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This workshop is organised in the framework of the INTERREG IVC Project “Regions4GreenGrowth”, and hosted by the Észak-Alföld Regional Development Agency in Debrecen, Hungary (11/12/2014)

It will offer an opportunity to discuss how innovative geoinformation services (based on Earth Observation data and/or satellite navigation and location) can help regional administrators improve public services and make better informed decisions about stimulating economic development and environmental sustainability.

The workshop will be based on the challenges and opportunities identified in Észak-Alföld to build a case study and identify opportunities for new projects and collaboration among innovation actors in the region and beyond to implement innovative solutions.

For further information, please click here

(23 September 2014) MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has been awarded a contract from DigitalGlobe to provide a ground station solution to an international customer to receive and process imagery and data directly from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3 satellites.

This is MDA’s first ground station solution to include WorldView-3 the first multi-payload, super-spectral high-resolution commercial satellite, which was successfully launched on August 13, 2014. The ground station is based on MDA’s multi-satellite architecture and can be extended to support additional satellites.

About MDA

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

MDA’s business is focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, primarily in the Communications sector and the Surveillance and Intelligence sector. In addition, the Company conducts a significant amount of advanced technology development.

MDA’s established global customer base is served by more than 4,800 employees operating from 11 locations in the United States, Canada, and internationally.

The Company’s common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “MDA.”

(source: MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates)


Dr. Gediminas Vaitkus is the owner of Geomatrix UAB, a small Lithuanian company that has successfully participated in the development of Copernicus core services. It specialises in automated geospatial data processing. Now that the Sentinels are being launched, we asked Dr. Vaitkus about his point of view on the prospects the Sentinels bring for small and medium businesses.

Eurisy (EY): What are the main threats European SMEs are confronted with when it comes to making commercially viable geo-information products from Sentinel data?

Dr. G. Vaitkus (GV): I would like to call out three of them, though of course the situation is more complex than a 3-bullet point list.

  • 1. Stakeholder interests and resistance to changing from “traditional” (human photo-interpreted) geo-information products: Although the efficiency, objectivity, frequency and thematic variety of Copernicus products and services cause no doubts, the traditional mapping methods hold strong positions on an institutional level, with institutional users or even large service providers who are in a position of national monopoly. Annual expenses of the public sector for mapping products and services are certainly large enough for the traditional mapping lobbyists to defend their “economic interests”.
  • 2. European and national legislation and procurement policies are not in line with the most recent technological developments related to Copernicus. In many European countries legislation makes topographic mapping compulsory, focusing national funding on established priorities and methods, which leaves little room for innovation. This is actually the main problem for Copernicus service providers, more than technological competition with traditional mapping methods. Legislators do not seem to be in tune with those in charge of investing European money in innovative mapping methods, like those based on the use of satellite imagery. You would think that these questions of legislation and procurement policies should have preceded the implementation of Copernicus, but nowadays that seems to be an after-thought.
  • 3. Low accessibility of high quality multi-spectral imagery for the European service providers. This is a complex problem, including insufficient spatial resolution and spectral parameters of the imagery publicly available for the GMES/Copernicus initial operations, low revisit frequency (problems with cloud cover), high cost of very high resolution imagery (almost the same as aerial photos), etc. This problem is even worsened by on-line global imaging services like Google or Bing, which provide visualisations derived from very high resolution imagery for the general public globally and for free. So the result is that (1) the mainstream users have an extremely “populist” understanding of what EO technology really is and what information it can provide, at the same time being confident that they already have unlimited and free access to the best available EO technologies and (2) EO industry has serious problems trying to satisfy the expectations of the European (or national) institutional users in terms of high quality EO products and services with the EO data available for the real production. I do hope that Sentinel 2 will at least partially solve the latter problem, but the education of the general public still remains a serious issue for the Copernicus community at all levels.

EY: What about the bright side?

GV: There are a few reasons to remain hopeful.

  • 1. European SME capacity building. During the last years some European companies have indeed developed highly competitive technological capacities for EO services. And — surprisingly — the constraints of the European EO market (weak user community, low budgets, changing specifications, poor imagery, problems with many national projections, etc.), have actually pushed innovation and reinforced the competitiveness of European EO service providers on the global market! 5 years ago the FP7 GMES projects raised very ambitious (at that time) objectives to reduce the land-cover production costs by 20% compared to CORINE Land Cover production based on manual photo-interpretation, or even reduce the production cost down to 1-2 Euro/sq.km for ~10 “core” land cover classes. However, the actual production of GIO-Land layers was done for just a few cents/sq.km per layer — several times cheaper than the original expectations. Despite all the semantic issues, delays, diversity of national projections, inconsistency of EO imagery and other problems, the pan-European production was completed successfully by a collaborative effort of a large group of European companies, coordinated by the European Environment Agency. This achievement gives strong evidence of the competitiveness of the European EO industry and competences of public agencies.
  • 2. The promising prospect of access to global markets. Without exaggeration, European Copernicus service providers have indeed developed a capacity for serious competition on a global market. And, to be honest, the main reason why we (service providers) are so keen to finally have European EO imaging capacity (Sentinels) operating in full power is not because we expect a considerable boost of business opportunities in our own countries, but because we hope that EC will finally develop a political will to start acting as a global player on climate change, deforestation, desertification, water resources, food security and many other issues by launching large scale operational mapping and land/ocean monitoring services on a global scale, like US, Japan, China and other countries. Europe has no problem with innovation, technological capacity or even funding – I believe that with Copernicus services our main problem is lack of political will and coordination… But hopefully that is about to change.

EY: How representative do you think your view is of how SMEs in general perceive Copernicus’ opportunities?

GV: I’m not sure. My point of view – as one of a former scientist and current CEO of a micro-company competing for business in the field of EO services – is probably a pragmatic, business-like approach to the Copernicus programme. I do realise that on a European level this has been a very ambitious project on a larger time-scale than the one I consider, as a small business owner. Long preparation for the Copernicus operational phase through RTD projects demanded a considerable amount of investment and human resources from large EO service providers, but the overall level of GMES initial operations funding apparently didn’t meet expectations of the European EO industry. On the other hand, SMEs are operating on considerably lower level of expenses, therefore long-term Copernicus services and national downstreams provide attractive business opportunities for micro-companies and SMEs.

See more at

19th -21st January 2015 | QEII Conference Centre, London
www.dgieurope.com

DGI is the most significant event in Europe for the national security community and intelligence experts exploiting location information for local, national and coalition national security programs. Focusing on how key decisions are supported through the provision of location intelligence (http://wbresear.ch/earscag) but embracing ever wider information superiority needs, DGI serves the sharing of information and networking needs of government and industry leaders from across NATO, Europe and international mission partners.

If you want to attend you can book in 3 easy ways

The GOFC-GOLD – Land Cover Project Office has released another newsletter

*REDD Sourcebook update

  • REDD+ curriculum
  • Sentinel-2 for Science Work shop
  • Sentinel-1A launched
  • First release of MGD from GFOI 3 REDD sourcebook & GFOI MGD
  • Global Reference Datasets
  • LC4Climate Project from USDI
  • Free access to SPOT archive
  • GLC side-event GEO Summit X
  • GOFC-GOLD at ESA LPVE Workshop
  • Calendar

link

(7 July 2014) Ocean waves, the hot sun, sea breezes — the right combination makes a great day at the beach.

A different combination makes a killer hurricane. The complex interactions of the ocean and the air above it that can create such different outcomes are not yet fully known. Scientists would especially like to understand the role that the daily heat of the sun plays in creating winds.

In a few months, NASA will send an ocean wind-monitoring instrument to a berth on the International Space Station. That unique vantage point will give ISS-RapidScat, short for the International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer, the ability to observe daily (also called diurnal) cycles of wind created by solar heat.

