On May 2, 1995, Vladimir Mikhailov, managing director of SOVZOND, the Moscow-based commercial company of satellite data, traveled to Kiruna, Sweden to meet with technical and marketing experts at Swedish Space Corp. Satellitbild. A seemingly normal business affair to those who knew nothing of their agenda. To the contrary, that meeting was history in the making in the world of remote sensing. And here's why. For the first time ever, worldwide data from a Russian satellite will be downlinked in direct mode and will be processed and distributed throughout Europe and beyond. An agreement between SOVZOND and SSC was made last year to put this "experiment" in motion. One year and a few months later the fruit of this collaboration is now ripe: on Mikhailov's last visit, he and some of his experts brought equipment to be installed, and trained SSC's operators to begin receiving the data. At the end of July, acquisition and processing began. But all of this planning was not for a new, yet-to-be launched remote sensing satellite. It was all for a satellite that has been orbiting and collecting data of the Earth since Nov. 4, 1994, the Resurs-01-3. It's been hailed the monitoring satellite by people who know Earth observation satellites well. It's also been pegged the satellite that will bridge the data availability and resolution gap between Landsat/SPOT and NOAA/AVHRR. But perhaps its most attractive quality is its accessibility. "Most people in the remote sensing community believe that Russian data is good quality, but the data is difficult to get," stated Dr. Mikael Stern, business development manager at SSC. "Therefore, I think it's a good idea to point out what we have made different in this case. I hope people will be more confident if they understand that SSC receives the data directly from the satellite, and that we process the data and deliver the products from Sweden, not from Russia." Most Russians in the remote sensing industry, including Mikhailov, recognize that the lack of a vigorous marketing and promotional campaign of their satellite imagery has been a serious weak point and has hurt sales in the past. Even though they had the capability and the technology to compete, strict government control over the commercialization of data by the former Soviet Union kept most, if not all of the imagery at home, greatly impeding their strength as a real contender in the international remote sensing market. But in 1989 the situation began to improve. Now with a more flexible market economy, they can begin to market and sell Russian satellite data internationally. And they're exploiting this opportunity in a big way. They've been preparing for it ever since they began designing Resurs-01-3; it would be the third satellite in the Resurs series and the first with direct mode data acquisition capability at a frequency that stations outside Russia can receive. Based on the experience and knowledge obtained from the first meteorological METEOR satellites, Russian organizations began designing and developing a series of environmental monitoring satellites in the 1970s. This new series became known as Resurs-O, the "O" standing for operational. In 1981 the experimental Resurs-O-E was launched and used for eight years. Then in 1985, the Resurs-01 series officially started with the first satellite launched and was in operation until 1987. The second satellite was launched one year later and was collecting data until just recently, when technical failures occurred, causing it to shut down after almost seven years of operation. A fourth Resurs-01 satellite, Resurs-01-4, is being built and is scheduled for launch in late 1996. And now the Russians are already looking as far ahead as 1998, when the new and improved Resurs-02 series will take off, carrying the program well into the next century. But for now, all eyes are on Resurs-01-3. The satellite is equipped with two types of Earth observation instruments: the high resolution, multi-spectral scanner MSU-E; and the medium resolution, multi-spectral MSU-SK. The former has a ground resolution of 45m and has a side-looking capability, unlike similar multi-spectral scanners on other satellites such as Landsat. The latter has a ground resolution of 170m (spectral bands) and 600m (thermal band) respectively. The satellite also carries a tape recorder on-board, allowing for global coverage. Due to the wide 600km swath of Resurs-01-3, the revisit time of the satellite is greater - about four days at the equator - enabling data over the same spot to be acquired more frequently and to acquire more of it. Thus, areas at the latitude of Paris may be covered as often as twice a week. The island of Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean is visible daily. And the whole of England can fit in one image with individual agricultural fields still visible. The MSU-SK is a conical scanning device which permits a constant resolution and viewing angle for each pixel. This means the radiometric accuracy is higher, allowing for subtle changes in the environment to be detected. These changes revealed at medium resolution can then be analyzed with the 45m resolution of the MSU-E and verified. For all these reasons, the Resurs-01-3 has been coined the monitoring satellite and may give the most popular choices for monitoring projects - Landsat, SPOT, AVHRR and ERS-1 and 2 - a run for their money. "Data from the MSU-SK instrument is the only existing imagery that can fill the presently enormous gap between Landsat and AVHRR data," stated Stern. Resurs-01-3 data will be acquired at SSC's ground receiving station Esrange, located near Kiruna in northern Sweden. Some data has already been received without any problems and the processing chain has been tested. All facets of the experimental phase have proceeded smoothly and now full operations can begin. Mikhailov and his colleagues are confident that the recent agreement with SSC will prove profitable. "The former Soviet Union did not try to market the data. But now, through SSC, with their long-term experience in value-adding and penetrating the market, we will get the help we need to reach the market." Additional help will come through Eurimage as well. Located in Rome, Italy, Eurimage supplies worldwide multi-mission satellite data to the European, North African and Middle East markets. Eurimage's much anticipated EiNet image browsing system will feature the Russian Resurs-01-3 data. EiNet provides selected imagery that users can browse through on their own personal computer. Clients can indicate which areas they are interested in, and the date, and the computer will match their criteria with imagery. The imagery can be downloaded directly to the client's computer for further consideration. Users can even perform their own cloud-cover assessment by requesting a certain acceptable percentage of cloud cover. Thus a client knows exactly what will arrive when an order is placed. "EiNet will be a particularly useful tool for promoting Resurs data," said Fabrizio Lombardi, director of marketing and Eurimage. "It will allow clients who have never used the data to get to know it - to view the imagery and learn what the potentials are, what can be seen from it. For other users familiar with the data, and with specific needs in mind, EiNet will provide faster access to, and selection of the imagery through its catalog of scenes." Landsat data from both EOSAT and the European Space Agency archives are currently available on EiNet. As EiNet can be accessed 24 hours a day by users all over the world, the potential promotion and distribution of Resurs imagery could be just what the Russians have been hoping for and need. And it may be just what some users need as well. "Due to its repetivity, its acquisition flexibility and its high radiometric quality, the most important use of Resurs-01-3 data is monitoring of different types: environment, coastal zones, agriculture, ice, snow and others," said Stern. In fact, since its inception, Resurs data has been used within Russia and other CIS countries for those very applications, as well as assessing forest fire damage. SSC will be particularly focused on the real-time monitoring applications, while Eurimage will focus on the off-line products and the distribution and marketing of the data outside Scandinavia. With the optimal location of SSC's ground station, data covering almost all of Europe will be acquired in direct mode and the images temporarily stored on the satellite's tape recorder will be downlinked a few hours later, when the satellite passes over Esrange. Once the data begins to be acquired on a regular basis, user-specified products will be created and near real-time delivery of products may even be supplied if needed. In some instances, a client may be able to receive data on-line. All of this fanfare for this data does not equal a high price tag either. In light of Russia's new found freedom and the introduction of the latest Russian data to hit the market, Eurimage and SSC have put the icing on the cake by offering a special reduced price for the imagery. And all for good reason. "Our expectations are that users of both high and low resolution images will find the medium resolution data can overcome some current problems - whether it be high cost, large data volumes or lack of detail," concluded Stern. "Maybe some innovative applications will spring from the new data source as well." That could mean more seemingly normal business meetings.

About the Author:
Mary Jo Wagner is a freelance writer/editor who writes about GIS and remote sensing. She may be reached at 919-878-7395.

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