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Defence Geospatial Intelligence (DGI) 2013 will bring together heads of defence geospatial intelligence, remote sensing, GIS data & mapping, satellite imagery and analysis within the military and governmental sectors.

It attracts professionals who are responsible for using, and integrating, geo based capabilities in their operations and organizations. Attended by over 700 Geo professionals, DGI is where the GeoInt community comes together.
As a member of EARSC you are also entitled to a further 20% discount if you book with booking code EARSC2013. Register today to benefit from the early bird rates.

DGI announcement for EOmag.pdf

These are just some of the highlights for January 2013:

  • Interoperability & Collaboration
  • Lessons learnt from Afghanistan (NATO-limited)
  • Putting GeoInt in the Hands of the Users
  • Big Data & the Cloud

To register:

  • Go to www.dgieurope.com
  • Email me at dgi@wbr.co.uk
  • Call my colleague Amanda Kendall on +44 (0)20 7368 9465

Crowdsource Mapping aims at an improved disaster management: The idea is to collect data from as many on-site sources as possible and translate that real-time data into maps.

Being aware of the surrounding and the infrastructure, locals can render accurate geo-referenced information or comment on existing data and thereby help disaster managers expand the information they need for emergency operations. That is of course not only true for on-going disasters, but also for risk assessment and preparedness efforts.

This Newsletter aims to shed light on the opportunities of Crowdsource Mapping for disaster and risk management, introduces some of its key players and presents lessons learnt from a simulation mapping exercise.

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Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have been instrumental in the preparation of a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) regarding the development of the ozone layer in the stratosphere.

Based on estimates, by about the mid 21st century, the ozone layer will have the same thickness as it had in the early eighties. The latest evaluations of space-based measurements acquired by the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute, combined with model computations from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics support the statement that ‘the regeneration of the ozone layer continues’.

“Measurements show that the ozone hole above Antarctica in 2012 is one of the smallest in recent years,” reports Martin Dameris from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. Both the area of expansion and the reduction in ozone concentrations are small this year in comparison to the values observed in past years. “This is a clear indication that the ozone layer is staging a good recovery,” states Dameris.

Based on climate chemistry models

So far, climate chemistry model computations performed by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics have been in line with observations. The models demonstrate that, if this trend continues, the ozone hole will close up and that the ozone layer will regenerate itself. These forecasts are based upon computational models that simulate the physical, dynamic and chemical processes in the atmosphere. The Institute of Atmospheric Physics collaborated on the production of these climate chemistry models. To investigate the ozone layer, long-term simulations, starting, for example, in 1960 and extending beyond the simulation date, were conducted at the DLR Institute.

Computational results for the past are compared against observational data, in part to assess the quality of the results from the model. It is only on the basis of well-evaluated models that it is possible to produce reliable estimates of future developments, such as that of the ozone layer. To understand atmospheric processes, atmospheric researchers use data from the DLR Remote Sensing Data Center. The scientists at this Institute are primarily involved in the provision of data products derived from satellite measurements. These satellite data products are compared against other independent data to achieve the highest possible level of precision.

The reduction in chlorofluorocarbon consumption is having a considerable and positive effect

Since the early eighties, the ozone hole has been observed at the start of the Antarctic spring – from mid-September to mid-October. It is the consequence of high chlorine levels in the stratosphere, and is caused by the emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The drastic reduction of CFC levels in the atmosphere has had a positive impact on the ozone layer. The production and use of CFCs was regulated by the Montreal Protocol in 1987 and in subsequent agreements; since the mid-nineties, the use of CFCs has been almost totally banned. As a result, a decline in the chlorine content of the stratosphere has been observed since the beginning of this century.

Due to meteorological factors, such as the temperature-dependent nature of the ozone-depleting chemical reactions, the ozone layer does not regenerate steadily. This means that the ozone hole shows year-to-year variations, fluctuating between large and small ozone losses, but nonetheless exhibiting a positive trend towards higher ozone levels, and therefore to the restoration of normal levels. The observations carried out this year support this overall positive trend.

