GMES : News

GMES Programme

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:46:00 +0100

In line with its communication "Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): we care for a safer planet", the European Commission issued a decision on 5 February 2010 aimed at setting up the GMES Partners Board. The latter is intended to assist the Commission in the overall coordination of GMES. The tasks of this Board will include the following:

To establish cooperation between Member States bodies and the Commission on questions related to GMES;
To assist the Commission in monitoring the coherent implementation of the GMES programme;
To assist the Commission with the preparation of a strategic implementation framework of the GMES programme;
To bring about an exchange of experience and good practice in the field of GMES and Earth observation.

The Board shall be composed of 27 members, nominated by the Member States and appointed by the Commission as representatives of a public authority for a one-year renewable term of office.

As regards the organisation, the Board shall be chaired by the Commission and, when appropriate, assisted by the European Space Agency (ESA) or the European Environment Agency (EEA). It is also planed to set up sub-groups to examine specific questions under terms of reference established by the Board. The Board and its sub-groups shall normally meet on the Commission premises.

The decision, which entered into force on 8 February 2010, shall apply until 31 December 2011.

More information at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:035:0023:0025:EN:PDF

GMES Atmosphere Service

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:42:00 +0100

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) welcomed more than 120 visitors to the First General Assembly of the MACC project, which was held from 11 to 15 January 2010.

The aim of the Assembly was to review and present the project�s progress to date and plans for the coming year. This was achieved through a set of parallel meetings on individual themes, followed by plenary presentations and discussions.

The Assembly also included a plenary session devoted to user requirements, plans and initial feedback. Training lectures were provided as well, and there were meetings of the Advisory and Management Boards for the project.

MACC is the FP7 project that is currently providing the pre-operational version of the GMES Atmosphere Service.

Presentations from the plenary sessions are now available on the MACC website.

GMES Atmosphere Service

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:36:00 +0100

The operational verification of the aerosol analysis/forecasting system is available on the MACC web site from 9 January 2010. Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values from the short-term forecast are compared to the observed values from the AERONET on a daily basis.

The MACC team as well as the users have now the option to monitor the quality of the aerosol monitoring system.

MACC is the FP7 project that is currently providing the pre-operational version of the GMES Atmosphere Service.

The near-real-time aerosol verification data are available on the MACC website

Sentinel-2

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:15:00 +0100

The French company Sofradir, which manufactures Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) infrared detectors for military, space and industrial applications, won a further �2.5m contract to provide a second batch of 15 micron-pitch multi-linear short-wave infrared (SWIR) arrays for GMES.

This follows a previous �6.7m contract from the satellite and space equipment supplier Astrium SAS in November 2008 to custom-design a three-band SWIR for the GMES Sentinel-2 mission.

The MCT-based infrared detectors are replacing competing technology, previously used in European space projects. The latest multi-linear SWIR arrays are for the Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) - an Earth Observation instrument on board each of the Sentinel-2 satellites.

The Sentinel-2 MSI is a filter-based push-broom imager that provides imagery in 13 spectral channels with spatial resolutions ranging from 10m to 60m and fast revisit allowed by a 290km swath width. The instrument is required to operate over a wide spectral range, extending from the visible near-infrared to the short-wave infrared.

Sofradir will start delivering flight models for the two Sentinel satellites by the middle of 2010.

More information at:
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2010/JAN/SOFRADIR_260110.htm

GMES Programme

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:20:00 +0100

On 27 January 2010, German MEP Norbert GLANTE (S&D) who is currently in charge of drafting the report on GMES, talked about GMES services and explained the report�s state-of-play.

Rapporteur underlined the fact that the data collected by nations, research institutes, private companies and military observations are not sufficiently compatible. "GMES is about collecting and preparing reliable data using satellites and terrestrial facilities", he said. Since the project will soon move into its operational phase, he emphasized the expected benefits brought to citizens by saying:

"The aim is to guarantee better management of the environment through information about the earth�s surface, biodiversity, condition of oceans and composition of the atmosphere. This should provide greater security for the population, for example in connection with natural disasters." However, he noted that GMES services will not be able to prevent from natural catastrophes but that they can reduce the negative effects.

