Archives: Activities Portfolio

SENTINELS AnyTIME

Objectives of the Product

Persistent cloud coverage significantly impairs the frequency of EO observations required by the end users in the Potato sector, and thus harming confidence by the broader customer pool in the AgroFood.

The ultimate goal is to remove the harmful effects of cloud cover in the EO imagery and be able to provide continuous (daily) monitoring services required by AgroFood (served by AgriTech) and the land monitoring EO sector as a whole.

Customers and their Needs

Our customer are users in every parts of the EO domain which are in need of continuous monitoring. The highest demand is given in the agriculture domain.

Specifically, the most important agricultural seasons in Europe are, on the one hand, the growing period in spring, and on the other, the harvesting months in fall. This reality, impacting the EO monitoring capacities in the Potato sector, manifests itself with all major crops, especially since early season crop detection and vegetation monitoring is one of the most valuable services in the industry. For example, the identification of emergence which is needed an input for yield modelling, such as maize and soybeans among many others, which have similar low precision and recall values in early season crop type predictions. Those regions located mid-to-high latitude in Europe suffer from consistent cloud coverage in these 2 important periods, which is statistically evident in the Sentinel-2 data archive records and further substantiated by the continuing failure of the Copernicus Third Party mission suppliers to deliver cloud-free VHR coverages within one year of tasking.

Target customers/users countries

Nearly all sectors in the EO Value chain can benefit from cloud-free imagery, the target customer are mostly EO Value Adders with existing value chains that aim to improve their services.

Product description

SENTINELSAnyTIME is a service that allows the user to retrieve cloud-free, radar corrected optical Sentinel-2 data through a subscription model. The product is divided into two separate services:

  • 1. Sentinel-2 cloud-free bands
  • 2. Sentinel-2 cloud-free (pre-defined and custom) indices and biophysical variables.

Both services will make use of advanced AI technologies in both the temporal and spatial domain to allow for an efficient cloud-detection, removal, and ground reflectance reconstruction. This is achieved by temporal S-2 time-series reconstruction (Bayesian approaches, gaussian processes and recurrent NN models) and integration of auxiliary data (Sentinel-1) in a spatial context (Convolutional NN) for the detection of optically hidden sudden events. These include for example landcover changes such as harvesting events or natural disasters that cannot be predicted through interpolation techniques.

Both services are presented to the customer as an easily accessible and user-friendly Graphical User Interface. Furthermore, all service elements can be accessed through an API which facilitates tasks that need to be carried out automatically by the end user or to allow for derived products/services that are built on top of SENTINELSAnyTIME (e.g., agricultural monitoring or environmental services).

SENTINELSAnyTIME Services: Cloud-free band data (left) and cloud-free (custom) Indices

Added value

The added value is manifold and very central for most EO applications.
A continuous (gap free) timeseries of bio-physical indices, time span & time step selectable will lead

  1. an overall increase in the timeseries quality, increases the accuracy of the added value output service.
  2. Increase in temporal continuity (gap free), leads to a more granular and better decision-making points.
    A spatial reconstruction time series of bio-physical indices
  3. Availability of timeseries where there would be no data otherwise, increases the spatial consistency of the added value output service
  4. Increase in spatial continuity (gap free), leads to a higher data completeness, and avoids blind spots in decision-making process.

Allow for continuous monitoring, despite cloud condition. The future is hybrid!

Current Status

A prototype version of Sentinels AnyTIME is available and goes through various testing stages and is adapted to our latest requirement specification. A public demonstrator will be available in 2023.

microDRCE

Objectives of the Product

Nowadays, most of the applications that the customers need require high responsiveness capability and extended areas monitoring. These needs can be satisfied by deploying a SAR satellite constellation system with multi launch capability to optimize both the launch strategy and costs. Therefore, it is key to evolve the present radar technologies to improve both the SAR instrument flexibility, in line with the customers’ request, and its compactness for microsatellite configuration for the constellation purpose. The relevant TAS-I product is the SAR Micro Satellite Constellation (SMSC).

The intention is to develop a micro SAR instrument which implements all the standard operative modes (Stripmap, Spotlight, ScanSAR) to operate on a micro platform; for such reason an advanced and highly flexible digital SAR electronic subsystem section is a key feature. The innovative SAR instrument is conceived with an electronic digital section developed at board level to be compatible with the lightweight microsatellite solution concept, targeting a satellite product for the deployment of constellations with a variable number of satellites.

Customers and their Needs

Typical Customer needs are summarized in the following table, highlighting for each Need the “Pain” and “Gain” offered by the SMSC product.

Targeted customer/users countries

Institutional and commercial entities distributed worldwide which intend to improve their national services and space capabilities.

Product description

The microDRCE is a key element of the digital section of the SAR electronic subsystem of the SMSC product, an End-to-End Earth Observation System consisting of:

  • Space Segment organised in constellation with medium or large number of SAR satellites with a mass <200kg;
  • Radar Ground Segment composed of the Core Ground Segment and the Image Analytics Segment.

The key features of the SMSC product are:

  • High responsiveness capability;
  • Regional or global access capability, able to operate in inclined or Sun-synchronous orbit;
  • Satellite architecture optimized for a product perfectly suitable, in terms of mass and volume, to be easily deployed in large constellation;
  • Fast orbital replacement thanks to the compatibility with several launchers
  • X-band multi-mode SAR Instrument (Spotlight, Stripmap and ScanSAR) based on an active planar phased array antenna relying on an innovative highly integrated architecture.

