Next generation along track scanning radiometer - SLSTR

The Baltic Sea is subject to various European environmental regulations which aim at securing its long-term protection. This will be achieved by the accompanying monitoring programmes associated with, for example, the HELCOM convention, the EC water framework directive, the natura 2000 Directives and the upcoming European maritime policy, to name the most important regulatory policies. These monitoring programmes demand large scale, frequent and accurate measurements of physical, biological and chemical parameters. GMES (global monitoring for environment and security) is a major activity of the European Union and Commission which aims at providing operational services by making the best use of spaceborne earth observation data, in-situ observations and models. MarCoast is the GMES service element project addressing the marine environment and is funded by the European space agency. MarCoast is providing marine and coastal services for international, regional and national end users. The project is driven solely by these end users, which include mainly public bodies in charge of the marine environment, such as, for example, the European environmental agency (EEA), the European maritime security agency (EMSA) or the German federal and maritime hydrographic agency (BSH). The MarCoast service portfolio includes oil spill detection and polluter identification as well as water quality products and services. The latter comprises monitoring the water quality with respect to European regulations as above, monitoring and alerting of algal blooms and the monitoring of large scale water quality indicators. The production chain of MarCoast begins with ENVISAT MERIS and Aqua MODIS data for the ocean colour products and AATSR data for sea surface temperature. The satellite data are downloaded from the space agencies and routinely processed to provide basic data sets of key parameters on a common grid. A merged MODIS and MERIS data product is produced at 1km. MERIS Full Resolution data (300m) complement the basic data. The service providers combine the basic data with in-situ data, integrate them into forecasting models or perform data analysis and statistical evaluation. Validation plays a key role for the acceptance of the satellite derived products by the end users. The accuracy of the products and the reliability of the service are regularly evaluated by the Validation Bureau, which is an independent entity within the project.

Sentinel-2: ESA's Optical High-Resolution Mission for GMES Operational Services

The objective of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is to provide, on a sustained basis, reliable and timely services related to environmental and security issues in support of public policy makers' needs. MyOcean is the implementation project of the GMES Marine Core Service (MCS), aiming at deploying the first concerted and integrated pan-European capacity for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting (www.myocean.eu.org). MyOcean develops upgraded European capabilities for reference marine information and provides a wide range of key ocean indicators. The MCS provides information to intermediate users who combine it with other forms of information and data to provide customized downstream services for end users. The end users range from wide public to special target groups. Downstream marine services in Estonia are built on in-situ real time and near real time measurements, satellite remote sensing imagery and numerical modeling. Two-day marine forecasts for the North-Eastern Baltic Sea are produced by 3D circulation model HIROMB-EST. The downstream service portfolio consists of following items. Real time sea level observations including history and two-day forecasts on 12 locations around the Estonian coast are available in the Internet. Sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity are complimented with near real time ferry-box observations on the cross-section between Tallinn and Helsinki. During cloud free sky SST charts are produced using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) imagery for the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga. Illegal oil spills are detected from SAR imagery. The drift of the slick is simulated by Seatrack-Web and potential polluters are identified combining Seatrack Web and the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The monitoring of suspended particulate matter during harbor dredging is based on MODIS and MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) data. The laboratory analyses of water samples are used for the calibration and validation of satellite products. The in situ measurements of vertical profiles of absorption and attenuation coefficients are used to determine the profiles of particle origin, concentration and size distribution. Operational ice extent monitoring using SAR data is rather widespread. Optical remote sensing imagery from MODIS and MERIS sensors complement SAR imagery. Ice concentration maps are produced using the histogram analysis of MODIS 250 m reflectance data. This data is used for model evaluation with the purpose to get reliable ice forecast from the HIROMMB-EST model. Spectral optical remote sensing data from MERIS helps to identify different ice types. The determination of high spatial resolution marine and coastal wind from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) is quite a novel application in the Estonian waters. Wind field data can be retrieved from ASAR C-band data and model results using CMOD algorithm.

A web-based distributed system for monitoring and forecasting of the marine environment has been developed in line with INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe (INSPIRE) and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) recommendations for a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). This system, called DISPRO, enables integration and distribution of multi-source data from satellites, aircraft, and in situ instruments, as well as results from numerical models. Geographic data and metadata are stored on a set of distributed computer nodes and retrieved and integrated by a web GIS client by means of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Server (WMS) technologies. A profile of ISO 19115 was developed for metadata handling, using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a platform independent encoding mechanism. DISPRO has been demonstrated in six European coastal zone and ocean regions in the spring and summer of 2005. The overall positive experiences of both service providers and end users indicate that the system should be further developed into an operational GMES service.

