e-GEOS, a firm comprised of Telespazio (80 percent) and the Italian Space Agency (20 percent) has entered into a 7.5 million euros framework contract with the European Union Satellite Centre (SATCEN) for the supply of Copernicus security services in support to EU external action (SEA). This service aims at providing geospatial information for remote, hard-to-access areas posing a high security risk, also helping non-EU countries to head off global and trans-regional threats with a destabilizing effect.
The contract entails analysis of a large number of round-the-clock satellite images. e-GEOS, a leading European consortium comprised of GMV, GAF, Telespazio Ibérica, Airbus DS, IABG and SIRS will provide the associated, value-added products. GMV, as a member of this team of industrial operators, will be providing operational geospatial production services in support of the EU external action.
Copernicus overview artistic rendition is courtesy of ESA.
The geospatial support service consists of Earth Observation image analysis services with a consolidated portfolio of products for various service-activation intensity levels. The contract will be operative round the clock on the basis of user-driven, SATCEN-activated operation orders. SATCEN will thus act as liaison between users and industry and will weigh up the quality of the final products.
GMV offers two production centers (Spain and Portugal) to carry out internal assessments of map quality as support to strategic and decision-making processes. GMV has the capability for generating any portfolio product of this Copernicus service and will support general project management by carrying out the quality management function. This function centers on offline assessment of product quality, alongside the SATCEN validation exercise with the purpose of pinpointing constant faults caused by inadequate workflow. Ensuing comments will help to improve the map-production chain and product quality, reducing reprocessing needs due to low quality and hence improving delivery times. GMV will also be developing a production-order management interface, giving detailed information on the process and associated resource consumption.
The Copernicus program sets out to obtain an autonomous earth-observation system working from a satellite network, a network of ground measurement stations and airborne sensors and also the generation of information services. The overarching aim is to observe the planet from all possible viewpoints to gain a better understanding of the changes underway and how they will impinge on our daily lives.
For their part, Copernicus services will see the transformation of in situ satellite data into value-added information by processing and analyzing same, phasing them in with other sources and validating results.