By using satellite radar sensors (e.g., Sentinel-1, COSMO-SkyMed and COSMO Second Generation, TerraSAR-X), it is possible to obtain mm-accuracy displacement data from Space, without having to install anything on the ground. InSAR technology has rapidly advanced to become a standard tool for measuring ground deformation phenomena.
Fast standard reports about trends and changes of the ground surface – also known as “bulletins” – showing movements ranging from mm to cm, are nowadays produced through a supervised process, after each new satellite acquisition.
Bulletins are currently sold to those customers who are committed to frequently monitoring fast changes occurring in the asset of interest. Target markets are the Mining sector, O&G, and Natural Hazard in the case of abrupt events (volcanic events, post-Earthquake).
According to the clients’ feedback, bulletins must have a dramatically faster delivery time, a clear description of the reliability of measurements, a cost reduction in the view of scalability. Along with these, requirements about the User’s Experience (bulletins visualization and browsing) are stressed.
The BulletInSAR activities aim to enhance the production of bulletins through a ML-based unsupervised process to match the market’s requirements of timeliness, reliability, scalability, and user-experience.
Customers and their Needs
Deformation Fast Reports (Bulletins) are currently delivered to the market.
The Clients’ Community, made of large international groups managing several assets worldwide, while appreciating the impact on their activities, provides feedbacks on critical factors today limiting an effective day-by-day application to the monitoring of their assets. Customers’ needs touch the following critical points:
Delivery time in a few hours
Delivery time to be compatible with the forthcoming new generation of constellations characterized by fast revisiting time
Output to be described in terms of measurements reliability
Production time and cots to be applicable to systematic use over several assets
Targeted customer/users countries
Worldwide
Product description
The Bulletin product currently consists of Fast deformation Reports, derived from a pair of SAR acquisitions and semi-automatically delivered to the Client using the web-based tool TREmaps®.
Bulletin production starts from the following inputs:
Interferometric SAR pair (T1 and T2) over the AOI
a Digital Elevation Model of the AOI (SRTM is the standard input, other DEMs if available)
and consists of a collection of three information layers:
Speckle Tracking (displacement magnitude: tens of centimetres up to metres)
Added Value
Bulletins are already considered a valuable tool by our clients: their request is to extend this kind of projects to a higher number of assets worldwide. To cope with this request, BulletInSAR improves the product in terms of:
Timeliness
Information about measurements reliability
Scalability
User Experience
Current Status
After the demonstration phase, consisting of two pilots activities with to two Users using C and X band data, both in Ascending and Descending passes, the BulletInSAR project is now completed.
The demonstration phase has shown how the new ML-based designed product matches the Users’ expectation both in terms of informative content (reliability) and in delivery aspects (timeliness, scalability, user experience).
BulletInSAR product is part the of the Sales portfolio and is currently proposed to the Mining Industry clients.
A CCN1 is ongoing with the aim of designing and testing a Van Atta array artificial reflector.
The global trade scenario is rapidly changing due to new geopolitical arrangements and global emergencies. Around 90% of the worldwide traded goods are shipped by sea, hence its critical infrastructures are more than ever a valuable and strategic asset for every country. In this context, the clear need of a high-responsiveness and more efficient maritime traffic monitoring lead to the exploitation of newly available solutions exploiting cost-efficient satellite infrastructures. Indeed, the main objective of TESLA VISION is the geolocation of Radio Frequency sources in order to provide valuable services, such as:
Asset Tracking;
Border and Custom control;
Environmental monitoring;
RF Spectrum monitoring;
Data for Geo Marketing and Analytics.
Customers and their Needs
TESLA VISION addresses the need of reliable “anytime, anywhere” data and information, on both cooperating and non-cooperating vessels, of two different customers segments:
Maritime Traffic Surveillance: public authorities (Customs, Regulation Authorities, Environmental Agencies, Law Enforcement, …), maritime shipping companies and NGOs (National and Internationals rescue organization, …);
Value Added Service Providers (VASP): Geo-information, Geo-Marketing and Analytics companies.
Target customers/users countries
National and European public authorities, international commercial companies and NGOs.
Product description
TESLA VISION provides timely and reliable data and information on maritime traffic via a user-friendly web-based platform. Thanks to its cutting-edge technology, the system is able to geo-locate maritime Radio Frequency sources from satellite anytime of the day and anywhere on the Globe while enabling the monitoring of non-cooperating ships, the so-called dark vessels.
