Earth Starts Beating

The Earth Starts Beating application aims to provide users with an interactive visualization of global time series of EO data acquired by Copernicus Sentinels missions.

The focus of the application developed on the ONDA platform is on Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-5p data: those missions, as one of their best potentials, have the capability to observe a single region of interest with a very high frequency, and thus to evaluate the variation on the ground and atmosphere of geophysical quantities linked to the health of our Planet.

The application found its own core within one of the VM offered by the ONDA service and is composed by an open web data explorer (developed by third parties and tailored on the basis of specific needs) and several data processors (designed, developed and maintained by ESB team).

The application allows the visualization of geophysical quantities via the generation of L3 products, namely global mosaics covering a monthly acquisition period. The geophysical data are indeed calculated and processed by the mission’s ground segments, then ESB application offers a global visualization and variation through the seasons mosaicking them in time series on global scale. The processing is not on-the-fly, so the users visualize and inspect pre-processed L3 products.

Here below the list of the geophysical quantities global time series (more info on the Copernicus Sentinel Online User Guides web page):

  • Sentinel-3 L3:
    • OGVI (OLCI Global Vegetation Index): fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) in the plant canopy. Dimensionless.
    • OTCI (OLCI Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index): it estimates the chlorophyll content in terrestrial vegetation and aims at monitoring vegetation condition and health. Dimensionless.
    • IWV (Integrated Water Vapour): total amount of water vapour integrated over an atmosphere column. Expressed in kg*m-2.
    • CHL: Chlorophyll-a concentration, computed using OC4Me algorithms. Measured in mg*m-3.
    • TSM: Total suspended matter concentration. Expressed in g.m-3
    • PAR (photosynthetically active radiation): Quantum energy flux from the sun in the spectral range 400-700 nm. Expressed in µEinstein.m-2. s-1
    • LSTD: daytime Land Surface Temperature expressed in Kelvin
    • LSTA: nighttime Land Surface Temperature expressed in Kelvin

 

  • Sentinel-5P L3:
    • NO2: concentration of nitrogen dioxide gas in the troposphere. Expressed in µmol/m2.
    • O3: total vertical atmospheric column of ozone concentration. Expressed in Dobson Units.
    • HCHO: tropospheric vertical column of formaldehyde. Expressed in peta (1015) molecules per cm2.
    • AER 340: Aerosol UV absorption index for the wavelength pair 340/380 nm. Dimensionless.
    • AER 354: Aerosol UV absorption index for the wavelength pair 354/388 nm. Dimensionless.
    • CO: total atmospheric column of carbon monoxide. Expressed in exa (1018) molecules per cm2.
    • CH4: methane mixing ratio total atmospheric column. Expressed in ppb (parts per billion).
    • SO2: total atmospheric column of sulfur dioxide. Expressed in Dobson Units.

The database is systematically updated on monthly basis and new L3 data type are foreseen as well.

ONDA Data used

    • Sentinel-3 Marine
    • Sentinel-3 Land
    • Sentinel-5P