IAC-14-B1.5.4 I. COSMO-SKYMED MISSION

Transcription

1 IAC-14-B1.5.4 COSMO-SKYMED DATA UTILIZATION AND APPLICATIONS Dr. Maria Girolamo Daraio Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy, Dr. Maria Libera Battagliere Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy, Dr. Patrizia Sacco Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy, Dr. Maria Virelli Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy, Dr. Alessandro Coletta Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy, Italy covers worldwide a leadership position in the field of Earth Observation with radar satellites, thanks to the realization of COSMO-SkyMed constellation (4 satellites in X-band), fully operational starting from COSMO- SkyMed is a dual-use program for both civilian and defense needs resulting from an agreement between the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Italian Ministry of Research. Based on its dual-use conception, the system can be accessed both by Civilian (Institutional and Commercial) or Defence users. Among the institutional users there are international partners, national and international Administrations, Agencies, Research Centres, etc.. A clear evidence of the Italian leading role in the Earth Observation sector is represented by the number of the on-going international cooperation and agreements: with France (ASI-CNES agreement), with Argentina (ASI-CONAE cooperation), with Japan (ASI-JAXA cooperation), with USA (ASI-JPL projects), with Canada (joint Announcement of Opportunity ASI-CSA), with European Space Agency (ESA). A fundamental feature of COSMO-SkyMed system is its expandability, interoperability with other missions and capability to manage different sensors. COSMO-SkyMed system provides data in several application domains such as risk and emergency management, multi-temporal acquisition for agriculture monitoring, ship detection, interferometry, landslides monitoring, maritime surveillance, rapid mapping and security. Considering the overall user community interest and their future needs, a useful archive is also under population through the maximize exploitation of the system (Background Mission). ASI manages either a number of owner projects such as Announcement of Opportunity, Open Call, etc. or several projects based on significant national and international cooperation. The first COSMO-SkyMed Announcement of Opportunity involved hundreds of national and international scientists in various topics and it was closed in In 2013 Italian and Canadian Space Agencies joint effort to stimulate the scientific utilization of Earth Observation data acquired by their respective national missions, COSMO-SkyMed and RADARSAT-2, with an Announcement of Opportunity seeking for basic and applied research and focused on the synergic use of both sensors. In 2014 a channel of access to COSMO-SkyMed data will be opened through the Open Call mechanism for innovative projects based on the exploitation of COSMO- SkyMed system. This paper aims to show some of the results obtained by the utilization and application of COSMO-SkyMed data during the last years. I. COSMO-SKYMED MISSION COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) is an Italian Earth Observation Dual-Use (Civilian and Defence) Space System for global environmental monitoring, scientific and commercial purposes and strategic applications (Defence and National security). The program resulted from an agreement between the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research. It was financed by the Italian Space Agency and cofinanced from the Italian Ministry of Defence. COSMO-SkyMed is the first Earth Observation satellite system in the world to be conceived and developed since the beginning for full dual applications. It was entirely developed and produced in Italy by TAS-I (Thales Alenia Space-Italy) as Prime Contractor, with the support of Telespazio for what concern the Ground Segment, logistic and operations and Selex Galileo. COSMO-SkyMed has been designed to face international partnerships and to integrate itself into a IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 1 of 11

2 multi-mission framework of cooperating multi-sensor systems. The main objective of COSMO-SkyMed system is to provide the user community with SAR data in several application such as agriculture monitoring, ship detection, interferometry, landslides monitoring, maritime surveillance, rapid mapping and security, environmental management, etc.. An overview of the applications developed exploiting COSMO-SkyMed data is given in Section IV, where their economic and strategic relevanceare highlighted, with a not exhaustive set of examples [1], [2]. I.I COSMO-SkyMed System The CSK constellation consists of four mid-sized satellites, each equipped with a microwave highresolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operating in X-band at 9.6 GHz. The first satellite was placed in orbit in June 2007 and the system is fully operational starting from Currently, three of the four satellites have completed their nominal operational life (5.25 years), but the constellation is still operating and providing data with the required image quality (the nominal End Of Life due to the consumables, i.e. fuel sizing, batteries life etc, is 7 years). Recently through the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites), which ensures international coordination of civil space-based Earth observation programs and promotes exchange of data to optimize societal benefit, ASI communicated the extensions of the operational phase. In the following Table 1 the COSMO-SkyMed deployment timeline is summarized [3]. Satellite Launch date Nominal EOL Extended Lifetime PFM Jun 8, 2007 Jun 2014 Jun 7, 2015 FM#2 Dec 9, 2007 Dec 2014 Dec 8, 2015 FM#3 Oct 25, 2008 Oct 2015 Oct 2015 FM#4 Nov 6, 2010 (UTC) Nov 2017 Nov 2017 Table 1: COSMO-SkyMed deployment timeline and status The four satellites follow a heliosynchronous orbit (about 700 km of altitude) around the Earth. The nominal constellation configuration (where the satellites are equi-phased at 90 on the same orbital plane) is conceived to achieve the best compromise among cost and performance, providing a global Earth access of few hours, with at least two opportunities in one day to access the same target site on the Earth surface under different observing conditions (incidence angle). Currently, the constellation is deployed in the Tandem-like configuration, in which the COSMO-2 (FM#2) and COSMO-3 (FM#3) satellites fly in close proximity (67.5 ) to achieve 1-day interferometric configuration as shown in Fig. 1 [1]. Fig. 1: One day Interferometric configuration Each satellite runs orbits a day, hence it repeats the same ground track every 16 days, but the same ground track is repeated by a different satellite every four days and the constellation revisit time is lower than 12 hours [5]. The COSMO-SkyMed Ground Segment is geographically distributed, the two main ground control stations being located at Fucino and Matera Space Centres. The Centro Pianificazione e Controllo Missione (CPCM) in Fucino handles and controls the satellites courses, while the Civil User Ground Segment (C-UGS) in Matera, receives satellite data, processes and delivers the SAR products. Additional support stations are the receiving stations at Cordoba (Argentina) and Kiruna (Sweden), in order to augment the satellite visibility, and about 20 GPS stations, part of the so-called GPS fiduciary network, distributed worldwide. Moreover a scaled version of user terminals able to acquire and process the satellite data are currently deployed all over the world at civilian customer premises. The COSMO-SkyMed system is capable to satisfy a User Request (ability to deliver the image product required by an End User in a timely manner) which in the worst case is of 72 hours for the system working in routine mode (acquisition plan uploaded once a day), 36 hours for the crisis mode (acquisition plan uploaded twice a day) and 18 hours for very urgent mode (acquisition plan uploaded asynchronously). I.II Sensor Mode and Capability Product Description In order to supply data for a wide variety of applications ranging from cartography to emergency response, the SAR payload has been designed in order to acquire a scene in three different modes IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 2 of 11

3 according to the image area and the resolution that can be obtained: SPOTLIGHT (high resolution and medium image area), STRIPMAP (HIMAGE and PING-PONG, medium resolution and large image area) and SCANSAR (WIDE and HUGE REGION, lower resolution and wide image area). In the Table 2 an overview of CSK image modes is reported. Resol. [m] Swath [km] SPOTLIGHT 1x1 10x10 STRIPMAP HIMAGE 3x3 (SL) 5 x 5 (Ml) 40 x40 PING-PONG 15x15 30x30 SCANSAR WIDE REGION SCANSAR HUGE REGION 30x30 100x x x20 0 Possible Pol. [T/R] Single Selectable among HH or VV Single Selectable HH or HV or VH or VV 2 pol. selectable among HH, VV, VH and HV Single Selectable among HH or HV or VH or VV Single Selectable among HH or HV or VH or VV Incidence Angles [deg] (nominal) (extended) Table 2: COSMO-SkyMed acquisition modescosmo-skymed products are divided into three major classes: standard, higher level and service products, these last for internal use only. The standard products are subdivided into five typologies coded as: Level 0 raw data(defined also as on board raw data), Level 1A (Single-look Complex Slant (SCS)); Level 1B (Detected Ground Multi-look (MDG)); Level 1C (Geocoded Ellipsoid product (GEC)); Level 1D (Geocoded Terrain Corrected (GTC)). Higher Level Products include Quick-Looks, Speckle Filtered, Co-registered, Interferometric, Digital Elevation Model (DEM)and Mosaicked products [1][11]. I.III Data Access and User Data Policy Based on dual-use conception, according to an appropriate and well-defined data policy, the system is conceived in order to allocate 25% of its resource to civilian users and 75% to Defense ones. In the Civilian domain we can have institutional and commercial users. ASI provides technical and operational coordination managing the institutional use of the system, whereas the commercial exploitation of the system is implemented through the commercial provider e-geos, an ASI (20%)- Telespazio (80%) Company[2][4]. Among the institutional users there are international partners, national and international Administrations, Agencies, Ministries, Universities, Research Centres, etc.. They sign a specific agreement with ASI to access the system [2]. In order to define the rules and the characteristics of the service that can be required, a profile level is assigned to each Civilian user. Depending on this profile level, the Civilian users can submit ROUTINE (RTN) requests and/or PRIVILEDGED PRIORITY (PP) requests, these last ones having a higher priority than the RTN ones in the requests scheduling. The user profile level also defines the right to trigger the change of the system operating mode (Crisis and Very Urgent) [1][6]. II. DATA UTILIZATION:SYSTEM EXPLOITATION Nominally, the daily acquisition capability of the constellation is 1800 images in 24 hours (75 Spotlight plus 375 Stripmap or 150 ScanSAR for each satellite). The data volume is currently of 475 standard frames new