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Issue 55 Autumn 2018

EDITORIAL

We all know the buzz of excitement at the kick-off meeting of a new project and maybe the feeling of satisfaction as it ends and we celebrate a successful outcome. H2020 research projects are no exception, except that the end may also provoke feelings of regret that the team with which we have worked so hard over a period of months or years will disband.

Keep reading...

INTERVIEW

Interview with MEP Caroline NAGTEGAAL (VVD/ALDE) about the EU Space Budget

We had the pleasure of interviewing Dutch MEP Caroline Nagtegaal, ALDE Shadow Rapporteur for EU Space Budget to take a closer look at the proposal. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Nagtegaal for her time and her work on this proposal.

INTERVIEW

Interview with MEP Constanze Krehl (S&D)

We had the pleasure of interviewing German MEP Constanze Krehl , S&D Shadow Rapporteur for EU Space Budget to take a closer look at the proposal. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms.Krehl for her time and her work on this proposal.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Spottitt - Online Imagery Portal with Analytics

It is our pleasure to present to you Spottitt Ltd. the winners of our Copernicus ecosystem workshop elevator pitch session.

EARSC ACTIVITIES

Call for Experts In Earth Observation & Geographic Information Body of Knowledge [EO4GEO]

The EO4GEO project is inviting experts in the Earth Observation / Geographic Information sectors to participate in the process of developing a Body of Knowledge (BoK) for GI and EO. We are looking for professionals ready to support the description of the particular concepts (topics) in different inter-related knowledge areas, by commenting and contributing to the elaboration of the relevant texts.

Discover the Copernicus Sentinel Benefits Website

Through a series of studies, EARSC aims to gather quantitative evidence that the usage of Copernius Sentinel data provides an effective and convenient support to various market application.

EARSC position paper: The EO Services Industry Views on the EU Space Programme Proposal

The European EO Services industry welcomes the proposal for an EU Space Programme and looks forward to making a strong contribution to its’ success. Copernicus remains an extremely important programme for Europe and for our sector. It has demonstrated how to deliver critical information to European policy makers whilst enabling the services industry to develop business in new markets so delivering more highly-skilled jobs in Europe.

EARSC statement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and resulting impact on the Copernicus programme

The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) is the European organisation which promotes the use of Earth Observation (EO) technology and represents the interests of the geo-information services sector in Europe. We have 101 members from 23 countries covering the full EO services value chain including commercial operators of EO satellites, data resellers, value-adding companies, geospatial information suppliers, consultancies and system/software providers.

IDEEO event: Space for Sea - How Earth Observation services can benefit European companies?

It is our pleasure to invite you to the second IDEEO event “Space for Sea – How Earth Observation services can benefit European companies?”

Survey on Copernicus Sentinel-powered Innovation and Start-ups

EARSC, under a contract to the European Space Agency (ESA), is investigating the impact of Copernicus Sentinel data on innovation and entrepreneurship, with the aim of improving understanding about emerging applications and business models, their technological and market maturity and the obstacles and challenges encountered by entrepreneurs who want to create businesses based on Copernicus Sentinel data.

MEMBER NEWS

1ST GMES AND AFRICA FORUM: Unlocking the potential of Earth Observation as a key driver of Africa’s sustainable development

The first forum of the GMES & Africa Support Programme is a communication platform that encourages and promotes the exchanging of views among Earth Ob­servation service providers and end-users at the grass­roots level in Africa. The first forum is being co-organised by the African Union Commission and the Government of Gabon and will be held from 19th to 23rd November 2018 in Libreville, Ga­bon.

Airbus and Australian Space Agency deepen partnership

Canberra, 27 September 2018 – Airbus and the Australian Space Agency (ASA) have signed a statement of intent confirming the European manufacturer’s commitment towards enhancing the capability and competitiveness of the country’s space sector.