The user data access system consists of three components:
A Web-GIS commercial portal that provides all graphical user interfaces, procedures and web services so that users can access the system functions using AI driven processor to reduce data storage and post processing elaboration time. The web tools allow users to request a dataset (which can be both Basic RF Sources and processed data) that meets their needs for coverage of a specific area in a certain time interval.
A QGIS plug-in to use most of the graphical user interface for requesting data and their processing in the QGIS desktop GIS software.
OGC Standard Services in order to access basic RF sources data and processed information via OGC standards such as Web Map Service WMS (WMS).
Show the product/system architecture (on a high level), highlighting the main system building blocks (on a high level).
Added Value
The detection of Radio Frequency sources from space is not yet widespread in civil applications but it is increasingly required as a solution for customs control and monitoring of protected or prohibited areas. It is a formidable tool when integrated with other data sources and systems such as AIS or satellite images acquired with SAR technologies. RF data are a powerful source of information complementing other data sources.
Thanks to the use of AI and a miniaturize payload, TESLA VISION is able to timely and accurately identify and localize the RF source anytime and anywhere using just a single satellite. This allows the lowering of production, launch and operations costs as compared to competitors. Furthermore, the use of an SDR architecture ensure flexibility by enabling the updating of the on-board processing software during the mission in order to address new requirements and increase performances.
Current Status
TESLA VISION is currently performing the de-risking phase. Details of the system are defined using a user-driven approach, thus by continuously discussing with prospects, in order to better and consistently prepare for the product development phase.
The need for ocean awareness through Space was highlighted in the 30th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 2012. A taskforce was created in the European Space Agency to address these specific needs and opportunities, the Blue Worlds Task Force. The need is also identified by the Portuguese government in the National Strategy for the Sea (ENM2030), as it can leverage the national space industry and create indirect economic benefits. Identified through differente surveys, the needs are grouped in three segments: Maritime Surveillance, Aquaculture & Maritime Environment and AIS data. The current world context requests for EU countries and countries themselves to be independent in collecting valuable information, and food-chain and environmental concerns have demonstrated growing potential interest. ATON constellation follows a low-risk and cost-efficient approach to meet these user needs by leveraging on mature platforms and technology and effectively framing the requirements. This is achieved with Lusospace 20 years’ experience in the space sector and partnering with key players in the sector (AAC Clyde Space, GMV, AIR Centre) and national authorities (Portuguese Navy). The product is a near end-to-end solution, from Space segment to data delivery through a services center.
Customers and their Needs
The customers are segmented in three: Maritime Surveillance, Aquaculture & Maritime Environment and AIS data.
For maritime surveillance, the activity involved Portuguese Navy and GMV, the former being a potential customer that aids in requirement definition, and the latter a key player in maritime surveillance solutions. The Portuguese territory has over 2 000 km of coastline and an exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of around 1.7 million km2; and is currently waiting for an update of this EEZ to 3.8 million km2. For security and sovereignty reasons, it’s becoming increasingly valuable to have EU providers of data and services, ensuring that the exchange in information is secure. Low revisit-times and possibility to customized areas of coverage add significant value according to potential customers, such as the Portuguese Navy. This applies to other national authorities within EU and others.
Aquaculture segment addresses the estimated loses of 2B€ due to Harmful Algae bloom events. This is a market to be uncovered but according to the surveys performed by partner AIR Centre, the need to purchase such services exist and customers are willing to pay. The hyperspectral payload allows also to monitor maritime environment for R&D institutions and complement other existing products that have higher revisit-times. The third segment addresses AIS data. There is a market push to obtain more data and entities such as EMSA and ORBCOMM confirmed the interest in buying such data. VDES technology will be a market disruption and the constellation has the means to use it and test it with early adopters.
Targeted customer/users countries
Portuguese Navy and other national authorities within EU and others.
Product description
The end product are services and data to three segments of customers: Maritime Surveillance, Aquaculture & Maritime Environment and AIS. This is achieved by a space segment: 32 or 2 x 16 satellites, one type with AIS/VDES payload and other with a Hyperspectral camera. The ground segment is outsourced to increase focus and decrease time-to-market.
