CEOS new reporting tool on country satellite coverage bolsters GFOI partners’ work
The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) has updated its Visualization Environment tool (COVE) to allow the generation of country-level reports on satellite coverage of land surface. Satellite earth observations provide scientists and decision-makers with critical information to better understand the world’s forests.
COVE includes Country Coverage Reports, which are currently available for 70 different countries and allow users to explore the availability of satellite data from the Landsat, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2 missions, which are considered to be core data sets for the international forest monitoring community.
With many different data sets now available, having the ability to quickly and easily determine which datasets are accessible is enormously valuable for GFOI’s developing country partners as they seek to develop National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS).
CEOS is a co-Lead of the GFOI Data Component. The new service is offered to support both GFOI and the CEOS Land Surface Imaging Virtual Constellation Subgroup (LSI-VC) Forests & Biomass Subgroup.
How does the Country Coverage Report Work?
Users can select ‘Country Coverage’ from the Tools menu in the COVE Visualization Environment. Users export reports in various ways by selecting one or more constellations and countries of interest from the Task Options panel. COVE imports new acquisition data daily, therefore the reports are cached for one day only. The generated PDF files contain summary figures and tables of available scenes from the Landsat and Sentinel missions over a given country, including a subset of information for low cloud (<20%) data, where applicable. The XLS files contain the relevant raw metadata for every scene listed in the report.
Processing time can vary, however CEOS is available to help generate country reports on request. Please contact the CEOS’ Systems Engineering Office for technical support and comments on the new tool. For more information on the GFOI Country Coverage Reports explore the COVE User’s Guide at page 34.
What is COVE?
The Country Coverage Report Tool is available through the COVE Visualization Environment. COVE is a browser-based suite of tools for searching, analyzing and visualizing actual and potential satellite sensor coverage , giving users the ability to analyze whether or not a satellite coverage is sufficient for their needs.
In addition to the Country Coverage Report Tool, the suite include an Acquisition Forecaster, a Coverage Analyzer, a Revisits Calculator a Coincident Calculator, and a Data Browser. “The coverage reports only cover the historical data, as they are reporting what data is available for users. If the user desires to see planned coverage, the ‘Acquisition Forecaster’ tool allows to see where and when a mission covers the Earth in the coming months. With Landsat and Sentinel missions, the coverage has specific repeat cycles and acquisitions are consistent. Moreover, the 'Coincident Calculator' tool is used for planning where missions are coincident in the future”, said Brian Killough, Head of the CEOS Systems Engineering Office.
A direct link to COVE has now been included on the GFOI home page to facilitate access to and use of the tool. Enjoy the exploration!
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