For all new Earth observation missions, a crucial part of the development process, after defining and designing the instruments, is to assess the future performance of the sensors. In addition, the algorithms being developed to transform the satellite data into usable information products also have to be tested.
In order to make these assessments, ESA organises test campaigns using airborne instruments that closely match the characteristics of the spaceborne sensors. The effort is coordinated with ground-based teams that collect complementary scientific data for calibration and evaluation.
One such campaign was recently completed for Sentinel-3, which is the third in a series of five space missions ESA is developing for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative. Led by the European Commission, GMES will fulfil the growing need among European policy-makers to access accurate and timely information services to manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change, and ensure civil security.
The ‘Sentinel-3 Experiment’ campaign – or Sen3Exp for short – involved a series of coordinated activities with scientists making ground-based measurements in Spain, Italy and the Ligurian and Adriatic Seas, while aircraft with sensitive instrumentation passed overhead and satellites acquired data simultaneously from space. The result is a comprehensive dataset of imagery and ground-truth information that can be used to simulate Sentinel-3 optical data, test the processors under development to generate the data products, and analyse whether these data products will satisfy the requirements of the user communities.
The campaign's Principal Investigator, Dr Carsten Brockmann, confirmed that, “A unique, comprehensive and valuable dataset has been created that will significantly support the development of the Sentinel-3 mission.”Primarily, Sentinel-3 will support services related to the marine environment, such as maritime safety services that need ocean surface-wave information, ocean-current forecasting services that need surface-temperature information, and sea-water quality and pollution monitoring services that require advanced ocean colour products from both the open ocean and coastal areas. Sentinel-3 will also serve numerous land, atmospheric and cryospheric application areas such as land-use change monitoring, forest cover mapping and fire detection.
The Sen3Exp campaign began in June in Barrax, La Mancha, Spain. An aircraft operated by the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), equipped with three hyperspectral imaging spectrometers, made two flights over the area. Meanwhile, satellite data were acquired by Envisat’s MERIS and AATSR and by the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) aboard ESA’s Proba-1 satellite. At the same time, ground teams, under the direction of Prof. Jose Moreno from the University of Valencia, made atmospheric radiometric and biophysical measurements.
The campaign then moved to Pisa in Italy, from where a pine forest at San Rossore could be reached. At San Rossore, Prof. Federico Magnani from the University of Bologna oversaw the week-long ground measurement programme. The dataset was again complemented with MERIS, AATSR and CHRIS satellite data.In July, activities focused on the marine environment where measurements were taken at two oceanic sites: the Boussole monitoring buoy in the Ligurian Sea and the Aqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT) in the Adriatic Sea, close to Venice. Both sites have played an important role in supporting ocean colour algorithm development and product validation for many years.
Scientists take nanoparticle snapshots
11.02.2016 | DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
New paths for generation of ultracold molecules
11.02.2016 | Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik
Today, plants and microorganisms are heavily used for the production of medicinal products. The production of biopharmaceuticals in plants, also referred to as “Molecular Pharming”, represents a continuously growing field of plant biotechnology. Preferred host organisms include yeast and crop plants, such as maize and potato – plants with high demands. With the help of a special algal strain, the research team of Prof. Ralph Bock at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam strives to develop a more efficient and resource-saving system for the production of medicines and vaccines. They tested its practicality by synthesizing a component of a potential AIDS vaccine.
The use of plants and microorganisms to produce pharmaceuticals is nothing new. In 1982, bacteria were genetically modified to produce human insulin, a drug...
Atomic clock experts from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) are the first research group in the world to have built an optical single-ion clock which attains an accuracy which had only been predicted theoretically so far. Their optical ytterbium clock achieved a relative systematic measurement uncertainty of 3 E-18. The results have been published in the current issue of the scientific journal "Physical Review Letters".
Atomic clock experts from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) are the first research group in the world to have built an optical single-ion clock...
The University of Würzburg has two new space projects in the pipeline which are concerned with the observation of planets and autonomous fault correction aboard satellites. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy funds the projects with around 1.6 million euros.
Detecting tornadoes that sweep across Mars. Discovering meteors that fall to Earth. Investigating strange lightning that flashes from Earth's atmosphere into...
Physicists from Saarland University and the ESPCI in Paris have shown how liquids on solid surfaces can be made to slide over the surface a bit like a bobsleigh on ice. The key is to apply a coating at the boundary between the liquid and the surface that induces the liquid to slip. This results in an increase in the average flow velocity of the liquid and its throughput. This was demonstrated by studying the behaviour of droplets on surfaces with different coatings as they evolved into the equilibrium state. The results could prove useful in optimizing industrial processes, such as the extrusion of plastics.
The study has been published in the respected academic journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
Exceeding critical temperature limits in the Southern Ocean may cause the collapse of ice sheets and a sharp rise in sea levels
A future warming of the Southern Ocean caused by rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere may severely disrupt the stability of the West...
09.02.2016 | Event News
02.02.2016 | Event News
26.01.2016 | Event News
11.02.2016 | Life Sciences
11.02.2016 | Physics and Astronomy
11.02.2016 | Earth Sciences