penn State University and NASA Langley Research Center scientists and engineers on the project.

The research goal is to improve identification and predictions of carbon dioxide and methane sources and sinks using spaceborne, airborne and ground-based data over the eastern half of the United States.

“This is key because we really don’t know enough about the carbon cycle to take steps to predict and manage its environmental effects,” said Jeremy Dobler, Exelis program manager and senior scientist. “The Exelis laser LIDAR takes accurate measurements of CO2 concentrations in the lower atmosphere where sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are located and where the data is relevant for addressing environmental impact.”

“Source:“http://www.satellitetoday.com/regional/2015/01/05/exelis-wins-nasa-contract-to-support-climate-change-research/?hq_e=el&hq_m=3006949&hq_l=40&hq_v=946b6fbc05

Satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) is a process of using remote-sensing technique to gather information on the chemical, physical and biological aspects of the earth system. This technique allows the measurement of geophysical parameters of the earth from the orbit with the use of cameras and sensors.

The gathered information can be effectively used to monitor and predict cloud cover and climate patterns, detect and assess damage during floods, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, agricultural and usage, petroleum and mineral deposits, availability of water sources. It also facilitates the management of earth’s natural resources in a resourceful manner.

The satellite-based earth observation industry is witnessing an impressive growth, with around 260 satellite launches expected over the next decade.

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One of the main drivers in this market is the technological improvements in satellite imagery. Advanced image-enhancing equipments such as high-resolution cameras, and advanced remote-sensing technology have improved the quality of satellite-based earth observation images.

This data is shared from various satellites and accordingly used by defense, science, research and development organizations, and private users. The U.S. based earth observation satellite operators GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, along with Europe-based SPOT Image share more than 60 % of the total revenues from commercial data sales.

The challenge for the imagery market is the initial high investment cost. Moreover, other challenges arising due to the incoordination among different databases still persist due to the isolation of various satellites from one another.

All these challenges are expected to be resolved by the much anticipated technology together developed by the new upcoming formation ‘Group on Earth Observation System of Systems’ (GEOSS). This is a system of systems that will link the existing and the upcoming observing systems around the globe and fill in the loop holes of uncommon technical standards seen in the development of new observing systems.

It will offer a single internet access point to all the users seeking EO data from existing data bases as well as the new up-to-date portals, thus, making the information and analysis to flow directly to the users across various domains. Demand for EO data is increasing from users such as surveyors, farmers, miners, fishers, engineers, and others decision makers, to pursue their business objectives.

This technology is also expected to fuel growth for earth observations market in other areas such as land management, natural disaster response, insurance, real estate and tourism industry. Increased demand for EO data from public entities and private companies such as Google, Inc.

for its use in mapping and location based services is further expected to stimulate the earth observations market growth.

Demand for satellite-based earth observation market will be high from developing countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and South Africa who would be widening their native autonomous capabilities in the near future. United States, Europe, China and India are all important operators of remote sensing satellites.

Leading operators and service providers in these regions are partnering with Geographic Information System (GIS) companies and manufacturers of mobile devices to provide individual consumers with advanced information products and services. Initiatives taken by the government to embrace EO, in addition to the collaboration among operators to expand their capabilities by means of technology transfer would be the major driving factors in the satellite-based earth observation market.

With booming demand anticipated equally for complex and economical EO missions, the manufacturing and launch industries are likely to profit from the significant returns. Major trend is seen in increasing use of satellite-based earth observations in Maritime surveillance, for its ability to rapidly evaluate situations during extreme weather conditions and in war-time crisis.

The key vendors include: Dettwiler & Associates Ltd., Deimos Imaging S.l., Skybox Imaging Inc., ImageSat International, PlanetIQ and Rapid Eye A.G.

This research report analyzes this market depending on its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report include

- North America – Asia Pacific – Europe – Rest of the World

This report provides comprehensive analysis of

- Market growth drivers – Factors limiting market growth – Current market trends – Market structure – Market projections for upcoming years

This report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years.

It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porter’s five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.

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