ADEN: Ground Segment Development

VEGA and ESRIN worked together to design and developed ADEN PDS components, and installed them at ESRIN, at an Off-Line Archive Processing (OLAP) Centre and at ground stations in the ADEN region.

 

Challenge

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) was conceived by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and was designed to support regional observation, disaster monitoring, cartography and resource surveying. The mission concept called for data to be made available through regional partners with responsibly for servicing requests for data in their geographical areas. The ALOS remote-sensing instruments are:

 

  • A Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) for digital elevation mapping
  • Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type 2 (AVNIR-2) for precise land coverage observation
  • A Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) for day-and-night and all-weather land observation

 

ESA is the regional partner responsible for developing and operating the necessary infrastructure in the Europe, Africa and Middle East region. This infrastructure is referred to as the ALOS Data European Node (ADEN).

 

The Payload Data Segment (PDS) is a major component of the ADEN. In 2002, a VEGA-led consortium was selected by ESA’s Research Institute (ESRIN) to develop the ADEN PDS. The contract called for VEGA to design and develop ADEN PDS components, and to install and support them at ESA’s Research Institute (ESRIN), at an Off-line Archive Processing (OLAP) Centre and at one or more ground station located in one of the ESA member states and/or elsewhere in the ADEN region, including Africa.

 

Value delivered

The ADEN PDS provides both an Off-Line Service and a Near Real Time Service. The main features of the Off-Line Service are:

 

  • Data ingestion – most data is supplied on magnetic media from Japan
  • Data archiving and retrieval – designed to be compatible with existing archives
  • Data processing – science processing algorithms are hosted on a Linux cluster
  • Product dissemination – either on magnetic media or via FTP
  • User requests – mediated by ESRIN’s Technical User Services Centre (TUSC)
  • Mission planning – co-ordinated with the ALOS mission control centre in Japan

 

Reflecting the increasing importance of EO data to disaster relief efforts, rapid access to products is also possible, using the Near Real Time Service. Raw data can quickly be acquired directly from the ALOS satellite by an X-band station and products derived from this data can then be disseminated within hours.

 

Re-use potential

The ADEN PDS was designed with re-use in mind. The system design is modular, portable, scalable and flexible. Key features include:

 

  • Interfaces to existing back-end archive and retrieval systems
  • Scaleable science processing architecture able to support third party algorithms
  • Realisation of subsystems as "Generic Elements"
  • Support for interfaces to ESA multi-mission facilities
  • Scaleable system architecture based on PC Server and Linux Platform