Skip to content

Issue 56 Winter 2018

EDITORIAL

2018 has been another year of strong progress for the Association. In 2018 we have grown from 5 persons to 8 and are now looking for 2 more to join us. I emphasise that this has not been our goal – it is absolutely not our goal to grow; our goal is to do more for our members. To do this we pursue a mixed business model relying about 20% on membership fees and 80% on projects.

INTERVIEW

Remote sensing: Making sense of the European EO industry

Chetan Pradhan, Chairman of the Board of EARSC, spoke to SciTech Europa about the Earth Observation industry in Europe today and how it is developing.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Penta Technology

Meet Penta Technology, a Consulting and Software Engineering operating in Italy since 2010, developing cutting-edge ICT solutions that create value and contribute to the improvement of processes and the digital transformation of the client companies.

EARSC ACTIVITIES

Case Study: Flood Management in Ireland

This case showcases how Sentiel helped Ireland recover from the 2015/2016 Winter floods

EARSC EO Product Award 2019

EARSC EO product award for 2019 will recognise a product which will support overall sustainable development projects or the implementation of the SDGs at national, regional and/or local levels, and the monitoring and reporting against the global indicator framework.

EARSC Industry Survey

EARSC, is conducting its industry survey to map the state and health of the companies providing EO services in Europe for the fourth time. Make your voice heard, answer the survey now!

EARSC Job Opening: Project Officer

The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) is a trade association based in Brussels. negotiation Primarily a membership focused organisation, EARSC has recently been successful in winning contracts to expand its activities to support the industry which it represents. In consequence we are now seeking a Project Officer to increase the core team.

EARSC Job Opportunity: Product Manager

The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) is a trade association based in Brussels. Primarily a membership focused organisation, EARSC has recently been successful in winning contracts to expand its activities to support the industry which it represents. Some of these contracts involve the development of digital tools to achieve these ends. In consequence we are now seeking a Product Manager to increase the core team.

EO Quality Assurance Workshop, April 9 & 10 2019

Can more rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) and uncertainty evaluation of the EO end-to-end supply chain play a role in increasing the uptake and overall value/benefit of EO based products and services? And could this be further enhanced by the creation of some form of ‘certification’. This workshop should explore existing insufficiencies, roles and responsibilities of various actors along the chain, opportunities for improvement and a road map for implementation.

EO4GEO: Sector Skills Strategy Workshop in Patras (Greece) 4th December 2018

The second EO4GEO workshop and progress meeting took place in Patras, Greece from December 4th until 6th. EO4GEO is an Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance gathering 26 partners from 12 countries from academia, private and public sector active in the education/training and space/geospatial sectors. EO4GEO aims to help bridging the skills gap between supply and demand of education and training in the space/geospatial sector by reinforcing the existing ecosystem and fostering the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in end-user applications.

eoMALL News

eoMALL beta release is now live

GEO-CRADLE News

the GEO-CRADLE project officially closed in November 2018, but the GEO-CRADLEnetwork, which was established in the region of NAMEBA during the lifetime of the project, will not be closed. Our team, including myself and my colleagues, with the support of the Regional Coordinators, will continue to increase this network and our services in this Region!

Geospatial World Forum 2019

EARSC is a partner of the Geospatial World Forum 2019!

IDEEO Worshop: Earth Observation & International Market Development Opportunities & Challenges

The IDEEO project is funded under the COSME Cluster Go International action. It promotes internationally the use of Earth Observation in different sectors. Join us!

Mercator Ocean International and EARSC signed a partnership!

Mercator Ocean International and the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) are pleased to invite you to the kick-off event of a partnership signed between the two entities in the context of the Copernicus Programme. The Partnership is the first one of its kind with EARSC in the Copernicus Ecosystem. It will be signed during the 11th European Space Policy Conference, on 22nd January 2019 in Brussels, Belgium.

MEMBER NEWS

Cloudferro: It turns out that the forecasts of cloud computing from a few years ago were too cautious.

As recently as in 2013, it was estimated that at the end of last year, the value of the global market of cloud will reach the level of 32.5 billion dollars. Meanwhile, it is almost 5 times higher.

CybELE engagement to fight against environmental crime recognized during the 2018 Copernicus Masters competition

CybELE, short for Cyber Environmental Law Enforcement, was announced as the overall winner on the 4th December 2018 night at the Copernicus Masters Awards Ceremony in Marseille, France.

Deimos Imaging’s cloud-based imagery service for sustainable development in Uganda

Dependable and up-to-date information is important to respond to urban growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kampala, Uganda, access to very high-resolution cloud-based satellite imagery ensures dependable and timely information to help decision and policy makers to plan how to best use resources and make informed decisions.

Earth-i Updates Satellite Map of Queensland, Australia

Queensland State shows how images from space can support and improve decision-making for Governments and agencies. 30 January 2019 – New Space pioneer Earth-i today announced that it has completed the third annual update of the satellite map of the state of Queensland.
The map covers the whole of Queensland’s 1.9 million km2 and was created by Earth-i for the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (DNRME). The first map was produced in 2016 with Earth-i reappointed for updates in both 2017 and 2018.

