Keynote Speaker Prof. Gunter Schreier

Collaborative Ground Segments and Big Data in Copernicus

Gunter Schreier¹

¹German Aerospace Center, DLR; Earth Observation Center, EOC; German Remote Sensing Data Center, DFD.
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

E-mail: Gunter.Schreier@dlr.de

Abstract: Copernicus, the European Earth observation programme is generating several petabytes of free and open data and information with its series of 6 Sentinels and the 6 core geo-information services. 3 Sentinel series are already in orbit and four core services are generating information. Next to the payload data management and distribution system, managed by ESA, European states and international partners are currently starting national initiatives (collaborative ground segment) to improve the access to the Sentinel data and to allow users to perform intensive computing tasks near the data hubs (Big data cloud computing). DLR is part of the Copernicus core payload data system –with Processing and Archiving Centers for Sentinel-1/-3 and -5P – as well as in the collaborative ground segment. In the latter DLR realizes direct access to the Sentinel satellites for near real time applications (e.g. maritime awareness, disaster monitoring), access to archived data and novel approaches to the cooperative, remote computing using private and public clouds. Applications include the generation of global data sets as well as ecological long term time series of continental areas. Besides these activities of DLR in Germany and similar activities in other European states, the European Commission and ESA are currently developing a master plan to better manage this avalanche of data and allow users an improved access to all this global information as well as big data computing facilities. The paper gives an overview on recent activities and plans in the above mentioned domains of Copernicus.

Short Biography of Gunter Schreier

Gunter Schreier is deputy director of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), as part of the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, Germany. He is coordinator for large scale projects especially in the context of the European earth observation system Copernicus and earth observation projects with international partners. As deputy director, he is coordinating the earth observation payload data ground segment at DFD. In this function he is German representative of the ESA Ground Segment Coordination Body (GSCB) and member of several other Copernicus related Committees.

He has served at DLR in several functions since 1985, among others as head of the technology transfer department and team leader for establishing the SAR geocoding functionalities of the ESA ERS-1/2 „Processing and Archiving Center“, also applied for SRTM. He was leading projects on data management and data archive systems.

From 1994 to 1996, he worked as national expert at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, in Ispra. Italy, engaged in creating the “Center of Earth Observation” (CEO), a precursor of Copernicus. From 2000- 2003, he was founding Vice President Geomatics of Definiens, Munich, developing eCognition, a fuzzy logic based object oriented image analysis system; now part of Trimble.

He was active member of CEOS-WGISS, IGBP-DIS, ISY and other international committees. Therein, he was involved in projects such as CILS (CEOS Information Locator System), GLOBE (Global Land One kilometer Base Elevation), GCV (Global Change Video), EOPOLE and others. Gunter Schreier is member of several international workgroups and organisations and chaired the ISRSE2016, Berlin programme committee.

Currently, he is Chairman of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Earth Observation Committee, and Chairman of the International Policy Advisory Group (IPAC) of ISPRS. Current projects include – amongst others – application of Earth Observation to preserve World Heritage Sites.

Gunter Schreier has a diploma in Geophysics from University of Munich.