Instrument Data quality Evaluation and Analysis Service
(IDEAS)
The IDEAS consortium, headed by VEGA, provides an operational
service to monitor the quality of Earth Observation (EO) instrument
data from European Space Agency (ESA) satellites and selected third
party missions.
Background
With the continual drive towards improved Return on Investment
(ROI), VEGA recognised ESA’s requirement for a Sensor Performance
and Product Assessment (SPPA) service that is required to evolve
and adapt to future Earth Observation
missions. These missions will contribute to the Global Monitoring
for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, a joint European
Union/ESA initiative to provide high-quality environmental
information to key recipients such as scientists, policy-makers and
aid agencies.
The Challenge
ESA’s strive for efficiency required a managed service with an
emphasis on user-orientated service provision, as well as providing
an open multi-mission architecture working across several sites,
each with its own area of expertise. Service-specific tasks
included the detection of Space and ground segment anomalies and
trends, the provision of scientific and technical support to
mission sensors, as well as the maintenance and evolution of the
various instrument data processing software. In addition, the
service had to provide a flexible and scalable environment to
support future Earth Observation missions
and technology. The ESA SPPA team accomplished its mandate by
implementing three support entities: the Expert Support
Laboratories, Validation Teams and the Quality Centres.
with VEGA responsible for the Quality Centres entity.
How VEGA helped
VEGA developed a well respected team of experts within the
Earth Observation domain that focused on
meeting comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs) through a
robust management structure, utilising the best skills and
expertise to meet ESA’s evolution targets for their future
missions. The service supports the following ESA missions: ERS-2,
ENVISAT and GOCE and the following Third Party Missions: Landsat,
SPOT, Orbview-2, Terra/Aqua and ALOS. During 2010, the service is
further evolving to accommodate Cryosat-2, SWARM and SMOS.
The IDEAS service covers:
- Routine Calibration and Validation – The task consists of
supporting the monitoring of Calibration and Validation activities,
as well as reporting on routine sensor calibration.
- Instrument Processor (IPF) Verification and Maintenance and
evolution activities using algorithms developed by the Expert
Support Laboratories.
- Data Quality Control, including the definition of the
procedure, the definition of the requirements, the design and the
development of QC Tools, and the routine data monitoring and
product QC.
- Supporting users via EO Help for technical requests.
- The reporting, including the Mission Status and evolution (e.g.
instrument cyclic and monthly reports), and the functional
reporting (e.g. operation monthly report).
At the heart of the solution is a dedicated team of Earth Observation domain experts delivering to a
Service Level Agreement (SLA) measured by a set of Key Performance
Indicators. A dedicated Service Manager holds responsibility for
meeting these agreed service levels and utilises VEGA’s best of
breed ITIL experience.
Benefits of VEGA’s Solution
ESA and the end user community have benefited in the following
ways from VEGA's solution:
- Deployment of best practices, resources and new technologies,
ensuring future proofing of the service and building and enhancing
the current infrastructure.
- Improved business collaboration and responsiveness, allowing
internal ESA resources to focus on the core business of the
agency.
- Unified SLAs, enabling consistency of response across the
entire service.
- Improved service reliability giving the end users improved
response times which nurtures trust and confidence in the
service.
- Adoption of standard processes and procedures, enabling rapid
incorporation of new missions, delivering real cost savings to
ESA.
- Ultimately, IDEAS delivers a flexible and scalable environment
to support future needs of the GMES programme.