Winds contribute to motion in the ocean on every scale, from individual waves to currents extending thousands of miles. They affect local weather as well as large-scale, long-term climate patterns such as El Niño. Across the tropical Pacific, winds help or hinder local economies by allowing nutrient-rich water to well up from the ocean depths, nourishing marine life to the benefit of coastal fisheries, or blocking its upwelling.

Since the hours of daylight are totally predictable, you might expect their influence on winds to be equally obvious. But that’s not the case. According to Sarah Gille, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, “There’s an enormous amount of diurnal wind variation between 30 degrees north and south of the equator, and we don’t understand the timing. It’s clear that the winds aren’t just triggered every day at noon [when the sun is highest].”

Scatterometer observations from satellites have proven invaluable for understanding ocean winds. A scatterometer is a type of radar that bounces microwaves off Earth’s surface and measures the strength and direction of return signals. The more uneven the surface, the stronger the return signals. On the ocean, higher winds create larger waves and therefore stronger return signals. The return signal also tells scientists the direction of the wind, because waves line up in the direction the wind is blowing.

more info

The Nano and Microsatellite market report constitutes of revenues from hardware, software and services required for the development and launch of such satellites. Overall market size is found by adding up the market size for two segments of satellites; namely 1kg to 10kgs (Nano satellites) and 11kgs to 100kgs (Microsatellites).

Though above two markets can exist independently, but the playing fields are the same. For example, there are applications in communication, earth observation, remote sensing, biological experiments, scientific research, academic training, space science and intelligence among various others. Among all applications of Nano and microsatellites, earth observations and remote sensing is expected to account for highest market share by 2019.

Few high growth markets are:-

1. Software and data processing: Software packages as well as data processing suites that are required for accepting and extracting actionable information from the raw satellite data at the ground station

2. Nano satellites: Satellites in the range of 1kg to 10kgs

3. Earth observation and remote sensing: Disaster monitoring application such as cyclones, storms, floods, fires, volcanic activities, earthquakes, landslides, oil slicks, environmental pollution, industrial and/or power plant disaster among various others

4. Commercial: Nano and Microsatellites built and used for commercial purposes

One challenge that may hamper the expected double digit growth of this market is raising capital by startups and small sized companies as every machine, every orbiting device, cost thousands of dollars; every major technology investment has been a bet-the-company adventure. Thus finding the right area along with economically feasible and profitable area holds the key to success in this field. Inability to obtain financing could possibly delay or cancel satellite programs. According to survey reports about 60 percent of U.S. commercial satellites have been financed by U.S. based Ex-Im Bank and are planning to enhance its support for U.S. industry in anticipation of its aggressive competition, in funds provided for satellite exports worldwide, from its European counterpart, Coface. However, uncertainty in global financial markets creates mixed results for funding in satellite services sector business. Debt markets are still strong while traditional investors remain risk averse in perspective to markets for satellite financing.

There are various assumptions also that have been taken into consideration for market sizing and forecasting exercise. A few of the global assumptions include political, economic, social, technological and economic factors. For instance, exchange rates, one of the economic factors, are expected to have moderate rating of impact on this market. Therefore, dollar fluctuations are expected to not seriously affect the forecasts in the emerging APAC regions.

The report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways

1. This report segments the market into solutions and applications covering this market comprehensively. The report provides the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall market and the sub-segments. The market numbers are further split across the different end users and regions.

2. This report will help them better understand the competitor and gain more insights to better position their business. There is a separate section on competitive landscape, including competitor ecosystem and mergers and acquisition. Besides, there are company profiles of 10 players in this market. In this section, market internals are provided that can put them ahead of the competitors.

3. The report helps them understand the overall growth of the market. The report provides information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.

There is an ongoing tussle among the eminent players such as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Ruag, Sierra Nevada corp and Surrey satellite technologies in the nano and microsatellite market.

