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They will end our reliance on other countries’ satellites and provide useful data in key areas.

They will end our reliance on other countries’ satellites and provide useful data in key areas.

South Africa will launch its latest earth observation satellite in 2019, Sandile Malinga, chief executive of the South African National Space Agency (Sansa), told the Mail & Guardian last month.

At the moment, the country is reliant on international satellites for information about its 1.2-million km² area, excluding its oceans. Reliance on foreign satellites also means that South African satellite-data users, which include about 40 national and provincial government departments, have no control over what images they are sent, what the images focus on and when they will get them.

Jane Olwoch, the head of Sansa’s earth observation directorate, says the space agency buys the Spot-6 and Spot-7 data – used by entities such as the departments of human settlements, agriculture, forestry and fisheries and Statistics South Africa – for about R35-million a year.

Spot is a satellite and stands for Système Pour l’Observation de la Terre. Each year, the South African space agency distributes a Spot mosaic, a collection of 485 images.

With about R292-million earmarked for its design, manufacture and launch, EO-Sat1 will add not only to the country’s ability to monitor its water, agriculture, natural forests and human settlements, but also the continent’s.

Network constellation

It will form part of the African Resource Management Constellation, a group of African countries that plan to launch a network of earth observation satellites. In 2009, four African countries – South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Kenya – committed to contributing at least one satellite to the constellation, which will focus on earth observation and natural resource management. Nigeria already has two satellites, one of which is part of the constellation.

Unlike other African countries, South Africa has experience in building satellites. The R25-million low-earth-orbit satellite, Sumbandila, was launched in 2009, but was beleaguered with technical problems throughout the two years that it was in operation.

A solar storm in 2011 is blamed for damaging its circuitry, culminating in power and communications failure. “Sumbandila was a prototype,” says Malinga. “[It was there for us] to learn how it works.”

During its two-year lifespan, the satellite collected more than a thousand images, Sansa said at the time.

But the goal is not just to collect images of the country’s natural resources. Malinga says that “the key thing we want to achieve, aside from the applications [of the satellite’s data], is to stimulate our industry. We are working with Denel [South Africa’s state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer] to ensure that they outsource work to our private industry. In terms of local content, we want a minimum threshold of 50%.”

The ultimate goal is to have a number of South African satellites, Malinga says.

Initially too ambitious

“Our desire [for EO-Sat1] is to meet as many of the user requirements as possible, but it is impossible to meet them all,” he says. A satellite is built – in terms of its design, size and payload – to address certain user requirements, and Sansa started engaging with stakeholders, soon after it was established in 2010, to determine what they want on a satellite. Their initial hopes for EO-Sat1 were “too ambitious; we had to narrow them”, says Malinga. “The only way we can achieve the broad suite of user requirements is [to have] a number of satellites, and that’s ultimately a government decision.”

But his rationale is, “If you have a steady national pipeline of satellites, that allows [manufacturers] to outsource [other] contracts … a national programme cannot sustain a commercial build of satellites [alone].”

Satellite production has been touted by both the departments of science and technology, and trade and industry, as a high-technology manufacturing niche that South Africa could exploit. However, the industry has not been particularly kind to our home-grown satellite companies.

The best known example is SunSpace, which was started by a group of Stellenbosch University graduates. Although the company was responsible for South Africa’s pathfinder satellite, Sumbandila, it did not have enough contracts to sustain its business.

After a number of years of uncertainty, during which promised contracts failed to materialise and the government prevaricated about buying equity in the company, it was finally absorbed into Denel Dynamics in 2013, with the department of science and technology paying R55-million for its intellectual property and tangible assets.

Source

[SatNews] The UK Space Agency this week (March 26, 2015) announced seven new space projects that will see UK companies working with international partners to develop satellite technology in emerging economies.

From telecommunications delivered by low-cost CubeSats to e-finance solutions and access to maternal health in remote locations, the seven new projects, funded through the International Partnerships Space program (IPSP), will demonstrate how UK satellite, or space, technology can provide societal and economic benefits to countries that do not currently have such capabilities.