The SAR Microsatellite constellation product is able to serve at the maximum extent all the emerging Space Services with “quasi real time” applications and high performances.

Added Value

Nowadays, most of the applications that the customers need, require high responsiveness capability and extended areas monitoring. The actual SAR Earth Observation systems mainly rely on high-end systems, that provide high image quality capability with poor temporal performance due to a reduced constellation size. On the other hand, in the last years, several emerging companies have deployed (or are in the process to deploy) large constellations of SAR microsatellites, providing commercial services which address specific fields of applications but do not cover all the customer needs. The new SMSC product is able to satisfy all the market needs coming from present and potential future customers.

The distinctive features of the SMSC product are:

  • High responsiveness capability;
  • Regional or global access capability;
  • Satellite architecture optimized for multi launch to be easily deployed in large constellation;
  • Fast orbital replacement thanks to the compatibility with several launchers;
  • X-band multi-mode SAR Instrument based on an active planar phased array antenna to cover all the customer needs.
Current Status

Kick-Off meeting held on April 12, 2023.

Requirements Consolidation phase completed in June 2023.

Design phase completed at begin 2024. The development  of the digital section is ongoing: manufacturing and testing at board level completed; integration at subsystem level in progress.

SiteObserver

Objectives of the Product

Offshore wind is an attractive energy alternative, however rigorous environmental legislation, a harsh and dynamic environment and more remote and widespread locations require thorough and meticulous planning and continuous operational monitoring frameworks of the wind sites and the dynamics of the surrounding water bodies.

However, the majority of the data and information needed to plan, construct and operate offshore wind farms is costly, time consuming and risky to collect, requiring rigorous field campaigns and expensive equipment. Collectively, such logistics is associated with high operational costs and hence limitations in terms of the frequency of inspection and total site coverage.

The high temporality and spatial resolution of modern EO satellite infrastructure combined with novel analytical frameworks and AI provides a cost-efficient and effective means to continuously track and monitor the status, change and dynamics at remote and widespread locations, such as offshore wind farms. Collectively, the effective utilization of these new satellite data sources provides a powerful, low cost and efficient tool to monitor seabed dynamics and movement, coastal dynamics, vessel traffic, turbine direction, sedimentation patterns, individual objects and several other parameters relevant for offshore wind operations and maintenance.

The Siteobserver project aims to assess existing data and information gaps in the offshore wind sector and identify the core user needs and requirements, as well as operational requirements, to make best use of such satellite-based surveillance frameworks. With a vantage point in these requirements, a prototype platform for operational application will be built in close dialogue with key stakeholders.

Customers and their Needs

The overarching goal of the project’s user engagement was to ensure that a user base was built for the SiteObserver solution while it was being developed, and that the system infrastructure and tools were designed to meet the needs of this user base. To this end, a series of more specific objectives to the user engagement was formulated as follows:

  • To ensure that technical developers in the project team understand user requirements and allow these to guide the development of the SiteObserver solution;
  • To elicit relevant information about existing relevant IT infrastructures and processes that the tools will need to be deployed within;
  • To ensure users have the opportunity to contribute to the quality assurance of the SiteObserver solution and tools to ensure their usability.

To assess the user needs and requirements, a series of semi-structured interviews and informal meetings were held with key stakeholders, within the offshore wind industry, in the initial phase of the project. Some user needs and requirements have been further refined based on relevant experiences from stakeholders that DHI has gathered during 30 years of working with the offshore wind industry.

DHI engaged the potential end-users either directly or through the existing DHI network of business relationships and the initial outreach activities were conducted through a combination of email and teleconference calls.

Dialogue was established with several key stakeholders from the offshore wind industry and related sectors, and face-to-face (virtual) meetings were conducted with each of these stakeholders. Qualitative methods using semi-structured interviews were applied during these meetings to obtain a deeper understanding of each stakeholder, their associated work and activities, their use of geospatial data, perception about data gaps and needs and their view and knowledge about the potential of EO to address existing data needs. Additional information was collected more informally, in the margin of various events and associated meetings. All user meetings were conducted as open-ended interviews with the least amount of restriction to ensure unbiased insight to the user needs and potential market gaps. A series of questions were prepared before the meetings, but other questions were generated spontaneously based on the response of the participants. After the user needs have been identified, the process involved translating those needs into specific requirements across different segments of the offshore wind industry stakeholders.

