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.

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.

RAINBOW

Objectives of the Product

Current multispectral data are a solid input data source for agricultural services, but they cannot capture the individual spectral absorption bands that characterise the plant biochemical parameters. Those are necessary to go from crop observation to a deep understanding of the causes of what is happening in the fields, and from qualitative description to quantitative assessment, as a baseline for precision farming on a parcel level.

To be able to address the commercial needs – for accessing the huge smart farming market, for instance – a spatial resolution of 20m or better, and bands in the spectral range of 0,4 to 1,7 µm are required. Such operational, hyperspectral remote sensing data serving the requirements of enhanced agricultural Earth observation (EO) products are currently not available. A major challenge is the typical budget (volume, mass and resulting cost) of a traditional hyperspectral instrument (such as EnMAP or CHIME), leading to satellite costs that are not compliant with a reasonable commercial business plan. A filter-on-chip-based hyperspectral instrument optimised for agricultural applications is expected to solve the issue. RAINBOW is based on a cost-efficient design of the compact optical payload onboard a LEO small satellite supported by appropriate data fusion and processing.

Customers and their Needs

Farmers, farm advisors and the agricultural industry are interested in managing fields in a sustainable way, where yield is high, and inputs are low. With RAINBOW smart farming services, the causes of issues in the field, as well as the spread of the issues can be discovered, allowing precise reactions that lead to profit from stabilised yields and savings from using input resources efficiently.

Certification bodies, governmental agencies, NGOs, and carbon traders need to prove carbon sequestration in soils, for carbon certification. RAINBOW carbon maps show carbon content in soils in a continuous area-wide manner and allow a reduction in laboratory analysis as well as an increase in the temporal frequency of sampling and analysis, leading to better results at lower costs.

Farmers, farm advisors, traders, NGOs, and governmental agencies are interested in the yield quality information such as protein content, to fetch the highest prices or predict the availability of wheat yield for human consumption. RAINBOW Yield Quality Services will allow, for the first time, the prediction of not only yield quantity, but also yield quality from space, allowing farmers, NGOs and governmental agencies to better plan for the future.

Target customers/users countries

The key customer segments targeted by the RAINBOW products are farmers, farm advisors and the agricultural industry worldwide, providing detailed and topical information on the status of their crops and how to manage them best. RAINBOW addresses farmers mainly in Europe, which has the highest ratio of farms with smart farming technology on the field already, but also in North America, Africa and Australia. Additionally, we will also develop services geared towards traders, NGOs, governmental agencies and certification bodies.

Product Description

With the spectrometer-on-chip approach, the goal is to map the required spectral bands of the application 1:1 onto a transmission filter integrated directly in front of the detector. This way, the properties of the spectral channels such as spectral lineshape, are directly related to the transmission of the filter. The difference to multispectral instruments is that a larger number of channels can be observed. This is accomplished by the design of a filter, which is implemented as a ‘pixelated’ filter that reproduces a step pattern, allowing for a dedicated transmission over every column of pixels on the detector.

From the RAINBOW spectral data, smart farming products such as irrigation recommendations, yield forecasts or soil organic carbon content measurements will be generated, and a hyperspectral data cube will be produced for further customised analysis.

Added Value

The data products are addressing the sector of agriculture and data-driven farming, which has the following characteristics:

• Is a global market

• Needs to monitor small parcels, at least weekly, in high-resolution imagery

• Has a very strong price competition (small cost/ha)

• Is strongly pushing towards a smaller impact to environment (without fertilizers and pesticides, low carbon footprint, preservation of biodiversity, etc.)

• Follows the traditional behaviour of end users

In order to be successful on the market, the availability of remote-sensing data covering the relevant area at least on bi-weekly basis is mandatory. The filter-on-chip-based instrument concept is an enabling technology that is a pre-requisite for keeping the cost for acquiring the hyperspectral data reasonably low.