The seven new projects are an excellent example of how the IPSP program is generating new opportunities for UK industry to operate with both emerging and established space-faring nations and supporting UK companies to become trusted partners to provide high-tech exports. It is a two-year, £32 million program established and led by the UK Space Agency. This latest announcement is the result of the first call for projects, all funded to March 2016.

UK satellite data and cutting-edge space technology plays an ever increasing role on the international scene in both the economies of major and established space nations as well as in the development of emerging space nations.

In the UK we take for granted the services we receive as a result of space infrastructure such as seeking a weather forecast, planning our journey into work, managing our businesses online or accessing data at the touch of a button. However, for many in emerging economies, basic services such as communication infrastructure or local mapping are simply not available to them. Satellites in space often provide the only communication options in many countries in the world, particularly in places like sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, environmental monitoring from space can make a valuable contribution to resource management and response to environmental crises which can be particularly challenging owing to extreme environments and harsh conditions for agriculture and water management. Monitoring from space satellites can also support longer term climate mitigation and adaptation programs.

Space also has the potential to inspire young people from even the most difficult backgrounds to dream of a job as a scientist or engineer. This program will help build in-country capacity and capability to undertake research and innovation to solve societal challenges and grow economies.

Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said, “These new international partnerships not only illustrate the breadth of UK expertise in space technology but prove that international collaboration can provide many new business opportunities for our highly skilled space companies while supporting vital areas of space activity such as Earth observation and telecommunications. By sharing our expertise in space technology we can also share the considerable economic and social benefits that it provides.”

The seven new IPSP projects are:

1. Project: iKnowledge
UK Lead Supplier: Avanti Communications Ltd
International Partner: The Tanzania Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF), the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) and Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organization (TIRDO)

Avanti Communications will deliver a major ICT infrastructure and e-learning program to teachers across Tanzania.

The iKnowledge program will equip up to 250 schools in rural and underserved areas of Tanzania with ICT infrastructure. This includes broadband Internet via satellite, alongside provision of ICT training and educational content for teachers to apply straight to the classroom. Powered by resilient Ka-band satellite technology, delivery will be supported locally by technology NGO CamaraEducation Tanzania and service provider Infinity Africa Network Ltd. The iKnowledge project will improve quality levels of teaching in rural and remote areas in core curriculum subjects, alongside advancing teachers’ digital literacy through a sustainable training model. The system is also dual-use, and when not in use by schools, can be used by the local community, providing broadband connectivity for business and social uses.

2. Project: SBAS Africa
UK Lead Supplier: Avanti Communications Ltd
International Partner: South African Space Agency, Ghana Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar

Avanti Communications working with the South African Space Agency will deliver a crucial air navigation project in Africa, SBAS-AFRICA, powered by satellite technology.

Africa has just 3 percent of global air traffic, and yet air accidents in Africa account for roughly 20 percent of the worldwide total. The SBAS project will demonstrate potential improvements in flight safety which can provide socio-economic benefits to the continent. The SBAS-AFRICA project will help demonstrate the benefits in the adoption of GNSS-based flight operations, positively influencing the evolution of aviation safety in Africa.

3. Project: Outernet Partnership for International Development
UK Lead Supplier: Clyde Space
International Partner: Outernet Inc.

Clyde Space and American company Outernet have partnered to develop a telecommunications service that can be offered via a constellation of low-cost cubesat satellites. Such a constellation could revolutionise the provision of low cost broadband to remote regions of the world by providing and developing a mass producible CubeSat at a far lower cost than is currently available. Clyde Space’s CubeSat expertise will help Outernet to push forward with this unique project to supply a low cost alternative to traditional telecommunications infrastructure.

Reaching people in all parts of the world with critical information requires employing multiple broadcast technologies. CubeSats in low-Earth Orbit are an important part of that plan. Specifically, the CubeSats that Outernet will receive from Clyde Space will allow for the development of cheaper user-end receivers and will help Outernet achieve hardware independence by owning its own space assets. Clyde Space will get the opportunity to demonstrate their CubeSat capability whilst enabling the Outernet project to pursue its goal of offering a near continuous broadcast of humanitarian data to those most in need.

