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You will find here (http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2013.pdf) the latest issue of the “Global Risks” report of the World Economic Forum (will be officially presented at the next World Economic Forum Annual meeting in Davos).

Note in particular the a full page is dedicated to space (p. 34 “Bringing Space down to Earth”), ending with the conclusion that “Through their ability to see and speak to all corners of the world, land, air and sea, satellites are enablers that strengthen our resilience to a wide range of global risks. Broader awareness of this fact is needed to ensure that our critical space-based infrastructure is managed sustainably and that we do not underestimate the potential impacts if these critical systems fail.”

(Source Eurospace)

Copernicus will ensure the regular observation and monitoring of Earth sub-systems, the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and will provide reliable, validated and guaranteed information in support of a broad range of environmental and security applications.

The initiative has two main objectives:

  • to provide of sustainable, precise and reliable information about the environment and citizen’s security, produced under EU control and tailored to the needs of a wide range of users;
  • to create massive business opportunities for European companies, in particular SMEs, to boost to innovation and employment in Europe.

GMES/Copernicus’s services will allow us to monitor:

  1. greenhouse gases that warm our planet,
  2. reactive gases that influence the quality of the air we breathe,
  3. ozone layer and levels of solar UV radiation reaching the ground, and
  4. aerosols that affect temperature and air quality.

GMES/Copernicus services will also improve the management of natural resources, including water, soil and forests — not only in Europe itself, but also in other continents, including Africa. They will help protect our citizens from harm, e.g. through the monitoring of forest fires and other natural and man-made disasters.

GMES/Copernicus offers business opportunities

GMES/Copernicus’s data collection and provision provides a huge potential for innovation and business development. Apart from the benefits for European citizens in terms of new innovative services, which improve their quality of life, it will generate economic growth and around 85 000 new jobs over the period 2015-2030. Studies show that the societal benefits exceed four to twelve times the cost (for more details see European EO and GMES Downstream Services Market Study)

GMES/Copernicus services will deliver information to a chain of information re-processors and end-users on a sustained basis. The “GMES/Copernicus economy” will grow by attracting increased investment in the value-adding market to provide innovative applications to meet increasing user demands and expectations. The definition and implementation of services and related observation infrastructure is driven by user requirements. GMES/Copernicus user communities include institutional users such as the EU institutions, European intergovernmental institutions, public-sector users within EU Member States, European public-sector users from non-EU countries, non-EU public sector users and institutional research communities.

An example of user driven innovation based on GMES/Copernicus’s services which could generate business opportunities is the EU’s ObsAIRve service.Obsairve. This smart phone ‘app’ enables real time access to air pollution data. In many European cities, air quality is of concern and is therefore monitored around the clock. In most cities, industrial air pollution abatement is, or tends to be, replaced by traffic-related air pollution. ObsAIRve allows real time access to air pollution data through mobile devices such as smartphones.

Space manufacturing – Upstream impact

GMES/Copernicus will have a significant impact on the space manufacturing sector, which we call the upstream impact. This is an important part of the European industrial policy. Moreover, it will also affect the data production and dissemination sector, which we call the midstream, as well as the value-added sector, which we call the downstream. A recent study analysed the most attractive downstream market segments for GMES/Copernicus, namely water, transport, oil and gas, non-life insurance, agriculture and electricity. The study, based on this sectoral analysis, was also able to estimate the potential job impact on the downstream activities.

The number of jobs which will be created downstream are estimated at 68,182. When we add the upstream sectoral job creation, estimated at 16,403, the total impact of the GMES/Copernicus programme can be estimated at 84,585 jobs. This number is not including the midstream sector, as we do not have accurate data for this market segment.

GMES/Copernicus will offer important new services

GMES/Copernicus will provide the following services:

  1. a land monitoring service providing information in support of European policies, such as environmental policies (nature protection and biodiversity, natural resources, environmental hazards, environmental impact assessment, water framework directive), regional policies, territorial cohesion and spatial development, Common Transport Policy, policies relating to SMEs and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP);
  2. a marine service providing information on the state of the oceans, including sea level, currents, salinity, oil slicks;
  3. an atmosphere service providing information concerning chemical composition of the atmosphere driving climate change, and air quality as well as information on solar radiation;
  4. an emergency response support service will address natural disasters e.g. weather-driven hazards (e.g. storms, fires, floods), geophysical hazards (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides and subsidence), man-made disasters and humanitarian and civil emergencies (such emergencies are complex and require multi-disciplinary response);
  5. a security support service, e.g. in the field of maritime surveillance carried out by coast guards or critical infrastructure monitoring to reduce the number of terrorist attacks.
  6. A climate change service will be developed transversely with the aim of collecting reliable and continuous data on specific indicators to model climate change scenarios.

