Unlocking More Applications By Fixing Known Issues with Standard Sentinel-1 ARD

Tender description

1.1. Sentinel-1 data have become critical to maintain and develop further potential for Earth Observation (EO) to help deliver Defra’s 25 Year Plan. By significantly improving the quality of these data, this project will contribute towards the Earth Observation Centre of Excellence (EOCoE)’s plan to show how adoption of EO becomes part of normal business. Key areas where improved quality Sentinel-1 data will help deliver 25 Year Plan are: Food, Farming & Biosecurity; Floods & Water; Environmental Quality; Natural Environment & Rural; Animal & Plan Health. 1.2. As members of the EOCoE, the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will also benefit from the improvement in quality of Sentinel-1 data processing standards much in the same way. Many of their policies are looking to benefit from better integration of EO into normal business for restoring and enhancing the natural environment for example, Wales’s Environment Act (2016) and Future Generations Act (2015); several policies under Environment and climate change in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 1.3. The Sentinel-1 data processing chains currently produce a backscatter Analysis Ready Data (ARD) product. The processing chain was developed by previous project work carried out by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) with decisions being made on most suitable software and methods at the time (2017) by the EOCoE network of users to maximise the number of applications that can use the output data (supporting documents available at request). Non-Disclosure Agreement is included as part of this bid pack (Annex E). All potential bidders wishing to access the document relating to processing chains produced by JNCC should complete the NDA agreement; forward it to Defra via Bravo and the document will be released on a case-by case basis. 1.4. Defra launched the Earth Observation Data Service (EODS) in April 2020 which automatically processes Sentinel-1 data to backscatter ARD and