GOES-17 image of Earth’s Western Hemisphere acquired on May 20, 2018, using the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Image courtesy of NOAA/NASA.

This week we are looking at collaboration in the Earth Observation (EO) sector, as several collaborations, partnerships, and ambitions have been announced in the last week.

European Space Agency & Greece

At the end of last week, six contracts were signed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to help strengthen Greece’s capabilities in EO. The contracts are part of Greece’s National Satellite Space Project and part of the European Union funded Recovery and Resilience Facility plans for the country.

The EO part of project, which began approximately 12 months ago, aims to provide an end-to-end observation solution providing facilities to download raw satellite data, and then transform it into useful, timely and actionable information for users in five key areas, that includes monitoring of agriculture, forests, water, land, and for safety and security. The contracts are with:

• Planetek Hellas to deliver an integrated end-to-end hub capable of processing and disseminating data generated by the EO satellites Greece plans to launch.
• AgroApps leading a consortium to provide an agriculture monitoring service, including mapping crop types, monitoring soil moisture and crop growth.
• Planetek Hellas leading a consortium to develop the safety and security aspects looking at flood risk assessments, wildfire analysis and surveillance, and ship tracking.
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki leading a consortium on forestry, focusing on forest type, forest fuel mapping, and forest and natural area monitoring.
• TotalView leading a consortium looking at water quantity and quality, and maritime surveillance.
• Geosystems Hellas leading a consortium with a focus on land use and land cover mapping, deformation monitoring, and an urban service including includes urban heat islands, public health and air quality.

New Zealand & Australia Collaboration

Four new feasibility study projects have been announced where research teams from New Zealand and Australia will collaborate using EO, as part of the trans-Tasman research agreement. These collaboration projects come from the Australia-New Zealand Collaborative Space Program, signed by New Zealand’s Space Agency and Australia’s SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre earlier this year. The work will be focused on using satellite data to better understand the environment, agriculture and climate.

The projects will look at:

• Monitoring soil moisture using data through Cal/Val campaigns of satellite, airborne and ground Global Navigational Satellite Systems (GNSS) data. It is hoped that gathering a good baseline dataset will help improve agricultural decision making.
• Improving satellite imaging for land vegetation, environmental recovery in ecosystems and yield enhancement.
• Proof of concept of a real-time fuel moisture content system to support wildfire planning and response, using traditional Aboriginal and Indigenous Māori knowledge alongside satellite data and methods to better understand and manage fire-prone landscapes.
• Using hyperspectral data to enhance fractional cover data products to monitor pasture conditions in New Zealand using calibrated models from Australia. The outcomes aim to contribute to sustainable land use and help manage soil and water resources.

The projects will be considered for second stage funding once the feasibility studies have been completed.

Early Warnings for All Collaboration

The Early Warnings for All initiative, was launched by the United Nations in 2022, and aims to ensure everyone on Earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, or climate events through life-saving early warning systems by the end of 2027. Two announcements in the last week responded to this initiative, focused on strengthening early warning systems for emergencies.

The first was by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and the UNHCR, United Nations Refugee Agency, who announced they would work together to develop an advanced global early warning and response system to deliver timely alerts and help agencies better plan for, and respond to, emergency situations. The system would use artificial intelligence technology combined with EO data to detect and evaluate risks that could lead to human displacement. An initial 15-month pilot will focus on select countries, before a second phase which will aim to deliver a global solution.

The second announcement was made last week by the Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Azerbaijan. The Vice Premier said that China attached great importance to international cooperation on strengthening meteorological early warning systems and enhancing climate adaptation capacity, and proposed to:

• Work with international partners jointly to improve global risk assessment capabilities and promoting the standardization of climate risk assessments to provide scientific support for climate governance.
• Jointly build a global early warning network, sharing technology, enhancing system interconnectivity, and working to improve global early warning systems.
• Jointly establish a climate adaptation partnership, and China would develop and implement a flagship project for early warning in response to climate change, supporting other developing countries through the provision of meteorological observation equipment, early warning systems, and capacity-building training.

China is already a world leader in EO and will launch three geostationary satellites in the next two years offering high-frequency disaster monitoring solutions in African, Asian and Pacific countries. It is also ready to share its cloud-based early warning system with developing countries, including offering training and academic scholarships.

Conclusion

EO is a global industry, and issues that satellites can help with such as monitoring climate change, agriculture, water resources and natural disasters are also global issues. It makes sense for countries to work together more to make the best use of satellite resources, and deliver the best solutions to the problems impact the world and it is great to see this happening!