acquisitions per day [5]. On the basis of this value the percentage of the system exploitation is evaluated. Its trend over the period January-December 2013 is showed in Fig. 2, while Fig. 3 shows a map of the geographical distribution of COSMO-SkyMed products required from 2008 to December Currently the industrial team is involved in implementing new developments of COSMO-SkyMed system, having received this task from ASI. Among these developments there is the upgrade, for the Ground System, of the daily data volume (expected for the end of 2014), which currently is limited to 560 products downloadable at the Civilian Ground Segment (with a limitation of 475 new acquisitions for the Civilian domain) [1]. The daily data volume is expected to bel increased, reaching more than 1000 (in terms of standard frames) new acquisitions per day. Fig. 2: Percentage of exploitation in the civil user domain over 2013 IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 3 of 11

4 Fig. 3: Geographical distribution of COSMO-SkyMed products III. DATA UTILIZATION: FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND MISSIONS The Civilian domain exploits the COSMO-SkyMed constellation in the framework of the Foreground mission (Primary mission) and the Background Mission (Secondary mission). The two missions contribute jointly to ensure the full utilization of system resources to meet the needs of civilian Domain. Foreground mission include all project, agreement, specific request on demand that involves institutional and commercial user. Instead the background mission achieves a program of lower priority acquisitions, to assure full exploitation of the system without impair the foreground mission. More details about Foreground and Background missions are reported below with an overview of current institutional Project and on-going national and international cooperation using COSMO-SkyMed product. III.I Background mission the experience gained from previous satellite missions, such as ERS, ENVISAT and RADARSAT- 1has shown the importance of building a useful data archive (catalogue of image) which takes account of commercial and institutional user community interests and advances their future needs[6]. Focus of this Secondary mission is to make available to institutional and commercial user a data archive characterized by systematic acquisition over large areas. A such data archive has proven to be very useful in the past both for commercial that institutional users. In fact, the availability of such data to archive has made possible the development and implementation of new applications and value-added products without the limitation of waiting the time required for data acquisition. Access to an archive of reference data ("reference") is proved crucial for applications of Emergency response. The background mission applies a systematic low priority acquisition strategy, so to obtain regular, repetitive and comparable acquisitions and to minimize possible conflicts with existing user requests, more details are reported in [5][6]. a COSMO-SkyMed Background Mission has been implemented starting in 2011 to build up consistent and strategic data sets considering the overall mission objectives and maximizing the system exploitation during the operational lifetime of the constellation. As indicated above in section III, the daily data volume will increase, fitting the total forecast capability for the Civilian domain and reaching more than 1000 (in terms of standard frames) new acquisitions per day, novel guidelines for the realization of a challenging COSMO-SkyMed Background Mission are currently under definition. This new Background Mission will be agreed upon with the commercial provider, e-geos, in order to pander to institutional user needs and to take in duly account the commercial and operational needs. III.II Foreground mission Cooperations and agreements ASI signed a number of significant cooperation with national institutions and international agencies. In the international framework it is worth of mention: the cooperative agreement signed in 2005 with the Argentina s Space Agency CONAE, called SIASGE (Sistema Italo Argentino di Satelliti per la Gestione delle Emergenze), that is an integrated system composed by COSMO- SkyMed constellation and the two SAOCOM satellites for the synergic use of X and L band SAR. The intergovernmental agreement signed in 2001 between Italy and France, called ORFEO (Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation), that is an Earth observation Dual space system composed by the two-satellites of the optical component, Pleiades, and the four-satellites of the radar component, COSMO-SkyMed constellation. The Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009 between ASI and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) concerning joint SAR research activities for the mutual cooperation in the satellite disaster monitoring, using COSMO- SkyMed (X band), ALOS (L band), COSMO- SkyMed Seconda Generazione (X band) and ALOS-2 (L band) satellites. The on-going international agreement with the Geological Survey of Israel, as a test for the interferometry coverage of the Dead Sea area. The participation of the Italian Space Agency in the GEOHAZARD SUPERSITE initiative, IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 4 of 11

