GMES : News

Xynthia Storm

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:36:00 +0100

The products delivered by the SAFER project at the occasion of the windstorm that struck the western coast of France on 27 & 28 February 2010 (see news published on this website on 08/03/10) are now available on the project's website.

These products consist of Flood Impact Maps and are derived from SPOT, ENVISAT ASAR and Radarsat-2 imagery.

They can be accessed here.

Border Surveillance

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:31:00 +0100

The 2998^th Council of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) met in Brussels on 25-26 February 2010. The Council adopted conclusions on "29 measures for reinforcing the protection of the external borders and combating illegal immigration".

Among the five measures that concern the development of the European Surveillance System - EUROSUR, one measure specifically refers to GMES: the Council has agreed "[...]To invite the Commission to report before the end of 2010 on how the conclusions of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) border surveillance group on common application of surveillance tools, such as satellites, could be implemented in the EU land and sea borders".

The press release presenting the Council Conclusions is available on the Council of the European Union website

GMES Emergency Response Service in Madeira

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:28:00 +0100

On 20 February 2010 the Atlantic island of Madeira, Portugal, was devastated by heavy rainfall that caused floods and landslides on the island, where at least 48 people were reported dead and 120 injured. The higher parts of the capital Funchal were hit particularly bad and many roads on the island were destroyed or blocked.

Following this event, SAFER was triggered on 22 February by the Portuguese Civil Protection and the European Council. SAFER products were produced by the German Aerospace Center DLR and the European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) - a sample of these products can be found on the SAFER�s and DLR�s websites.

More information at:
www.emergencyresponse.eu/site/FO/scripts/myFO_contenu.php

GMES Emergency Response Service in Hungary

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:39:00 +0100

The SAFER Focal Point has received a request from the "National Directorate General for Disaster Management of Hungary" in order to provide mapping services for two different areas in the country.

More detailed information should be available soon on the SAFER website

GMES Emergency Response Service in France

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:29:00 +0100

Between 27 and 28 February 2010, France was hit by the violent windstorm Xynthia which caused the death of more than 50 persons and wounded 300 in the Vend�e and Charente-Maritime. Xynthia was described by the French civil defence as the most violent storm since Lothar in 1999.

SAFER was triggered on 27 February by COGIC (Direction de la S�curit� Civile Fran�aise). SAFER products were delivered by the French Sertit (Regional service of image treatment and remote sensing, Strasbourg) - a sample of these products can be found on the SAFER�s and Sertit�s websites.

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

More information at:
www.emergencyresponse.eu/site/FO/scripts/myFO_contenu.php

Elevation Data for GMES

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:25:00 +0100

On 2 March 2010 Intermap Technologies, a company specialized in 3D digital mapping and geospatial solutions, announced that its German subsidiary, Intermap Technologies GmbH, is providing a seamless digital elevation model (DEM) of the 38 countries comprising the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The new EU-DEM will serve as the elevation data component of the GMES Geospatial Reference Data Program � supporting the GMES Land Monitoring and Emergency Response Services.

According to the contract, the freely accessible EU-DEM will be created using publicly available Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data.

Intermap will ensure access to the new EU-DEM for the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry via a set of middleware, OGC compliant, services over the next 3 years, beginning January 2010. The EU-DEM will provide the GMES user community with an underlying 3D geographic framework, upon which additional thematic datasets can be produced and distributed. It will also enable the rigorous assessment, analysis, and monitoring of geospatial relationships between multiple databases.

More information at:
www.intermap.com/interior.php/pid/1/sid/306/tid/245/nid/2301

Data flows for GMES

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:05:00 +0100

Recently, on 12 February 2010, the European Environment Agency (EEA) announced that it had started coordinating data flows from ground, sea and air observations, which will be used for GMES services. In order to make the data accessible, EEA will develop an innovative and sustainable framework using existing mechanisms and capacities.

The EEA has signed a EUR 3 million contract with the European Commission to coordinate in situ data flows over the next three years under the EU�s 7^th Framework Programme. This contract is considered as an important step in ensuring that the mechanisms are in place to move GMES beyond the pilot phase.

Having a long experience in managing networks of data providers, EEA will focus on:

Promoting cooperation with relevant networks;
Clarifying the data requirements of the GMES services;
Designing long-term sustainable solutions to meet data needs;
Case studies and quick wins.

More information at:
www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/eea-set-to-improve-data-flows-for-gmes

Jason-3

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:16:00 +0100

On 24 February 2010 Thales Alenia Space announced that it had signed with the French Space Agency (CNES) a contract to build the Jason-3 satellite.

The Jason-3 operational oceanographic mission involves a quadripartite collaboration between the two meteorological organisations EUMETSAT and NOAA, acting as the leaders of the programme, and CNES and NASA. Covering all ice-free ocean surfaces, Jason-3 will ensure the continuity of high precision ocean topography measurements beyond TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2, which are now operational in orbit. Moreover, Jason-3 will offer the same measurement accuracy as Jason-2, including near coastal zones as well as lakes and rivers.

As regards the composition of Jason-3, it features the Poseidon-3B dual-frequency altimeter, which continues to be the key instrument in this spaceborne observation programme. Included in the core mission, Jason-3 will embark the DORIS precise orbit determination system, an Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMR), a GPS payload (GPSP), and a Laser Retro-reflector Array (LRA).

The launch of Jason-3 is expected for mid 2013 for a mission life of 3 years.