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Irish marine science and technology company TechWorks Marine has secured a contract to lead a European Space Agency (ESA) research project on monitoring coastal outlets.

Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin-based TechWorks Marine is to lead the ESA earth observation project. Earth observation is the gathering of information about the earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems from satellites orbiting the planet.

Today’s news is the first time that such a project will be led by an Irish group. It comes as a result of four years’ work by TechWorks Marine, while Enterprise Ireland also helped secure the project.

Minister of State for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock, TD, said today that the win was a “significant” one for TechWorks Marine. “It clearly indicates that Irish SMEs have the capability and expertise to lead projects in this highly competitive sector,” he said.

TechWorks Marine itself was set up in 2002 by Charlotte O’Kelly and Philip Trickett. The company specialises in the development of real-time marine data platforms for clients in the maritime industry.

For the ESA project, TechWorks will be pioneering satellite earth observation products for developers and operators of wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants, with the aim of helping them reduce their environmental impact.

Specifically, the project will be looking at the coastal effects of wastewater treatment plants in Ireland, especially in Donegal Bay.

O’Kelly, managing director of TechWorks Marine, said that coastal zones are highly complex to monitor from space. This, she said, was due to the close proximity of coastal areas to land and also the sensor pixel resolution of the images.

However, O’Kelly said improvements in sensor technology mean it is now possible to develop earth observation products specifically aimed at areas of coastal activity.

“These products can be used to analyse the effect of wastewater treatment plant outfalls in the coastal environment, or ensure that water close to the intakes of desalination plants does not have harmful algal blooms which could be a health hazard to humans,” she explained.

O’Kelly also said the ESA contract has enabled TechWorks to recruit new staff with specific earth-observation expertise. The plan is to grow this team in the coming months.

During the project, she said TechWorks Marine will be working with companies such as the Veolia group, which manages three wastewater plants in Donegal, to help them develop products.

Dr Barry Fennell from Enterprise Ireland said today that more than 80 Irish companies have secured ESA contracts worth in excess of €80m since 2002.

“Ireland is currently developing significant expertise in using data collected by satellites orbiting the earth to understand climate change, detection of illegal waste dump sites, prediction of volcanic ash clouds and tracking of vessels to assist in drug interdiction,” he said.

Sources

Thescore

Siliconrepublic

4-traders

Enterprise-Ireland

(3 October 2012) The use of data from Earth-observing satellites in the insurance business is still in the early stages, but pressure to be ready for more frequent extreme-weather events is increasing.

Flooding is expensive for the insurance and reinsurance market. Last year’s flood in Thailand cost the insurance industry $15–20 billion – the most expensive flood ever in terms of insured losses.

Accurate and timely information about a flood’s extent can help insurers to assess the impact and prepare to meet the claims.

In an innovative business approach, a consortium of insurers and reinsurers, including Swiss Re, Munich Re, Allianz, Willis and Guy Carpenter, has teamed up with Zurich-based PERILS to assess the use of receiving realtime flood extent information based on data from a constellation of six European and Canadian remote sensing satellites.

During the next 12 months, the inundation area of significant floods will be delivered to a web-based platform hosted by PERILS for the business partners.

This trial is part of ESA’s activities to develop the industrial use of Earth observation-based services to stimulate growth within the European service sector.

“This project is going to satisfy a longstanding industry need for detailed flood information during and after large events,” said Eduard Held, Head of Products at PERILS.

“While it has been possible to access satellite images in the past, this is the first time that insurers will be able to access images that have been standardised to better suit their specific requirements.”

Depending on the scale and duration of floods, high-resolution flood boundaries will be made available on a daily basis while the events are unfolding, allowing an immediate assessment of the possible impact.

After the flood, a map showing the maximum extent of the flooding will be produced.

PERILS is an independent, Zurich-based company that provides industry-wide catastrophe data for the insurance industry.

