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The R+D+I area of the public company of the Government of Navarre shared, at the world’s leading event on Earth Observation ― the International Symposium on Geosciences and Remote Sensing, organized by the IEEE ― the first work published to date that applies diffusion technology to improve the detection of buildings in aerial images

Tracasa Global, a public company of the Government of Navarre, recently presented its innovative advances in Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing in the United States; specifically, at the world’s premier event on Earth Observation today: the International Symposium on Geosciences and Remote Sensing (IGARSS 2023), organized by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), held this year in Pasadena (California).

The R+D+I area shared, with some 4,000 experts from around the world, its work entitled “Diffusion models for the semantic segmentation of remote sensing images”, which is the first one published to date that applies diffusion technology to improve the detection of buildings in aerial images.

How do diffusion models work?

Diffusion technology is a form of Artificial Intelligence that drives tools capable of creating content based on a specific indication; usually, in text form. These diffusion models are trained using massive data sets and, through an iterative process, progressively learn to generate images that are as close as possible to the request made.

In the case of Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental, the work managed to demonstrate, for the first time, that diffusion models, to date mostly articulated based on indications in the form of text, are also capable of extracting buildings from a remote sensing image, allowing for progress in the semantic segmentation of Earth Observation images. Therefore, it was presented as the first work that applies diffusion technology to the detection of buildings.

An international leader in remote sensing

Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental’s contributions at top-level international events in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing have become a constant in recent years. The public company of the Government of Navarre has claimed victories and top positions at several international Artificial Intelligence and Earth Observation contests.

In fact, last year, at the competition entitled AI4FoodSecurity, organized by the European Space Agency, Radiant Earth Foundation, TUM-DLR and Planet, Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental’s R+D+I area emerged victorious in a competition whose objective was to classify types of crops with Artificial Intelligence techniques based on time series of images from the Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Planet Fusion satellites.

It constitutes the first interactive tool of this scale at the European level, making it possible for anyone to verify air quality, noise levels and the number of green spaces in any area on the continent.

Tracasa Global, a public company of the Government of Navarre, has developed, for the European Environment Agency, the European Environment and Health Atlas application, with which anyone can consult information on air quality, noise levels, and the number of green spaces, among other aspects, in any area on the continent. This interactive tool is the first application of this scale at the European level, and it may be accessed at https://discomap.eea.europa.eu/atlas/.  

One of the highlights of the application, on which Tracasa Global has been working since the beginning of 2022, is its Check Your Place feature. With it, one can select any point in Europe on an interactive map and verify its levels according to ten indicators (seven environmental and three related to health services). The results for each area are presented both numerically and graphically through layers of information appearing on the map.

The application, developed with Esri technology, also allows users to view a series of thematic maps corresponding to six different areas: air pollution, climate, noise, water, urban green spaces and combined risks and inequalities. In this way, all the Atlas’s contents are closely aligned with the environmental objectives of the European Union, henceforth constituting one of the European Environment Agency premier tools in terms of information for citizens and environmental protection.

The application, developed thanks to the work carried out by Tracasa Global’s Software Engineering and Spatial Data Analytics area, also features a Learn More section, through which anyone can access more content on the environmental risks to health and the benefits of having a healthy environment.

Relationship since 2013

Tracasa Global’s work to develop this application is part of the framework contract signed by the Navarrese company in 2020 with the European Environment Agency and the EC’s Directorate General for the Environment to carry out, between 2020 and 2024, environmental data consultancy, collection, design and dissemination serves from the states that make up the European Union.

The work carried out by Tracasa Global under this contract – which the Navarrese company has managed to maintain since 2013 – includes the maintenance and updating of the infrastructure of Discomap (the European Environment Agency’s map agency) and the homogenization, design and dissemination, through maps and interactive graphics, of about 100 data flows covering different topics related to the environment, such as air, water, emissions, climate and biodiversity.