GEO University News

New free online job board platform, dedicated on GIS and Earth Observation

German DIN Supports Foundations of Datacubes

January 2019 – What is a coverage, after all? This fundamental spatio-temporal data structure, encompassing (among others) datacubes, is widely used, based on adopted and implemented OGC and ISO standards like WCS. However, the conceptual foundations are outdated. This is being changed now.

GISAT won the Award for Best Czech Applied Research Project in 2018

Introduction and demonstration of SAR interferometry services for monitoring of transport infrastructure has been selected as the best project funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in the Governance category.

Hyperscout offers unique onboard data processing?

HyperScout 1, the first miniaturized hyperspectral imager for space, successfully demonstrated that it is possible to process acquired satellite data on board. By knowing the position of the satellite and in which direction it points, the instrument knows what it is looking at and can interpret the data, thus eliminating the need to download the data . The HyperScout 1 camera, launched in February on board the GOMX-4B satellite, produced the so-called Analysis Ready Data (ARD) hereby successfully demonstrating the onboard data processing workflow for the first time.

Introducing BlueDot, EO Solution for Water Resources Monitoring

Sinergise introduced the BlueDot Water Observatory service based on the Copernicus satellite imagery that provides timely information about water levels of lakes, dams, reservoirs, wetlands and similar water bodies globally. The BlueDot provides useful information and easy-to-use services on its own, but it can also serve as a starting point, a reference, around which a larger, predictive analytics-oriented business focused on exploitation of satellite imagery can be built.

Planetek Italia: 25 years devoted to simplifying the complexity of Space.

In 1994, four young professionals believed in the potential of Earth Observation and geospatial information to do business with and founded Planetek Italia, establishing their activities in Bari, Italy.

So, 25 years ago on January 14th, Giovanni Sylos Labini, Mariella Pappalepore, Sergio Samarelli and Vincenzo Barbieri started providing products and services in the fields of Earth Observation and Space. And this is still the company’s challenge.

View from outer space: an approach for smart decision making

Satellites view the Earth as a whole – collecting data without regard to political boundaries. In an ever-changing and uncertain world, very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery is fast becoming a common tool to predict future threats, monitor development outcomes and minimise risk at all levels of government. As such, policy makers now need to be provided with more information than ever before and usually this information is time critical.

Viewace: an approach for smart decision making

Satellites view the Earth as a whole – collecting data without regard to political boundaries. In an ever-changing and uncertain world, very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery is fast becoming a common tool to predict future threats, monitor development outcomes and minimise risk at all levels of government. As such, policy makers now need to be provided with more information than ever before and usually this information is time critical.

EARTH OBSERVATION NEWS

11th Annual Conference on European Space Policy - opening speech

Please find Elżbieta Bieńkowska opening speech at 11th EU⁩ Annual Space Policy Conference

CREODIAS - Knowledge from outer space for who?

For centuries, people have been trying to “read” the sky and make attempts to describe what the universe looks like. The information from the stars was used to measure time or navigation. However, the observation of the blue sphere before the technological revolution was very limited. For example, Nicolaus Copernicus, who in one of the sketches of the famous painting by Jan Matejko had a telescope at his feet, did not have this instrument at all, because it did not exist at the time.

Knowledge and innovation hub for the Copernicus Academy

Copernicus – a game-changer in academia-business relationships

The Space sector in Europe has been boosted by the Copernicus programme, bringing ample socio-economic and environmental benefits to public sector, businesses and citizens. To foster a globally competitive European space sector and ensure European autonomy in accessing and using space in a safe and secure environment, it is necessary to stimulate the integration of space into European economy and society.

Satellite images reveal global poverty

How far have we come in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals that we are committed to nationally and internationally? Yes, it can be difficult to make a global assessment of poverty and poor economic conditions, but with an eye in the sky, researchers are able to give us a very good hint of the living conditions of populations in the world’s poor countries.

PROGRAMMES

"Copernicus Master in Digital Earth" launched!

Applications for this new European Master study programme now are invited until March 14

UK Space Agency COMPASS project aims to to improve crop yields for Mexican farmers

SIAP, the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food – part of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) – has signed a declaration of intent with the UK Space Agency to provide historic, statistical and satellite data to support Rezatec’s development of a crop yield optimisation tool for Mexican farmers and other supply chain stakeholders.

INTERNATIONALISATION

China Launches Two Satellites for Multi Spectral Imaging

China launched two satellites for multispectral imaging on a Long March-11 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 1:42 pm on Monday.

South Africa announces successful launch of Africa's most advanced nanosatellite

Africa’s most advanced nanosatellite, developed by South Africa, was successfully launched on Thursday, the South African Department of Science and Technology said.

Vietnam Launches a MicroDragon Satellite for Various Earth Observation Tasks

MicroDragon, a made-in-Vietnam Earth observation satellite, was launched into space at 9:50 am in Japan on January 18 (local time).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) carried out the launch of MicroDragon along with six Japanese satellites using an Epsilon-4 rocket from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture, some 1,000 km away from Tokyo.

EVENTS

Upcoming Events