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(09th of January) The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), host to one of UN-SPIDER’s Regional Support Offices, announced that it will set up a new space monitoring station for prevention and prediction of emergency situations in the Urals.

The station will be established in the new Emergency Center in Sverdlovsk and will cover the northern part of the Arctic Zone, the Urals and Volga Region.

As of today, 85 percent of the whole Russian Federation territory are already covered by such space monitoring stations. After the launch of the new system, the area will be cover 95 percent of the country.

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“The Arab Region: Atlas of Our Changing Environment” recently released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) shows through satellite images the growing impact of Climate Change in the Arab region.

The comparative satellite images used in the atlas clearly show the changes caused by the growing population and environmental pressures that have been going on in the region – in land use, urban growth, degradation of marine and coastal areas, shrinking water bodies and loss of habitats. The atlas comes to show which challenges the region will be facing in the next years – limited freshwater resources, rapid urbanization, depletion of natural resources and increased vulnerability to environmental risks and natural disasters.

Furthermore, the satellite images shed light not just onto recent developments in the region and the role humans played in forming the environment, but they also offer an insight into the opportunities and the innovative responses that could be implemented in the region. Many of the countries established environmental agencies in order to mitigate the climate change impacts and their efforts in sustainable development can be seen in the atlas.

The main article published on the website of UNEP gives further information about some of the changes in the countries captured by satellites and gives a small introductory of the Abu Dhabi environmental agency.

The JRC recently presented the new developments of its eStation, a processing server for the environmental monitoring of land condition in Africa.

Developed by the JRC, the eStation is a system designed to automatically deal with the reception, processing, analysis and dissemination of key environmental parameters derived from remotely sensed data. Initially created as a stand-alone system – not connected to the internet – using an open source tool, the eStation has recently been further developed as a web processing service to allow a broader range of end-users, mainly policy-makers and governmental agencies, to access the data and services over the internet.

The eStation has been successfully deployed in 47 sub-Saharan countries in the context of the African Monitoring of Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) project.

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(Source JRC nad Copernicus.info)

Directional & Hemispherical Albedo, Canopy Reflectances, Leaf Area Index, …


  • Directional Albedo (version 1), ALDH
  • Hemispherical Albedo (version 1), ALBH
  • Top-of-Canopy Reflectances (version 1), TOC-R
  • Leaf Area Index (version 1), LAI
  • Fraction of Green Vegetation Cover (version 1), FCover
  • Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (version 1), FAPAR

These products are derived from the SPOT-VEGETATION sensor. They are delivered three times per month and cover South America.

for Typical names and sizes visit

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(© By Matt Ball, Sensors&System) Much time is spent this time of year looking forward. Sensors & Systems did some reflecting on emerging issues, innovative approaches and technology trends to come up with the following predictions for 2014.

On the list are platform and services advancements, policy initiatives and the continued evolution of model-based design. Read the full list and feel free to add your own observations in the comments.

1. Rapid Modeling and Inspections – The proliferation of drone platforms for measurement and modeling will only increase this coming year. There have already been compelling use cases for drones for such things as mine site surveying and bridge and building inspection. One can envision a flying swarm at the start of any major infrastructure project, where data collection is done quickly with a fleet of unmanned autonomous sensors that coordinate for the completion of a detailed model. Similarly, any disaster would be well documented with a similar swarm, feeding on-the-ground efforts with real-time information for better coordination. Yes, we’re still one full year away from the FAA’s planned opening up of commercial drone use, yet such efforts are underway elsewhere in the world. The stability of quad and octo-rotor aircraft that can lift large payloads means sensors such as LiDAR can easily be deployed, improving the detail and accuracy of models to rival any other collection method, with the added benefits of better safety, lower cost, and quicker modeling.

2. Wearables – The advent of Google Glass is perhaps most notable for the term “glassholes” in our mind. The high price and techno advantage on display to a select few will slowly morph into more usable technology and integrated applications. There is huge promise for these hands-free devices in the area of field work, and now there are a growing number of competitors to the Google Glass device. The hope for augmented reality improves with these devices, doing away with the bulky and cumbersome need to hold a phone or tablet in front of you in order to overlay a model on existing reality. Let’s hope something like “kicking glass” is the next popular euphamism for this wearable phenomenon.

3. Storytelling Feeds More Mapping – With so much basemap data in place for navigation and online Earth exploration, the use of online mapping platforms to illustrate news or for storytelling will only increase in the coming year. Google has recently launched Tour Builder tools for users to create their own place-based stories, adding a competitive storytelling push to the templates available through Esri’s ArcGIS Online. The idea of maps as media is rapidly surpassing past expectations, with even integrated video and simulation for real-time or forward-looking maps for planning purposes. The growing awareness of what maps can illustrate can only help to justify greater data amalgamation, and the openning up of additional services. The business model needs some tweaking in order for these data collection efforts to be long sustaining, and longevity is certainly a concern as we’ve seen Google table many services that users have valued. We’ll need to see these services reach a higher level customer with such features as near real-time imagery or in-depth analysis in order to feel confident that the trend will continue.

