ENVISAT: Opportunities and Applications

Data Acquisition

Data Policy

The objectives of the ENVISAT data policy are to maximize the beneficial use of data and to stimulate a balanced development of science, public utility and commercial applications, consistent with the mission objectives. The ENVISAT data policy is based on the concept of the "use" of data: its definitions, principles and the way they are applied depend on the use which is made of the data, not on the specific user or user entity.

Two categories of use are defined:

• Category 1 use

  Research and applications development use in support of the mission objectives, including research on long-term issues of earth system science, research and development in preparation for future operational use, certification of receiving stations as part of the ESA functions and ESA internal use. For this category of users an Announcement of Opportunity for the exploitation of data was released by the Agency in 1997. Some 21 projects from Canadian Departments and institutions private and public were accepted.

• Category 2 use

  All other uses which do not fall into category 1, including operational and commercial use.

The data policy introduces the concept of "distributing entities" appointed by ESA with the task of marketing services based on ENVISAT data and of developing the market. In Canada, this is the role of RSI (RADARSAT International).

Operational requirements for category 2 use will be submitted to the PDS through these distributing entities.