Imager (16 Hyperspectral sats)
AIS/VDES (16 AIS/VDES sats)
Added Value
The main added value for ATON project is combination of low revisit-times, hyperspectral imagery, AIS/VDES technology, and the novelty services that can be provided to Aquafarmers, that address the imensous fishery losses due to harmful algae bloom. The aggregated approach, which is based on near end-to-end vertical integration – from space segment to the services center – allows a control on the end product and possibility to customize it for the customers. It does not aspire to compete with large institutional satellite hyperspectral payloads, freely availalbe, but it can through DsaaS integrate different sources of data and provide images within 6h intervals. It is important to consider that the new generation Sentinel should be availalbe not sonner than mid 2030, therefore this activity time to market is an important factor.
In what regards the AIS data, the constellation provides data collected and controlled by a EU supplier (Lusospace), which is by itself a desired aspect, and has the potencial of capturing early adopters of VDES technology. VDES can alleviate the data strain on the AIS, and the international maritime community has started the steps to regulate the technology. This radio communication standard maintains the AIS functions while adding the capacity for larger data exchange. VDES establishes dedicated frequencies for bidirectional communication. Additional capabilities of VDES include autonomous shipping which will be a market disruption, leading to safer shipping and more fuel efficiency.
Current Status
De-risking activity concluded. Next steps being planned with ESA involvement.
Late detection of remote wildfires heavily contributes to global warming, as they emit tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Most of the damage caused by fires is due to extreme wildfire events, which account for about 2% of the total fires. Prevention, quick detection, and real-time monitoring of wildfires are therefore essential.
Existing non-space solutions for wildfire detection (watchtowers, camera systems, drones, helicopters, and wireless sensors) are often inadequate and financially unviable, especially for monitoring larger forest areas. Space-based solutions could theoretically close this gap, but available solutions on the market suffer from a lack of accessibility, usability, and data sources.
We identified a clear need on the market for an all-in-one global wildfire detection, alert, and monitoring service based on all available data sources (space and non-space). This led us to develop our Wildfire Solution (WFS) platform, a progressive web app that is already on the market and incorporates more satellite data sources than any other system. This solution offers multiple overlays (e.g., weather, terrain, wind) based on customers’ input and enables early detection of both extreme and minor wildfire events worldwide.
However, existing satellite data sources are only partly sufficient, primarily due to data gaps in the afternoon, when many fires ignite. This leads to the need for more thermal-infrared satellite data, especially at local afternoon times. The ongoing miniaturisation of satellites and their payloads offers the right solution to address this problem. Therefore, we are closing the current thermal-infrared satellite data gaps by placing our miniaturised thermal-infrared imager in low-earth orbit to complement the existing satellite data sources. This activity brings us closer to our mid-term goal of launching our so-called minimum viable constellation of about 14 nanosatellites, placed in a sun-synchronous orbit at local afternoon time to close a gap of around 6 hours, where currently no space-based wildfire data exists. This gap is critical for our customers, as the occurrence of wildfires peaks exactly at that time. This orbital thermal sensor network can then be complementary to existing larger missions.
Wildfires’ environmental, economic, and societal problems show a clear need for an all-in-one downstream service for wildfire management based on all available data (space and non-space). New satellite data is needed to address the problem of insufficient revisit times and resolution. We believe that our end-to-end solution strongly addresses this problem and can be the solution globally.
OroraTech’s orbital thermal sensor network
Customers and their Needs
The key customer segments targeted by our product are in the B2G (public) and B2B (private) sectors. Governments, fire services, commercial forestry companies, insurance companies, and environmental organisations are among the most important users of our Wildfire Solution.
In B2G (business to government), the problems and needs of wildfire services are already well understood by OroraTech, as we already have paying customers within this segment. Besides having more accurate short-term fire risk assessments, early fire detection and a real-time overview of fire spread are two needs identified in this group.
In B2B (business to business), commercial forestry has been the early adopter of our system. Faced with similar challenges as the public sector, commercial wood and pulp producers usually have a denser network of fire detection technologies and staff in place. The costs of each hectare lost to fires can directly be translated into willingness to pay for enhanced prevention measures and faster early detection.
One of the most promising sectors is the insurance industry (direct insurers, insurance brokers, re-insurers) with a specific demand for high-quality data, reliability, and proven track records. Active fire monitoring is regarded as less of an issue compared to sophisticated fire risk analyses and improvements for more efficient damage evaluations.
Targeted customer/users’ countries
Wildfires are a global problem. Therefore, we want to provide our Global Wildfire Detection Network to any potential customer in any country around the world.
Product description
Our goal is for the Wildfire Solution to offer the lowest latency for wildfire detection and monitoring on the market and create a network of our own proprietary nanosatellites. This can be translated into a significant improvement in our offer to customers: we can prove the quality of our data and demonstrate the viability of using nanosatellites for low-cost supplementation of thermal-infrared data from space.