4. Failure Feeds Funding – There’s a growing likelihood that the weather forecasting capabilities made possible by NOAA and NASA’s collaboration on polar weather satellites will see a gap in coverage. Losing the ability to accurately forecast and predict hurricane paths are a potential inexcusable outcome from this technology trajectory. On top of this gap in funding is the undeniable fact that our sensing capability continues to improve, and we could far exceed the data products of today if an investment were made in next-generation capacity. It would be a grim outcome to have a major sensing failure feed future funding, yet with gridlock in Washington that’s an outcome we may face. Here’s hoping that calmer and concerned policy makers invest in the safety of their citizens before their hand is forced by a calamity.

5. Government Rebound – There are signs that the global economy is on the upswing, and this may bode well for some meaningful policy directives, local government technology advancements, and the investment in geospatial underpinnings. Perhaps this is an overly optimistic outlook, given how grim things were this Fall in the United States with both the Sequester and the government shutdown taking their toll. At the least, more coordinated geospatial data integration across federal agencies could be achieved.

6. Big Data for the Environment – Hewlett Packard just launched Earth Insights in partnership with Conservation International. The effort here is to align sensing to ecological problems, creating an “early warning system” for conservation efforts in tropical forests. This PR-friendly effort is inline with Google.org’s Earth Engine work, proving both the contribution of these technologies as well as the desire to do good. These efforts are making impacts, and helping researchers adopt new connected and integrated monitoring efforts. As the Internet of Things takes hold, we can expect to discover many new things about the natural world thanks to this more sentient century.

7. Territorial Disputes – There are increasing territorial disputes around the world, whether that’s in the South China Sea, the Arctic or elsewhere. Much of this back and forth is around scarcer resources, marking a need for more production in order to meet consumption. With so much scrutiny on disputed land, an increase in monitoring and mapping will be required. In addition to border disputes, there are also increasing international investments in foreign lands, such as China’s growing investment in agricultural land in Africa. The need to gain a better understanding on global land use, and territory claims, will fuel further government investments in geospatial technology.

8. Earth Observation Services – We’ve written about the age of microsatellites, and the Silicon Valley-based earth observation companies Skybox and Planet Labs. With the successful launch of initial satellites by both of these companies this month, and the installation underway for the Urthecast instrument on the International Space Station, the commercial satellite imagery market is getting many new players and with different business models. We can expect online data delivery and insights from these satellites to be sold as services as these companies harness data management and delivery tools coupled with big data analytics.

9. BIM Means an Integrated Model – In the infrastructure modeling and simulation space, increasingly Building Information Modeling (BIM) is translating into a modeling strategy that integrates all inputs, whether aerial imagery, GIS data, legacy CAD drawing or many individual BIM models that all come together as a whole. Having one integrated model for planning and design is becoming a requirement rather than a vision, and the tools are making this integration much easier. It’s fascinating to see such a rapid transformation for ideas of integration and interoperability to a new norm that begins to take the integrated model for granted. We’re a ways away from dismissing the bottlenecks of the past, but there are advancements that promise

10. Solutions and Platforms – Intergraph led the charge away from just their GeoMedia GIS platform and toward solutions that incorporated GIS and image analysis functions for specific application areas (public safety & security, defense, utilities, transportation, etc.). There is a vision for a more integrated geospatial platform to include measurement sensors when they were purchased by Hexagon who also own Leica Geosystems. The back and forth between platform and solutions continues to play out more broadly in the whole geospatial industry. With Esri’s robust ArcGIS Online platform, they are now branching into solutions with the recently launched electric and gas utility industry solutions. As these robust geospatial platforms continue to evolve we can expect them to offer more integrated analysis functions through cloud computing capacity. The building blocks for standardized industry solutions has evolved to the point where solutions become much easier to deploy. With momentum gaining, and technology advancing, we can expect more integrated solutions in the coming years.

Read prior predictions here:

About Matt Ball
Matt has been promoting the application of sensors, systems, models and simulation for the better stewardship of our planet for the past fifteen years. The first ten years of that span were as editor of GeoWorld magazine and show manager of the GeoTec Event. The past five have been as a founder of Vector1 Media, with publications Sensors & Systems, Informed Infrastructure and Asia Surveying & Mapping. E-mail: mattball at vector1media.com – See more at: http://sensorsandsystems.com/dialog/perspectives/32439-ten-predictions-for-2014.html#sthash.4hfAFqWM.dpuf

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GEOconnexion visits Astrium in Toulouse to find out how a leading Earth Observation data and services provider turns image into substance


GEOconnexion took advantage of the opportunity to visit one of those companies, Astrium Services, as it finalised an agreement to provide 50 cm. resolution satellite imagery to Google and prepared for this year’s launch of SPOT 7. This optical Earth Observation satellite will join SPOT 6 in sun-synchronous orbit to deliver up to 1.5-meter resolution wide area imagery through to 2024. 