“At Tracasa Global we are especially proud of this project because we have been able to satisfactorily meet the technological challenge of handling large volumes of environmental information in an agile and visual way, and also because it’s a project that aligns perfectly with our mission as a company, which is to generate valuable services to contribute to quality of life and the sustainability and security of our planet,” explained Moisés Zalba, Tracasa Global’s Director of Operations and Business Development.

In the last two years, the public company of the Government of Navarra has carried out nine innovation and environmental projects for the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. Tracasa Global has also worked on the detection of illegal dump sites using satellite images and on the analysis of population areas with the highest levels of exposure to high-voltage power lines

Image of one of the projects carried out by Tracasa Global for the Government of Ireland, with the localization, location and quantification of the biomass of estuarine algae zones in Ireland.

In the last two years Tracasa Global, a public company of the Government of Navarra, has completed nine innovation and environmental projects for the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, in which it has deployed its knowledge and experience in remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data science. 

Within the framework project entitled “The provisioning of environmental spatial data services”, the Navarrese company has worked on finding, pinpointing and classifying biomass in estuarine algae areas in Ireland. To carry out this work, Tracasa has used images from the Sentinel 1 (radar) and Sentinel 2 (optical) satellites, and Artificial Intelligence techniques, such as Machine Learning, which have made it possible to obtain information and classify, in an automatic way, the biomass existing in these areas.

“With this work we have made progress in the automation of processes and have been able to set up a system that allows us to analyze and study the biomass in estuarine algae areas at the points where rivers flow into the sea,” explains Isabel Goñi, head of Territorial and Spatial Engineering at Tracasa Global, who highlighted the work carried out within the framework project by the team formed by Fermín Ros (project manager), Maite Zabaltza, Mikel Viñuales, Raquel Ciriza, Teresa de Blas, Alejandro Martínez de Aguirre, María Cabello and Marcos Pérez.

Over the last two years Tracasa Global has also worked on, among other projects, the detection and monitoring, with information obtained from satellite images, of illegal dump sites within the geographical boundaries of Ireland; and on the analysis of population areas, especially areas such as workplaces and schools- with the highest levels of exposure to high-voltage power lines.

Implementation of the INSPIRE directive

“Working with a national government on the development of innovation and environmental projects, and adding value to the management of its resources, is a great experience for Tracasa Global, confirming us as a leader in the field of remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems, and Data Science applied to the environment; and, in this case, strengthening our relationship with Ireland, a country where we have been working since 2018 on the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive,” clarified Tracasa Global Operations Director Moisés Zalba.

The European INSPIRE directive sets the rules for the establishment of a Spatial Information Infrastructure in the European Community based on the Member States’ Infrastructures, and was developed to make relevant, standardized and quality geographic information available to enable the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EU policies with a territorial impact or dimension.

Currently, after five years of work, Ireland has made progress on the implementation of the INSPIRE directive, covering 22 of the proposed topics. During this time, Tracasa Global worked together with Irish data providers in the creation and harmonization of metadata, data and services in accordance with the INSPIRE directive. This work has resulted in a significant improvement in the indicators that the European Commission monitors annually in this area. In fact, the improvements implemented by Ireland in this area were recently underscored by the European Commission in the chapter on best practices. Leire Leoz (project manager), Isabel Goñi, María Cabello, Maite Zabaltza, Mikel Viñuales, David Ramírez, Mikel Rodríguez, Mikel González, Pedro Mendive (Tracasa Instrumental), Juan Luis Cardoso and Álvaro Huarte have taken part in this project.   

In addition to these projects in Ireland, Tracasa Global is currently working extensively with European entities such as the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment, the European Environment Agency, the Joint Research Center in Ispra (Italy), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the European Union Satellite Center.

The public company of the Government of Navarra joins this European network, made up of more than 20 entities from 11 different countries, with the aim of increasing training and knowledge in the sector

Tracasa Global, a public company of the Government of Navarra attached to the Department of Economic and Business Development, has just become the first Spanish company to join the EO4GEO alliance, the European network created to bolster training and knowledge in the spatial geoinformation sector in Europe.