Added Value
Our current Wildfire Solution aggregates most satellite data sources on a global scale, standing out in comparison to existing publicly available downstream service solutions. As a result, detection times are lower, and monitoring capabilities are higher.
Direct fast alerts and updates are automatically sent to users for their area of interest, enabling them to deploy fire suppression resources optimally. Innovative features like the hotspot-fusion of all gathered data, fire spread predictions,and the easy-to-use overlays of wind, weather, and other data differentiate us from what is available on the market. Unlike other solutions, we also incorporate non-space data sources from our customers, like automated cameras and other sensors. All our development is thereby closely coupled to the feedback of our customers and thus answers the demand on the market (co-creation concept).
Concerning solutions on the market that build upon non-space data sources, we can offer higher scalability and more cost-efficient coverage of larger areas. Each of the existing solutions can only cover a very small part of Earth’s land and thus is inadequate and financially unviable when it comes to larger areas, like countries, or even the whole planet.
Furthermore, there are also several areas of innovation for our multispectral thermal infrared imager: it is miniaturised for the volumetric constraints of a CubeSat. It can sense mid-wave as well as long-wave infrared radiation, which makes it the ideal choice for detecting high-temperature events like wildfires. As data delay is significant for our customers, we have developed a GPU-based processing module for on-orbit wildfire detection (classical and AI algorithms possible). Another key-innovation of our R&D complements this: an inter-satellite modem, which allows the near-real-time downlink of key parameters of the detection, cutting down the delay of wildfire alert dissemination from several hours to minutes.
Current Status
As of today, Wildfire Solution aggregates most satellite data sources on a global scale, standing out in comparison to existing publicly available downstream service solutions.
Data from our two proprietary orbital sensors and 23 existing satellites are processed, merged, evaluated, and made available on a user-friendly interface. This significantly accelerates, digitises, and simplifies the process of wildfire detection and monitoring.
The launch of our proprietary sensors with FOREST-1 in 2022 and FOREST-2 in 2023 was a monumental step in the growth of our CubeSat design and execution, with the cameras being validated through orbital testing and data accumulation. Our next-generation sensor, FOREST-3, is now, after extensive testing, ready for launch. This imager will feature our advanced multispectral thermal infrared camera and upgraded technical hardware for long-term orbital thermal imaging. Recently, FOREST-3 closed its Qualification Acceptance Review with ESA. With the closure of the QAR, the assembled flight system was delivered for integration into the deployer at the end of August. This platform will be used as an in-orbit demonstration for our upcoming constellation.
The launch of FOREST-3 is scheduled for November 2024.
FIbEO aims at helping product traceability by obtaining yield forecasts to use in verifying product origin and guaranteeing food quality. It also helps to monitor agricultural practices and compliancy with product specifications.
Customers and their Needs
Agri-food industry: checking compliancy of product consigned by outgrowers.
Consortiums: support their member demonstrating compliancy to specifications, improve brand awareness Control bodies: improve check capabilities, speed up compliance certifications.
Targeted customer/users countries
Producers Organization (Consortium), Growers Group-PO; Control bodies-CB, Agri-food industry-AGIND.
Product description
FIbEO makes use EO, field data and scheme rules to produce better yield estimates of raw materials and help cross-checking this information with real consignments. The service shall help creating trustworthy food supply chains and ensure integrity while tracing provenance.
Added Value
(PO) Avoid over consignments, improve growing and profitability for associates, Ensure the compliance to product specifications, Have a more transparent information flow, Improve perceived quality of the product, Enable immediate corrective actions, Track production lots, Reduce certification time; (CB) Reduce time during audits, Automated digital cross-checks; (AGIND) Full traceability, Brand recognition, Immediate corrective actions, Dissuaded misbehaviour, Avoid frauds, Centralised information system.
Current Status
The project has reached its last Milestone, with the pilot service being fully developed and functional. The historical data from wineries have been collected to train the coded models, which are now running and providing estimations nurturing FIbEO dashboards.
The platform access has been granted to partnering companies, receiving their feedbacks from real scenarios, tuning the product and refining the next commercial steps.
The final review has been held on May, 2023.
Concerning the commercial roll out; our main intent is to upsell to existing customers while on-boarding new ones, the values in the financial workbook are based on such average price and size: the sales are hectare-based and we foresee to cover/reach 100.000 hectares in the first commercial year, 200.000 for the second and 300.000 for the last one.
