EO COMMERCIAL STANDPOINT

From INVESaTWIKI

Main applications in the Earth observation

In the following figure and related links it will be showh the situation about the satellites, in orbit or in planning, for earth observation. [1]

Fig.1 Major earth observation satellites in orbit or in planning

Explanation for Figure 1:

NOAA applications

Landsat satellites

NASA EOS satellites

US commercial applications

SPOT satellites

Other European applications

Major leading countries and players worldwide

Some of the important providers and users of remote sensing data are outlined below:

• United States Department of Defense (DOD) satellite intelligence continues to play a substantial role throughout the military and intelligence communities. DOD’s role is not strictly limited to prosecuting wars and battlefield assessments, but also includes gathering a host of signal, communication, and electro-optical information throughout the world to inform military and foreign policy decisions.
• At least 30 US government organizations and departments are involved in remote sensing, including the Departments of Commerce, Energy, State, Agriculture, Interior, Health, Transportation, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institute.
• The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Geological Survey are beginning to use remote sensing to monitor and respond to emergencies, such as a chemical spill in a river used as a drinking water source.
• Local government agencies employ geospatial imagery for numerous purposes, including urban planning and law enforcement.
• Commercial applications of remote sensing include agriculture, oil exploration, Global Information Systems, and entertainment. According to Space Imaging, the Rhythm and Hues Studio in Hollywood purchased $90,000 of remotely sensed imagery for the movie, The Sum of All Fears. Thomas Moore, the Technical Director of the movie, was quoted as saying that he expected Hollywood to continue this trend.
• Scientists utilize remote sensing to understand natural processes in greater regional and global contexts and to track environmental interactions over time. One example of this is the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS). CGMS participants include the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), European Space Agency, India, Japan, China, Russia, the United States, and the World Meteorological Organization. [2]

Global market statistical figure and market shares related to the various existing applications

There are two primary classes of EO services:

• Recent services available from the 1990s. This primarily comprises EO services using ERS & ENVISAT missions’ data:
  • SAR sensors (e.g.SAR and ASAR in ERS and Envisat),
  • Medium Resolution Optical sensors (e.g.MERIS, A-ATSR on Envisat).
  • Altimeter
  • other data sources (e.g. RADARSAT SAR).

This corresponds to the fraction of the complete EO services business that is represented in the subset Group 1 in Figure 2.

• More established and mature services originating in the 1980s, typically using Optical data (generally not based on ESA missions), such as:
  • VHRO sensors (e.g. IKONOS, QuickBird, etc.),
  • High Resolution Optical (e.g. LANDSAT, SPOT),
  • Medium Resolution Optical sensors (e.g. VEGETATION, NOAA AVHRR).

This corresponds to the fraction of the complete EO services business that is represented in the subset Group 2 in Figure 2.

Fig.2 Overall repartition of marketable EO services in the European market

In Figure 2 it is thought:

A: Dominant fraction of the total EO services market,
B: Small to medium fraction of the total EO services market,
C: Small fraction of the total EO services market,
D: Marginal fraction of the total EO services market.

It was believed that there are high levels of variability in product and service offerings, in terms of the information content, the performance and quality levels, the processes by which the information was generated and the level of maturity of the chain through which services are delivered. There were thought to be approximately 20 marketable SAR based services currently available, serving both land and ocean domains. [3]

Public and private investment data

The global economy for remote sensing is described below in terms of its underlying forces and several important complications in the market.

Underlying forces

During the past several decades, technological advances have significantly reduced the costs of launch vehicles and spacecraft. Frost and Sullivan sized the market at $1.5 billion in 1995, and it estimated the world market would reach $6.5 billion by 2007. The three underlying forces driving the world market are: demand, supply, and trading mechanisms.
A potent self-reinforcing dynamic exists between economic growth, trade, and technology. The wealth effect, resulting from increased economic growth, spurs an increased demand for goods and services. The incentive for greater trade enables greater technological development, which in turn drives economic growth. These benefits often get funneled into defense development for jobs, security, and better technology.
The inherent duality of remote-sensing technology, with its potential to be used for constructive and destructive purposes, infuses international trade with heightened significance. Ironically then, the prevalence of remote-sensing technology begets the opportunity to turn the technology against its creator. International trade is therefore the source of both economic good and harm. It remains to be seen which side will dominate. Nevertheless, as will be described, the array of forces in action compels participation.