Browse Full Report

Source

Over 85 million square kilometers of fresh basemap imagery from Airbus Defense and Space is now available in ArcGIS Online. This announcement follows the signing of an agreement between Airbus Defense and Space and Esri for access to select sets of Airbus Defense and Space imagery.

Through this agreement with Esri, ArcGIS Online users will have access to a near global coverage with Airbus Defense and Space’s SPOTMaps 2.5m, seamless mosaic product, as well as very high resolution 50cm Pleiades imagery products over major cities worldwide.

These fresh datasets will be used to enhance the existing Esri ArcGIS Online World Imagery Basemap, one of the foundation datasets available worldwide to all Esri users.

The seamless SPOTMaps 2.5 mosaic provides users with a high-end, seamless basemap over most of the world to be used as a backdrop for many GIS applications.

This mosaicked data is enhanced by fresh Pleiades imagery, giving ArcGIS Online users updated information over major cities worldwide. Imagery will also be available, on demand, for deployments through the Esri Data Appliance solution, and more will become available through the end of September 2014.

“With this announcement, ArcGIS users will have easier access to really crisp, high resolution imagery,” said Jack Dangermond, President of Esri.

“We’ve added over 85M km2 of Airbus Defense and Space SPOTMaps 2.5m seamless, global and current mid-scale imagery over 164 countries to our cloud basemaps, available through ArcGIS Online”.

“We are excited by this partnership with Esri. Thanks to this agreement, ArcGIS Online users will be able to leverage an extensive access to our high resolution, high-end, and, more importantly, fresh basemap content through the Esri platform,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of the Geo-Intelligence program line of Airbus Defense and Space.

Source

(Co-authored by Arthur Lerner-Lam, Alison Miller and Sean Solomon). The scientific heart of Columbia University’s Earth Institute is the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which has been engaged in observing and analyzing earth systems for over 65 years. If we are to develop a sustainable and renewable economy, it is essential that human activities have as little negative impact on the planet as possible.

Without a sophisticated understanding of how earth systems work, it is impossible to manage and minimize the impacts of our activities on our home planet. When our scientists make their observations and collect data, whether on land, at sea, or in the atmosphere, they do it with enormous care, working very hard to ensure that their research does not damage the planet they are working to protect. Unfortunately, some members of the environmental community, along with misinformed state agencies and elected representatives, often make erroneous assumptions about the impact of our observational methods on the living earth. They seek to stop research projects that have passed the most rigorous forms of peer review and have gone through a lengthy and thorough assessment of environmental impact, without stopping to understand how critical observations are actually made. A recent example in New Jersey provides a case in point.

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(Geneva, Switzerland) Barbara J. Ryan has been re-appointed, without competition, to a second, three year term as the Secretariat Director of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Ryan’s re-appointment was made by unanimous consent of the GEO Executive Committee.

Based in Geneva, GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and organizations that envisions “a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information.” GEO membership includes 90 nations and the European Commission, and 77 Participating Organizations comprised of international bodies with a mandate in Earth observations. GEO’s initial ten year mandate was extended for another decade by its Ministerial body in January of this year.

GEO’s primary focus is to create a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to address environmental and societal challenges facing decision leaders and individual citizens across nine essential areas: agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water and weather.

Prior to joining GEO in 2012, Ryan served as Director of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Space Programme, and – in 2007 — as Chair of the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), which coordinates information from more than 100 civilian satellites. Prior to that, she served as the Associate Director for Geography of the United States Geological Survey with responsibility for the Landsat program, and the agency’s other remote sensing, geography and civilian mapping functions.

Ryan earned a B.A. in Geology from the State University of New York Cortland, Masters degrees in Geography from the University of Denver and in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. She was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from SUNY Cortland.

GEO Secretariat: 7 bis, avenue de la Paix • Case postale 2300 • CH-1211 Geneva 2 • Switzerland
Tel: + 41 (0) 22 730 85 05 • Fax: +41 (0)22 730 85 20 • secretariat@geosec.org – See more at: http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/33487/2/#sthash.An96RyUU.dpuf