Report warns of rapid decline in US Earth observation capabilities

Washington DC (SPX) May 04, 2012

In the near term, the report concludes, budgets for NASA's earth science program will remain inadequate to meet pressing national needs. Therefore the agency should focus on two necessary actions: defining and implementing a cost-constrained approach to mission development, and identifying and empowering a cross-mission earth system science and engineering team to advise on the execution of decadal survey missions.

A new National Research Council report says that budget shortfalls, cost-estimate growth, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope have left U.S. earth observation systems in a more precarious position than they were five years ago.

The report cautions that the nation's earth observing system is beginning a rapid decline in capability, as long-running missions end and key new missions are delayed, lost, or cancelled.

"The projected loss of observing capability will have profound consequences on science and society, from weather forecasting to responding to natural hazards," said Dennis Hartmann, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

"Our ability to measure and understand changes in Earth's climate and life support systems will also degrade."

Spotlight on Sentinel-2

Paris (ESA) May 08, 2012

A mockup of the high-resolution images that the future Sentinel-2 mission will deliver, with a swath of 290 km and a resolution of 10 m per pixel. Using 82 observations from the German RapidEye satellites, the image covers the border area of northern Switzerland, southern Germany and eastern France, and includes a small portion of Austria and Lichtenstein. Sentinel-2, envisaged for launch in 2013, is one of five Sentinel missions that ESA is developing for Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Credits: RapidEye.

The vast potential of ESA's upcoming Sentinel-2 satellites came into focus last week at a symposium in Italy on how they will benefit current and future projects that exploit Earth observation data. The humid and moist tropical climate of Gabon yields immense forests that cover over 85% of the land, making them the number-two driver of the national economy - and deforestation a subject of concern.

The GMES project on Forest Monitoring Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation mapped deforestation in Gabon from 1990 to 2010 using NASA's Landsat satellite.

But the Equatorial African country's heavy cloud cover means that imagery is often difficult to acquire over some areas.

While it takes Landsat 1.5-3.5 years to obtain imagery of the entire country, the future Sentinel-2 mission would require less than a year because of its more frequent coverage.

The future monitoring of land cover by Sentinel-2 was just one of the many topics covered at the Sentinel-2 Preparatory Symposium, hosted this week at ESA's ESRIN centre for Earth observation in Frascati, Italy.

Other applications discussed include forestry, agriculture, cartography and the mapping of glaciers and wetlands.

EnhancedView’s cloudy future

by Jeff Foust
Monday, May 7, 2012

On Friday, commercial satellite remote sensing company GeoEye surprised many in the industry when it announced an unsolicited takeover offer of its chief rival, DigitalGlobe. GeoEye offered $17 per share, split evenly in cash and stock, to acquire DigitalGlobe, valuing the company at $792 million. The deal represented a 26 percent premium on DigitalGlobe’s stock price at the close of trading Thursday, although by Friday the stock soared to close at $16.44 a share.

“The considerable scale of the combined entity creates a strong domestic player in satellite imagery which could compete more effectively with foreign providers,” GeoEye president and CEO Matt O’Connell wrote in a letter to his counterpart at DigitialGlobe, Jeffrey Tarr. “The combination also allows for operating expense synergies and reduced capital requirements while better satisfying customer needs.”

“We believe GeoEye made its hostile bid in desperation due to highly publicized concerns about potential government decisions that may jeopardize their portion of the EnhancedView program,” DigitalGlobe said in its rejection of the offer.
In the press release, and a conference call with investors Friday morning, O’Connell said there had been discussions behind the scenes between the two companies about a potential deal for some time. “In these discussions, we discussed and agreed upon the merits of the combination, and the synergies that could be achieved by putting the two companies together,” he said on the call. DigitalGlobe, though, had rejected prior offers made in private. “We believe at this point in our dialogue that it’s appropriate to make our proposal public, because this is such an important matter for all shareholders to know about and consider.”

“We’re kind of puzzled as to the slowdown in discussions,” O’Connell said later in the call. “We’re not sure what their issues are.”

In a statement issued Sunday, DigitalGlobe formally rejected the GeoEye offer, saying it “substantially undervalues” the company and “does not adequately recognize DigitalGlobe’s superior track record of financial and operating performance as well as its constellation's greater capabilities.”