Existing customers of ABACO 4 grapes are potential customers of FIbEO service. The project has already been presented to some of them, gaining interest from another Consortium in Italy; it also received a positive feedback from a Producer Organization in the north, and other wineries in central Italy outside of the Chianti Classico area.
This means that the model will have to be trained following the specific area’s characteristics, but also that once the platform has been set up, it can deliver a useful service for viticulture in general and not only for the Chianti Classico area used as a case study.
Next steps: to acquire new customers we will create a solid value proposition per customer segment where we can use the current attention to supply chain traceability, resilience, origin of healthy food, quality assurance of high value products like wine and olive oil amongst others. , We expect an increased demand to our FIBEO proposition based on new more strict EU policies and laws: The EU Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
We will set-up targeted marketing campaigns for the different customer segments for different countries/markets in order to build new customer relationships.
The investment in EODDL is part of SENER Aeroespacial’s corporate strategy pillars of SENER roadmap for space communications. This decision is followed the relevant achievements reached in ESA science missions where SENER Aeroespacial is consistently delivering steerable antenna subsystems as well as RF equipment.
Customers and their Needs
During last decades, institutional and private European Space actors have contributed to create an important and growing Earth Observation (EO) sector. EO market is nowadays undertaking a rapid transformation towards large constellations and the use of next generation sensors and advanced payload.
This potential increment in the number of satellites to manage, the data volume to handle, together with the current congestion of the commonly allocated spectrum, are pushing to find frequency band alternatives and the use of new technologies to support higher data rates. In that context there is a trend encouraging the use of the 26 GHz spectrum (25500-27000 MHz) for payload data transmission in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. Consequently, an evolution in the communication architecture of future planned EO satellites is required in order to deal with the expected big increase in the volume of data to be downloaded.
Thus, the shift to the 26 GHz band will provide 4 times more available bandwidth. However for its optimal use, especially at very low elevation angles, there is a need for highly directive (thus steerable) antennas and advanced coding and modulations schemes to cope with the highly variable atmospheric attenuation.
Taking advantage of that situation, SENER Aeroespacial is proposing the development of a full X and K-band EO Data Downlink System (EO-DDL). It is a robust high throughput downlink system for LEO satellites targeting data rates higher than 2.6 Gbps per channel.
Targeted customer/users countries
Earth Observation satellite missions. Worldwide.
Product description
Based on an unique reconfigurability within the baseband processing and operational frequency as well as the integration of a compact and steerable dual-band antenna, the system will maximize the average data throughput in every GS contact.
Additionally, the inhered interoperability due to the capability to operate in both X and K band will allow the contact with the majority of the current and future GS as long as there is still a limited deployed ground infrastructure available with 26 GHz capability.
In order to build the complete downlink system, SENER Aeroespacial is proposing a novel concept where two main on-board sub-systems are identified (Figure 1‑2):
Payload Data Transmitter (PDT) assembly, built around baseband modules as well as RF parts (e.g. the up-conversion and power amplification) suitable to support both X- and K-band signals.
Dual Band Steerable Antenna (DBSA) assembly, with the proper combination of dual-band units (e.g. reflector, feed), band-specific units (e.g. waveguides), pointing mechanism and pointing mechanism electronics.
EO-DDL simplified system context diagram
This concept, together with the consortium and the associated work plan are the result of a careful balance of reusable design and innovation aiming to develop an European, highly integrated, robust, reliable and flexible (dual-band) solution to enable the use of very high-rate sensors and payloads required for the upcoming Earth Observation (EO) missions.
Therefore, the key features and functionalities are:
Reconfigurable: with the capability to manage different frequency bands (operation in X/K), different bandwidths and several Coding & Modulation schemes in a flexible and reliable manner. In this way, it maximizes the number of applications and available GS to link towards as well as the average data throughput during a contact.
High speed: capable of internally managing extremely high data rates and transmit the data at high speed to the Ground (higher than 2.6 Gbit/s per channel).
Availability and robustness: ensuring high-speed data transmission from low elevation angles, independently of the GS location and weather conditions
Compactness: the implemented compact and scalable design will allow its implementation in different kind of missions, including small spacecraft’s.
