Towards an Earth Observation Platform for the Greater Danube Region: Initial Developments and Scientific Experiments

The EOP-Danube project is of the highest strategic interest for the Earth Observation Data Center (EODC) and its Cooperation Partners and has as its goal the creation of an EO platform for the greater Danube region. Given that earth observation (EO) is one of the disciplines that are currently undergoing a transformative change into the Big Data era, the whole European satellite ground segment will undergo major changes within the next five to ten years. This constitutes a significant chance for countries allowing them to become involved with novel ground segment operations concepts.

The project team will compile and make available a large volume and variety of EO data over the Greater Danube Region (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, Landsat-8, ENVISAT ASAR, etc.) with the science team undertaking specific experiments to develop and test EO derived products for the users.

Through the strategic collaboration with DLR, the project addresses the federation of remote data centres and includes access to, and back up of, archives. The project improves existing platform services and tools to enhance the usability of the platform and develop new platform services. Through EOP-Danube access barriers to the EODC platform and virtual research and development environment are reduced to enable its use by non-expert users.