May 04, 2009 — The European Space Agency (ESA) and European Space Imaging (EUSI), the company that owns and operates the European IKONOS ground station, entered into an agreement that gives ESA access to more than 15 million square kilometers of IKONOS satellite imagery.

Within its Third Party Mission scheme, ESA provides to Earth Observation users data from non-ESA missions to complement the data from ESA EO missions and to support and build up the scientific user community for those data in Europe.

IKONOS as a Third Party Mission is available to ESA and ESA-approved projects for scientific research, applications development, or research and development in preparation for operational use in future, the so-called Category-1 use.

Typical application areas are disaster management and mitigation, civil protection, humanitarian aid, agriculture and forestry.

The available IKONOS data can now be browsed and ordered online through ESA’s EOLI system. A special link-up of EUSI’s Online User Services to ESA’s EOLI systems was developed by EOX IT Services GmbH. Archived products will be transferred on ESA’s request from EUSI’s production center to be stored at and disseminated from the Multi-Mission Facility Infrastructure of ESA which is located at the premises of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen.

“The IKONOS data complement the Third Party Mission Portfolio, ranging from low to medium resolution atmospheric or ocean monitoring missions to very high resolution satellite data such as the one provided by Ikonos. This further enables us to offer a wide range of Earth Observation data to the scientific user community”, ESA’s Third Party Mission Manager Bianca Hoersch said.

“Through ESA’s Third Party Mission Program, the European scientific community now has free access to commercial very high-resolution IKONOS satellite imagery. We are very happy about this agreement with ESA and are convinced that it will boost R&D projects which can now benefit from using our data”, said European Space Imaging’s General Manager Adrian Zevenbergen.

About European Space Imaging

European Space Imaging (EUSI) is a leading supplier of high-resolution satellite imagery to customers in Europe and North Africa. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Munich, Germany.

EUSI is the only European satellite data provider that operates its own high-resolution satellite ground station for direct satellite tasking and local data downlink.

Through the close cooperation with its parent company Space Imaging Middle East of Dubai, UAE, EUSI’s customers benefit from fast access to data from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. As of today, EUSI’s data archives comprise of more than 15 million square kilometers of high-resolution satellite data.

EUSI has an excellent reputation for its customer service and has a diverse network of technological and commercial partners. The company maintains long-term, direct relations with the major European and international institutions working in disaster management, national and regional security, environmental monitoring and mapping.



Contact:

European Space Imaging GmbH
Arnulfstr. 197
80634 Munich, Germany
Phone: +49 89 130 142 0
Fax: +49 89 130 142 22
www.euspaceimaging.com