GEO-K StormTrek at 2015 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference

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“The number of the extreme meteorological events has increased in the last few years and the trend should be the same for the next future”.

GEO-K participated in the 2015 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference, held in Toulouse, France, 21-25 September, presenting StormTrek, the innovative algorithm for the nowcasting of extreme meteorological events.

“These events generally develop very quickly and on a small scale, nevertheless they may provoke several damages and affect also the human’s safety. For these reasons it is very important to monitor and prevent these natural hazards by means of advanced techniques which must be able to:
● detect the event as soon as possible
● track the behavior of the event
● predict the short term development of the event

StormTrek is a novel multispectral algorithm for the detection, the tracking and the short term forecast of convective objects developed by GEO-K.
The model is already operational and some web services based on its output are already available. Our work is aimed to show the results of the validation activity developed in the last year. StormTrek validation involves the comparison with benchmarks like the Rapid Development Thunderstorms, developed by Meteo France, and the lightning activity over Europe and South Africa”.

Here is the link to the presentation.

“Short-term weather forecast for precision farming” at the XVIII AIAM Convention 2015

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Precision Farming will benefit from satellite weather forecasting.

GEO-K took part in the XVIII AIAM Convention 2015, the annual Convention of the Italian Association of Farm-Meteorology, hold at San Michele all’Adige (Trento), 9-11 June 2015.

At the meeting, the use of satellite data and short-term weather forecast (nowcasting) was proposed as an important tool to detect dramatic weather events, such as severe thunderstorms and hailstorms.

Take a look at the interview (in Italian only).

 

Urban Imagery for thermal behavior of cities at JURSE 2015

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Earth Observation (EO) systems and the advances in remote sensing technology increase the opportunities for monitoring the thermal behavior of cities.
Several parameters related to the urban climate can be quantified from EO data products, providing valuable support for advanced urban studies and urban climate modeling.
The study has been presented at the last JURSE congress in Lausanne. In this study, remote sensing techniques are applied to derive quantitative information necessary to identify possible zones with homogeneous thermal characteristics (Local Climate Zones LCZ).

Parameters like the pervious and impervious surface fraction, the surface albedo, the building density, the mean building/tree height, and the sky view factor are quantified for a study area in Crete, Greece. The EO products are then used under a methodological framework to map the LCZ.

Individual EO products, as well as the LCZ classification itself, is useful to urban climate modeling and studies to assist in planning and decision making.

Future research includes the investigation of more urban parameters extraction with EO data, with the ultimate goal of developing a methodology adaptable to the Sentinels.

GEO-K won the Best Ideas challenge at the GMES Masters Competition 2012

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GEO-K and SERCO prized at the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Masters competition (GMES MASTERS 2012). GEO-K and SERCO won the “Ideas Challenge” competition proposing  “MOSP-RIOS – OFF-SHORE OIL SPILL & FLARING MONITORING”, a service for the monitoring of gas flaring and of oil spilling from off-shore platforms using GMES products.

The competition, in its second year, received more than 100 innovative business proposals from 20 European countries. The 2012 winners were announced at the event, in Munich, organized by Anwendungszentrum Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) GmbH, on 25 October 2012.