Skip to content

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Europe’s future data-relay satellite system to speed Earth observation imagery to users took a concrete step toward realization on April 13 when system manager Astrium Services formalized an initial contract with satellite builder OHB Technology, Bremen, Germany-based OHB announced.

The contract, valued at 7.4 million euros ($10.4 million), is an authorization for OHB to proceed with designs of a satellite expected to cost about 150 million euros to build, OHB said. It would be launched in 2016 as part of a system that is intended to include a piggyback payload on a commercial telecommunications satellite in geostationary orbit. That satellite has not yet been selected.

The two satellites — a dedicated data-relay spacecraft built by OHB, and the piggyback spacecraft — would both carry laser optical terminals to relay data sent from low-orbiting Earth observation satellites to users on the ground. The terminals will be built by Tesat-Spacecom of Backnang, Germany.

The principal early customers are expected to be the 18-nation European Space Agency (ESA), which is financing the European Data Relay System (EDRS), and the 27-nation European Union, whose Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program features a fleet of Earth observation spacecraft, some of which will also carry laser terminals to send data to the relay satellites in higher geostationary orbit.

ESA officials have said they expect the entire EDRS system to cost nearly 400 million euros, a figure that includes the design, manufacture and launch of the laser terminals, the dedicated satellite and ESA’s share of the launch and operations costs associated with the piggyback payload on a commercial telecommunications satellite.

Astrium Services is expected to contribute about 100 million euros of this sum. In return, it will be paid an annual fee by ESA to provide EDRS services.

RELATED ARTICLES

Astrium Picked To Build and Operate European Data Relay System

ESA and Germany Reach Agreement on Data Relay System

Peter de Selding mailto:pdeselding@gmail.com
Spacenews

After just two years in orbit, ESA’s GOCE satellite has gathered enough data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists now have access to the most accurate model of the ‘geoid’ ever produced to further our understanding of how Earth works.

The new geoid was unveiled today at the Fourth International GOCE User Workshop hosted at the Technische Universität München in Munich, Germany. Media representatives and scientists from around the world have been treated to the best view yet of global gravity.

The geoid is the surface of an ideal global ocean in the absence of tides and currents, shaped only by gravity. It is a crucial reference for measuring ocean circulation, sea-level change and ice dynamics – all affected by climate change.

Prof. Reiner Rummel, former Head of the Institute for Astronomical and Physical Geodesy at the Technische Universität München, said, “We see a continuous stream of excellent GOCE gradiometry data coming in. With each new two-month cycle, our GOCE gravity field model is getting better and better.

“Now the time has come to use GOCE data for science and applications. I am particularly excited about the first oceanographic results.

“They show that GOCE will give us dynamic topography and circulation patterns of the oceans with unprecedented quality and resolution. I am confident that these results will help improve our understanding of the dynamics of world oceans.”

The two-day workshop provides the science community with the latest information on the performance of the satellite and details about data products and user services.

Participants are also discussing how the GOCE geoid will make advances in ocean and climate studies, and improve our understanding of Earth’s internal structure.

For example, the gravity data from GOCE are helping to develop a deeper knowledge of the processes that cause earthquakes, such as the event that recently devastated Japan.

Since this earthquake was caused by tectonic plate movement under the ocean, the motion cannot be observed directly from space. However, earthquakes create signatures in gravity data, which could be used to understand the processes leading to these natural disasters and ultimately help to predict them.

The GOCE satellite was launched in March 2009 and has now collected more than 12-months of gravity data.

Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes said, “Benefiting from a period of exceptional low solar activity, GOCE has been able to stay in low orbit and achieve coverage six weeks ahead of schedule.

“This also means that we still have fuel to continue measuring gravity until the end of 2012, thereby doubling the life of the mission and adding even more precision to the GOCE geoid.”

GOCE has achieved many firsts in Earth observation. Its gradiometer – six highly sensitive accelerometers measuring gravity in 3D – is the first in space.

It orbits at the lowest altitude of any observation satellite to gather the best data on Earth’s gravity. The design of this sleek one-tonne satellite is unique.

In addition, GOCE uses an innovative ion engine that generates tiny forces to compensate for any drag the satellite experiences as it orbits through the remnants of Earth’s atmosphere.

Prof. Liebig added, “You could say that, at its early conception, GOCE was more like science fiction. GOCE has now clearly demonstrated that it is a state-of-the-art mission.”

Rune Floberghagen, ESA’s GOCE Mission Manager, noted “This is a highly significant step for the mission. We now look forward to the coming months, when additional data will add to the accuracy of the GOCE geoid, further benefiting our data users.”

