scholarly journals Long-term Preservation of Earth Observation Data and Knowledge in ESA through CASPAR

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Albani ◽  
David Giaretta

ESA-ESRIN, the European Space Agency Centre for Earth Observation (EO), is the largest European EO data provider and operates as the reference European centre for EO payload data exploitation. EO Space Missions provide global coverage of the Earth across both space and time generating on a routine continuous basis huge amounts of data (from a variety of sensors) that need to be acquired, processed, elaborated, appraised and archived by dedicated systems. Long-term Preservation of these data and of the ability to discover, access and process them is a fundamental issue and a major challenge at programmatic, technological and operational levels.Moreover these data are essential for scientists needing broad series of data covering long time periods and from many sources. They are used for many types of investigations including ones of international importance such as the study of the Global Change and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Program. Therefore it is of primary importance not only to guarantee easy accessibility of historical data but also to ensure users are able to understand and use them; in fact data interpretation can be even more complicated given the fact that scientists may not have (or may not have access to) the right knowledge to interpret these data correctly.To satisfy these requirements, the European Space Agency (ESA), in addition to other internal initiatives, is participating in several EU-funded projects such as CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic, and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval), which is building a framework to support the end-to-end preservation lifecycle for digital information, based on the OAIS reference model, with a strong focus on the preservation of the knowledge associated with data.In the CASPAR Project ESA plays the role of both user and infrastructure provider for one of the scientific testbeds, putting into effect dedicated scenarios with the aim of validating the CASPAR solutions in the Earth Science domain. The other testbeds are in the domains of Cultural Heritage and of Contemporary Performing Arts; together they provide a severe test of preservation tools and techniques.In the context of the current ESA overall strategies carried out in collaboration with European EO data owners/providers, entities and institutions which have the objective of guaranteeing long-term preservation of EO data and knowledge, this paper will focus on the ESA participation and contribution to the CASPAR Project, describing in detail the implementation of the ESA scientific testbed.

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 7899-7956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Su ◽  
W. Dorigo ◽  
D. Fernández-Prieto ◽  
M. Van Helvoirt ◽  
K. Hungershoefer ◽  
...  

Abstract. Observing and monitoring the different components of the global water cycle and their dynamics are essential steps to understand the climate of the Earth, forecast the weather, predict natural disasters like floods and droughts, and improve water resources management. Earth observation technology is a unique tool to provide a global understanding of many of the essential variables governing the water cycle and monitor their evolution over time from global to basin scales. In the coming years an increasing number of Earth observation missions will provide an unprecedented capacity to quantify several of these variables on a routine basis. In this context, the European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), launched the Water Cycle Multi-Mission Observation Strategy (WACMOS) project in 2009. The project aims at developing and validating a novel set of geo-information products relevant to the water cycle covering the following thematic areas: evapotranspiration, soil moisture, cloud characterization and water vapour. The generation of these products is based on a number of innovative techniques and methods aiming at exploiting the synergies of different types of Earth observation data available today to the science community. This paper provides an overview of the major findings of the project with the ultimate goal of demonstrating the potential of innovative multi-mission based strategies to improve current observations by maximizing the synergistic use of the different types of information provided by the currently available observation systems.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
Eicher, A

Our goal is to establish the earth observation data in the business world Unser Ziel ist es, die Erdbeobachtungsdaten in der Geschäftswelt zu etablieren


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
A. F. Purkhauser ◽  
J. A. Koch ◽  
R. Pail

Abstract The GRACE mission has demonstrated a tremendous potential for observing mass changes in the Earth system from space for climate research and the observation of climate change. Future mission should on the one hand extend the already existing time series and also provide higher spatial and temporal resolution that is required to fulfil all needs placed on a future mission. To analyse the applicability of such a Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) concept regarding hydrological applications, two GRACE-FO-type pairs in Bender formation are analysed. The numerical closed loop simulations with a realistic noise assumption are based on the short arc approach and make use of the Wiese approach, enabling a self-de-aliasing of high-frequency atmospheric and oceanic signals, and a NRT approach for a short latency. Numerical simulations for future gravity mission concepts are based on geophysical models, representing the time-variable gravity field. First tests regarding the usability of the hydrology component contained in the Earth System Model (ESM) by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the analysis regarding a possible flood monitoring and detection showed a clear signal in a third of the analysed flood cases. Our analysis of selected cases found that detection of floods was clearly possible with the reconstructed AOHIS/HIS signal in 20% of the tested examples, while in 40% of the cases a peak was visible but not clearly recognisable.


2021 ◽  
Vol 217 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Mangano ◽  
Melinda Dósa ◽  
Markus Fränz ◽  
Anna Milillo ◽  
Joana S. Oliveira ◽  
...  

AbstractThe dual spacecraft mission BepiColombo is the first joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore the planet Mercury. BepiColombo was launched from Kourou (French Guiana) on October 20th, 2018, in its packed configuration including two spacecraft, a transfer module, and a sunshield. BepiColombo cruise trajectory is a long journey into the inner heliosphere, and it includes one flyby of the Earth (in April 2020), two of Venus (in October 2020 and August 2021), and six of Mercury (starting from 2021), before orbit insertion in December 2025. A big part of the mission instruments will be fully operational during the mission cruise phase, allowing unprecedented investigation of the different environments that will encounter during the 7-years long cruise. The present paper reviews all the planetary flybys and some interesting cruise configurations. Additional scientific research that will emerge in the coming years is also discussed, including the instruments that can contribute.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the long-term preservation challenges that the Swedish private archives are faced with. In as much as they offer a complement to the public archives and hence offer a nuanced national narrative, they lack both financial and human resources to effectively deal with the digital information management environment. Design/methodology/approach Participatory Action Research (PAR) was used to identify the challenges of long-term preservation together with the six private archives institutions that were involved in the collaboration. The collaboration was financially facilitated by the Södertörn University. PAR is defined as a systematic investigation, with the collaboration of those affected by the issue being studied, for the purposes of education and taking action or effecting social change. What is distinctive of PAR is the active involvement of people whose lives are affected by the phenomenon under study. Findings The private archival institutions face long-term preservation challenges such as lack of a digital repository that would facilitate the capture, organization and management of digital records that are of different formats and in a dispersed environment. There are no stringent legal requirements to facilitate the creation and management of the records in a standardized way and the institutions fear that imposing such requirements might deter their clients from depositing archival materials with them. The institutions will also need to espouse the business-oriented archival descriptions where private organizations are concerned to identify relevant archival materials and to promote participatory archival descriptions that would allow the creators to tag their records with metadata. Digital information requires a proactive approach, that is, planning for the long-term preservation of the information before it is created. Private archives need to invest in education packages that will facilitate their clientele’s understanding of the challenges of digital long-term preservation. Research limitations/implications The findings cannot be generalized to all private archival institutions, as it was only six institutions that participated, but the issues discussed are relevant to most archival institutions. Practical implications A lot of research has been carried out in the area of long-term preservation, but researchers have not paid enough attention to the woes of the private archives. To sustain a nuanced national narrative, the private archives need all the support to be able to live up to their mission of preserving archives of the private sector that are not captured by the public archival institutions. This is important in a pluralistic society such as Sweden. Highlighting the challenges might enable the institutions to work towards finding common challenges. Social implications The private archives are part of Sweden’s national heritage. Their preservation matters to the society as a whole and to enhancing the voices of the underrepresented. Originality/value The literature review revealed that not much research has paid attention to the challenges being faced by the private archives. This paper, therefore, contributes to this knowledge gap.


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