BIG data: EO innovation Europe LSI-VC#2, 20-22 Jul 2016, LA Bianca Hoersch Sentinel-2 and Contributing Missions Manager ESA

ESA EO Ground Segment evolution strategy [September 2015] The “big” questions: how will EO data be used in 5 years and 10 years from now ? how can Europe maximise the benefits on its public investments with EO satellites (e.g. in terms of knowledge/information creation, of socio-economic benefits) ? How can ESA address the above questions within the ground segment(s) with the other EO stakeholders in Europe: European Commission, in particular through a partnership with DG GROW Public agencies in Europe (national space agencies, Eumetsat, others…) Industry in Europe ESA EO Ground Segment evolution strategy [September 2015]

The ESA EO Ground Segment evolution strategy EO Ground Segment evolution strategy [ESA/PB-EO(2015)34, Sept. 2015] EO outreach element = Thematic value-adding stimulating element Remote sensing expertise enabling element Technical & economical interoperability EO-Innovation Europe Core Ground Segments ASI, CNES, DLR, UKSA, CSA Core Ground Segment Eumetsat Core Ground Segment industry ESA Core Ground Segment Copernicus Core Ground Segment National missions Meteo missions Industry missions ESA missions Sentinel missions data valorisation & discoverability Heritage missions The EO ground segment evolution strategy includes three parts: Evolution of core ground segments Heritage data EO-Innovation Europe

What is an Exploitation Platform ? An innovative operations concept: users access a work environment containing the data and resources required, as opposed to downloading and replicating the data ‘at home’.  A scenario for data intensive exploitation gradually complementing the traditional operations concept for the ground segment “Move User activities to the Data” Exploitation platforms EO software ICT resources EO data non-EO data Exploitation platform (or community platform) = Virtual open and collaborative environment bringing together: data centre (EO and non-EO data) computing resources and hosted processing collaborative tools (processing tools, data mining tools, user tools, …) concurrent design and test bench functions application shops and market place functionalities communication tools (social network) and documentation accounting tools to manage resource utilisation Community Collaboration

Examples of Exploitation Platforms  Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) https://tep.eo.esa.int  For scientific missions (e.g. Earth Explorers), a similar approach would allow a faster maturity of the mission processing algorithms (Mission Exploitation Platform - MEP)  For commercial missions, a similar approach would allow an enlargement of their user base

EO Innovation Europe  a network of exploitation platforms Heritage EO data (e.g. Spot-1, Envisat) Operational public EO data (Sentinel, Meteo) R&D EO data (e.g. Earth Explorers, SWOT) Commercial EO data (e.g. Pleiades, TerraSAR-X) Europe EO Airborne & in-situ data Network of exploitation platforms “EO Innovation Europe” “Big Data” Users R&D remote sensing Users profit-making services Users geosciences Users public services 5 interconnected user groups General public, education, media Objectives of the network concept: Enabling large scale exploitation of EO data Stimulating the innovation with EO data Maximising impact of European EO assets and preserving European independence How: Interoperable/interconnected platforms around a core enabling element Open to multi-source funding initiatives Common governance rules

EO Innovation Europe  three elements European EO data asset Traditional data access: Data pull Data push New paradigm: data hosted processing “Users (activities) to the Data ” ESA missions data EO outreach element = Thematic expertise EO enabling element = Technical & economic interoperability EO stimulating element = Remote sensing expertise EO-Innovation Europe Copernicus missions data Meteo missions data National missions data Commercial missions data Heritage missions data Airborne & in-situ data Traditional data access (data pull, i.e. download, and data push, e.g. Eumetcast) to be gradually complemented by data hosted processing

EO Innovation Europe  the components of an exploitation platform European EO data asset Data hosted processing Data pull Data push EO stimulating & outreach elements = “value-adding layers” acting as a front office EO-Innovation Europe ESA missions data EO enabling element = “commodity layer” acting as a back office Copernicus missions data Meteo missions data National missions data The typical components of an exploitation platform EO data tools exploitation platform front end common enabling elements Commercial missions data Data Processing power Heritage missions data Co-location of processing power & data is an asset Airborne & in-situ data

EO Innovation Europe  an architectural framework European EO data asset Data hosted processing EO-Innovation Europe Data pull Data push EO stimulating & outreach elements = “value-adding layers” acting as a front office EO enabling element = “commodity layer” acting as a back office ESA missions data Copernicus missions data Mutualisation of efforts and investments Stimulation of science & business Meteo missions data marketplaces Data Processing power common enabling elements National missions data Data Processing power Commercial missions data Data Processing power Interoperability & re-use Heritage missions data Airborne & in-situ data Network of (few) enabling infrastructures The mutualisation in the enabling element will stimulate the existence of many platforms funded by different public and private entities in the outreach element

EO Innovation Europe  some current prototyping activities at ESA European EO data asset EO-Innovation Europe Data pull Data push EO stimulating & outreach elements = “value-adding layers” EO enabling element = “commodity layer” ESA missions data Federated identity management Sentinel toolboxes Copernicus missions data Thematic Exp. Platforms (TEPs) Review of data licenses approach EO Librarian (GSTP fund) Meteo missions data Technology Atm. Platform (GSTP fund) Standardisation planning with OGC VIRES Data visualisation (TRP fund) National missions data Research & Service Support (G-POD) ICT Testbed pathfinder (Poland) Architecture study Proba-V Mission Exp. Platform Marketplace study (EARSC) Commercial missions data platform common elements Data Processing power Heritage missions data Data Processing power Airborne & in-situ data Data Processing power

The licence challenge Platforms bring together EO data from different missions/ data providers Licences should be interoperable Users should not be bothered with various licence documents Hosted processing allows technical control of data usage and results download Licences need to define clearly: Allowed usage (view/ processing) Ownership of processing results Allowed download of processing results Access to processing results for third parties (e.g. users’ customers)

Working on it ESA, together with the European Commission (DG GROW), organises a one-day workshop on the potential harmonization of EO Data-as-a-Service licenses in Europe (October 2016). Attendance planned by commercial and institutional EO data providers Process: Questionnaire to evaluate positions before workshop Workshop to discuss use-cases and potential licence solutions Follow-up workshop may be proposed to conclude on principles or licence “tool kit”

 coordinated programming lines EO Innovation Europe  coordinated programming lines Common concept & partnership, for synchronised programming, cooperative funding EOEP-5 (EO Exploitation Platforms) Heritage Data (LTDP+), Earthnet National/commercial missions data access Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment “EO Market Place” Copernicus Data and Information Access Services Open Science Cloud GEOSS Common Infrastructure EU …. Open to additional actors

Consequences for CEOS ARD definition document? ARD as defined today in the document is one way of ‘easing’ access to data …but not the only one In Copernicus alone, there is a variety of what could be defined as ARD e.g. atmospherically corrected products/tiles Selection of best cloud-free orbits/orbit segments to compose a cloud-free coverage with the least number of products possible in any given time Spatially and temporally resampled mono-mission products, e.g. monthly or seasonal mosaics Spatially and temporally resampled multi-mission products, e.g. monthly or seasonal mosaics Derived information e.g. leaf area index, water occurrence etc. etc. …not all of those ‘ARD’ are necessarily produced by Space Agencies, also by Copernicus Services  Platforms and hosted processing will allow a large variety and tailor-made use of EO data and derived information, at any ‘level’ required by the user community Approach is explained in FDA document…