GMES/Copernicus services should be fully and openly accessible within the restrictions imposed by the overall legal and policy framework (e.g. security issues). This is in line with the principles of the European Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), and Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiatives to promote the widest possible sharing and use of Earth observation data and information.

GMES/Copernicus’s architecture and infrastructure

Copernicus’s architecture consists of:

  • a Service component providing information for a broad range of environmental and security-related application areas and stimulating a downstream sector serving numerous applications on both a local and global scale,
  • an Observation Infrastructure component with two sub-components for space-based and airborne, seaborne and ground based (so-called ”in situ”) infrastructure.

In order to provide GMES/Copernicus services, service providers will depend on input from space and in situ observation infrastructure. In many cases, observation infrastructure has already been developed and put into operation by Member States. This existing infrastructure has been and should be re-used as much as possible in order to avoid duplication.

Only when – following a careful analysis of gaps in provision – existing capabilities have been found to be inadequate in meeting user requirements, new developments have been launched and financed by the EU. This is the case, in particular, for the space infrastructure developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the coordinator of the implementation of the GMES/Copernicus space component. The provision of data from in situ infrastructure is coordinated by the European Environmental Agency (EEA).

http://copernicus.eu

Copernicus on Europa

Press Memo

Source

Copernicus is the new name of the European Commission’s Earth Observation Programme, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security). The new name was announced today by Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani during the Competitiveness Council.

In a world facing an increased risk of natural and other disasters Copernicus aims to monitor the state of the environment on land, at sea and in the atmosphere and also to improve citizens’ security. At the same time, Copernicus is a driver for economic growth and employment, with the potential to create up to 85 000 new jobs over the period 2015-2030, according to a recent study (see IP/12/1304).

Why rename GMES? Why choose the name Copernicus?

All Copernicus’s services will soon enter into the operational phase. User take-up will soon follow because of the greater data availability. The new name will help to raise awareness about Copernicus at all geographical and socio-economic levels — thus creating opportunities for growth and jobs. There will be a special focus on regional and local actors, be they public authorities, private businesses or citizens.

By choosing the name Copernicus we are paying homage to a great European scientist and observer: Nicolaus Copernicus. The Copernicus theory of the heliocentric universe is considered by many to be the main precursor of modern science. He opened to man an infinite universe, previously limited by the rotation of the planets and the sun around the Earth, and created a world without borders. Humanity was able to benefit from his insight and this set in motion the spirit of scientific research which allowed us to have a better understanding of the world we live in.

Copernicus

Copernicus consists of a set of services which collect data and provide information using satellites and terrestrial sensors to observe the environment and the natural phenomena occurring on the planet.

The Copernicus programme is not only a tool to improve the quality of life of European citizens, but also has the potential to become a major contributor to Europe’s strategy for growth and employment. Copernicus does not replace existing European capacities, but rather complements them with a view to fulfilling user needs and guaranteeing sustainability and European autonomy in the long term.

Copernicus enhances our safety in numerous ways, for example by better management of natural disasters, allowing for earlier intervention, thereby helping to prevent loss of life and damage to property. It also delivers reliable information for monitoring and predicting climate change.

Copernicus helps to improve the management of our natural resources, monitors the quality of the atmosphere and the oceans, helps optimise our agricultural activities and promote renewable energy. It allows better planning of our cities by monitoring urban sprawl and easing the flow of transportation.

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said: “By changing the name from GMES to Copernicus we are paying homage to a great European scientist and observer: Nicolaus Copernicus. As he was the catalyst in the 16th century to better understand our world, so the European Earth Observation Programme gives us a thorough understanding of our changing planet, enabling concrete actions to improve the quality of life of the citizens. Copernicus has now reached maturity as a programme and all its services will enter soon into the operational phase. Thanks to greater data availability user take-up will increase, thus contributing to that growth that we so dearly need today”.

MEMO/12/966 (Description of Copernicus)

Copernicus website

Source

(21 December) The U.S. Geological Survey announced that Landsat 5 will be decommissioned over the coming months, bringing to a close the longest-operating Earth observing satellite mission in history. By any measure, the Landsat 5 mission has been an extraordinary success, providing unprecedented contributions to the global record of land change.

