Please complete the EARSC industry survey. If you have not already, contact us on info@earsc.org.
The EO sector is changing rapidly with vast new data sets becoming available, cloud computing and big-data technology being deployed and many new initiatives being launched. Knowing what is happening in an industry sector is a fundamental need for policy makers taking decisions on new initiatives. Given these rapid changes in the EO sector and the significant investments being made by both public and private sectors, industry statistics and trends are more important today than has ever been the case.
Every 2 years, EARSC undertakes to complete a detailed analysis of the EO service sector in Europe. It is the most comprehensive survey carried out. It is a hindcast not a forecast since it is looking at companies performance and views covering the previous 12 months. Nevertheless the build-up of information leads us to be able to look at trends.
This years’ is the 3rd EARSC survey (the previous ones were 2013 and 2015). Our 3rd survey should be particularly interesting as it will reflect a consistent methodology and a relatively stable industry base which has been interviewed.
This year has proven more difficult than others to assemble the data. Companies are both busy responding to H2020 calls and other bid opportunities as well as suffering from survey fatigue. We are nearing the end of our data gathering period (end of March) and we still need responses. This year, the EC is carrying out its assessment of the early results of the Copernicus programme and it is vital for all companies that we are able to provide accurate statistics and trends.
We have 2 weeks to go. We should like to have a record number of companies responding and especially we should especially like to hear from both EARSC members and those which have completed it in previous years. The former because if you are a member of EARSC you have a strong interest that we can represent the industry in an authoritative way – based on sound data.
So this is a final plea to all European companies involved in some way in the delivery of EO data or geo-information services to complete our survey questionnaire. Even if you only manage the first few sections it will be of help to us and should only take you a few minutes. If you can carry on to the end we are even more grateful!
On Monday night, I had the enormous pleasure to witness the launch of Sentinel-2B, fifth of the Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus programme, from ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. I had been selected by ESA together with 100 other social media participants from across Europe and beyond… (28 countries in total were represented) to attend the #Sentinel2Go SocialSpace event taking place in conjunction with liftoff in Kourou. The profiles of attendees (or shall I say “ #Sentinerds “ ! ) were very diversified: from the usual EO suspects to cardiologists, teachers or even fashion blogger! The importance wasn’t their knowledge of the subject but their enthusiasm around Earth observation and space in general.
On the left: EARSC members presenting / On the right: Group picture of the #Sentinel2Go participants
The day was very well organized to make the most out of our visit at ESOC. We started by a tour of the ESOC facilities, where enthusiastic engineers and scientists gave us a flavor of their daily job. It comprised not only of EO activities but also space debris or interplanetary mission control. We then had the opportunity to exchange more with the experts, take the traditional group picture and have dinner in a nice German restaurant.
After dinner, we had the pre-launch briefing, the opportunity to watch a movie or socialize with our neighbours and a live electronic music performance by Fabrica to overcome tiredness!
We then changed room to join the official guests, EC and ESA EO experts, Copernicus users and traditional press gathered for the official event which can be watched at this link: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2/Sentinel2Go_launch_event_at_ESOC. Before launch, experts and users of Sentinel data were invited to exchange around 4 themes: ‘Land and food security’, ‘Space technology, operations and business trends’, ‘Sea and coastal areas’ and ‘Cities and society’. It was great to see EARSC members presenting in each of these corners and explaining how they were using the data. Everyone celebrated the successful launch of Sentinel-2B. The importance of Copernicus data and the potential of new applications coming from it were emphasised.
Live tweeting during this very interactive event wasn’t an easy exercise as excitement, fatigue and noise combined! It was a first for ESOC to organise such an event around a launch (especially an early morning one!), and according to the first returns – journalists using videos or posts from the “Sentinerds”- it was a big success!