Source

The European Space Agency (ESA) is making land data maps of Europe and Africa available to the public online in near-real time. The maps target land activities that are of particular interest to the agriculture and food-security user communities.

The Culture-MERIS service demonstration, based on data from Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) at a resolution of 300m, is updated every Wednesday with data acquired Monday to Sunday of the previous week.

Users have the possibility to download maps for selected countries or regions for free of charge at:

ftp://culturemeris:culturemeris@ionia2.esrin.esa.int

(User and Password are both ‘culturemeris’)

A Product Description Manual is also available at the above address. This manual includes a chapter on the Data Policy applicable to the Culture-MERIS products.

(Source ESA and GMES.Info)

Earth Remote Sensing and Observation Systems

The ERSOS (Earth Remote Sensing and Observation Systems) Specialized Master (Post-Master Program) is a one-year professional degree course. Our goal is to deliver an international program in the field of Earth observation, Remote Sensing and Observation Systems. ERSOS aims to develop cutting edge (scientific) skills and competences in every stage of the image chain, from the earth’s surface to remotely sensed data products : systems (satellites…), scientific skills (earth remote sensing, image processing, data analysis, …), technological sensors (satellite sensors, cameras, 3D, RADAR, lidar, microwaves…), and international project management. The spectrum of applications is very wide and related to numerous domains. It can be divided into three areas : Environmental Issues (oceanography, sustainable development, forest and water management, etc.), Civil Issues (GIS, Cartography…) and Safety & Security.

More information at

(23 March 2011) An ESA project has recently demonstrated that new ways of processing satellite data can show how different properties of snow can be observed from space.

This new method is expected to lead to a much deeper understanding of the role snow plays in the Earth system.

Snow is a fundamental component of Earth’s energy and water cycles. It plays an important role reflecting solar radiation back out to space, emits heat and holds a significant percentage of the global freshwater budget.

However, over the last 30 years global snow cover has been shrinking owing to climate change. The consequences could be far reaching.

To improve our knowledge of the effect that declining snow cover is having on the Earth system and to understand how water resources from snowmelt are changing, the properties of snow must be studied in more detail.

Since snow affects the exchange of water and energy between the land and atmosphere, having exact values of snow and ice coverage is important for numerical weather forecasting. Also, snowmelt contributes to river discharge and potentially to floods.

Satellite data from radar and optical instruments are routinely used to monitor the extent of ice and snow, but a recent project has taken archive data and applied new algorithms to yield detailed information on the grain size and temperature of snow.

Carried out by Brockmann Consult through ESA’s Earth Observation Support to Science Element (STSE), the Snow Radiance project worked with data collected in 2004 over Greenland.

The project explored the potential of the future Sentinel-3 mission to retrieve snow parameters, resulting in a number of innovative methods and algorithms.

These methods were also tested on existing data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer on ESA’s Envisat satellite.

Olaf Krüger from Brockmann Consult said, “The STSE programme is an excellent initiative to give scientists the opportunity to test fresh and new ideas.

“For the Snow Radiance project, the new algorithms could be partly integrated into ESA’s data processing facility. This demonstrates the usefulness of the project and direct transition from a scientific idea to an operational product.”

The first results obtained for snow and ice mapping on Greenland show that the size of snow grains during summer range from about 0.01 mm to around 2 mm. Larger grain sizes and higher temperatures are found nearer the coast.

These satellite-derived values for grain size compare well with ground-based data collected during field experiments and campaigns. The satellite data also include information on snow and ice coverage, snow temperature and cloud.

The results are encouraging and demonstrate that the new algorithms, based on radiative transfer modelling, could pave the way for routinely acquiring accurate data on snow properties and how they vary over time.

Moreover, it is expected that this new method will lead to more detailed monitoring of mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

This new data processing method will be applied to the Ocean Land Colour Instrument that will be carried on ESA’s Sentinel-3 satellite for Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.

(source: ESA)

Images from ESA website
First results of snow grain size from ESA’s Support to Science Element Snow Radiance project. Reprocessing archive data from Envisat’s MERIS using a new algorithm reveals variations in snow grain size in Greenland for June 2004. (courtesy: Brockmann Consult)
The temperature of Greenland’s snow in June 2004. This new information is a result of ESA’s Support to Science Element Snow Radiance project. Archive data from Envisat’s Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer were reprocessed using a new algorithm to improve our understanding of snow. (courtesy: Brockmann Consult)
In situ measurements of snow properties were taken in Sodankylä and Lake Orajärvi in Finland as part of ESA’s Support to Science Element Snow Radiance project. (courtesy: Finnish Meteorological Institute)

from GEO Group

IMPLEMENTING GEOSS

GEO monitors, analyzes, and distributes data on the Japan disaster
A new GEO Geohazard Supersite on the Tohoku-oki Event was established immediately after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami to aid rescue efforts and advance scientific understanding. Meanwhile, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was activated at the request of the Japanese Cabinet and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). JAXA is distributing updated PALSAR, ScanSAR and FBS data via its FTP site , and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is providing data and data products for use by experts. Continued …