Some of the key insights from the interviews with the stakeholders can be summarised as follows:

  • Assessing the on-site situational conditions is key to allow quick responses to any changes or emergencies and ensuring the safety and smooth functioning of the wind farm. This includes understanding current weather, environmental factors, vessel traffic and the state of infrastructure. Ideally such service should be delivered through automated triggers and early warning systems based on dynamic satellite-based monitoring products.
  • Monitoring vessel traffic and patterns to gain insights into the movement and behavior of vessels around the OWFs. Understanding vessel traffic frequency, routes, and purposes helps in optimizing safety protocols, preventing potential accidents, and ensuring that wind farm operations aren’t disrupted by maritime activities. Additionally, the need for post incident investigation was mentioned – i.e., the ability to apply EO based frameworks to uncover the details of a specific incident causing damage to a sensor buoy.
  • Insights into seabed dynamics and mobility surrounding OWFs is key to uncover the state and dynamics of the seabed structure to anticipate any changes that might affect the stability of wind installations. Accessing satellite-based data and analysis helps in identifying potential risks to infrastructure stability, allowing for proactive measures to maintain the integrity of the installations. Users seek insights into seabed changes to ensure the long-term durability and reliability of OWFs.
  • Assessing marine habitats and biodiversity is important in order to evaluate the impact of offshore wind installations on marine life and biodiversity. Users seek tools that utilise high-resolution satellite imagery and analysis to monitor changes in marine flora and fauna. Understanding the effects of wind turbine foundations on supporting marine life is essential. Users aim to ensure that wind installations are not adversely impacting the surrounding marine ecosystem, while potentially exploring the beneficial role these installations might play in supporting biodiversity.
  • Sea ice mapping is pivotal in assessing the workability and de-risking of operations, ensuring site accessibility, and minimising uncertainties during surveying and operational phases. Both historical insights into sea ice extent and trends as well as near real time monitoring of sea ice and icebergs would enable better planning of OWFs in polar regions and operational decision making. It offers the potential to minimize disruptions caused by adverse sea ice conditions and enhances the overall safety and efficiency of OWF operations.
Target customers/users countries

Tapping into a global market, target customers and users are global.

Product description

While user feedback indicated that continuous streams and easy access to raw near-real-time satellite data were not essential requirements, emphasis was put on the provision of high value EO derived information products on demand.

Four target products/services was identified based on the user requirements analysis:

  1. Post incident intelligence gathering products.
  2. Marine and environmental habitat monitoring products.
  3. Sea ice mapping products.
  4. Coastal zone analysis products.

Examples and mock-ups of such high value EO products and system integration within these four domains are exemplified by the examples below below.

Post incident intelligence can be related to natural disasters but also to vandalism, such as a buoy near a wind park that is intentionally destroyed or vandalized. Information about what vessel was nearby at the time of incident could be of interest.

Example of initial SiteObserver service for Near Real Time monitoring of vessel traffic of a OWF site near Western Jutland, Denmark. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 image shows the OWF site and by using the combined signal from the image and AIS data, vessel can be identified, and dark vessel detected.

Provision of information about marine and environmental habitat with different substrate types, with historical data to define a baseline before installation of the OWF infrastructure, and recent data to document either restoration of the habitat or to plan best the installation considering habitat health.

Example of SiteObserver service for environmental habitat monitoring of an offshore wind park near Rødsand, Denmark. Submerged aquatic vegetation was mapped into sparse and dense categories using Copernicus Sentinel-2 optical data.

Sea ice mapping products are highly relevant for assessing operational risks, planning maintenance schedules, and ensuring the safety and accessibility of OWFs.

Example of SiteObserver service for sea ice mapping and monitoring. Sea ice concentration in this example is estimated using Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR data.

Coastal zone analysis products are relevant before constructing infrastructure but also during operation to monitor health of the marine ecosystem.

Example of coastal zone monitoring product based on time series analysis of a hypothetical landfall cable zone near Anholt, Denmark. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 time series images are used to assess coastline and sandbar movement.
Added value

Currently, stakeholders in offshore wind are to a large extent relying on more site-based intelligence gathering (with helicopters/drones/ships/etc.) which is both costly and risky. Most stakeholders do not have up to date knowledge on relevant EO based assets or how to access these – therefore satellite data is to some extent underutilized. SiteObserver bridges a technology gap by providing easy access to relevant and context specific satellite data for the exact areas required by the key stakeholders. They get access to the latest satellite derived services and analytics relevant for their sites only and do not need to navigate through, or be familiar with, the vast quantities of different EO assets which are not relevant for their applications.

Current Status

SiteObserver was completed in December 2023.

SaferPlaces

Objectives of the Product

The proposed solution consists of a cloud-based platform to assess and forecast pluvial, fluvial and coastal hazard and support communities with high resolution, timely and accurate flood risk intelligence. The cloud platform provides a digital copy, so called ‘twin’ of the urban catchment, where users can quickly and cost-effectively generate flood hazards and risk maps, allowing the test of the effectiveness of multiple flood mitigation measures, and supporting early warning and flood emergencies.

With the integration of Earth Observation satellite data, the SaferPlaces platform can automatically generate more accurate inputs to the existing algorithms, in terms of flooded areas, rainfall data and DEM generation. By performing calculations in almost real time, with the ability to include climate risks and adaptation plans, SaferPlaces supports multiple stakeholders in improving preparedness and climate resilience.

Customers and their Needs:

Multiple stakeholders, public and private, are involved when flood events happen. They can benefit from punctual, location-explicit and timely information provided by the SaferPlaces platform to understand, respond and plan appropriately against flooding. Specifically, SaferPlaces can help:

  • Local Administrations, like cities and urban planners as they can benefit from improved resilience and mitigation/adaptation plans, to adequately prepare against flooding in their territory;
  • Insurance and Reinsurance companies, in filling the gaps in flood risk scoring and in data availability at high resolution (parcel level) for every location worldwide;
  • Multi-utility and transportation companies, in improving the resilience of their infrastructures;
  • Civil Protection and Emergency Agencies, in supporting their first-response and early warning plans/activities;
  • Climate Tech Companies, in providing high-resolution data with global coverage;
  • Finance institutions (commercial and investment banks), as they need to adjust their risk assessment models with no prior specific knowledge on climate.

