An eye on quality

has been awarded a three-year contract with a potential two-year extension by the European Space Agency’s Centre for Earth Observation (

). It is worth €3.45m (approximately £2.7m) during the first year, with a total value of €9.6m (£7.6m) over the first three years.

VEGA is head of the Instrument Data quality Evaluation and Analysis Service (IDEAS) consortium that will provide an operational service to monitor the quality of Earth Observation instrument data from ESA satellites and some external missions.

Specific tasks include the detection of space and ground segment anomalies and trends, the provision of scientific and technical support to users of Earth Observation instrument data, and the maintenance and evolution of the various instrument data processing facilities. In addition, the service will provide a flexible and scalable environment to support future Earth Observation missions and technology.

This contract is said to be an important step for ESA as it evolves its Earth Observation activities in line with the objectives of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, a joint EU/ESA initiative to provide high-quality environmental information to scientists, policy makers and aid agencies.