5 providing COSMO-SkyMed data from Kilauea and Manua Loa Volcanoes. A significant example of the activity provided in the international context is represented by the strong support provided by ASI to ESA (European Space Agency). After the end of life of the ENVISAT satellite, ESA requested support both to ASI and DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt). In order to allow ESA to put through the projects of the Dragon 3 Programme ASI has provided and still provides for free an amount of about 1000 COSMO- SkyMed images per year, just as institutional support[8]. The new acquisitions started in August An agreement with the Caltech/JPL (California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory) signed in In the framework of this agreement it is worth of mention the CaliMAP-Poseidon & Hafaestus Pilot (CaliMAP-PHP) project, whose main objectives are to monitor, trough systematic COSMO- SkyMed acquisitions, the faults system from the northern end of the Gulf of California through western California (CaliMAP acquisition plan and to investigate Earth surface deformation processes and their temporal evolution by using COSMO-SkyMed data for the earthquake hazard assessment (PHP)[5]. ASI project In the national framework a number of agreements for the COSMO-SkyMed products exploitation are on-going or are under definition or have been concluded. A not exhaustive overview of the current ASI National institutional projects is provided in the following summary. Pilot project. The Italian Space Agency promoted Earth Observation applications, related to themes such as the prediction, monitoring, management and mitigation of natural hazards and anthropogenic hazards, in detail they were OPERA for Floods, MORFEO for Landslides, SIGRIS for Seismic Risk, SIGRI for Fires, PROSA for Nowcasting/Meteorological Alert, SRV for Volcanoes, PRIMI for Oil Spill, SISMA for Seismic Risk, QUITSAT for Air Quality/Environment Monitoring. More details about these project now terminated are reported in[1][2]. The approach generally followed is the development and demonstration of prototype services, using currently available data from space missions, in particular the COSMO-SkyMed mission. Projects funded by ASI provide the convergence of various national industry expertise, research and institutional reference users. MAPITALY. Based on specific needs of the Italian Premiership Department of Civil Protection and on direct input by ASI Presidency, COSMO-SkyMed system activated a full interferometric mapping service of the whole National territory based on every-16 days Stripmap Himage acquisitions. In particular, historical series of images are acquired on the italian territory in order to use them for interferometric analysis of instability phenomenon and endogenous risk of the same territory (landslides, subsidences, sismic and volcanic phenomenon, etc. ) and to routinely and intensively populate a specific interferometric historic archive as a National geographic reference[1]. MAPPING CRATER. it is an institutional ASI project which aims to recognize almost 170 craters formed by the hypervelocity impact of a small body with the Earth surface by using the satellites of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation. It is the first mapping of the terrestrial impact craters ever done in X-band. The second step will be to explore new areas and try to identify new impact craters. Currently almost all the selected areas of interest were acquired with the COSMO- SkyMed satellites[5]. Institutional Project. Project activated with several public authority and Institutions us MATTM (Ministero dell'ambiente e della tutela del territorio e del mare/ministry of the Land and Sea Environment), DPC (Department of the Civilian Protection), Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports, INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia/National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology), Institute for Archeological Heritage of Rome, CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche/ National Research Council), and environmental Department of various Italian Region. ASI announcement A not exhaustive overview of past and on-going announcements of opportunities published by ASI is illustrated. 1 st Announcement of opportunity. In May 2007, the Italian Space Agency issued an Announcement of Opportunity in order to promote the COSMO-SkyMed data exploitation. The international scientific community was involved through selection IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 5 of 11

6 of innovative scientific projects in the field of civil Earth Observation applications. In particular, the AO identified four main themes: - Scientific research and applications in the field of Earth Observation - Development and validation of geophysical products - Demonstration of applications considered relevant within the GMES and GEO; - New ideas for the use of the constellation. After this call, 172 new projects were activated and among them 27 Projects were funded by ASI. More details about these projects, which have been concluded in the 2012, are available online at [10]. Announcement for Small Medium Enterprise. Italian Space Agency periodically issues announcements designed for Italian small medium enterprises. The aim of this initiative is to support the development and growth of these SMEs (with a co-financing by ASI of the project approved), in the space environment. These proposals should be focused on development of pre-competitive prototype of specific technology implementation, and /or product, and /or innovative application for which it is clearly identified a specific target market. In the frame work of earth observation, on 11 August 2010 the second call for Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been Published on Earth Observation " topics, deadline for application was 29 0ctober italian companies were founded to be eligible for co-financing