News

On 24th November 2015, in Stirling (UK), it has been helded the End Users workshop of the project
“Cultural Landscape risk Identification, Management and Assessment” (CLIMA), in which Alma
Sistemi S.a.S is involved as a partner.

Goal of the CLIMA project is to design and implement a WebGIS based multi-task platform that
integrates different remote sensing technologies, which can ensure, on a spatial scale, both macro
and micro levels, the mapping, diagnostic and monitoring purpose of archaeological cultural
landscapes including buried and exposed archaeological remains.

The Platform will provide specific products (e.g. periodic vulnerability and warning maps) to allow
the authorities in charge of cultural landscape preservation to implement more effective
maintenance plans and actions.

The End Users conference aimed at presenting the project to potential end-users, and to receive
back guidelines and expert advices, in a way to improve the potentiality and the applicability of
the project results.

Many useful input come out from the meeting, that will be taken in consideration during the
platform’s design and development.

From the discussion emerged that CLIMA could help propose best practice, and would be well
placed to be critical of current policy in light of archaeological findings at a local, national and
European level.

The development of the CLIMA system for specific risk assessment and mapping will also be
important in providing an evidence base for discussing broader trends in archaeological
preservation, risk and protection.

End users present at the workshop were: Flavia Trucco (Soprintendenza ai Beni archeologici del
Lazio e dell’Etruria Meridionale, IT), Dave Cowley (Historic Environment Scotland, UK), Geoff Bailey
(Falkirk Council, UK), Murray Cook (Stirling Council, UK), Vasiliki Lysandrou (Cyprus University of
Technology and Cyprus Remote Sensing Society, CY).

More information about CLIMA project, partners and their role: http://clima-project.eu

ALMA Sistemi in team with Elital Srl awarded the ESA contract for the Mechanical Ground Support Equipment of the MicroWave Sounder (MWS) instrument, MetOp second-generation satellite.
This contract marks the difference with the past consultancy activities carried out by ALMA supporting the customer Elital with a successful track record of winning contracts in the MeteoSat 3rd Generation and ExoMars programmes. In fact, for the MWS MGSE, ALMA is participating as full partner of the consortium supporting Elital in the Engineering phase of the project.
Negotiation with the customer Airbus Defence & Space, Portsmouth, UK is currently on going and the Kick-Off is foreseen by the end of September.

ALMA Sistemi has moved the operative address to a more suitable location with more office space and facilities. The new operative office is located in Guidonia Montecelio (Rome) at the CAR Directional Center located in street “Tenuta del Cavaliere n°1 Building B. The new offices are easily reachable by car because the centre is directly connected to the highway A24 Exit “Settecamini” as well as “Via Tiburtina”. Information how to get to ALMA can be find on the web-site pages.

Spring has proved to be a very positive time for ALMA Sistemi in terms of awards of new R&D projects in different technological areas.

The project Plasma Antenna for secure LAnDIng and Navigation – PALADIN (H2020-SME instrument phase 1) is a commercial feasibility of an innovative phase array antenna based on plasma technologies for navigation application in the aviation sector. ALMA Sistemi is also subcontractor to ELITAL Srl in the project STARLET for the design and development of a prototype plasma antenna for terrestrial application. STARLET is co-funded by Italian Space Agency.

ALMA Sistemi is also partner of a large consortium headed by European Space Agency (ESRIN) for the project EVER-EST (European Virtual Environment for Research – Earth Science Themes: a solution) submitted to EU in the frame of Horizon 2020-EINFRA-9 call. The EVER-EST project will enhance Research and Capacity Building in the Earth Science (ES) domain, by providing a generic Service Oriented-based Architecture Virtual Research Environment (VRE) tailored to the needs of the ES community.

All the above projects are in the phase of contract/grant preparation and will start between July and October this year.

The project proposal Cultural Landscape risk Identification, Management and Assessment

(acronym CLIMA) has been selected for funding under the Joint Program Initiative targeting

Cultural Heritage (JPI­CH, http://www.jpi­culturalheritage.eu/ ).

The proposal CLIMA address the major factors of risks affecting the European landscapes and

landscape elements comprising standing monuments and buried archaeological sites by

developing and integrating new and existing technologies for remote sensing from satellite,

aerial/UAV platform and on ground.