Germany’s national GEO coordination strategy
The German experience confirms that establishing a national GEO structure, with a leading coordinating Ministry, a national Working Group consisting of colleagues from concerned authorities, and a national GEO Secretariat can noticeably improve the effectiveness of GEOSS implementation at the national level as well as a country’s contributions to international efforts. Continued …

Strengthening GEOSS support to climate impacts researchers
Some 60 scientists and experts participated in a three-day workshop in February that focused on how to improve the ability of researchers who study climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to access new and existing multi-disciplinary data and data products. Continued …

Promoting EU engagement in GEOSS
The 5th GEO European Projects Workshop (GEPW-5) took place at the Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, on 8-9 February. It was the latest in a series of workshops designed to foster and enhance European participation within GEO and to increase co-ordination between GEOSS implementation and existing, or future, Earth Observation projects in Europe. Continued …

GEO BON assesses biodiversity monitoring capabilities
The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) convened an International Expert Meeting from 1 to 3 March in Wageningen, The Netherlands, to prepare an “Assessment of the Adequacy of Existing Observation Capabilities for the CBD 2020 Targets”. Continued …

Governments pursue GEO African Water Cycle Coordination Initiative
The 2nd GEOSS African Water Cycle Symposium convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 23 to 25 February to explore plans to develop an “African Water Cycle Coordination Initiative” within the GEO framework. Continued …

Supporting sustainable tourism in the Caribbean
The workshop on “Earth Observation Support for Sustainable Tourism in Small Island States,” held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 9 to 11 March, focused on the specific needs, challenges and capabilities related to sustainable tourism in the small island states of the Caribbean. Continued …

GEO UPDATE

Tajikistan joins GEO
The Republic of Tajikistan became the 86th Member of GEO on 3 March.

Technical review launched for GEO 2012-2015 Work Plan
Version 0 of the next and final GEO Work Plan has been distributed to the GEO community for comment by 26 May. The draft Work Plan, which can be found here, has been designed to fully address the 2015 Strategic Targets; establish an operational and sustainable GEOSS; reinforce coordination, user engagement and resource mobilization; and provide information products and end-to-end services tailored to serve society’s needs across the nine Societal Benefit Areas. All members of the GEO community are invited to send their comments to the Secretariat at secretariat@geosec.org so that the next version of the Plan can be submitted for official review in late June.

CBC addresses regional activities, coordination and networking
The major objectives of the 13th meeting of the Capacity Building Committee were to address follow-up actions from the GEO-VII Plenary and Beijing Ministerial Summit, review and implement the current Work Plan (2009-2011), finalize the CBC Roadmap, consider capacity-building actions for the 2012 -2015 Work Plan, advance the 2010 CBC-UIC Call for Proposals, and coordinate with the Architecture and Data Committee. Continued …

ADC pursues improvements to the GEOSS Common Infrastructure
The 15th meeting of the Architecture and Data Committee, held in Campos do Jordão, Brazil, from 28 February to 3 March, addressed preparations for the 2012-2015 Work Plan, enhancements to the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI), and coordination with the Capacity Building Committee. Continued …

UIC sets priorities for 2011
The 17th meeting of the User Interface Committee, held on 25-28 January, decided on the Committee’s work activities over the coming year and agreed to move forward on user engagement strategies. Continued …

ANNOUNCEMENTS

GEO Work Plan Symposium to focus on 2012-2015 Plan
From 4-6 May in Geneva, the 2011 Work Plan Symposium will advance the development of the 2012-2015 Work Plan. The Symposium will also give participants the opportunity to discuss progress, exchange information, and strengthen coordination across the current 2009-2011 Work Plan. The draft agenda and other information have been posted here

Quality Assurance for Earth Observation (QA4EO) Workshop
The Quality Assurance for Earth Observation (QA4EO) Workshop on Providing Quality Information in Harmonised Earth Observation Data by 2015 will be held from 18 – 20 October 2011 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford, UK. The workshop will present and discuss data quality assurance implementation examples across a wide variety of societal benefit areas. For more information see the brochure

ICIMOD vacancy announcement
ICIMOD/MENRIS is looking for several innovative, talented and enthusiastic people to support the new developments within its programmes. Continued …

On 1 March 2011, the European Commission launched its annual call for proposals to be funded under the LIFE+ programme.