The USGS has brought the aging satellite back from the brink of failure on several occasions, but the recent failure of a gyroscope has left no option but to end the mission.

Now in its 29th year of orbiting the planet, Landsat 5 has long outlived its original three-year design life. Developed by NASA and launched in 1984, Landsat 5 has orbited the planet over 150,000 times while transmitting over 2.5 million images of land surface conditions around the world.

“This is the end of an era for a remarkable satellite, and the fact that it flew for almost three decades is a testament to the NASA engineers and the USGS team who launched it and kept it flying well beyond its expected lifetime,” stated Anne Castle, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. “The Landsat program is the ‘gold standard” of satellite observation, providing an invaluable public record of our planet that helps us tackle critical land, water, and environmental issues.”

“Any major event since 1984 that left a mark on this Earth larger than a football field was likely recorded by Landsat 5, whether it was a hurricane, a tsunami, a wildfire, deforestation, or an oil spill,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “We look forward to a long and productive continuation of the Landsat program, but it is unlikely there will ever be another satellite that matches the outstanding longevity of Landsat 5.”

For more than a quarter of a century, Landsat 5 has observed our changing planet. It has recorded the impact of natural hazards, climate variability and change, land use practices, development and urbanization, ecosystem evolution, increasing demand for water and energy resources, and changing agricultural demands worldwide. Vital observations of the Mount Saint Helens eruption, Antarctica, the Kuwaiti oil fires, the Chernobyl disaster, rainforest depletion, major wildfires and floods, urban growth, global crop production, and ice shelf expansion and retreat have helped increase our understanding and awareness of the impact of humans on the land.

The USGS Flight Operations Team recently began the process required to safely lower Landsat 5 from its operational orbit. The first series of maneuvers is expected to occur next month.

With Landsat 5’s decommissioning, Landsat 7, which was launched in 1999 and has also outlived its five-year design life, will continue to provide information, although an instrument anomaly reduces the amount of data it collects. The next mission, Landsat 8 — also called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission — is scheduled for launch by NASA in February 2013.

The natural resource management and development challenges that the Nation has faced since the beginning of the Landsat program have not diminished; they’ve only accelerated. Landsat, and the many applications that it has spawned, will be even more critical in the future to keep pace with these challenges. The Department of the Interior and NASA are working closely with the Administration on options for long-term continuity of the Landsat data stream.

Since 2008, when the USGS made the Landsat archive accessible to on-line users at no cost, nearly 10 million images, each covering over 12,000 square miles, have been downloaded in 190 countries.

For further details and the latest information about the status of Landsat satellites, visit the USGS Landsat Missions website

other link

(BBC) From Hurricane Katrina to the Japanese tsunami – satellite images are increasingly playing an important role during rescue efforts after natural or man-made disasters. The images, often taken minutes after devastation has occurred, help pinpoint people and places at risk.

A formal system of sharing information by space agencies was agreed in 1999, with the creation of the Disasters Charter. Since then, the charter has helped provide data for more than 300 disasters, in more than 100 countries.

Here – to mark World Space Week 2012 – Dr Alice Bunn from the UK Space Agency looks at how the images, taken many hundreds of miles above the planet, are being used to save lives.

Source

All images copyright DMCii Ltd and Envisat/ESA. Click bottom right for image information.
Music by KPM Music. Slideshow by Paul Kerley. Publication date 8 October 2012.

Related:

Disasters Charter
UK Space Agency
World Space Week

The satellite sector is a huge success story for the EU and a sector with a huge (often invisible) impact on the daily lives of citizens. It is also a major global industry with the top 4 global satellite operators, the 2 largest sat manufacturers and the #1 commercial launch service being European.

Despite the sector’s success, perception of its contribution by the EU is slightly different: policymakers don’t necessarily understand how satellites can help them to achieve their objectives (e.g. digital agenda objectives) and therefore don’t consider satellites in their recommendations, policies and legislation (“lack of technology neutrality”).

The lack of understanding of the true role of satellites may affect the ability of satellite operators to continue to access key satellite spectrum and ultimately threaten other essential satellite services.

The Booz&Co report was commissioned to provide an independent vision of the role of the satellite sector in contributing to the EU 2020 strategy, by reference to the full range of satellite applications.

ESOA took the initiative to launch European Satellite Day to improve awareness of the impact that invisible satellite networks have on the daily lives of citizens, and to make a point of reminding policymakers of the constant contribution of satellites to EU policy objectives from year to year.