The common main challenges faced by all the stakeholders is the uneven coverage of flood data and risk maps at global level, as well as the lack of in-house tools and expertise to deal with flooding.

Targeted customer/users countries

Europe, US, Worldwide

Product description

The SaferPlaces platform already delivers on-demand timely risk assessment data for pluvial, fluvial and coastal flood hazards, by creating a digital twin of any urban flood watershed environment.

The innovation consists in integrating within a cloud computing framework the availability of big open data (climate, satellite, economic exposure and elevation model) repository (Copernicus (Sentinel), Capella Space, ICEYE, COSMO, UP42 Airbus, Google Earth Engine and Amazon) and innovative AI-based flood hazard and damage models with proprietary IPR. The users can generate the required flood risk intelligence with global coverage through a few easy steps and with competitive economic costs.

Within the framework of ESA Incubed, we are developing new functionalities able to integrate satellite data and automatically generate three fundamental spatial layers:

  • High resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEM)
  • Flood water map extension
  • Rainfall Intensity Maps, improving the precipitation data blended with ground data.

These layers are merged within the elastic and scalable cloud framework of the SaferPlaces platform, with the aim to ensure global high-resolution coverage and provide more accurate input data to the existing model component algorithms. In addition, they enrich the platform with the possibility to map in quasi-real time flood hazards, for supporting flood emergency and disaster management.

Added Value

SaferPlaces differs from other products already existing because it offers not only static maps, but a cloud web platform performing calculations in almost real time, with the ability to include climate risks and adaptation plans. In addition, it exploits high-resolution data, fills data gaps when present, and addresses multiple climate and mitigation scenarios.

One of SaferPlaces unique characteristics is accessibility: high-resolution flood risk maps with no need of complex and resource-intensive models. Nevertheless, compared to existing solutions SaferPlaces has other unique advantages: first of all, it allows global coverage, solving the needs of those investing and operating in remote locations; second, SaferPlaces is cost-effective, requiring no computing power or significant pre-existing expertise. Last but not least, SaferPlaces provides climate and resilience-related insights: it offers the customers the chance to see whether flood risk mitigation options work under dynamic urban and climate conditions.

Current Status

SaferPlaces is proud to announce the successful completion of the 18-month ESA InCubed Project, culminating in an enhanced Global Platform, supporting users worldwide in assessing flood risk and making data-driven, flood-smart decisions. By integrating Earth Observation (EO) and climate data with AI-based models, SaferPlaces provides invaluable insights into flood risk.

Innovations and Integrations

During the ESA InCubed Project, significant research efforts focused on integrating Earth Observation satellite data to enhance input layers such as flooded areas, terrain information (Digital Elevation Models – DEM), and rainfall data. This integration has led to the development of three EO-based modules:

  • Safer.001: automatically extracts flood water masks.
  • Safer.002: produces DEMs from Sentinel-1 images using advanced algorithms.
  • Safer.003: creates rainfall intensity maps using PERSIANN-PDIR NOW retrieval workflow, providing near real-time rainfall estimates from satellite data.

These advancements were validated with flood events that happened in the pilot areas of Vietnam, Cesenatico, and in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy, during the severe flood event in May 2023. The platform demonstrated its effectiveness in generating accurate flood risk assessments and the possibilities for enhancing disaster response capabilities.

The Future in Flood Risk Intelligence

The SaferPlaces platform represents a significant leap forward in flood risk management, offering a robust tool for cities and communities to better prepare for and respond to flood events. The integration of advanced EO data ensures that the platform provides precise, actionable intelligence, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions that enhance climate resilience, protect people and assets.

IcySea

Objectives of the Product

Navigation in the Arctic and Antarctic can be a hazardous undertaking in a harsh, remote and yet very fragile environment. Finding the safest route through ice-infested waters requires searching for, collating and understanding data from a variety of sources often scattered across the internet. These data are often in formats useful for scientific analysis but not easily usable for nautical staff; file sizes are also prohibitive for the low-bandwidth internet connections common in the polar regions.

IcySea solves this big-data problem by bundling near-real-time scientific sea-ice data into an easy-to-use app in which the user can download and visualise sea-ice information applicable to their current situation on demand and optimised for low-bandwidth connections.

IcySea therefore turns data into useful, relevant and timely information.

ESA InCubed allows the broadening of the capabilities of IcySea to include more datasets and extend the coverage of current datasets, to add useful navigational features, and to incorporate products resulting from previous and ongoing research projects. These additional capabilities will help to make IcySea the essential sea-ice information platform on any ice-going vessel.

Customers and their Needs

IcySea’s customers and users include any party navigating or operating in the polar regions. Such parties include expedition cruise operators, cargo shipping, fisheries, as well as research institutes and surveying companies. IcySea was developed in an open and collaborative manner: everyone in the value chain has an influence on the features provided by the app and any feedback received from end users flows back into the app as, for instance, feature enhancements or extensions.