Scalability: This concept can be scaled in a future development by integrating a PDT and a TTC transceiver in a single unit operating in K- and X-band respectively
The proposed development activities aim at achieving the TRL5 for the critical technologies identified in this proposal, within the time frame defined here as well (Q4-2021). The TRL status reached and the time window proposed are relevant since the second purpose of this activity is to allow reaching TRL-6 of the integrated critical technologies in a relevant environment, for late Q2-2022.
The proposed development is the continuation of a previous phase A already completed under ESA contract No. 4000124352/18/NL/FF/gp: “Feasibility of a full X and K-band EO Data Downlink System”. This project has been successfully completed.
The outputs of this project will be used as inputs for the proposed INCUBED activities, where it is foreseen to design, manufacture, assemble and test the Payload Data Transmitter (PDT) EM and detail the development plan for the different components of the system up to achievement of space qualification (EQM).
Added Value
EO-DDL maximizes the number of applications and available GS to link towards as well as the average data throughput during a contact.
Current Status
This Incubed activity has been completed on Q3 2023.
The use of solely Earth Observation, helps to derive actionable insights for many of the new business applications. With more and better EO-data by now we succeed in monitoring a very large number of outdoor objects and inform customers on relevant changes. However even when using the newest very high resolution optical and radar sensors, there is lack of validation or comments by a human. By assimilating existing quality checked (open) data like crowd sourced data and official texts (e.g. permits), we can add significant value to EO-derived information in e.g. urgency, context and implications. Through SINERGI we add value to the changes we detect on EO-data with information from Big data sources by using technology for semantic integration and object ontology standards.
Customers and their Needs
Everything changes continuously on this planet. So, information outdates quickly. Causing poor decisions and misfit actions. Our clients, who make the transition to data driven decision making and data driven business, need up-to-date, complete and reliable information to follow environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). Many policy and businesses applications lack data and actionable insights to make the right decisions to follow ESG.
Targeted customer/users countries
The key customers segments targeted by our product are the value added service customers like Forest Law Enforcement (Nature Protection Law Enforcement), urban green and tree management, environmental Inspection Service and building Insurance.
Product description
In recent years, NEO developed the SignalEyes platform for Earth Observation (AO) based nationwide information services. The figure belo shows the SignalEyes method of information provision with EO data and its learning element.
In SINERGI we developed an ontology based method to use Big Data to add value to earth observation data and apply/test it to monitoring of trees, shrub, invasive plant species and buildings. The solutions rely on the existing SignalEyes infrastructure, a system that enables the monitoring of geographical objects using EO data for changes relevant for a wide range of applications.
The role of the SINERGI solutions in the context of the overall system of its target users is to provide the necessary insights on properties of objects on the Earth’s surface based on the most recent relevant data extracted from EO and non-EO data sources.
The components and component elements that will be developed in SINERGI provide the SignalEyes system access to a much wider range of data sources, allowing cross-checking of data-derived insights from multiple angles, leading to more reliable, more complete and more up-to-date information.
SINERGI method of information provision to a userOverall SINERGI architecture
Added Value
The semantic integration of Big data using ontologies is a step that is still new to the EO-services development. The added value of an EO product increases very significantly, when this integration is achieved successfully. In the described services, the value of the EO-service increases by an estimated factor of 3-5. The value of sales to our current customer base may multiply. Much of our services are limited to The Netherlands. However NEO is an EARTH observation services company, working on 4 continents and with an increasing focus on international markets.
Through SINERGI earth observation data will be more used in business applications. Data that is now by itself not directly fit to derive actionable insights for certain customers, become valuable when combined with other data. When competitors adopt similar working methods it is likely that EO-based services as a whole become more valuable leading to sustained or increased growth (as generally predicted for the value adding sector). In our data driven world, earth observation data, if combined with other data, will play a bigger role in providing better information resulting in better decisions for a better planet.
Current Status
The SINERGI activity started in September 2021. For SINERGI-derived SignalEyes services there are potentially hundreds of use cases and as many customer segments. In order to structure our activity, we selected 4 use cases, that illustrate the scope of services:
Mutation signals on buildings enriched with ‘building permit’ information from public sources for commercial and government customers
Enriching vegetation objects with species information from citizen science observations for urban green and nature management purposes
Mutation signals on trees enriched by ‘Tree Felling Permits’ from public sources for law enforcement
Mutation signals on rapid vegetation development in canals enriched with citizen science’ notifications on Invasive Exotic Species for water management authorities
We have successfully tested these use cases resulting in significant added value to EO-derived information. First contracts and cooperation have emerged from our activities. Many opportunities will be further developed in the coming years. We could not have achieved this so quickly without the support of the ESA InCubed program and support of the Netherlands Space Office.
