Astrium Services and the Mexican federal government’s Ministry of agriculture, livestock farming, rural development, food and fisheries (SAGARPA), signed an agreement this spring to upgrade the ERMEX receiving station south of Mexico City. This station will enter service in September. Equipped with a high-tech antenna and new-generation SPOT terminal, it will initially receive SPOT 5 imagery and then SPOT 6 imagery when commercial operations get underway. It will also receive data from SPOT 7 in 2014.
The Agricultural and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP) operates the ERMEX receiving station, handling more than 70,000 images every year for the Ministry of Agriculture and sharing data through a multi-licence agreement with public research bodies, government agencies and international organizations.
SIAP has already covered Mexico’s territory eight times over with satellite imagery received by the ERMEX station. It thus has a mosaic of geo-information to support comparative analysis of phenomena impacting production of food, textiles and energy. This highly specialised task is conducted by a network of experts at 33 strategic locations around the country, working under SAGARPA’s brand new geospatial command centre that opened in May.
Data from the new satellites will boost ERMEX’s Earth-observing capabilities, increasing the timeliness and spatial resolution of its products, as well as providing new features enabled by the satellites’ latest-generation sensors.
Mexico has the technologies and expertise to receive, process and analyse satellite imagery for agricultural statistics, climate risk management and other strategic aspects of agriculture and fisheries.
The station has been receiving satellite imagery from SPOT 2, SPOT 4 and SPOT 5 since 2003. To ensure SPOT data continuity, SIAP has signed an agreement with Astrium and invested in upgrading its cutting-edge facilities.
Through its GEO-Information services, Astrium is recognized as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, not least thanks to the now fully integrated skills and resources of the former Spot Image and Infoterra. The company provides decision-makers with complete solutions enabling them to increase security, boost agricultural performance, maximize oil & gas or mining operations, improve their management of natural resources, and protect the environment.
It has exclusive access to data from the SPOT, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites and Pléiades, coupled with a complete range of space-based data sources and airborne acquisition capability allowing it to offer an unrivalled scope of Earth observation products and services. This extensive portfolio covers the entire geo-information supply chain, from the generation of images to the provision of high added-value information to end-users.
By leveraging the synergies and expertise available across the whole of Astrium Services, its GEO-Information teams develop innovative, yet competitive, bespoke solutions based on the combination and integration of Earth observation, navigation and high-end telecommunications.