The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded a contract to British company DMC International Imaging (DMCii) this week to provide satellite imagery of 38 countries in Europe. This will be used to monitor Europe's environment and land use including natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. The high resolution DMC satellite images will provide a valuable resource for the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) services and to European scientists.
It is difficult to achieve cloud free coverage of Europe in a single year, but DMCii coordinates a constellation (DMC) of 4 satellites carrying the same sensors, which can dramatically speed up the process, and help to avoid problems with cloud.
Images are acquired within dates specified by each of the 38 countries, and delivered as precisely positioned data in each national map projection. DMCii started to acquire high resolution imagery in April '07 and will complete the campaign in October.
Paul Stephens, DMCii Director of Sales and Marketing said; "We are delighted to have won this major project with ESA for the DMC to participate as GMES Contributing Mission. This campaign demonstrates the value of constellations for imaging large areas in a short time. With several new DMC satellites launching in 2008 and 2009 we plan to start providing multi-season imaging services in Europe and elsewhere to meet the operational needs of GMES services. "
