Earth Observation Plans: by Measurement
Introduction
In late 2016 there were around 130 CEOS agency Earth observation satellites operating and providing important data about Earth and its environment, helping us to develop our understanding of the basic Earth System and human influences on it. These data cover measurements of a very wide range of geophysical parameters, spanning the whole spectrum of the environment – atmosphere, land, oceans, and ice. This section considers some of the key observations contributed by Earth observation satellites, as indicated in the table.
This list is not exhaustive, but it does include many key measurements of interest to the main user groups of Earth observation satellite data, and describes a significant part of the capability of current and planned instruments – including those related to the Essential Climate Variables that are largely measured by satellite.
This section identifies the satellite instruments that primarily contribute data for any particular measurement from the list shown and indicates the plans for future provision of that measurement over the next 15 years. Measurement continuity is a key requirement, particularly for climate applications and environmental change detection, in order to detect and quantify long-term trends. This section identifies the prospects for achieving that continuity, given the programmes and plans that exist in 2016 – whether it may be provided by a single series of satellites dedicated to a particular measurement, or whether users of that measurement must look to various satellite missions planned by different agencies worldwide to satisfy their information requirements.
The need for this continuity and the necessity to ensure that the measurements obtained by different agencies from different countries can be inter-compared and calibrated to meet the most demanding requirements (typically for climate applications) requires a significant degree of coordination in mission planning and data provision. Harmonisation and maximum cost-effectiveness for the total set of space-based observation programmes is the objective of CEOS. |
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| Measurement categories |
| ATMOSPHERE |
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| Aerosol properties |
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| Atmospheric temperature fields |
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| Atmospheric humidity fields |
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| Atmospheric winds |
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| Cloud type, amount and cloud-top temperature |
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| Cloud particle properties and profile |
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| Liquid water and precipitation rate |
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| Ozone |
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| Radiation budget |
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| Trace gases (excluding ozone) |
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| LAND |
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| Albedo and reflectance |
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| Land topography |
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| Soil moisture |
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| Vegetation |
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| Surface temperature (land) |
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| Multi-purpose imagery (land) |
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| OCEAN |
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| Ocean colour/biology |
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| Ocean topography/currents |
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| Ocean salinity |
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| Ocean surface vector winds |
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| Surface temperature (ocean) |
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| Ocean wave height and spectrum |
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| Multi-purpose imagery (ocean) |
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| SNOW AND ICE |
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| Ice sheet topography |
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| Snow cover, edge and depth |
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| Sea ice cover, edge and thickness |
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| GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC FIELDS |
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| Gravity, magnetic and geodynamic measurements |
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