Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) is an ESA initiative to support the uptake of Earth Observation (EO)-derived information in sustainable development. The EO4SD Forest Management  project (EO4SD-FM) – aims to demonstrate the utility and benefit of mainstreaming EO-based forest related products and services for improved Forest Management for IFI programmes and stakeholders in Client States (CS).
The EO4SD-FM project will provide a quality assured portfolio of geo-spatial products that can be used in tropical dry and tropical humid ecosystems ins, such as in in Latin America, South East Asia and Africa.

Questionnaire
As all products and services will be user-driven – the EO4SD project team asks all interested stakeholders to fill out a 10-Minute-questionnaire, which is available in English and Spanish.

The Airbus-led consortium with GAF, selected by the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), has started acquiring data to provide the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme with very high-resolution (VHR) satellite-based image coverage of Europe for 2021. 

By combining its skills, experience and expertise, the Airbus-GAF consortium will optimise the acquisition of data using a unique fleet of satellites. In the project, the Airbus optical satellite range, consisting of Pléiades, SPOT and Vision-1, as well as the WorldView, GeoEye, Deimos, SuperView, Kompsat and TripleSat satellites, will be used.

On 30 APRIL 2021 at h 15.00 (CEST) the free e-GEOS web-event is dedicated to SAR capabilities that e-GEOS can deploy using the best constellation on the market, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and the best combination of SAR data from the two systems COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and SAOCOM, the Argentinean SAR Constellation.
COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation, fully operational in January 2021, represents the new Polar Star of the radar satellites. It is the follow-up system of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation and guarantees a significant improvement in terms of performance, image quality, interoperability and efficiency of services. For detailed Agenda and Registration follow this link: https://geospatialmedia.net/webinars/egeos/cosmo/

ESA and GAF AG will continue to provide free-of-charge access to DSMs, high-resolution and medium-resolution data for scientific users. In January 2021, they extended their agreement about the provision of IRS data and DSMs as Third Party Mission (TPM) data until the end of 2021 or until full consumption of the budget, whichever occurs first.
Therefore, depending on the scientific relevance of their proposals, ESA will continue to grant scientists free-of-charge access to IRS optical HR/MR satellite imagery and DSMs. ESA and GAF are the exclusive suppliers in Europe of optical Indian remote sensing satellite (IRS) data from several missions. They started this unique service in May 2017, funded by and carried out under the Third Party Mission (TPM) scheme of the European Space Agency.

ESA and GAF have agreed to continue the data acquisition from the Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) aboard the Oceansat-2 Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite until 31 Dec 2021.

GAF’s sub-contractor, the German Aerospace Agency (DLR), provides GAF with the satellite data reception service at its ground station in Neustrelitz.

GAF processes the OCM data from Oceansat-2 to create system corrected image products and geo-physical parameter products. The data are delivered to ESA in near real time (NRT) for subsequent further promotion of scientific research and applications.

The next step towards implementing the new ground-breaking standard in Copernicus Land Monitoring has been initiated with the kick-off of the CLC+ Core initiative in December 2020. The Austrian–German consortium has been awarded a 3.1 million euro framework service contract by the European Environment Agency to implement and run the CLC+ Core system over the next four years. Various Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products as well as national land cover and land use datasets will be ingested into a core system, setting the path for the future creation of multiple CLC+ Instances.

Die GAF freut sich, wieder an der jährlichen Veranstaltung des Vereins RunderTisch GIS e.V teilzunehmen, der Münchner GI-Runde. Die Veranstaltung findet vom 23.-24. März als Webkonferenz statt.

GAF wird durch Bishwa Ale Magar und Arno Römer vertreten sein.
Sie werden am 24. März um 11:30-13:30 bei der „Präsentation der Sponsoren“ im Konferenzraum 2 eine detaillierte Perspektive auf die Services und Anwendungen der GAF vorstellen.
Im Fokus steht hier die “Integration KI-basierter Monitoring Methoden in bestehende Systeme der Fördermittelverwaltung einschl. der Einbindung der Antragsteller”.

Das „Nationale Forum für Fernerkundung und Copernicus“ findet dieses Jahr vom 23.- 24. März 2021 als digitale Veranstaltung statt.
Unter dem Leitmotiv “Neue Dimensionen“ diskutieren im Forum Vertreter von Wissenschaft, Institutionen und Forschung über das Potential und die Zukunft der Fernerkundung in Deutschland.

GAF AG has recently successfully finalised two consulting studies about the utilisation of Earth observation, GIS technology and other source imagery. The aim of these was to assist the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in the development of Remote Management, Monitoring and Verification (RMMV) Guidelines for its Financial Cooperation Project Suite. Both studies included practical hands-on sessions and the provision of recommendations about how to apply these technologies effectively and optimise use of the ever-increasing plethora of Earth observation data sources for RMMV purposes. These sources include open licence and commercially licensed data.

We at GAF learned with great sadness about Mohammed’s unexpected death in Dubai last week.

He will stay in our memories as a remarkable and energetic person with a great sense of humour and profound foresight for innovative business decisions, which GAF had the opportunity to share and participate in.