Evolution of Computation Needs for Earth Observation

The Oxford e-Research Centre is pleased to welcome Dr Pascal Lecomte from The European Space Agency, to present a seminar on Tuesday 23 November 2010

This seminar is open to all and will start at 2pm in the Oxford e-Research Centre Access Grid Room (room 277 - access available via 7 Keble Road).

This seminar may be broadcast with permission via video-link to other e-Research South venues. Only the speaker will be visible from other locations. Recording of this seminar is prohibited.

The European Space Agency has initiated a CCI Programme and during the third quarter of 2010 programme activities focused on kicking-off and orienting the ten ECV projects selected for the first phase of the programme: “Scientific User Consultation and Detailed Specifications”, and on organizing scientific consultations with the climate research community at large.

All ten selected ECV projects were successfully launched and are now at the initial stage of implementation.  The first major tasks, including user requirements gathering and definition of detailed data requirements, are currently underway.

The first CCI collocation meeting at ESRIN on September 15th-17th brought together more than seventy multi-disciplinary experts from all CCI teams. Each of the eleven project teams (10 ECVs plus CMUG) was represented by its science leader, project manager, two or more experts from the EO science and climate research teams, along with the responsible ESA project officer. Several CSAB members, the director of the GCOS secretariat, and invited experts from EC-JRC, EUMETSAT, BADC and University of Reading also participated.

The meeting had three principal objectives:

-  To orient all CCI project teams to the common objectives of CCI

-  To initiate interactions between the teams

-  To prepare joint communication to the international science community

The event was organized as a series of dedicated, inter-disciplinary working sessions, each focused on one of the following key issues, of common interest to all CCI projects: 

-  User requirements and feedback to GCOS

-  Round-Robin Algorithm inter-comparison and selection

-  Validation

-  Uncertainty characterization

-  Confrontation of observations and models

-  Data requirements and pre-processing

-  Data standards

-  CCI web-sites, communication and data access

-  System Engineering

-  Interaction between ECVs

-  Science Agenda

Each session produced a series of four or five recommendations that, if followed by all project teams, will assure a high level of consistency between the ECV data products produced. This is a fundamental requirement of GCOS.  The recommendations draw upon the extensive and highly complementary expertise on these topics possessed by all CCI project teams. Each recommendation was reviewed and agreed in plenary session on the final day of collocation.

The collocation successfully met its three objectives. Practical steps have now been put in place, acting on the scientific advice of both CSAB and ESAC with respect to the scientific integrity of the CCI programme as a whole.

The presentation by Pascal Lecomte will cover these 11 key issues.

Pascal Lecomte studied Mathematics and Physics in Paris and then moved to Brest to do a Diplôme D'Etude Approfondie in Oceanography physics. Following a year in Mauritania and Senegal with the Orstom (former name of the IRD), Dr Lecomte joined the IFREMER that had just created the CERSAT, the French Processing and Archiving Facility dedicated to Altimetry and Scatterometry. He designed the algorithm to process the ERS scatterometer data and then joined the European Space Agency which was creating a Product Control Service to monitor and improve the quality of ERS products. 

Over the past 21 years, Dr Lecomte has developed a strategy and put it in place for the current Earth Observation Missions, ERS and Envisat. This strategy is being extended into a multi mission environment called Sensor Performance, Products and Algorithm (SPPA). The quality of this work has been recognised worldwide, in particular through the quality of the products delivered by ESA. 

In 2005 Dr Lecomte joined the CEOS WGCV and extended that strategy at international level proposing QA4EO, the quality Assurance Framework for Earth Observation which has been endorsed by CEOS and is actively supported by GEO. 

Since the beginning of 2010, Pascal is based in the newly created ESA Harwell Center as Head of the ESA Climate Office. In this new position, he will have an important role in the development of the ESA CCI, and at international level in the CEOS Climate Advisory Group.