Big Data Challenges in Building a Global

Earth Observation System of Systems

(GEOSS)

Big Data in Secure Societies Workshop

Brussels, Belgium

18 October 2016

Barbara J. Ryan

Director, GEO Secretariat

We came all this way to explore

the moon, and the most important

thing we discovered was the

Earth.

— William Anders (1968)

Apollo 8 Astronaut

Observations – In, On, and Around the Earth

To realize a future

wherein decisions and actions,

for the benefit of humankind,

are informed by

coordinated, comprehensive & sustained

Earth observations & information.

GEO Vision

Integrating Earth Observations across Many

Platforms and Domains to Benefit Society

8 Societal Benefit Areas

103 GEO Members

103 Participating Organizations

Providers

Application Developers

Users

GEOSS Common Infrast.

GEOSS Applications

GEOSS ApplicationsGEOSS ApplicationsGEOSS Applications

… .

Domain ADomain B

Domain K… .System i

System 3

System 4System

1

System 2

System j

… .

System 1

System 4System

3

System 2 … .System

z

System 1

System 4System

2

System 3

Yearly Queries of the GCI

410.967

2.556.138

4.293.124

0

500.000

1.000.000

1.500.000

2.000.000

2.500.000

3.000.000

3.500.000

4.000.000

4.500.000

5.000.000

Brokering Organizations

GEOSS Implementation Requires:

Data Sharing Principles

• Full and Open Exchange of Data -- Open by Default

• Data and Products at Minimum Time Delay

and at Minimum Cost

• Free of Charge or Cost of Reproduction

.

Before Open-Data Policy: 53 scenes/day

After Open-Data Policy: 5,700 scenes/day

.

Annual Economic Benefit

USA $1.70 B

International $400 M

Global Total $2.1 B

Source: Geoscience Australia

Australian Data Cube

‘Cubing’ Landsat Images

Source: Geoscience Australia

Data Cube Application

National Flood Risk Information Portal Australia

• Water detection

• 15 Years of data from LS5

& LS7(1998-2012)

• 25m Nominal Pixel

Resolution

• Approx. 133,000 individual

scenes in ~12,400 passes

• Entire archive of 1,312,087

tiles => 21x1012 pixels

visited

• 3 hrs at NCI (elapsed time)

to compute

Source: Geoscience Australia

Data Access and Analysis

Continental Surface Water

Development of capabilities and solutions to enhance:

– The resilience of society against natural and human-

induced disasters;

– The protection of critical infrastructures; and

– The efficiency in tasks related to border and maritime

surveillance as well as to civil protection and

humanitarian aid.

GEO Space and Security Community Activity

Progress in 2016

• Announced the Space and Security Community Activity (CA):

– ESA-SatCen-JRC Big Data from Space Conference;

– ESA Living Planet Symposium;

– ESA EO Open Science Conference;

– SatCen Big Data in Secure Societies Workshop); and

– A number of other events (e.g. the SatCen Expert User

Forum).

• Explored synergies with H2020 projects (e.g. BigDataEurope

and EVER-EST) and ensured SatCen participation in the

H2020 NextGEOSS project (which will start at the end of

2016).

Plans for 2017

• Early 2017 - Organisation of a limited event with participation from EU

Member States and other key entities;

• Early-mid 2017 - Identification of preliminary user requirements and

needs in the Space and Security domain;

• Mid-late 2017 – Assessment of technical solutions in the framework

of relevant H2020 projects; and

• Late 2017 - Organisation of an open event with the participation of key

stakeholders in the Space and Security domain.

Countries have borders;

Earth observations don’t.

Barbara J. Ryan

Director, GEO Secretariat

Adapted from NY Times

September 2015

GEO-XIII Plenary

St. Petersburg, Russia

9-10 November 2016

http://www.earthobservations.org

Twitter: @geosec2025 @barbararyangeo

Facebook: Group on Earth Observations