The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract to British company DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) 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 & 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.
Source: DMCii