ILA/Berlin, Friedrichshafen, 10 May 2004
Preparations for the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) Initiative have now reached a crucial stage, since by 2008, the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) want to have established the fundamental components of the programme. In light of this, both organisations have already initiated focused projects for the development and implementation of geo-information services. On the commercial side, EADS Astrium and its subsidiary Infoterra have taken on a leading role .
The central goal of the European GMES initiative is to provide politicians and public authorities with up-to-date information on the current status and development of environmental issues, as well as on civil threats to the nations within Europe. This information is used as a basis for decision-making processes not only in working towards sustainable resource management securing the availability of essential resources for future generations, but also in the actual protection of lives, property, and quality of life for European
citizens. Public authorities at international, state, and regional level will all benefit from this information.
After decades of successful development and use of Earth observation-based information in project work, the technological challenge of integrating this information into existing monitoring networks and management tools now presents itself.
Currently, the development and implementation of new information products is financially supported through the EC´s research programme, as well as ESA’s Earth observation programmes and those of the national space agencies in Europe. From 2007, a separate GMES budget line is to be established by the EC and its member states.
EADS Astrium is not only supporting this initiative by constructing the necessary infrastructure for data collection and provision (satellites and ground stations), but is represented through its subsidiaries Infoterra in Germany and the UK, as well as SpotImage and a dedicated EADS Astrium department in France. It is also actively developing new products and services in the field of geo-information.
The German arm of Infoterra is leading a European development network of 56 partners, which develops and demonstrates geo-information services in support of European directives and international policies (e.g. the Water Framework Directive and the Kyoto Protocol), within the framework of the €20M EC project “geoland”.
Within ESA’s range of GMES activities, the project RiskEOS (EADS Astrium, France) uses geo-information for the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, while the project RESPOND (Infoterra Ltd, UK) generates essential information for the successful execution of humanitarian aid activities. Within the project SAGE, geo-information is used to provide improved protection of water and soil in Europe. Additional work addressing water management, disaster management and the development of efficient production infrastructure is currently under way.
One of the future aims of the GMES initiative, is to use in-situ measurements combined with Earth observation data. Satellite data offers a unique opportunity to supplement detailed local measurements with coherent, large-scale data sets. Optical instruments such as. SPOT, LANDSAT and ENVISAT´s MERIS-instrument, as well as radar instruments like ERS, RADARSAT, ENIVISAT´s ASAR, and in the future the new German radar satellite TerraSAR-X are used for gathering this kind of data.
TerraSAR-X is a radar satellite currently being developed within the German national space programme by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and EADS Astrium. Its X-band sensor will be able to work regardless of daylight or cloud cover conditions, and will be able to show many details on the Earths´ surface, such as houses or vehicles. However, in order to acquire information on soil quality or humidity, for example, or to differentiate between tree species or plants, data must be collected at a different frequency (band). The possibility of introducing further radar satellites, which could work in L- or C-band, is currently being examined by ESA.
EADS Astrium is Europe’s leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment. EADS Astrium, wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defense space systems. In 2003 EADS SPACE had a turnover of € 2.4 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.
EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services. In 2003, EADS generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 100,000.
Friedrichshafen, May 2004/04011