Current Status

The InCubed+ de-risking activity was kicked-off in December 2022. In preparation of the activity preliminary market assessment and derivation of mission requirements have been performed. Also preliminary requirements to derive the payload design like spatial resolution, spectral resolution and radiometric performances are established. Initial design parameters for the filter and chip are defined and a candidate detector is selected. Trade-off how to mount the filter on the detector and design optimization for the telescope are required to achieve the goal of a low cost instrument design.

Radio Occultation Service, RoccS.

Objectives of the Product

The primary market is a Commercial RO Service that provides RO data for Meteorology and NWP. This is the most mature RO market, which has recently reached the point where continuous financing can be foreseen to be available for procurement of commercial RO data products.

We base our mission on a trustable solution with strong heritage. Our heritage GRAS-2 instrument has been developed, within MetOp-SG, to meet EUMETSAT requirements for RO in the coming decades. The instrument flies on a satellite with proved reliability.

A high-end space equipment to ensure high availability, dependability, and performance
Long mission durations to maintain cost efficiency of data products

Customers and their Needs

For European meteorology the accuracy increases by more occultations, the current need expressed by WMO is at least 20.000 occultations/day corresponding to 10 to 12 RO satellites with GRAS-2. ECMWF has demonstrated NWP improvements up to 100.000 occultations/day and EUMETSAT has expressed need for additional European commercial RO providers.

RO is extremely valuable for climate monitoring as it is a calibration free measurement without drifts. This means that RO observations also can be used to calibrate other data sources researched. RO observations for Meteorology can also serve climate.

RO for space weather, relate to monitoring and prediction of the ionosphere. In the long run we foresee that space weather will require more RO data than meteorology. The market is not mature yet but is under development.

Target customers/users countries

The Commercial RO Service will be sold to the customer segments where we initially will focus on direct contract with EUMETSAT and NOAA for meteorological use as both EUMETSAT and NOAA currently have budget to procure commercial RO data.

Product Description

The Commercial RO Service consists of a space segment and a ground segment. The main components of the Commercial RO Service are the GRAS-2 instrument hosted on a suitable satellite platform and the ground segment with processing and distribution of RO data products to paying customers.

The role of the Commercial RO Service in the context of the overall system/service of its target users is to provide access to global RO data of high quality with high availability and low latency. This RO data will improve the accuracy of numerical weather forecasts and will also contribute to improved climate monitoring, as well as space weather monitoring.

The external interfaces of the Commercial RO service are:

• The GRAS-2 instrument receives RF signals transmitted by GNSS satellites (Galileo, GPS, Beidou) on two frequency bands centred at 1575.42 MHz (L1) and 1176.45MHz (L5)

• The RO data user (customer) will receive Level 0 data through a User Interface Platform

• The RO data user (customer) will also receive data containing service quality indices through the User Interface Platform

Radio occultation conceptual geometry. The field-of-view of the different antennas are illustrated in green.

Added Value

Current Status

Requirement Review performed including
- Definition of Instrument Adaptations
- Mission Requirements
RFP issued to potential satellite service providers
- Cover letter
- SoW
- Specification
Instrument mission adaptations initiated
Cloud Service Architecture initiated

PROGRES.lu

Objectives of the Product

The understanding of extreme precipitation events is of critical interest for scientists as the frequency of those events is likely to increase and as they have a direct impact on many human activities (e.g., agriculture, logistics, accessibility to water, landslides or flood prevention, natural disasters) with devastating socio-economic consequences. Those events are controlled by moisture, but there is an absence of efficient measurements of such moisture profiles when precipitation occurs. By leveraging the capabilities of the CubeSat platform and growing experience on processing and analyzing GNSS-RO Data, Spire proposes to alleviate the heterogeneity and limitation of existing sensing solutions (infrared, radar, …) with an approach that could deliver valuable precipitation data, globally, with the potential to scale to a large constellation at a cost point that is substantially lower than today’s EO missions. This would potentially lead to a better understanding of events such as tropical cyclones, as well as better validation tools for cloud and precipitation models, improving weather forecasts.