4. Project: I-Sat Connection: Realizing the critical role of mobile satellite in the creation of inclusive digital economies.
UK Lead Supplier: Inmarsat
International Partner: Equity Bank Group, Kenya and Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA)

Inmarsat, working alongside their international partners, will use their mobile satellite capabilities to deliver tangible economic value from the UK to accelerate economic growth in Africa.

Working with Equity Bank Kenya, Inmarsat will increase connectivity to drive inclusive digital services at over 200 locations across Kenya.

By partnering with MAMA, maternal and child health services will be brought to 50 physically and technologically disconnected rural communities in remote locations

As well as their primary use, both projects will also be used to enhance local economies by providing broadband Internet access to the local communities with all the associated benefits this will bring. The Satellite Applications Catapult will be working alongside Inmarsat, connecting UK applications experts to these remote users in order to provide information services designed to grow and enhance these emerging markets. Through this overarching research framework, Inmarsat and the Satellite Applications Catapult, will significantly advance the knowledge base for delivery of successful satellite-enabled services in developing and emerging markets

5. Project: Oceania Pacific Recovery and Protection in Disaster (RAPID)
UK Lead Supplier: Stevenson Astrosat
International Partner: Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology, Malawi Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Newsat Ltd, Bushfire and Natural Hazards Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) and the Space Environment Research Center (SERC).

The Recovery And Protection in Disaster (RAPID) system is designed to provide a vital link between critical satellite imaging information and ‘in the field’ emergency responders making crucial decisions during and in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

Huge amounts of useful data are produced by satellites every day that can be used to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural disasters—these impacts not only include the direct threats to the general public’s immediate safety but also in the aftermath the damaging effects on a nation’s economy. RAPID is designed to get this information to where it is needed and to who needs it—this connectivity will allow smart decisions to be made to protect lives and get the local economy working as rapidly as possible after an event.

For disaster response, Stevenson Astrosat are using UK skills and supply chains to support vulnerable regions with suitable satellite based communications, potentially saving lives and assets in a region where cable and fibre is lacking and where disasters are all too common. For critical infrastructure, Stevenson Astrosat are using UK skills and supply chains as well as their innovative EO systems and partnerships (with end/user customer facing products) to reach highly valuable, critical infrastructure providers with a considerable commercial and socio-economic advantage.

6. Project: Enabling Kazakhstan’s Earth Observation Capability. Collaborative and Autonomous Mission Operations System for KazSTSAT
UK Lead Supplier: Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL)
International Partner: Ghalam LLP

SSTL and Ghalam LLP in Kazakhstan are jointly developing the KazSTSAT small satellite mission. The IPSP grant will aid in the development of an autonomous and collaborative Mission Operations system in partnership with Ghalam LLP to handle the high volume of Earth observation data that will be downloaded from the spacecraft’s SSTL SLIM6 Imager, enabling the full research and commercial data provision of the mission to be realized.

In addition, the project will also provide the Kazakh engineers from Ghalam LLP with real data from another of SSTL’s satellites, UK-DMC2, so that they can gain experience of working with the Earth observation data via a virtual ground station ahead of the launch of KazSTSAT.

The KazSTSAT mission is a collaboration between Ghalam LLP of Kazakhstan, SSTL, and UK based DMCii, an image processing company. The spacecraft, due for launch in 2016, will demonstrate a number of new technologies, and will also fly a standard SSTL SLIM6 imaging camera, capable of providing an image data throughput in excess of seven0Gb per day.

7. Project: Collaborative development of radiometer components for meteorological Instruments
UK Lead Supplier: Teratech Components Ltd
International Partner: Xi’an Institute of Space Radio Technology (CAST Xi’an)

STFC-Ral spin-out Teratech Components Ltd have partnered with CAST Xi’an, a major Chinese spacecraft instrumentation supplier, on the collaborative development of instrumentation for the next generation of weather forecasting and disaster management satellites. This partnership will open access for both partners to the emerging international market place for satellite technology, providing a major export opportunity for a UK supplier and encouraging Chinese investment and future UK-China collaboration in the new field of terahertz technology and its associated applications.