Demand: The US military shows signs of increasing its dependence on remote-sensing surveillance. For instance, $3.7 billion or 22% of the $17 billion spent on the recent war in Afghanistan was on classified surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence.
Scientists have a natural predisposition to work cooperatively in order to understand complex, global phenomena, inasmuch as the purpose of science is to form a cohesive, universal description of the world. Since the very beginning of the Space Age, scientists have sought collaborative venues to pool information. The very first weather satellite, TIROS, which was launched in 1960, serves as a prime example: imagery from TIROS was distributed internationally to meteorologists. Another example of scientific cooperation occurred when US agencies promoted the sharing of scientific information by disseminating data from the polar METSAT (meteorological satellites) at no cost to thousands of domestic and international users.
In both developed and developing countries, the space sector represents the height of development, prestige, and power, and these political and cultural incentives spur development. Having the wherewithal to deploy advanced technology gives nations international bargaining power, especially when the technology is considered ‘‘dangerous’’ to the ‘‘powers that be’’. For example, China and other countries are expending major resources on weapons development.5 Some experts assert that foreign governments such as North Korea, Sudan, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria have tried to acquire nuclear weapons programs, not for threat projection per se, but rather for a sense of legitimacy, autonomy, and economic bargaining power. The former director of the Iraqi nuclear weapons program, Khidhir Hamza, argues that Saddam Hussein wants nuclear weapons so he can operate autonomously from foreign intervention.

Supply: Three of the most important US companies involved in remote sensing are Digitalglobe (formerly Earthwatch), OrbImage, and Space Imaging, Inc. These corporations operate satellites and provide a range of products, including images with resolutions of at least 1m. Space Imaging’s business practices illustrate some important economic features of globalization. Space Imaging has a host of partnerships worldwide in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Japan, and the Pacific Meridian. These affiliates, in turn, are financially independent and are responsible for sales and marketing in their local economies. The Japanese affiliate is heavily investing in its own R&D to enable vehicle tracking.
Additionally, Space Imaging’s acquisition and management of former government programs, such as the US government’s Landsat and Canada’s Radarsat programs, demonstrates the convergence between military and civilian uses of remote-sensing satellites.
Many foreign governments support commercial efforts to develop and deploy satellites in their countries. Additionally, some nations are acquiring small satellites for Earth-observation applications. The joint China– Brazil Earth Resources Satellite is designed for global coverage. International commercial enterprises include the French SPOT satellites (which provide images with 5m resolution), India’s IRS satellites, and Canada’s Radarsat. Other countries like Germany, Japan, Israel, and Italy are developing imaging satellites to collect high-resolution images that can be sold on international markets. For example, The Israeli Aircraft Industry, a government-owned operation in Israel, formed a LEO remote-sensing enterprise called Imagesat International. Its motto seems to be tailored to individuals and organizations that want covert information. Imagesat offers ‘‘high-resolution satellite imagery, for anyone, anytime, anywhere.’’ Perhaps, the statement is merely a marketing tool, but even so, it is indicative of a targeted group of consumers. Moreover, such ventures will very likely pave the way for a new generation of systems with even greater capabilities.

Trading mechanisms: The World Trade Organization serves as the principal agency to bolster international trade. The Uruguay Agreements strengthened the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trades and made it unlawful to impose ‘‘discriminatory’’ tariffs or trade barriers; opened foreign markets to US products; and, conversely, opened US markets to foreign products. Although it is still possible to impose blanket restrictions on both domestic and foreign products, it is more difficult for nations to prevent technological diffusion.
One of the declarations from the Uruguay Round Proceedings stated, ‘‘the United States government calculated that approximately 85% of the world market, measured by revenues, was covered by strong market access commitments in the negotiations. With a few specific exceptions on particular issues or market segments, all the OECD nations (30 of the most developed nations) were essentially bound to unconditional market access on January 1, 1998.’’
Several international groups have been formed to facilitate international cooperation in remote sensing. One of these is the previously mentioned CGMS. Its objective is ‘‘yto provide an informal forum for the exchange of technical information on geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological satellite systems, as participants seek to improve the transition and convergence of appropriate R&D activities and operational programs.’’ [2]

