ESA Earth Observation Programmes& Exploitation

Stephen Coulson

Directorate of Earth Observation Programs, ESA

Geo SE Europe & E Med SymposiumAthens, 8-10 June 2009

Kindly hosted by Greek Geo Office

Europe’s expanding capacity

ERS 1 ERS 2OceansSea Ice

CryosphereLand SurfaceClimatology

+ Global Ozone+ Terrestrial biosphere

+ Ocean colour+ Atmospheric chemistry

1991 1995

ENVISAT2002

ESA’s EO Heritage

Document title | Author Name | Place | Data doc | Programme | Pag. 3

L’AQUILA EARTHQUAKECNR IREA: First Descending Interferogram

Document title | Author Name | Place | Data doc | Programme | Pag. 4

L’AQUILA EARTHQUAKEEstimation of vertical and horizontal displacement and Model

ENS/CNRS: Model (Asc)

The Earth Explorer Missions

GOCEGOCE

Earth gravity fieldand Geoid

ADMADMAEOLUSAEOLUS

Windspeedvectors

EARTH EARTH CARECARE

Clouds, Aerosols & radiation

SMOSSMOS

Soil moisture and ocean salinity

CRYOSAT 2CRYOSAT 2

Ice elevation and ice thickness

SWARMSWARM

Earth magnetic field & Earth core dynamics

77thth EEEE

Under Selection (2010)

A Family of satellites formeasuring critical Earth System variables to understand their role & impactin Climate Change

Earth Watch Missions

Missions for long-term operational Meteorology

Cooperation with Eumetsat

Decision on MTG at C-MIN, Nov 2008.

Meteosat / MSGSince 1978, ESA has developed 9 Meteosat satellites

MSG-2

21.12.2005

MetopEurope’s first polar orbiting satellite for op. meteorologyLaunch of Metop-A: 19.10.2006

Meteosat / MTG3rd generation of op. meteorology,

Global Monitoring Global Monitoring for Environment for Environment and Security (GMES)and Security (GMES)

EC-ESA GMES

EOPublic Policy

NeedsNeeds

SolutionsSolutions

ESA : Space Component: Space Component EC : Services & Operations: Services & Operations

Consolidation + ScaleConsolidation + Scale--upupof services (100 Mof services (100 M€€, 5 years), 5 years)

Start of Core services 2008Start of Core services 2008(Land, Marine, Emergency)(Land, Marine, Emergency)

0 20 40 60 80 100

Soil, Water & UrbanFire & Flood RiskMarine & Coastal

Land MotionPolar & Sea Ice

Forest MonitoringAtmosphere

Maritime SecurityHumanitarian Aid

Food Security

International National Regional Local Private

International: 40National: 146Regional: 76

Local: 65Private: 8

• Services with formal specifications, standards, validation protocols,• Developed in collaboration & agreement of User communities,• Qualified service suppliers.

Exploitation : Legally Mandated User Orgs

Sustainable service provision.

Sentinel 1 – SAR imagingAll weather, day/night applications, interferometry

Sentinel 2 – Superspectral imagingContinuity of Landsat, SPOT & Vegetation-type data

Sentinel 3 – Ocean monitoringWide-swath ocean color and surface temperature sensors, altimeter

Sentinel 4 – Geostationary atmosphericAtmospheric composition monitoring, trans-boundary pollution

Sentinel 5 – Low-orbit atmosphericAtmospheric composition monitoring

• Long-term continuity of EO data is assured.

2011

2012

2012

2017+

2019+

GMES Sentinels

ESA Missions for GMES

National, Eumetsat and Third Party Missions for GMES (excerpt)

GMES Space Component

TopSat

CosmoSkymed SPOT

Rapideye UK-DMC

Pleiades Jason-2

METOP

Radarsat

Terrasar-X

• Use existing missions for complimentary observations (needed for some services)

EO Information EO Information Services Services

(A few examples with Private Sector) (A few examples with Private Sector)

Earth Observation

GEO initiatives

33 organizations (e.g. IPCC, IGBP, WCRP, GODAE, ECMWF, GOFC) participate in projects addressing the monitoring of Global Change on the different elements of the Earth system

Global Change community

GLOBCOLOUR : Global Ocean Colour for Carbon Cycle Research

GLOBVOLCANO : Deformation / Thermal / Gas emissions

GLOBAEROSOL, Global Aerosol Monitoring

MEDSPIRATION : European service for precise Sea surface temperature.

