ESA’s Campaign Activities in Support of Earth Observation Projects: A focus on validation

In the framework of its Earth Observation Programmes the European Space Agency (ESA) carries out ground based and airborne campaigns to support geophysical algorithm developments, calibration/validation activities, simulation of future space-borne earth observation missions, as well as application developments related to remote sensing of the atmosphere, land, oceans, solid earth and cryosphere.ESA has conducted over 150 airborne and ground based measurement campaigns in the last 37 years, of which more than 80 were carried out since 2005. During this period a large number of campaigns have supported the validation of ESA&#8217;s satellite missions including for example SMOS and CryoSat. Ongoing activities are focusing on e.g. Sentinel-5Precursor and the preparation of upcoming Earth Explorer missions such as BIOMASS, FLEX, and FORUM. These validation campaigns aim to provide fundamental information about the confidence of data products and their required uncertainties One challenge in this context is a comprehensive understanding and characterization of measurement uncertainty of the validation dataset and the spatial and temporal support or representativity of these.We will provide an overview of applied strategies to tackle these aspects for existing satellite missions and outline concepts for future missions, and how these integrate into broader earth observation science strategies. In addition, we will highlight recent activities and outline planned activities for the coming years.&#160;

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Earth Observation Actionable Information Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts in a Sustainable Development Framework

10.20944/preprints201811.0157.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alberto Lorenzo-Alonso ◽

Marino Palacios ◽

Ángel Utanda

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Risk Reduction ◽

Disaster Risk Reduction ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Disaster Risk ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Ancillary Data ◽

Development Framework ◽

Space Agency ◽

Key Factor

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a high priority on the agenda of main stakeholders involved in sustainable development and Earth Observation (EO) can provide useful, timely and economical information in this context. This short communication outlines the European Space Agency’s (ESA) specific initiative to promote the use and uptake of satellite data in the global development community: ‘Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD)’. One activity area under EO4SD is devoted to Disaster Risk Reduction: EO4SD DRR. Within this project, a team of European companies and institutions are tasked to develop EO services for supporting the implementation of DRR in International Financial Institutions’ (IFI) projects. Integration of satellite-borne data and ancillary data to generate insight and actionable information is thereby considered a key factor for improved decision making. To understand and fully account for the essential user requirements (IFI & Client States), engagement with technical leaders is crucial. Fit-for-purpose use of data and comprehensive capacity building eventually ensure scalability and long-term transferability. Future perspectives of EO4SD and DRR regarding mainstreaming are also highlighted.

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Galileo Case Study

Designing, Engineering, and Analyzing Reliable and Efficient Software ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2958-5.ch015 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 251-282

Author(s):

Aggelos Liapis ◽

Evangelos Argyzoudis

Keyword(s):

Data Exchange ◽

Collaborative Work ◽

Effective Interaction ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Space Missions ◽

Working Environment ◽

Task Forces ◽

Space Agency ◽

Future Space ◽

Collaborative Working

The Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) of the European Space Agency (ESA) allows a team of experts from several disciplines to apply concurrent engineering for the design of future space missions. It facilitates faster and effective interaction of all disciplines involved, ensuring consistent and high-quality results. It is primarily used to assess the technical and financial feasibility of future space missions and new spacecraft concepts, though for some projects, the facilities and the data exchange model are used during later phases. This chapter focuses on the field of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) and its supporting areas whose mission is to support interaction between people, using computers as the enabling technology. Its aim is to present the design and implementation framework of a semantically driven, collaborative working environment (CWE) that allows ESA’s CDF to be used by projects more extensively and effectively during project meetings, task forces, and reviews.

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Combining ExoMars’ Ma_MISS and Drill data

10.5194/epsc2020-882 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandro Frigeri ◽

Maria Cristina De Sanctis ◽

Francesca Altieri ◽

Simone De Angelis ◽

Marco Ferrari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Water Content ◽

Large Scale ◽

Mechanical Response ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Volcanic Rocks ◽