More information at:
http://www.thalesgroup.com/Pages/PressRelease.aspx?id=11804&pid=1575

EU Policy

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:19:00 +0100

At the next Justice and Home Affairs Council, which will take place in Brussels on 25 and 26 February 2010, Ministers are expected to approve an EU strategy in the field of internal security. Being one of the priorities of the Spanish Presidency in this area, the strategy sets out the main crime-related threats and challenges the EU is facing, and establishes a European Security Model, which addresses civil protection and disaster management along with other security issues.

Later on, the Competitiveness Council will be held on 1 and 2 March 2010. At that time, the Council will be informed on progress relating to the proposal for a regulation on the European Earth Observation Programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011-2013). Among other items on the agenda will be also the need for a new industrial policy and developments in the governance of the European Research Area as well as evaluation of the mechanisms and structures of the European Research Council.

More information at:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/mainact/112927.pdf

New EC DGs

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:16:00 +0100

With the view to implement the allocation of portfolios to its newly nominated Commissioners, the European Commission officially created on 17 February 2010 two new Directorates-General - DG Energy (ENER) and DG Climate Action (CLIM).

As regards the latter, it will be created from the relevant activities in DG Environment, the activities in the External Relations DG related to international negotiations on climate change and the activities in the Enterprise and Industry DG related to climate change. Mr Jos Delbeke has been appointed Director-General of the Climate Action DG.

More information at:
europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do

Ice Monitoring

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:56:00 +0100

Recently ESA announced that the lift-off of its ice mission satellite CryoSat is scheduled for 25 February 2010 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Using the first all-weather microwave radar altimeter, CryoSat will investigate with high accuracy the Earth�s ice fields and map ice thickness. The instrument should be able to determine changes in the thickness of both floating sea ice, which can be up to several metres, and polar land ice sheets, which in Antarctica can be up to five kilometres. The combined monitoring of ice cover and ice thickness will provide valuable information about how climate change is affecting the Polar Regions.

After the launcher failure of the initial CryoSat satellite in October 2005, the new CryoSat satellite will be the third of ESA�s Earth Explorer satellites in orbit, following on from GOCE (launched in March 2009) and SMOS (launched in November 2009).

More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM3WUMEG5G_index_0.html

GMES Land Monitoring Service

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:55:00 +0100

On 9 February 2010 a summary of the FP7 project geoland2, which ensures the pre-operational GMES land service, was published on line.

First the summary provides an introduction to the services provided by geoland2, which can be divided into two categories: Core Mapping Services and Core Information Services. Secondly, the summary presents the envisaged project outcomes and their impact, followed by the project activities and major achievements in 2008/2009.

As regards the achievements, products and services delivered in 2009 include: Euroland, BioPar, Spatial Planning, Forestry, Water, Agri-Environment, Land Carbon, Natural Resource Management of Africa (NARMA), Global Crop Monitoring and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).

The full summary can be found at:
http://www.gmes-geoland.info/events/download/geoland2_PublishableSummary_I1.01.pdf

Proposal for a GMES regulation

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:32:00 +0100

The Commission�s proposal for a regulation on the GMES programme and its initial operations (2011�2013) is currently being scrutinised in the European Parliament, where the Industry, Research and Energy Committee is in charge with drafting the report on the proposal. The Parliament�s Committee on Budgets (which was appointed to give an opinion on the proposal along with the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee) issued its draft opinion on 7 January 2010 (MEP rapporteur - Damien Abad, PPE). More recently, on 4 February 2010, the Committee on Budgets adopted new amendments on the proposal, in addition to the amendments proposed by Mr Abad.

These latest amendments concern the financing of the entire duration of GMES initial operations as well as the development phase of the programme, the funding instrument for its implementation and the data continuity. Among key elements is the suggestion to increase the financial envelope allocated to the implementation of the regulation to EUR 500 million, while the Commission has initially proposed EUR 107 million.

The MEPs of the Industry Committee will vote on the final report in March this year, followed by the vote in Plenary expected in June.

More information at:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-438.449+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=FR

Jason-3

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:19:00 +0100

On 2 February 2010 EUMETSAT announced that the Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite Programme was approved by EUMETSAT Member States which will ensure a continuation of the series of measurements made by the Jason-2 satellite and its predecessors.

Jason-2 provides a vital contribution to the monitoring of climate change, ocean circulation and weather and already supplies the data continuity that is essential for measuring the sea level trend, one of the key indicators of climate change. Jason-3 will continue the mission, ensuring thus the measurement of rising sea levels carried out by Jason-2, Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon over the last 18 years.

Nineteen EUMETSAT Member States (corresponding to 80 per cent of EUMETSAT members, including all its largest Member States) agreed to subscribe to the Jason-3 Programme and they plan to contribute together �63.6 million to the �252-million programme cost of Jason-3.

The Jason-3 programme is led by EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Additionally, the Centre National d�Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, is making a significant in-kind contribution to the programme and will act at the technical level as the system coordinator, while the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in conjunction with the three other partners, will support science team activities.

More information at:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/Press_Releases/716556

GMES Atmosphere Service

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:34:00 +0100

The pre-operational monitoring and evaluation of the MACC stratospheric ozone service is now available on-line from the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomie.

The MACC stratospheric ozone service is compared with the BASCOE NRT analyses of AURA-MLS level-2 data. Besides the reference NRT run, the evaluation results for the alternative IFS-TM5 operational service are also displayed. The webpage will be regularly updated with new monitoring and evaluation tools as the MACC project advances:

NRT calculation of synthetic skill scores;
comparison with independent satellite data;
comparison with ground-based and balloon observations.

More information at:
http://www.gmes-atmosphere.eu/news/bascoe/