Partners
Established in 1991, Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) is a public institution funded exclusively from its own
resources. ROSA’s mission focuses on coordinating the national programmes for space research and applications, stimulating the national progress in the space domain, representing the Romanian government at international level, and developing its own space research programmes. Research within ROSA is project-oriented, focused on the general objectives of producing science and technology, transferring results to users, integrating the advanced
scientific and technological domains to achieve specific applications with socio-economic impact and generating physical and human infrastructure capacity building.
ROSA is acting as project integrator and developer in the main areas of space research and technology, namely: space exploration and space applications, technologies and systems for processing and managing space data and knowledge management, socio-political research in the fields of space policy and global security, space infrastructure development, etc. The research projects are conducted in specific areas of space applications, such as Earth Observation (EO), satellite navigation, connectivity and communications.
Considering remote sensing applications, ROSA’s projects cover agriculture, cultural heritage, groundwater, hydrology, mining domains, disaster management, etc.
Founded in 1988, Italian Space Agency (ASI) is the national public body tasked with developing and implementing Italy’s space policy in compliance with the Italian Government guidelines. The Agency has become one of the world’s most important players in EO, space science and satellite technologies, is the third contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA), and is actively involved in international initiatives such as the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS).
ASI’s headquarters are located in Rome, while the “Giuseppe Colombo” Center for Space Geodesy (CGS) is the main ASI’s operation centre, located in Matera, southern Italy. The centre hosts ASI’s operational branches and ground segments to collect, store, process and distribute data acquired from EO satellites
such as ASI’s flagship SAR constellation COSMO-SkyMed and HS optical mission PRISMA. PRISMA is a
cutting-edge EO system, equipped with electro-optical tools, which integrates a HS sensor with a medium-resolution camera, sensitive to all colours (panchromatic), that ASI launched in March 2019. PRISMA is operational since May 2020, with a growing image catalogue covering the globe, and represents a fully Italian excellence from satellite
manufacturing to downstream applications. Together with the national scientific and industrial community, ASI has successfully completed the calibration and validation activities of the satellite, as well as the first project aimed to the development of eight software prototypes, able to ingest radiance or reflectance (Level 1/2) HS data and provide product prototypes (Level 3/4) to support a wide range of applications: vegetation indicators for agriculture, water quality for lake and sea water monitoring, fire severity map, fire fuel map and forest fire front to support all the
phases involved in wildfire risk management, volcanic parameters for volcanological studies, material detection and urban classification. Currently the Agency is running the national programme ‘PRISMA SCIENZA’ composed of 15 projects covering agriculture, inland and coastal waters, air quality, ecosystems’ structure and composition, vegetation
and forestry, ice and snow, raw materials, cultural heritage and natural hazards. Such legacy of algorithms development and analytical methods makes ASI and the national ecosystem among the most advanced community in the world in the field of HS remote sensing and applications.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s research centre for aeronautics and space. DLR conducts research and development activities in the fields of aeronautics, space, energy, transport, security and digitalisation. The German Space Agency at DLR plans and implements the national space programme
on behalf of the federal government. In consultation with science, industry, and ESA it implements key national and international projects covering all core areas of space research. Acting on a mandate of the Federal Government, the Space Administration takes on important tasks such as helping to secure the material basis of life through environmental observation, disaster prevention, and resource management. The DLR Earth Observation Center
(EOC) focuses its research on urgent social questions relating to the environment and climate, mobility and planning, prevention and management of natural catastrophes, and civil security. It operates satellite data receiving stations in Germany and abroad and it maintains the German Satellite Data Archive (D-SDA). EOC comprises the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) and the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF). It is responsible for the operational data processing of several national and European remote sensing missions based on its technological
expertise in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and VNIR/SWIR spectroscopy. For more than 20 years EOC has played a key role in the development of hyperspectral remote sensing methods and applications. Its user service Optical Airborne Remote Sensing (OpAiRS) has been an active contributor to the national and European research community. Over the last 20 years, OpAiRS has been continuously supporting research on novel hyperspectral remote sensing methods and calibration & validation (Cal/Val) through the operation of various airborne and ground based imaging spectrometer systems [15,16]. Additionally, it actively engages in European networking projects such as the European Facility for Airborne Research (EUFAR). Based on this experience, EOC is responsible for the operational data processing of the hyperspectral missions DESIS and EnMAP. DESIS is an advanced hyperspectral
instrument developed at DLR and operated on the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) platform on Board the International Space Station (ISS) since 2018. EnMAP is a Germany hyperspectral satellite mission that monitors and characterizes Earth’s environment on a global scale. Since its launch in April 2022, EnMAP measures geochemical, biochemical and biophysical variables providing information on the status and evolution of terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystems. EnMAP data contribute to studies regarding climate change impact and interventions, water availability and quality, land cover changes and surface processes, natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystem processes, hazard and risk assessment. EOC develops and maintains the operational processing chain from L0 → L2 including atmospheric correction and orthorectification for EnMAP. DLR is at the forefront of HS remote sensing science and applications, at global level.