by ASI. Hereinafter on 23 December 2013 the 4th call dedicated to SMEs was Published, deadline for application was 30 April 2014.the last announcement was focused on following topic: "Navigation and Earth Observation: the use of national and European space infrastructure"[2] Joint CALL ASI-Canadian Space Agency (ASI CSA). In September 2013 ASI and CSA, have issued the joint call COSMO- SkyMed-RADARSAT-2 initiative to stimulate the scientific utilization of Earth Observation data acquired by their respective national missions, RADARSAT- 2 and COSMO-SkyMed in research and development activity about basic and applied research (development of algorithms, methods and applications). The call ended at November 1, 2013 and 61 proposals were admitted to the assessment process. Bidders with accepted proposal have access, free of charge, to a set of ASI and CSA images. IV. APPLICATION AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT SAR data are appropriate for a number of applications such as maritime applications including ship and oil spill detection, coastal monitoring, sea ice monitoring, land applications including topographic and thematic mapping, agriculture and forestry applications, DEM extraction and subsidence measurements. The COSMO-SkyMed system offers today an efficient response to actual needs of Earth Observation providing an asset characterized by full global coverage, all weather and day/night acquisition capability, high resolution, high accuracy (geolocation, radiometry, etc.), fast revisit/response time, interferometric/polarimetric capabilities. Therefore it guarantees applications for defense & intelligence, emergency response activities, prevention and monitoring services. The system can rapidly provide information for early damage assessment; in some cases, such as flood mapping, the information can be retrieved and provided to users in near-real time. Very accurate change detection around sensitive targets (industrial plants, borders) can be completed with unprecedented time revisit and area coverage. In this section an overview about the applications which Cosmo- SkyMed data are employed in, is given highlighting their economic benefit and strategic relevance. A not exhaustive set of application examples is given below. For Maritime application COSMO-SkyMed satellites can provide continuous and accurate information about condition of seacoasts, seas and inland waters, so as to evaluate phenomena of coast erosion and pollution. Furthermore, the system represents a precious help for sea traffic control. The short revisit time supports an operational use of COSMO-SkyMed in near real time service about activity of Maritime surveillance for oil spill monitoring, ship detection, strategic surveillance (coastal areas monitoring, for critical route identification, patrol activity planning and decision support systems in case of crisis) [4]. About oil spill detection, the SAR instrument can easily detect oil. Applications of oil slick detection encompass disasters (sinking tankers), illegal activities (tank washing) and oil exploration (natural IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 6 of 11

7 seepage). The COSMO-SkyMed constellation can support large scale monitoring for oil spills with its ScanSAR observing mode. The short revisit time supports an operational use of a SAR-based oil spill monitoring service making easier to link an oil spill with a specific ship [4]. COSMO-SkyMed Constellation contributes to EMSA CleanSeaNet service. It is a European satellite-based oil spill and vessel detection service. The service is based on radar images obtained from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites (currently the service uses the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT-2 satellite and the Italian Space Agency's COSMO-SkyMed - the European Space Agency's ENVISAT satellite was used regularly until May 2012, and the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT -1 until April 2013). It offers assistance to participating States for the following activities: identifying and tracing oil pollution on the sea surface, monitoring accidental pollution during emergencies, contributing to the identification of polluters. When a possible oil spill is detected in national waters, an alert message is delivered to the relevant country. Analysed images are available to national contact points within 30 minutes of the satellite passing overhead. Vessel detection is also available through the CleanSeaNet service. When a vessel is detected on in a satellite image, the identity of the vessel can often be determined through correlating the satellite data with vessel traffic reports (SafeSeaNet). This increases the likelihood that a State will be able to determine which vessel is polluting and take action (e.g. verifying the spill, inspecting the vessel on entry into port). Each coastal State has access to the CleanSeaNet service through a dedicated user interface [21]. In Fig. 4 is shown an example of the contribute that the COSMO-SkyMed data offer to member state authority as early warning in case of likely oil spill into the sea, in the framework of the EMSA CleanSeaNet service. Fig. 4: Use of COSMO-SkyMed in the framework of the EMSA CleanSeaNet service (estracted by e-geos property image, kindly provided). The picture shows the service consecutive steps in the case of an alert due to the identification of a likely oil spill feature in to the sea on a COSMO-SkyMed acquisition. In the framework of maritime security/surveillance service, MARISS (European Maritime Security Services) is a GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) project, started