Space Agency ◽

Geophysical Imaging

The ExoMars Rover and Surface Platform planned for launch in 2022 is a large international cooperation between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos with a scientific contribution from NASA.&#160; Thales Alenia Space is the ExoMars mission industrial prime contractor.&#160; Besides sensors and instruments characterizing the surface at large scale, the ExoMars&#8217; rover Rosalind Franklin payload features some experiments devoted specifically to the characterization of the first few meters of the Martian subsurface. These experiments are particularly critical for the main ExoMars objective of detecting traces of present or past life forms on Mars, which may have been preserved within the shallow Martian underground [1]. Rosalind Franklin will be able to perform both non-invasive geophysical imaging of the underground [2] and subsurface in situ measurements thanks to the Drill unit installed on the rover. The Drill has been developed by Leonardo and its purposes are 1) to collect core samples to be analyzed in the Analytical Laboratory Drawer (ALD) onboard the Rover and 2) to drive the miniaturized spectrometer Ma_MISS within the borehole.&#160;&#160;&#160; Ma_MISS (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies, [3]) will collect mineralogic measurements from the rocks exposed into the borehole created by the Drill with a spatial resolution of 120 &#956;m down to 2 meters into the Martian subsurface. Rocks are composed of grains of minerals, and their reaction to an applied stress is related to the mechanical behavior of the minerals that compose the rock itself. The mechanical properties of a mineral depend mainly on the strength of the chemical bonds, the orientation of crystals, and the number of impurities in the crystal lattice. In this context, the integration of Ma_MISS measurements and drill telemetry are of great importance.&#160; The mechanical properties of rocks coupled with their mineralogic composition provide a rich source of information to characterize the nature of rocks being explored by ExoMars rover&#8217;s drilling activity. Within our study, we are starting to collect telemetry recorded during the Drill unit tests on several samples ranging from sedimentary to volcanic rocks with varying degrees of weathering and water content.&#160; In this first phase of the study, we focused our attention on the variation of torque and penetration speed between different samples, which have been found to be indicative of a particular type of rock or group of rocks and their water content.&#160;&#160; We are planning to analyze the same rocks with the Ma_MISS breadboard creating the link between the mineralogy and the mechanical response of the Drill.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; This will put the base for a more comprehensive and rich characterization of the in situ subsurface observation by Rosalind Franklin planned at Oxia Planum, Mars in 2023.&#160; &#160; Acknowledgments: We thank the European Space Agency (ESA) for developing the ExoMars Project, ROSCOSMOS and Thales Alenia Space for rover development, and Italian Space Agency (ASI) for funding the Ma_MISS experiment (ASI-INAF contract n.2017-48-H.0 for ExoMars MA_MISS phase E/science). &#160; References [1] Vago et al., 2017. Astrobiology, 17 6-7. [2] Ciarletti et al., 2017. Astrobiology, 17 6-7. [3] De Sanctis et al., 2017. Astrobiology, 17 6-7.

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The plans of the European Space Agency for earth observation

Advances in Space Research ◽

10.1016/0273-1177(91)90421-f ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 191-199

Author(s):

C.J. Readings

Keyword(s):

European Space Agency ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Space Agency

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

International Journal of Digital Curation ◽

10.2218/ijdc.v4i3.127 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 4-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Sergio Albani ◽

David Giaretta

Keyword(s):

Performing Arts ◽

Reference Model ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Observation Data ◽

Digital Information ◽

The Earth ◽

Space Agency ◽

Long Term Preservation

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.

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An Action Plan Towards Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Altimetry

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11171993 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (17) ◽

pp. 1993 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Mertikas ◽

Donlon ◽

Vuilleumier ◽

Cullen ◽

Féménias ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Satellite Altimetry ◽

Action Plan ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Space Agency ◽

Historic Record ◽

To Come ◽

Reference Measurements

Satellite altimeters have been producing, as of 1992, an amazing and historic record of sea level changes. As Europe moves into full operational altimetry, it has become imperative that the quality of these monitoring signals with their uncertainties should be controlled, fully and properly descripted, but also traced and connected to undisputable standards and units. Excellent quality is the foundation of these operational services of Europe in altimetry. In line with the above, the strategy of the Fiducial Reference Measurements for Altimetry (FRM4ALT) has been introduced to address and to achieve reliable, long-term, consistent, and undisputable satellite altimetry products for Earth observation and for sea-level change monitoring. FRM4ALT has been introduced and implemented by the European Space Agency in an effort to reach a uniform and absolute standardization for calibrating satellite altimeters. This paper examines the problem and the need behind the FRM4ALT principle to achieve an objective Earth observation. Secondly, it describes the expected FRM products and services which are to come into being out of this new observational strategy. Thirdly, it outlines the technology and the services required for reaching this goal. And finally, it elaborates upon the necessary resources, skills, partnerships, and facilities for establishing FRM standardization for altimetry.

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Atmospheric Correction Inter-comparison eXercise: the second implementation

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8702 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Georgia Doxani ◽

Eric F. Vermote ◽

Sergii Skakun ◽

Ferran Gascon ◽

Jean-Claude Roger

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

Atmospheric Correction ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Earth Observation ◽

Surface Reflectance ◽

Space Agency ◽

Earth Observation Satellites ◽

Comparison Exercise ◽

International Initiative

The atmospheric correction inter-comparison exercise (ACIX) is an international initiative to benchmark various state-of-the-art atmospheric correction (AC) processors. The first inter-comparison exercise initiated in 2016 with the collaboration of European Space Agency (ESA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the frame of the CEOS WGCV (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, Working Group on Calibration & Validation). The evolution of the participating processors and the increasing interest of AC community to repeat and improve such experiment stimulated the continuation of ACIX and its second implementation (ACIX-II). In particular, 12 AC developer teams from Europe and USA participated in ACIX-II over land sites. In this presentation the benchmarking protocol, i.e. test sites, input data, inter-comparison metrics, etc. will be briefly described and some representative results of ACIX-II will be presented. The inter-comparison outputs varied depending on the sensors, products and sites, demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of the corresponding processors. In continuation of ACIX-I achievements, the outcomes of the second one are expected to provide an enhanced standardised approach to inter-compare AC processing products, i.e. Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT), Water Vapour (WV) and Surface Reflectance (SR), and quantitively assessed their quality when in situ measurements are available.

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