RESULTS OF THE EO SENTINEL CONVOY STUDY ON THE OCEAN ICE THEME: GAPS, OPPORTUNITIES AND SCIENCE BENEFITS

摘要

As part of its Support to Science Element (STSE)rnprogramme, the European Space Agency (ESA) isrnfunding three EO-Convoy studies, aimed at 1)rnidentifying scientific and operational objectives andrnneeds which would benefit from additional in-orbitrnsupport, and 2) identifying and developing a number ofrncost-effective mission concepts that would meet thesernidentified objectives and needs.rnThe first of these studies, dedicated to ocean & icernapplications, has now been completed. The presentrnpaper highlights the results of this study, in particularrnthe comprehensive user needs analysis which has beenrnderived from Earth science analysis, applications andrnidentification of novel data products. This process hasrnidentified a number of areas with gaps and wherernsupport measurements from additional satellites wouldrnprove valuable. Based on this analysis over ten convoyrnmission concepts were identified. The science benefitsrnof the three concepts that were selected for furtherrnanalysis are also presented.