Dec. 5, 2013, Montreal, QC, Canada”Effigis Geo-Solutions Inc., a leading distributor of Earth observation images, is pleased to announce it has signed an exclusive agreement to distribute satellite images from the Pléiades satellites operated by Astrium Services, a subsidiary of European giant EADS, global leader in aeronautics. This agreement, reached with Astrium Services, North America Geo-Information Division, gives Effigis exclusive rights to the sale and distribution of Pléiades data of Canada to Canadian end users.
In orbit at an altitude of nearly 700 km since they were launched in December 2011 and 2012, the Pléiades Earth observation satellites 1A and 1B can provide imagery products of the Earth's surface with a resolution of 50 cm, which ranks them among the world's highest-performance sources of very-high-resolution satellite imaging. With unmatched accuracy and quality, they make it possible to view landscapes in 3D and to extract a large amount of useful information from them in various fields: from land management, natural resource management and infrastructure monitoring to supporting emergency operations during natural disasters or catastrophes such as the one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, earlier this year, for which a series of Pléiades images were produced on a weekly basis to guide response measures on the ground.
Today's announcement is a milestone in the pursuit of our strategy aimed at positioning Effigis as the Canadian leader in the distribution of very-high-resolution satellite images, said Pierre Vincent, executive vice-president of Effigis. With this agreement, we will be able to better serve all those who need access to an accurate, reliable and uniform source of information to quickly find out what is happening on the ground in order to improve the management, monitoring or evaluation of their operations, wherever they are located.
With their growing number and the continually improving accuracy of their sensor, satellite images will be used increasingly in the future to feed the development and deployment of even more innovative technological solutions added Mr. Vincent.
We're proud to join forces with Effigis, whose expertise and experience in Earth observation is universally recognized, in order to develop the full potential of the Canadian market. We're convinced that by combining the outstanding capabilities of our Pléiades data acquisition, processing and rapid delivery systems, we will achieve concrete results in the targeted markets, said Greg Buckman, Head of Astrium Services' Geo-Information team in North America.
Effigis is a fast-growing Quebec company that has been located in Montreal for more than 20 years. Drawing on the expertise of its resources, it designs, develops and executes novel geospatial solutions (Earth observation services, infrastructure inventory, telecommunications network monitoring, GNSS software, geological studies) aimed at improving its customers' business processes. A commercial partner with the world's largest satellite imaging distribution networks, Effigis provides its customers with access to a vast selection of commercial Earth observation satellites. It serves a variety of sectors, including public administration, aeronautics, agriculture, environment, forestry, consulting engineering, mining, oil and gas, public utilities and telecommunications.
Astrium Services is the operator of the SPOT satellite family, the Pléiades and SPOT 6/7 constellation, in addition to holding the exclusive commercial operating rights for the high-resolution radar satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. Astrium Services develops an extensive large portfolio of products and services spanning the entire geo-information value chain, from data acquisition and processing to data management and hosting, sophisticated geo-information services and turnkey integrated solutions.
For more information, visit www.effigis.com.