Uniquely in the industry, both satellites have been entirely funded by Astrium to the tune of €300 million, a venture of which it is justifiably proud given the success of SPOT 6 following its launch in September 2012. The results, as described by Charlotte Gabriel-Robez in her article in this issue, are truly impressive.


Indeed, it was the launch of SPOT 1 in 1986 that ushered in a new era in satellite remote sensing, as Gabriel-Robez, Head of GEO-information constellation Marketing, is keen to remind us. “It was the first satellite that could be tasked to acquire imagery over a specified point as and when required. Before that, one had to rely on archived data.” All subsequent SPOT birds have followed in its footsteps, their wide-swath sensors configured to gather the big picture. 


More than meets the eye

The company has been equally busy building a portfolio of processed imagery from its SPOT, Pléiades and TerraSAR-X constellations that can satisfy the needs of vertical markets. 


Jonathan Shears introduced one of those products – intended for GEOINT professionals – in his article in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue. Processed imagery for engineering, maritime security, energy exploration, environmental monitoring and agriculture/forestry (examples illustrated in Fig.1) are other vertical market products cited by SPOT 6&7 Product Manager, Jérôme Soubirane. 


“And of course, one mustn’t forget mapping,” adds Soubirane, mentioning that a paper delivered at last year’s International Cartographic Conference in Dresden awarded SPOT 6 imagery top marks for its applicability to 1:15,000 and 1:25,000 scale mapping, both in terms of feature extraction and positional accuracy. “Precision of the raw data, without Ground Control Points, is around 20 meters”, he notes. “But with Reference 3D, our internal database, we can orthorectify and deliver a 10-meter or better accuracy product for the same price.”


Yet another new product, a global elevation dataset known as WorldDEM™ and derived from the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar satellite constellation, is scheduled for release by Astrium this year. With a vertical accuracy of 2m. (relative) and 10m. (absolute), the claim is that it will surpass that of any satellite-derived DEM currently available. 


Cornerstone


Developed in partnership with IGN, the French national mapping agency, Reference 3D was established in 2002 and, to date, has been populated with geocoded data covering an area of some 58 million km2 structured in three layers: 


  • A High Resolution Stereoscopic Digital Elevation Model to Level 2 DTED format

  • A GPS-compatible HRS Orthoimage 

  • Metadata for source data quality and traceability 


Delivered in the easily-accessible DIMAP format, Reference 3D products are produced as sets of XML files that reference the DEM and orthoimage layers, as well as the metadata. These deliverables are now in widespread use with organisations such as the European Commission (JRC), French defence ministry, United Nations, NGA and Total. 


24/7 GeoStore


Custom-branded portals, managed hosting, customer-specified image processing, secure streaming in standard and bespoke packages, and preferred Direct Access to imagery in near-real time are additional cloud-based customer services introduced by Astrium. With the launch of SPOT 7, one can be certain that more will soon be on their way.


The discussion arising from our meeting with Bernhard Brenner, Executive Director of the GEO-Information Division at Astrium Services, can be followed online at www.geoconnexion.com/articles/

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China’s high definition earth observation satellite Gaofen-1 has been formally inducted into service, it was announced ending December

According to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), the satellite has undergone eight months of in-orbit tests since it blasted off April 26. It has met requirements and performed even better than expected by sending high quality photos, Xinhua reported.

The satellite will help in geographic and resources surveys, environment and climate change monitoring, precision agriculture, disaster relief and city planning.

Its major users will be the land and resources, environmental protection and agriculture ministries.

Gaofen-1 means China is self-sufficient in more high resolution earth observation data and its use of remote sensing satellites has entered a new phase, said Xu Dazhe, head of the SASTIND.

Gaofen-1 provided data on the Lushan earthquake in Sichuan, floods in northeast China and smog in north and east China during the test period. It also provided Pakistan with image data after the Sep 24 earthquake.

Gaofen-1 is the first of the five or six satellites to be launched for high definition earth observation before 2016. It is also the first low orbit remote sensing satellite designed to be used for more than five years.

It carries two 2m panchromatic and 8m multi-spectral high definition cameras and four 16m resolution wide angle cameras, which means it can capture images of a car or even a bicycle on earth.

Wang Chengwen, deputy head of the Gaofen project, said Gaofen-1’s efficiency at earth observation is much greater compared to other remote sensing satellites.

The Gaofen-2 satellite is scheduled to be launched in early 2014.

