This activity makes part of the ESA Ocean Science Cluster and contributes to the joint EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative launched in February 2020 by the European Space Agency and the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) to jointly advance Earth System Science and its response to the global challenges that society is facing in the onset of this century.
In particular, this activity is a contribution to the EC-ESA Flagship Action on Ocean Health aimed at developing advanced ocean observations and products and enhancing the scientific understanding of the ocean’s role in the Earth and climate system and its responses to management actions to contribute to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health and improve conditions for sustainable development of the Ocean.
With this ITT ESA plans to launch up to three separate and independent contracts which will be run in parallel and address the following Themes:
- Theme 1: Ocean Acidification
- Theme 2: Marine Heat Waves
- Theme 3: Open Ocean Biodiversity
For each of these Themes, the objective is to maximise the scientific and societal returns of the Sentinel missions of the European Copernicus Programme, the ESA Earth Explorer missions and the EO national missions of ESA Member States by:
- Contributing to develop the next generation of “fit for purpose” ocean geo-information products and observation systems with special attention to address fundamental observation gaps to better characterise complex ocean dynamic processes (ecological, physical and biogeochemical) and advance towards novel high-resolution data models of the oceans and its interactions with human activities.
- Capitalising on novel EO capabilities to address mayor knowledge gaps in ocean sciences and enhance our fundamental scientific understanding of the complex processes governing the role of the oceans in the Earth and climate system, the marine biology and ecosystems, and the feedbacks with human activities and marine management actions.
- Transferring novel science results into innovative solutions and decision support systems for society through the development of interactive virtual tools (e.g., interoperable Digital Twins) providing advanced science-based solutions to the protection, restoration and better management of the oceans, marine ecosystems and coastal areas.
Learn more about this Invitation To Tender on the esa-star Publication page.
European Space Agency (ESA), 12 May 2021. More information.
