Project title: Eye on Earth

Acronym: EonE

Project duration: July 2017 - May 2019 (22 months)

Contract: 131 STAR/ 2017

Project budget: 791963 RON

Financing body: The project is financially supported by the Romanian Space Agency through the Space Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Programme

Contractor : Institutul National pentru Fizica Laserilor, Plasmei si Radiatiei

Project coordinator: Dr. Dan Sporea

Project objectives:

In order to support the future European Space Agency FLEX mission, in the frame of the project will be developed several laboratory setups for the evaluation of vegetation condition by:

• optical spectral transmittance measurement;
• optical spectral reflectance measurement;
• light induced fluorescence measurements;
• THz spectroscopy and imaging.

In addition, laboratory experimental setups will be developed for the calibration of the instruments to be used in field investigation, in order to support through ground or drone based measurements FLEX data interpretation.

The start TRL in all cases is TRL2, while the end TRL is expected to be TRL 4.

Contributions to the STAR program objectives and to ESA programs:

• The project declared target is to develop infrastructure and activities in supporting participation to FLEX mission of European entities.
• The project will contribute to Romania involvement in “Earth observation”, as the facility to be setup will support laboratory and field investigations related to FLEX mission.
• The project will contribute to the upgrade of the high-end existing infrastructure in order to be able to assist the European COST Action ES1309 community to support FLEX mission.
• By participating to this project Romanian young scientists will have the opportunity to interact with experts for European institutions involved in vegetation monitoring by optical methods.
• Based on this project, INFLPR becomes a player in connection to services provided to ESA members and research groups belonging to the OPTIMISE network.
• The project will facilitate the build-up in Romania of specific capabilities, both in terms of technology used and personnel qualification, capabilities still missing at European level in terms of well defined requirements of the future mission.

Project partners:

The project is run in cooperation with members of the COST Action ES1309 - Innovative optical Tools for proximal sensing of ecophysiological processes (OPTIMISE - http://optimise.dcs.aber.ac.uk ).

The cooperation with European partners will continue in the frame of the COST Action CA17134 - Optical synergies for spatiotemporal sensing of scalable ecophysiological traits (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA17134), coordinated in Romania by our Institute.

Project Phase I implementation (2017)

During the Phase I the following activities were carried out:

• the project implementation plan was prepared;
• in cooperation with experts from NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility, University of Edinburgh the existing infrastructure was evaluated and the required upgrades, new instrumentation and services to be acquired were identified;
• the upgrade of the Gooch & Housego spectroradiometer was purchased and its calibration was ordered;
• a spectral calibration lamp was purchased;
• a high spectral resolution fluorescence spectrometer was purchased;
• the ES1309 WG3 meeting “ Laboratory Cal/Val Workshop” was organized by the Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics;
• a young researcher (dr. Laura Mihai) was trained abroad and completed Short Term Scientific Missions at:

• NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility, University of Edinburgh;
• Geographisches Institut, Universität Zürich;
• German Aerospace Center – DLR;

• together with partners from the COST Action ES1309 a project proposal to a H2020 call was submitted.

Project Phase II implementation (2018)

During the Phase II the following activities were carried out:

• A setup for the characterization of monochromator was developed, for SIF calibration.
• Starting from an extensive literature review a study was performed referring to the use of optical and THz methods for the assessment of vegetation condition at leaf level.
• Several experimental set-ups were developed for the evaluation of leaves conditions by optical and THz methods.
• Associated to these set-ups specific procedures were elaborated.
• Starting from 2018, the Institute coordinates in Romnania the COST Action CA17134 - "Optical synergies for spatiotemporal sensing of scalable ecophysiological traits".
• Based on the experimental set-ups and procedures developed in the EonE project frame the institute contributed to a project proposal, in the frame of the EEA Grants CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2018 – Collaborative Research Projects, thematic area: environment.
• Dr. Sporea attended the WG4 meeting of the COST Action CA16220, event run in the frame of the International Conference on Space Optics-ICSO 2018, organized by European Space Agency and Centre national d'études spatiales, October 12, 2018, Chania, Greece.
• Dr. Sporea took part to "International Space Infodays", Berlin, November 14-15, 2018, organized by Deutches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt, where he presented the projects funded by ROSA which he coordinates and the Institute infrastructure of interest for would-be partners in H2020-Space proposals.

Project Phase III implementation (2019)

During the Phase III the following activities were carried out:

•  Starting from an extensive literature review a study was performed referring to the calibration of filed instruments for vegetation condition monitoring (spectral reflectance measurements and SIF).

•  Several experimental set-ups were developed for the calibration of field spectrometers:

•  spectral irradiance;

•  spectral radiance;

•  wavelength;

•  Associated to the developed set-ups specific procedures were elaborated.

