Marcoast - a GMES Service Network

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is a joint ESA and EU initiative aiming at establishing operational use of Earth Observation services. Marine and coastal application is one of the GMES priority areas, and a dedicated three-year project, MARCOAST, has been on-going since October 2005. A consortium under the leadership of Alcatelaleniaspace has been established, and Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), Tromsø , Norway , is one of the primary project partners.

One important objective of MarCoast is to establish a pan-European oil spill detection service. KSAT is responsible for this task, and cooperates with other service providers in Italy , France and Spain . A service network capable of meeting the requirements of the European user community, including pollution control authorities in the member states, EMSA, and others is under establishment.

The service establishment and deliveries will be based on:

• The SAR missions Envisat and Radarsat
• The KSAT and other partners ground network for data reception
• The existing oil spill detection service capabilities of KSAT and the MarCoast partners
• Commitments between the providers and the users described in Service Level Agreements ( SLA 's)

The on-going MarCoast operational service deliveries in the North Sea maintain the deliveries initiated under a previous ESA supported market development activity. The KSAT service chain is fully operational and provides information on oil spills in less than 60 minutes. This information also includes information on source, when present, e.g. obtained from AIS or fixed installation database.

The MarCoast activities in Northern Europe are now extending to include the Baltic Sea . Correspondingly, the service chains are now being implemented for the Mediterranean area.

For further information on MarCoast, see:

http://marcoast.info

(07.03.06)