A total of €267 million is available in the form of co-funding for grant agreements. Proposals are welcome under one of the programme’s components, which are three: Nature and Biodiversity, Environment Policy and Governance, and Information and Communication. The deadline for proposals is 18 July 2011.

LIFE+ is the European financial instrument for the environment and has a total budget of €2.143 billion for the period 2007-2013.

Further information is available at:
Life+

Leicester – 8th March 2011: Astrium GEO-Information Services has introduced new marine and coastal geospatial data that is now downloadable from its www.geostore.com store.


New data ideal for environmental protection and planning consultants – or coastal projects such as wind farm exploration.
www.geostore.com provides a one stop shop for digital 3D mapping, aerial photography, lidar height data – and now marine and coastal data

The new data includes the Admiralty Raster Charts, and a new generation of vector data known as Marine Themes that is based on information sourced from the UK Hydrographic Office. Easily accessed online, the new marine and coastal data will be particularly relevant for environmental protection and planning professions in the public sector, as well as for commercial organisations – such as utility companies and other organisations – that are planning offshore wind farms or other coastal projects.

“The availability of new marine and coastal data strengthens our core Geostore offering, and confirms Geostore’s position as the ideal choice for organisations requiring online delivery of critical geospatial information,” said Andrew Stroomer, UK Managing Director, Astrium GEO-Information Services. “These new marine and coastal data sets complement our existing expertise in key offshore applications such as the protection of submarine assets and the provision of offshore oil seepage information.”

In addition to marine and coastal geospatial data, GeoStore provides customers with access to digital terrestrial mapping, aerial imagery and lidar height data. As with all Geostore data products, the new marine and coastal datasets can be fully defined by the customer, providing organisations with the ability to select data on demand – either as an immediate download or even delivered on CD or DVD depending on the amount of data purchased for each application.

The Geostore Marine Themes data comprises authoritative data from the UK and other Hydrographic Offices. It consists of a comprehensive suite of individual marine layers corresponding to important marine features: elevation, shipwrecks and obstructions, transport, industrial facilities, administrative and management units and geographical regions.

This data is ideal for general situation awareness, planning, site selection and investigation, and outline engineering design. It is also applicable for projects where features need to be selectively displayed or interrogated to create derived outputs. Alternatively, it can be used as a reference base for the user’s own data layers. Standard symbology details are provided free of charge allowing for immediate use of the data in GIS.

The new Raster Chart data provide a comprehensive marine map base and is ideal for applications where a set of familiar features and symbology is required for reference or as a backdrop to other datasets. Supplied as separate image files, users can easily load the charts they need and use them directly in their Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

The Europe & Space Series #3, March 2011


The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, launched in 1998 by the European Commission (EC), ESA and national space agencies, is often over-shadowed by what is perceived to be the flagship program of European space, Galileo. As a matter of fact, GMES is just as important, and faces many similar challenges.

The launch of GMES was motivated by comparable strategic goals. First, it will increase Europe’s autonomy, by providing independent access to space data and enabling independent decision-making (GMES will deliver information in six areas: Land, Marine, Atmosphere, Emergency Response, Security and Climate Change). Second, it will strengthen the EU contribution to global knowledge on climate change, as GMES will be the European contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Last but not least, GMES is expected to provide major societal and economic benefits to the EU citizens, in line with the Europe 2020 strategy.

However, unlike Galileo, GMES is more than a space infrastructure. It is conceived as a system of systems, combining existing and future Earth Observation (EO) satellites, airborne sensors and ground stations to provide comprehensive and unified EO data “to better manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security”1. GMES will rely on three components: Space, In-Situ and Services2. As such, GMES is a user-oriented project, aiming at responding to user communities needs.

This paper will focus exclusively on the space-related aspects of GMES. The GMES Space Component (GSC) comprises existing systems such as Spot and Cosmo-Skymed, as well as the future Sentinel series. The procurement contracts for six Sentinels have been awarded3, and the launch contract for the first one was won by Arianespace in December 2010.

As a consequence, GMES is already delivering services, unlike Galileo which relies entirely on the launch of new spacecraft. The GMES pre-operational phase4 was launched in 2008, and the operational phase is expected to start by 2014. In September 2010, a Regulation providing the legal basis for the GMES program and its funding by the EC was adopted for the period of initial operations (2011-2013).5

GMES demonstrates the EU political will to become an international space actor, as well as the difficulties to get there. At structural level, GMES is confronted with governance and funding problems customary to the European Space Policy (ESP) (1). At policy level, the security and commercial implications of GMES remain to be defined (2). However, GMES is also the expression of a strong EU leadership at international level, in particular in the global fight against climate change (3).