The alliance, whose operational body is the International Geographic Information Systems Group, located in Genoa (Italy), has set out to improve and build on the results of the EO4GEO Erasmus+ project, completed between 2018 and 2022 which has contributed to reducing the skills gap in the geospatial sector through collaboration by the main players in the sector, making progress in the creation of a training and education ecosystem in this area and in the adoption and integration of geospatial data and services in end-user applications.

The EO4GEO alliance is currently made up of more than 20 members from 11 different countries. Together with Tracasa Global, the following entities form the group: Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium),  Universidad Jaime I (Spain), University of Patras (Greece), Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (Germany), Paris Lodron University Salzburg (Austria), Universidad de Girona (Spain), University of Heidelberg (Germany); the International Group for Geographic Information Systems, European Association of Remote Sensing Companies, HUNAGI Association (Hungary), Eurisy Association (France), and the CNR-IREA Institute for Electromagnetic Environmental Sensing (Italy); Planetek (Italy), VMM-Flanders Environment Agency (Belgium), Spatial Services (Austria), dotSPACE Foundation (The Netherlands), Epsilon (Italy), Latitudo40 (Italy), PhaseGrowth, GIB (Sweden) and the Pixel Company (Bulgaria).

Tracasa Global has extensive experience in European projects for the processing and management of satellite data and images; for example, in the framework of the European Commission’s contract in which it carries out the validation of the Emergency Management Service for Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. In parallel, it also maintains a strong commitment to knowledge, dissemination and training in this field. 

“Internally, we have an ecosystem of continuous learning and professional development, as part of our commitment to ongoing knowledge management and innovation. Externally, we work on scientific and technological dissemination,  collaborate with the Master’s program in GIS and Remote Sensing at the UPNA (Public Univ. of Navarre), and we have just created the TracasaWomenITC group, with the aim of increasing the visibility of women in the Tech sector,” explains Tracasa Global Operations Director Moisés Zalba.

“For Tracasa Global, as a public company of the Government of Navarra, it is a key step to be part of this alliance, which arose with all the components to be an important reference point in terms of training and development within the European spatial geoinformation sector. In addition, joining this network will allow us to share knowledge with other leading entities in this field, explore new opportunities for the future, and participate in the main discussion panels on spatial geoinformation at the European level,” concludes Tracasa Global CEO Mar González.

Mikel Irujo participated in a demonstration of the application, with the public company planting and registering two trees near its headquarters in Sarriguren (Navarra)

From left to right, Mikel Azpilicueta, Eduardo Alfaro, Iratxe Orbe, Ander Erburu, Mikel Irujo (Minister of Economic and Business Development, Government of Navarre), Mar González (Tracasa Global CEO), Moisés Zalba (Tracasa Global Director of Operations) and Mikel Rodríguez.

Tracasa Global has developed the MapMyTree Web application for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment, with which any European person or entity can report and register the trees they plant, georeferencing them on a map and adding the most relevant information on each one. During the development process Tracasa Global collaborated with the European Environment Agency, which administrates the new tool.

This Web application, on which the public company of the Government of Navarre has been working since late 2021, is an initiative launched within the framework of the EU’s 2030 Forestry Strategy, which includes the objectives of the European Green Deal and the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy, including a commitment to plant at least 3 billion trees in the EU by 2030.

Available at the link https://mapmytree.eea.europa.eu/, the Web application represents a step forward in accessibility and participation, as previously only those organizations that registered for the service were able to report data on the trees planted. Now, however, any European person or entity can make use of the application, which features a clear, simple and very intuitive design.

On its cover, MapMyTree presents the updated number of trees planted so far, a European map on which one can see the plantations by geographical area, and a section in which to report new plantations. In this area one can indicate, among other aspects, the planting area and the type and number of species planted.