Source ESA

Eurisy presented this publication during the third edition of the Toulouse Space Show.

It stressed the crucial role played by cities in addressing the challenges of urban mobility and urban sustainability – highlighting them as essential actors of the diffusion satellite navigation applications for these purposes – but not only.

Pioneering cities are already using such applications, and the paper highlighted a series of operational examples related to health and air quality, urban, green and multi-modal transport and accessibility for all.

The Toulouse Space Show, organised from 25th to 28th June, gathered over 1000 participants from more than 50 countries. The event showcased current and future space applications and highlighted the potential of satellite information and services for Europe’s welfare and future development.

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Eurisy, 11 Sept. 2012. Graz, Austria.

In the context of the Europe 2020 energy targets and the increasingly competitive market for renewable energies, this one-day conference was the opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about innovative and operational satellite applications for the estimation of the energy potential of renewable sources (sun, wind, biomass, water), the optimisation of supply chains and the remote monitoring of energy production plants.

Discussions on the day highlighted that, in order to be able to identify, implement and benefit from operational satellite applications, SMEs need to have access to readily available and concise information about how these applications can help them adapt to business challenges, as well as convincing business cases. SME representatives encouraged policy makers and the space community to extend the dialogue with end-user SMEs in order to bridge the gap between satellite service development and SMEs’concrete business needs and challenges.Entrepreneurs experienced in the use of satellite applications shared their good practice examples, and participants could network with providers of satellite solutions, policy makers and SME representatives.

To complement the debate on operational satellite applications and their benefits, the conference also provided information about existing national and European support mechanisms, ranging from business matchmaking over organisational support to dedicated funding mechanisms.

The conference was co-organised by Eurisy, FFG – Austrian Research Promotion Agency and ICS – Internationalisierungs Center Steiermark, and was held in the premises of the Economic Development Institute in Graz (Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut Steiermark/WIFI).

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Upcoming Eurisy conference: 18 October 2012, Lille, France.

This conference will provide a platform for confirmed and potential end-users to provide their feedback on their hands-on experience in exploring the usefulness of satellite applications for environment management.

Environment professionals, satellite-application experts, decision-makers are invited to join.

The event is hosted by the Region of Nord Pas de Calais, with whom Eurisy has been working for the last three years on a case-study on satellite-derived alternatives to aerial mapping of habitats.

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Two images from the Landsat 7 satellite are included in the new U.S Post Office series of 15 Earthscapes Forever stamps. Released October 1 to kick off National Stamp Collecting Month, the stamps vividly portray America’s diverse landscapes as viewed from heights of several hundred feet above the Earth to several hundred miles in space.


“Once you’ve seen the world from above, you never look at it quite the same way again,” said U.S. Postal Service Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Joseph Corbett, Washington. “That’s why the Postal Service is proud to offer these Earthscapes stamps, which invite us to take a bird’s eye view of the land we all share.”

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA. Remote-sensing satellites, such as the Landsat series, help scientists to observe the world beyond the power of human sight, to monitor changes, and to detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources. USGS conducts the daily operations of the Landsat 7 satellite.

Earthscapes

The Earthscapes collection presents examples of three broad categories of the way that human actions intersect with the land — natural, agricultural, and urban. The colorfully patterned portraits were all created high above the planet’s surface, either carefully composed by photographers in aircraft or routinely imaged by the Landsat 7 satellite while orbiting the Earth at an altitude of over 400 miles.

Each stamp, within its limited amount of space, represents only a stylized fragment of a geographical area, which may or may not be typical of a particular region. Still, they offer stamp customers an opportunity to see the world in a new way.

The two stamps that feature Landsat images — Volcanic Crater and Center-pivot irrigation — depict a natural disaster site, Mount Saint Helens, and an agricultural practice that is common in the Garden City, Kansas area.

