EVOLUTION OF THE ERS-2 DATA-PROCESSING GROUND SEGMENT

In its four years of operation, the ERS-1 ground segment has delivered almost 26 000 SAR scenes and a few million low-bit-rate fast-delivery products that have allowed hundreds of scientific investigations, and pilot and demonstration projects as well as many commercial and operational applications to be carried out. Given that the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites will now be operated in tandem until at least mid-1996, the same ground segment must be able to manage a much greater workload. It must perform the exploitation of the ERS-2 payload data, including the data from new instruments such as GOME, PRARE and the ATSR visible channels, in parallel to the handling of newly acquired ERS-1 data and the retrieval of ERS-1 archived data. Most of the facilities have been modified to cope with the higher requirement for data and services and, where applicable, for the handling of data from the new sensors. ESRIN, via its ERS Exploitation Division, is responsible for the exploitation of the ERS Payload Data Ground Segment and for user services.