ORFEO Accompaniment
Beside the Pleiades (PHR) and Cosmo-Skymed (CSK) systems developments forming ORFEO, the dual and bilateral system (France - Italy) for Earth Observation, the ORFEO Accompaniment Program was set up, to prepare, accompany and promote the use and the exploitation of the images derived from these sensors.
The creation of a preparatory program was needed because of:
- the new capabilities and performances of the ORFEO systems (optical and radar high resolution, access capability, data quality, possibility to acquire simultaneously in optic and radar),
- the implied need of new methodological developments: new processing methods, or adaptation of existing methods,
- the need to realise those new developments in very close cooperation with the final users, the integration of new products in their systems.
This program was initiated by CNES mid-2003 and lasted until 2009.
It consisted in two parts, between which was necessary to keep a strong interaction:
- A Methodological part,
- A Thematic part.
A first meeting between the Thematic part and the Methodological part took place the 23rd and 24th of March 2006 with:
- Presentation of the syntheses of the 7 GT to the thematic and methodologic experts.
- Precision of the methodological objectives to reach (precise objects, concrete cases...)
- Set up of the working plan for the methodological and thematic studies validation.
This Accompaniment Program uses simulated data (acquired during airborne campaigns) and satellite images quite similar to Pleiades (as QuickBird and Ikonos), used in a communal way on a set of special sites. The validation of specified products and services will be realised with those simulated data
Apart from the initial cooperation with Italy, the ORFEO Accompaniment Program enlarged to Belgium, with integration of Belgian experts in the different WG as well as a participation to the methodological part.
