TerraSAR-X Radar Satellite Data GMES Services

A framework contract covering the acquisition and provision of TerraSAR-X radar satellite data worth EUR2.2 million, as well as the implementation of a direct ordering tool for this data, worth another EUR200,000, has been awarded to Infoterra GmbH. The respective agreement has now been signed by the Director of Earth Observation at the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Volker Liebig, and Joerg Herrmann, Managing Director of Infoterra GmbH.  

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.