2014The German Earth Observation Activities in an International Context
Abstract —The German Earth Observation program is structured in several lines of activities: the national program, the research activities at the German Aerospace Center DLR and the contributions to ESA, to EUMETSAT and through the European Commission to the Copernicus program. In this article the harmonized ap-proach of these programs in order to fulfill the user requests in an efficient way are described.
1. PROGRAMMATIC
OVERVIEW
T
o gain knowledge
about our planet Earth
was for a long time in his-tory a task for adventures,
their mission combined
with a tremendous risk to
their personal lives. Their
trophy was the honor of
a geo-scientific forum or
to stay in the memory of
the people as a statue on
a public place. Today such
data are gathered glob-ally with a homogenous
high precision and a very actual state from space. They are
forming the basis for operational services and forecast models, for fundamental research as well as for commer-cial activities. I n Germany individuals, research entities,
services in administration and value-adding companies in
downstream services are relying on these data in order to
fulfill their special tasks. Therefore, there are documented
requirements for long-term reliable data streams from all
spheres of the planet Earth in Germany. To fulfill them is
the vision of the German Earth Observation (EO) Program in the future.
The German EO Program in the German Space Strat-egy [1] is the legal means through which the German gov-ernment is coordinating the requirements of the German
users and their imple-mentation in the EO Pro-grams of the European Space Agency (ESA), EUMETSAT, the Euro-pean Commission (EC); at DLR’s research insti-tutes and in the German National EO Program. I t’s the task of the Ger-man Aerospace Center to make best profit out of the mentioned programs in order to fulfill the requirements of the Ger-man users in an optimal way. With the European meteorological EO Pro-gram of EUMETSAT we can not only look back with pride on the last 30 years, the satisfaction of the requirements of the meteorological community and more and more climatologic users is also secured for the
next 30 years with Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and MetOp Second Generation (MetOp SG). Since the model of operational missions was copied for the implementa-tion of the Sentinel satellites in the European Commis-sion’s Copernicus program, the future of a large number of downstream services like control of ground move-ments, agricultural subsidies, water quality and provi-sion of actual data about natural hazards are secured. The backbone of these two large programs is ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Program (EOEP), from which not Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2014.2318073
Date of publication: 24 June 2014The German Earth Observation Activities in an International Context
Hans-PeTer LüTTenberg and PeTer scHaadT
DLR, German Aerospace Center—Space Administration, Bonn, Germany
Image lIcensed by Ingram PublIshIng
Special Section on Space Agencies
in order to obtain global coverage at high precision. To overcome the limitations of passive spaceborne instru-measurement techniques such as L I DAR (light detection and ranging) was proposed for further green-house gas monitoring missions. MERLIN (Methane Remote Sensing LIDAR Mission) is a joint French-German coopera-tion for a methane monitoring satellite [7]. DLR is develop-ing the instrument, the French space agency CNES will pro-vide the bus. MERLIN will be launched in the timeframe of 2017 2019 with a lifetime in orbit of at least 3 years.
VI. THE PREPARATION OF NExT
GENERATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Developing and operating missions is the major task of the German EO program. But we are already develop-ing the enabling instrument technologies for tomorrow’s EO satellites.
For the next generation of SAR sat-
ellites, DLR contracted Airbus D&S
to develop an antenna demonstra-with coolers and anamorphotic mirrors and telescopes. Compact design is also a major driver in LIDAR projects. As a result, direct laser wavelength generation and optical component integration without complicated mounts are currently under development.
Together with ESA, German research and industry is developing a complete pressurized laser transmitter and will qualify it for space operations.
VII. DATA ExPLOITATION PROGRAM
DLR’s data exploitation program [7], [9] combines promo-tion of basic research with market development and ser-vices focusing on national missions, ESA science missions and on Copernicus. Additionally data contributions are put in place for selected international programs such as the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”.
Atmosphere, Meteorology, Climate
SCIAMACHY
12131415161718192021222324 12131415161718192021222324
MERLIN
MET image on MetOp SG
TerraSAR-X &
TanDEM-X TS-X nG
RapidEye RapidEye nG
EnMAP
GRACE GRACE FO
EnMAP-2
HRWS T andem-L
MERLIN nG
Land,
Hazards
Geophysics
Earth observation missions in the German National EO Program.
FIGuRE 2. TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X in formation flight (DLR).
The spectrum of the funding programs includes devel-opment of algorithms and data processors for mission ground segments, calibration and validation activities as well as method development for new applications and services up to the routinely implementation of EO prod-uct chains. In general each national mission is accompa-nied by a dedicated science program starting already in the early phases of the mission to develop state of the art algorithms and processors and to foster a broad scientific user community. Currently research grants are provided for a number of research institutions to prepare for the EnMAP mission, including a PhD program that will start its second phase in 2014. For the MERLIN mission, a sci-ence program is under way that will serve also as a basis for funding programs to be implemented.
Along with the mission launch, the activities are focus-ing more on advanced methods and new application developments. For this purpose research grants have been provided e.g. for the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X missions
in 2006 and 2008, respectively. Further along the value adding chain not only the gain of valuable scientific exper-tise, but also a strengthening of the private sector industry is one of the major objectives of the German data exploita-tion program. Building on good knowledge of data quality
FIGuRE 4. The hyperspectral mission EnMAP (Kayser-Threde GmbH).
The German SAR Roadmap Perspective
TanDEM-X
TerraSAR-X
SRTM
DLR
T erraSAR/P AZ Constellation
TerraSAR-NG
The German SAR Roadmap
HRWS
WorldSAR Constellation
SIR-C/X-SAR
1994
2000
2007
2010
2014
~2018
~2022
FIGuRE 3. The German X-band SAR roadmap.
Atmospheric Methane
m Off
m On
and applicability, key factors for successful service devel-opment are the synergistic use of Earth observation and other data as well as user engagement in an early stage. In the forefront of the Copernicus Sentinel mission launches two funding programs have been initiated, one for appli-cation and service development with emphasis on their combined use with the national operational missions, another fostering the implementation of Earth observa-tion products and services in the governmental bodies. Other important elements to support and promote the development and use of Earth observation are the data access and distribution services for scientific purposes. Scientists can apply for data acquisitions of German EO missions for their specific purposes through standard pro-cesses. Data contributions are also put in place for selected international programs, such as the Global Forest Obser-vation I nitiative, the GEO Geohazard Supersites and the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”.VIII. INTERNATIONAL CHARTER FIGuRE 7. Pressurized laser-housing (Airbus D&S).