on 2006 and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) under GMES. The project team is made up of several European companies with e-geos in the role of primary, and the service is addressed to a Core Users of experts in Maritime Security from different European nationalities as EMSA (European Agency for the safety at sea), coastal guardians, and other European authority [20]. European waters are threatened by illegal trafficking of persons, weapons and contraband. Enhanced surveillance is a top political priority. A central objective of MARISS is to aid a Coordinated Service Network to provide all the Maritime European Users organizations with integrated ship detection Services. MARISS focuses on two categories of service: tactical (near real time) monitoring to identify and track suspect vessels in open waters before they reach the European coast. This requires integration of satellite SAR imagery with Automatic Identification System (AIS), Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), coastal radar and any available intelligence data. strategic (longer term) monitoring for threat characterization. This includes routine monitoring of trafficking routes and detection of suspicious activity in the coastal areas of third countries. The service is based on the analysis of high resolution satellite imagery combined with intelligence information. SAR based satellites enable the detection of vessels in areas beyond the range of conventional identification systems. In addition, areas that constitute potential sources of threat can be regularly monitored using satellite based on high resolution radar and optical imagery. Within MARISS, the Recognised Maritime Picture is enhanced through the integration of satellite based vessel detection with data streams such as: coastal radar, AIS, VMS, and Vessel Traffic System (VTS) [20]. In Fig. 5 a picture obtained by integrating COSMO-SkyMed data (ship size and position) with AIS, VTS and VMS in-situ data is shown. IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 7 of 11

8 Fig. 5: Maritime Picture of integrated information in the framework of MARISS (e-geos property image, kindly provided). The picture shows a COSMO- SkyMed image acquired on 15 July 2015 integrated with complementary satellite IAS data (yellow line), terrestrial AIS data (green line) and VMS information (blue line). Red dots represent vessels visible on the images that have not sent regular communications (possibly illegal activities), while green dots represent vessels identified in pertinent national and international collaboration. e-geos and FMI are partnering to exploit and develop COSMO-SkyMed capabilities for operational Ice Charting services [15]. In Fig. 6 an experiment conduct over Gulf of Finland to test the usability of COSMO images in automatic ice thickness analysis is shown. The experiment covered three CSK HR-mode images over the Gulf of Finland on March 14 and CSK huge images were used to produce ice thickness charts (ITC's) automatically over the Gulf of Finland. In Fig. 6 the mosaicked COSMO-SkyMed images with a land masking applied and the corresponding ITC's are presented. [17]. About Sea ice monitoring, sea ice information is required by a wide spectrum of users (Authorities and privately held companies) operating at high latitudes, including navigation (rivers, lakes and sea) and offshore operations. Satellite Earth Observation and in particular SAR instruments represent a reliable tool for ice monitoring, providing a synoptic view which complements the accurate but low coverage reports from ships and airborne sources [4][13]. SAR data provide information on the ice coverage, the size and shape of ice floes. Respect to optical sensors, SAR provides information independently on the day time and weather and allows a more accurate ice classification into different classes. Timely and variable information on sea ice conditions are essential for all operations in icecovered areas. The safety and efficiency of sea transportation, off-shore operations, fisheries and other activities in regions covered by sea ice have been the motive for establishing operational sea ice monitoring and forecasting services in many countries. There is a need for high-resolution ice information and ice forecasts. one of the service required is the Ice Charting, more details about service in Baltic Sea are reported [16][17]. In June 2012, e-geos signed a contract for the setting up of a COSMO-SkyMed receiving Ground Station (GS) in Sodankylä, Finland, operated by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) as a part of the Finnish Ministry of Transportation and which became operational at the beginning of 2013 [14]. FMI produces information in the sea sciences for the benefit of decision-makers and to meet operational needs, it offers services to the authorities, industry, commerce and private citizens. It actively participates Fig. 6: SAR images mosaic with a land masking applied and the corresponding ice thickness charts (ITC's) of Finland Gulf (kindly provided by e-geos). The upper figure shows the image obtained as a mosaic of the three huge mode COSMO-SkyMed images acquired on 14 March 2012 at 03:28:44 UTC, on 14 March 2012 at 03:52:56 UTC and on 15 March 2012 at 03:28:44 UTC respectively. The corresponding thicknesses chart and respective scale in cm is shown in the lower part of the figure. Ice monitoring is also of great significance for studies of climate history and ice-climate interactions. Ice velocity is one of the fundamental parameters in the study of glacier's dynamics. Vectors can be extracted by tracking glacier's surface features from the sequence of visible and SARsatellite data, and the proven ability to extract ice velocity vectors from time-sequential imagery significantly expanded the amount and density of such data available to glaciologists. In particular, SAR images provide the crucial advantage of a weather-independent, day night imaging system, in the ice-sheet and glacier environments where persistent clouds continue to hamper data acquisitions by visible imagers and IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 8 of 11

