GMES : News

Ice Monitoring

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:13:00 +0200

The Southern Ocean in the Antarctic is an increasingly busy route for sea traffic related mainly to scientific research, transport freight, fishing and tourists� experiences. However, ever-changing pack ice and icebergs pose a serious danger to marine safety.

Because of the remote and inhospitable nature of the Southern Ocean, satellite imagery offers the only real practical means of obtaining timely information on sea ice, which is crucial to ensure safe and efficient marine traffic.

For some years, ESA has been providing these key satellite data to aid navigation but the 'Polar View' ice-monitoring service in the Antarctic has recently been greatly improved by a wealth of real-time satellite images, made easily accessible through a new website. The latter works by providing an interactive map that displays the latest satellite imagery and sea-ice information.

Although Envisat is currently the main provider of images for the Polar View's website, the future Sentinel satellites of GMES are also expected to contribute with more data.

The �Polar View� is an international initiative that provides Earth Observation services and data products for environmental monitoring and safety in the polar regions. In this capacity, Polar View is at the forefront of providing ice-monitoring services for GMES.

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMRJ0ZNZBG_index_0.html

EC VP Tajani visits ESRIN

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:07:00 +0200

On 26 July 2010 the Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, visited ESRIN- ESA's Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, south of Rome, Italy. This was his first visit to an ESA establishment since Mr Tajani is in charge with Industry and Entrepreneurship.

Given that the GMES initiative forms part of his portfolio on space, the visit was an opportunity for the Vice-President to hear first-hand about the progress made in the development of the GMES space component (notably the placement of contracts with industry for the construction of the three pairs of GMES Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites) and the challenges that lie ahead.

Moreover, the Commissioner was given an overview of ESA, its programme for Earth Observation, the expertise within ESRIN in managing the payload operations for Earth Observation missions and the benefits that ESA's activities bring to Europe's industry and society.

In this respect, Mr Tajani saw examples of how Earth Observation satellites have shown the changes in the sea-ice in the Arctic as a result of climate change, and how atmospheric monitoring has revealed nitrogen oxide pollution directly resulting from industrialisation. The Vice-President was also shown how satellites data are crucial for effective disaster management.

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMYVYYNZBG_index_0.html

GMES Emergency Response in Bulgaria

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:22:00 +0200

An emergency situation has been declared in the Pazardzhik district, central southern Bulgaria, after heavy rains caused extensive flooding in the area. Numerous houses in a number of towns and villages in the region have been damaged and the main road between Pazardzhik and Plovdiv has been.

The SAFER's focal point was activated on Monday 26 July 2010 19:49 by the Bulgarian DG Civil Protection (Ministry of Interior). Rappid mapping products have been requested for three different zones.

SAFER is the FP7-funded project responsible for the implementation of the pre-operational GMES Emergency Response Service.

Examples of previous SAFER's activations are provided here.

Living Planet Symposium

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:04:00 +0200

The latest ESA Living Planet Symposium, which took place on 28 June - 2 July 2010 in Bergen, Norway, gathered more than 1400 scientists and users from all over the world to present the development of current and future ESA�s Earth Observation missions. The progress made by the GMES initiative since the last Symposium in 2007 was also presented. Attendees demonstrated a great interest in the topic as the six sessions dedicated to GMES were often full.

In overall, the audience was informed that GMES is rapidly moving forward from research and development to the operational phase. Among the most important milestones accomplished for GMES since the last Symposium are the funding of the Space Component, allocated at the 2008 ESA�s Ministerial Council, and the subsequent placement of contracts for the Sentinel satellites. Regarding the delivery of operational data, Sentinel-1 was described as a major leap forward solid Earth sciences and applications, such as monitoring deformation in volcanically active areas, while Sentinel-2 will open up new possibilities for applications in land science.

Another milestone for GMES has been the release of contracts for the ground segment to prepare for Sentinel data acquisition, processing and dissemination.

The services for monitoring air quality, being developed by the FP7 funded projects MACC and Pasodoble, were presented at the Symposium as example of services that GMES can offer to improve the daily lives of European citizens.

It was reminded, however, that although much progress has been made, GMES still remains a complex and expansive undertaking with challenges ahead, most of them associated with future funding.

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/SEMYITWNPBG_LPgmes_0.html

Geo-information services

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:01:00 +0200

On 22 July 2010 it was announced that Astrium had strengthened its presence in Greece by creating the company Spot Infoterra Hellas. This was done by merging the Greek company Geomet, a long-standing partner of the Geo-information division of Astrium Services in Greece, into the new entity.

Spot Infoterra Hellas will provide a full range of satellite products, including data acquisition, processing and advanced geo-information services. Moreover, GMES services will be developed with a special focus on natural disasters such as the fires that devastated Greece in 2009. The newly created company will also offer all the know-how of Astrium Services in sectors like maritime surveillance, border patrols and national and regional planning.

Spot Infoterra Hellas will benefit from Geomet's experience in the satellite services market in Greece and will further develop the local market, including neighbouring countries.