Customers and their Needs

There are 3 customer segments identified:

National and multinational weather agencies / research and civil protection institutions: Needing accurate precipitation information, comparable and compatible with other existing terrestrial and space-based remote sensing systems, available during rapidly evolving precipitation events. There will be varying requirements and needs among them: historical data versus current and forecast; global versus regional; data latency; operational availability, etc.
Application Service Providers: Designing tools to support operations of weather-exposed industries. Some of which are already existing customers of Spire. This customer segment is more interested in an accurate, reliable and affordable source of data, notably during rapidly evolving precipitation events.
End Customers: Having ‘in-housed’ the development of their own applications and related meteorological products and services, looking for quality weather information to support business critical applications (Agribusiness, Insurance, Airline operators, …) facing difficulties accessing data during rapidly evolving events.

Targeted customer/users countries

Interests have been raised in Europe as well as in American and UK based
institutions.

Product description

The main product consists of vertically resolved profiles of GNSS-PRO which are sensitive to the presence of precipitation and ice crystals as well as to temperature and moisture. The data are obtained from an in-orbit demonstrator payload aboard a CubeSat. These data produced by the GNSS-PRO sensor will be generated and formatted as per Earth observation standards.

The main components of the product will be profiles of calibrated polarimetric phase delay differences and derived features consistent with the vertical structures of precipitation, as well as the conventional output of GNSS radio occultations; combined together, they enable further capacities of detection such as the cloud top height or to potentially distinguish convective from stratiform precipitation. This would lead to a new data product to be fully embedded into Spire’s full range of weather data products.

Modules	Functions/Features	Description/Design	Development Status	Critical Technologies
LEMUR Satellite Bus	Provides hosting of the PRO sensor in space	Use of Spire standard LEMUR bus	Fully developed and operational across the Spire fleet. No extensive adaptations required.	None
STRATOS Receiver	Processes GNSS RF PRO signals	GNSS receiver for several systems: GPS, Galileo, Glonass and QZSS	Modification. The STRATOS RO system is fully developed and has flight heritage. An adaptation of the receiver software has been performed to correctly combine two polarimetric ports.	RF multiband Multiservice Compressor
PRO Antenna	Collects GNSS RF PRO signals, separated in H/V polarizations	An antenna consisting of an H/V polarimetric phased array of three microstrip square patches. Sensitive to horizontal and vertical polarizations (defined as azimuth and elevation directions from the antenna point of view, respectively)	New. Designed, manufactured, tested, launched, and commissioned.	Microstrip technology of phased arrays
PRO DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM	Ingests raw PRO data and produces a) Standard calibrated RO atmospheric profiles; and b) vertical profiles of polarimetric differential phase that exhibit a robust relationship with path-integrated precipitation and/or frozen hydrometeors.	Code responsible for calculating the polarimetric differential phase, for its calibration and interpretation in a vertical profile of heights. Quality check and outlier identification to reject invalid profiles.	New/Modification. Partially reused code from RO standard excess phase processing and partially new code to process the polarimetric differential phase part	RO inversion of refractivity. Calibration of the PRO antenna H and V phase patterns and cross-polarization effects.

*PRO FM undergoing testing in the Spire anechoic chamber.*

*Deployment of Spire FM170 on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 launch*

*Aggregated differential phase shift profiles from Spire (differentiated by GNSS) showing the clear systematic signal of precipitation on the mean phase shift values at low altitudes.*

*Comparison of differential phase shift between Spire collections and ground-based radars showing good agreement. Credit: IEEC*

Added Value

Spire sees GNSS-PRO as an incipient and innovative approach to the observation and measurement of rainfall under all weather and day/night conditions, and in accordance with an overarching vision to utilize GNSS signals of opportunity to generate valuable weather products with an already proven ability to deliver in this domain. The first and only space mission to carry a GNSS-PRO payload is the Radio Occultation and Heavy Precipitation (ROHP) experiment aboard PAZ, a Spanish Earth observation and reconnaissance satellite launched on 22 February 2018. Spire will innovate beyond ROHP in the following key aspects:

The instrument: With a new antenna and a new multiband receiver technology
The integration of the instrument within a small sat platform
The evaluation of the potential of this new data source for assimilation models

Current Status

The activity concluded successfully following the final review on 17-October-2023.