Teratech Components Ltd has a unique fabrication facility in the UK and is one of very few European companies supplying air-bridge Schottky diodes for use at terahertz frequencies.

Source

(24 March 2015) The UK is to host a world-class data facility, giving scientists full access to Earth observation data from Europe’s Copernicus programme.

Europe’s most ambitious Earth observation (EO) programme to date, Copernicus is launching a family of satellites, called Sentinels, that will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of our environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

The new space data hub will be jointly funded by the UK Space Agency and the Satellite Applications Catapult and will ensure the UK is ready to fully exploit the Sentinels’ operational data as soon as it becomes available.

The agreement to host the data hub was signed by Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, at the European Space Agency last week (18 March 2015) and announced today (23 March) to the UK’s EO community at the UK Earth Observation Applications Conference in London.

Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Europe’s Sentinel satellites are set to live up to their name by watching over our planet and providing us with the vital data we need to solve the climate and environmental problems facing mankind. By hosting a Sentinel data hub and making the satellites’ unique data readily available in the UK, we can continue our leading work in the field of Earth observation whilst opening up new business opportunities from the commercial development of space data.”

Defra Chief Scientist Ian Boyd added: “The information that we get from the Copernicus Satellites has been invaluable in allowing the government to make environmental policy based on robust scientific evidence. This earth observation data has the potential to allow a wide range of organisations to help our environment. This historic agreement will ensure everyone can access this information for free.”

The Copernicus programme will result in a huge increase in the amount of satellite data becoming available. When fully operational 8 terabytes of new data per day will be available for people to access, equivalent to 8 computer hard drives worth, and all of it free to all for download. The new data hub will ensure this wealth of Sentinel product data is easily accessible and available for UK users to access and download; maximising the growth opportunity for the downstream applications market. Users can expect access to Sentinel products within a matter of hours from initial acquisition as well as a full set of archive data and product enhancing applications. The service will be further enhanced for those who require near real time data by the addition of a European Data Relay Service (EDRS) terminal.

The data hub will take advantage of previous funding and build on it. It will link 2 large assets; the Catapult CEMS facility, which offers storage and processing capability to the industrial community and the Academic JASMIN facility which offers the same service to the academic community. The Catapult facility will also be linked in to the Airbus data centre at Farnborough via a high-speed data link. The Airbus facility will offer additional hosted processing facilities to commercial users, negating the need for users to download large amounts of data for further processing. UK government requirements will also be served. The two assets are located at Harwell, which has a dedicated space cluster hosting numerous industrial and SME data application developers. It is envisaged that by centring the community around such facilities this will maximise knowledge sharing and help position Harwell as the international centre of excellence driving the global expansion of space derived climate and environmental services.

(source: UK Space Agency) and spacenewsfeed

[Via Satellite 03-19-2015] The influx of new capital into the satellite industry is creating an understandable amount of giddiness, but investors and entrepreneurs at the “Silicon Valley, Meet SATELLITE 2015” panel brought a down-to-Earth look at the true motivations for putting money behind space ventures.


“I don’t think there is any investment in space going on,” Peter Platzer, CEO of Spire, whose company received $25 million in Series A funding last year, said outright. “There is investment in data companies and there is investment in applications … I think people get hung up on starry-eyed stuff in space.”

The number of announcements regarding new multi-million dollar investments has experienced a notable uptick across the industry. Just this Monday a geospatial big data startup called Orbital Insight gained $8.7 million in Series A funding from a partnership with Sequoia and participation from Google Ventures and Lux Capital, among others. The week before, Spaceflight Inc. clenched $20 million in Series B funding co-led by RRE Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital, with Razor’s Edge Ventures investing as well. And a mere nine days earlier, Rocket Lab closed a Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP)-led Series B financing round, with Khosla Ventures and K1W1 investment fund supporting, along with a strategic investment from Lockheed Martin.

