PECS-GRID project – SAR image processing on GRID

Paper number

IAC-07-B1.4.06

Author

Mr. Martin Paces, IGUASSU Software Systems, Czech Republic

Coauthor

Mr. Petr Bares, IGUASSU Software Systems, Czech Republic

Coauthor

Dr. Roberto Cossu, European Space Agency/ESRIN, Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Luigi Fusco, European Space Agency/ESRIN, Italy

Year

2007

Abstract

The PECS-GRID is a two years project, started in July 2005, run by the Czech company Iguassu Software Systems, a.s. It is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the scope of the Plan for the European Cooperating States (PECS).
The main objective of the PECS-GRID project is to acquire relevant knowledge and demonstrate effective use of GRID technology for Earth Observation (EO) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data processing. This shall be achieved by porting of miscellaneous SAR data handling SW packages to GRID and by development of related high level SAR-based functionality that shall be made available to users through the EOGRID-On-Demand web portal. The project focuses on processing of SAR images from ESA ERS and ENVISAT missions and JAXA ALOS mission (ESA third party mission).
The GRID denotes a form of distributed computing based on network of shared computing resources, data storage, applications dispersed geographically across organisations. The computational grid has analogy with the early days of electrical grid when the interconnected of power stations, distribution networks, and consumers allowed effective and cheaper utilization of electrical energy compared to separated single generators. The GRID technology promises to change the way to tackle computational problems such as on-demand processing of large bulk of EO satellite images. It allows automating routine processing and substantially shortens the path between the raw satellite data and the actual information required by the users.
The EOGRID team at ESRIN has been active in this field and several services for processing of data of different sensors ,e.g. ENVISAT/MERIS, are already available. The results of the PECS-GRID project become a part of the developed GODIS (Grid on-Demand Infrastructure and Services) system. 
The main functionality which is currently under development consists of multi-temporal analysis, large scale mapping, feature extraction and unsupervised classification of multi-polarimetric data. These high level functions are based on low-level SAR modules able to perform basic processing such as image filtering, calibration, co-registration, mosaicking, ortho-rectification, data fusion, etc. The modules are primarily based on available existing SW (Basic ENVISAT SAR Toolbox, PolSARPro, Enviproj, and OS tools such as libGeoTIFF, and ImageMagick) although, in case of missing functionality or unsatisfactory performance, simple data processing tool have been implemented.
The project includes test cases relevant for the remote-sensing community such as world and Europe SAR mosaics, or flood damage assessment which will demonstrate effectiveness of the developed system.

Abstract document

IAC-07-B1.4.06.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-B1.4.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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