9 where the polar night imposes a prolonged period of darkness. The Perito Moreno Glacier (Los Glaciares National Park, Patagonia, Argentina) ice stream has been investigated using X-band SAR amplitude images collected from February to December 2009 (excluding June) at time intervals of 8 and 16 days by the COSMO-SkyMed satellites [12]. Perito Moreno is one of the only three glaciers of the 48 Patagonian glaciers of SPI (Southern Patagonia Ice field) that are not retreating in the last 50 years, but dynamics of Moreno glacier is characterized by small deviations from the steady motion. The study illustrated in [12] uses the monitoring capability offered by COSMO- SkyMed, able to acquire a SAR sequence with a time lag of few days, to extract ice velocity fields, and to reveal from the sequence the variability of the ice flow in the period of study. Vectors have been extracted from pairs of sequential images by an automated processing based on the Maximum Cross- Correlation (MCC), often referred to as amplitude correlation when applied to radar data. In the Fig. 7 a Perito Moreno glacier velocity field is estracted by automatic application of maximum cross-correlation (MCC) technique to a couple of High resolution COSMO-SkyMed image. Fig. 7: Perito Moreno glacier velocity field estracted by automatic application of Maximum Cross- Correlation (MCC) technique to a couple of SAR images (e-geos property image, kindly provided). The analysis is based on two COSMO-SkyMed High resolution (Spotlight 2) images collected on Perito Moreno glacier with a time interval of 16 days (first image acquired on 2 February 2009, the second on 18 February 2009) and the same observing geometry (ascending right looking, incidence angle=40, VV polarization, SRTM90 corrected). In the framework of infrastructure and land monitoring, the high geometric accuracy of COSMO- SkyMed images as well as its space and temporal high resolution are incisive instruments for monitoring new settlements or soil and subsoil collapses, which are usually considered as the main cause in the framework of downfalls. Long term interferometric time series with state of the art processing technology (DIFSAR, Persistent Scatterers analysis) provide information for land stability analysis such as urban subsidence, landslide and volcano monitoring, infrastructure monitoring as railways, pipeline, dams, bridges, pipeline, etc. Persistent scatterer interferometry, applied to SARdata, is a widely used technique to detect and monitor slow terrain movements with millimetre accuracy; a method named Persistent Scatterer Pair (PSP) is presented in [18]. In Fig. 8 and 9 example of application of this technique on COSMO-SkyMed data are reported. Fig. 8: Landslides along a railway line PSP-IFSAR analysis 3D view performed by e-geos (e-geos property image, kindly provided). A Monitoring of a Russian railways tracks for Russian company was accomplished by using a long term temporal series of interferometric strimpap (H_IMAGE) Cosmo- SkyMED acquisitions. The colored dots represent displacement measurements over time (accelerations and decelerations). The amount of displacement is represented with different colors indicated in the scale. the picture shows there are areas (red dots) above the railway line that must be kept under control to avoid possible landslide. Fig. 9: Roma EUR CSK PSP-IFSAR (e-geos property image, kindly provided). PSP-IFSAR analysis has been applied to the stability analysis of an urban area in the EUR district of Rome (capital of Italy). The IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 9 of 11

10 technique was applied on a series of interferometric strimpap (H_IMAGE) Cosmo- SkyMED image acquired in the period Jan May The red dots are the ones most affected by modulus displacement. Regarding thematic mapping applications, the combination of very short term (a few days) change detection and coherence analysis for thematic mapping and environmental monitoring (forestry, agriculture), allows the mapping of large region areas where collecting optical images is limited by cloud coverage. COSMO-SkyMed system allows institutions, scientific users and industrial players to build reliable thematic change detection services and applications, combining together the radar signal intensity of two images acquired at different instant times and also combined them with another essential parameter: interferometric coherence. This parameter indicates the degree of geometric consistency between two images acquired in different instant times. [19]. An example of change detection service offered in agricultural field is shown in Fig. 10. where a change detection analysis give information about the growth of rice paddies in Japan. During all the months of the year COSMO-SkyMed data provide information about the growth of rice in every field. This information is extremely relevant in terms of food security, as it allows technicians and decision makers to timely assess the rice crop status and to estimate its future availability for human consumption. This principle can also be extended