According to NewSpace Global Co-Founder and CEO Dick David, the reason for this explosive amount of growth can be summed up by one word: exits. Companies such as Climate Corporation, which Monsanto acquired, and Skybox Imaging, which Google purchased, have fueled investor confidence in getting appreciable Returns on Investments (ROIs) for the satellite sector.

“A lot of what’s happening is we are seeing new investors. That is why this is exciting,” he said.

“There are investors looking for financial returns,” added Akshay Patel, VP of Morgan Stanley & Co.’s investment banking division. “It’s going to be a very data-driven decision. That’s not to say the space side is not a great motivation for the business … once they are in, they are all in, but if you take Elon Musk as an example, it’s an incredible motivator for him and his company to go to Mars.”

Space enthusiasts such as Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has indisputably disrupted the launch sector, are unique in their ability to pair big dreams with big cash. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are other examples of potentially disruptive launch companies with wealthy, passionate founders. But as new investors walk the halls of SATELLITE 2015, they are motivated by proof extracted through careful due diligence. Space for space’s sake won’t cut it.

“Venture capitalists (VCs) don’t do things that way. And thank God for people who do, but for the most part the investments in space — Planet Labs, Spire, the Nano-sat guys circling — [those are because] imagery is diligeable [and] the comms industry is diligeable,” said Steve Goldberg a partner at the VC firm Venrock.

Entrepreneurs in the satellite industry today have benefited tremendously by leveraging Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology, often applying Moore’s Law to cram more and more components into ever more capable SmallSats. Cloud computing and devices used for mobile phones can be and are today leveraged by satellite designers to piggyback off billions of dollars worth of Research and Development (R&D) from other fields, reducing the dangers of untested technologies in a notoriously risk-averse industry.

“Until recently you had to spend $200 to $300 million and wait two to three years just to start generating some revenue, and with a single-point launch failure possibility. That made it really hard to get the ROI and your Excel didn’t even close. You couldn’t even get to the other considerations,” said Hoyt Davidson, managing partner at Near Earth.

Now satellite companies can run through new iterations faster and implement business plans with greater confidence. This is critical for satellite startups not only to make it in the space industry but to be able to compete with terrestrial alternatives. David said this industry requires creativity unlike others because it lies at the crossroad of complex hardware and software. He highlighted more efficient electric propulsion and lower launch costs as two top priorities for improvements that would continue to foster investor confidence.

Another pressing concern with new investment activity is the relative lack of industry familiarity among VCs and others. According to Goldberg, 80 percent of the people who invested in tech companies of the 70s, 80s and 90s have left venture capital. Plus Silicon Valley’s most recent obsessions have been social media and clean technology, the latter of which was inhibited by a lack of business acumen among engineers. Goldberg advised learning how to structure a compelling pitch so that investors will not only know the potential of the technology, but also the potential to turn a profit.

“Every deal is compared against every other deal,” he added. “I realize we are investing for 10 years from now when there is an exit, but if there is activity and value creation, that’s where the heads turn.”

Source

(18 March 2015) With the second Copernicus-dedicated Sentinel satellite just months away from launch, ESA and France’s CNES space agency, have signed a collaborative agreement on managing and accessing Sentinel data.

The Sentinel family of satellites is being developed to meet the operational needs of Europe’s environment monitoring programme, Copernicus. The first in the fleet, Sentinel-1A, has been in orbit for just under a year while the next, Sentinel-2A, is scheduled for launch in June.

The data provided by the Earth-observing missions are freely accessible for Copernicus Services, as well as to scientific and other users.

At an event held today at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris, ESA and France signed an Understanding for the Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment Cooperation, which aims to facilitate Sentinel data exploitation in the country.

Signing on Frances’s behalf was Thierry Duquesne, CNES Director for Strategy, Programmes and International Relations.

Under the agreement, CNES will set up a ‘national mirror site’ in Toulouse for hosting and distributing Sentinel data, ensuring the hosting, access and redistribution of Sentinel data for the derivation of value-adding environmental services and information.

