VENUS

1. VENUS (Vegetation and Environment New µ-Spacecraft) A demonstration space mission dedicated to land surface environment in the framework of GMES Selma CHERCHALI, Directorate for Strategy and Programmes, Earth Observation Land Environment Programme Manager

2. Context and objectives of the mission Despite the existing panoply of space sensors, appropriate measurements tools are still lacking Very high spatial and temporal variability of earth surfaces parameters, e.g. fast vegetation growth in small crop fields Earth observation missions currently covering either the temporal variability (AVHRR, VEGETATION, MERIS, MODIS, MSG…) or the spatial variability (SPOT, Landsat…) Increasing scientific and social demand in environment issues related to land surface environment, e.g. sustainable development, management of water resources and natural or cultivated ecosystems... Recent and significant scientific advances in the modelling of land surface processes at all scales Conciliating the capability to characterise the high spatial variability of land surfaces with its rapid evolution in time is the main driving force of the mission concept

3. Monitoring and understanding the vegetation cycles to improve functioning models Access to the dynamic of surfaces Useful information over land retrieved from remote sensing data Reflectances, vegetation index, leaf area index, albedo, surface temperature, solar irradiance, precipitation Land cover maps Net primary productivity (from simplified model forced by remote sensing data) Time evolution of these variables ... Need to provide simultaneously high spatial resolution and high temporal revisit data to solve land cover heterogeneity and vegetation dynamics Context and objectives of the mission

4. VENµS Objectives To provide data for research on land surface functioning : land cover & land use, water and carbon exchanges, snow To provide data for research on land surface functioning : land cover & land use, water and carbon exchanges, snow Data assimilation Automatic land cover mapping Validation of medium resolution satellite products Demonstration of the use of RS data for the implementation of Environmental regulations (e.g. Grenelle laws in France) Main specificity of Venµs multi-temporal observations with constant observation angles

5. Before the operational space infrastructure, VENUS is a demonstration mission aiming at studying the technical feasibility of the concept and at developing scientific methods over a sample of ground research sites Developing new processing algorithms is one of Venµs missions VENUS is a demonstration mission which aims is to demonstrate the benefit of superspectral, high resolution, high revisit frequency, and high quality measurements. One objective of VENUS is i) to be the precursor of an operational mission (Sentinel 2) with such characteristics and full global coverage and ii) to develop pre-processing algorithms, methods, and applications that will use these data. (From Venµs Mission Requirements)‏ VENUS : a demonstration mission in the framework of GMES

6. Image Features • Venµs image characteristics • Resolution 5m-10m, • Field of View 27 km • 12 spectral bands from 412 to 910 nm • Systematic acquisition of 50 sites every second day • 2 stereoscopic bands with a low angle difference • Constant viewing angle ==> Directional effects are minimised

7. VENmS organization CNES develops and operates the Science Mission Center and Image Ground Segment (SMIGS), and makes the data available to the users • Israeli Space Agency designs, manufactures and tests the VENS Platform (IMPS). Manufactured by IAI-MBT • CNES is responsible for the camera (manufactured by Elop) ~250 kg Scientific mission (720 km) 2.5 years 2012 Orbit change 3 months Technological mission (410 km) – 1 year End of the commissioning phase Launch electrical propulsion system

8. Programmatic aspects : GMES GMES services dedicated to earth environment are under development and validation by the European Commission and ESA, with the support of national space agencies. Services are expected to be operational by 2013; Services dedicated to land environment are amongst the top priority themes of GMES The GMES Space component (sentinels + national missions) specifications have to fulfil the user requirements (priorities, sensors, revisit time, continuity of data…) especially for the first fast tracks “oceanography”, “land monitoring”, “emergency” (and the next ones : atmosphere, security). The SPOT satellites will be beyond their expected lifetime by 2012 The Sentinel 2 will be the future operational infrastructure for feeding the GMES services (2013) a way up to operational services by 2013

9. Venµs is a scientific mission : limited number of sites, no continuity. Free access to the data. The European Sentinel-2 mission will provide global coverage of high resolution superspectral data, every 10 days with one satellite and every 5 days with two satellites One clear image every 15 to 30 days ESA, coordinator of the GSC, takes into account the national missions and plans in order to make the GSC coherent, complete and affordable for the users/CE. Contribution through national / multi-lateral programme : Demonstration mission : Vénμs Programmatic aspects : GMES

10. And what’s the next? Moreover, a major challenge is to be ready to provide on a operational basis the data and the models required to support the strong evolution of agricultural, environmental and security policies and to feed decision support system (GMES) After the race for resolution, the next step will be ~daily revisit with decametric resolution, everywhere (systematic coverage).