Blue Marble image of the Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on Dec. 7 1972.
Image Credit: NASA

This week the European Space Agency has released its new Earth Observation Science Strategy, Earth Science in Action for Tomorrow’s World. Having a science driven approach at its heart, the new strategy outlines a  vision for Earth science through to 2040 to help enhance our understanding of the evolving planet and developing actionable information to address global environmental threats such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and extreme weather.

The strategy focuses on four key areas:

• Frontier science and discovery: pursing innovative, inspirational and impactful frontier science as a primary driver of innovation in EO activities.
• Translating science to societal benefits: using scientific knowledge to develop high-quality validated, trusted, and actionable information products to give local, national and international decision makers better knowledge to make decisions about how to address the changing planet.
• Reducing critical knowledge gaps: ensure full advantage is taken of the data collected by all the heritage, existing and future EO missions and use all this data to maximise our knowledge about the Earth, and
• Filling critical observation gaps: implement an architectural blueprint for an EO system-of-systems to guide long-term ESA research and the operation of a coherent and sustainable space-based EO ecosystem.

It is acknowledged that each of the key areas will progress at different speeds and within different times frames. For example, better use of data from heritage and existing missions, together with new novel missions can be undertaken in a few years; while ambitious flagship missions take much longer, and delivery may only happen in ten to fifteen years. Therefore, the strategy has both a short-term (2026-2031) and a long-term (towards 2040) vision.

Under the four strategic areas are six inter-connected thematic objectives identified by the Advisory Committee on Earth observation, which are designed to help the EO community align with other national and international science strategies. The themes are noted as covering areas which can only be addressed by using EO techniques and solutions, and are underpinned by a series of guiding scientific questions that detail how existing, and future, missions can be used address the objectives and provide a focus for EO activity. The six themes are:

• Water cycle – underpinned by 9 guiding questions.
• Carbon cycle and chemistry – underpinned by 5 guiding questions.
• Energy fluxes – underpinned by 11 guiding questions.
• Ecosystem health – underpinned by 6 guiding questions.
• Extremes and hazards – underpinned by 6 guiding questions
• Interfaces and coupling in the Earth system – underpinned by 10 guiding questions.

Together, the strategic areas, thematic objectives and guiding questions provide the framework for the EO Science Strategy, and the document goes on to provide a detailed summary of anticipated actions to be taken for each of strategic areas. One of the interesting tables is in the actions for Reducing Critical Knowledge Gaps, which includes a timeline of thirty planned ESA research and operational EO satellite launches up until 2040. These launches include satellites to replace existing Copernicus satellites such as Sentinel 1-C and D, Sentinel-2D; plus new satellites including Sentinel-4A, Sentinel-5A, together with Earth Explorer missions such as Harmony and TRUTHS after 2030.

Interestingly, there is a plan to switch off Sentinel-2A and keep it as a redundant space once Sentinel-2C becomes operational, but the scientific community is asking for it to be maintained because the increase in data from three satellites will help with increased data availability for regions such as the UK and Europe that are relatively cloudy. It also seems slightly at odds with this strategy in terms of the Reducing Critical Knowledge Gaps strategic area of maximising the use of heritage and current missions.

It is also positive to see the strategy has a section on building strong STEM Education, training and outreach to engage early career scientists in ESA’s EO work, but also to maximise outreach to the wider public and strengthen STEM activities for all ages. This is critical, and something Pixalytics is passionate about, to ensure that the industry has the next generation coming through.

We’re also delighted to see a section on harnessing open science through digital innovation, which talks about the need to use open science to enhance innovation and inclusivity. It also highlights the importance of the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) Principles for ensuring that EO data is easily findable, accessible, easy to integrate and reusable. This is also something Pixalytics has been working on in recent years in several projects with the Open Geospatial Consortium

Overall, the strategy is a positive document and focuses on how EO technology, data and knowledge, can be better leveraged to inform decisions and actions to improve the future for the planet and the world.