CEO PROOF-OF-CONCEPT STUDY ON OIL-SPILL DETECTION SERVICES - USER REQUIREMENTS AND FEEDBACK

During the Pathfinder Phase of the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO) Programme, a number of studies were launched in Europe to demonstrate how application projects could be fostered within the CEO framework an d to experimentally test elements of the Programme. Actual projects an d applications were used as a practical demonstration towards achievin g the high level objectives of the CEO project. Therefore, the primary purpose of the applications proof-of-concept studies were as a test o f the CEO concept. The applications proof-of-concept studies contribut ed to the user requirements capture by providing input from expert use rs in the scientific and operational domains. They also contributed to the testing of the services exchange model named the European Wide Se rvice Exchange (EWSE, internet address: http://ewse.ceo.org/.). The EW SE was implemented as test-bed during the CEO Pathfinder Phase and is currently operational in maintaining feedback with the Earth Observati on (EO) community. Additionally, the studies helped to assess the capa bility of the selected projects and applications to broaden the range of users of EO data and services. Two issues were of particular intere st in the frame of the CEO activities: Thematic issues. The type of da ta, information and services required from the user(s) or furnished by the provider(s) for a given application area, including related polic y, costing, etc. issues. Technical issues. The practical usefulness of infrastructure elements, such as user interface, network access, etc. and including an assessment of the effort required to achieve the CEO objectives. This paper describes the user requirements and feedback c ollected by one CEO application proof-of-concept study conducted by th e Tromso Satellite Station in Norway and dealing with the detection of oil spill at sea. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.