In addition, radar data from the Sentinel-1 mission will be received at France’s Vigisat ground station in Brest under the CleanSeaNet initiative of the European Maritime Safety Agency.

“This agreement is a key element for Copernicus and an important step for its success in France,” said Mr Duquesne.

As coordinator of the Copernicus ‘space component’, ESA supports national initiatives by establishing direct and efficient access to Sentinel data, providing technical support on the setting up of data acquisition and dissemination, as well as making data processing and distribution software available to national initiatives.

“With the signature of this agreement, the use of Sentinel data across Europe is extended and the Copernicus network is growing. France is a very important partner in this thanks to its very active engagement in Copernicus and the Collaborative Ground Segment,” said Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes.

France is the sixth Participating State to sign the agreement after Greece, Norway, Italy, Germany and Finland.

(source: ESA)

ILOILO CITY, March 23 (PIA) —- The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is planning to launch the country’s very own micro-satellite next year as part of the government’s disaster risk management program.

This is under the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Micro-Satellite (Phl-Microsat) program which aims to hasten the creation of the Philippine Space Agency to help sustain and enhance efforts in research and development in this area.

Rowena Cristina Guevara, executive director of DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), said the country needs a space agency and space policy to compete regionally and globally.

“The importance of satellite communication was underlined during the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda when most forms of communications were knocked off,” she said.

The Phl-Microsat is being led by PCIEERD, involving the University of the Philippines, Hokkaido University and Tohoku University in Japan, with the backing of the Japanese government.

The three year (2015-2017) budget for the program has been pegged at P840-million, with the Philippines chipping in P324-million while Japan is taking care of P515.92-million.

The micro-satellites are slated to be launched with the help of the Japan Space Exploration Agency with a data receiving station to be put up in Subic at a former communications facility used by the United States.

The data station is codenamed the Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation or “PEDRO”.

Meanwhile, DOST Secretary Mario Montejo said the government-owned microsatellite can be used to improve weather detection and forecasts, agricultural growth patterns, and monitor forest cover and the country’s territorial borders.

“We can develop a lot more uses for the microsatellite if we keep on improving its capability to expand its applications,” he said.

He said that DOST is launching not just one, but two-micro-satellites as the country’s ambitious plan of sending its own satellites into space formally rolls out. (JCM/LTP/PIA-Iloilo)

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(March 20, 2015) NASA’s C-130 aircraft, one of the fleet of aircraft maintained by Wallops Flight Facility, is almost ready for the upcoming Operation IceBridge Arctic 2015 campaign, which will begin on March 17, 2015 and run through May 22, 2015.

The C-130 was preparing for its final project test flight at dawn this morning. If all goes well, it will be leaving for Thule Air Base in northern Greenland later this week.

Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, conducted its first campaign in 2009, and has flown two campaign each year since, one to survey the Arctic and one to survey the Antarctic.

The mission of Operation IceBridge is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain continuity of measurements between NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions.

The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2017. Operation IceBridge, which began in in 2009, is currently funded until 2019. The planned two-year overlap with ICESat-2 will help scientists validate the satellite’s measurements.

Source

(19 March 2015) ESA and the UK Space Agency have signed an arrangement that establishes access to data from the Sentinel satellites, marking a significant step in their exploitation.

Following the launch of Sentinel-1A in April 2014, the next in the series of satellites, Sentinel-2A, is scheduled for launch in June.

The Sentinel-2 mission will provide ‘colour vision’ for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme, with data being used to monitor plant health, changing lands, inland water bodies, the coastal environment and support disaster mapping.

Data from the Sentinel satellites and contributing missions to the Copernicus programme are freely accessible for Copernicus Services, as well as to scientific and other users.

ESA and the UK signed an Understanding for the Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment Cooperation yesterday evening at an event at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris.