Governance and funding issues

GMES is confronted with structural governance and funding obstacles somewhat similar to Galileo’s. The uncertainties surrounding the future of the GMES Space Component illustrate these issues.

A complex governance architecture

The great number and diversity of stakeholders explain the complexity of the GMES governance architecture. Indeed, besides the traditional space actors in Europe (the EC, ESA, national space agencies and EUMETSAT) comes a number of EU agencies6, regions, intergovernmental agencies7 and end users8. The program is also divided in five sequential phases9 that have each a different governance structure. A GMES Bureau was set up in 2006 as a coordination platform to tackle these problems, but it lacks efficiency due to limits in its mandate, resources and institutional settings10. One has to hope that the setting up of the adequate governance scheme for such a complex project will prove to be a progressive and iterative process…

The Regulation adopted in September 2010 to set up the initial GMES operations phase (2011-2013) clarified the governance structure. Most importantly, it confirmed the division of tasks between the EC, who exerts political leadership and holds responsibility for the overall management of the program, and ESA, who will be responsible for technical knowledge and capability of the GSC, relying on EUMETSAT when necessary. The EC will be assisted by a series of management bodies11. At the implementation level, the Space Component is led by ESA, the Service Component is implemented by the EC and the In situ Component is coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

A number of governance issues remain open. The most structural one is the splitting of strategic decisions between ESA and the EC. The two institutions have different decision-making bodies, mechanisms and schedules, which is a hindrance to coordination12. All in all, it seems necessary to strengthen the continuity and the stability of the institutional set-up by defining more precisely, for instance, the role of each stakeholder13. A related and important pending issue is that of the ownership of the Sentinel spacecraft once operational. Let’s also bear in mind that the governance architecture might be modified again once the operational phase starts in 2014 and that a new agreement between the EC and ESA will be needed to specify the attribution of tasks for the operation of the GSC14. All in all, GMES has to be considered as a “test case”: the EU and ESA have to learn working together, and lessons drawn from their cooperation on GMES will certainly be helpful for the overall future evolution of the European space governance.

An incomplete funding strategy

The funding of the program is fully public -and therefore closely linked to governance. So far, €2,3 billion have been spent for the GSC15 (72% by ESA Member States and 28% by the EC) and €500 million for the Service and the In situ Components (by the EC)16. The recent Regulation added a further €107 million for GMES initial operations between 2011 and 2013, as well as €209 million from FP7 for research programs accompanying the initial operations17.

It is clear however, that additional funding will be needed before the beginning of the operational phase in 2014. The GMES Bureau estimates that an annual €819million18 will be necessary to ensure the operational sustainability of GMES.19 While the EC is expected to bear these costs, its constraining financial rules will likely make it difficult to find the money before the beginning of its next Multiannual Financing Framework (MFF) in 2014. This raises the more general problem of elaborating adequate funding solutions for ambitious space programs involving the EU. In its recent mid-term review on Galileo, the EC pointed out the inadequacy of the EU budgetary framework to conduct projects running over several decades20. This statement can be applied to GMES as well. In this perspective, the GMES Regulation urged the EC to submit a long-term financing strategy for the future MFF during the first semester of 2011.

The uncertain future of the GMES Space Component

The difficult building-up of the GSC is a concrete manifestation of the governance and funding hurdles of the program. Contrary to Galileo, the procurement of the hardware went without controversy, as the workload was split between the two main space manufacturers in Europe, EADS and Thales Alenia Space21. However, funding the GSC was a difficult endeavor, given the different procurement rules at ESA and the EC. A specific agreement had to be negotiated between both institutions, imposing some restrictions on procurements22. In addition, ESA made it clear that it will not be able to contribute to the funding of the C series of the Sentinel spacecraft, due to its policy as an R&D-oriented organization funding prototypes and not operational systems23. This could lead to an unbearable cost increase for the EU, and possibly to a gap in the continuity of data and services.

In this context, the central focus put on the GSC (that concentrates 80% of the total funding) might have been detrimental to the user-oriented nature of GMES. As a matter of fact, the lack of an adequate link between the end-users and the actors involved in the technical implementation of the program was identified as a main weakness24. In general, user-governed entities such as EUMETSAT play a key role in the transition of space programs to the operational phase25. As GMES is currently in a pre-operational phase, it could be useful not only to reinforce the role of such entities in the overall governance framework, but also to ensure that the Sentinels are designed to fulfill user requirements. While this aspect has been insufficiently considered until now, putting the end-users at the centre of the game is necessary to ensure both the scientific and commercial success of GMES, as end-users are usually willing to pay for the fulfillment of their requirements.

