MERCATOR OCEAN JOURNA: 
SEPTEMBER 2021 
2. UPSTREAM SATELLITE COORDINATION 
AND REQUIREMENTS 
The Copernicus Marine Service critically depends on the 
near-real-time avallability of high-resolution satellite data. 
As delegated body by the European Commission, MOIi is in 
charge of the coordination of satellite data required for the 
Sopernicus Marine Service. This is implemented through 
regular interactions with space agencies to contribute to: 
- the definition of upstream data Requirements, 
the Coordination of Acquisition plans for Sentinels 
and Contributing mission, 
the Evolution of Sentinels (Next Generation) 
contributing to the Copernicus Expert Groups. 
Regular meetings with ESA and EUMETSAT are also held to 
exchange feedback on upstream data quality, to plan the 
introduction of new satellite missions, or to improve data flow. 
MO Is also invited to contribute to the definition of new satellite 
missions attending the dedicated Mission Advisory Group 
(MAG) meetings. Figure 3 gives an overview of the coordination 
activities carried out for the Copernicus Marine Service. 
In parallel, dedicated discussions take place with 
Copernicus Marine Service production centres to provide 
regular updates about the impact that Copernicus Satellites 
has on their svstems to: 
5 European 
nun Commission 
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verify that observation information is optimally used in the 
analysis step and improve the assimilation components, 
quantify the impact of the present observation 
network on ocean analyses and forecasts, 
- demonstrate the value of an observation network for 
operational purposes, and 
help define and test new mission concepts. 
Analyses (see MFCs and TACs papers in this issue) have 
shown that the outstanding development of the Copernicus 
Sentinel Constellations has had a major impact on the 
Copernicus Marine Service. 
The Service is primarily driven by the needs identified by its 
users, which are regularly gathered by MOi and Service's 
partners through workshops (regional and thematic), training 
sessions, questionnaires and regular user interactions with 
the Service Desk. These needs are then used to define future 
satellites observation requirements of the Service, considering 
the complementary nature of satellite and in situ observations 
and the role of modelling and data assimilation. 
Satellite requirements for the Copernicus Marine Service 
have been first defined in the Global Monitoring for 
Environment and Security (GMES) Marine Core Service 
‘MCS) implementation group report (Ryder, 2007) and then 
regularly updated (e.g., Copernicus Marine Service, 2017) 
to take into account the evolution of the Copernicus satellite 
zomponent and emerging user needs. 
Copernicus Programme 
management 
- Report on user requirements 
= Status of activities 
mM MERCATOR 
OCEAN 
a en 
Coordination of Space Data 
required for the Copernicus 
Marine Service. 
'] - Definition of upstream data Requirements 
J 2. Coordination of Acquisition plans 
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Copernicus Space 
and Ground Segments 
Develooment & Operations 
zure 3: Coordination of Satellite data.