BETTER led by DEIMOS is devoted to maximizing the exploitation of Copernicus to address Key Societal Challenges

BETTER is an H2020 project led by DEIMOS in the scope of the EO-2-2017 EO Big Data Shift call. The main objective of BETTER is to facilitate the usage of large volume and heterogeneous datasets by downstream users, by creating pipelines of analysis ready data so that they can focus on the algorithms for extraction of the knowledge instead of losing time on data preparation processes. The BETTER Consortium is led by DEIMOS Space and includes the participation of DEIMOS Engenharia, DEIMOS Space UK, Terradue, Fraunhofer IAIS, European Union Satellite Centre (Satcen), World Food Programme (WPF) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich (ETH-Z).

Deimos Imaging and Partners Awarded Multi-Million Euro ESA Contract

Deimos Imaging and its parent company UrtheCast announced that they have been awarded a multi-million Euro contract through a consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space – and also including Planet, IGN-France and space4environment – to provide a very large set of Earth Observation products and services to the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), July 13.

European land monitoring at its crossroads: Conference conclusions

On 8 and 9 October, the conference on “European land monitoring at its crossroads – opportunities and challenges”, organised under the auspices of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, took place in Innsbruck

GAME.EO - Crowdsourcing and Gaming Approaches for EO services

GISAT teams up with crowd-sourcing experts to explore synergies with Earth Observation.

Identifying Spruce Beetle Infestations Earlier Using Satellite Data

Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, UK, 25 October 2018.

Spruce Beetles have become an increasing threat to the forestry industry over recent decades. Outbreaks used to be episodic but are now at epidemic levels in many parts of the world.

Industrial mapping through fusion of Sentinel-2 and LIDAR data

Impact
The technological development in the fields of aerial/space technology, computer vision, and image processing, provides new tools and automated solutions for 2D/3D mapping and reconstruction. However, the accurate and reliable 3D reconstruction as well as the fully exploitation of remote sensing data for feature extraction and object detection of complex scenes, such the industrial ones, still remains challenging. Research activities that combine satellite remote sensing data and Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS) point clouds (well known as LIDAR) have increased in recent years to exploit both: the available rich spectral image information from satellite sensors and the good geometric quality of LIDAR point clouds. Sentinel-2 data from ESA’s Copernicus program can play a key role to this methodology (https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/home).

INSPIRE Taking A Fresh Look at Coverages

Antwerp, September 2018. At this year´s INSPIRE Conference a hot topic was coverages, more specifically: raster data. Experts showed how to use coverages, and solution paths for the remaining issues so that coverages can be served simultaneously by both WCS and SOS.

Migration: Watch the Gaps

Shortfalls in personnel and equipment can be eased by utlising the most efficient monitoring methods.

PROBA-V data for timely livestock management in namibia

Namibia is the most arid country in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the high variability in rainfall there is widely fluctuating forage production from year-to-year.
Local farmers need to provide fodder for their herd till the next rainy season. Planning pro-actively is essential to be able to take necessary actions as soon as possible when conditions are deteriorating.
Here remote sensing comes into play; learn more about Remote Sensing for livestock management in Namibia!

Risk Assessment for Sustainable Urban Development Planning

The integration of natural hazard risk assessment into the urban development planning is demonstrated by IABG, in cooperation with the United Nations University. Monastir, Tunisia serves as a pilot city in this EU-funded project. The study contributes to the mitigation of future damages caused by urban flash floods and leads towards a sustainable urban planning.

Sinergise releases eo-learn: open-source software to bridge the gap between Earth Observation and Machine Learning

Sinergise has recently released eo-learn, an open-source framework to quickly and easily build Earth Observation (EO) applications. The framework allows to prototype and automate the processing of entire EO pipelines for large areas in few lines of Python code. Given the availability of large amounts of open data, machine learning (ML) algorithms can be seamlessly embedded into the processing pipeline to extract actionable information. The aim of eo-learn is to facilitate entry to the EO field for small and medium-size enterprises and research centres through exploitation of open-access satellite data.