Commercial and security issues

The setting-up of competitive downstream markets is indeed a contentious issues within GMES, as is the use of GMES for security applications.

The lack of commercial perspectives

A general orientation of the ESP is to focus on space applications to foster the development of downstream markets in a user-driven approach, in particular by including SMEs. The contribution of space to the construction of a European knowledge-based society was acknowledged by the 5th Space Council. All subsequent EU documents on GMES highlight the priority of developing viable downstream markets for EO applications, in order to fully reap the social and economic benefits of the program.

However, the growth of such commercial markets is strongly dependant on the public sector for three main reasons: public authorities set the legal and regulatory framework, they are large clients of EO products and they conduct general policies to influence market demand26. This is reflected in the architecture of the GMES Service Component, defined in the “Munich Roadmap”27: a distinction is made between Core Services, providing standardized multi-purpose information for a broad range of European institutional actors, and Downstream Services, derived from products from the Core Service and fulfilling more specific information needs. As a European public good, the Core Services would be entirely publicly funded, while the Downstream Services would be developed for and paid by the end-users. As such, the business case for GMES end-user services is “to improve the efficiency of the downstream sector by providing access to basic processed and modeled products more cheaply than would be the case if each company had to undertake the basic processing and modeling”28. At the end of the day, GMES is primarily a public service, in which publicly-owned observation infrastructure produce a first set of data, the Core Services, destined to public users. Meanwhile the development of Downstream Services is supposed to foster commercial applications.

The major obstacle to this scheme is the absence of a coordinated private offer for commercial EO services. Despite the potential demand for EO products, the market in Europe is still fragmented and composed of small-size companies that cannot offer integrated solution to customers. Another difficulty is that end-users will mostly be public institutions. As a consequence, they might have to pay for Downstream Services although they would already contribute to the financing of Core Services29. Finally, no reliable market analysis is currently available, which makes it difficult to calculate potential future revenues from private customers.

A related issue is the definition of an adequate data policy, which should guarantee the continuity and the reliability of the data flow, facilitate commercial developments and take into account security restrictions. There is an important distinction between the data policy for the Sentinel missions and for the contributing missions. The former is based on the principles of free and open data access as adopted by ESA Member States in September 2009 and confirmed by the EC in the recent GMES Regulation. This policy is “intended to stimulate the uptake of information based on EO data for end-users”30. The data policy for existing space components is more complex, as it implies a great number of assets owned by a large variety of stakeholders. ESA and the EC launched a formal dialogue with the concerned Member States to elaborate a long-term data access scheme31.

Defining the “S” in GMES

GMES initially stood for “Global Monitoring for Environmental Security”, but in 1999, only one year after the launch of the program, it was renamed “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security”, thus broadening its scope to all security-related issues. However, similar to Galileo, the potential security applications of GMES represent a controversial issue within the EU, which has already led to delays in the program.

The definition of GMES security applications had to take into account both the rising demand from certain Member States for security services and the reticence of others in this field, while keeping in mind that GMES is defined as a civilian program under civilian management. A GMES Working Group on Security was set up in 2002, and identified five security-related policy areas where GMES could contribute: prevention and response to crisis related to natural and technological risks; humanitarian aid and international cooperation; conflict prevention and treaty monitoring; surveillance of borders; and Common Foreign Security Policy/Common Security and Defense Policy (CFSP/CSDP)32. This large array of activities is consistent with the redefinition of the concept of security after the Cold War which was enshrined in the European Security Strategy33, moving away from a narrow military and defense perspective towards a broader scope of security.

Despite this initiative to define the security aspects of GMES, the question remains open. On the one hand, the EC is sending contradictory signals, highlighting the potential contribution of GMES to CSDP in certain documents, while stating in a recent communication that “for the foreseeable future it is not foreseen to give GMES a defence dimension”34. Other EU institutions, such as the European Parliament emphasized « the importance of GMES for foreign as well as security and defence policies of the European Union ».35 On the other hand, the demand from certain Member States for security-related services is high, as testified by their request to launch a pilot service called G-MOSAIC (GMES services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crisis) in addition to the four pre-operational services36. Currently, the security dimension of GMES is still being discussed in the frame of the Structured Dialogue on Space and Security involving all relevant stakeholders and three priority areas were already identified: border surveillance, support to external action and maritime surveillance.37

All in all, GMES security aspects are a highly political question, and developments in this field are closely tied to the overall progress of the CFSP, which will greatly depend on the effective setting up of the European External Action Service (EEAS). The EEAS will indeed have the crucial task of ensuring continuity between policies, strategies, capability developments and operations in the field. In particular, its Crisis Management Planning Directorate (CMPD) will be responsible for the strategic and political planning, including both civilian and military aspects. As such, it will have the responsibility to define the “S” in GMES more precisely. The political mandate to reach this goal is clearly laid down in the recent 7th Space Council Resolution38. In this perspective, GMES is destined to become a responsive and integrated component of a broader “system-of-systems” providing space capabilities for crisis management.

