Division 5.1 Satellites-Based Observation

The satellite data necessary for product development shall be provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the context of the Copernicus satellite image Data Ware House (DWH). The following list of data sensors shall be considered: High resolution and very high resolution optical sensors in the Visible near infrared (VNIR) domain, complemented with High Resolution SAR sensors and Medium Resolution optical sensors in the Short wave infrared (SWIR) domain.

The Global Land systematic monitoring of the Earth shall be based on spectro-radiometer, microwave radiometer, altimeter and synthetic aperture radar satellite data spatial and temporal composites. Polar Orbiting and Geostationary satellites shall be used in the production and shall deliver their data in near real time in order to provide the variables to the users, less than three days after each 10 days period. To ensure the continuity of the observations and the availability of long time series, several sensors shall be combined Inter-calibrated data shall be requested.

The land cover and land use mapping elements of the Local, Pan-European and Global components shall be based on High Resolution and Very High Resolution spectro-radiometer and synthetic aperture radar satellite data. Historical data shall be also required for change analysis. The Pan-European mapping shall be based on a complete multi-temporal EU39 coverage. Sentinel 1 and 2 shall be operationally integrated in the process. They shall be complemented with VHR resolution satellite data for specific applications and for validation purposes.