Will provide technology and expertise to monitor atmosphere, greenhouse gasses for European space programs.
Berlin, Germany, August 31, 2009 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, announced the start of operations at its newly established office for the Remote Sensing industry in Switzerland. At this location, ABB will develop optical instrumentation for the European space remote sensing market. The new entity’s offices are located in the existing facilities of ABB's Corporate Research Center in Baden-Daettwil.
The installment of employees started during the summer of 2009; the hiring process will continue through the remainder of 2009. ABB has a rich heritage of developing and delivering space optical technologies that will strategically position the company to potentially support several new European remote sensing space programs, such as Meteosat Third Generation, Earth Explorer, and the next generation of polar orbiting weather satellites.
“We are very pleased to start this new activity here in Switzerland. Optical remote sensing from space has a wide range of environmental applications, such as measuring atmospheric constituents or monitoring greenhouse gases. This fits very well with ABB's mandate for efficient use of energy and lowering environmental impacts,” said Wolfgang Felber, Group Vice-President and Manager for ABB analytical products in Switzerland, “We are committed to developing a sustainable business that will serve this important global market for remote sensing technologies.”
The new group will draw upon ABB’s established knowledge and experience in the Remote Sensing Industry. ABB’s analytical business in Quebec, Canada, has served this industry for more than 20 years and has provided leading-edge solutions for many high profile industry projects. “Our colleagues in ABB Switzerland will leverage the knowledge gained from our participation in different space programs such as ACE, CrIS, GOSAT, Envisat and many others.
With over 35 years of scientific and technological innovations, ABB’s analytics business is considered a leader in high technology in Quebec City as well as a world leader in the Space Industry for its space optical heritage, expertise and reliability.” said Jean-René Roy, General Manager for ABBs analytical business in Quebec City, Canada.
ABB has the expertise and capabilities to efficiently serve customers interested in remote sensing aerospace applications. ABB developed instruments for several space missions, such as the Canadian Space Agency’s SciSAT which includes an ABB-built spectrometer payload that has been in operation since 2003.
ABB also built the interferometer module and calibration source of the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) for the US National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. ABB has participated in several European missions and programs such as Envisat, Aeolus and Earth Explorer. The most recent space hardware is the GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite) interferometer. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the satellite, renamed “IBUKI”, in January 2009.
ABB designs, manufactures and markets high-performance analytical systems, as well as spectroradiometers used in petroleum, chemical, life science academic, semiconductors and remote sensing/aerospace applications. More product information is available online at www.abb.com/analytical.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs approximately 120,000 people.