Tuscany: large-scale ground hazard monitoring using Sentinel-1 imagery

We are excited to share this interesting case study that demonstrates how the European Earth Observation Programme “Copernicus” can trigger operational projects, which in turn can increase safety and provide useful information to decision makers and citizens.

EARTH OBSERVATION NEWS

16 Copernicus-related calls are now open for a total budget of 239MEUR

A part of the Horizon2020 programme funds space-related projects through the so-called “Space Call”. To a large extent, this part of the programme concentrates on Copernicus-enabled applications and services.

PlanetWatchers Announces Breakthrough SAR Analytics Platform

PlanetWatchers has developed a new multi-source Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) platform that utilizes multiple SAR sources to deliver actionable insights without the usual delays due to weather, time of day, and environmental conditions. Natural resource managers will now receive enhanced risk management and analytical data from the new platform.

Radiant Earth Foundation to Release Earth Imagery Platform

Radiant Earth Foundation (formerly known as Radiant.Earth) will release a new, open Earth imagery platform, to change the way humanitarian aid workers, policymakers, researchers, journalists, and others use satellite images to understand and serve their communities. The platform is the first of its kind to offer instant, secure, and free access to Earth observation data on the cloud and help the global development community apply the data to real-world problems.

The Copernicus ecosystem is thriving and should expand into new territories

An editorial by Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence at the European Commission.

PROGRAMMES

ESA & 5GRONINGEN OPPORTUNITY

Space has an invaluable role to play in the 5G ecosystem. Telecommunication satellites can extend, enhance, and provide reliability and security to 5G, helping to deliver its promise of global, ubiquitous connectivity. Other space assets, such as Earth Observation and Satellite Navigation can be integrated with 5G technology to deliver innovative applications in a number of vertical sectors. The European Space Agency (ESA) has joined forces with the Economic Board Groningen (EBG) to support the development of applications that integrate space and 5G. Find out more about this unique opportunity below.

European Copernicus Incubation Programme grants €50.000 to startups

now launching Round 3 of the Copernicus Incubation Programme that supports European entrepreneurs and start-ups. Winning start-ups will receive up to 50,000 EUR – equity free – for their project working with Copernicus data and services, whether it be the early incubation of a working product or in the phase leading up to launch. Some results from Round 2

free atmosphere MOOC

EUMETSAT & Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service are running a free atmosphere MOOC

How space technology is transforming Africa’s food system through low-cost insurance products for smallholders

Agriculture is a major driver of African economies. In recent years, climate change is increasingly affecting crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa, negatively impacting farmers livelihoods and hampering economy growth. The G4AW SUM Africa project is addressing this challenge by using satellite-based weather data to create a low-cost insurance product for smallholders in Mali and Uganda. With this insurance, farmers have a greater chance to obtain the credit they need to increase crop production and improve their livelihoods.

Polar Regions Industry Workshop | Copernicus

Polar applications are not a new subject for discussion. Internationally, the subject has gained considerable attention from institutions such as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) through its Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). The European Space Agency (ESA), from its side, touches upon the topic via its Climate Change Initiative (CCI) and Polaris. In 2016, the European Union even adopted an integrated EU Policy for the Arctic, aiming to contribute to a stable, safe, sustainable and prosperous Arctic.

INTERNATIONALISATION

Making best use of satellite data for sustainable development will be discussed by attendees of this week’s EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa

MONDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2018

About 170 participants from national meteorological and hydrological services, government agencies and regional institutions in more than 50 African nations are attending the 13th biennial forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

NASA Evaluates Commercial Small-Sat Earth Data for Science

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — NASA has launched a pilot program to evaluate how Earth science data from commercial small-satellite constellations could supplement observations from the agency’s fleet of orbiting Earth science missions. On Sept. 28, the agency awarded sole-source contracts to acquire test data sets from three private sector organizations.

EVENTS

Upcoming events