An expression of European leadership

GMES will reinforce Europe’s position on the international scene. First, GMES is the most ambitious integrated EO program to date from a technological and scientific point of view. Indeed, it intends to tackle crucial weaknesses of the EO sector, namely meeting the daily needs of users, ensuring data continuity and distributing space-based data in an integrated information system39.

Second, GMES is the strongest contribution to GEOSS, which is the leading international initiative to pool worldwide EO capabilities. It is managed by the Geneva-based GEO (Group on Earth Observation), comprising 85 governments, the EC and 61 participating international organizations. GEO will address nine areas of critical importance: disasters, health, energy, climate, water, weather, ecosystems, agriculture and biodiversity. These threats are transnational by nature, which requires transnational answers. GMES will provide a powerful instrument to tackle these challenges, and therefore constitutes a major political contribution to global governance. However, the concrete links and interfaces of GMES services with GEOSS have still to be defined40.

Finally, GMES will also serve as a foreign policy tool for the EU. This is shown by the “Lisbon Declaration on GMES and Africa” of December 2007. As part of the joint EU-Africa strategy, this initiative contributes to the objectives of sustainable development, stability and humanitarian aid for Africa.

Conclusion

A series of challenges remains to be addressed to ensure the sustainability of the GMES program. They focus in particular on the completion of an adequate data policy, the establishment of a governance framework for the operational phase, the efficient integration of GMES into the CFSP, the securing of sufficient funding after 2014 and the better involvement of end-users.

These questions all reflect the overall structural constraints of the ESP, and similar to Galileo, the full operational servicing of GMES can be viewed as a test case for the future of the European space effort. The strong political support to GMES voiced by many Member States, coupled with the growing political role played by the EC within the program, seems to indicate that Europe will stand up to its ambitions. While the setting-up of such a complex program is by nature a slow and progressive endeavor, the tremendous benefits that are expected to arise from GMES certainly constitute a strong driver to move forward.

***

  • 1 Aschbacher, Josef and Maria P. Milagro Pérez. « GMES – Status review and policy developments », in Schrogl et. al. (Eds.), Yearbook on Space Policy 2008/2009: Setting New Trends, Vienna, Springer, 2010, p. 188.
    2 Aschbacher, Josef; Beer, Thomas; Ciccolella, Antonio; Pilar Milagro, M.; Paliouras, Eleni. « Observing Earth, for a Safer Planet. GMES Space Component: status and challenges » ESA Bulletin 142, May 2010.
    3 The six satellites are Sentinel 1A/B, 2A/B and 3A/B.
    4 Four Core Services were officially launched at the 2008 GMES Forum in Lille: Marine monitoring, Land monitoring, Atmosphere monitoring, and Emergency Response.
    5 Regulation (EU) No. 911/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011 to 2013).
    6 Such as EDA, FRONTEX, EUSC, EMSA, JRC or EEA.
    7 Such as the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF).
    8 European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies. « The EU Programme for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) : governance and financing. », PE 429.985, December 2009. pp. 39-43.
    9 These are : the Initial Period (2001-03), Implementation Period (2004-08), Pre-operational phase I (2008-11), Pre-operational phase II (2011-13) and GMES operational phase (2014- ).
    10 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. pp. 36-37.
    11 These are the GMES Committee, the User Forum and the GMES Partners Board.
    12 Aschbacher, Josef and Maria P. Milagro Pérez, op. cit. p. 197.
    13 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. p. 52.
    14 Aschbacher et.al., op. cit.
    15 The breakdown is the following: €268 million at the 2005 ESA Council, €522 million through a subscription by ESA Member States in 2007, €626 million through the EC’s FP7 in 2008/09 and €831 million at the 2008 ESA Council.
    16 Aschbacher et.al., op. cit. p. 28.
    17 Regulation (EU) No. 911/2010, op. cit.
    18 The breakdown is the following: €70m for the in-situ component, €149m for the service component and €600m for the GSC (development, launch and operation of the Sentinel satellites).
    19 European Commission. GMES Bureau. « EU financial needs for the GMES Programme beyond 2013. » PB-02-DOC03. October 2010.
    20 European Commission. « Mid-term review of the European satellite navigation programmes. » COM 5 final, 18 January 2011.
    21 Thanks to their respective areas of expertise, EADS was awarded the contracts to build the optical Sentinel 2 A/B and TAS is manufacturing the SAR Sentinel 1 A/B and the ocean observation spacecraft Sentinel 3 A/B.
    22 Aschbacher, Josef and Maria P. Milagro Pérez, op. cit. p. 198.
    23 de Selding, Peter B. « Funding Issue Throws GMES Continuity Plan in Doubt » Space News, 9 September 2010.
    24 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. p. 52.
    25 EUMETSAT. « EUMETSAT contribution to discussion on governance of space activities in Europe. » EUM/SIR/REP/10/0371 v10, 12 July 2010.
    26 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. p. 63.
    27 German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs. « The Way to the European Earth Observation System GMES – The Munich Roadmap. » 17 April 2007.
    28 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. p. 63.
    29 Ibid.
    30 Regulation (EU) No. 911/2010, op. cit.
    31 Aschbacher et.al., op. cit. pp. 27.
    32 « The Security Dimension of GMES. » Position Paper of the GMES Working Group on Security, 29 September 2003.
    33 Council of the European Union. « A Secure Europe in a Better World. European Security Strategy. » Brussels, 12 December 2003.
    34 European Commission. « Communication. Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): Challenges and Next Steps for the Space Component. » COM 589 final, 28 October 2009.
    35 European Parliament. « Resolution on Space and Security » 2008/2030(INI). 10 July 2008.
    36 European Parliament. Directorate General for Internal Policies. op. cit. p. 28.
    37 European Commission. GMES Bureau op. cit.
    38 Council of the European Union. « 7th Space Council Resolution. Global Challenges: Taking Full Benefit of European Space Systems. » Brussels, 25 November 2010, para. 19 and 20.
    39 OECD. « Space 2030. Tackling Society’s Challenges. » 2005, p.101.
    40 Council of the EU. « 7th Space Council Resolution. Global Challenges: Taking Full Benefit of European Space Systems. » 25 November 2010.