Connecting satellites to additional ground stations or ground station networks often requires significant integration costs in terms of time, personnel, and licensing. The market is fragmented in terms of providers, locations, and legal issues, making real-time radio communication with satellites complicated. Moreover, many ground stations remain underutilized, presenting an opportunity to increase their satellite servicing capacity.
Key Features of the Aggregated Marketplace for Ground Station Services:
Seamless cross-network connectivity
Aggregation of services and pricing from diverse providers
Contact management and booking across different ground stations
Optimization of bookings based on multiple criteria
Secure online payment processing
Support for various communication protocols
Cloud-agnostic deployment for enhanced flexibility
Unified user interface integrating all functionalities
Vision: enabling near real-time data transfer capabilities.
Gains for Satellite Operators:
Pre-integration with various ground station networks leads to shorter integration times.
Increased communication sessions between the Earth and satellites within the same mission budget.
Centralized gateway for booking and scheduling contacts with satellites using a combined network of ground stations.
Reduced latency
Enhanced automation.
Gains for Ground Stations:
Extra sales channel
Increased efficiency, resulting in reduced integration and operational costs
Pre-integration to mission control platform.
Customers and their Needs
The Marketplace customers are satellite operators.
Their needs are related with
Lower costs
Reliable infrastructure
Low latency
Simple usage
Targeted customer/users countries
Worldwide
Product description
The role of the product in the context of the overall system of its target users is to provide a satellite communications platform using ground station services from available providers according to constraints set by the user.
Added Value
Currently there is a shortage of single one-point-of-entry ground communication solutions which are integrated with different ground station networks. The closest ones are virtual networks, which combine different stand-alone ground stations not networks and they do not have mission control nor satellite operations simulations capabilities as Spaceit’s platform has.
Spaceit’s solution brings together satellite operators and ground station networks in a one unified platform. It aggregates both virtual and physical networks and creates a unified ecosystem for ground station services. It allows booking and managing contacts and communicating with satellites in one environment
Current Status
The Activity is ongoing due to development of additional features. Nevertheless, the service with existing capabilities is operational as of the end of 2022.
Make a list of six Sentinel-1 analysis ready data (ARD) products that are very easy to use for both human visual and machine-readable form. The ideal is either one click or one API command integration and use, making the most of Sentinel-1 input data with state-of-the-art calibration, thermal-noise removal, and speckle suppression. The Sentinel-1 ARD products are targeted for several governmental and business users to help them in certain use cases, as a useful input for analysis or to provide an end-user service.
The goal under CCN3 is to enable users to seamlessly subscribe to the sNDVI API services and begin using them without requiring any human intervention from the organization’s side. The service should be designed to automatically scale in response to demand, ensuring that it can handle varying levels of usage efficiently. At the same time, the system should be optimised to keep storage and processing costs to a minimum, making it cost-effective for both the company and its customers. Additionally, a sandbox environment should be provided where customers can try out the services, allowing them to explore and test the capabilities of the product.
Customers and their Needs
Customers:
EO, ICT, and GIS companies as service providers for various end-user services
governmental users
farm management software (FMS) providers
agricultural enterprises and cooperatives
stakeholders in carbon bio-sequestration (biological carbon sequestration, e.g., in agriculture, forests, peatlands, wetlands, and grasslands)
Needs:
To integrate and use satellite imagery and use value-added satellite products characterising vegetation dynamics quickly and easily.
The models serving an end-user require well-calibrated and high-quality SAR data
End-users require frequent updates about their AOIs
End-users require imagery with high spatial resolution
Developing an accurate cloudless NDVI requires well-calibrated and high-quality SAR data
Targeted customer/users countries
European, American, and Asian countries.
Product description
Sentinel-1 Analysis Ready Data (ARD) layers:
Time series of parcel-level statistics of VH and VV backscatter, VH/VV backscatter ratio, VH, and VV 6-day repeat pass coherence (parcel min, max, mean, median, standard deviation)
Calibrated high-resolution VH and VV coherence rasters
Calibrated high-resolution VH and VV backscatter and VH/VV ratio rasters
Multi-polarisation backscatter image for visual use as a WMS service
Synthetic Sentinel-2-like natural colours image based on Sentinel-1 data, using modern AI-modelling tools
Synthetic NDVI-like raster based on Sentinel-1 and -2 time series with AI-modelling
This easy-to-use product aims to make satellite image accessible with one click or one API command (e.g., switch on the satellite WMS/WCS layer in your web/desktop GIS and data mining, machine learning frameworks). All the data layers will have state-of-the-art calibration, thermal noise removal, and speckle suppression.
