4 Final Report - Emits - ESA

2 Final
Report
2 Product and Mission Baseline Description
2.1 Overview
The first task of the study has been the identification and selection of applications for Geo-Oculus in
order to define preliminary mission objectives including the technical requirements.
Geo-Oculus is set as an independent mission with the objective to enable observations of the Earth so
far not feasible with current or planned systems or missions. Among the wealth of EO-activities on
European and international level, ESA has identified the lack of the capability for a combination of fastresponse,
high-revisit, near-real-time and high-resolution observations. Therefore, the starting point for
the study is a geo-synchronous satellite mission with high resolution optical imaging instrumentation,
real-time control and agile platform.
A survey for mission objectives covering a very wide field of Earth observation applications has been
performed to identify applications that require or profit from the basic characteristics of a mission like
Geo-Oculus. This survey is briefly described in 2.2 and in more detail in [RD 4]. Although, the survey
identified a number of applications that benefit substantially from Geo-Oculus, one major finding is that
this mission lays the foundation for new kinds of Earth observation applications which yet have to be
recognized.
For the selection process a ranking scheme has been chosen that rates all applications, that where
identified in the survey, in terms of "Political Importance", "Institutional / Non-Profit Importance"
"Commercial Importance" and "Suitability of Geo-Oculus". Based on this ranking, a final selection of
the preliminary mission objectives has been conducted in consultation with ESA.
2.2 Survey for Mission Objectives
For the survey for mission objectives, a comprehensive review for user requirements, potential
applications and the related product requirements has been conducted. The scope of this survey
covers the political framework in terms of ongoing or future European initiatives, especially the GMES
initiative, as well as international treaties and European and national directives, policies and protocols.
Synergies with European and international Earth observation systems and missions, like the
Sentinels, GEOSS and EPS were identified and considered for the identification of suitable
applications for Geo-Oculus.
Mission of Choice
The analysis of user requirements and potential applications is conducted with an open mind for user
demands that will especially benefit from the mission characteristics in fields of e.g.:
• Ecological, economical and humanitarian incidents
• Rapidly evolving events
• Local to regional monitoring
• Instantaneous situation awareness
• Regions regularly covered with clouds
The survey points out that Geo-Oculus is the 'mission of choice' for the above mentioned fields of
applications. Yet, another finding is that only few applications already exist that require the specific
features of Geo-Oculus to become possible. This is not due to missing interest but due to missing
Doc. No: GOC-ASG-RP-002 Page 2-1
Issue: 2
Date: 13.05.2009 Astrium GmbH