Tracasa Global has been working with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment and the European Environment Agency since 2013, when it began consulting, collecting, designing and disseminating environmental data from European states. This project was completed thanks to the work carried out by Iratxe Orbe and Ander Erburu (who participated in the explanation of the tool), Miguel Azanza, Mikel Rodríguez, Koldo Goñi, Mikel Azpilicueta and Eduardo Alfaro.

Example and planting of two plants in Sarriguren

Two birch trees were planted near the headquarters of the public company in Sarriguren to demonstrate how the application works. After the planting, which benefitted from collaboration with staff at the public company GAN-NIK, the trees were reported and registered on the MapMyTree application, with all their associated information, in just a few minutes.

During the presentation, the Minister of Economic and Business Development (Government of Navarre) and Tracasa Global Chairman of the Board of Directors Mikel Irujo said that “Tracasa Global is today, within and, above all, outside our borders, synonymous with innovative solutions for sustainability and security, and that is something that, as a public company, should fill us with pride. All these projects at European entities would not be possible, moreover, without another of the keys that support the activity of Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental: its decided commitment to research and innovation”.

Meanwhile, Tracasa Global CEO Mar González stressed that “being able to create and deploy this tool for the European Commission and the European Environment Agency represents a very important milestone for our company, and establishes us as leaders in the development of innovative advanced analytics services as regards sustainability and security”.

Finally, Tracasa Global Director of Operations Moisés Zalba highlighted the company’s role in international projects outside Spain: “with work for the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment, the European Environment Agency, the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, the European Centre for Medium-Term Weather Forecasts, the European Union Satellite Centre, and the Government of Ireland”.

The R&D&I area of the Government of Navarre’s public company presented its work at two major international events: ISPRS and IGARSS

The R&D&I area of Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental, public companies of the Government of Navarre, recently presented their work in the field of Artificial Intelligence and remote sensing at two important international events: the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Congress (ISPRS 2022), held in Nice (France); and the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2022), held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

At the first forum, the Navarrese public company shared its “Multi-temporal data augmentation for high frequency satellite imagery: a case study in Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 building and road segmentation”; while at the second it presented a poster entitled “Pushing the limits of Sentinel-2 for building footprint extraction”. In both cases, Christian Ayala Lauroba, a member of the R&D&i team, was the person who presented the works.

In recent years the R&D&I area has been intensifying its activity in the area processing satellite images with Artificial Intelligence: “Our team has been working on proposals featuring a strong commitment to innovation and Artificial Intelligence techniques, which make it possible to, for example, detect and segment buildings and roads using higher-resolution Sentinel-2 images”, explained R&D&I head Carlos Aranda Torres.

Along these lines, Aranda noted the international recognitions recently garnered by the R&D&I team, specialized in the development of cutting-edge solutions, “especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science”, with three podiums (first, second or third place) at three international Artificial Intelligence competitions organised by the AI4EO platform, attached to the European Space Agency: AI4FoodSecurity, Air Quality and Health and Enhanced Sentinel-2 Agriculture.

In addition, in July Ayala won the prize for the Best Poster at the Spanish Remote Sensing Association Congress, held in Pamplona. Ayala claimed this national recognition among 70 studies presented in this format, with a poster entitled “The accurate detection of buildings in Sentinel-2 images”.

In light of these results, Mar González Paredes, Managing Director of Tracasa Instrumental and CEO of Tracasa Global, considers the work and commitment that the two public companies are demonstrating in this area to be “very positive”, highlighting their “open innovation ecosystem, Innovation Committee, with its own R&D&I team, new Disruptive Ideas Management System, and clear and decided strategy for the development of advanced analytics and Artificial Intelligence solutions”.

The public company of the Government of Navarre will lead a consortium formed by eleven European entities from seven countries, in which Tracasa Global will participate. The project will be carried out in 2023 and 2024 and will lay the foundations for creating a strategic European security and monitoring service, based on images from Sentinel satellites and using Artificial Intelligence

The European Commission’s Directorate General for Defense Industry and Space has selected a project coordinated by Tracasa Instrumental, a public company of the Government of Navarre attached to the Department of University, Innovation and Digital Transformation, to receive European funding in the amount of 3.28 million euros and to be carried out in 2023 and 2024.