SOURCE
by Christophe VENET, Laurence NARDON
GMES, the second flagship. The Europe & Space Series #3, March 2011

Our growing reliance on coastal waters for food, trade and tourism means that these delicate ecosystems need to be more closely monitored to guarantee their future sustainability.

ESA’s CoastColour project is helping scientists develop techniques to take full advantage of the unique capabilities of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor on its Envisat satellite.

With a resolution of 300 m, MERIS provides the sharpest view of coastal waters to date, and includes spectral bands specially designed to characterise the complex mixing of pollutants, suspended sediments and phytoplankton typically found in coastal zones.

Stressing the need for information to help manage these ecosystems, more than 40 user organisations have already signed up to the CoastColour project, which is now processing MERIS data with state-of-the-art techniques over 27 high-priority coastal regions selected by users worldwide.

Coral reef monitoring

Arnold Dekker from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is working with CoastColour to develop techniques to monitor the health of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

During the wet season large plumes of sediment-laden river water flows into the reef lagoon. Sediments can smother corals and deprive them of the sunlight they need to survive, while river-borne nutrients may influence the frequency of naturally occurring algal blooms.

ESA is to be commended for supporting the use of Earth observation to help solve the management issues of these truly complex coastal aquatic ecosystems,” Dr Dekker said.

Algal bloom monitoring

MERIS data are being used to monitor harmful algal booms along the west coast of South Africa in the Southern Benguela upwelling system. Red tides and algal blooms with extremely high phytoplankton concentrations frequently occur in the region’s bays, threatening fisheries and tourism.

Dr Stewart Bernard of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is developing systems aiming to integrate the satellite data with hydrodynamic models to monitor and predict harmful algal blooms operationally.

Coastal resource managers and the aquaculture industry in the region greatly need these predictions to minimise risks to public safety and financial losses, according to Dr Bernard.

“The involvement of local scientists in CoastColour has already increased South Africa’s technical ocean-colour capability, and is expected to significantly aid the implementation of the ocean-colour components of developing African operational oceanography systems.”

Port maintenance monitoring

In the Baltic Sea, the sustainable development of seaports requires shipping channels to be dredged every two years. Dredging mixes large amounts of suspended sediments into the water, affecting coastal water quality which is regulated by internationally agreed standards.

Dr Liis Sipelgas of the Tallinn University of Technology is working with the Port of Tallinn, which runs four harbours on the Estonian coast, to understand the environmental impact of their dredging operations by mapping sediment plumes.

“The new site-specific CoastColour water quality products improve significantly the operational environmental monitoring of harbour dredging activities,” Dr Sipelgas said.

“The products also enable us to estimate and quantify the long-term water quality changes in the harbour area.”

Source