Because sea-ice information is scattered across the internet and is often in a form difficult for lay people to understand, IcySea simplifies collection and display of relevant sea-ice information to make it useful for navigation in ice-infested waters. Customers thus save time and can focus better on their task of navigating in hazardous conditions.

By having up-to-date near-real-time information, crews can find faster, safer routes through the ice thus saving not only time, but large amounts of fuel and money. Also, better information reduces contact with the ice, thus decreasing hull erosion and reducing the need for costly repairs in the dry dock, as well as reducing insurance costs.

Target customers/users’ countries

All countries involved in shipping in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Product description

IcySea is a progressive web app designed specifically to support polar maritime activities with data from space. It bundles sea-ice information into an easy-to-use app in which users can download and visualise relevant sea-ice information on demand; all optimised for low-bandwidth internet connections.

IcySea’s main innovations include animated ice drift forecasts, automatic ice classification, automatic route optimisation, navigational-support features, and a highly automated backend data processing system.

The customer interacts with IcySea via an app installed on their device (such as a mobile phone or tablet) or via the IcySea web page on a desktop or laptop computer.

Basic structure of the IcySea service:

Added value
Current Status

IcySea is already available and in use by customers in the field. In addition to the data sets present at the beginning of the activity (6km resolution sea-ice concentration data, high-resolution radar images and machine-learning-optimised ice-drift forecasts for the region surrounding Svalbard) we have integrated a 3km sea-ice concentration data product and have extended coverage of radar images to important parts of the Arctic and Antarctic. It is now possible to export ice drift forecast data in either GeoJSON, KML format or as .png files. A measurement tool for route planning is now available as well as Arctic-wide sea-ice drift forecast trajectory information. As of 2024, this InCubed activity is now completed.

IGV

Objectives of the Product

Spire aims at leveraging the latest improvements in the field of signals intelligence and the existing high-performance computing devices onboard its LEMUR constellation to develop processing algorithms enabling the geolocation of radio frequency (RF) signals.

These software-based solutions will be deployed and tested on Spire’s satellites. They will also include ground-based infrastructure for a low-latency reporting of detected discrepancies.

Once they are demonstrated and operationalized, the resulting datasets will be made available through our existing API or a dedicated data feed. It will enable Spire customers to confirm the accuracy and the validity of the geolocation information broadcasted by a given asset. The solution will be completed by an alerting system that will identify and highlight suspicious behaviors. In turn, this will enable them to optimize their operations (e.g., maritime domain surveillance, environmental protection, ship insurance, etc.) based on this information, resulting in lower operational costs and higher operational efficiency.

Customers and their Needs

The main customer segments target by this activity are the following:

  • Law Enforcement Agencies / Anti-Piracy Maritime Security and Sanctions Enforcement / Coast Guards: Perpetrators of illicit activities, notably at sea, will typically spoof or manipulate the AIS or ADS-B tracking system, causing an asset to appear in a different location than it actually is.
  • Environnemental agencies: Overfishing occurs often in areas beyond national jurisdiction. It threatens marine ecosystems and is linked to major human rights violations and even organised crime. Protected-area designations are almost meaningless unless they are backed up by effective surveillance and enforcement.
  • Shipowners and operators: Shipowners and operators are facing increased regulation under OFAC and OFSI, which they must comply with to avoid being sanctioned and facing heavy fines. They must also ensure that their suppliers and customers comply with the rules.
  • Air Navigation Service Providers: More and more geographical areas might be impacted by GNSS jamming and spoofing that could negatively impact air traffic operations.
    • Loss of ability to use GNSS for waypoint navigation
    • Loss of area navigation (RNAV) approach capability
    • Inability to conduct or maintain Required Navigation Performance (RNP) operations

Potential airspace infringements and/or route deviations due to GNSS degradation.

Target customers/users countries

This Service addresses customers throughout the world.

Product description

Spire proposes the innovative development and implementation of a suite of RF geolocation methods onboard its constellation of nanosatellites.

Spire owns and operates the largest constellation of multipurpose nanosatellites, with a unique capacity of running high-performance computing frameworks in orbit that will be used to quickly deliver this geolocation capacity, strengthening its global offering with an independent source of geolocation data.

Beyond the innovativeness of the very techniques used for signals geolocation, which will be adapted for their application in orbit, the proposed developments will create a unique infrastructure. Indeed, the newly developed signal geolocation solution will be ported on an existing constellation of satellites, rather than dedicated formation flying satellites.

This will lead to the commercialization of a unique, highly competitive one-stop-shop solution enabling global and regional analytics of RF signals, that would benefit in the future from an alerting system to highlight any suspicious event. Spire would be the only player collecting and offering RF signal-derived information in an integrated manner.

It should be noted that Spire is the first organisation to have demonstrated that nanosatellites can track global maritime and aerial activity in real time. The collection of AIS, ADS-B, and other RF signals along with its unique constellation puts Spire in a position of strength to train robust and efficient AI/ML-based geolocation models enabling near-real-time monitoring and alerting of suspicious behaviours.

