Critical Assets Event Assessment

Critical Assets comprise a wide variety of elements, either manmade structures or natural, whose disruption, destruction or alteration may cause problems for the security of the States and citizens.

Critical Assets products combine SAR and optical EO imagery, prioritising the latest available very high resolution sensors. This service chain differs from Critical Assets Monitoring in the timeframe over which monitoring occurs.

Examples of this service include the detection and monitoring of a pipeline explosion in Moscow or the condition of a water treatment plant in Concepción, Chile, after the earthquake.

Core products

Both services in the Critical Assets domain offer four core validated products, engaging both SAR and optical satellite data. The spatial resolutions of the products range from the low resolution (LR) of SEVIRI, medium resolution (MR) of DMC, through the high resolution (HR) of SPOT or RADARSAT to the very high resolution (VHR) of GeoEye or CosmoSkyMed. The latter are prioritised.

Low resolution thermal anomaly detection of critical assets with a 15 minute monitoring sequence

Baseline and update maps of natural critical assets, scale determined by the end user, with up to two updates

Baseline and update maps of man-made critical assets, scale determined by the end user, with up to two updates

Change detection of critical assets, either natural or man-made, requiring a minimum of two dates

Low resolution thermal anomaly detection of critical assets

Critical events happening at critical assets, such as explosions or polluting episodes, are clearly registered by satellite sensors. An example of this is shown on the Critical Assets domain page.

Baseline and update maps of natural critical assets

The City of Gonaives, Haiti, experiences severe seasonal tropical storms that recurrently sink inhabitants in mud flows. The below natural critical assets map was created for the field teams of the Spanish Red Cross providing fresh water points to locals. The analysis is based on a 0.5m GeoEye image and it shows the source escarpment area together with the very high and high landslide impacting areas, as a function of slope, population density and streets channeling the slide.

Baseline and update maps of man-made critical assets

The level of detail of the man-made critical assets maps depends on image resolution and non EO information. The analysis performed covers either whole cities, sections of a coast line or single assets. The output includes reference maps, image based maps and a briefing detailing processes.

The below image shows the analysis of the Enap Refinery in Concepción, Chile, after the 27.02.2010 8.8 magnitude Earthquake. Images: WorldView-2 27.01.2010 and RapidEye 27.02.2010.

Change detection of critical assets

An example of this is supplied on the Critical Assets Monitoring page.

Service coordination

This pilot service is coordinated by GMV Aerospace and Defence with the efforts of other partners inside the G-MOSAIC consortium: University of Rome/San Marco Project Research Centre, University of Basilicata, Indra, Astrium GEO-Information Services, TNO and Eurosense.