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→ SENTINELS COLLABORATIVE GROUND SEGMENT WORKSHOP 2014

Executive Summary

BACKGROUND

The Sentinel family of satellites is being developed to meet the operational needs of Europe’s environment monitoring programme, Copernicus. The first in the fleet, Sentinel-1A, was launched in April 2014 and began its operational life in October 2014.

The Copernicus programme is headed by the European Commission (COM) on behalf of the European Union in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA coordinates the delivery of data from upwards of 30 satellites, comprising the Copernicus dedicated missions (Sentinels) and the Copernicus Contributing Missions. The COM is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the Copernicus services.

The Copernicus Space Component (CSC) – coordinated by ESA – includes the development and operations of the Sentinel satellites, as well as the distribution of the acquired Earth observation data. All Sentinel products managed by ESA is currently freely accessible online for the worldwide user community at sentinel.esa.int.

In addition to that, ESA facilitates cooperation activities with its Member States for direct and efficient access to Sentinel data. In the framework of the Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segment, potential activities of ESA Member States are the set-up of a national mirror site, employment of own local receiving stations, development of innovative data processing tools and applications and calibration/validation activities. In any ESA Member State, various initiatives and entities can be involved in the cooperation. Therefore a National Point of Contact bundles the flow of information between the national entities and ESA.

Recently the COM has requested ESA to offer a similar collaboration scheme also to any European Union countries not belonging to ESA.

Finally, subject to the EC’s authorization, a similar collaboration agreement scheme may be set-up by ESA also with International Partners.

WORKSHOP CONTEXT

The Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segment (CollGS) workshop 2014 provides a platform for information and discussion between ESA, the National Points of Contact and national entities involved in the cooperation. The workshop succeeds the yearly meetings of the “GMES Operations Consultation Group”, which started in 2010.

The workshop objectives were to:

• Present the latest Copernicus Space Component status programmatically and technically

• Provide an update of the various ESA Member States Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segment initiatives

• Address specific issues in plenary and bilateral discussions

• Provide a forum for participants to harmonise their respective plans

The workshop took place on the 4th December 2014 and was hosted by ESA at the ESRIN (ESA Centre for Earth Observation) establishment, in Frascati, Italy. The 2014 workshop saw attendance by 55 participants representing 21 countries. For the first time, also European Union countries not belonging to ESA were invited. Out of those, representatives from Estonia and Hungary attended the workshop. Further, partner organisations in the Copernicus programme including representatives from the European Commission, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) were represented.

During the first part of the workshop, ESA presented the latest status of the Copernicus Space Component, including the current programmatic set-up, the overall technical implementation status, the observation scenarios of Sentinel-1, Sentine-2 and Sentinel-3, and the status of the Sentinels and Copernicus Contributing missions’ data access. In addition, the process envisaged to gather, analyze and report user feedback and requirements for Sentinel operations was presented in detail. The COM representative provided an overview of the overall Copernicus programmatic status.

The second part of the workshop was dedicated to presentations from ESA Member States regarding progress of the own CollGS initiatives. Twelve presentations were given, providing details on the various ongoing and planned national activities.

The final round table provided the occasion to discuss the future evolution of the Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segment.

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS

Participants emphasized the usefulness of the workshop, as the forum to coordinate the various CollGS initiatives. The main highlights of the workshop are summarized below.

In the framework of the free and open Copernicus data policy, the CSC operations concept have been focusing on

- Providing Sentinel data to Copernicus Services with high performance and operational commitment as measured by specific Key Performance Indicators;

- Offering dedicated Sentinel data access to ESA and EU Member States

- Offering dedicated Sentinel data access to International partners in the frame of specific agreements framework

- Offering an open Sentinel data access for any other use (e.g. scientific, commercial, outreach) with non committed performances)

All four data access hubs allow the onward distribution of Sentinel data. Sentinel data is distributed under open Terms and Conditions, which are applicable to all users worldwide, irrespective of the way, they received the data.

The Sentinel open Data Hub for science and other use is an evolving system. In the future, enhanced performances and functionalities, like open access to the Sentinel long-term archive, is desirable. In this frame the COM is conducting a study on Copernicus data dissemination, to which ESA and EUMETSAT are providing technical support. The study is also open to contributions from the CollGS national partners.

The Sentinels observation scenarios were presented during the

workshop, and some specific aspects were clarified. In particular as concerns the Sentinels, the routine phase will be characterized by a steady background plan envisaged to cover at least 6 months periods.

As concerns data acquisition, currently X-band downlink is foreseen over core-stations with the opportunity for collaborative local stations to listen into the downlink over the three core X-band stations. Use of EDRS acquisition service in support of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 is an important element of the operations strategy, providing additional flexibility, redundancy and capabilities in terms of data volumes, security and timeliness.

The detailed user feedback management process envisaged by ESA was presented and discussed in detail. The process is meant to allow gathering of user needs and requirements in terms of e.g. data access, core products and general technical questions. Depending on the user typology (e.g. Copernicus services, National member States, scientist, commercial companies), different tools and processes are put in place to manage this process. Available mechanisms rely for instance on regular online questionnaires, news published in the Sentinel online portal, dedicated conferences and workshops, which provide the opportunity to give feedback to ESA.

In particular, the regular CollGS workshop serves as a channel for the National Points of Contact, to provide feedback from national initiatives to ESA. The follow-up by ESA of such feedback is managed ensuring non-discrimination and full transparency. To this end, the publication of the agreed Technical Annexes between ESA and the various Member States may be considered in the future.

The CollGS activities of 12 ESA Member States were presented. The coordination between these activities should be further enhanced in order to optimize and federate resources and efforts. Duplication of investment (e.g. archiving infrastructure) should be minimised. As concerns the future evolution of the Copernicus Space Component (core) Ground Segment, coherency and complementarity with the CollGS initiatives shall continue to be ensured.

Taking into account the evolution of the workshop scope, it was agreed to rename, the former GOCG meetings into “Sentinels Collaborative Ground Segment workshop”. Furthermore, it was agreed that as of 2015 the workshop will be organized twice a year.

WORKSHOP RECOMMENDATIONS

• The CollGS workshop

- Should be organized by ESA twice a year.

- Is organized at different locations. To this end ASI and the COM offered to host the two 2015 events.

- In its objectives, shall include promotion of coherence between the CSC (core) ground segment, and ESA and EU MS’s collaborative initiatives.

- In its objectives, shall include information addressing the evolutions of the CSC Ground segment functionality as well as national activities, as to provide a basis for efficient national planning.

• Feedback and requirements provided from national partners should be followed-up by ESA in a way transparent to the National Points of Contact.

• Beyond pure data access questions, collaborative agreements and workshop presentations shall cover in the future the full suite of functionality offered by collaborative partners (own products and services, cal/val support, tools etc). This will allow other collaborative partners to best tailor their own national activities.

• The evolution of the CSC should enhance the broad access for other use (science and/or commercial) to the Sentinel data long-term archive and the general data access performance, while considering the national initiatives plans and investments.

• To ensure transparency across CollGS initiative, ESA should promote the sharing of information by, for instance, releasing the full list of National Points of Contract and publishing the CollGS agreements Technical Annexes

• The coordination between national CollGS activities should be enhanced in order to optimize and federate resources and efforts. This should be done also with regard to the evolution of the Copernicus Space Component Ground Segment and the Copernicus Services.

• ESA should regularly and frequently publish the Sentinel detailed observation scenario and in due time update the High Level Operations Plan.

ESA will follow up these recommendations and report on the status of their implementation at the next workshop.