More information at:
http://www.spotinfoterra.com/Upload/News/File/20100722_sih_eng.pdf

Ocean Monitoring

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:48:00 +0200

The Pierre et Marie Curie University (UPMC), the National Institute of Sciences of the Universe (INSU) CNRS, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the ACRI-ST company are partners in a scientific consortium (Groupement d�Int�r�t Scientifique � GIS), called GIS COOC (COOC stands for COlour of the OCean). This consortium, focused on the study and observation of "ocean colour", aims at better understanding the relationships between the current climate changes and marine plankton. The consortium is born of a collaboration of nearly 20 years between the Laboratoire d�Oc�anographie de Villefranche (UPMC - CNRS) and the ACRI-ST company, which are, between them, a renowned research group in France and internationally in the field of ocean colour. Cooperation among the different partners of the consortium includes the sharing of scientific and technical expertise, mutual assistance in terms of human and technical resources, dissemination and application of results from joint studies, and planning future remote sensing activities.

The consortium will focus on the scientific interpretation and use of observation data obtained from ocean colour satellites (radiometry in the visible and near infrared domains) and by in situ sensors, and on studies concerning future satellite sensors. One major result of ocean colour studies is better knowledge of the role played by marine planktonic organisms in the carbon cycle at the global scale and therefore in current climate changes.

The COOC consortium has the critical mass and the necessary skills to be proactive in meeting the requests from space agencies and the national and international scientific communities. The consortium aims to become, before long, the production and archiving centre and the data portal for all ocean colour space and in situ missions. Its frame of reference is that of the future space missions, French and/or European, dedicated to the biogeochemistry of oceans and their roles in climate change. The creation of the consortium is consistent with the CNES recommendations for 2010-2020 activities on the analysis of ocean colour.

The main scientific objectives of the GIS COOC are:

The continuation and deepening of algorithmic research to estimate the biogeochemical properties of the oceans from space, especially considering the special characteristics and needs of coastal areas,
The creation biogeochemical data archives on the long-term and for the global ocean (Essential Climate Variables)
The continuation of key calibration and validation activities of satellite data (e.g., through the use of data acquired by the permanent instrumented mooring "BOUSSOLE" in the Mediterranean).

The GIS COOC also considers the needs of society role with the development of innovative products and services meeting the concerns of citizens (or the needs of public health and safety), the promotion of training and education through post-doctoral fellows, seminars, conferences and publications and finally, communication with national and international policymakers and the general public. The Chair of the GIS COOC Council is Professor Jean Charles Pomerol, President of UPMC. The director of the GIS is UPMC Professor Louis Legendre and the Chair of the Steering Committee is Dr. Constant Mazeran, research engineer at the ACRI-ST company.

Contact : info@gis-cooc.org

FP7 Space Research

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:27:00 +0200

The fourth call for proposals under the Seventh Framework Programme's space theme was published on 20 July 2010.

The deadline of this call is 25 November 2010 at 17:00:00 (Brussels local time).

The objective of the FP7 space work programme is to support a European Space Policy focussing on applications such as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), with benefits for citizens, whilst also furthering other space foundation areas for the competitiveness of the European space industry. With EUR 99 million, the fourth space call will therefore focus on ensuring the continuity of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) operational services, and support research on space exploration technologies and ways to protect the Earth from potentially devastating asteroid impacts under the Strengthening Space Foundations (SSF) theme.

More information available at

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=4457&tpa_id=141&lang=en

Research and Innovation

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:46:00 +0200

On 19 July 2010 the European Commissioner for Research, M�ire Geoghegan-Quinn, announced nearly �6.4 billion of European Commission�s investment in research and innovation for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) in 2011. The package, which is the biggest ever seen EU funding in the research area, covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, public policy areas and commercial sectors. As a result, the funding will advance scientific boundaries, contribute to new and better products and services, increase European competitiveness and address challenges such as climate change, energy and food security.

Grants will be awarded through �calls for proposals� and evaluations over the coming 14 months. Many of these calls have been formally published on 20 July. Environment research projects will get about �205 million.

The allocated package is seen as a huge and efficient economic stimulus to create jobs as well as a long-term investment in a smarter, sustainable and more inclusive Europe. The latter is a key element within the EU's 2020 Strategy, and in particular the Innovation Union Flagship, which will be launched this autumn.

The budget for the FP7 calls for proposals in 2011 has been increased with 12% in comparison to 2010 (�5.7 billion), and 30% in comparison to 2009 (�4.9 billion).

More information at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/966&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Ice Monitoring

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:45:00 +0200

On 20 July 2010 ESA announced that first data from its ice mission CryoSat-2 are released to selected scientists around the world for fine-tuning. This comes about three months after the mission was launched into orbit (8 April 2010).

The released data are essential for determining tiny variations in the thickness of ice floating in the polar oceans and in the large ice sheets that blanket Antarctica and Greenland.

As part of the calibration and validation procedure, the scientists that have access to these first CryoSat-2 data should help ensure that they meet the mission's exacting standards before the data are released to the wider scientific community later this year. This will be the final part of the commissioning phase, while the previous parts have confirmed that the satellite and instruments are in excellent health.