Strategic discussions among EEA member countries and the main EU institutions responsible for environmental policy, reporting and assessment have underlined an increasing need for quantitative information on the state of the environment based on timely, quality-assured data, concerning in particular land cover and land use. Based on these requirements EEA is collaborating since 2006 with the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) on the implementation of a fast track service on land monitoring in line with the communication: “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): From Concept to Reality” [1]. CORINE Land Cover 2006 is the third European Land Cover inventory (1990, 2000 and 2006). The number of participating countries is increasing, at present being 39. The project is co-financed by the EEA and the member countries, and covers 5.8 Mkm2. Results will be freely available on the Internet. A Technical Team working under the ETC-LUSI (European Topic Centre Land Use and Spatial Information) is responsible for technical follow-up of the project, i.e. training of national teams and verification of results. National teams use multi-temporal SPOT-4/5 and IRS-P6 imagery to derive the minimum 5 ha land cover changes that occurred between 2000 and 2006. Particular emphasis is placed on mapping the real change processes. National teams usually have access to recent topographic maps and high-resolution digital orthophotos as in-situ data. CLC2006 is produced by combining CLC2000 and CLC-Changes in a GIS.

Atmospheric pollution due to carbon dioxide emission from different fossil fuels and deforestations are considered as a great and important international challenge to the societies. This study is to investigate carbon dioxide (CO2) distributions in selected points in Nigeria using neural network. Neural network model were used to estimate daily values of carbon dioxide, study spatial temporal variations of carbon dioxide, and study the annual variations of estimated and observed carbon dioxide in Nigeria. The study areas used in this work are thirty six (36) points location over Nigeria. The data used in this work is a satellite carbon dioxide () data were obtained from Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) under the programme of Monitoring Atmospheric Composition And Climate (MACC) www.gmes-atmosphere.eu/data between 2009-2014. The neural network architecture used comprises of three main layers; an input layer, a hidden layer and an output layer. Four input data were considered which include year, day of year (DOY) representing the time, latitude and longitude. Twenty hidden neurons were employed, while the output is the desired data of carbon dioxide. The results show that the increase in trend of CO2 in dry season in every part of the country is on yearly bases. In the wet season, the concentration of CO2 in Nigeria is not as much as in the dry season case, probably due to absorption of the gas by precipitation. The continuous annual increase of CO2 distribution suggests continuous increase of the greenhouse gas in Nigeria. This reveals continuous contribution of CO2 in Nigeria. The similarity in the estimated and observed signatures reveals that neural network model performance were excellent and efficient in determination of spatial distribution of CO2, thereby proving to be useful tool in modeling the greenhouse gases. The results show that neural network model has the capacity of investigating greenhouse gases variations in Nigeria.

Socio‐Economic Benefits From the Use of Earth Observation; Ispra, Italy, 11–13 July 2011 Many large space‐or ground‐based Earth observation systems, such as Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Landsat, are justified by citing their benefits to scientific knowledge and their impacts on government decisions about environmental issues. These justifications attempt to quantify the lives saved, losses avoided, or economic benefits gained. Each justification is made on an ad hoc basis, and the approach used in one case rarely applies to another. In July 2011 a workshop was held at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy to consider whether broadly applicable methodologies could be developed that could be consistently used for assessing the value of large‐scale observation and information systems.

A global climate observation system is essential to improve our understanding of the climate system and our ability to anticipate trends. This article addresses the criteria that such a system must meet, and the range of observation techniques which must be implemented. Observations collected by satellite must be calibrated, validated and supplemented by surface and subsurface measurements in the atmosphere, the ocean and on land. All these observations need to be used in conjunction with numerical models and data distribution networks, and maintained in a complex of centres for archiving and reprocessing of environmental data. A global effort is required to meet these challenges, based on intensive international cooperation. The article describes activities in Europe and elsewhere, among them the World Weather Watch of WMO, the European initiative GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), and particularly the GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), developed in the intergovernmental framework of GEO (Group on Earth Observations) to overcome obstacles of all kinds and achieve the objectives of a global climate observing system.