The Government of Navarre greatly values the success of public companies in demanding calls for European scientific and technical projects. This success recognizes the outstanding innovation activity carried out by the teams and personnel working in the area of Artificial Intelligence applied to space observation technology», said Juan Cruz Cigudosa, University, Innovation and Digital Transformation minister of the Government of Navarre and the chairman of the board of directors at Tracasa Instrumental. Cigudosa also noted that in 2021 an Innovation Committee was created that consolidates and systematizes the process for the detection of innovative opportunities at Tracasa Instrumental, and serves to incorporate innovation as an axis spanning all the company’s departments.»

The project, which will lay the foundations for creating a strategic European security and monitoring service, based on images from Sentinel satellites and using Artificial Intelligence, will feature participation by eleven entities from seven countries, including Navarre’s Tracasa Instrumental, as the coordinator of the project; Tracasa Global, a public company of the Government of Navarre attached to the Department of Economic and Business Development; and Zabala Innovation Consulting.

Entitled “IntSen2: Proactive automatic imagery intelligence powered by artificial intelligence exploiting european space assets”, the project was selected by the European Commission as part of the 2021 European Defense Fund call for innovative and forward-looking defense solutions.

The project will use images from the EU’s Sentinel satellites (initially oriented to environmental purposes) and Artificial Intelligence techniques, with which both public companies have recognized experience, to develop a concept for an imagery intelligence application to lay the foundations to create a strategic European security and monitoring service.

In order to achieve its objective, the project plans to base its proposed research and solutions exclusively on European space assets, with the ultimate objective of supporting and strengthening the EU’s operational autonomy in the Defense and Security fields.

The consortium coordinated by Tracasa Instrumental has 10 other collaborating entities: Tracasa Global, Zabala Innovation Consulting, European Union Satellite Centre, Centrum Badan Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademi Nauk (Poland), Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft MBH (Austria), Evenflow (Belgium), Planetek Hellas Etaireia Periorismenis Efthynis Ypiresies Chartografisis Meso Doryforou (Greece), Rina Consulting BV (Netherlands), Rina Consulting S.P.A. (Italy) and the Universita Degli Studi Di Napoli Federico II (Italy).

Navarre’s General Director of University highlighted the importance of this international experience, made possible by CITI Navarra, which “contributes to generating knowledge and attracting talent” to the region

Last week a group of 34 Engineering students from Clemson University (South Carolina, USA) visited the Palace of Navarre and the facilities where three of the Government of Navarre’s public companies carry out their work: Tracasa Global, Tracasa Instrumental and NASERTIC.

General Director of University Ana Burusco, who accompanied them on one of the tours, underscored that this “enriching” international university mobility experience “allows us to showcase Navarre’s potential in the areas of sustainability and bioethics, thanks to public companies, establishing synergies that help to generate knowledge and attract talent to Navarre.”

The student expedition is located in Pamplona/Iruña in collaboration with the College of Industrial Technical Engineering Graduates and Engineers of Navarre (CITI Navarra) and its International Training program, with plans for a one-month stay in Navarre between July 4 and August 3. CITI Navarra already has 11 years of experience in the organization of this type of training programs with students from American universities.

Local and international perspective: projects at Tracasa Instrumental and Tracasa Global

During this Thursday’s session, the students had the opportunity to learn about the work done by Tracasa Instrumental and Tracasa Global, especially in the area of Geographic Information Systems. During its visit, the group was accompanied by the Government of Navarre’s General Director of University, Ana Burusco; the Managing Director of Tracasa Instrumental and CEO of Tracasa Global, Mar González; the Corporate Director of Tracasa Instrumental, Arturo Barberena; the Director of Operations of Tracasa Global, Moisés Zalba; and the Director of Territorial Information Systems of Tracasa Instrumental, Pablo Echamendi.