CLIMA addresses the design and development of a multi­task platform, combining advanced

remote sensing technologies, both from satellite and ground­based, with GIS application for

mapping and long term monitoring of archeological cultural landscapes to identify changes due to

climate changes and anthropic pressures. The project also targets the development and test of an

innovative ground­based gamma spectrometer to measure soil vertical/lateral disturbance. The

effectiveness of the CLIMA platform will be demonstrated with extended field campaigns targeting

different case studies in Italy, Cyprus and England.

The CLIMA Platform will enable the authorities responsible for the preservation of the

archeological cultural landscape to carry out an effective planning and implementation policy of

preventive maintenance.

The consortium is led by University “La Tuscia”, Viterbo, Italy and include ALMA Sistemi sas, the

University of Stirling, UK, Technical University of Cyprus, Limassol, Cyprus and University of

Copenhagen, Denmark and the total project duration is 36 months.

ALMA Sistemi has been recently awarded the project STARLET as subcontractor to ELITAL Srl, L’Aquila, in the frame of the innovation program for Small and Medium Size companies co-funded by Italian Space Agency. The team include other 2 SMEs (Technology For Innovation Srl, Padova and Space Boy Station Srl, Rome) and it is focused to the development of an innovative navigation plasma antenna resistant to natural and man-made interferences.
STARLET main goal is to design, develop and test a new satellite navigation antenna based on plasma gas.
The multi-beam antenna has the capability to point every beam to track a single satellite. This reduces both multipath and jamming signals affecting the receivers.
The gas plasma antenna is a plasma shock (included into a dielectric tube) where the plasma becomes a conductor when the tube is being excited: this allows the tube to transmit and receive signals.
Tubes are dynamically reconfiguring to follow the satellites according the constellation ephemeris and the current position in terms of direction diagrams, frequency, gain, and beam aperture.
The electronic reconfiguration runs on microsecond basis and have low thermal noise.
The Smart Plasma Antenna can (i) identify the input signal direction, (ii) point the antenna beam on a mobile target and (iii) move the beam in any direction reducing interference.
The project has the objective to design, develop and test a dual-use navigation antenna systems prototype; to design and develop a simulation and validation software, having also capabilities to measure the performances; to validate the prototype both in laboratory and on field.
ALMA Sistemi contribution focus on software development, data analysis, quality assurance and business plan.

On November 3 to 8 has been held Euromed 2014 (www.euromed2014.eu ) conference on Cultural Heritage in Limassol, Cyprus. The special session on remote sensing chaired by Gunter Schreider, Deputy Director Earth Observation Science at DLR hosted several presentation from ISPRS, Cyprus Technical University, Politecnico di Milano and European Space Agency. The ITACA project has been illustrated by Alessio Di Iorio (ALMA Sistemi, see picture) in behalf of the consortium presenting the preliminary results and raising general interest amongst the conference attendees.

The project paper has been published in the conference SPRINGER proceeding which contains the full and project papers: Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection. 5th International Conference, EuroMed 2014, Limassol, Cyprus, November 3-8, 2014. Proceedings. Editors: Marinos Ioannides, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Eleanor Fink, Roko Žarnić, Alex-Yianing Yen, Ewald Quak. ISBN: 978-3-319-13694-3 (Print) 978-3-319-13695-0 (Online: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-13695-0/page/1 ).

ITACA project paper can be downloaded at http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-13695-0_8 .

Last week Engineering SpA succesfully completed the negotiation process with ESA for the ARTES-20 project SIMONA “Satellite assets Integration for Maritime situatiON Awareness” in the frame of the Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) Programme. ALMA Sistemi is part of the team providing high level Engineering in the area of bathymetry mapping. The project Kick-Off has been called on 1st July 2014 and the project will have a duration of 2 full years. More info coming soon

The contract for project SIMONA has been finally signed by ESA and Engineering Srl. The formal Kick-Off will be possibly moved to beginning of September to take in consideration the holiday break. SIMONA is the first “direct” ESA contract for ALMA Sistemi and marks an important steps in the company grow.