to monitor other types of crops. Fig. 10: Multitemporal image of rice paddies at Kumagaya, Japan (e-geos property image, kindly provided). In this colour composite image, three Spothlight COSMO-SkyMed images acquired at different times during the year, are compared. In May the soil is bare and ploughed (acquisition of 25 May in blue band, SAR signal is high ), in June the soil is flooded (acquisition of 26 June, SAR signal is low), in July soil is covered with rice plants transplanted and growing (acquisition of July 28, SAR signal is Medium to High). In this false color image, Rice paddies have a violet colour (blue + red) because the SAR signal comes from dry ploughed soil in May (blue component) and small rice plants growing out of the water in July (red component). In June rice paddies are filled up with water and therefore there is not green component in the false color image. Furthermore, the greatest amount of red indicates a greater state of plant rowth. The use of COSMO-SkyMed in Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand (2011) is descripted in Fig. 11,where the time analysis about earthquake effects in Christchurch urban area, combining a preseismic coherence with a co-seismic and postseismic coherence, is shown. Fig. 11: Coherence time analysis about earthquakes in Christchurch urban area (e-geos property image, kindly provided). In this colour composite image Three coherence image are compared: in the Red band the pre-seismic coherence (obtained by stipmap COSMO-SkyMed acquired on 3 and 19 February), in the Green band the co-seismic coherence (obtained by stipmap COSMO-SkyMed acquired on 19 and 23 February), and in the Blue band the co-seismic coherence (obtained by Stripmap COSMO-SkyMed acquired on 23 and 27 February). Areas of low coherence during earthquake have a violet colour (blue+red). The low coherence can be attributed to Damages to buildings, Terrain displacement, Flooded areas (soil liquefaction). IV. COSMO-SKYMED IN THE FUTURE COSMO-SkyMed is able to image any area on the Earth at least daily, day or night and regardless of cloud cover. COSMO-SkyMed, thanks to its multimode acquisition capability and the resolution up to 1 m, has already been integrated in several operational geospatial services for both maritime and land applications, increasing the geospatial information content. In order to ensure operational continuity, the two COSMO Seconda Generazione (CSG) satellites IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 10 of 11

11 will be ready for operations timely to replace the previous generation satellites whenever they are being progressively phased out at the end of their lifetime, starting from 2016 onward. A smooth transition from CSKto CSG will be guaranteed through an integrated system accounting of both new and old CSG-CSK capabilities, meaning that COSMO-SkyMed services provided to users will be granted as if a unique constellation is operating. From the performance point of view the new COSMO Seconda Generazione constellation aims at improving the quality of the imaging service, providing the End Users with new enhanced capabilities in terms of higher number of equivalent images and of increased image quality (larger swath and finer spatial and radiometric resolution) with respect to the first generation, along with additional capabilities (e.g. full polarimetric SAR acquisition mode) and a better operative versatility in programming and sharing the system resources among different typologies of users requesting images of different characteristics, including first generation ones. More details are reported in [3]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank e-geos, in particular A. Ciappa, L. Grandoni,F. Minati, A. Oddone,L. Pietranera,, D. Quattrociocchi, for their contributes about use of the COSMO-SkyMed data in the several application field. REFERENCES [1] F. Covello, M. L. Battagliere, A. Coletta Overview and exploitation of the fully deployed COSMO- SkyMed constellation, 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples 1-5 October [2] [3] P. Sacco, M.L. Battagliere, M.G. Daraio, M. Virelli, F. Covello, A. Coletta From COSMO-SKyMed to COSMO-SKyMed seconda generazione: evolutions and perspective, 65 th International Astronautical Congress,Toronto 29Sett-3Oct., 2014 [4] [5] F. Covello, M. L. Battagliere, A. Coletta The contribution of the COSMO-SkyMed space system in the international context, 63rd ESA Livng Planet Symposium, 1-5 Sept [6] M. L. Battagliere, F. Covello, F., & Coletta, A., COSMO-SkyMed Background Mission: overview, objectives and results, 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples 1-5 October [7] A. Coletta Sinergie in orbita,space Magazine- 2014, n.5:14-17 [8] [9] _USERS_GUIDE.pdf [10] [11] COSMO-SkyMed Mission and Products Description [12] A. Ciappa, L. Pietranera, F. Battazza Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina) flow estimation by COSMO SkyMed sequence of high-resolution SAR-X imagery, Remote Sensing of Environment -2010,n. 114: [13] [14] M. Angelucci,J.Karvonen,P. Eriksson, Ice Charting Services and Developments with Cosmo- SkyMed, htm [15] ethic_fmi_1dec09.pdf [16] [17] Kangas-FMI.pdf [18] M. Costantini, S. Falco, F. Malvarosa, F. Minati, F. Trillo, F. Vecchioli, Persistent scatterer pair interferometry: approach and application to highresolution COSMO-SkyMed SAR data, to appear in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, [19] D. Grandoni, Use of Earth Observation data in emergency and awareness situations, 57th session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Vienna, June [20] [21] IAC-14- B1.5.4 Page 11 of 11