The agreement aims to facilitate Sentinel data exploitation in the country. The UK Space Agency will coordinate ground segment activities in the UK – such as hosting, distributing, ensuring access and archiving Sentinel data – and act as an interface between ESA and national initiatives. This will be done through a ‘national mirror site’ at the Harwell Science, Innovation and Business Campus in Oxfordshire, where ESA’s space applications centre, ECSAT, is also based.

“This agreement is crucial for the user uptake of Copernicus. It is an important step in our wider commitment to extract maximum value from our space investments,” said David Parker, UK Space Agency Chief Executive signing on the UK’s behalf.

The agreement also established ESA’s role as coordinator of the Copernicus ‘space component’. The Agency will ensure direct access to Sentinel data, provide technical advice on the setting up of data acquisition and dissemination, and make data processing and archiving software available to national initiatives.

A total of seven Participating States have now signed the agreement: Greece, Norway, Italy, Finland, Germany, France and the UK.

“I welcome this agreement as it grows the network of entities that use Sentinel data even further with the addition of each new Collaborative Ground Segment,” said Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes.

(source: ESA)

The Commission moved a step closer to the start of the operational stage of three of Copernicus’s earth observation services: Atmosphere Monitoring, Climate Change, and Marine Environment Monitoring.

Implementation of these services was today delegated to two expert organisations who will now manage the provision of the €435 million of EU funds available for this purpose to appropriate EU service providers, in order to obtain the additional components necessary to finalise the service provision in all three areas.

The Atmosphere Monitoring Service provides the capacity to continuously monitor the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere at global and regional scale and provides highly useful information for domains such as public health, safety and air traffic. The Marine Environment Monitoring Service provides information about the physical state and dynamics of the ocean and marine ecosystems which can be used for example in the context of fisheries, mariculture, tourism, and the overall management of coastal zones. As a result of the delegation agreement, the Atmosphere and Marine Environment monitoring services will both become operational in 2015.

The Climate Change service is designed to help policy makers respond to changes in the environment and society associated with human-induced climate change. Following the delegation agreement, it will first go through a running-in phase and is then expected to start its operational phase before the end of 2017.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) – an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 countries – was entrusted with the implementation of the Copernicus Services for Atmosphere Monitoring and Climate Change. Mercator Océan, a non-profit organisation producing oceanography products, will deal with the implementation of the Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

To enable the implementation of the services over the period 2014 to 2020, ECMWF will have access to up to €291 million, while Mercator Ocean will receive up to €144 million. ECMWF and Mercator Océan will ensure the technical coordination and procure the majority of the underlying services related to the Atmosphere and Marine Environment Monitoring and Climate Change services, while the European Commission will retain the overall responsibility for all Copernicus’ services and will continue to define its strategic priorities and objectives.

Copernicus is the European system for observing and monitoring the Earth. It consists of a complex set of systems which collect data from multiple sources: earth observation satellites and in situ sensors such as ground stations, airborne and sea-borne sensors. It processes these data and provides users with reliable and up-to-date information through a set of services related to environmental and security issues.

(Source ECMWF)

(Nov 2014) A ground-breaking agreement was signed in Brussels today between the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). This agreement means that ECMWF will be managing the Copernicus Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services. The European Union’s flagship Copernicus programme ensures operational monitoring of the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and will provide reliable, validated information services for a range of environmental and security applications. It comprises six services: Land Monitoring, Marine Monitoring, Atmosphere Monitoring, Emergency Management, Security and Climate Change that provide reliable and consistent environmental information.

The Copernicus Climate Change and the Atmosphere Monitoring Services represent an investment by the EU of €291 million over seven years and will draw together contributions from across Europe. ECMWF is an intergovernmental organisation that is both a research institute and an operational centre producing and delivering data on weather, climate and atmospheric composition to users across its member states.

ECMWF’s Director-General Alan Thorpe said:

“The Copernicus programme is a milestone for Earth observations and its many scientific and operational applications. The two services that ECMWF is managing are vital to provide to European policy-makers, businesses and society at large the highest quality environmental information. ECMWF will build upon its expertise in these fields and its extensive scientific and technical partnerships across Europe and beyond to lead this ambitious and extremely timely initiative. There is a critical need for science-based and user-driven services to be made available to policy-makers and citizens alike, and the EU’s investment in the Copernicus Services will deliver just that.”