Following the successful design and manufacturing of the PRO payload, Spire has extended its trial to include two additional satellites, FM167 and FM170, alongside FM166.

These satellites were successfully launched and commissioned on 3-January-2023 and 3-February-2023, respectively. Since then, operational data flow has commenced, with approximately 2000 PRO profiles collected daily from all three FMs, achieving a latency of only a few hours.

Noteworthy findings from the validation campaign include the demonstration of comparable quality between RO retrievals based on dual-polarizations measurements and those from RHCP measurements, making them suitable for assimilation into Numerical Weather Prediction models.

Additionally, differential phase profiles (H-V) have shown consistent positive shifts of 2-3 mm during rain events compared to no-rain events.
Moreover, on-orbit calibration of antenna patterns has yielded results consistent with ground-based calibrations, with minimal phase shift patterns (<0.5 mm), eliminating the need for further antenna calibration for the current validation scope.

The correlation between mean phase shift values (indicative of hydrometeors presence) and rain events, as determined by the IMERG product, has been established, with a notable hit rate of 74% for rain events and 90% for no-rain events based on 10,000 profiles.

Validation results have been corroborated by external collaborators from CSIC/IEEC, including comparisons against additional sensors such as ground-based radars and case studies over hurricanes, further enhancing the credibility and applicability of the findings.

Skymetry

Objectives of the Product

Skymetry’s cutting-edge monitoring services are designed to revolutionise how assets are managed across various industries. Leveraging advanced remote-sensing technologies, Skymetry offers accurate, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. Skymetry’s mission is focused on fusing together advanced remote-sensing technologies and AI annotations to assess and monitor large assets in the Energy, Infrastructure and Urban domains.

While supporting owners in safeguarding asset integrity and managing site control and planning, Skymetry also plays a key role in evaluating the environmental sustainability of these resources, determining the potential impacts these assets can generate on the surrounding territory.

Skymetry redefines asset maintenance and sustainability assessment by delivering 4D-geospatial SaaS Solutions that match high-resolution maps, deep historisation, high geospatial accuracy and informed decision-making tools while embracing a broadened view of the asset.
Skymetry is specifically designed to promote seamless data acquisition integration from multiple Earth Observation (EO) sources, either airborne (UAVs, aircrafts) and spaceborne (satellites). Furthermore, it streamlines the processing and publishing of AI-assisted virtual investigation tools.

Benefits:

Asset Monitoring Effectiveness: Skymetry Monitoring Services provide comprehensive coverage and timely detection of critical asset evolutions, enhancing asset management and risk mitigation.
Cost Efficiency: by optimising data usage and leveraging AI-driven analytics, Skymetry ensures efficient resource allocation in the data-gathering phases, resulting in cost savings for our clients.
Seamless Integration: Skymetry Monitoring Services are designed to seamlessly integrate and complement the clients’ existing GIS legacy systems, enhancing operational workflows and data accessibility.
Enhanced Decision-Making: Skymetry AI Services provide accurate insights, enabling informed decisions to be taken with confidence.
Operational Efficiency: Skymetry AI-driven solutions streamline workflows and optimise resource allocation.
Real-Time Insights: Skymetry timely issues qualified insights about changing conditions and emerging trends, for proactive decision-making.

Customers and their Needs

Skymetry’s solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs of each served industry vertically.

Skymetry Services have been tailored according to vertical user-needs expressed by operators within the Energy, Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Urban Planning domains.

Thanks to the experience acquired by DigiSky over the past 10 years, Skymetry’s uniqueness lies within the native integration and combination of all possible EO sources into a single end-to-end SaaS platform that competitively delivers insightful 4D AI-enabled reports, which can be directly integrated into the operational workflows of infrastructure owners and governmental agencies.

