The EO-ALERT project addresses the problem of the delivery of Earth Observation data products to End Users with a high throughput. This throughput is measured in EO-ALERT as the latency (i.e. time elapsed) between the satellite observation and the moment that the Earth Observation data product is available to the End User on ground. In current civil satellite systems, this latency is at best in the order of 15 minutes to 60 minutes globally, and in many systems is significantly more, in the order of several hours to days. In EO-ALERT, the goal is to reduce this latency down to 1 minute, leading to the provision of Earth Observation data products with very low latency (almost-real-time). To do this, EO-ALERT proposes the combination of edge-computing and global persistent communications. The project defines and develops the next-generation EO data processing chain, based on a novel flight segment architecture that moves optimised key EO data processing elements from the ground segment to on-board the satellite, with the aim of delivering the EO products to the end user with very low latency (almost-real-time, < 1 minute). In this architecture, priority is given to the generation and transfer of the Earth Observation data products to ground, over the transfer of the basic sensor raw data, through on-the-fly reconfigurable of the on-board data handling and communications links.
Low latency in the provision of Earth Observation data products is of importance always. It is particularly important in specific scenarios, such as Disaster Monitoring and Civil Security, where the is a need to respond to the observed event as quickly as possible. This can save lives and also serves generally to limit the impact of extreme events on the civil population and infrastructure. The provision of very low latency (almost-real-time) Earth Observation data products also enables the use of Earth Observation products as part of the operations and monitoring in real time of remote assets, such as off-shore wind farms and reservoirs. It is expected that, as Earth Observation data products are increasingly provided with very low latency (almost-real-time), approaching the goal of 1 minute, End Users will include such products in their operations, and applications will grow to exploit this data such that is becomes an intrinsic part of civilians daily lives and operations.
The specific objectives of the EO-ALERT project are:
- Identify and define, based on market needs, an innovative EO data and processing chain for next generation satellites
- Design, develop, prototype to breadboard and verify the next-generation EO data and processing chain key technologies
- Verify the key EO data & processing chain technologies as an integrated chain in the HW bench
- Experimentally validate and evaluate the key technologies as an integrated data and processing chain using EO sensor data acquired for the project
- Position the technologies in the EO market for exploitation in coming European and international EO programs