With regard to the parliamentary discussions, there are three main questions that need to be clarified:

Where to find new money to launch the satellites?
Are the data going to be free of charge or will users have to pay?
How to coexist with private companies providing similar services and data?

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will vote on the report in March and the vote in the plenary is expected in June 2010.

More information is available here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5776632

GMES Services for Haiti

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:37:00 +0100

In the days that have followed the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, GMES has provided several Civil Protection Authorities as well as international or non governmental associations with rapid mapping.

Practically, two different GMES services were solicited in the aftermath of this major disaster: the GMES Emergency Response Service developed by the SAFER project and the GMES Security Service developed by the G-MOSAIC project. Both were activated on 14 January 2010 and provided reference maps, damage assessment maps, road practicability maps, briefing notes, etc.

More information here

EU Civil Protection

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:36:00 +0100

The nomination of Mrs Kristalina Georgieva as new Bulgarian Commissioner was approved by Mr Barroso on 21 January for the portfolio originally proposed to Mrs Jeleva who announced her resignation from all political responsibilities following the strong political pressure following her hearing.

The parliamentary hearing of new Commissioner-designated for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, is set on 3 February 2010.

The final plenary vote where the European Parliament approves or rejects the whole EC line-up has now been postponed to 9 February 2010.

International Charter "Space and Major Disasters"

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:30:00 +0100

Following the Haiti's earthquake, the French Civil Protection, UNOOSA on behalf of UN Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti, the Public Safety of Canada, American Earthquake Hazards Programme of USGS involved in the rescue work requested satellite data from the International Charter.

Born under the auspices of the United Nations during the UNISPACE III conference held in July 1999, the International Charter "Space and major disasters" is the expression of a joint effort to put space technologies at the disposal of rescue authorities in the case of disasters. Its primary objective is to provide the space data free of charge and ensure its delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters. To date, 10 agencies are members of the Charter.

Subsequently after the request, data are being collected by various satellites including Japan's ALOS, CNES's Spot-5, the U.S.'s WorldView and QuickBird, Canada's RADARSAT-2, China's HJ-1-A/B and ESA's ERS-2 and Envisat and processed into maps to show the degree of destruction.

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security's SAFER project is collaborating with the Charter to provide a specialised capacity to produce damage maps over the area. Based on the collaboration between the Charter and SAFER, the first space-maps derived from crisis data acquired on 13 January were produced within 24 hours as rapid situation maps to help locate damaged areas with up-to-date cartographic material.

More information at:

http://www.disasterscharter.org/web/charter/home

Earthquake in Haiti

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:50:00 +0100

On 14 January 2010, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, commented on the catastrophic natural developments in Haiti.

Starting with the expression of condolences to all the people and parties concerned, her speech emphasised the actions and measures that the EU has already taken in order to save lives and to rebuild existences. In addition to others she stressed:

"We are now putting all the different elements together that are at our disposal: Humanitarian relief, civil protection, but also other instruments that as satellite images provided by our Global Monitoring System (GMES) that are important for the coordination of the UN efforts on the ground."

More information on the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en.htm

Earthquake in Haiti

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0100

The G-MOSAIC project, which is developing the pre-operational version of the GMES Security Service, has been activated on January 14^th jointly by the United Nations, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Spanish Red Cross in order to produce geo-spatial products to assist relief efforts in Haiti.

Satellite imagery acquired immediately after the disaster were processed by G-MOSAIC and the first geo-spatial information was delivered to users on January 16^th.

This information includes:

Multi-temporal Coherence (MTC) maps and Interferometric Land Use (ILU) maps, which both help identifying areas that could have been damaged
Damage assessment analysis, which helps identifying damaged facilities (from small damages to full destruction)
Road assessment (free go / restricted go / No go)

The G-MOSAIC team has also been involved by the United Nations Cartography Section in the production of their road trafficability classification and damage assessment maps, now available in their website.