Added value

To date, few small satellite RF geolocation missions have been attempted. The SAMSON mission, supported by the Israeli space industries, (P. Gurfil et al., 2012), was originally planned to be launched in 2018 but has been delayed since then. That same year, a first mission was conducted by HawkEye 360 Inc. In January 2021, they announced that their second cluster of three small satellites had been deployed into orbit, opening the idea that such technology is feasible, but still using small satellites (about 30 x 30 x 45 cm) (HawkEye 360, 2021), leaving the path to nanosatellite and CubeSats missions still unexplored. The Pathfinder mission is undoubtedly a high-performance system, but with it comes high costs. In addition, it relies on propulsion systems to maintain its cluster together. On a similar note, since 2020, Kleos Space and Unseenlabs have been competing for the RF reconnaissance market providing maritime situational awareness only. Taking advantage of our experience, Spire has the ability to rapidly provide a cost-efficient and less complex system that addresses the needs for RF signals geolocation with the right compromise on refresh rate and sensitivity. In addition, Spire’s existing infrastructure offers a quick and easy path to scalability, from demonstration to an operable system in a short time.

Current Status

All the hardware and software licences for the on-orbit deployment of existing methods have been procured and set up. The ground-based algorithm has been successfully ported to a virtual environment. An initial standalone test was also successfully completed for both environments.

PROTELUM

Objectives of the Product

Operative, infrastructural, and environmental safety are key priorities at mine sites. Mine operators and regulators need to systematically identify risks inherent to underground and surface operations on a continuous basis. The industry needs to employ technologies that can ensure the ongoing operation of critical controls, to generate insights regarding the effectiveness of mining operations to date. Monitoring technologies employed in mine installations tend to be bespoke, siloed solutions that require significant “human-in-the-loop” resources and manual data analysis.

The Protelum solution leverages Davra’s industry-leading IoT platform to consolidate all data sources by combining data from legacy data silos into a single unified data source. This allows cross-pollination between data sources facilitating analytical methodologies on combined datasets.

Customers and their Needs:

There are common thematic problems in managing mines that require continuous, iterative monitoring and management, specifically in the areas of water management, ground stability and environmental impact monitoring. The industry needs solutions that can work with hard and soft sensors and other monitoring technologies to provide continuous assurance of critical processes with less reliance on physical data capture and manual processing. Monitoring processes are important to industry and public stakeholders alike and are coming under increased social scrutiny and regulatory control. There is no “single pane of glass” mine management system that can collate hard and soft operational data, blend the data multi-modally with satellite, Earth observation (EO) and GNSS data and apply AI and machine learning to deliver key operational metrics and actionable insights. The PROTELUM project aims to deliver such a system.

Target customers/users’ countries

The target customers are as follows:

  • Mine owners/operators
  • Mine regulators/insurance companies
  • People who live and work in the vicinity of mine sites (active and inactive)

The solution targets the global Mining Industry.

Product Description:

Davra is developing a cloud-based platform to monitor and manage mine tailings storage facilities (TSFs). The solution merges EO, drone and LIDAR data with available terrestrial data to show changes in the TSFs in order to manage its safety and to forecast potential physical breaches or environmental regulation breaches. It is the aim of the project that the solution developed under the activity can be used globally in a variety of mining environments.

The solution is being designed to meet the ICMM regulation for TSF monitoring. The collection of data from multiple sources and the associated classification of this data in terms of compliance and risk management ensures the solution will fit with the “good engineering practices for tailings management” as defined by the ICMM. Data is validated from its source and the system provides GDPR and ISO 27001 data security compliance.

Added Value:

In terms of automating mine TSFs, Petroleum can employ interferometric SAR in the analysis of TSFs tailings beachheads and general ground stability. This data when linked to GNSS referenced LIDAR and other terrestrial data offers a means of analysing live data and developing predictive models, which can be used to ascertain regulatory and environmental compliance.

  • Increased Operational Efficiency: Protelum’s innovative data management platform creates better ways to manage, store and make sense of mining data. AI, machine learning and machine vision technology generates day-to-day data that can provide actionable insights in shorter time frames. Smart data and machine learning allows for better planning and resource management, and can be used to improve operational efficiency, production workflow and mine safety.
  • Reduced Costs: Using the latest cutting-edge satellite and imaging technology provides the ability to manage the TSF locations without the need for cost-intensive ground truth inspections. By providing geoscientific images in a programmatic manner, both travel and inspection costs are reduced.
  • Increased Sustainability: Mining can be an environmentally destructive process when managed incorrectly. EO and IoT data can aid the development of environmentally friendly mineral processing.
  • Safety Ensured: Protelum can also be used to provide non-TSF metrics such as air quality, fire and explosion risks has been augmented by current spatial data visualization like 3D modelling, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (VR). They provide mine management with the ability to view a mine remotely, but as if they were onsite. This allows them to plan for any safety concerns by allowing managers to experience working in a mine or developing a new mine without being in the field.
Current Status:

The project commenced on 23 August 2022, with milestone #1 occurring on 28 February 2023.  

