ESA Earth observation programmes

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• ESA Earth observation programmes
• and perspectives
• CSIS Space Enterprise Council
• April 28th, 2004
• Frederic Nordlund
• Head, ESA Washington Office

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The European Space Agency (ESA) in brief

• ESA - an international inter-governmental agency
• ESA has 15 Member States Austria, Belgium,
  Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,
  Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
  Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
• Canada takes part in some projects under a
  cooperation agreement
• Programmatic areas launchers, space science,
  Earth observation, human space flight,
  microgravity research, navigation,
  telecommunications, etc.
• Budget for 2004 2.7 billion euros
• Staff 1920

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ERS
ENVISAT
4
METOP
Meteosat Second Generation
5
Cryosat (2004)
Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (2007)
Atmospheric Dynamics Mission - Aeolus (2007)
Gravity and Ocean Circulation Explorer (2006)
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Global Monitoring for Environment and Security
(GMES)

• Joint ESA European Commission initiative
• A programme to provide information to
  decision-makers and support EU policies
• Completion of GMES initial period (2001 2003)
• GMES implementation phase (2004-2008)
• Four major components
• Space remote sensing
• In-situ and airborne observations
• Data integration and information management
• Services

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• The Earth Observation Summit on 31 July 2003
  initiated a comprehensive, coordinated, and
  sustained Earth observation system or systems
  among governments and the international community
  to understand and address global environmental
  and economic challenges
• Current preparations of a 10-year implementation
  plan for coordinated Earth observation systems
  building on existing initiatives (47 nations and
  the EC at the Tokyo Summit this week)
• Adoption of the 10-year plan during a Summit in
  Europe in February 2005

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• Necessary balance between non-discriminatory
  access, economic viability and incentives for
  private service providers
• Service providers in Europe are a mix of small
  and medium companies as well as satellite
  operators investing more and more in services and
  value-added chain.
• ESA data policy differentiate scientific use
  (category I) and commercial use (category II).
• EMMA and SARCOM consortia were contracted out 4
  years ago for category II
• Current reflections about a data policy
  evolution in the context of new systems and GMES