EADS SPACE: a leader of GMES with Infoterra and EADS Astrium
Berlin, ILA 2006, 16 May 2006
EADS Astrium, along with its European subsidiaries Infoterra are playing a leading role in the EU/ESA's major initiative on Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, or GMES. This initiative is designed to deliver a global monitoring capability to European governments and user communities across Europe. EADS Astriums´subsidiary, the Infoterra Group, coordinates European lead projects in three key GMES priorities, “Land Monitoring”, “Risk Management” and,“Humanitarian Relief” while contributing to a number of further projects. A number of proposals have been put forward, which are currently being evaluated.
EADS Astrium has invested in space data applications, both internally and through its subsidiaries and strong partner networks set-up or consolidated through the GMES activities. The company provides a number of commercial and public services and has developed tools for operational Earth observation applications, cooperating with users to meet their demands.
First GMES services (the fast-track services), the most mature ones which have been already validated, will start on an operational basis in 2008.They will use the existing satellite capacity (Spot 5, Envisat, Jason, etc.) These pilot services address:
Land monitoring, Response to risk and emergencies and Ocean modelling. Land monitoring and Response to risk and emergencies are piloted by Infoterra, EADS’ geo-information service providers, one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
Furthermore, Infoterra develops space applications and services in synergy with the specialised institutes, research centre and user organisations:
• Infoterra Germany develops the applications and services concerning the use of water, land take monitoring, the protection of soils and nature.
• Infoterra France develops the applications and services concerning the emergencies situations, Forest Fires, floods, natural disasters and volcanic surveillance.
• Infoterra UK develops the applications and services concerning the humanitarian relief
Development of Value Added Services
Within various GMES projects, EADS Astrium´s European subsidiaries Infoterra and Spot Image are developing a range of reliable, affordable and cost efficient European geo-information services in different application fields:
Development of Applications for Environmental Management
In 2004, Infoterra GmbH in Germany successfully completed the ESA GMES Service Element (GSE) SAGE, a project using geo-information to provide improved protection of water and soil in Europe. SAGE has been consolidated with two additional GSE projects, GMES Urban Services (GUS) and CoastWatch, Stage 2 for these projects has been proposed to ESA as GSE Land Information Services. This project aims to establish initial services based on GSE stage 1 and GEOLAND results, with operational services from 2008.
Infoterra co-ordinates a European consortium consisting of 60 user organisations, private and public service providers and researchers from 17 European member and accession states. Addressing application areas such as water quality/water pollution, nature protection, and spatial planning (urban growth, land consumption), results of this project may in the medium-term future actually affect the life of the European citizen – e.g. if it helps to improve or at least maintain the quality of ground, surface, and even drinking water.
The consortium will develop geo-information products and services, using available Earth observation resources in combination with in-situ measurements, and integrate them with existing models into pre-operational geo-information services. These will support international, European, national and regional authorities and institutions in fulfilling their increasing monitoring and reporting obligations arising from newly established European directives and policies.
Development of Applications for Risk Monitoring
The RISK-EOS service portfolio, developed within the framework of the GMES Service Elements program of the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to support the management of flash floods, plain floods, and forest fires, throughout all phases of the risk management process: prevention, alert, response, post-response.
After having successfully completed the project in late 2004, EADS-Astrium has recently proposed Risk EOS Stage 2 to ESA (2005-2007), an opportunity to advance and implement the flood risk and fire risk related applications developed during the first stage of the project.
EURORISK is a European-wide approach for the development, deployment and operation of new information services for risk management. EURORISK is a consortium of 60 partners across 15 nations, steered by EumetNet, comprising national civil defence organisations, EADS Astrium and other users, manufacturers, operators and scientists. Its purpose is to harmonize the tools used in order to obtain better forecasts and more efficient risk management.
Monitoring of fire ravaged areas, cartography of high risk areas, flood risk assessment, monitoring of water levels to predict fast floods: all these services are available across selected areas of France, Italy, Sweden, Germany and Spain.
New operational services will be available over the next few years in Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy:
• Monitoring and rapid mapping of flood areas in real time
• Medium-resolution monitoring of forest fires
• Dynamic fire risk indices on a daily basis including weather forecasting, high-resolution cartography of vegetation and combustible material in fire sensitive areas
• Services for atmospheric risks: (flooding forecasts and advance warnings from 10 days, storm risk cartography and advance warning, high wind and storm alerts)
• Services for geophysical risks: (monitoring of earthquakes and damage assessment, monitoring of volcanoes and damage assessment, monitoring of tectonic plate movement, landslip forecasting)
• Industrial risk services
Applications Supporting Humanitarian Aid Activities
Infoterra UK is leading the Respond project aimed at providing NGOs with the geo-information they need to facilitate their work. Maps and analysis documents covering affected regions assist in determining areas for priority. The Respond project has already been used in the Darfur region and for areas affected by the tsunami in South East Asia. Maps and images for operators in India and Sri Lanka have been provided to high-level international policy forming meetings, where they were used to help assess the aid requirements of specific regions. This data has also been passed on to humanitarian organizations, confirming the capability to supply near-real time information to governments and non-government organizations.
Supporting GMES by Providing Suitable EO Instruments
In conjunction with CNES (the French National Space Agency), EADS Astrium has funded the High Resolution Stereoscopic (HRS) instrument which will enable the acquisition of stereoscopic images of large areas (600 km x 120 km). From these images, Digital Terrain Models (DTM) with a 10 metre resolution can be produced for use in an increasing number of fields where detailed information on land relief is required. These include cartography, civil and military databases, and telecommunications in particular for mobile telephone networks and airport approaches.
EADS-Astrium is prime contractor of Terrasar-X, Aeolus, Pleiades and provides the most challenging instruments and payloads of these Earth observation missions to be flown in the years to come. Together with the available in-orbit spacecrafts like Envisat and SPOT5, and the European meteorology systems MSG and METOP, for which EADS-Astrium provides prime contractor-ship and/or key instruments, these space tools will deliver key data for GMES.
Working with DLR (the German Aerospace Centre) the company jointly funds the high performance radar satellite TerraSAR-X. This one tonne radar satellite to be launched in 2006, will provide high-resolution imagery of the Earth's surface during both day and night and through cloud cover. DLR will be responsible for scientific operations, whereas Infoterra GmbH will ensure the commercial marketing of the data.
EADS SPACE
EADS SPACE, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems. In 2005, EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.7 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. It has three main subsidiaries: EADS SPACE Transportation, for launchers and orbital infrastructure, EADS Astrium for satellites and ground segment and EADS SPACE Services to develop and deliver satellite services.
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services.
In 2005, EADS generated revenues of €34,2 billion and employed a workforce of more than 113,000.
Contacts for the Media
Rémi ROLAND
EADS SPACE
(FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 42 24 27 34
Jeremy CLOSE
EADS SPACE
(UK)
Tel.: +44 (0) 1 438 77 3872
Mathias PIKELJ
EADS SPACE
(GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 7545 8 91 23
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