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(16 December 2013) Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice has significantly increased this autumn.

The volume of ice measured this autumn is about 50% higher compared to last year.

In October 2013, CryoSat measured about 9000 cubic km of sea ice – a notable increase compared to 6000 cubic km in October 2012.

Over the last few decades, satellites have shown a downward trend in the area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice. However, the actual volume of sea ice has proven difficult to determine because it moves around and so its thickness can change.

CryoSat was designed to measure sea-ice thickness across the entire Arctic Ocean, and has allowed scientists, for the first time, to monitor the overall change in volume accurately.

About 90% of the increase is due to growth of multiyear ice – which survives through more than one summer without melting – with only 10% growth of first year ice. Thick, multiyear ice indicates healthy Arctic sea-ice cover.

This year’s multiyear ice is now on average about 20%, or around 30 cm, thicker than last year.
ESA’s ice mission

“One of the things we’d noticed in our data was that the volume of ice year-to-year was not varying anything like as much as the ice extent – at least in 2010, 2011 and 2012,” said Rachel Tilling from the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, who led the study.

“We didn’t expect the greater ice extent left at the end of this summer’s melt to be reflected in the volume. But it has been, and the reason is related to the amount of multiyear ice in the Arctic.”

While this increase in ice volume is welcome news, it does not indicate a reversal in the long-term trend.

“It’s estimated that there was around 20 000 cubic kilometres of Arctic sea ice each October in the early 1980s, and so today’s minimum still ranks among the lowest of the past 30 years,” said Professor Andrew Shepherd from University College London, a co-author of the study.

The findings from a team of UK researchers at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling were presented last week at the American Geophysical Union’s autumn meeting in San Francisco, California.

“We are very pleased that we were able to present these results in time for the conference despite some technical problems we had with the satellite in October, which are now completely solved,” said Tommaso Parrinello, ESA’s CryoSat Mission Manager.

In October, CryoSat’s difficulties with its power system threatened the continuous supply of data, but normal operations resumed just over a week later.

With the seasonal freeze-up now underway, CryoSat will continue its routine measurement of sea ice. Over the coming months, the data will reveal just how much this summer’s increase has affected winter ice volumes.

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(4, Jan 2014) The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) is now providing an additional service: Overview of ongoing satellite mapping events.

This service provides a short overview of the identified ongoing satellite mapping activities related to humanitarian disasters. It is intended for disaster managers, operations centres, desk officers and others that need syntheses of what goes on in this field. The service is operated by the GDACS mapping & satellite imagery coordination mechanism: UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). When referring to this summary, please credit: “GDACS, UNITAR/UNOSAT” .

For comments, questions and to submit information on satellite image derived products, please contact: maps@gdacs.org

This summary will be sent out on a regular basis, every 1-2 weeks, depending on the activity level in this domain. The first summary created as of 4 January is available at GDACS

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Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has released KOMPSAT-5 images acquired for the calibration purpose. KOMPSAT-5 was launched on August 22, 2013 from the Yasny launch base of Russia and under early operation and calibration.

During the early operation and calibration phase, all the functionalities of satellite have been verified and now it is under calibration of payload system. The released images are acquired for the verification of payload performance

KOMPSAT-5 carries X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for earth observation, and is capable of day-and-night imaging under all weather condition.

It provides three operation modes: High Resolution Mode (spotlight mode) to provide 1 m resolution with 5 km by 5 km swath, Standard Mode (strip mode) to provide 3 m resolution with 30 km swath and Wide Swath Mode (ScanSAR mode) to provide 20 m resolution with 100 km swath at 550 km altitude.

The KOMPSAT-5 CAL/VAL team will complete the calibration of the radar instrument and optimizing the data processing chain by the end of February 2014.

After completion of calibration, KOMPSAT-5 will be operated to provide products for various applications such as security and defense, image interpretation, mapping, land and natural resource management, environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring and more. The commercial data of KOMPSAT-5 are expected from the second quarter of 2014.

According to Korean Space Development Plan, KARI will launch KOMPSAT-3A equipped with VHR optical and medium resolution IR sensor in 2014 and KOMPSAT-6 equipped with VHR SAR in 2019 in addition to existing VHR optical and SAR systems such as KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3 and KOMPSAT-5.

Such earth observation programs are planned and developed to meet the strong needs of earth observation data in public and commercial sectors. It is expected that provision of various sensor data and data continuities foster the applications and services based on the earth observation data.

KOMPSAT-5 is the first Korean radar satellite developed by KARI through the collaboration with Thales Alenia Space Italy, developer of COSMO-SkyMed payload.

The KARI is responsible for the operation and public use of the KOMPSAT-5 data, and Satrec Initiative is in charge of commercial marketing of KOMPSAT constellation, a unique combination of VHR optical data and SAR data, including KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3 and KOMPSAT-5.

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