ERS-1 PROCESSING CHAIN DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCT SUPPORT BY THE EODC SCIENCE TEAM, THE ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT FACILITY AND THE CALIBRATION ANDVALIDATION FACILITY

The Earth Observation Centre (EODC), located at Farnborough, has been developed to serve the needs of users of data from Earth remote sensin g missions, beginning with the European Space Agency's ERS-1 spacecraf t. To this end, the facilities of the ESA Processing and Archiving Fac ility (PAF) for ERS-1 reside within the EODC. With the exception of th e core Synthetic Aperture Radar processing algorithms, the majority of the scientific processing chains for exploitation of data from ERS-1 at the EODC were designed and specified by a Science Team, consisting of specialists from UK universities, industry, and government research institutes. These designs were implemented by an industrial consortiu m. The Science Team was supported by an Algorithm Development Facility (ADF) during the processing chain development. The Science Team curre ntly provide operational support using the EODC Calibration and Valida tion Facility (CVF). This consists of the verification, calibration, v alidation, and continuous assessment of products. This paper describes the work and structure of the Science Team, the ADF and the CVF. The methodology adopted is evaluated, and implications for future projects of this kind are considered in the light of the lessons learned.