Under CCN3, the new product will offer the following features over the current sNDVI service:
Improved accuracies of sNDVI on 12D coherence (Sentinel-1) inputs
Automated sNDVI raster creation via API calls
sNDVI parcel statistics timeseries
Updated web map sandbox showcasing sNDVI for end-users and prospective customers
Added Value
The pre-processing burden of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data is taken away. A lot of EO, GIS, and ICT companies and government institutions are not SAR experts, but they would benefit a lot from SAR data if they were provided in analysis ready format. In addition, utilising SAR-based biomass monitoring provides consistent and accurate data unaffected by cloud cover. This enables agricultural experts to navigate changing conditions with greater confidence and agility, regardless of weather patterns.
Current Status
KappaOne has three interactive demo environments deployed, where users can observe fresh and historical Sentinel-1 data layers together with parcel statistics and synthetic NDVI:
The provided raster images illustrate KappaZeta’s vision of high-quality, high-resolution Sentinel-1 images that are processed to be useable for visual interpretation as well as for machine learning input. Visual interpretation is helped by the highest reasonable resolution, 5m grid cell, a state-of-the-art speckle filtering method called “Refined Lee”, careful contrast enhancement, and a selection of composite images. As an advanced feature, temporal averaging can be selected to show cleaner, more detailed images. Despite all the efforts, direct interpretation of Sentinel-1 images is still challenging for non-trivial cases, so we also provide a synthesis of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 images, which can provide an NDVI-like vegetation index for cloudy days. As a third product, we can deliver parcel-based time series of Sentinel-1 data, which uses a special parcel level noise reduction mechanism and is able to give a better signal-noise ratio than simple polygon extraction from the raster.
All these products can be ordered via an API, which allows registered users to define new areas of interest, time period, list of parameters, set up a web map, generate download links, etc. Currently, we are working on improving the user interface to enable prospective clients to use the sNDVI product easily. In addition, model developments are ongoing with the aim of improving the accuracy of the product.
Climate change is adversly affecting our environment and global food security is challenged. The Hyperfield service provides global, daily and actionable near real-time data on ecological assets through spaceborne hyperspectral imaging and AI. This novel, small satellite-based solution enables creating a constellation of tens of satellites that are highly cost-effective, providing affordable insights for developed and developing countries.
Customers and their Needs
Hyperfield helps food producers, businesses and governments get better insight for making effective decisions towards sustainable agriculture, carbon capture and mitigation of climate change risks.
Targeted customer/users countries
The service is global and targets primarily agriculture, carbon trading, insurance, and finance sectors.
Product description
Hyperfield combines a constellation of hyperspectral small satellites, ground segment and advanced AI/ML-based analytics to provide actionable insights to customers and end users.
The first-generation satellite for the constellation is developed jointly in this project, by Kuva Space and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The 6U CubeSat carries a novel in-orbit tunable high-resolution hyperspectral imager covering visual to near-infrared wavelengths. Future satellite generations will cover short-wave infrared wavelengths by including additional imaging channels.
The mission operations are performed from Kuva Space’s mission control and ground-station in Espoo, Finland and through a third-party ground station network provider. The downlinked hyperspectral data is processed on ground to validate its usability to the selected customer and end-user applications. Advanced AI/ML-based hyperspectral data processing and analytics are developed concurrently with the project.
The eventual satellite constellation will be launched after the validation mission and consists of tens of small satellites providing up to daily re-visits to selected areas of interest. Kuva Space is working with customers and end users to deliver different kinds of data products ranging from L2 to L4, emphasising more on L4.
The service provides actionable insights based on continously updating hyperspectral data. The near real-time hyperspectral data acquisition enhances timely decision-making and unlocks new applications. Some of these applications include identifying and analysing crop types and health, predicting yields, detecting anomalies, estimating carbon sequestration, and various safety and security-related applications.
Current Status
The InCubed project’s satellite, Hyperfield-1B, is presently undergoing assembly, integration, and testing. It is scheduled for launch in early 2025, following the launch of the precursor satellite Hyperfield-1A, on 16 August 2024.
An advanced data processing chain and AI/ML-based analytics have been developed concurrently with the project and are ready to be utilised for the missions after launch.
