Making Earth-observation data accessible
To make Earth-observation data accessible to the wider community, the Space Applications Institute (SAI), part of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, has recently published a report giving an overview of its current and planned spaceborne Earth observation systems. The report provides detailed information on the characteristics of operational spaceborne Earth-observation sensors. It details the SAI missions, instruments, orbits, products and indicative costs. Most categories outlined in the report also include links to Internet addresses for further information. The publication particularly stems from a specific need for Earth-observation data in the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) project, HydAlp, which is preparing to use remote sensing in hydrological models in order to improve the management and conservation of water resources. The SAI produced the report under the ASTRON project (Applications on the synergy of satellite telecommunications Earth observation and navigation). This project was initiated as a spin-off of the CEO programme, and is aimed at investigating the synergies between space technologies. It is hoped to introduce innovative and sustainable services and applications based on the convergence of digital information from satellites