ESA Earth Observation 2023 - wrapped!

Earth Observation in 2023 – WRAPPED!

I want to recap on what has happened over the past six months to keep you in the loop as well to give you a look ahead to 2024 – some challenges and objectives as well as some personal reflections.

We are already starting to look at ESA’s 2025 Ministerial Council.

The implementation of the programmes decided at CM 22 is progressing smoothly and it’s important we make sure to go forward without delays. This is essential if we want to assure the next steps of granting support to the Ministerial 2025.

During the Space Summit held in Seville on November 6-7, Climate and Sustainability was one of the three main topics addressed by Ministers – the other topics being launchers and exploration. Ministers were extremely supportive of the Climate and Sustainability topic, highlighting the relevance of continuing Earth Observation missions in the science domain and in the operational field with Meteorological and Copernicus missions. The need to valorise the use of EO data was recognised as as well as the necessity to make plans for launching new missions in support to climate challenges. The Space for Green Future accelerator, where EOP is in the lead, was also widely acknowledged. Overall, I consider the outcome of the Summit very promising.

2023 also saw continuation of commercialisation efforts and rapid growth of New Space. The first EO Commercialisation Forum was held at the end of October and you can read my thoughts on it in this recap I posted: LinkedIn.

A final note: ESA EO had a significant presence at COP28. Methane and CO2 monitoring can be greatly supported by satellites data, with particular respect to the Global Stocktake.

But let’s have a look at what our missions have achieved in 2023: The Earth Explorers in orbit continued to deliver crucial data for science, within the remit of their original scope and beyond. Thank you for all your hard work the successes here.

The quality of the Swarm, CryoSat and SMOS products continues to be excellent.

Aeolus performed well beyond its nominal lifetime and its controlled re-entry a world first was successfully concluded on 28 July 2023.

There has been a lot of progress on preparing Future Missions in the past 6 months.

EE11 - the four candidate missions selected for Phase 0 were addressed at a User Consultation Meeting 10-11 October in Bucharest, and by ACEO with PB-EO approving the recommendation by ACEO of Cairt and Wivern missions.

NGGM/MAGIC - a joint ESA-NASA science and applications workshop was held 2-3 November in Assisi,  with conclusions and strong message by the science community for cooperation plans on gravity missions with the US .

Activities on the Next Generation of current Sentinels are progressing as planned; thank you to all the teams involved.

Progress on the Earth Explorers under development has also been nominal but let me highlight some major elements:

EarthCARE: The satellite is undergoing some last checks before being prepared for shipment to Vandenberg Airforce Base launch site early next year. The launch slot is formally agreed to be May 2024. Besides the launch campaign preparation, efforts are now devoted to the preparation of the commissioning and validation of the satellite with multiple campaigns. These efforts will make sure we can offer the best data to the science community.

Biomass: the satellite is entering its last integration phase in Toulouse.

Major progress was also made on Harmony, FLEX, FORUM and HydroGNSS over the past 6 months.

Two Φ-lab-enabled satellites, MANTIS and INTUITION-1, launched on 11 November.

This year our EC-ESA cooperation on science has been fantastic with a dedicated SA-DG-RTD workshop that took place in Italy about the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative: Science for a Green a Sustainable Society.

Now for Copernicus:

Copernicus Sentinels missions continue to provide valuable data and information on the state and health of the planet with massive user uptake and growth continuing to provide benefits for society with increasing number of registered users.

Some highlights to be mentioned are:

We made good progress on all expansion missions for which we have closed all PDR and initiated their C phase. This is key to give confidence to the Member States and the European Commission in the continuation of all 6 missions.

2023 was also the year we launched the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem Service.

The Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem is now the single-entry point for all users after the smooth migration of all users and ramp down of the Copernicus Data Hub Service.

Moreover, 2023 was the year we started seeing results from the first EUMETSAT Meteosat Third Generation satellite.

For Meteosat Third Generation – Imager 1 (MTG-I1) the commissioning is largely completed and the mission is proving to be exceptional, delivering high quality data from its primary instrument but also from the lighting imager. Regarding the Sounder, the satellite has been fully integrated and shipped to IABG where it is currently completing its TVAC tests.

As for MetOp-SG Satellites - great progress was also made in the past 6 months culminating with the recent event at Toulouse where the 2 satellites were present at the same time. I would like to thank all colleagues involved.

For Arctic Weather Satellite, the satellite is fully integrated and functional testing is on-going as planned for a nominal launch planned for June 2024.

A few more updates I am proud to share:

TRUTHS: The procurement for the Phase B2/Advance C has been completed and Phase B2 kicked off with a dedicated signature event (insert link to article) at the COP28 highlighting the relevance of this mission for climate monitoring.

Digital Twin Earth: the activities for ESA Digital Twin Earth are progressing according to the workplan and in line with preparations of DestinE entry into operations.  

In 2023 we also saw a lot of progress for EO National Programmes:

IRIDE: the Italian National Project IRIDE PNRR is taking shape and progresses rapidly passing its first critical milestones on time. The programme, implemented via a ‘Technical Assistance Arrangement’ between Italian Government and ESA, is managed via an ‘Integrated Project Team’ (IPT).

The Spanish Agreement for ESA’s Assistance to Spain concerning Earth Observation is moving ahead to implement the Spanish contribution to the Atlantic Constellation.

Similarly, the agreement with Poland has been finalised, signed and will now move forward with ITT release in Q1 2024.

Lastly, Greece requested to re-integrate some EO activities into their agreement initially dedicated to communication activities. A way forward has been identified with the Greek authority and is now under implementation, making now 4 active national programmes for EO.

The implementation of the National Agreements will not have an adverse impact on the Earth Observation programmes; on the contrary, it is in the interest of the Agency and its Member States, as it will allow for coherence and synergies with the existing and future activities and programmes

In 2023 we reinforced our current collaborations while also setting up new partnerships.

ESA concluded its 2-year chairing of the Strategic Implementation Team after hosting a technical workshop at ESRIN in October and handing over to JAXA at the CEOS plenary held last month.

We continued our good partnership with DG INTPA with the implementation of Copernicus activities in the Philippines and Latin America/Caribbean countries (COPPhil and COPLAC) with additional activities under discussion.

A new agreement was signed with DG CLIMA and an MoU with the United National Environment Programme was also signed this year.

This is great progress to ensure that EO data can be used to support the Green Transition and the Paris Agreement Goals.