 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 by Staff Writers Paris (ESA) Sep 13, 2019
A few months from now will see the launch of the first European satellite to demonstrate how onboard artificial intelligence can improve the efficiency of sending Earth observation data back to Earth. Dubbed O-Sat, or PhiSat, this revolutionary artificial intelligence technology will fly on one of the two CubeSats that make up the FSSCat mission - a Copernicus Masters winning idea. As the overall 2017 Copernicus Masters winner, FSSCat, was proposed by Spain's Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and developed by a consortium of European companies and institutes. The two CubeSats, each about the size of a shoebox, will collect data, which will be made available through the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services, using state-of-the-art dual microwave and hyperspectral optical instruments. They also carry a set of intersatellite communication technology experiments. To demonstrate the potential of artificial intelligence in space, ESA has been working with partners to develop O-Sat to take the mission to the next level. During O-week, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, said, "We see that there is huge interest in O-Sat and thanks to our partners, it is ready to be launched. "We live in exciting times, the pace at which digital technology is developing coupled with the wealth of satellite information being delivered and, indeed, the growing demand for such data, means there are many opportunities to make a step change for the future of Earth observation. "And, with O-Sat - Europe's first artificial intelligence in space - we are going to do just this." The hyperspectral camera on one of the CubeSats will collect an enormous number of images of Earth, some of which will not be suitable for use because of cloud cover. To avoid downlinking these less than perfect images back to Earth, the O-Sat artificial intelligence chip will filter them out so that only usable data are returned. Marco Esposito, from cosine Remote Sensing, the company that led the development of the artificial intelligence algorithm, explained, "While compact, the instrument - which covers the visible and near infrared with hyperspectral capability, enhanced with bands in the thermal infrared - is very powerful and will acquire terabytes of data that can be used to monitor vegetation changes and to assess water quality, for example. "However, generating this amount of data actually poses a problem, as the data have to be handled efficiently so that they can reach the users in a timely manner. With O-Sat we have effectively given the instrument its own brain, which processes the data onboard to detect clouds in the images. "This not only ensures better quality data, but makes the delivery much more efficient." ESA's Massimiliano Pastena, noted, "Indeed, this will be the first satellite to demonstrate the use of artificial intelligence in orbit and we are very much looking forward to it being launched in the coming months." Josef Aschbacher added, "We fully expect O-Sat to be an important step forward for Earth observation satellite missions. "We acquire huge amounts of data every day and it all has to be sent back to Earth and processed, so having some of this processing done by the satellite in orbit is clearly an efficient way forward. "I am very proud that we at ESA and our partners are putting Europe at the forefront of this new approach for Earth observation. And, as I announced at the opening of O-week, our efforts are not stopping at O-Sat-1 - we are also soon going to release a new challenge to develop O-Sat-2."
German HALO research aircraft to investigate ozone hole, Amazon fires and gravity waves Munich, Germany (SPX) Sep 12, 2019 The German High Altitude and Long Range (HALO) research aircraft will be exploring the atmosphere in the southern hemisphere and its impact on climate change during September and November 2019 as part of the SOUTHTRAC (Transport and Composition of the Southern Hemisphere UTLS) mission. The main objective of the first phase of the campaign is to investigate gravity waves at the southern tip of South America and over Antarctica. In the second phase of the campaign, in November, the scientific focus ... read more
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