SPACE4ATLANTIC

Objectives of the Product

The Atlantic Ocean stretches from the Artic Circle to Antarctica and is bordered by the American Continent to the west and by Europe and Africa to the east. For centuries, the Atlantic Ocean has been a key avenue of economic activity, trade and travel with fisheries in particular for the European Continent where two-thirds of the borders are coastal and maritime spaces. Furthermore, 40% of EU GDP is generated in coastal regions and 75% of the volume of external commercial transactions takes place over maritime routes and, the “Blue Economy” (taken to mean all economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts and, as such, covering a wide range of interlinked established and emerging sectors) is estimated to represent about 5.4 million jobs with a resulting Gross Value Added of approximately EUR 500 billion per year. The Atlantic Ocean, being a critical source for Europe of valuable natural resources, needs to be studied, protected and managed. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to monitor the evolution of multiple parameters for these purposes, through data captured from both local and remote sources. Overall, neither current missions nor future Copernicus missions, fulfil simultaneously the needs of maritime domain stakeholders concerning spatial resolution (in the desired range of meters to 10 km), revisit times under 3 hours for selected areas and data latencies consistent with real-time to near real-time analysis, operations and decision making.
SPACE4ATLANTIC’s objective is to fill this gap by deploying an Earth Observation constellation of small satellites focused on addressing the necessities of customers and users of the Atlantic area and contributing for a better understanding and monitoring of the region.

Customers and their Needs

The key customers segments are drawn from the Atlantic area stakeholders that require information to support their operations or feed into their business models. The same segments will be considered when addressing the market outside the Atlantic area.

Segmentation considers differences in the services (or products) specifications, business model (mainly related with type of organisation: business, institutions or businesses; and relation between user and customer) and the way in which the data or service are integrated in the operations of the customer:

  • Blue economy (maritime business agents), business companies (user and customer is the same organisation) that develop their activities based on the Ocean and Coastal areas. These can be:
    • Logistics & Transportation (shipping);
    • Fishing;
    • Farming;
    • Mining;
    • Energy generation; or
    • Insurance companies.
  • Resource managers, usually public entities tasked with managing resources and overseeing activities, including:
    • Regulators;
    • Port authorities;
    • Maritime traffic authorities;
    • Air traffic authorities;
    • Radio spectrum/ communications authorities; or
    • Environmental protection agencies.
  • Safety and security agencies such as EMSA or national civil protection agencies.
  • Meteorological Institutes, that require specific sets of data.
  • Researchers, accessing data through institutional level agreements.
  • Downstream, including companies that require data and information to provide their services; and also Cloud infrastructure providers.
  • Satellite operators and integrators that can acquire subsystems (e.g., cameras) or even complete systems (e.g. satellites), to be considered a potential spin-off revenue stream.

Even though these customer segments comprehend a broad range of organisations, their specific needs can in many cases be catered through similar services. The validation of user needs in these customer segments will be performed during SPACE4ATLANTIC’s de-risking phase.

Target customers/user’s countries

International

Product description

SPACE4ATLANTIC will deliver data, information and knowledge services from a small satellite constellation to detect and monitor fast developing events (with significant developments within a few hours), that will complement existing EO systems to allow for more effective and efficient study, protection, management and fostering of blue economy activities in the Atlantic region. Through developing, integration and operation of a constellation of small satellites, SPACE4ATLANTIC will fill observation gaps in revisit, latency and sensor performance over the Atlantic, complement existing EO Systems (e.g. Copernicus), and cater to the needs of blue economy stakeholders, Maritime operators, Resource managers and Regulators, Security and other dedicated public agencies, Researchers, and society at large.

Added Value

The ability to deliver cost-efficient data, information and knowledge services to detect and monitor fast developing events, from a constellation of small satellites aimed at high revisit frequency and low latency mainly targeted at the Atlantic region has value for different costumer segments. Translating into different proposals for different customers, the following added values are envisioned:

  • Near real-time analysis-ready data and information
  • Alerts and near real-time knowledge on areas of interest for economic agents.
  • Alerts, and near real-time knowledge and information from broad area coverage for Ocean-related Resource managers and Regulators.
  • Customised analysis-ready data for Dedicated public agencies.
  • Archive data and information for Researchers.
  • Near real-time Data, information and knowledge for Intermediate players.

Direct Space-based info for Final consumers in the future

Current Status

The Final Review for this activity has been held on January 2023. The activity is now concluded.

EFE Plus

Objectives of the Product

The market evolution of SAR-based Earth Observation systems requires an increase of SAR performance in terms of resolution, together with radiometric parameters quality. Based on state-of-the-art technologies, this objective would be achieved at satellite level by increasing the SAR antenna area with the consequence of increasing the spacecraft mass and size. In order to avoid an increase of costs and complexity due to this inefficient trend of mass and volume (limiting the access to orbit due to launcher envelope constraints and increasing the complexity of in-orbit maneuvers due to the larger SAR antenna size), it is necessary to develop suitable technologies able to enhance the RF transmitted power density and to achieve better SAR performances without increasing, and possibly reducing, the SAR antenna size and mass. The purpose of the provided solution is to increase the RF transmitted power density, in order to enhance the SAR performance without increasing the antenna size and mass; such objective is achieved by using highest efficiency power amplifier and electronics technologies and studying the thermal drainage solutions that are needed to solve the potential thermal constraints due to the increase of the dissipated power density.

Customers and their Needs

Typical Customer needs are summarised in the table below, where the “Pain” associated to the Need and the “Gain” offered by the HE-R1000 product are also reported.

Target customers/users countries

Institutional entities of worldwide emerging countries not yet able to sustain an autonomous national space policy.

Product Description

EFE Plus is a key element of the active section of the antenna of the HE-R1000 product, an end-to-end Earth Observation System consisting of:

  • a Space Segment constituted by one radar satellite composed of the platform and the SAR-based instrument.
  • a Radar Ground Segment composed of the Core Ground Segment and the Image Analytics Segment.

