France to make older Spot images available to researchers for free

[Lurker]

The French government has agreed to open its Spot optical Earth observation data archive and distribute, free of charge to noncommercial users, Spot satellite data that is at least five years old.

The Jan. 23 announcement by the French space agency, CNES, followed a French government commitment made Jan. 17 during a meeting in Geneva of the 80 governments that comprise the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

imagespot France to make older Spot images available to researchers for freeCNES said its decision was made in concert with Airbus Defence and Space, formerly named Astrium Services, which since 2008 has been the majority shareholder in the company that commercializes Spot data.

CNES said the move to open up access to Spot imagery, which dates from 1986, “is the first major contribution from the private sector to the construction of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).”

CNES has already begun processing, at its own charge, a first tranche of 100,000 images that will be available later this year.

 

source : spacenews via

http://mundogeo.com/en/blog/2014/01/24/france-to-make-older-spot-images-available-to-researchers-for-free/

[darksabersan]

Amazing.. For the first time, the "Hollande" government do something right, but take care he's a loser incompetent.
Anyway, it's an interesting info.

 

 

[Lurker]

this is interesting, now we have another option beside landsat, ehehehe, looking forward for this 

[mini8735]

This is great news, very excited by this. Hopefully it will not take too long until the data will be available.

[moawad74]

I am not really sure if they are serious... from my own experience the ESA is very stingy.... However let's see..!!