Supporting policy public practices

US remote sensing policies

Since July 1972 when data from the first satellite in the Landsat series were received and analyzed, scientists, geographers, resource managers, and others from a wide variety of disciplines have recognized the potential value of data remotely sensed by satellites to serve both the public good and private interests.
More recently, especially following the advent of the market for high resolution data (5m or less) acquired from space, the value of remote sensing information has gained recognition within elements of the private sector. Imaging satellites owned and operated by private firms have emerged as a complementary element in US remote sensing policy.
US policymakers face a continuing challenge of reaching a proper balance in formulating and effectively implementing remote sensing policies that best serve US interests. Such policies need to support both civil and commercial observation satellites that are available and responsive to the nation’s diverse civil, national security, and commercial requirements for overhead imagery data of various types and resolutions.
This chapter therefore focuses on the more recent developments in US land remote sensing satellite policies. It begins by reviewing how US policy has evolved on commercial imaging satellites from the 1992 Act through the latest remote sensing policy released by the Presidential Decision Directive 23 on 25 April 2003. Next, it examines the continuing challenges for all the aspects of US commercial remote sensing policy. [4]

Assessment of the technological advantage of the use of satellite based technology

During the last 5-10 years there has been a significant increase in the quantity, quality and diversity of satellite observations. Although satellite data is slightly less accurate than conventional observations such as radio sonde observations, their great advantage is their broad geographical coverage. While the data assimilation system has to spread out the information in space of radio sonde observations, this is less of an undertaking with satellite observations.
Another advantage is that the use of satellite data ensures that the elusive small amplitude-large scale errors over the oceans are corrected for, something which isolated measurements would have difficulties to do. Although the amplitude of the analysis increments are weak, their large-scale nature becomes important after some days integration when they have "cascaded" into smaller scales, which might develop and affect synoptic scale weather systems. Consequently there is now a strong benefit from satellite data and the influence of other conventional data types are becoming less critical. In particular over the Southern Hemisphere, where there is a lack of conventional data, satellite data has had a large impact on the scores which are now almost as good as in the Northern Hemisphere. However there are limitations in the use of satellite data over land surfaces. Over desertic areas and frozen regions, at the state of the art, is particularly difficult to use tropospheric channels due to the inaccurate knowledge of the underlying surface emissivity. On global scale these are areas were overall we assimilate less data, like it is shown in Figure 2.

Fig.2 Example of data coverage of used data during a day

From the top : a) infrared lower tropospheric channel from AQUA satellite, b) microwave lower tropospheric channel from three satellites (AMSU-A ch. 5 from NOAA-15, NOAA-16m AQUA), c) composite of conventional observations (surface + radiosoundings + aircrafts) and atmospheric winds derived by satellites. As it is apparent, despite a good global coverage there are land areas (Sahara, Siberia, Arctic and Antarctic) where the data coverage in the low troposphere is still sparse. [3]

Succesful business models

One of the major objectives of European space policy is to make space investments more valuable to taxpayers and to maintain or improve the competitive position of the European space sector. Space is an expensive business. Not only can individual nations no longer afford large space programmes, but the general public cannot always see that money spent on space projects could be beneficial to them in the long run. The European Space Agency is trying to address these concerns by creating business opportunities from suitable space applications.
HYDROSAT intends to respond to the world-wide need for freshwater, which is becoming a scarce resource and it is becoming a matter of survival for many people. HYDROSAT can be seen as a tool for establishing freshwater identification and management.
Similarly, the Forest Map of Europe should be capable of generating economic benefits by providing a reliable basis for forest monitoring and utilisation. [5]

References

[1] G.Schreier, S.Dech
"High resolution Earth observation satellites and services in the next decade - A european perspective".

[2] S.Hitchings
"Policy assessment of the impacts of remote-sensing technology".

[3] P.Curtis, F.Knops
"The state & health of the european and canadian EO service industry".

[4] R.A.Williamson, J.C.Baker
"Current US remote sensing policies: opportunities and challenges".

[5] A.Atzei, F.Gampe, K.Pseiner
"Assessing new applications and testing business opportunities".