The key features of the HE-R1000 product are:

  • high revisit time (i.e. multiple data take opportunities per day over the same target), due to its inclined orbit optimised for each specific customer/area of interest;
  • agile operation (i.e. high maneuverability for image acquisitions and for repointing to successive images) due to satellite low mass and Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS);
  • very high resolution granted by the satellite agility and the electronic beam steering of the antenna.

The HE-R1000 product is intended:

  • to deliver Earth Reconnaissance radar imagery in the X-band spectrum;
  • to be used for detection, recognition, identification of objects of interest and detection of changes, with the capability to answer the needs from Defense/Security Users and Civil Users;
  • to be procured/owned/operated by the customer requiring sovereignty over system ownership and in-service operations.
Added Value

Distinctive features of the HE-R1000 product:

  • images with very high resolution and sensitivity (capability enhanced by EFE Plus)
  • low mass and volume to be compatible with low costs for the single satellite launch and to allow multiple launches for deploying a constellation (mass and volume not impacted by EFE Plus)
  • through specific Mini-Control Momentum Gyro included in the AOCS, the satellite is agile and capable to frequently acquire images of a selected area/from a selected orbit, solving Regional Emergency Management needs
  • data security: the system is equipped with means for protecting TM and TC and with Data Ciphering/Deciphering HW
Current Status

The Kick-Off meeting was held on 9 September 2022. The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) was held on 22 June 2023. The Critical Design Review (CDR) is planned to be held on 7 March 2025.

BODIS

Objectives of the Product

BODIS offers long-term accurate predictions of surface and asset motions, and its associated flood risk for asset portfolios. All buildings and/or engineering structures are subject to land subsidence and flooding, making them vulnerable for these processes. During floods, besides the societal impact, these assets face huge financial risks due to the sagging of these structures and the associated flooding. Therefore, asset owners and financial stakeholders benefit from insights into these risks, especially in the light of future climate change effects.

The service is built upon InSAR data and hydrodynamic simulation software, suitable for simulations of flooding and drought scenarios, keeping climate change in mind. Specifically, BODIS provides insights in the risk of customers’ asset portfolios (such as individual buildings and engineering structures) and the potential economic impacts they face when flooded. The forward prediction algorithms are integrated with hydrodynamic flooding scenarios and made available for the end-user in an easy-to-use visualisation platform, allowing decision-makers or portfolio owners to make better informed decisions.

Customers and their Needs

Organisations that benefit the most from the information service BODIS are mainly large property owners that report yearly on their amount of assets at risk and the value of these properties.

For example, these values are used for taxation, insurance purposes or need to be compliant with climate agreements. Housing corporations let or sell homes to low-income citizens, older or disabled people. In the Netherlands, they administer tens of thousands of assets (buildings) in potential flood risk areas, such as the floodplains. Furthermore, insurance companies need to calculate the risk due to flooding or land-motion to set the correct profit margins for their policies. The last targeted customers are banking entities which own large volumes of real estate assets who want to be informed of flood and land-motion risks and how these risks devalue the price of these assets.

    Target customers/users’ countries

    BODIS can be developed and deployed globally. Initially, the targeted customers are located in the Netherlands, but the product is scalable (and developed) to be deployed in countries globally.

    Product Description

    BODIS is an innovative platform, designed to customers’ needs, where users have access to the most actual subsidence and flooding data. Furthermore, prediction algorithms for land-motion and hydrodynamic simulations predict propagation of floods for future scenarios. As such, end-users obtain new information of the altered risks of their asset portfolios, with future climate scenarios incorporated.

    • InSAR observations are made for both ground- and high-building level and integrated to spatial covering subsidence maps.
    • A forwarding prediction algorithm estimates future subsidence risks of targeted assets.
    • Flooding simulations of actual and future situations (where subsidence is included) are performed to assess flood risks per asset.
    • A user-friendly web platform is designed, where an API-module integrates above results seamlessly.
    Technical Architecture of BODIS
    Added Value

    Organisations are adapting to the effects that result from climate change, such as more extreme weather events, rising sea-levels and soil subsidence. Most organisations use their own tools and datasets to set-up their own risk models, which they offer to their clients. However, the added value of BODIS is the integration of future land-motion and the associated flood risks and its translation to value at risk. Additionally, information on asset level is usually not available (only on larger scales).

    With BODIS, end-users obtain information on three different levels to characterise the risks to their asset portfolio in a specific region. BODIS is updated with new scenario information instantly and can be tuned to end-users needs.

    Current Status

    BODIS is a development of a new type of information service that integrates results from existing systems such as SkyGeo Antares processing services, 3Di Water Management from Nelen & Schuurmans and customises these results in the platform HydroNET from HydroLogic. Each product exists in the market and successfully provides different services in several markets, such as water management, spatial planning or the subsidence business.

    This project, now completed, started in 2019 with an innovation call (SBIR) by the Dutch National Space Agency (NSO) and resulted in a prototype for a flood-and-subsidence information service. Currently, a forecasting module for subsidence rates, an automatic model-builder for hydrodynamic schematisations, an automated flooding-simulator and post-processing module (AquaEval) to derive risk classifications for individual assets and disciplines is developed in the BODIS project. All this information is showcased in an information platform.