ESAs Living Planet Programme: Overview

1
ESAs Living Planet Programme
Overview Status

• Mark R. Drinkwater
• European Space Agency
• Earth Observation Programmes

2
ESAs E.O. Toolkit
3
Living Planet Programme (LPP)
Earth Explorers - I
The Science and Research Component of the Living
Planet Programme
To
Focus on

• Improve the understanding of the interactions
  between components of the Earth System
• Understand the impact of human activities on
  natural Earth processes

Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Cryosphere
Geosphere
Key Scientific Challenges identified in The
Changing Earth, ESA SP-1304
Biosphere
4
Scientific challenges for ESAs LPP

• Updated Science Strategy for ESAs LPP, after
  broad user consultation
• SP-1304 identifies key scientific challenges for
  hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere
  and geosphere
• Emphasis on the system approach, where
  interactions and interfaces between different
  parts of the Earth system are fundamental

5
History of ESA Earth Observation
Europes expanding EO capability
Earth Explorers
ERS 1
ERS 2
ENVISAT
Still alive!
Earth Watch GMES
Oceans Cryosphere Land Surface Climatology
6
EO Missions handled by ESA EOP
1990 2000 2008
2010 2030
Since 1977
Meteo
METEOSAT Second Generation MSG-1, -2, -3
METEOSATM-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
in cooperation with EUMETSAT
METOP-1, -2, -3
(Gravity and Ocean Circulation Explorer)
Science
to better understand the Earth System
SMOS
CryoSat2
ADM/Aeolus
SWARM
EarthCare
Applications Services
ERS-1, -2
ENVISAT
Sentinel 1
Sentinel 2
to initiate long term monitoring systems and
services
Sentinel 3
Sentinel 4/5
GMES in cooperation with EC
7
ESAs Living Planet Programme
www.esa.int/livingplanet
Earth Explorer
Earth Watch
Operational Service driven
Research driven
Opportunity Missions
Core Missions
EUMETSAT
GMES
Meteosat MSG EPS (MetOp) MTG Post EPS
Sentinel 1
GOCE 2008
CryoSat 2 2009
Sentinel 2
Sentinel 3
Sentinel 4
Sentinel 5
ADM-Aeolus 2009
SMOS 2008
EarthCARE 2013
Swarm 2010
8
ESA Earth Explorers 1 - 6
GOCE
ADM-Aeolus
EarthCARE
Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation
Explorer
Atmospheric Dynamics Mission
Cloud, Aerosols Radiation Explorer
Core
2008 2009
2010 2011
2012 2013
Opportunity
Cryosat 2
Swarm
Sea Ice thickness and Ice sheet topography
Geomagnetic field survey
9
GOCE ESAs Gravity Mission
The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean
Circulation Explorer (GOCE)

• Its objectives are to improve understanding of
• global ocean circulation and transfer of heat
• physics of the Earths interior (lithosphere
  mantle)
• sea level records, topographic processes,
  evolution of ice sheets and sea level change

www.esa.int/livingplanet/goce
10
CryoSat ESAs Ice Mission
Its objectives are to improve our understanding
of - thickness and mass fluctuations of
polar land and marine ice - to quantify
rates of thinning/thickening due to climate
variations
www.esa.int/livingplanet/cryosat
11
SMOS Water Mission

• Its objectives are
• to provide global maps of soil moisture and
  ocean salinity for hydrological studies
• to advance our understanding of the freshwater
  cycle
• - to improve climate, weather and extreme-event
  forecasting

www.esa.int/livingplanet/smos
12
ADM-Aeolus Wind Mission

• Its objectives are
• to provide global observations of wind profiles
  from space
• to improve the quality of weather forecasting
• to enhance our understanding of atmospheric
  dynamics and climate processes

www.esa.int/livingplanet/adm-aeolus
13
Swarm Magnetic Mission
Courtesy GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam GFZ
Courtesy EADS, Astrium

• The objectives of the Swarm constellation are
• - to provide the best-ever survey of the Earths
  geomagnetic field and its variation in time
• - to use these data to gain new insight into the
  Earths interior and climate.

www.esa.int/livingplanet/swarm
14
EarthCARE Cloud Aerosol Mission

• EarthCARE is a joint European - Japanese mission
• Its objectives are
• - to improve process understanding of
  cloud-aerosol-radiation interactions
• - to measure parameters to be included in models
• - to improve climate and weather model
  predictions

www.esa.int/livingplanet/earthcare
15
The Six Candidate EE7 Missions

• BIOMASS
• A BIOMASS Monitoring Mission for Carbon
  Assessment
• FLEX
• FLuorescence Explorer
• Core-H2O
• Cold Regions Hydrology High-resolution
  Observatory
• A-SCOPE
• Advanced Space Carbon and Climate Observation of
  Planet Earth
• PREMIER
• PRocess Exploration through Measurements of
  Infrared and millimetre-wave Emitted Radiation
• TRAQ
• TRopospheric composition and Air Quality

Mission Advisory Groups formed and several rounds
of meetings taken place since Nov. 2006 (Mission
Requirement Document preparation gt derivation of
technical requirements). Two parallel Industrial
Mission Assessment studies underway to assess
each concept
16
EarthWatch Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security

• ESA GMES Space Segment
• Sentinel 1 SAR imaging
• Continuity of established SAR applications
• Sentinel 2 Superspectral imaging
• Continuity of Landsat/SPOT class land
  measurements
• Sentinel 3 Ocean and Global Land monitoring
• Wide-swath multi-spectral sensors, SAR altimeter
• Sentinels 4/5 Geostationary LEO atmospheric
• atmospheric composition monitoring,
  trans-boundary pollution
• Close cooperation/coordination with European
  Commission and Eumetsat

17
ESA EO Launch Schedule
18
Data Earth Observation AOs
Main facts about ESA Announcements of Opportunity

• an ESA AO is a limited duration call for
  proposals to access to ESA data for Research and
  Application Development (data provided free of
  charge after PB-EO approval)
• Single Web interface for proposal submission,
  evaluation and reporting of results
• Example of AOs

http//eopi.esa.int
19
Conclusions

• The Living Planet Programme features exciting new
  missions focusing on specific scientific or
  operational goals
• Six science-driven Earth Explorers are approved
  and under development (7th EE under
  consideration)
• 3 operational GMES Sentinel missions (1A, 2A, 3A)
  approved and under development
• Sentinel-4/-5 presently under consideration
• ESA to launch a succession of EO satellite
  missions over the next decade with which to
  address key elements of the Earth system

20
Access to EO Data
A constant objective ? ease access to Earth
Observation data

• Common objective for all missions data handled
  by ESA
• Envisat, ERS, Earth Explorers,
• and Third Party Missions (e.g. ALOS, SPOT-4,
  PROBA, )
• Simplified online application for scientific
  data use
• Internet access to all Near Real Time (NRT)
  data
• Internet access to archived data gradually
  implemented
• Development of alternative ways to provide data
  (e.g. processing on demand, toolboxes)

via http//earth.esa.int