With more than 50 direct receiving stations operating on all five continents, Astrium has the most extensive station network in the world today. Imagery is downlinked instantly from the optical and radar satellites operated by Astrium Services each time they pass over these stations, making it possible to deliver fresh information from any area of interest very quickly. New SPOT 6, SPOT 7 and Pléiades receiving stations are set to further shorten image data delivery times, getting data into the hands of users faster than ever before.
ITU is playing an active role in agricultural and environmental development programmes working towards 2023, the centenary year of the Turkish Republic. The agreements with Astrium Services will help to fulfil this objective. In 2009, ITU established the TARIT agricultural statistics pilot project that will be operational all over Turkey next year, relying on data from SPOT 5, SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 (TARBIL programme).
Through this agreement, ITU is seeking to step up its high-resolution activities while leveraging the increased acquisition capacity, daily revisits and quick-response tasking capability of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7.
The agreement signed with Dr. Mehmet Karaca, the Rector of ITU, is the result of a long collaboration begun in 2002 when the university first started receiving SPOT 4 data. Astrium Services is thus consolidating its ties with a prestigious institution founded in 1773, the world’s third oldest university dedicated to science and engineering.
Through its GEO-Information business, Astrium Services is recognized as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, not least thanks to the now fully integrated skills and resources of the former Spot Image and Infoterra. The company provides decision-makers with complete solutions enabling them to increase security, boost agricultural performance, maximize oil & gas or mining operations, improve their management of natural resources, and protect the environment. It has exclusive access to data from the SPOT, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X and Pléiades satellites, coupled with a complete range of space-based data sources and airborne acquisition capability allowing it to offer an unrivalled scope of Earth observation products and services. This extensive portfolio covers the entire geo-information supply chain, from the generation of images to the provision of high added-value information to end-users.
By leveraging the synergies and expertise available across the whole of Astrium Services, its GEO-Information teams develop innovative, yet competitive, custom-made solutions based on the combination and integration of Earth observation, navigation and high-end telecommunications.