Introducing the EarthDaily Constellation, a scientific-grade earth observation mission with daily revisit time

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the specifications of the EarthDaily Constellation, a scientific-grade EO mission, and the first results produced using a simulated dataset covering the September 2018 to August 2020 period over the Toulouse area in South of France. Two launches are scheduled in 2024 to put into orbit the ten satellites of the constellation. With an expected lifespan of over ten years, the constellation will collect daily imagery of the planet using a unique combination of 22 spectral bands in the VNIR, SWIR and TIR, many of which will be up to 5m GSD. The EarthDaily Constellation is a systematic acquisition mission, i.e., always-on over land, always nadir looking, with targeted geometric and radiometric quality aligned with Sentinel-2. In our paper, we will provide first details on the space segment main characteristics and bands specifications. We will also present the creation process of a simulated dataset based on actual Venµs, Landsat, MODIS and Sentinel-2 observations, that provides a realistic simulation of a higher revisit time. Eventually we will address an example of perspective on agricultural applications, especially focusing on the first scientific results we obtained on evaporative fraction estimation from thermal infrared, and irrigation events detection. Those first results demonstrate the added value that will be brought by ED constellation.