Volcanic Crater

Mount St. Helens and its surrounding area continue to recover from the explosive eruption of May 1980. Shades of white and gray indicate still-bare slopes; dark “rivers” are deep channels cut by fast-moving flows of hot ash, rock, and gas. Green represents regrowth of vegetation.

Center-pivot irrigation

Circular patterns on Kansas cropland show center-pivot sprinkler systems have been at work. Red circles indicate healthy, irrigated crops; lighter circles represent harvested crops. Corn, wheat, alfalfa, soybeans, and grain sorghum account for most of the irrigated acreage in Kansas.

A Long View from Space

Two images from the Landsat 7 satellite were included in the U.S Post Office series of 15 Earthscapes Forever stamps released Oct. 1, 2012.

Remote-sensing satellites, such as the Landsat series, help scientists to observe the world beyond the power of human sight, to monitor changes, and to detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources. Data supplied by Landsat supports the improvement of human and environmental health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and crop monitoring.

USGS archives and distributes the massive amount of Earth observation data that has been collected by the Landsat satellite series since 1972. This extended record — now four decades long — forms an impartial, comprehensive, and easily accessed register of human and natural changes on the land.

Earth as Art

Beyond the scientific information they confer, some Landsat images are simply striking to look at, as illustrated in the Earthscapes collection. In fact, among the millions of freely accessible Landsat images, many present spectacular views of mountains, valleys, and islands; forests, grasslands, and agricultural patterns. By selecting certain features and coloring them from a digital palate, the USGS has created a series of Earth as Art perspectives that demonstrate an artistic resonance in land imagery and provide a special avenue of insight about the geography of each scene.

As part of the Landsat 40th Anniversary Celebration this summer, the USGS and NASA held an online contest in which more 14,000 people voted on their Top Five favorite Earth as Art images.

On the horizon

NASA is preparing to launch the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), on February 11, 2013, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. LDCM will be the most technologically advanced satellite in the Landsat series. LDCM sensors take advantage of evolutionary advances in detector and sensor technologies to improve performance and increase reliability. Once it successfully achieves orbit, LDCM will join the Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites as Landsat 8 to continue the Landsat data record.

Links and resources
USGS Landsat
NASA Landsat
Earth as Art Image Gallery
History and overview of the Landsat program

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(1st October 2012) The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has reported that South Africa is considering constructing a 250 kg to 400 kg Earth observation satellite, as the country’s contribution to the proposed African Resource and Environmental Management satellite constellation (ARMC).


“This would entail a satellite development programme of four and [a] half years, building on the experience of the subsystems developed for the Sumbandilasat mission,” stated the DST in its answer. “The full programme costs for such a satellite would be R450-million and will be sourced from the national fiscus.”

“Government, through the DST and its agency, the South African National Space Agency (Sansa), will take the lead in managing South Africa’s interest in the ARMC,” affirmed the DST. The proposed new satellite would operate from a low Earth orbit and would have a planned lifespan of seven years.

The ARMC project was launched, on paper, in 2009 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Algeria, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. It is hoped that the ARMC will be composed of at least three low Earth orbit imaging satellites.

“Apart from the development of a world-class satellite, the other main benefit of the ARMC will be the supply of high resolution image data regularly enough for African remote sensing scientists to extract more temporal facts about environmental changes on the African continent and thereby lay the basis for indigenous African environmental, climate change and disaster monitoring and management systems,” explained the DST. “The satellite is expected to serve the environmental decision making needs of the South African government.”

Sansa’s first Earth observation satellite, Sumbandila (also referred to as Sumbandilasat), designed and built in South Africa, failed last year. This means that the country currently has no operational Earth observation satellite.

Algeria currently operates Alsat-2, designed and built in Europe, while Nigeria has the NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X Earth observation satellites in operation. Although both Nigerian satellites were designed and built in the UK, NigeriaSat-X was actually assembled by Nigerian engineers and technicians. Algeria and Nigeria are already members of the international Disaster Management Constellation (DMC). The other members of the DMC are China, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter

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