In the Energy sector, Skymetry Services optimise infrastructure monitoring in the power generation and transportation, contributing to their sustainability and efficiency.

In the Infrastructure domain, Skymetry Services provide in-depth inspections to ensure resilience and safety. In pre-construction phases, Skymetry provides accurate Digital Twins which are at the foundation of the digital design and simulation.

Thanks to Skymetry Environment solutions, ecological changes can be monitored to safeguard natural resources and assess hydrogeological risks.

In Urban Planning, Skymetry empowers the envisioning of how the “as-built” context can be evolved while extracting BIM-ready models. Skymetry Services ensure that clients gain actionable insights to improve operations and achieve sustainable outcomes.

Targeted customer/users’ countries

The Skymetry SaaS product is designed to serve four primary customer segments:

Infrastructure operators (transportation, gas, water)
Energy providers and utilities.
Urban planners and municipalities.
Environmental agencies and organisations.

Clients in these sectors can benefit from Skymetry’s user-friendly web-GIS interface to place georeferenced orders to monitor their assets.

By integrating EO data, Skymetry ensures continuous monitoring of areas of interest, while acting as “magnifying lens”, whenever required.

Through advanced change-detection AI algorithms, the aerial inspections are triggered, using certified general aviation aircrafts equipped with high-resolution sensors (RGB, SAR, TIR, LiDAR, Hyper-Spectral). This combination of EO sources and observation bands enables superior monitoring insights, while optimising operations time and costs through selective and automated data-gathering strategies. Besides relying on existing EO sources, Skymetry competitively supports innovative spaceborne payloads vendors and upstream nano-satellite OEMs with atmospheric testing, de-risking and calibration services (SkyGate), thus contributing to the development of the EO upstream segment in New Space Economy.

Product description

Skymetry provides advanced monitoring services that combine satellite, aerial, and AI-driven technologies to offer precise, real-time insights for industries operating in the energy, infrastructure, environment, and urban planning fields.

Skymetry Services enable the transition from traditional ground-based monitoring methods to remote-sensing practices, by providing an integrated virtual inspection environment co-piloted by AI.

Skymetry is an integrated end-to-end SaaS solution for monitoring operations that automatically tasks the most suitable EO sources relevant to the target asset and release AI-based reports that co-pilot very-high-definition virtual inspection operations within an integrated web-GIS environment.

Added Value

Skymetry acts as an end-to-end solution with various advantages:

Easy Asset Selection: by entering Skymetry native SaaS WebGIS, clients can easily select their preferred target areas or assets and activate a tailored monitoring process.
Fully Automated Monitoring Process: for all activated targets, Skymetry automates all monitoring steps, including the multi-source data gathering and the editing of reports, ensuring relevance and efficiency throughout the entire monitoring process.
AI-Enhanced Insights: Skymetry leverages precise AI models to generate geo-referenced status reports for all monitored targets, securely delivering them to clients through an intuitive 3D visualisation SaaS platform.

Current Status

This activity is completed.

DigiSky has been capable of obtaining noticeable achievements over the years in its core markets and in various regions.

Having designed and certified a proprietary avionic solution (SmartBay®) which enables any general aviation aircraft to be easily transformed into a special mission airborne data-gathering tool, DigiSky has enabled the possibility of rapid geographical scalability of aerial operations through affiliated partners, to complement available EO sources.

Skymetry Services are currently addressing commercial and pilot programs in the following domains and regions:

Solar-Power generation (3 projects, EU)
Motorway/Rail Infrastructures (9 projects, EU)
District Heating (5 cities, EU)
Gas Distribution (2 projects, EU)
Water Distribution (4 projects, EU)
Pre-construction BIM digitalization (2 projects, EU)
Urban Planning (4 projects, EU+MENA)
Hydro-Power generation (2 projects, EU)
Hydrogeological risk (6 projects, EU)
Environment Impact (1 project, EU)
Forestry (4 projects, EU)
Glaciers (4 projects, EU)

In Solar Power generation, Skymetry is steadily serving over 4GW of installed capacity across Europe.