First the students learned about the work of Tracasa Instrumental, a key company for the Government of Navarre in services and knowledge related to digital transformation, tax and territorial management, and services for citizens. Its presentation, given by Pedro Mendive, of the GIS Services area, focused mainly on the Spatial Information System of Navarre (SITNA), the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Navarre (IDENA) and the SITNA API, an open source development tool created by Tracasa Instrumental to facilitate the representation of geo-referenced information in Web applications and to develop high-performance viewers.

Subsequently, the international group heard explanations on the work done by Tracasa Global, which specializes in innovative and high value-added services in territorial management, spatial data analytics, and Geographic Information Systems, with extensive experience at the national and international levels. There the group heard, from Asier Gamallo, from the Software Engineering Geographic Information Systems area, and Josu Ramírez, the head of the Software Engineering and Spatial Data Analytics area, about several leading projects of the company, such as GIS implementations at entities that manage water networks with which Tracasa Global has reached a leading position in the national sector; and the European Environment Agency’s European Air Quality Index, through which the Navarrese company homogenizes, manages and disseminates the data collected by more than 4,500 stations all across Europe.

Navarre, a leader in Personalized Medicine and Supercomputing, thanks to NASERTIC

The young people previously paid another visit to the NASERTIC facilities on Tuesday, where they were able to learn about its main projects first hand from the public company’s Director of Personalized Medicine and Laboratories, Gonzalo Rodríguez; Director of Innovation and Business Culture, Toya Bernad; and Supercomputing specialist Iñaki Martínez. In this way, the contingent from the US explored  the state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment that have facilitated the development and implementation of many of the strategic projects carried out in Navarre, as well as other leading services and facilities, such as the Mass Sequencing Center, the Supercomputing Center, the Broadband Master Plan and the Data Processing Center, among others.

Christian Ayala Lauroba, in the R+D+I area of the public company of the Government of Navarre, received this national recognition, with 70 studies presented in this format. “This award is very gratifying, and an acknowledgement for all of us on the team working on remote sensing and the processing of satellite images”

Christian Ayala Lauroba, an IT engineer at Tracasa Global, won the Best Poster prize at the Spanish Remote Sensing Association Congress held last week in Pamplona. Ayala, within the corporate area of R&D&I at the public company of the Government of Navarre, attached to the department of Universities, Innovation and Digital Transformation, garnered this national recognition from among 70 studies presented in this format.

The winning poster, entitled “Precise Building Detection in Sentinel-2 images”, proposes a solution that improves the segmentation of buildings through images obtained by European Space Agency satellites.

“Sentinel-2 offers spectral richness and extensive image updating, but its resolution could be improved. Therefore, this work, featuring a novel Deep Learning architecture combining image super-resolution techniques and semantic segmentation, manages to generate a 2.5-meters-per-pixel mask,  quadrupling the initial resolution of these images and making possible progress in terms of building detection, of great utility for urban planning and rapid mapping in emergency situations,” Ayala explained.

In recent years Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental’s corporate R&D&I area have been ramping up activity in the field of processing satellite images through Artificial Intelligence: “This award is very gratifying, and an acknowledgement for all of us on the team that has been working on proposals of this type, which make it possible to detect and segment buildings and roads with Sentinel-2 images with greater resolution”.

The award-winning work, which was signed by Christian Ayala, in collaboration with Mikel Galar Idoate (UPNA) and Carlos Aranda Torres (R+D+I head), was carried out as part of the doctorate that Ayala is completing at the Public University of Navarre, linked to the scholarship program for Industrial Engineering doctoral students that the Government of Navarre has implemented.

Tracasa Instrumental and Tracasa Global: reference points

Tracasa Instrumental and Tracasa Global were prominent players at the Spanish Remote Sensing Association Congress organized in Pamplona by the Public University of Navarre.

