An Interaction Methodology to Collect and Assess User-Driven Requirements to Define Potential Opportunities of Future Hyperspectral Imaging Sentinel Mission

Andrea Taramelli,Stefano Mariani,Jens Nieke,Maria Lucia Magliozzi,Antonella Tornato,Emiliana Valentini,Mario Costantini,Michael Rast,Jennifer Adams,Massimo Zavagli

doi:10.3390/rs12081286

Abstract

Evolution in the Copernicus Space Component is foreseen in the mid-2020s to meet priority user needs not addressed by the existing infrastructure, and/or to reinforce existing services. In this context, the European Commission is intending to evaluate the overall potential utility of a complementary Copernicus hyperspectral mission to be added to the Copernicus Sentinels fleet. Hyperspectral imaging is a powerful remote sensing technology that, allowing the characterization and quantification of Earth surface materials, has the potential to deliver significant enhancements in quantitative value-added products. This study aims to illustrate the interaction methodology that was set up to collect and assess user-driven requirements in different thematic areas to demonstrate the potential benefit of a future Copernicus hyperspectral mission. Therefore, an ad hoc interaction matrix was circulated among several user communities to gather preferences about hyperspectral-based products and services. The results show how the involvement of several user communities strengthens the identification of these user requirements. Moreover, the requirement evaluation is used to identify potential opportunities of hyperspectral imaging in addressing operational needs associated with policy obligations at European, national, and local levels. The frequency distribution of spectral range classes and spatial and temporal resolutions are also derived from the preference expressed by the user communities in each thematic area investigated.

Highlights

Increasing awareness of the influence of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the environment requires an increasingly in-depth knowledge of environmental matrices, of the changes taking place in these matrices, including the study and understanding of the mechanisms of influence between human activities, and consequent changes in the different environmental sectors [1]
The study has ensured the collection and analysis of user requirements provided by several user communities of the European Union (EU) Copernicus Programme framework, both at institutional and private levels
The development and application of an ad hoc interaction methodology allowed the identification of those operational products and services that can be potentially supported by means of a future Copernicus hyperspectral mission, enhancing the degree of interest of the user communities for the related layers

Summary

Introduction

Increasing awareness of the influence of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the environment requires an increasingly in-depth knowledge of environmental matrices, of the changes taking place in these matrices, including the study and understanding of the mechanisms of influence between human activities, and consequent changes in the different environmental sectors [1]. This is true for the agricultural sector, where in-depth information is required to face ongoing challenges concerning better efforts to ensure worldwide the production of safe, high-quality, affordable, nutritious, and diverse food (see, e.g., the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG 2030)). Following the investments of the European Commission (EC) and European Space Agency (ESA) to design, build, and operate Copernicus satellite missions, which are referred to as Sentinels, a fully-fledged European Union (EU) Earth Observation (EO) satellite capacity is operational with the primary objective of providing appropriate satellite observations [6] supporting, in particular, the implementation of EU policy through the supply of innovation Copernicus downstream services [7]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion