(Reuters) - A eu satellite beamed photographs to earth applying new laser-dependent communications technologies on Friday, opening how for uninterrupted and around instantaneous viewing of natural disasters staying sent to governments and aid agencies.

The pictures had been a exam of a 450 million euro ($562 million) Place details freeway staying built. Named European Facts Relay Satellite (EDRS), it enables speedier and safer transmission of huge quantities of data, such as pics and radar pictures, to and from earth.

It's noticed as notably valuable for monitoring flood and earthquake destruction in genuine time.

"At present, a satellite downloads the data that it acquires Every time it really is inside watch of one of 4 floor stations on the planet," Josef Aschbacher, head of the ecu Space Company's (ESA) Earth Observation Method Arranging & Coordination Service, advised Reuters forward of Friday's transmission.

"Meaning there could be intervals of forty five to 90 minutes within the visibility of one station to a different," he explained.

When concluded, EDRS will do away with these kinds of blind places by utilizing two satellites - to generally be introduced in 2015 and 2016 and equipped with laser technological know-how - to deliver details to and from Earth or involving satellites in a fee of 1.eight Gigabits for each second.

That's about comparable to sending all the info that would be printed inside a one-meter lengthy shelf of textbooks in one 2nd, As outlined by generally approved marketplace actions.

EDRS will also supply encryption for more secure transmissions, and will make Europe much less dependent on floor stations abroad to obtain satellite data.

In Friday's transmission, a satellite released as part of Europe's Copernicus task in April, Sentinel-1a, despatched images across a length of 36,000 kms (22,369 miles) to Inmarsat's communications satellite Alphasat, which relayed the sign to earth.

The demonstration of the new technological know-how is key to obtaining the European Fee's go-forward with the House company to indication an arrangement creating Airbus device Astrium the operator of EDRS forward of a Dec. 22 deadline.

EDRS will afterwards relay facts on sea ice, oil spills or floods through the multi-billion euro Copernicus earth observation undertaking, but its services will even be available to other having to pay prospects.