Rubén Sesma Redín, in the R+D+I area, gave a presentation entitled “Sentinel-2 Image Super-resolution through Deep Learning”, while Raquel Ciriza Labiano, in Tracasa Global’s Territorial and Spatial Engineering area, presented “The Categorization of Damage to Buildings through the Coherence Change Index Calculated Based On  Multitemporal Sentinel-1 Images in the Context of Copernicus EMS.”

Ayala also participated in the poster session with the award-winning work and with the poster entitled “Redefining Sentinel-2 Limits for Road Extraction,” while Javier Lasheras Navas, also from the R+D+I area, presented the poster “Detection, Hypertemporal Tracking and the Categorization of Olive Trees in Navarre through Deep Learning.”

Over 30 years of experience in remote sensing

Both Navarrese companies have extensive experience in remote sensing, since the late 1980s, when one of the first laboratories in this field at a Spanish company was organized at Tracasa. In fact, over the course of this period the company’s experiences and projects in this field, both nationally and internationally, have been numerous.

Today, the validation of Copernicus EMS products; image classification, super-resolution and segmentation workbased on neural networks; and the execution of multi-temporal ground tracking projects, constitute large-scale challenges in the field of remote sensing, with data processing and storage, and Cloud work, as current and future challenges.

Thanks to its SENX4 technology, the public company of the Government of Navarre provides interested entities and institutions with images of the area that can be used for remote sensing

Tracasa Global has already delivered, free of charge, 50,000 km² of super-resolved images of Ukraine and surrounding areas from Sentinel-2 satellites. The zone in question, of course, has been affected since the end of last February by attacks by Russian troops. Thus, the public company of the Government of Navarre, attached to the region’s Department of Economic and Business Development, is making available to interested entities images of the area that can be used for remote sensing, with the aim of providing information and facilitating analysis of the situation in the area.

Tracasa Global presented the operation and the main figures of this service, which was set up a few weeks ago, at a presentation held today at the headquarters of the Association of Industrial Technical Engineers of Navarre, within the framework of the activities organized for “European Week in Navarre”. On hand was Carlos Aranda, Head of R&D&I; María Cabello, Head of Sales and International Business Development; and Isabel Goñi, Head of the Territorial and Spatial Engineering area.

Thanks to its SENX4 technology, Tracasa Global has managed to quadruple the resolution of the images of the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellites, taking them from 10 meters per pixel in each image to 2.5 meters per pixel. This breakthrough in the field of super-high-resolution satellite images was possible thanks to the work carried out by the Navarre-based company using “deeplearningtechniques,” with which it has been able to beat all the records previously set in this field.

Isabel Goñi, who pointed out that Tracasa Global has already provided more than a dozen international entities with access to the super-high-resolution image platform, reminded those present that “organizations interested in obtaining super-high-resolution satellite images of the Ukraine area free of charge can use the link https://www.eowebservices.tracasa.es/, to process their access to the platform (each request is studied individually), learn about the platform’s usage conditions, and start their searches and downloads”.

María Cabello, meanwhile, highlighted Tracasa Global’s “international experience in advanced spatial information systems and data analytics” and the work carried out by the company “on projects for European entities such as the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment, the European Environment Agency, the Joint Research Center in Ispra (Italy), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the European Union Satellite Center and the Government of Ireland”.

Finally, Carlos Aranda underscored the work being carried out by the R&D&I team, a corporate service of Tracasa Global and Tracasa Instrumental, and emphasized, in relation to SENX4 technology, “the use of ‘deep learning’techniques in the field of photogrammetry, with ‘deep learning’ algorithms that make it possible to imitate and improve man’s capacity in the processing and recognition of patterns in images”.

In addition, Aranda mentioned the “international recognition” recently obtained by the company’s R&D&I team, which specializes in the development of cutting-edge solutions, especially in the areas of  Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, having garnered three “podiums” (first, second or third place) at three international Artificial Intelligence competitions: AI4FoodSecurity, Air Quality and Health and Enhanced Sentinel-2 Agriculture.