Download Report:
> Executive Summary
> Full Report

Related: European Satellite Day 2012

(October 2012) At the invitation of the Minister for Water and Energy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Representatives of the African Union Commission (AUC), the Regional Economic Communities (CEMAC, ECOWAS, IOC, IGAD, SADC) and the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP Secretariat) Group of States, declared their support to the Addis Ababa Declaration.

This was declared in the presence of the Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and of representatives of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Centre for Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) and the European Union (EU).

The Addis-Ababa Declaration

Through the Addis-Ababa Declaration, the signatories have agreed to support the development of an African regional implementation plan for the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), which should be endorsed by an [External link]Extra-ordinary Congress of WMO later this month.

The main goal of the GFCS is to enable better management of the risks of climate variability and change and adaptation to climate change, through the development and incorporation of science-based climate information and prediction into planning, policy and practice on the global, regional and national scale.

The Addis-Ababa Declaration also calls on the European Commission to support the implementation of the GFCS in Africa through its introduction as an element of the joint Africa-EU Strategy.

The stakeholders are convinced that the implementation of GFCS in Africa will further enable African institutions to contribute to, and benefit from, the results of the international cooperation efforts in the area of climate services. In particular, they will benefit through better access to knowledge and technologies in climate monitoring, prediction and projection.

During the declaration ceremony, Alain Ratier, EUMETSAT’s Director-General, said: “With this declaration, Africa demonstrates its willingness for a coordinated effort to generate valuable climate information. It encourages EUMETSAT strengthening its collaboration with Africa on climate monitoring and generation of climate services.”

Source

Eurisy: Satellites Going Local is a collection of non-technical examples of cities, regions and SMEs using satellite services operationally.

Following the success of the first edition of the publication, over the first half of the year we have been working to find fresh examples for an entirely new edition 2012.

As investments in programmes to develop satnav, Earth Observations and satcom capabilities for Europe continue, this publication is a snapshot of the impact of such investments on a grassroots level, in terms of end-user take-up of operational EO-, satnav- and satcom-enabled services.

While by no means an exhaustive review of operational cases, these examples do translate well what works for cities, regions and end-user SMEs in Europe, and will hopefully inspire more of their peers to follow in these footsteps.

Source

(Earthzine) In order to raise institutional and public awareness on the importance of Earth Observation applications on environmental monitoring for the broader Balkan Region, the OBSERVE project produced several multilingual, multimedia editions. At first, the OBSERVE flyer was translated in 12 languages and published on the project’s website.

A special-edition multilingual DVD, with easily comprehensible multimedia material in six languages, was produced. The videos include interviews from consortium partners along with multimedia presentations of Earth Observation topics and case studies. The following presentations are part of the multilingual edition:

1. “High Resolution Satellites Images for Urban Planning,” University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2. “Land cover and Land changes, Urbanization and touristic development pressure and flood risks,” University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria
3. “Cultural Heritage,” Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
4. “Disaster Management and Earthquakes,” GeoSat Company for Exploration and Development, Croatia
5. “Web GIS and 3D Cadastral Information,” GISDATA Ltd., Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia
6. “Data standards, regional Earth Observation stakeholders, and National Data Infrastructure Issues,” Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty for Civil Engineering, Skopje
7. “Environmental Applications and windmill farm Localization,” University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
8. “Landslides, determination of lake depths, Energy savings and Environmental Issues in Urban Environments,” Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Scholl of Rural and Surveying Engineering (Greece).

An example of a case study

Earthquakes and floods are the most devastating natural disasters. The Balkan area, as a part of the Mediterranean region, is seismotectonically the most active part of Europe. Numerous earthquakes occur in this region, most of them with catastrophic results. To depict the areas of the high seismotectonic activity, remote-sensing techniques, particularly satellite images, are very useful for registration of the structural elements that play a role in seismotectonic relations. Geotectonic movements in the Earth’s crust are the major contributors to earthquakes. The results of tectonic movements have been manifested through the geological features of the terrain: faults, folds and ring structures.