The demand for the rapid provision of EO products with well-defined characteristics in terms of temporal, spatial, image-specific and thematic criteria is increasing. Examples are products to support near real-time damage assessment after a natural disaster event, e.g. an earthquake. However, beyond the organizational and economic questions, there are technological and systemic barriers to enable a comfortable search, order, delivery or even combination of EO products. Most portals of space agencies and EO product providers require sophisticated satellite and product knowledge and, even worse, are all different and not interoperable. This paper gives an overview about the use cases and the architectural solutions that aim at an open and flexible EO mission infrastructure with application-oriented user interfaces and well-defined service interfaces based upon open standards. It presents corresponding international initiatives such as INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community), GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) and HMA (Heterogeneous Missions Accessibility) and their associated infrastructure approaches. The paper presents a corresponding analysis and design methodology and two examples how such architectures are already successfully used in early warning systems for geo-hazards and toolsets for environmentallyinduced health risks. Finally, the paper concludes with an outlook how these ideas relate to the vision of the Future Internet.

A new European Space Policy (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/space/off_docs_en.html) that is intended to coordinate space activities undertaken by the European Space Agency, European Union, and member nations has been adopted by representatives of these entities. Earth observation is one of the key applications identified in the policy, particularly the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, which is intended to coordinate and prepare satellite and ground‐based data for end‐users. Other key applications include development of the GALILEO satellite navigation system, satellite communications, and security and defense.

In the frame of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program ESA is currently implementing the Sentinel-3 mission [3], [4]. It is designed as a constellation of two identical polar orbiting satellites, separated by 180 deg, for the provision of long-term operational marine and land monitoring services. These services include the generation of land and ocean colour products, sea and land surface temperature, vegetation products and sea, ice and land surface topography. With a planned launch in 2013 of the first satellite, the Sentinel-3 mission will provide valuable information for scientists and policy makers in the European Union and its Member States for the next decades. The operational character of this mission implies a high level of availability of the data products and fast delivery time, which have been important design drivers for the mission.

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme main objective is to support Europe’s goals regarding sustainable development and global governance of the environment by providing timely and quality data, information, services and knowledge. To achieve this objective, the GMES programme features a Space Segment component comprising five Sentinels mission families. Scheduled for launch in 2012 and 2013, Sentinels 1, 2 and 3 represent the first step in the deployment of the GMES Space Segment. They are regarded as operational missions and as such require a high degree of reliability and availability also at the level of the ground segment while minimising the operational effort associated to the routine mission phase. This paper will describe the Operational Concept applied across the 3 missions highlighting the innovative aspects, in particular the automated payload mission planning and handling of user emergency orders. In addition, the approach applied for supporting TT&C station scheduling and orbit maintenance activities will be presented. Finally, a summary of the overall ground segment will be provided and the Sentinels Flight Operations Segment specific facilities, based on extensive use of ESA/ESOC ground software infrastructure, presented.

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme main objective is to support Europe’s goals regarding sustainable development and global governance of the environment by providing timely and quality data, information, services and knowledge. To achieve this objective, the GMES programme features a Space Segment component comprising five Sentinels mission families. Scheduled for launch in 2011 and 2012, Sentinels 1, 2 and 3 represent the first step in the deployment of the GMES Space Segment. They are regarded as operational missions and as such require a high degree of reliability and availability also at the level of the ground segment while minimising the operational effort associated to the routine mission phase. This paper will describe the assumptions and constraints driving the definition of the GMES-Sentinels Flight Operations Segment (FOS). The resulting Operational Concept applied across the 3 missions will be summarised highlighting the innovative aspects, in particular the automated payload mission planning based on Orbit Position scheduled telecommands. Finally, a summary of the overall ground segment will be provided and the Sentinels FOS specific facilities, based on extensive use of ESOC ground software infrastructure, presented.

Analysis of along track scanning radiometer-2 (ATSR-2) data for clouds, glint and sea surface temperature using neural networks

During the period from October 1991 to May 1992 the royal research ship Bransfield made its annual voyage from the United Kingdom to Antarctica and back. Whenever the measurement swath of the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on the ERS-1 satellite passed over the ship, the in situ skin and bulk sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were measured as well as profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity. A total of seven cases were obtained where surface observations indicated cloud-free conditions during a satellite overpass. All the cases were in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean between 37°N and 45°S. The SSTs obtained from the ATSR nadir-view brightness temperatures were all colder than the skin SST by more than 0.5 K. The use of dual-view data made the agreement with the in situ measurements better in all but one case. In two cases agreement to better than 0.3 K could be obtained between the skin and ATSR SST when the dual-view brightness temperatures were used. In the other cases the results were poorer for a variety of reasons, including subpixel cloud contamination, anomalous atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, and the presence of stratospheric aerosol in the Tropics following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991. The cold bias of the ATSR SSTs is in agreement with results obtained from an aircraft-mounted infrared radiometer. This work has shown the need for regionally tuned SST algorithms rather than ones based on broad climatic zones, along with coefficients for different types of air mass within each latitude band.