ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9041
Open Date: 25/08/2017
Closing Date: 27/10/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 17.155.04
Prog. Ref.: EWatch – Climate CH.
Budget Ref.: E/0073-01 – EWatch – Climate CH.
Special Prov.: AT+BE+CH+DE+DK+ES+FI+FR+GB+IT+LU+NL+NO+PT+RO+SE+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Techology Domains: Space System Software / Earth Observation Payload Data Exploitation / Applications and Services
Establishment: ESRIN
Directorate: Directorate of EO Programmes
Department: Science, Applications & Climate Dep.
Contract Officer: Boisard, Nathalie
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 25/08/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

A key commitment in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concerns systematic observation and development of data archives related to the climate system. The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS, established 1992) has, on behalf of UNFCCC, established a list of “Essential Climate Variables” (ECVs) that have high impact. In 2006 it identified specific requirements for satellite data products related to these ECVs. These requirements have since been periodically revised by GCOS in 2011 and 2016.The ESA Earthwatch programme element “Global Monitoring of Essential Climate Variables” (GMECV) also known internationally as the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI), responds directly to the UNFCCC/GCOS requirements, within the internationally coordinated context of GEO/CEOS. Its objective is: To realize the full potential of the long-term global Earth Observation archives that ESA together with its Member states have established over the last thirty years, as a significant and timely contribution to the EssentialClimate Variable databases required by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The programme element ensures that full capital is derived from on-going and planned ESA missions for climate purposes, including ERS, Envisat, the Earth Explorer missions, the Copernicus Space Component, and relevant ESA managed archives of Third-Party Mission data. Its essential featureis to implement a coherent and continuous suite of actions that encompasses all steps necessary for the systematic generation of relevant Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), and ensures their regular updating on timescales corresponding to the increasingly urgentneeds of the international climate change community. The programme is implemented along four themes: (i) New ECVs(ii) Additional RD on ECVs that were already included in CCI.(iii) Cross-ECV Projects. (iv) Knowledge Exchange. This Intended Invitation to Tender (IITT) concerns exclusively the first theme (i) New ECVs.Contracts shall be placed to perform the “Detailed requirements definition, algorithm development, validation and prototyping” for nine new ECVs:Water Vapour Sea Surface Salinity Sea State Snow Permafrost Land Cover (high resolution) Lakes Above-Ground Biomass Land Surface Temperature Each contract will focus on one ECV and bring together several leading research groups expert in EO data analysis and validation, together with relevant specialist climate research groups acting as test users.Upon completion (and after the CCI+ mid-term review in Dec 2020), these contracts shall be followed by a second contract for each new ECV on “Pre-operational system development and demonstration, largescale ECV data processing, final validation and climate-user assessment”, as was done for all ECVs included in CCI so far. These secondcontracts are outside the scope of the current IITT.

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