The tectonic map of the Western part of the Balkan shows the faults registered on satellite images, as well as the epicentres of large magnitude earthquakes. Most of these earthquakes’ epicentres are located along the large faults or at their intersections, as seen in Banja Luka, Zagreb and Ljubljana. For a detailed seismotectonic exploration, the high-resolution satellite radar images are very useful for the recognition of structural elements, and the intersections of strong faults. The catastrophic earthquake that occurred in Banja Luka in 1969 had its epicenter on the intersection between faults of different orientation

More info at
By Petros Patias, posted on October 1st, 2012 in Articles, Earth Observation

(27 September, 2012) By Peter B. de Selding, PARIS — A high-ranking European Commission official on Sept. 27 told users and builders of satellite Earth observation systems that they should abandon hope that the commission will fund a multiyear environment-monitoring program at previously proposed levels.

The official said Europe’s Earth observation community should become less satellite-centric and adapt to a world in which unmanned aerial vehicles, crowd sourcing and other in-situ observation techniques make satellites less indispensible than they once were.

In remarks here at the Space Days conference organized by Liege Space Center and Wallonie Espace, a grouping of regional space companies, Jean-Paul Malingreau said placing satellites at the center of an Earth observation effort is yesterday’s thinking.

Malingreau, adviser for scientific foresight and policy anticipation to the director-general of the commission’s Joint Research Center — a big user of satellite Earth observation data — said Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program will almost certainly shrink from its expected funding level.

The commission, which is the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, had proposed that GMES receive 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) in the commission’s next seven-year budget program, which begins in 2014.

Faced with budget pressure, the commission subsequently proposed that GMES be funded by some separate mechanism outside the seven-year package. How that would work remains the subject of debate as the commission and European Union member states debate the funding package.

The 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA) has developed the GMES program’s flagship Sentinel satellites. ESA and the commission together have already spent some 2.4 billion euros on the space component of GMES, while other monies have been committed to spurring a broad array of GMES services.

The commission is expected to settle on its final seven-year budget by early 2013 at the latest. Despite more than a year during which members of the European Parliament, ESA and individual European governments protested the removal of GMES from the seven-year package, the program’s status remains unclear.

Malingreau cautioned that he has no direct role in determining what happens to the program. He expressed some optimism that “things are happening” at the commission with respect to GMES, but that the final package “will not be as grand as the original idea.”

“It is not zero or one, or a decision to do GMES or not,” Malingreau said. “Everyone initially was depressed, as though they had confronted a wall,” when the commission removed GMES from the multiyear funding package. Now people are seeing a way around the wall. … But maybe [funding] will not be on the scale that we dreamed.”

Sitting on the same panel, ESA’s Josef Aschbacher was visibly discomfited by Malingreau’s remarks, and said there is good reason for GMES backers to be concerned about the commission’s inability to move on the issue.

“I don’t think it’s guaranteed at all” that GMES will receive the kind of support that had been expected, said Aschbacher, who is head of ESA’s GMES Space Office.

ESA had already tried to pressure the commission by saying the agency, which owns the first Sentinel satellites until they are in orbit — then the commission becomes the owner — would refuse to launch them unless the commission committed to financing their operation.

ESA subsequently agreed to launch the first Sentinel in mid-2013, and to prepare for the launch starting now, without any such commitment. ESA officials said they could not conceive of a situation in which the same European governments that spent some 3 billion euros to develop a system later decide not to use it.

“It’s like buying a car and having it delivered to your door and then deciding not to pay for gasoline and insurance,” Aschbacher said. “This is crazy.”

GMES was supposed to follow a model that ESA has established with Europe’s Eumetsat meteorological satellite organization of Darmstadt, Germany. ESA designs and pays for most of the first models of new-generation Eumetsat satellites, with Eumetsat in a minority investor’s role. Eumetsat then takes charge of the financing and operations of subsequent models.

Roberto Aceti, managing director of Antwerp Space, a unit of satellite builder OHB AG of Bremen, Germany, said ESA appears to have no problem winning support for meteorological satellites. He said GMES is running into trouble because neither industry nor the commission has created GMES-related services that are so highly valued that governments find the money for them.

“These services are not as mature as meteorological services,” Aceti said. “That is why there is confusion on how to fund GMES. The question is: Why are these services not maturing at the speed we had hoped? The commission needs to be the anchor tenant for GMES, but both the commission and industry need to interrogate themselves.”

RELATED ARTICLES

ESA Agrees To Press Ahead with 2013 Sentinel Launch
European Union Defers GMES Funding Decision
ESA, European Commission Near GMES Funding Rubicon
ESA’s Dordain Restates Sentinel Launch Cancellation Threat
New Pressure To Add GMES Back to Long-term Budget

Source SpaceNews