Description
The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed an program of Earth Observation (EO): Copernicus program. Its implementation involves the construction, launch and maintenance of a set of remote sensors called Sentinel. ESA promotes the creation of national infrastructure, called National Mirror that allow store and disseminate data collected by these sensors. In response to this purpose, DGT and the IPMA, complementing their different areas of expertise, are formed as partners in the presentation of this application, which has as main objective the creation of this infrastructure for Portugal (IPSentinel). This platform also will be a repository for a set of services and information derived, created by experts and made available to the user community. Whereas if you want the technology infrastructure can accommodate a very high volume of information, DGT and the IPMA will seek a specialized technology partner in this area that can guarantee service levels deemed necessary to the project.
Summary of project results
The IPSentinel infrastructure (IPS) corresponds to an integrated action of Portugal’s active participation in the European Earth Observation (EO) Program - Copernicus. Portugal has been participating in this program since day one, conscious of its strategic importance of the EO topic. The space component of this program is underway and the European satellite constellation Sentinel already has completed the first five launches (of 16): Sentinel 1A and 1B, Sentinel 2A and 2B and Sentinel 3A. The IPS allows free and secure immediate access to Sentinel data, namely those collected through the Santa Maria Collaborative Ground Station, located in the Autonomous Region of Azores. This Station has a privileged access to the Sentinel data benefiting from its geographic location. The provision of images in a simple, fast, free and systematic way will allow the creation of new products and services that will surely constitute essential instruments in the management of the Portuguese territory and its resources. IPS is the outcome of a joint venture of two Portuguese National Agencies, with responsibilities in the definition of strategic management policies for land and marine territory, Directorate-General for Territory (DGT) and the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) The starting point of this project is based on the idea that the European investments on Earth Observation have to be potentiated and offered for all users. The main purpose of the IPS is to provide a simple, fast, free and stable mode to access Sentinel images. As is, the ESA Scientific Data Hub is not providing the expected and necessary download performance to users. IPS platform has been tested to evaluate its performance vs. the ESA Scientific Data Hub, and the data show that with IPS is now possible for Portuguese users to download Sentinel images in a more friendly and efficient environment. In the present the storage provides 35 TB which means that is possible to keep about 1 month and 15 days of products available for download. In that period the most space consuming images are Sentinel 1, corresponding to about 67% the storage capacity and the lower consumer is Sentinel 2 with 5%. The number of products available is mostly from Sentinel 3 with 52% while Sentinel 2 only provides about 14%. When registering in IPS some information are requested like the domain area of interest and the area of usage of the images, this information intends to permit a better understand of the users. Since April to November 2017 the number of users has been increasing (296 users registered).
Summary of bilateral results