•  According to these procedures several fiber optic spectrometers were calibrated.

•  The developed set-ups were also used for the calibration of spectrometers belonging to the COST Action CA17134 partners.

•  Dr. Laura Mihai and dr. D. Sporea attended the international workshop "Data Quality Workshop: Radiometric Measurement Approaches", held at Zurich University , March, 11 - 12, 2019. The goal of the workshop was the better understand the possible sources of error that could occur in case of field measurements and to identify best measurement capabilities for more accurate results.

• D. Sporea, L. Mihai si A. Stancalie atended the annual meeting of the project COST Action CA17134, "Optical synergies for spatiotemporal sensing of scalable ecophysiological traits", Universty of Aveiro, March 25-26, 2019.

Publications

1. L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur , A. Hueni, I. Robinson, D. Sporea, Optimized Spectrometers Characterization Procedure for Near Ground Support of ESA FLEX Observations: Part 1 Spectral Calibration and Characterisation, Remote Sens. 2018, 10 (2), 289

2. J. Pacheco-Labrador, A. Hueni,, L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, D. Sporea et al. Instrumental considerations in the proximal sensing of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 960; doi:10.3390/rs11080960..

Dissemination

The project results dissemination includes several presentations at international workshops and conferences:

• L. Mihai, D. Sporea, CETAL facilities to support OPTIMISE and FLEX , COST Action ES1309 Laboratory Cal/Val Workshop, Bucharest , 2017;
• L. Mihai, Development of procedures and protocols for the calibration of spectrometer systems for measuring reflectance and fluorescence for near ground support of ESA FLEX observations, COST ES1309 Annual Workshop and MC Meeting; University of Technology, Limasol, Cyprus, 2017;
• A. Mac Arthur, L. Mihai, D. Sporea, A Laboratory calibration and characterization procedure for field spectrometers being used for near-ground support of ESA Sentinel-2 and -3 and FLEX space-based measurements, Remote sensing of fluorescence, photosynthesis and vegetation status, ESA -ESRIN, Frascati, Italy, 2017;
• L. Mihai, Laboratory based radiometric characterization and calibration protocol for the APEX imaging spectrometer system , COST ES1309 Core Group Final Meeting, CESBIO, Toulouse, France, 2017 ;
• L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, I. Robinson, D. Sporea, Optimized spectrometers characterization procedure for near ground support of ESA FLEX observations, EARSeL 2017, 10th EARSeL SIG Imaging Spectroscopy Workshop, University of Zurich , Switzerland, 2017.
• L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, D. Sporea, Protocols for field spectrometers spectral and/or radiometric calibration, Final meeting of COST Action ES1309, February 20-23 ,2018, Sofia, Bulgaria.
• J. P. Labrador, A. Hueni,, L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, D. Sporea et al., Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence I: Instrumental considerations for proximal spectroradiometers, Final meeting of COST Action ES1309, February 20-23 ,2018, Sofia, Bulgaria.
• J. Pacheco-Labrador, A. Hueni, L. Mihai, D. Sporea et al. Instrumental considerations in the proximal sensing of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, ESA International Network on Remote Sensing of Terrestrial and Aquatic Fluorescence, March 5-8, 2019, Davos, Switzerland.
• L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, A. Hueni, D. Sporea, Challenges of fixed-point spectrometers spectral characterization, calibration and validation, accepted at ESA LPS 2019.
• L. Mihai, Considerations for laboratory based spectral calibration, SENSECO WG4 - Data Quality Workshop, WG4 SENSECO - Data Quality Workshop:Radiometric Measurement Approaches, March 11-12, 2019, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• D. Sporea, Laboratory based radiometric calibration of field instruments, SENSECO WG4 - Data Quality Workshop, WG4 SENSECO - Data Quality Workshop:Radiometric Measurement Approaches, March 11-12, 2019, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• L. Mihai, Overview on existing protocols on (i) sensor calibration, (ii) sensor employment and (iii) data fusion, SENSECO All WGs Workshop & MC-2 Meeting, March 25-27, 2019, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
• Laura Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, D. Sporea, Considerations for field spectrometers spectral characterization and calibration, SENSECO All WGs Workshop & MC-2 Meeting, March 25-27, 2019, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
• J. P. Labrador, A. Hueni,, L. Mihai, A. Mac Arthur, D. Sporea et al., Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence I: Instrumental considerations for proximal spectroradiometers, SENSECO All WGs Workshop & MC-2 Meeting, March 25-27, 2019, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Useful links

• COST Action ES1309, Innovative optical Tools for proximal sensing of ecophysiological processes (OPTIMISE) - http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/essem/ES1309
• COST Action CA17134, Optical synergies for spatiotemporal sensing of scalable ecophysiological traits - http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA17134