The RapidEye System
Presentation for the
Ground Segment Coordination Body (GSCB) Workshop
June 19th and 20th at ESA/ESRIN, Frascati
RapidEye proprietary information 1 OVERVIEW – Mission Characteristics
z Number of satellites: 5
z Orbit altitude: 630 km in sun-synchronous orbit
z Equator crossing time: approximately 11:00 a.m. - descending
z Swath width: 77 km
z Revisit time: Daily
z Image capture capacity: 4 million km²/day
z Sensor type: Multi-spectral push broom imager
z Spectral bands: 5 (blue, green, red, red edge, NIR)
z Ground sampling distance (nadir): 6.5 m
z Pixel size (orthorectified): 5 m RapidEye proprietary information 2 OVERVIEW – System Diagram
Custom e r Sa te llite Co ntro l Ce nt re
X-band Station(s) E-Co m m e rce Platform Ground Segment - a rchiv e - ca ta lo g ue - preprocessing - planning - order handling
Registered Custom e r Product Processing System Ext e rna l Data Providers RapidEye proprietary information 3 OVERVIEW – Getting Close to Launch
> Three satellites completely assembled
> First one has completed all tests - acceptance review end June
> Next two undergoing environmental tests
> Fourth satellite in final assembly
> Fifth satellite final assembly will take place early July
> Launch date remains stable, before end of 2007
> Ground Segment completely installed at RapidEye
> All individual systems accepted
> Integration tests are proceeding per plan RapidEye proprietary information 4 OVERVIEW – Growing Company
> RapidEye is located in Brandenburg, Germany, near Berlin
> RapidEye incorporated in 1997 in Munich
> RapidEye has right now 31 shareholders
> RapidEye currently employs about 60 employees
> MDA of Canada is the General Contractor for the Space Segment and the Ground System pre-processing the data
> RapidEye is developing all the value adding image data processing and interpretation systems
RapidEye proprietary information 5 Data and Products Offering
> Information and interpreted data based on acquired images, tailored to customers’ needs, covering many applications, including:
> Land cover analysis
> Change detection
> Infrastructure monitoring
> Feature identification
> Risk management
> Crop identification
> Standard data products:
> Fully orthorectified, 25 x 25km image tiles (from archive or tasked)
> Raw and only radiometrically processed data available as special order RapidEye proprietary information 6 Mission Data Availability
> RapidEye data will be available
> From our extensive image data archive - raw and orthorectified data
> From an E-commerce service archive - orthorectified data
> By submitting orders for new data
> By submitting orders for non-standard data products (e.g. DEMs, partially processed data, etc.)
> In standard formats: NITF, geoTIFF, PIX
RapidEye proprietary information 7 GROUND SEGMENT – User Interface
> Data can be ordered
> For registered customers
> Through the RapidEye website portal - supports browsing, ordering of archived data and new data, and order progress monitoring
> Via an Electronic Order Interface - enables customers to generate orders with a local application and submit them directly, in electronic form, to the RapidEye system
> For everyone
> Through an E-Commerce platform - supports browsing, ordering, electronic payment and delivery functions – available to anybody
> Through an world-wide network of distributors
RapidEye proprietary information 8 GROUND SEGMENT – Main Functions
> Customer order handling
> Order progress and status monitoring
> Data processing
> Acquisition planning (for new data - satellite tasking)
> Archive and Catalogue management
> Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) generation
> Sensors calibration
RapidEye proprietary information 9 GROUND SEGMENT – Archive
> On-line archive
> About 2 days worth of data
> Working archive for image data cataloguing and processing
> Near-line archive
> About 6 months worth of data
> Magnetic tapes, stored in two tape robots
> Raw data and orthorectified image tiles
> Automated access to data
> Off-line archive
> Magnetic tapes on shelves
RapidEye proprietary information 10 GROUND SEGMENT – Data Preservation > Off-line archive
> Data preservation at least 10 years
> Climate controlled room
> All required tape preservation activities will be performed
> Backup Off-site archive
> Duplicate copy of raw data
> Generated at on-line to near-line archive data migration
> Magnetic tapes on shelves
> In different building
> Same environment and tape maintenance as for off-line archive
RapidEye proprietary information 11 GROUND SEGMENT – Interfaces to Other Systems
> None are foreseen at the present time
> However,
> the EOI mechanism provides a powerful XML interface to the Order Handling System (e.g. tasking)
> interface to “feed” the E-Commerce platform archive may allow the implementation of other interfaces
RapidEye proprietary information 12 RapidEye in the GMES context
> RapidEye welcomes the GMES initiatives and is willing to
> Contribute with value-added services (e.g land cover analysis, crop typing)
> Share mission data
> Opportunities
> GMES will create more demand for data and services
> Challenges
> RapidEye: Information provider or Data provider? ... both!
RapidEye proprietary information 13 Conclusion
> RapidEye services and data …
> Available in 2008
> World-wide high resolution data …
> … collected in very large quantities with a constellation of five satellites
> Powerful satellite tasking capability
> Different ways to access, depending on customer requirements
> Extensive information extraction and data interpretation services
RapidEye proprietary information 14 RapidEye proprietary information 15