More information as well as the maps mentionned above are available on the G-MOSAIC website

Earthquake in Haiti

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:52:00 +0100

The strong earthquake of magnitude 7.0 that hit Haiti on the 12^th of January 2010 has caused heavy damages and many casualties.

The density and location of damages are key informations for planning and implementing rescue operations.

Since the activation of the GMES Emergency Response Service on 14^th January 2010, the SAFER project has provided several maps in order to support rescue operations.

These maps cover different areas (City of Port-au-Prince, L�og�ne, Jacmel, etc.) and provide different types of data such as damaged building density, presumed damaged buildings maps, affected zone, visibly damaged building maps, damage evaluation per urban blocks etc.

These maps can be downloaded here.

Sentinel Missions

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:05:00 +0100

The European Space Agency recently announced a call for Mission Advisory Group members for the missions of Sentinel 4 and 5. The series of �Sentinel� satellites is developed by the Agency within the framework of the GMES initiative.

The main objective of both satellites is to provide data for atmospheric composition monitoring: Sentinel-4 from geostationary orbit and Sentinel-5 from polar orbit.

Applications can be made via the following website: missionadvice.esa.int. Please note that the deadline for submission is 15 February 2010 (12:00 CET).

More information is available at:

esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/GMES/Sentinel4and5MRDissue1rev0signed.pdf

Earthquake in Haiti

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:04:00 +0100

SAFER, through a collaboration with the International Charter, has been triggered to provide Emergency Mapping service on the Earthquake that struck Ha�ti.

The COGIC (French Civil Protection), the BBK (German Civil Protection), the World Food Program and UNOOSA have already expressed their interest and specific requirements.

In order to complement the type of data already tasked by the International Charter, SAFER has been specifically triggered to get through GEST very high resolution radar data.

Today, the GMES emergency service has published maps of the Haitian capital Port au Prince. The maps provide an overview of damages (buildings, bridges, roads, etc.).

Yesterday the service delivered a first reference map with background information (e.g. population, epicentre location, etc).

More information on the GMES Emergency Response Service is available on the SAFER website. The maps can be downloaded here.

Institutions

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:00:00 +0100

On 12 January 2010, the Development Committee of the European Parliament organized the hearing of Mrs Rumania Jeleva, the Bulgarian Commissioner-designate for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. The aim of this proceeding was to ask her various questions related to humanitarian aid and crises response.

Crisis response

Charles Goerens (ALDE, LU) asked whether the EU's capacity to respond to natural disasters is sufficient and how to deal with the deficits in this area. Ms Jeleva said: "Now we have civil protection and humanitarian aid in the same portfolio and I will do my best to have better prepared responses and to use all the capacities given by the portfolio to better urge Member States to be more active in preparing themselves and to contribute at European level."
The voting in plenary, where the Parliament approves or rejects the whole Commission as a body, is scheduled on 26 January 2010.
More information at:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/008-67128-011-01-03-901-20100111IPR67127-11-01-2010-2010-false/default_en.htm

Soil Monitoring

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:15:00 +0100

On 22 December 2009, the EU Soil Portal published the two new soil maps of the EU territory.

The saline and sodic soil map demonstrates the distribution of natural saline or sodic soils as well as salt affected areas within the EU. Salinisation is the accumulation of soluble salts of sodium, magnesium and calcium in soil which are poisonous for the plants and leads towards reduced fertility. It is considered as one of the greatest environmental threats.

The soil compaction map provides a global picture of the European compaction soils which occurs when the weight of livestock or heavy machinery compresses the soil. Compaction is the reduction of soil pore space which leads to the reduced ability of rain absorption and causes various problems for growing the plants.

More information at:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&obj_id=9640&dt_code=NWS&lang=en