ESA at Conference of Parties in support of International Environmental conventions (UNFCCC, UNCBD, RAMSAR, WHC, etc)

Chile is becoming key producer of salmon in the world ($1 billion/yr)

Industry report in Chile estimated the losses to the industry from Harmful Algee Bloom (HABs) are $50 Million USD/year (2004).

NRT EO data have been integrated in a hydrodynamic model to provide via internet a HAB Early Warning Service.

"To obtain the amount of information covered with the EO data, alternative methods will be of considerable higher cost. With in situ measurements you cannot produce a gradient map as obtained with EO images. The value of this information is the area and resolution obtained in a single didactic image."

Francisco Puga , Manager, Mainstream Group Development

Aquaculture, Chile

Forestry, Orsa Florestal, BrazilDetecting illegal clear cuts over the Jari region in Brazil.

@ SARMAP . Service providers in this project: Eyre Consulting Ltd, Ambiental Technical Services, AON, and SARMAP

The interferometric ALOS PALSAR Fine Beam Dual composite shows:

• vegetated areas (green tones),

• rapidly changing areas due to for example harvesting, forest clear cut or floods (blue tone),

• static areas of no changes between the two acquisition dates such as bare soil conditions, rocks, poorly vegetated areas (orange tone);

• bare soil areas with strong humidity changes (white tone).

Road Detection detail using SAR (PALSAR)

CIB

Courtesy SARMAP, AON

Landsat, GPS vs EO

Illegal Logging, Congo

Courtesy RISOE

Denmark (Horns Rev)

High-resRegionalRadar

Low-resGlobalScatterometer

Wind rose Industry software

Offshore Wind Energy

Courtesy DLR (De), Uni Oldenburg (De), Tecsol (De), JRC, Ecole des Mines

Ground irradiance

Different services, exploiting MSGEvery 15 min EO information

Enel.si operates the service assessment

Optimising Solar Plants

Snow Cover Extent (ENVISAT/MERIS)Digital Elevation Model Land Cover (ENISAT/SAR)

Weather Condition (MSG)

Run Off Forecast

Hydrological Model

Supporting Hydropower

During – Flood extent, Dresden , Aug 2002 (ASAR / SPOT)

Days Flood, red 16d, blue 4d

Before - Population exposed to flood risk, city of Bremen

After - Postal Code Product for InsuranceSwiss Re, Munich Re

Assessing Flood Risks, SwissRe

Palabora copper mine from Rio Tinto in South Africa - 2000m in diameter and 762m deep..

After a major collapse, Rio Tinto was concerned about the effects on infrastructures of further subsidence. InSAR has been used to monitor deformations up to a few mm.

“An advantage of using SAR interferometry is that it is not dependent on sending crews into the field, It is therefore valuable for acquiring information at remote sites or areas considered unsafe for personnel to enter."

Timothy Conley, Managing Director , AMEC's Earth & Environmental operations in Europe.

Land Motion: Mining

1,313 ha

Landsat-5, 2005

SPOT-5, 2006

Environmental Impact, Shell Canada

2003 2007

Definition of indices forSustainability reportingIn line with GRI guidelinesto quantify forest fragmentation

Tractebel Engineering

Hydropower Dams, Suez, Brazil

. © ESA, Uni Bremen., CET

From GLOBAL …

to LOCAL …

Atmospheric Pollution

Image of global troposphericNO2 as derived from GOME /

ERS and SCHIAMACHY / ENVISAT.

