4 Final Report - Emits - ESA

2 Final
Report
15 min. These requirements are not possible to be fulfilled by LEO missions and underline the
strengths of the GeoOculus mission.
The primary region of service provision is the European mainland, nevertheless can it be considered
to provide this service for the whole visible regions (e.g. Africa) with reduced priority to avoid
interruption of other services.
Figure 2.3-2: Forest fires near Los Angeles in October 2003 imaged by the DLR BIRD satellite in
the course of 24 hours. The GSD is 185 m squared. The scale is as follows: yellow =
0,1 MW / Pixel; orange = 1 MW / Pixel; red = 10 MW / Pixel. © DLR
Additional observations of manifold high temperature events, like volcanic activity, tropical peat land
fires and coal seams, mainly for scientific purposes, shall also be covered by this service; hence not
drive the system requirements.
Algal Bloom Detection Service - Primary Objective
An algal bloom refers to a quick and local increase in the abundance of a phytoplankton species. The
so-called Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) are special cases of the former, with deleterious effects on
human health or marine resources (natural or cultured). Therefore the algal bloom detection service is
aimed to detect and locate an algal bloom in European waters. This information shall be incorporated
into the respective GSE MARCOAST service line.
Users include national environment agencies and fisheries industries (aquaculture, shellfish). All
coastal and offshore European waters are concerned (region enclosed between latitudes 35°N and
70° N and longitudes 12°W and 30°E).
Although blooms are relatively well detected by remote sensing technique, the identification of their
possible toxicity from space is far from being achieved. Satellites play a crucial role for forecasting
(combination of EO data with models) and visualising the extent.
Doc. No: GOC-ASG-RP-002 Page 2-5
Issue: 2
Date: 13.05.2009 Astrium GmbH