TerraSAR-X Radar Satellite Data GMES Services

Until September 2010, service providers working in the GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security) Programme, a joint initiative of ESA with the European Commission (EC), can request TerraSAR-X data from the Agency. As an add-on to the data delivery contract, Infoterra will enable ESA to place these orders directly.

The necessary adaptations of the TerraSAR-X Ground Segment will be implemented within the next months.

TerraSAR-X, now being a so-called GMES Contributing Mission, is expected to become a key data source particularly for activities addressing emergency / security related issues, reliable monitoring needs, and land use / land cover status and change, both in Europe and beyond. Its unique reliability and high accuracy make it an ideal data source within ESA's multi-mission approach.

In Phase 1 of its GMES Space Component Data Access (GSC-DA) Programme, the European Commission, through ESA, invests a total of 45 Mio Euro in order to supply Earth observation data from fourteen commercial satellite missions to the service providers of a total of five FP7 Services: three GMES Fast Track Services (geoland2, SAFER and MyOcean); and two Pilot Service Projects (GMOSAIC and MACC-Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate), as well as the Urban Atlas Project sponsored by DG-Regio.

In a second step, the agency plans to install a harmonized data ordering interface that will enable ESA's experts to directly assess and access the acquisition capabilities of all civil Earth observation missions involved. With this Phase 2 starting in 2010, Infoterra expects not only a continuation of the data provision agreement, but some fundamental technical work to design the necessary interfaces between the ordering processes of the TerraSAR-X Ground Segment and the envisaged central ESA tool.