Street Map in London

New ESA Activities New ESA Activities on Climate Changeon Climate Change

ESA Initiative on Climate Change

UNFCCC Conference Dec 2007 Bali Action Plan“parties should describe the status of their programmes for contributing observations of the essential climate variables (ECVs) to the international community”

EO from space plays a vital role,

ESA to systematically generate and distribute long-term series of “Essential Climate Variables”

Based on ESA archived EO data (30 years),

Internationally agreed requirements GCOS definition of ECV CEOS response for required space observations

To quantify the state of the Climate system to Advance our knowledge of climate change, Support work of UNFCCC and IPCC for climate change

mitigation and adaptation

5 year program, ~ 75 M€ subscribed C-MIN Nov 2008

(from K. Trenberth: Observational needs for climate prediction and adaptation, WMO Bulletin 57(1), January 2008)

Locus of ESA Climate Change Initiative

Earth Explorers ENVISAT/ERS National Missions Meteo Missions(EUMETSAT)GMES Sentinels

Data Access

Programme Content

Re-processing ex archive(e.g. calibration)

ECV generation(e.g. validation & bias)

ECV assimilation& assessment

Education & Awareness

6 year programmefor 3 cycles

FEEDBACK LOOP:

Long Term Archiving ProgrammesMulti-mission infrastructure

International Climate ProgrammesEC & MS R&D Programmes

IPCC Process, UNFCCC

INPUT FROM

OUTPUT TO

“Deliver”

“Show”

“Gather”

“Exploit”

ESA Climate Change Initiative (satellite-based ECVs)

in scope /beyond scope

River discharge, Water use, Ground water, Lake levels, Snow cover, Glaciers and ice caps, Permafrost and seasonally-frozen ground, Albedo, Land cover (including vegetation type), Fraction of absorbed photo-synthetically active radiation (FAPAR), Leaf area index (LAI), Biomass, Fire disturbance, Biomass, soil moisture

Terrestrial

Temperature, Salinity, Current, Nutrients, Carbon, Ocean tracers, PhytoplanktonSub-surface:

Sea-surface temperature, Sea-surface salinity, Sea level, Sea state, Sea ice,Current, Ocean colour, Carbon dioxide partial pressure.Surface:

Oceanic

Carbon dioxide, Methane, Ozone, Other long-lived greenhouse gases, Aerosol propertiesComposition:

Earth radiation budget (including solar irradiance), Upper-air temperature(including MSU radiances), Wind speed and direction, Water vapour,Cloud propertiesUpper air:

Air temperature, Precipitation, Air pressure, Surface radiation budget, Wind speedand direction, Water vapour.Surface:

Atmospheric (over land, sea and ice)

Essential Climate VariablesDomain

Main External Partners:

CCI Program External Interfaces

• UNFCCC which coordinates the interests and decisions of its Parties on Climate Policy,

• GCOS which represents the scientific and technical requirements of the Global Climate Observing System on behalf of UNFCCC,

• CEOS which serves as a focal point for Earth Observation related activities of Space Agencies,

• Individual Partner Space Agencies with whom ESA cooperates bilaterally,

• International Climate Research Programmes, which represent the collective interests and priorities of the worldwide climateresearch,

• EC and National Research Programmes which establish research priorities and provide resources for climate research community within Europe.

The ESA Earth Observation programmes

… understanding our planet… securing our environment

… benefiting our economy

Thank You !

BackBack--up Stuffup Stuff

10/2004 - 9

ESA world locations

Introduction

10/2004 - 4

All Member States participate in activities and a common set of programmes related to Space Science (mandatorymandatory programmes)programmes).

Human space flight

In addition, members chose the level of participation in so calledoptionaloptional programmesprogrammes:

Microgravity research

Earth observation

Telecommunications

Satellite navigation

Launcher development

The ESA Programmes

Introduction

Capacity Building : Africa

0 mg/m3 20

Water Quality

Water abstraction estimate map

• 6 year program, 200 African Experts,

• African Ministerial Council on Water, AfDB, UN-Africa Water Group (UNESCO, UN-ECA),

• Science component, pre-Operational component (Water Resource Management).

Soil Moisture

Capacity Building : China

12

3

4

1996 – 2006 trends : Tropospheric NO2 vertical columns averaged (Beijing, Shanghai 50% increase)

Nima-Gaize earthquake : co-seismic motion Nov 2007 to Feb 2008.

GHG distributions : high concentrations of CO in NE China

• 8 year program, 40 projects,

• Ministry of Science & Technology, National Remote Sensing Centre of China,

• European & Chinese research teams for scientific exchange.