CryoSat-2 is Europe's first mission dedicated to studying variations in Earth�s ice cover. The expected data should be of unprecedented accuracy and will help to better understand the impact of climate change on polar ice. In order to guarantee the data�s high level accuracy, ESA is organising appropriate airborne and ground measurement campaigns.

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM213WNPBG_index_0.html

GMES Marine Service

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:27:00 +0200

On 24 April 2007, the GMES Marine Core Service (MCS) Implementation Group published a document entitled "MCS Strategic Implementation Plan" which provided guidelines and prioritisation for implementation.

The MCS implementation group published recently a document called "GMES Marine Service update to MCS Strategic Implementation Plan" which accompany and expand the document released on 24 April 2007. The update focuses on four main issues:

User focus
Verification
Reaction Capability
One European entity

The document substantiates the foreseen changes and extra efforts needed to establish the GMES Marine Service. The document is available here.

Mapping of hotspots

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:32:00 +0200

The SAFER project (which is responsible for the implementation of pre-operational emergency response service of GMES) is creating an archive of mapping products of hotspots, where the risk of potential natural disasters is high. The advantage of creating maps in advance of a real crisis is that products with higher accuracy, associated with a more rigorous and less time dependent process, can be delivered rapidly as a response to a disaster. This strategy has proved to be very effective in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, where maps of Myanmar had been produced a few months before the disaster and were distributed immediately after it.

Hotspot areas have been identified from a number of different sources, but only on a large regional scale. Therefore further refinement is needed to determine priority areas as required by the user community. SAFER is thus looking to different agencies and organisations to provide their priority areas in order to use the mapping capacity of the project most effectively.

More information at:
http://www.emergencyresponse.eu/site/docs_wsw/RUB_30/Hotspot%20Mapping%20Areas1.pdf

GMES Emergency Response in Moldova

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:41:00 +0200

The floods that struck Romania and Ukraine have also affected Moldova. Around 500 residential buildings have been damaged. Thousands of hectares of agricultural lands have been flooded and many roads and bridges have been damaged too.

The SAFER's focal point was activated on Thursday 8 July 2010 20:34 by the Monitoring Information Centre of EC DG ECHO.

SAFER is the FP7-funded project responsible for the implementation of the pre-operational GMES Emergency Response Service.

Examples of previous SAFER's activations are provided here.

Maritime Safety

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:42:00 +0200

On 2 July 2010 the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) signed an Agreement which further strengthens cooperation between the two agencies for the use of space-based systems and data in support of maritime activities. This agreement follows an earlier Agreement that already expired in March 2010.

The new Agreement aims to ensure that satellite data are available to enhance maritime safety and help combat pollution from shipping. The role of EMSA is to support the implementation of the European policy in the field of maritime safety and security, therefore one of its goals is to reduce the risk of marine pollution and illegal activities at sea by using satellite monitoring.

ESA takes accordingly into account EMSA�s requirements for satellite data, both for future operational satellite missions and instruments (such as GMES), as well as for data of current missions.

The availability of satellite data in near-real time, particularly from radars like the Advance Synthetic Aperture Radar on Envisat, and from the future GMES Sentinel-1, is an essential way of monitoring events that can affect seas� environment and safety, such as oil spills.

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMKNJRZ5BG_index_0.html

EUMETSAT

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:49:00 +0200

The 70th Council meeting of EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) took place on 21-22 June 2010 in Rome, Italy.
Among other issues, the Council discussed the role of EUMETSAT in the European Space Policy and in GMES through the adoption of a dedicated resolution. This resolution emphasises the need to recognise that user-governed entities, such as EUMETSAT, play an important role in structuring space activities, particularly when these activities address operational services, like in the case of GMES. EUMETSAT Member States agreed on a definition of the activities that can be carried out by user-governed entities and proposed that, in the case of GMES, EUMETSAT is involved from the federation of user requirements at European level up to and including the operations of the related satellites.
The above mentioned activities would come in support of the European Commission. In the case of GMES the Commission is responsible for the interaction with user communities to specify European space systems in support of European policies. EUMETSAT could be thus the European entity supporting the EU for the GMES activities related to operational oceanography, atmospheric composition monitoring and climate monitoring.
More information at:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/Press_Releases/718683?l=en

Baltic Sea Maritime Policy

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:38:00 +0200

The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) is a political forum for regional inter-governmental cooperation, which gathers together the eleven states of the Baltic Sea region and the European Commission. The role of the Council is to serve as a forum for guidance and overall coordination among the participating states.

On 4 June 2009 the Expert Group on Maritime Policy (EGMP) was set up with the aim to contribute to sustainable growth and employment in the maritime sector.

Based on its terms of reference, the EGMP has recently created a Virtual Communication Platform that includes the collection of documents and links related to maritime policy in the Baltic Sea region. The initiative will help increase knowledge on different maritime policy initiatives and stakeholders activities related to maritime policy in the Baltic Sea region.

In order to improve the content on the platform, stakeholders are invited to send their suggestions/comments as well as any other relevant information related to the maritime policy in the Baltic Sea.

To access the EGMP Virtual Communication Platform:
http://www.cbss.org/Economic-Development/virtual-communication-platform-on-maritime-policy