The Atmosphere Monitoring Service will combine state-of-the-art numerical models of the atmosphere, such as those used for the daily weather forecasts, with satellite and in-situ observations to provide daily forecasts of the composition of the air around the globe with a particular focus on Europe. This combination of millions of daily observations and the predictive power of numerical models will drive the reliability of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. It will deliver up-to-date information in a number of areas of high societal relevance including air quality, climate forcing, ozone layer and UV radiation, solar radiation and solar energy resources, emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases.

The Climate Change Service will deliver substantial economic value to Europe by providing authoritative climate information for the protection of citizens from climate related hazards such as high-impact weather events, improving planning of mitigation and adaptation practices for key human and societal activities, and promoting development of new services for the benefit of society. The Service will build upon and complement capabilities existing at national level and it will become a major contribution from the European Union to the WMO’s Global Framework for Climate Services. It will provide comprehensive climate information covering the atmosphere, land, ocean, sea-ice and carbon, for timescales spanning decades to centuries. It will maximise the value of past, current and future Earth observations (from in-situ and satellite observing systems) by using state-of-the-art modelling, supercomputing and networking capabilities. This will produce a consistent, comprehensive and credible description of the past, current and future climate aimed at supporting adaptation and mitigation policies.

Speaking at the joint signing session where three Copernicus Services were being signed -Mercator, the French centre for ocean analysis and forecasting taking on Marine Monitoring, and ECMWF for Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring, Daniel Calleja, Director General, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission said:

“The signature of these delegation agreements represents another major milestone for the Copernicus programme towards full operational status. The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts and Mercator Océan are the best possible partners for the Commission to implement the Copernicus services for monitoring the Atmosphere, Climate Change and the Marine Environment. Together we will develop services which will both support policy-making and stimulate the economy to the benefit of European citizens”.

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Notes to editors

Copernicus
Copernicus, the EU’s Earth Observation Programme, ensures the regular observation and monitoring of Earth sub-systems, namely the atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces. Through a combination of state-of-the-art satellites, contributing missions and in-situ data, Copernicus provides timely, reliable, and validated information in support of a broad range of environmental, climate and security policies and applications.
Copernicus will support its users – public authorities, the global scientific community, the private sector and citizens – in their vital tasks of monitoring our environment and security, by providing Earth Observation data and information, as well as added value services. This programme will enable considerable progress in improving maritime security, monitoring climate change, and providing support in emergency and crisis situations.
Copernicus will also help Europe’s enterprises creating new jobs and business opportunities, through added-value services for environmental data exploitation, as well as supporting the space industry itself. Indirectly, a variety of other economic sectors will benefit from the advantages of timely, accurate and reliable Earth observation data, such as transport, oil and gas, insurance and agriculture.
Independent studies show that Copernicus could generate a financial benefit of some EUR 30 billion to Europe’s total GDP and create around 50,000 jobs in Europe by 2030. Moreover, the free, full and open dissemination of Copernicus data and information will help citizens, businesses, researchers and policy makers to integrate an environmental dimension into their activities.

ECMWF
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 countries.
ECMWF is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions and other data to our Member and Co-operating States. The Centre also offers a catalogue of forecast data that can be purchased by businesses worldwide and other commercial customers. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe.
ECMWF was established in 1975 as a major initiative in European scientific and technical co-operation in meteorology, based on the concepts of a high-performance computing facility, a scientific and technical workforce, the production of medium-range weather forecasts, and related research and development, notably in the fields of climate monitoring and atmospheric composition.
ECMWF is based in Reading UK.
More information available at:

http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/what-we-do/copernicus/copernicus-climate-change-service
http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/what-we-do/copernicus/copernicus-atmosphere-monitoring-service

For any further information, please email pressoffice@ecmwf.int
(tel. +44 118 949 9000)