ENVISAT and SARMAP

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1948dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="1edcbec0.jpg" border=0 width="203" height="236" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003366" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Ariane 5: The launcher</B></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EnvironmentEcologyForestry"><U><B>Return to Home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trust and Mission"><U><B>Trust and Mission</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Resource Persons"><U><B>Resource Persons</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Curriculum Vitae of Claude R. Heimo"><U><I><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c811111100.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">CV Claude R. 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As a result, the ENVISAT programme will provide an enhanced capability for the remote sensing of the earth and its environment from space. Until now, Earth Observation has been mainly used in the scientific domain, with limited operational use by private and public operators. </div> <bR> <div> ENVISAT will mark a major step forward in Earth Observation, in that it is the first time simultaneous measurements can be made with a number of very advanced instruments in both the optical and radar domain.  The satellite will provide enhanced information on crucial matters such as global warming, climate change, ozone depletion and the state of the environment. Notably, the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on board ENVISAT, which is an all-weather, day and night, high-resolution imaging instrument, will provide data for a  large numbers of applications such as agricultural monitoring, forest mapping, geological exploration and flood mapping, while interferometric SAR measurements providing topographic information will continue to make major contributions to environmental risks assessment involving earthquakes and land subsistence. As such, it will be a major contributor to the global study and monitoring of the Earth and its environment as expressed by international cooperative programmes such as the International Geosphere and Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES). </div> <bR> <div> <B>ENVISAT: Major Applications</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="1e7bfb70.gif" border=0 width="191" height="183" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Digital Elevation Model over Rome (Italy)</div> <bR> <div> <B>Land</B>: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >Observation of the land surface by ENVISAT will allow the characterization, measurements and continuous monitoring of vegetation parameters, surface water and soil moisture, surface temperature, elevation and topography. ENVISAT will also provide managers of local natural resources with a capability to monitor their land with detailed (selective) observations on a regular basis. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Atmosphere</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >: Three instruments on board of ENVISAT (GOMOS, MIPAS and Sciamachy) are dedicated to providing information about the atmosphere, including the detection of those chemicals involved in ozone depletion and the presence of associated phenomena such as polar stratospheric clouds. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Oceans</B>:<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >  Earth Observation satellites have revolutionized the study of oceans. ENVISAT, by including advanced SAR radar altimeter, ocean-colour and ocean-temperature instruments, together on the same platform, will induce major advances in the prediction of climate. Other applications such as wind speed estimates, sea wave modelling, and measurement of the biological activity of the upper ocean (temporal variability of phytoplankton biomass) will improve the accuracy of forecasts for weather, marine conditions and climatic changes as well as coastal zone biology and management and ship routing. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>ENVISAT and Sarmap</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="1e9b8bc0.gif" border=0 width="184" height="188" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Fig 3: Rice mapping in Sri-Lanka</div> <bR> <div> Sarmap, located in Switzerland, is a high-tech company specialised in the field of Earth Observation and Geographic Information Systems. sarmap's core business focuses on the exploitation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical data from both spaceborne and airborne sensors. In addition the company offers consulting services in the field of Geographic Information System (GIS). Its main areas of expertise are in:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.gif" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Development of operational software for spaceborne and airborne SAR and optical systems, notably SARscape®;</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.gif" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Development of new algorithms for future sensors, notably  the ASAR instrument on  ENVISAT</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.gif" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Generation of Digital Elevation Model using spaceborne and airborne SAR systems;</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.gif" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Generation of tailored thematic products for land applications;</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.gif" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Processing and mosaicing of very large data sets.</div> <bR> <div> The SARscape® sytem is an advanced image processing and analysis software tool. It consists a modular set of functions dedicated to the generation of products derived from spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar data. The processing chain is embedded in the ArcView® (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.) GIS environment and runs on Personal Computers under Windows.  The system can be used to process a wide range of optical and SAR data to generate land cover maps, while a seperate module allows the generation of Digital Elevation Model data with height resolutions of up to 10 m . </div> <div>  </div> <div> Sarmap has carried out projects for and collaborated with the European Space Agency, the Joint Research Centre- European Commission, and a large number of private and public enterprises. Close contacts are maintained with several European universities including the Remote Sensing Laboratories, Zurich, Switzerland and the Milan Polytechnic, Italy.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="1ebc3a50.jpg" border=0 width="195" height="165" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Fig 4: Mapping forest fires damages</div> </td> </tr></table></body>