Earth Observation information services and products are in constant evolution. They cover the last mile towards the customer and are for many customers the most tangible result of remote sensing technology. Their innovative developments are largely dependent and based on the evolutions in new Missions, Imagery, etc. 

New Missions start with a vision to enable the development of future innovative EO capacities. Increasing performance and reduced cost/mass are important drivers for innovation in this section. One mission can cover a wide range of applications. Missions result in satellite imagery and data that are further developed into information services and products.

New technologies are being developed in terms of space-based satellite communications systems; more powerful processors, new encoding capabilities, and new user terminal capabilities that can make user systems more mobile, more versatile, more personally responsive, more powerful in terms of performance, and yet lower in cost

Satellite imagery in remote sensing has four types of resolution: spatial, spectral, temporal, and radiometric. Spatial resolution is the pixel size of  the image, spectral resolution determines the number and type of available spectral bands, temporal resolution quantifies the revisit frequency of the satellite for a given location and radiometric resolution refers to the bit-depth of the image.

There are only 2 global operational Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS): the American GPS and the Russian GLONASS. The European Galileo positioning system is in its initial deployment phase and is expected to be operational in 2020. France, India and Japan are in the process of developing regional navigation systems. Satellite-AIS (Automatic Identification System) is an automatic tracking system used by ships. 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or drones are aircrafts without a human pilot on board. Its flight is controlled by computers integrated in the vehicle or from a distance through the control of a pilot on the ground. Legislation often runs behind Innovation in this sector. The highly detailed and very localized data collection forms an interesting complementary with Satellite Missions. 

I am working on a new technology I would like to add it to the Technology Watch area. How should I proceed?

Start with going through the FAQ. If your new technology complies with the criteria, go to the correct section and create a new page using the toolbar at the top of the page. When creating a new page, you can start from a blank page or select a template. Select the template 'New Technology' in the EO Wiki space. Now you can start completing the template. 

I follow up new evolutions in the space sector. I have read interesting news I would like to share with the community. Can I post my own Blog post in the Spotlight section of the Technology Watch area?

Yes you can. Simply by adding your Blog post as a new page ('Create' using the toolbar on top of the page). Before publishing make sure you add the label 'technology_watch' to the blog post. This will ensure your blog post will appear in the Spotlight section of the Technology Watch area. Optionally, you can add other labels as well. A good idea is to add one of the six New Technology sections as a label of the blog post. 

What are the criteria for a New Technology?

We focus on technologies ready to go to market within 3-4 months (exception for Missions). They belong to one of these 6 sections: Information services and products, Missions, Satellite communication, Satellite imagery, Satellite positioning: GNSS & Satellite-AIS and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). They are innovative and have a clear positive impact on the user community.

Do the same selection criteria apply for future missions?

No. Future missions are an exception. Innovative future missions can be added to the Technology Watch area, even if they are still in the concept phase. 

Should a New Technology already be fully operational?

It should be in the near future. The Technology Watch area is focusing on technologies ready to go to market within 3-4 months (exception for Missions, see further). We highlight the status of the New Technology on its main page. We distinguish three different phases: Concept - Demonstrator - Operational.  The Concept phase is reserved for the Missions section. 

How do I save my changes to the template?

While working on a draft page, based on a template or started from a blank page, you save your changes by clicking 'preview'. After clicking preview, your page will also appear as a draft in the draft overview that is accessible via the toolbar on top of the page. Every change you make to your draft page, will be saved after clicking 'preview'. Your draft page is only visible to you. 

How do I publish my draft page?

The easiest way to publish your draft page is by clicking the 'V' symbol on top of your draft page when you're in preview mode. Once published, all members with access to the EO Wiki space can see and comment your page.

When is my draft page ready for publishing? 

This depends on your way of working. You can decide to publish your page already in an early stage, even it is not complete yet, and invite community members to contribute to your page. This is in fact the power of the Wiki approach in which the whole community is invited to participate and share knowledge. 

I'm interested to get in contact with a provider of a new technology. How should I proceed?

The contact details of a new technology can be found under the tab 'contact' on the main page of the new technology.