New scientific challenges and goals for ESA's Living Planet Programme (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

27 September 2006

New scientific challenges and goals for ESA's Living Planet Programme

ESA announces a new science strategy for the future direction of its Living
Planet Programme, addressing the continuing need to further our
understanding of the Earth System and the impact that human activity is
having.

The Changing Earth: New Scientific Challenges for ESA's Living Planet
Programme focuses on the most fundamental challenge facing humanity at the
beginning of the 21st century -- that being global change. As we begin to
understand more about the Earth as a system, it is very apparent that human
activity is having a profound and negative impact on our environment. For
example, our understanding of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and the
strong link between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and
temperature both point to human activity leading to a warmer world, unlike
anything seen over the last million years. A better knowledge of the Earth
System and the impact that increasing human activity is having is of crucial
importance in providing the basis for the management of our environment and
our ability to derive sustainable benefit.

Since observing the Earth from space first became possible more than forty
years ago, satellite missions have become central to monitoring and learning
about how the Earth works. Looking to the future, the new strategy for ESA's
Living Planet Programme aims to assess the most important Earth-science
questions to be addressed in the years to come. It outlines the
observational challenges that these raise, and the contribution that the
Agency can make through the programme. Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth
Observation stated, "These challenges will guide ESA's efforts in providing
essential Earth-observation information to all relevant user communities, in
close cooperation with our international partners."

Underpinning the new strategy is a set of ambitious objectives, which
include:

* Launch a steady flow of missions addressing key issues in Earth science.
* Provide an infrastructure to allow satellite data to be quickly and
efficiently exploited in areas of research and applications.
* Provide a unique contribution to global Earth Observation capabilities,
complementing satellites operated by other agencies and in-situ observing
systems.
* Provide an efficient and cost-effective process whereby science priorities
can be rapidly translated into space missions, adequately resourced with
associated ground support.
* Support the development of innovative approaches to instrumentation.

ESA has been dedicated to observing the Earth from space ever since the
launch of its first meteorological mission, Meteosat, back in 1977.
Following the success of this first mission, the subsequent series of
Meteosat satellites developed by ESA and operated by the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT),
together with ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat have been providing us with a wealth
of invaluable data about the Earth, its climate and changing environment.

Since its conception in the 1990s, ESA's Living Planet Programme has grown
to include the family of Earth Explorers, the well-established
meteorological missions and the development of the space component for GMES
(Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), which is a joint
initiative between the European Commission and ESA.

When the Living Planet Programme was first established a new approach to
satellite observations for Earth science was formed by focusing on the
missions being defined, developed and operated in close cooperation with the
science community. By involving the science community right from the
beginning in the definition of new missions and introducing a peer-reviewed
selection process, it is ensures that a resulting mission is developed
efficiently and provides the exact data required by the user. So far, this
approach has resulted in the selection six Earth Explorer missions with
another six currently under assessment study. Two Earth Explorer satellites
are scheduled for launch next year -- GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State
Ocean Circulation Explorer) and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity).

While the Earth Explorer series forms the science and research element of
the Living Planet Programme the so-called Earth Watch element is designed to
facilitate the delivery of Earth-observation data for use in operational
services. Earth Watch includes the well-established meteorological missions
with EUMETSAT and new missions focusing on the environment and civil
security under GMES. Within this element of the programme, the MetOp
mission, which was jointly established by ESA and EUMETSAT, will be Europe's
first polar-orbiting weather satellite when it is launched in October.

Although the Earth Watch element of the programme is designed to provide
data that underpins operational services, it will also contribute
significantly to Earth science, in particular through the collection of
longer time series of observations than those provided by research missions.
In turn, the Earth Explorers will provide new understanding that paves the
way for new operational services. This synergy is also highlighted in the
Living Planet Programme's strategy for the coming years.

With the Living Planet Programme's new strategy in place, ESA will build on
past success by continuing to play a central role in developing the global
capacity to understand planet Earth, predict environmental changes and help
mitigate the negative effects of global change on the population.

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM84CVHESE_index_1.html ]

In depth

* Living Planet Programme
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/index.html
* Earth Explorers
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPearthexp.html
* GMES
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPgmes.html
* Meteorological missions
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/LPmeteomiss.html
* Observing the Earth
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/index.html

Related links

* The Changing Earth -- SP-1304 (pdf)
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/SP-1304.pdf