We love the rain – and forecast it very precisely
Meet ESA BIC Sud France start-up Rain HD at ESA’s Business Applications Annual Conference SMART SPACE in Toulouse 3-5 June and hear how they measure rain fall and predict very exactly rain forecast by use of novel technology and TV satellites.
“We are able to make rainfall measurements over an area with an accuracy of 500 meters and by the minute,” explains Ruben Hallali, co-founder and CEO of HD Rain, start-up hosted at ESA BIC Sud France.
“For developed countries, we bring high resolution, fast deploying systems and improve radar coverage. In developing countries, we propose affordable and easy to deploy solution which are robust and easy maintainable.”
ESA BIC start-up give you high resolution rain forecast
HD Rain offers an AI and machine-learning solution based on rainfall measurements and forecasts with high resolution and low-infrastructure costs. Subscriptions are offered for any economic activities dependent on weather risks, typically agriculture and insurance companies. In particular, the solution is very attractive to the 80% of the countries over the world which have currently no means of measuring rainfall.
Prototypes are deployed and already operating in Toulouse in France, at Manaus in Brazil and at Peyragudes in the French Pyrenees.
The technology is based on the fact that rainfall attenuates the signal – the electromagnetic waves – transmitted from TV broadcast geosynchronous satellites.
Rain HD has developed a low-cost sensor which opportunistically measures rainfall through its influence on waves coming from the TV-satellites.
By deploying a network of sensors and couple this with dedicated algorithms, allows for measuring and anticipating rainfall for up to 2 hours in advance in a given covered area. The system can produce accurate weather maps minute-by-minute with a 500 meters accuracy.
Rain HD Services
The start-up has identified the following key services their system can provide:
- Early Warning Service: Weather Alerts in case of heavy rain or flash flood events.
- Water Resource Management especially for the agriculture sector.
- Rainfall Monitoring especially for climate change studies or insurance market.
Initially, the start-up is targeting the agriculture and insurance market.
HD Rain technology benefits
- Rainfall measurements (500m, 1min)
- Able to anticipate up to 2 hours in advance the arrival of rainfall
- Accurate monitoring of rainfall
- No waves emission
- Low installation costs for solutions with same performances. e.g. by weather radars
- Easy to install, <2 months)
Rain HD team
The Rain HD start-up team supported at ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Sud France is composed of Ruben Hallali (CEO), François Mercier (CTO), Duminda Ratnayake (Hardware Lead Architect) and Laura Klotz (Business Developer).
They are hosted and supported by ESA Business Incubation Centre Sud France.
Meet the Rain HD entrepreneurs at ESA’s Business Applications Annual Conference SMART SPACE in Toulouse, France, 3- 5 June 2019, where they are available to present and discuss their system and services.
SMART SPACE
Your Business Powered by Space
The 9th edition of ESA’s Business Applications Annual Conference SMART SPACE is jointly hosted by ESA Space Solutions, as well as CNES, in Toulouse (France) on 3rd – 5th June 2019.
The conference will bringing together agencies, industry, users, experts, entrepreneurs and investors to foster partnerships and inspire new ideas.
Thematic sessions focusing on smart finance, smart technologies, smart mobility, new space economy, smart health and smart resources.
Attend to find out about the latest developments in satellite applications, meet with technical and business experts, and create new contacts and exchange ideas with other attendees. Be inspired by demonstrations of successful services enabled by space and learn about funding and support opportunities from ESA and CNES.
ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions
ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions programme has a network of 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres, 15 ESA Innovation Partners and 14 ESA Ambassadors throughout Europe. It co-funds projects and start-ups, while also offering technical and business support to companies that seek to deliver rapid innovation and to raise private investment.
Overall ESA spends €400 million a year on strengthening the competitiveness of European and Canadian companies in the global markets for both satellite communications andr downstream applications.
ESA BICs - World's largest ecosystem for space-related entrepreneurship
The ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC ) Sud France was founded in 2013 and it part of the wider network of 20 ESA BICs throughput Europe.
The 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) form the largest ecosystem in the world for space-related entrepreneurship and have fostered over 700 start-ups throughout Europe. Spread across some 60 cities in 17 countries, more than 300 start-ups are currently under the two-year business incubation development booster programme.
The centres offer complete access to all aspects of space-related innovation, technology and intellectual properties and is a gateway to ESA and European space research and developments. Located in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and UK, with more to open, over 700 start-ups have been fostered and another 180 new start-ups are taken in yearly to be supported under the two-years business development booster programme.
